Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Dirt Heart Witch

Home
About
Archive Index
- Agora: The Dance of Pagan Recovery

Home
Pagan
Connecting to Your Birthright of Joy

Connecting to Your Birthright of Joy

Last updated on: May 22, 2018 at 1:24 pm by Jenya T. Beachy

Connecting to Your Birthright of Joy 2018-05-22T13:24:49-07:00 Jenya T. Beachy

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Joy is our birthright. I believe this. As cells in the body of God (or organisms in the ecosystem of Gaia) we get to be healthy and whole, whatever that means in our particular case. We are precious, every one of us.

Joy generally includes some feeling of happiness or contentment; in its highest expression, it is Grace, that sense of all-is-right-with-the-world, imperfect and broken as it is and we are. It can be activated by physical sensation: opening to the warmth of the sun on your face, when you’re cold, when it’s been dark for too long; hearing the voice you’ve been longing to hear in your ear, when you’re lost and a loved one finds you: There You Are!; tasting the nourishment of a hearty meal after working hard in your body. It can also come from our emotional state: feeling the deepening of a relationship as you share stories of love and pain; the spreading of compassion as we do lovingkindness practice; the hopefulness that we feel as we see brave souls confronting injustices.

But Joy does not always show up as happiness. Sometimes it’s much more subtle. It’s more a sense of rightness, perhaps, of being exactly where we need to be, whatever the circumstances. An arduous journey can be full of Grace, if it leads to what we truly want.

As I’ve said before in other venues: the world requires your service, yes. And also, the world requires your Joy. It is crucial to the fulfillment of all beings that you find your delight and pursue it. This is how we know what to do, after all. This is our guiding light, our treasure map. We move toward what brings us that sense of rightness and in that moving, we find the adventures we are meant to participate in. The people we are supposed to help and be helped by suddenly appear. We find the information we need, the power we need, the opportunities for growth and change.

As magickal creatures, we get to wake up to the power we have, and break habits that don’t support our chosen direction. I want to go toward greater Joy, and I believe that this is what my Mothers want for me, too: when we are happier, we have greater capacity to achieve our goals in service to ourselves and others. We spend less time either opening the refrigerator door to see if anything new has spontaneously appeared in the last 30 minutes, or clicking ‘reload’ on Facebook repeatedly to see if anyone’s responded to our response to their response.

We are worth more to the world when we are taking care of our own Joy. Do the Work of Joy. Think of it as part of your Service.

Here are some practices to help you to connect to your Joy:

Bless those who have the things you want
Speak out loud at least one hard truth each day
Take time each morning and evening (at least) to close your eyes and breathe in clarity
Act beyond your fears
Recognize when things feel right or not-right
Do one thing you love every day
Sing this song!

Blessed be our Joy!

All images courtesy of Pixabay.com

This post was originally, um, posted? in 2015, but I’ve been feeling really in need of these reminders, so here we go…

If you enjoyed this post, please feel free to share using those cute little buttons on the left! It really helps! Also pop on over to FB and join the conversation at dirtheartwitch.

About Jenya T. Beachy

Jenya T. Beachy has been walking the Twisted Path of spiritual seeking for most of her life. She is the author of The Secret Country of Yourself: Discover the Powerful Magic of Your Endless Inner World (Llewellyn 2017). She is the originator of the Shapeshifter line of Anderson Feri tradition Witchcraft and for many years, she’s led classes, retreats, and workshops locally and across the country on Tarot, Practical Magick, Ritual Skills, Personal Empowerment, Shadow Work, Ancestor Connection and much more. She is also the founder of the Deep Well~Great Heart Society, an organization which promotes healing and compassion through all the worlds. Find out more at her website: www.jenyatbeachy.com. You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

May 4, 2018

A Transformational Ritual for Becoming Ready for Change

Next Post

August 1, 2018 First Fruits and Ferments for Lammas

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Air Animal Products Arts and Crafts Author Big Gods Books Buddhism Celebs Chickens Comestibles Deep Well ~ Great Heart Society Dirt-Heart Farmette Drink Earth Elemental Practices Fauna Festivals Fiction? Fire Flora Food Goats Holidays-Holy Days Homework! Invocations Jenya T. Beachy Justice Kitchen Witchery Meat Birds Meditations Moon Magick News Off-Topic Ole Time Good Spell Feri Pagan Tent Revival Poetry Practices Prayers Predators Queer Rant Recovery RIP Rituals Saints and Prophets of Shapeshifter Seasonal Shapeshifter Tradition Small Gods Songs and Chants Spellcraft Stories The Secret Country of Yourself The Village The Witches' Toolkit Travel Turkeys Uncategorized Updates Urban Pagan Homestead Videos Water

Select a Month February 2020 January 2020 November 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 October 2018 August 2018 May 2018 April 2018 February 2018 October 2017 September 2017 July 2017 January 2017 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was the high priest when Jesus was crucified?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Caiaphas Nicodemus Annas Gamaliel