Nazirene means “Keeper of TheWay.”

In the Scriptures we are shown a path of absolute devotion and alignment with Spirit — a life that is consecrated to God — to pray without ceasing, to surrender our own will and live for a higher calling by orienting towards something much bigger than ourselves.

During the process of continually turning toward sacredess, we have to let go of our conditioned belief systems and begin uprooting our self imposed limitations. In the book of Matthew, it is said to become as little children:

“Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven”

— Matthew 18:3

We are born open and free from entanglements. Babies and small children don’t hold anything back. They are in their sensory body, fully feeling, being, and expressing in all of its vulnerability. As we develop from infancy to childhood, between the ages of 0-7, we start to suppress and hide different parts of ourselves. We have experiences in childhood that we can’t fully process — big moments and little moments that shape our outlook and identity, that train us to value certain traits while rejecting others.

All of these experiences become part of the story we tell ourselves about who we are:

what we can and can’t do
what is acceptable
what we should feel
what we should or should not express
who we can or cannot be

This sets the foundation for patterns of protection and control.

We learn to protect ourselves from pain, rejection, from being seen, from being vulnerable, and we attempt to control ourselves and the world around us in order to feel “safe.” Sometimes this expresses as obvious control behavior… outbursts, manipulation, boundary crossing… but often it appears in more socially acceptable forms that people don’t consider “controlling”… being agreeable, people pleasing, staying in our comfort zones, avoiding vulnerability and emotions, or otherwise shaping ourselves according to the approval of others.

The parts of ourselves that we reject or suppress, the parts we aren’t comfortable with, the parts that are scared to feel vulnerable — all of this becomes internalized and compartmentalized, manifesting as dysfunction in the body. Over time, as all of this inner division and conflict is occuring, we lose connection internally and retreat upwards into the head. Some people lose physical and energetic sensitivity, becoming numb and disconnected from body cues, having low vagal tone and a lack of responsiveness — others become oversensitive with pain, chronic tension, or rigidness, with an hypervigilant nervous system and chaotic body signals. Either end of the spectrum leads to difficulty feeling and sensing the deeper energetics of the body.

The more time we spend up in our heads, the more cut off from the body we become. Repressed feelings, urges, emotions, and energy become trapped patterns within the nervous system and the tissues of the body itself. The energy that can’t flow freely through the body is driven up to the head. This excess can manifest as: overthinking, indecisiveness, difficulty relaxing or slowing down because your brain is always on, abstract and overly analytical thinking that is disconnected from feeling, anxiety, mental-emotional overload, checking out and “relaxing” via TV/phone games/scrolling, depression or mood disorders… and many more common afflictions.

In this state of inner conflict, the body is asleep, stuck in compartments just like the Mind. This is why feeling and sensing into the deeper energy currents of the body can be difficult. For many people, daily awareness barely extends below the head — unless the body is screaming signals.

In the body-mind of organic man, energy that could be used for the pursuit of higher reality is constantly dissipated through this unconscious inner conflict, emotional reactivity or suppression, compulsive thinking, and the fight/flight/freeze/fawn patterns of their nervous systems — the effort required to maintain false identities and conditioned patterns, limits our capacity to truly consecrate our lives to Spirit.

Children under 5 are closest to their Essence — the part of us that is drawn from the Soul {See: *Embryonic Soul Image*}. They haven’t yet developed the compartmentalization, buffers, masks, self identity (positive and negative) and social conditioning that adults carry.

When a child feels shy, they hide behind their mother and openly express feeling shy.

When an adult feels shy or socially anxious, they often stiffen up their body, put on a mask, or try to over compensate… or if they aren’t very good at that, they end up just looking very uncomfortable. As we withdraw and shutdown uncomfortable parts of ourselves, we withdraw from the physical sensations connected with them as well — withdrawing not just from the emotion, but from our own embodiment.

What we do to the body, we do to the Mind — and vice versa. 

Over time, this creates a body that is almost cut off from itself below the head… it’s operating at base/mechanical/physical functioning, because there is very little consciousness being brought into the core of the body. Most awareness remains concentrated in the head, while the deeper energetics of the body stays asleep, numb, armored, or fragmented. What does this do to our body-Mind and how can we return to a state of integration and free flowing energy?

From the Parable of the Sower:

Mark 4: 3-9 (NKJ)

“Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.” And He said to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

See *The Parable of the Sower and the Seed*

First is the seed that falls to the wayside — it has gone off course and is out of alignment, divided from the central path and devoured by the birds. Then the seed that falls on stony ground, with no depth of earth, it can’t grow roots and withers away — with no depth in the lower centers and no embodiment, whatever seed is received shrivels up. The seed that falls among the thorns is choked — there are too many competing forces and conflict, the life within the seed is suppressed and extinguished.

The good ground represents a condition of body-Mind that is receptive, fertile, and capable of sustaining growth. The child enters the Kingdom because the child is open, receptive, and undivided. In order to return to that state, every part of us needs to be brought into alignment with Spirit. Consecrated — set apart for a sacred purpose.

To “keep TheWay” is to examine every part of our life and become intentional about where our roots are growing. Everything we consume — physically, mentally, energetically — becomes part of our inner soil. Our thoughts and emotions, the condition of our body and nervous system, our words and actions, where and how we direct our energy — the energy of every choice we make is either bringing us towards consciousness, or strengthening the inner divisions of our conditioned identity.

The question is: what kind of soil are you becoming?

You will fall short, you will struggle, you will be tested to the limits of your capacity, but in the process of continually turning toward sacredness, you will be shown a path that is set apart from common ways of thinking, being, and living.

The articles written here going forward will be my exploration of what it means to live a consecrated life.

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