Contemporary Spirituality for an Evolving World
A Handbook for Conscious Evolution
If all the diverse elements of humanity—ethnic, regional, spiritual—share one common existential goal, it is surely in the desire to understand consciousness and acquaint ourselves more deeply with who we truly are. We often ask, what is our place in the universe? And, seemingly, there are two paths to pursuing an answer. One is science-minded and logical; the other, in the words of Ervin Laszlo, writing in the foreword to Nicolya Christi’s Contemporary Spirituality for an Evolving World: A Handbook for Conscious Evolution (Bear and Company, 9781591431664), “is the path of direct, lived experience. This is to experience oneness as a fundamental aspect of our life experience.” Laszlo goes on to say that it is also “branded extra-scientific in the modern world and is relegated to the shadowy world of spirituality, religion, esotericism.” Remarkably, the two paths lead to the same realizations: “the insight of fundamental interconnection between our species and the web of life on this planet.”
In the main, to survive and thrive, to maintain scientific coherence and spiritual oneness, humans must develop the “experience of connection, communication, and even communion with the cosmos.” Christi, for her commendable part, offers tools, both psychological and spiritual, to spur conscious and global evolution. She includes an original self-development model based on the “Seven Dark, Seven Light, and Seven Rainbow Arrows” teachings of the First Nations Peoples, wherein attachment, dependency, judgment, expectation, and other Dark Arrows are addressed, followed by the Light Arrows of self-awareness, self-acceptance, self-love, self-actualization, etc. Then she describes how each Arrow contributes to the “psychological evolution, healing, integration, and liberation of the individual and the collective of the twenty-first century.” Of special note is a groundbreaking “fairytale” she created, illustrating an enlightened relationship between self and ego.
Reviewed by
Matt Sutherland
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