Tuesday, October 14, 2025

Fierce Love in Fragmented Times: A Homily for the Bear Goddess Within

Reclaiming spiritual practice as revolutionary resistance

I've been thinking about ancient Bear deities: Ursel, Artio, even the Paleolithic bear worship... Now, at a time when the world seems to demand we choose between being afraid or being naive, the wisdom of the bear offers us a third way: the path of fierce love.

This was first written as a homily, and I offer it to you here for your reflection. Bear deities figure in many indigenous traditions. Ursel is a Slavic goddess of the moon and bears. Kaiti is a bear goddess of the Haida of the Pacific NW of North America. Artio is the mother bear goddess of the Celts and Gauls. Kamuy is a bear figure revered by the Ainu in Japan. They are all revered as guardians, protectors and guides.

The Profitable Manufacture of Fear

Let me name what we're all feeling: we live in a time when fear is deliberately manufactured and sold to us. Economic inequality leaves people feeling powerless. Cultural backlash creates division. Environmental crisis breeds anxiety. And all of this gets amplified by media systems that profit from our terror and outrage.

This isn't accidental. Fear is profitable. It keeps us isolated, reactive, and dependent on systems that promise safety in exchange for our agency. The pattern is predictable: isolate people from community and nature, flood them with crisis so they feel powerless, and break their trust in the sacred—in their own wisdom, in the web of life, in whatever they hold holy.

A person who knows they are whole and connected is much harder to control.


Cave bears loomed large in the Cro-Magnon mind as shown in this Chauvet cave painting. Jean Clottes

When Fear Becomes Toxic

Not all fear is manufactured. Some of our fear is entirely reasonable, especially for those living under real and immediate threat. The question isn't how to eliminate fear, but how to distinguish between the fear that connects us to what we love and the fear that makes us smaller.

Healthy fear moves us toward protection and care. It says: "This matters to me, so I will act." Toxic fear isolates us, hands our power over to others, and convinces us we are helpless.

The bear knows this difference. A mother bear doesn't become fierce out of hatred. She becomes fierce out of love. Her power comes not from anger but from an unshakeable commitment to protecting what is precious.

The Wisdom of the Bear Goddess

In Slavic tradition, Ursel embodies this sacred fierceness that emerges not from aggression but from deep love. She shows us that strength and tenderness are not opposites. They are partners.

The bear hibernates, but she also defends her cubs with everything she has. She nurtures, but she also sets boundaries that cannot be crossed. She knows when to rest and when to act, when to be gentle and when to be formidable.

This is the wisdom we need now: fierce love. Love that has boundaries. Tenderness that will not be diminished. Compassion that refuses to be complicit in systems that harm.


"Bear" carving by Haida artist Bill Reid, Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, photo by D. Gordon E Robertson CC3.0

Spiritual Practice as Resistance

In times like these, spiritual practice is not a luxury or an escape. It is critical resistance work. Because authoritarianism thrives on brittle spirits, while thriving communities are rooted, resilient, and alive.

When we tend our spirits, we are doing political work. When we stay connected to what makes us feel most alive and grounded, we become harder to manipulate. When we gather in circles, sharing our questions and our wisdom, we are reweaving the social fabric that fear tries to tear apart.

History shows us this truth. During World War II, Quaker communities saved thousands of Jewish lives not because they were warriors, but because their spiritual practice had cultivated an unshakeable commitment to human dignity. Buddhist communities have sustained resistance to oppression through practices that maintain inner freedom even under external control. Indigenous land defenders draw strength from spiritual connections that colonizers cannot understand or co-opt.

These communities shared common threads: deep-rootedness in practice, commitment to something beyond the individual self, and spiritual foundations that couldn't be shaken by external pressure.

The Choice Before Us

So here's the choice before us: they win by keeping us spiritually brittle. We heal by becoming spiritually flexible, grounded, and unshakeable.

Choosing to read this and consider something new is already an act of resistance. Every time you choose to gather with others around questions of meaning rather than consumption, you are choosing connection over isolation. Every time you trust your own inner wisdom rather than outsourcing your decisions to fear-based systems, you are reclaiming your agency.

Every time you respond to the world's pain with fierce love rather than reactive fear, you are channeling the Bear Goddess.

Witch/Bear who lives on my shelf in my office

Living the Questions

I offer to you questions to sit with. I invite you to hold these questions not as problems to solve but as invitations to deepen:

How do you view fear? Can you feel the difference between the fear that makes you smaller and the fear that emerges from love?

Have you ever found a gift in fear? Perhaps it connected you to what you value most, or moved you to protect something precious, or showed you your own strength.

How do you summon your inner bear when you need courage? What helps you remember that you are both tender and fierce, both vulnerable and powerful?

The Work That Is Ours

We are living through a time that historians will study. Future generations will ask: What did they do when democracy was fragile? When the climate was changing? When fear was being weaponized?

I believe they will say: Some people chose to tend their spirits and each other's. Some people remembered that they were whole, holy, and connected. Some people practiced fierce love.

Some people gathered under the moon and around kitchen tables and in virtual circles, refusing to let fear have the last word. They knew that their spiritual practice was not separate from justice work—it was the foundation that made sustained action possible.

The bear hibernates, but she also awakens. She rests, but when spring comes, she emerges with cubs to protect and territory to claim.

What is trying to be born through you? What fierce love is stirring in your hibernating heart? What is yours to protect, to nurture, to defend with the unshakeable strength of one who knows she is connected to all life?

The Bear Goddess lives within you. She is both sanctuary and guardian. She is both a soft heart and a strong backbone.

In a world that profits from your fear, your fierce love is a revolutionary act.

**Say it with me: Blessed be the Bear within. Blessed be the fierce love that will not be diminished. Blessed be.**

May you know your fierce love today.

Monday, October 13, 2025

Nautilus Labyrinth Meditation

Nautilus Labyrinth Meditation

Let's start by coming here to this moment... to this heartbeat... to this breath.
And the next breath.
And the next breath.

I invite you to bring to mind a shell—the Nautilus shell. The spiraling opalescence of the Nautilus shell. One chamber built upon the next chamber. Each one a little larger, spiraling out and around... and out... and around.

Feel the smoothness of that pearlescent shell—pink, white, a little bit of purple.
Feel the unwinding as you move out into larger and larger spaces.


Nautilus Shell, Circe Denyer CC0

This magical shell is going to transport you to its sister: a labyrinth.

This may be a labyrinth you've traveled in the past that you have in your mind's memory, or maybe one that unfolds in this moment in mosses or grasslands, or stones, or shells, or sand.

Notice the spiral before you.
Notice what it is made of.
Notice the temperature around you here at this labyrinth.
Notice the feeling of the air, the textures, the weight of the atmosphere.
And the quality of light—or the dimness, or the dappled light, or perhaps the moonlight. The warmth or coolness on your skin. The scents that may drift by.


Font in Granada, Spain CC0 

Allow what you notice to adjust as the labyrinth around you adjusts, as it changes, as it transforms. Flowers may bloom. Waves may lap. The moon may rise or set.

Gaze out over this spiral, this labyrinth. You can't see the whole thing yet. You know that it spirals out from where you are.
And you journey the way the path invites you.
As you travel along this path, it unfolds, expands, opens up before you.
You cannot see the end. You cannot see the middle. And as it turns and twists, you're not even sure of the way that it is going.
But it is unfolding before you.

As you continue down the path, as you say yes to the invitation, more is revealed. And you can embark upon what has unfolded for you.

Pause along this path and notice: Are there ocean waves? Are there flowers? Are there fairies? Is there moss? Is there tiny life? Are there smooth stones? Are there shells? The temperature of the air? The textures beneath you or around you? What are the things that you might notice that are on this path with you?

You're not going to travel the whole path in this moment—only as far as your yes feels right, right now.

Be Here.
Possibly Prehistoric labyrinth in Trojaburg, Germany
Photo: © <https://thuecat.org/resources/304109990030-feja>,
<https://thuecat.org/resources/840100048827-ohak>

And when it's time, retrace your journey. Notice where you've been. Notice where this path has led. Notice all that has unfolded along it, back to the place where you started today.

Turn for one last glance across the spiraling labyrinth. Know that you can come back here.

And notice the nautilus shell is here for you to snuggle back into.
Let it transport you deeper and deeper back into yourself, spiraling back in.
True. Beautiful.

As you're ready, allow yourself to become aware of your breath.
And gently, as you're ready, notice again your heartbeat.
This moment. And this place where you are.

If there's anything you brought back with you that you want to make a note of or say out loud to hold it, take time for that.

Saturday, October 11, 2025

You Lost Family to MAGA. You Don’t Have to Survive Alone

You're Not Alone: Some of Us Never Joined the Cult

I see the heartbreak. The devastation of watching parents, elders, mentors swept into the hateful MAGA cult — abandoning compassion, truth, and the ethics they once taught you.

I see the ache of wondering if the love you grew up with was ever real. The disorientation of losing someone to propaganda and cruelty.

So let me say this plainly: some of us never left.

Some of us — older, motherly, still rooted in care — are here. We still believe in kindness, in truth, in protecting the vulnerable. We still show up for justice, for community, for love that liberates.

If you're feeling orphaned by ideology, I want you to know: someone is still in your corner. Someone who remembers what it means to be human together.

 You are not alone.

There Are Still Ethical Elders

We grieve alongside you — those of us who have also lost family members and mentors to this cult. We know the particular pain of mourning someone who is still alive but no longer recognizable. The parent who taught you empathy now parrots cruelty. The mentor who modeled integrity now embraces lies. These losses are real, and your grief deserves space.

But here's what queer culture has always known and generously taught the rest of us: family is not only what you're born into. Family can be chosen, built, created through shared values and intentional love. You can seek out and find elders, mentors, and kin who reflect the ethics you hold dear. People who will show up for you with the care and wisdom you deserve.

Many of Us Still Show Up for Love

As Mr. Rogers wisely said, "Look for the helpers." In times of crisis and confusion, look for those who are showing up with compassion and courage. They are out there — and they are looking for you too. Communities of care still exist. Elders who never abandoned their principles are still here, ready to journey alongside you. You don't have to navigate this alone.

If you're seeking a place of care, clarity, and spiritual support — I've created a sanctuary for you.

Visit http://AmyBeltaine.info to find resources, reflections, and companionship for the journey.

Sunday, September 28, 2025

Heart-Centered, Anti-Capitalist (or Post-Capitalist), Consent-Based Business Coaches

Heart-Centered, Anti-Capitalist (or Post-Capitalist), Consent-Based Business Coaches

Especially for Healers, Therapists, Spiritual Companions, and One-on-One Helpers

These coaches and teachers support values-aligned work with an emphasis on relationship, sustainability, and justice. Many are rooted in trauma-informed practice, spiritual depth, and anti-oppression frameworks.



(In no particular order)

1. Tad Hargrave

  • Focus: Marketing for people who hate marketing, especially healers and changemakers.
  • Style: Playful, disarming, rooted in generosity and authenticity.
  • Site: https://marketingforhippies.com
  • Sample offerings: tools like “point of view marketing” and “niching spiral” to help people find their way without manipulation.

2. Mark Silver

  • Focus: Integrating business with spiritual practice, grounded in Sufi wisdom.
  • Style: Gentle, deeply spiritual, relational, teaching with and about compassion and ethics.
  • Site: https://www.heartofbusiness.com
  • Book: The Heart of Business
  • Offerings: Community, courses and mentoring for spiritually rooted entrepreneurs; supports connection to the Divine in business.

3. Bear Hebert

  • Focus: Anti-capitalist business coaching, liberatory practices, values-aligned business models.
  • Style: Direct, queer-inclusive, trauma-informed, rooted in collective care.
  • Site: https://www.bearcoaches.com/
  • Sample Offering: “No Starving Artists” and “Freely: Anti-Capitalist Business Coaching.”

4. Jenny Blake

  • Focus: Systems, ease, and ethical scaling of meaningful work.
  • Style: Gentle, strategic, focused on burnout prevention and intuitive alignment.
  • Site: https://itsfreetime.com/ or https://www.pivotmethod.com
  • Books: Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One and Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business.
  • Note: Not explicitly anti-capitalist but aligned with heart-centered, non-exploitative practices.

5. Kelly Diels

  • Focus: Feminist marketing, cultural critique, ethical branding.
  • Style: Fierce, anti-patriarchal, focused on not replicating oppressive systems.
  • Site: https://kellydiels.com
  • Approach: Offers alternatives to exploitative marketing models like the “Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand.”

6. Rachael Kay Albers

  • Focus: Anti-capitalist branding, media literacy, social justice.
  • Style: Satirical, sharp, rooted in liberation and systems change.
  • Site: https://rachaelkayalbers.com
  • Project: “Awkward Marketing” — insightful and hilarious commentary on toxic marketing practices.

7. Laura Mae Northrup

  • Focus: Trauma-informed care, ethical healing relationships, and spiritual integrity in helping professions.
  • Style: Deeply somatic, psycho-spiritual, ethics-rooted.
  • Site: https://www.lauramaenorthrup.com
  • Book: Radical Healership: How to Build a Values-Driven Healing Practice in a Profit-Driven World — essential reading for one-on-one helpers.
  • Note: Not a business coach per se, but deeply instructive about ethical practice in capitalistic systems.

8. Holly Truhlar

  • Focus: Community-based care, collective trauma, and grief-informed organizing.
  • Style: Poetic, grief-honoring, anti-capitalist and relational.
  • Site: https://www.hollytruhlar.com
  • Offerings: Supports coaches, therapists, and organizers doing grief and justice work outside dominant paradigms.

9. Emily Anne Brant

  • Focus: centers Indigenous identity & decolonial frameworks. Personal develpment and decolonization.
  • Style: integrating anti-racism, Indigenous ways of knowing, ethics, inclusive.
  • Site: https://www.emilyannebrant.com/
  • Offerings: Decolonize your Biz consulting, Decolonized Coach Community, Free guides.

I have personally worked with Mark Silver and love being a part of his community. I've received personal recommendations for Tad Hargrace. If you recommend someone, let me know!

Beloved, you are whole, holy, and worthy,

Rev. Amy

This Heart of Spirit Tending series is ©2025 Amy Beltaine, all rights reserved. You may freely reprint any blog post, website, or print resource. Simply include the following attribution, and if you print online, make the link at the end live:

Article ©2025 Amy Beltaine, all rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. This article and hundreds of others, along with other free resources are available at http://www.AmyBeltaine.info


Sunday, September 21, 2025

Fall Equinox: Abundance, Gratitude, and Giving in Times of Trouble

Fall Equinox: Abundance, Gratitude, and Giving in Times of Trouble

At the Autumn Equinox, the Earth pauses. Day and night meet as equals, and for a brief moment, balance reigns. This turning point in the year invites us to do the same: to pause, reflect, and ask ourselves what we've gathered and what we're ready to give.

And I know that for many of us, finding balance, or even harmony, feels particularly challenging right now. The world feels heavy with uncertainty and fear. You may be wondering how to think about abundance and offering when your own reserves are depleted, when the news leaves you anxious, when caring for others has left you running on empty.

And yet, Fall Equinox is the season of harvest, not just of crops, but of experiences, lessons, and transformations. It's a time to honor abundance and to consider how that abundance might overflow into the lives of others. Sometimes we've harvested resilience, the ability to keep showing up, or simply having survived. These too are offerings.

What have you cultivated this year, emotionally, spiritually, creatively, that is now ripe for sharing?

This reflection is not about productivity or achievement. It's about presence. In a world that demands speed and performance, presence is radical. In times of chaos, presence becomes even more radical and necessary. It's about noticing what has grown in the quiet corners of your life. It might feel like weeds. It might not feel like ripening grain. Maybe it's a deeper sense of compassion. Maybe it's a renewed connection to nature. Maybe it's a story you've carried that's ready to be told. Whatever it is, this is the moment to hold it up and ask: What do I offer back to my community, to the Earth, to the future?

We often think of giving as an act of generosity, but it's also an act of trust. To offer something of ourselves is to believe that it might matter. And it does. Even the smallest offering: a kind word, a moment of listening, a gesture of care, can ripple outward in ways we may never see.

As you reflect, consider the balance, the harmony in your own life. Have you made space for both action and rest? For both giving and receiving? For both joy and sorrow? Balance is not a static state: it's a dance. Harmony requires attention, adjustment, and sometimes surrender. The equinox reminds us that this kind of balance is possible, even if fleeting. It's something to turn toward, not something to perfect.

Think back over the past year. What have you been harvesting? What moments stand out as meaningful, transformative, or tender? These are the fruits of your inner garden, worthy of celebration.

Now ask yourself: What of this am I ready to share? What part of your harvest is meant not just for you, but for others? This could be a skill, a story, a practice, or simply your presence. It could be something tangible or something intangible. The important thing is that it comes from a place of authenticity and your own abundance.

Sometimes offering the overflow means letting go. Just as trees release their leaves, we too are invited to release what no longer serves us. What habits, fears, or narratives are you ready to plow under? Maybe releasing the compulsion to recite all the world's troubles: that's a form of letting go that creates space for healing action. What can be composted into wisdom, clarity, or space for new growth?

Letting go is not always easy. It can feel like loss. But it's also a gift. It creates space for what's next. It honors the cycle of life, where endings make way for beginnings. In this season, letting go is an offering in itself.

As you sit with these questions, allow yourself to feel into them. Let them be seeds planted in the soil of your awareness. They may sprout now or later, slowly or suddenly. Trust the timing.

Here are some questions:

What spiritual gift or soul-legacy do I feel ready to offer?

What have I harvested this year, emotionally, spiritually, creatively?

How do I share my abundance with others?

You don't need to have all the answers. You don't even really need to have one answer. You only need to be willing to ask, to listen, to notice.

I'm also inviting you to honor the gifts of others. Just as you consider your own offerings, recognize what others have shared with you: a friend's support, a stranger's kindness, a teacher's wisdom, a moment of beauty in nature. These are part of the harvest too.

Gratitude is another form of offering. When we express thanks, we affirm the value of what we've received. We complete the circle. We become part of the flow.

And if you feel like you have little to offer right now, know that your presence is enough. Your willingness to reflect is enough. There is no minimum requirement for being part of the harvest. You belong here.

As we move deeper into autumn, let this reflection sit with you. Let it guide your choices, your interactions, your celebrations. Let it remind you that you are part of a larger rhythm: a rhythm of gathering, giving, releasing, and renewing.

You are the harvest. You are the offering. You are the overflow.

Blessed be this season of balance. Blessed be the gifts you carry. Blessed be the ways you choose to share them.

Mount Hood sunset, photo by Amy Beltaine

Rooted in Harvest, Open to Overflow

A Guided Meditation for Fall Equinox, 2025

Everything offered in this grounding is an invitation. Please engage in whatever way feels right to you. You are the sacred steward of your own experience:

Let's begin by arriving. Here. Now. With whatever this moment brings.

Feel the contact between your body and what holds you: the floor beneath your feet, the chair beneath your hips, the air brushing your skin.

If your body feels distant today, bring awareness to your surroundings: the quality of light, the shapes of shadow, the sounds of breath or birdsong or silence.

Now, shift your attention to the quiet ways your body is alive. Notice your heartbeat's rhythm, its persistence. Feel the breath moving in and out as presence itself. Sense the weight of your limbs, the warmth of your skin, the stillness or stirrings within.

Let your awareness settle there. You are already enough. You are already here.

Let yourself be held: by gravity, by the Earth, by the moment. Let yourself be rooted: like a tree in late summer, drawing strength from deep soil, preparing to release what has fulfilled its purpose.

Now, gently notice what's present in your body. Warmth or coolness. Tension or ease. Emotion or emptiness. Simply offer it your attention.

If anything feels overwhelming, return to your anchor: the breath, the heartbeat, the ground beneath you.

The now is enough.

In this grounded presence, I invite a question: What have you gathered this year that is ready to be shared? What you've grown through living. What you've learned through experience.

Perhaps it's wisdom earned through difficulty. Perhaps it's a joy that surprised you. Perhaps it's a story, a skill, a truth, a tenderness.

Let it rise gently in your awareness. Simply notice what wants to be offered.

Now, another question: What are you ready to release? What has served its purpose? What can be composted into wisdom?

Maybe it's a habit, a fear, a role, a story you've outgrown. Let it fall like a leaf in autumn: returned to the Earth with gratitude.

You are part of the cycle. You are part of the harvest. You are part of the offering.

Feel the balance: between holding and releasing, between gathering and giving, between being and becoming.

You are woven into the season. You are the season. You are the turning. You are the overflow.

Come back now to this moment. To the sensation of your feet or seat. To your breath. To your body. To this place. To this now.

You are here. You are rooted. You are enough.

When you're ready, begin to reawaken gently. Wiggle your fingers. Roll your shoulders. Notice the space around you. Take in a sound, a color, a presence.

Let this grounded awareness guide you.

Blessed be.


Beloved, you are whole, holy, and worthy,

Rev. Amy


This Spiritual Feast series is ©2025 Amy Beltaine, all rights reserved. You may freely reprint any blog post, website, or print resource. Simply include the following attribution, and if you print online, make the link at the end live.

Article ©2025 Amy Beltaine, all rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. This article and hundreds of others, along with other free resources are available at www.AmyBeltaine.info

Healers, Heal Thyselves: Finding Ground in Groundless Times

Healers, Heal Thyselves: Finding Ground in Groundless Times

I started writing this blog post with a litany of all the things happening in the world that scare me and break my heart. Then I stopped. We've all recited that list a thousand times already, as though naming the terrors helps us find the answer to "what should I do." But here's what I'm learning: reciting the horrors isn't the path forward. Stopping the perseverating is.

The news comes fast and furious these days: a relentless stream that leaves even those of us living in peaceful places feeling unmoored. Here in beautiful Portugal, far from the direct chaos, I found myself exclaiming "Oh crap! I almost forgot my appointment!" three times in one week. My spouse noticed something was off. Then I completely miscalculated a time zone difference for the first time in five years.

Even at this distance, my nervous system is dysregulated. And here's the thing: my job is to co-regulate. I'm supposed to provide a peaceful, safer space where people can breathe easier, think easier, and feel easier so they can reclaim their rootedness, their alignment with love, their sense of aliveness.

If you're a care provider, whether you're a spiritual companion, therapist, minister, massage therapist, bartender, or house cleaner, you know exactly what I mean. We show up to help others find their center while our own ground feels like it's shifting beneath our feet.

The Oxygen Mask Principle

You know the airplane safety instruction: put on your own oxygen mask first before helping others. It's not selfish: it's essential. When the world feels like it's tilting off its axis, those of us in caring professions need to double down on our own grounding practices.

How do we continue to hug children, cook good meals, notice the sun and stars and breezes and trees? How do we show up wholeheartedly for our day-to-day tasks when everything feels urgent and uncertain?

The answer isn't to push through or tough it out. The answer is to tend to ourselves with the same compassion we offer others.

What Feeds Your Soul?

Take a moment right now. Ask yourself: What do I do to care for my soul? Your heart? Your wholeness?

Whatever comes to mind: do more of that.

Maybe it's listening to activists who've been in this struggle for decades, who know strategy and can guide you toward effective action. Maybe it's diving deep into wisdom teachings: Pema Chödrön speaking about living with fear, or whatever spiritual resources anchor you.

Maybe it's simpler: turning off the TV and cell phone and sitting under a tree for an afternoon. Diving into the water at your municipal pool. Scheduling an extra spiritual direction appointment. Singing at the top of your lungs. Playing with a cat.


"Punkin", an orange cat crouched in leaves, photo by Hawthorne Post

Permission to Turn Toward Sustenance

We live in a culture that glorifies the helper who gives until empty, but that's not sustainable, and it's not actually helpful. When we're running on fumes, we can't offer the presence others need.

So here's your permission slip: Turn toward whatever sustains you. Not as an indulgence, but as a necessity. Not just for yourself, but for your family, for the people you care for.

And here's something crucial: many people don't have access to the things that help them ground and heal. We can't expect folks to bootstrap their self-care when they're struggling just to survive. If you're one of those people, it's more than okay to ask for help. Reaching out isn't weakness: it's wisdom.

The world needs care providers who are grounded, resourced, and present. It needs

 healers who have done their own healing work, who continue to do it daily.

The Radical Act of Self-Care

In times of chaos, caring for ourselves becomes a radical act of resistance. When we stay connected to beauty... to sunlight filtering through leaves, to the taste of a good meal, to the comfort of an embrace... we're maintaining our humanity in the face of forces that would strip it away.

When we tend to our own nervous systems, we create ripples of calm in an anxious world. Every time we choose presence over panic, groundedness over reactivity, we're offering a gift not just to ourselves but to everyone whose life we touch.

So healers, heal thyselves. The world needs you: whole, grounded, and fully alive.

Beloved, you are whole, holy and worthy,

Rev Amy Beltaine


This Justice and Spirituality series is ©2025 Amy Beltaine, all rights reserved. You may freely reprint any blog post, website, or print resource. Simply include the following attribution, and if you print online, make the link at the end live.

Article ©2025 Amy Beltaine, all rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. This article and hundreds of others, along with other free resources are available at www.AmyBeltaine

Monday, September 15, 2025

The Third Chair: Sacred Presence in Spiritual Companionship

The Third Chair: Sacred Presence in Spiritual Companionship

In spiritual direction, many companions speak of a “third chair” in the room—the unseen presence of the Sacred. This metaphor reminds us that sessions involve more than two human beings. Whether we name it as Spirit, God, the Divine, Mystery, Source, or Meaning, the “third chair” symbolizes the sacred current we invite into the space.

But what if there are more than three chairs? What if each person’s relationship with the Sacred—or their refusal of that language—deserves a seat of its own?

Students in the Spiritual Direction Certification program, where I teach, have explored this beautifully: some speak of a companion’s divine and an explorer’s divine—already making four chairs. Others remind us that energy may flow not as a seated figure at all, but as a field encompassing both seeker and companion. And animists, atheists, and polytheists offer yet more expansive imagery. The point is not to settle on one image, but to recognize that spiritual companionship is never a conversation of just two.


Three Heart-shaped chairs, by LuxXeon CC3.0

Naming Our Own Theology

One student put it plainly: before guiding others, we benefit from knowing our own theology. Grappling with “what we believe” lowers anxiety, gives us a steady foundation, and clarifies our fit with particular seekers. Our theology does not need to inform theirs, but knowing it helps us listen with integrity and humility.

Whose Sacred Is in the Room?

Sometimes the Sacred presence is experienced as shared—a single third chair for both companion and explorer. Other times, each brings their own relationship with Spirit or Source, making four chairs (or more). A polytheist might picture a gathering of deities; an atheist may see “what is meaningful” taking a seat; an animist may envision trees, stones, and ancestors joining.

An agnostic companion might hold space for 'the unknown mystery'; a Buddhist practitioner may sense interdependence itself as sacred presence; those from Indigenous traditions might acknowledge the land, ancestors, and spirits of place.

The metaphor stretches, but its heart remains: the sacred presence(s) invited into session deserve attention.


Mini Zen Garden, Photo by ROMAN ODINTSOV

Beyond the Chair

Not everyone relates to “chairs.” Some sense Spirit more as energy swirling about the room, as warmth, nudges, or sudden insights. A medical intuitive describes “synchronizing” with sacred energy, so the field encompasses all who are present. This echoes Thomas Merton’s reminder: “We discover an older unity … we are already one.”

For some, a physical object helps—a ceramic chair on the altar, a stone or candle beside the desk, a symbol of the divine on a companion’s computer table. For others, silence itself becomes the container where Spirit is noticed.

Promptings and Discernment

Spiritual companions sometimes experience what feels like “channeling” the Sacred: a phrase, question, or insight arises with a quality different from ordinary conversation. The tone may feel spacious, grounded, or infused with love. Other impulses—our opinions, reactivity, need to fix, or even friendly chatter—have a different texture.

Here, the third chair (or its equivalents) can serve as a tuning device. The presence of a candle, stone, or empty chair reminds us to pause and notice: what is the source of this nudge? Does it feel like a sacred prompting, or something else? Learning to sense the difference is part of the art of spiritual companionship.


Crow in Chair by Louise LeGresley CC2.0

Try It

  • Place a symbolic “third chair” in your space (a chair, a candle, a stone). Before each session, acknowledge the Sacred presence it represents.

  • If you don’t resonate with the chair metaphor, try sensing the energy field around you and your seeker. How might Spirit be present there?

  • If physical objects don't work for you, try setting an intention, creating a mental space, or using sound/music to acknowledge sacred presence.

  • After a session, reflect: When did you feel you were speaking from Sacred prompting? When were you offering personal opinion, reactivity, or friendly conversation? How could you tell?


For Further Reading

The Heart of Spiritual Direction – Introduces the foundations of spiritual direction, highlighting presence, sacred listening, and the call to honor seekers as whole and holy.
https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-heart-of-spiritual-direction.html

Ethical Spiritual Tending: A Foundation of Trust and Integrity – Explores how sacred listening, ethical guidelines, and mutual agreements support trust and autonomy.
https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/02/ethical-spiritual-tending-foundation-of.html

Decolonizing Spiritual Direction: Honoring Lineage, Resisting Appropriation – Examines how spiritual direction can resist colonial patterns and cultural appropriation, encouraging companions to honor source traditions and uplift marginalized voices.
https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/03/decolonizing-spiritual-direction.html

Three Chairs Spiritual Direction – Introduces the original “third chair” concept.
http://www.threechairsspiritualdirection.com/why-three-chairs.html

SDI: The Importance of Taking Off Your Hat – A reflection on humility, presence, and the sacred in companionship.
https://www.sdicompanions.org/the-importance-of-taking-off-your-hat-while-offering-spiritual-companionship/

Beloved, you are whole, holy, and worthy,
Rev. Amy
Companioning soul-weary change-makers becoming rooted, aligned, and alive again.