Rev Ruthie - 1994

A number of years ago, when I was starting my spiritual healing practice, the buzz was that if one didn't have counseling certification or a massage license or some other degree or certification, then it was advisable to get ordained, as a form of privacy protection for clients' records and information.

One of my healer friends located someone who was ordaining people under the auspices of THE COURSE IN MIRACLES. I had worked with the C.I.M. and liked the teachings. This man also said he only ordained the Inner Child (the part of us that is capable of miraculous things), using the Biblical text, "Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called the Children of God." As a peacemaker, someone with a strong love of children, and someone in relationship with my own inner child, this felt perfectly right to me. He also agreed to allow me to work with my own ceremonial tools and leadings as part of the ordination. That, too, felt right. We set the date for the following week.

The night before the ceremony I was pretty sure I knew what I'd wear. Something fairly dignified - at least neat. I knew that my inner child's name was Ruth. I had discovered that in a dream some months before. That pleased me. Though brought up Christian in this life, I relate strongly to a number of other traditions from various of my past lives as Buddhist, Greek, Native American, Celt, Hebrew, and so forth. Ruth, mother of the lineage of David and Jesus, has always been a heroine of mine. Ruth's words, "Whither thou goest, I will go. Whither thou stayeth, I will stay," have great beauty and deep meaning for me. So - Ruth/Carolion was all set to be ordained the following morning.

There was a little surprise, though, when I woke up. Ruth was running the day, it turned out. The outfit I'd decided on the night before did not suit this part of me, Ruth, and it was her ceremony. She wanted to wear a striped t-shirt and some other things appropriate, really, for a child experimenting with dressing herself the way she wanted to dress. The energy for this was so strong that I was charmed. I thought, well, it's time to love that part of me unconditionally and really show her/me how valuable she is. We - I - dressed the way Ruth wanted me to, loud striped socks and t-shirt and all. Luckily for Ruthie, as a theater person I feel "normal" in costumes which might horrify some others, and I enjoy taking on characters - a trait which might raise eyebrows in psychiatric circles.

I drove to a town about an hour away from home, where the minister doing the ordination lived. I brought my drum and rattle, my flute, and some sage. He read from his ordaining text, and I followed my intuitive leadings making sacred ceremony. At one point I remember glancing at a portrait of Jesus in the room, and feeling it was carrying living energy, and was participating in my ordination; I felt watched-over, truly and profoundly connected, and very blessed.

After the ceremony, I took my Ruth self - now "Rev Ruthie," by the way - out for a hot fudge sundae covered with whipped cream and LOTS of cherries.

I began receiving more and more direct teachings from Jesus, who is not only deeply compassionate, but also warm and often quite funny. He explained to me that my ordination was not just a legal thing, not just a piece of paper. He said more was expected of me; that I would have ministerial responsibilities. I also gained the knowing that there were certain ancestral empowerments that could only come to me if I were ordained: they came from Druid ancestors, through a great-grandfather who had been a traveling Methodist preacher in England and Wales. As a healer I value spiritual empowerments, since they allow me to do higher-vibrational work and help people in deeper ways, so I was more than happy to receive them.

As the years have gone by, I've found the minister part of me growing stronger and stronger. Several of the teachings of Jesus I learned as a child are tools in my way as a peacemaker / spiritual warrior:

• love thine enemy; do good to them that hate you

• judge not lest ye be so judged

• do unto others as you would have them do unto you

• let the little children come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven

• my father's house hath many [inner] mansions

But primarily, over and over again, love thine enemy turns out to be most important for my peace work. I've been driven by something inside to find out how, exactly, to do that - love the enemy. These days I teach that practice.

I'm now an ordained Christian minister, still; but also, a refuged Buddhist. I also love singing Hindu Kirtans; I'm part of the All-Cultures Powwow; and I'm a member of our village Interspiritual Council which includes a number of religions. I find that each one, when held in the light of Love, enhances every other one. Indeed, Creator tells me that all religions are fingers on a single hand - the Helping Hand. I wonder, might that be the one hand clapping of the Zen koan?

And what of Rev Ruthie? Well - she seems to be happily integrated with the rest of me now. One might even say she's working under an assumed name: Carolion. Ah, the ways of the soul. The ways, and ways, and ways of that wanderer, the soul.