Yesterday, I Cried_ Celebrating the Lessons of Living and Loving - Iyanla Vanzant [114]
Many people who seek out spiritual consultation have the wrong idea. They think that a spiritual consultant is tantamount to a magician. They want you to make specific body parts bigger, or eliminate particular body parts of others. They want you to make people do things or stop doing things. When you explain to them that you are not equipped to do those things, they ask for a referral to someone who can. Others believe that everything that happens to them has a spiritual meaning and significance in their lives. If you are a spiritual consultant, they expect you to know what the significance is. One male client came to see me because crows kept circling his house. He wanted to know the significance. I had to choke back a laugh when he told me he lived near a cornfield. I suggested that perhaps the crows were just passing by and not looking for his house at all. A few days later, I got another call from him at 7:30 in the morning.
“Iyanla, I had a very profound experience this morning and I wanted you to help me make sense of it.”
“Tell me what happened.”
“When I woke up, there were three pigeons sitting on my windowsill. They were just sitting there, looking in the window at me. I watched them for a few minutes, but they didn’t move or anything. Then, when I got up to walk over to the window, all of them flew away. But it’s not just that they flew away. They flew away one at a time. First the gray one, then the one with the black spots, then the other gray one. What do you think it means?”
“I think it means you need to clean off your windowsill.”
“Is there some special spiritual cleaner you can make for me to use?”
“No, baby, soap, water, and a little bleach is all you need.”
The purpose of individual spiritual development and spiritual work is empowerment and to remind you of your divine, spiritual identity. Through the power of your spiritual identity, you become conscious of your ability to create life experiences. Spiritual work must be done in service to and recognition of God. God expects us to serve one another. This requires discipline, focus, and knowledge of spiritual law or principle. It also requires purity of intent and heart. When these elements are absent, you are not building a good character. You are not doing spiritual work for the good of the world. You are doing something else that is bound to blow up in your face. I learned this through experience.
Clients mixed with fans. Fans became students. Students were coming to learn about Yoruba culture. Fans, who thought I was famous because I was on the radio, were asking for my autograph and other favors. I had become a fad. People thought I could and was doing things that I actually knew nothing about. Clients, fans, and students do not mix well. They each want something different from you. People I had no business being around surrounded me. People were beginning to whisper. The other priests heard the whispering and joined in. Clients and students began comparing what I was doing with what they were hearing. The gossip was running rampant. People who were in my home and in my face were talking about me behind my back.
I was so focused on keeping the rent paid, I didn’t know what was going on.
Because people are defective does not mean they cannot see your defects. They see your fears, the contradictions, and your weaknesses. When they see them, they judge them. They assume an interpretation that may have nothing to do with what is really going on. When you hold yourself out to be a teacher, a healer, a light, people will criticize. It goes with the territory. When you are, as I was, unclear, unfocused, and sensitive to criticism, it will cripple you. You will