Navigation for Portals
“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world.”[51]
“What you seek after is within you.”[52]
Portal 7
From Spiritual Segregation to Spiritual Union: Reclaiming Your Belovedness
Invitation
In this final chapter we are discussing a profound, life-altering truth—one that is not readily accessible in traditional Christianity—a truth that can lead us on a path of peace, joy, and mystery. It is our union with our Creator. Even though this greatest of truths is ignored in most modern churches, it is clearly seen in the Bible as well as in the writings of ancient wisdom teachers such as St. Teresa of Avila and St. Clare of Assisi. They teach earnestly that God is seeking us and is desirous of us seeking them. Writers you may know like C.S. Lewis, Henri Nouwen, and Maya Angelou all expressed their journey to finding oneness with God.[53]
As we discussed in the beginning of this guidebook, religious patriarchy has always anchored itself around the power mechanisms of certainty, authority, and sin—not their sins, of course, but the sins of others. Because that is a powerful lever for control. When humans recognize that their relationship with the Divine is personal, intimate, and God-initiated, the need for priests or clergy to mediate or manage that relationship disappears. Instead, we would see the profound need for humble leaders—people who embody compassion, forgiveness, non-judgment, dignity, respect, and a call to unitive love in their daily lives.
With the institution of “original sin” (a term nowhere found in the Bible) we humans have been cast as less-than, as unworthy, as fundamentally sinful. The necessary companion to that view is a God who is separate, unapproachable, all-powerful… and mostly angry. As we see in the creation story of Adam and Eve, God casts them out of the garden to fend for themselves in a harsh and painful world.
Have you ever wondered why God set a trap for Adam and Eve, why there was a tree to tempt them? If God is loving and good, always seeking a relationship with us, then why engineer a way to sabotage this union? The Gnostics would say that it’s because the god in this story was a demigod—one who did not love purely but was instead looking out for his own well-being and dominance.
The whole idea of union with God can feel scary, impossible, or even wrong. How can mere humans imagine oneness with the Supreme One? If this were not God’s idea to start with, we would rightly recoil from such a proposition.
God’s Idea
What does the Bible teach us about union with God? Let’s begin with the very words of Jesus in John 17: 20-23:
My prayer is not for them (the disciples) alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (italics added)
This life-giving prayer is a request from Jesus to his heavenly Father that we as humans would wake up to the gift of oneness being offered. To reconnect with the divine spark of Light placed inside us at the creation of time. Jesus imparted the glory given to him from his Mother/Father to us! We are meant to embody this glory in all centers of our being—head, heart, and body. This is the image of God bestowed on us in Genesis 1:27. When we embrace this truth, letting go of our egoic, separate-self instincts, we enter a higher level of consciousness, which is another way of saying union.
What would it mean for us if we could experience oneness with the Trinity—with Father/Mother, Christ, and Sophia? A true union that would redeem all the negative preconditioned ideas about who we are? We would rest in the knowledge that we are inextricably loved and valued just for who we are and not any other reason.
Did you know that God longs to be loved for who they are and not for what they do for us? Have you ever sat with the Beloved Trinity and worshipped them for their nearness? Whether you feel their loving presence or not, it is with you. It is in you. It is part of you. God’s heart and ours are one in this mutual longing, and we can receive the unconditional love of God offered to us through Jesus’ prayer and reciprocate by loving God for their initiating union.
The Path
What does union with God look like and how do we obtain it?
St. Teresa of Avila was one of four women named doctors of the Church. Her comprehensive, abiding love for Jesus is reflected in a compelling story: One day she was walking the corridors of her monastery and noticed a beautiful child at the foot of the stairs. The child asked her who she was, and she responded, “I am Teresa of Jesus.” In return she asked the child, “Who are you?” to which the child responded, “I am Jesus of Teresa.” This saint knew deeper than most of the union that our souls long for; she illuminated this journey in her classic book, The Interior Castle. Teresa described seven mansions, concentric circles that represent our path to oneness with God.
In the first mansion our souls begin to wake up to our Mother/Father, yet the soul is still very attached to the material world.
In the second mansion the soul believes that the Trinity is calling; she begins to pray but is easily distracted with external influences.
The third mansion signifies the soul falling more in love with Sophia, developing strong communion with her, but struggles with surrender and humility.
In the fourth mansion the soul finds itself at a turning point where she surrenders by way of “the prayer of quiet”—a practice of being with Sophia without using words.
The fifth mansion is where the soul undergoes a transformation and submits her will to Sophia for guidance and care.
In the sixth mansion suffering and trials continue to be experienced but serve to create a dependency upon our Mother/Father.
The seventh and final mansion is a place of obtaining union, finding peace and contentment as the soul surrenders completely to the heart of God.
One of the messages of this chapter on union is our need to untangle ourselves from this material world. It is so easy to become trapped and fall asleep in this realm of materialism, capitalism, and wealth. We mistakenly believe they will lead us to power and control and ultimately happiness. We feel the need to be esteemed by people we don’t even know (think social media). Our egos are naturally built for these things, but our spirits are not. I hope you can sense this Light inside of you, your own spark burning away all the lies that our patriarchal world wants you to believe.
One of the greatest gifts that patriarchy stole from us is Mystery, substituting scientific rationalism in its place. If we come to spirituality trying to rationalize and understand we will be forever lost and jaded. Our union with the Divine is all about surrendering our need to control; we must let go of our fear. Fear is the foundational emotion that all other negative feelings sprout from. Fear is pervasive in this world, but letting go of fear is the crucial movement toward union. It is a choice that we make every day, many times each day.
Meditation as Surrender
Union with God is a journey of transformation for all of us, not just the spiritual elite. It is available for everyone who desires it, and it also requires our entire selves. Union calls us to deep connection with God and yields a profound sense of unity with all beings.
The first step is some practice of meditation, an active experience of surrender. This practical training in releasing our attachments prepares our hearts to do the same in daily life. The Gnostics practiced a beautiful meditation called The Bridal Chamber—a sacred mystical process symbolizing our soul’s union to Christ, the bridegroom. Although it is not fully described in their gospels, you can read the kernel of it in the Gospel of Phillip. In essence, it is a spiritual practice of envisioning the sacred Light within our souls merging with the Divine Light of the Supreme One.[54]
Some form of daily silence opens us to growth and, over time, to deep transformation. It’s a lifelong process of discovery. Find what works for you; there is not a one-and-done trick that procures a higher level of consciousness. Instead, it is a constant directing of our attention toward what is Real. It’s a returning that becomes a yearning that becomes a way of being.
Let’s close this chapter with some lines from a collection of hymns found in 1905. “The Odes of Solomon” record the reflections of a gifted poet from the Middle East about Jesus. “His love for me brought low his greatness… He took my nature so that I might understand him, my face so that I should not turn away from him.”[55]
Write Your Story
Take some time to write your responses to these prompts in your journal.
· Does union with God scare you or feel wrong to you? What negative messages have you heard that want to keep you separated from the Divine?
· How would you describe your desire to experience union with God? What are you willing to pursue to make that happen?
Meditation
Start the video that leads you to the seventh portal. When you arrive at this portal, envision yourself standing within this image of union.
· Let a word arise in the stillness and locate that word in your body.
· When the music ends, write down your word and where it resides in your body.
Take as much time as you need to hold what has been given.
Reflection
Final Reflection
You have been on a journey. Journeys require much from us—they take effort, they take time, and we always end up in a different place from where we started. Allow time and maybe some silence to process what has been given to you. Look at the seven words that you wrote down, one from each portal meditation. As you say each word, remember where it resided in your body. Take a few breaths… Which words do you want to keep, and which words do you want to release into the Universe?
Although I am not God, I am not other than God either.[59]
~ Romano Guardini
(c) 2025 Kellie Wilder Daley. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Top image by Meinrad Craighead. "Teresa of Avila," 1981. Copyright Amy Dosser. meinradcraighead.com. Used by permission.
Garden Sketches by Heather Higgins, 2024. Used by permission.
For footnotes, click here.
A Blessing for the Seven Portals of Feminine Formation
May each portal you enter be a sacred threshold,
guiding you from lament to awakening,
from silence to the power of your voice,
from exile to the embrace of your true self.
May the wisdom of the women before you
whisper strength into your soul,
and may the Divine Feminine walk beside you,
lighting the path of healing, truth, and transformation.
As you journey through these portals,
may you reclaim what was lost,
restore what was silenced,
and rise into the fullness of who you were always meant to be.
May you step forward with courage,
held in love, rooted in wisdom,
and empowered to bring restoration
to yourself, your sisters, and the world.
Blessed be this journey.