Hello, who’s there?

I will tell you a little about me. I was once a monk in a modern monastery, fully intending to become a globe trotting missionary of Gods’ love - a celibate for ten years, in vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, no earthly possession to my name. When I left the safety of the monastery, without the protection of the 3 metre hedge, I felt fear and discovered my true lack of faith, lack of trust. But I knew courage. I have not made a decision quite as brave as that - to empty that cup, to give up that certain vocation. (Many others have made similar brave choices, perhaps you too, or maybe you’re on the cusp of leaving familiarity and safety for what you can’t quite say). But what for? Why did I make such a crazed and risky move? Not on a whim, certainly not, but on a persistent, incessant whisper, a deep soulful longing to live a truer life, to incarnate my personal myth, to embody my soul, to be truly free and alive. I left the vowed life and embraced the incarnation. I left religion and found freedom and existential dread. But I did not die, nor lose my soul. I found it, while I plummeted, on the Fool’s Leap. In the ten years since then I’ve put my master of theology to good use, studied post modernism, education, psychotherapy, mythology, studied life, dating, renting, being an employee. But I’m back in soulful service now, strangely, led by that same whisper to let go of certainty and embrace mystery once again. I suspect that same mystery is whispering to you now, perhaps loudly.

What are you hearing?

Who are you?

What are your longings? your aching wounds?

What whispers have moved you to find me?

If you go into the desert, seeking a word from the wise, there is no worldly guarantee that the old mystic will meet you.

What makes the meeting possible is not a demand, but a deep soulful longing, which draws out the old mystic. She recognises the same breath of holy wind in the seeker and it stirs her heart, reanimates her old slumbering limbs. Her spirit quickens who once was led out into the desert by that same spirit an age earlier, seeking wisdom.

Go then, out into the desert if you have longing and wait. 

There is also longing on the other side. 

Longing to guide others through the same wilderness, to find soulful kin, an oasis for the thirsty soul. 

And there is a deeper longing still.

The longing of Mystery, Spirit, Earth, Cosmos, the Unnameable. 

You did not generate your longings, they are from a deeper, older place, and yet they are yours.

Yours to follow. 

You did not inflict your oldest and deepest wounds, and yet they are yours.

Yours to tend.

As it happens I may have something you seek, a mirror or a word, some healing, perhaps guidance and companionship for a few miles of your path.

Had it been the other way around I might have sought you out. It could easily have happened. It merely didn’t. The cosmic roll of the dice.

Everyone needs a guide, truth-teller, healer, companion, elder. Even the greatest were once grasshoppers. And so the wise seek counsel.

Wisdom recognises herself, even in the most unlikely guise. Those who recognise her resemble her and prove themselves wise. She lifts them, they rise.

The Nazarene once said, ‘Come to me all you who are overworked and overburdened and I will give rest to your weary souls. Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.’ Indeed, the work that I will do with you is hard, but you’re already doing it on your own, are you not? Let me help you. It will seem easier, lighter. Let me lighten your load, ease your heavy heart, quench your thirsty soul.

I have received much and from many - so many true words, pearls of wise counsel, healing touches and firm rebuffs and many, many cups of fresh spiritual spring water. So in humility and gratitude I am giving of what I have received. Come then, and have a drink.

A note of caution. I’m interested in healing and revealing. Sometimes this means I will support you to rest and sometimes I’ll encourage you to leap.

Much love x

Yours truly, warmly, kindly and soulfully

Vas

Desert Dispatch

soul whisper sessions

Call it psychotherapy, mentoring, coaching, counselling or accompaniment. It’s all of the above and more.