Awakening the Sacred Masculine: At the Turning of the Ages

By Keith Gregory

The purpose of awakening your Sacred Masculine, is to ignite and guide you to live more consciously from your open, aligned and empowered Heartspace. This in part, is done by restoring respect, integrity and honor in men and strength, safety and trust within women.

This is largely accomplished by consciously connecting into your Heart Center and all the Spiritual energies accessible here, specifically those of love + joy + compassion + gratitude + forgiveness and trust. Here you tap directly into your Divine nature. Guaranteed. These energies, found in an empowered Heartspace are what I refer to as the Sacred.

Living from your empowered Heartspace actualizes your Souls true purpose which is to embody and express your Sacreds attributes in your everyday life. As you act from this awareness and become consciously present in your Heartspace, you come to awaken your Sacred. Its this simple.

However, only by being totally present in this very moment Here & Now fully grounded in your body, can you embody your Sacred. Viscerally speaking that is, with each breath you breathe. For your Sacred to become real for you, it has to become alive in you. Consciously breathing your Sacred and all its qualities into your body, will a Divine fusion ignite and blaze in your life.

Please understand, awakening your Sacred Masculine is IN NO WAY gender specific. Its not just about men. This revolutionary+evolutionary breakthrough of consciousness needs to take place in all of us, women as well. The masculine Lifeforce lives in men and women alike and as such, has to evolve in anyone intent on awakening their Sacred.

Paradoxically, this applies to men engaging and empowering our contradictory + complimentary natures. Otherwise known as our feminine consciousness. For men, to awaken and embody our Sacred Masculine now, well have to embrace this fundamental part of ourselves.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Oct 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504340380

Keith Gregory

Keith Gregory is an advanced energy healer, LMT, and originator of Heart Tantra. Keith also works as a soul coach and spiritual insight trainer. Keith is clairvoyant, empathically intuitive, and is a masterful facilitator. He has studied and practiced an extensive array of alternative healing and consciousness growth modalities for over thirty-five years. As a result of a spiritual awakening at thirteen, Keith felt a deep desire to serve and support others in their awakenings. From this intention, Awakening the Sacred Masculine work was born. He began his formal sacred masculine studies in 1993 and has developed a unique approach to addressing the challenges facing men today.

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Introduction

The purpose of awakening your Sacred Masculine, is to ignite and guide you to live more consciously from your open, aligned and empowered Heartspace. This in part, is done by restoring respect, integrity and honor in men and strength, safety and trust within women. This is done by consciously empowering your Heart Center and all the Spiritual energies accessible here - specifically those of love + joy + compassion + gratitude + forgiveness and trust. Here you tap directly into your Divine nature. Guaranteed. These energies and their effects, found in an awakened Heartspace are what I refer to as the ‘Sacred.’

Please understand, awakening your Sacred Masculine is in NO WAY, gender specific. No way! It’s absolutely not just about men. This revolutionary+evolutionary breakthrough of consciousness needs to take place in all of us, women as well. The masculine Lifeforce lives in men and women alike and as such, has to evolve in anyone intent on awakening their Sacred. Also, because the Sacred has no gender or sex, occasionally throughout this book, I refer to this process as ‘awakening your Sacred’ not specifically, ‘awakening your Sacred Masculine.’ This is indeed, a cross gender, full-humankind experience where all apparent differences melt at the doorway of your Heart. Or had better.

For men however, paradoxically with a wickedly, sneaky twist thrown in this applies to us engaging and empowering our contradictory+complementary natures. Otherwise known as our innate, feminine consciousness or natures. On my. For men, to now awaken and embody our Sacred Masculine in our lives we’ll have to embrace and empower this fundamental part of ourselves. Strange but oh so true and also, a must do.

The grand secret is that awakening and embodying your Sacred, regardless of your sexual preference or orientation only happens when you embrace all of your contradictory+ complementary qualities within your Heartspace. In short, to create authenticity and wholeness in yourself, embracing your perceived opposites is absolutely necessary. On every and all levels, especially the funky shit. To awaken your Sacred, you’ll have to awaken throughout all of yourself, every last little bit. This only happens when you love all aspects of yourself, unconditionally. Just as you are. This diamond of an insight reminds you, you’ll have to love yourself Home.

Without question, unconditionally loving all of your divergent selves will heal the energetic and emotional splits in your consciousness and energy field. Which of course, positively affects your physical body’s overall health and wellbeing as well. Said another way, sincerely self-directing your love and care in these essential ways empowers your Christ consciousness to flourish in your body, mind, emotions and Heart. This Divine man was only about love, having become that love himself. It’s the same for us. As you generate love within, it naturally creates more of itself and spontaneously flows out into your life. This expressiveness in part, is what the Sacred Masculine is all about.

In this way, accessing and living from your empowered Heartspace actualizes your Soul’s true purpose – which is to embody and express your Sacred’s attributes in your everyday life, as best you can. This mind you, is not a showy or ostentatious thing. It is however, your gift back to God. As you act from this understanding and become consciously present in your Heartspace, you come to awaken your Sacred. It’s this simple.

However, only by being totally present in this very moment – Here & Now – fully grounded in your body, can you fully embody your Sacred. Viscerally speaking that is, with each breath you breathe. For your Sacred to become real for you, it has to become alive in you. By consciously breathing your Sacred and all its qualities into your body, will a Divine fusion ignite and blaze in your life.

This cellular ignition creates an exponential potential to come alive in you as you breathe the doors of your consciousness open. In fact, by Divine decree - it has to. By actualizing and embodying your Sacred in this way, you’ll become the Beloved living in you, through you and as you – with each conscious breath you take. Again, for your awakening to become real for you, it has to ignite inside your body, deep into your DNA. In doing this, you become living Divinity embodying the Sacred in your world.

For mankind to continue living on Earth, the solution is in being more conscious of the Sacred within ourselves. For humanity to thrive on this planet, developing our abilities to connect to the Sacred in each other, is paramount. Historically speaking, it’s clear nothing else has prevented us from killing each other and that’s a fact. Although this perhaps sounds so appealing – out with the old! In with the New Earth – there’s much work necessary to bring this Sacredness about. Appropriately, only by transforming our personal and collective Shadow energies will this ever occur.

This book is an account of the deeper understandings acquired from traveling into and through and most essentially, transforming these troublesome parts of me – otherwise known as my Shadow. In fact, awakening my Sacred Masculine has necessitated I journey into, throughout and safely out of my darkest and funkiest Shadowlands. This territory was much murkier earlier on, though comes up occasionally as life delivers its humility reminders or tweaks to keep me present and aware. My Sacred has forced me to do this and for this reason alone, I’ve done so. However, it rarely looked pretty learning this so in no way do I paint myself as the awakening the Sacred Masculine, poster boy.

Experientially, the path to heaven has indeed passed through my nastiest and gnarliest hell realms. Here, I’ve taken a tour through all the parts of me that pushed my Sacred, not to mention love, away. It’s said, on our path to wholeness, we destroy the very thing we love the most. Whew, kinda heavy. But you do until you don’t - and that’s what awakening your Sacred is all about. The Hero’s or Heroine’s Journey isn’t in the slaying rather in the transforming of your old, gnarly dragons that eat you alive. This is done by loving yourself and your dragons relentlessly. And yes, unconditionally too. It may be asking a lot but again, you have help. As ever, loves heals all especially your Sacred’s love. You just gotta breathe it in and let go to the grace. And oh yeah, do your Spiritual work too.

Early in my healership studies, I learned that all true healing happens in and through your open Heart. All healing comes from Source as a force of love and only what you hold in your Heartspace, can you bring healing and wholeness to. Conversely, only what you embrace in your Heartspace, can you truly release. And eventually heal. Personally, empowering my Heart in this way has made it my Spiritual, Home Base. From here, my Sacred has opened up in unimaginable ways, interconnecting to all of life surreptitiously, as if by grace. On the other hand, some of my deepest initiatory passages bringing this about have been baptisms by fire. The Sacred has a blissful glow but it can also burn like hell. That’s the tricky part.

As men, the intention to reconnect to our Heartspace does indeed awaken the Sacred Masculine in us. This creates a powerful Lifeforce current to awaken and flow in our bodies. And it’s not just physical either. It carries a consciousness unto itself that’s not so easily defined, though it’s clearly felt. This is where the deeper values of your Sacred live, within you. Interestingly, this touches into a profoundly, archetypal insight - embodying the Sacred Masculine is akin to enacting the codes of honor attributed to the Knights of the Arthurian, Round Table. This same commitment to respect, integrity and honor begins to permeate a man’s life as he embodies his Sacred. I call this living by my Heart Code.

Similar to the trials of chivalrous manhood, in hopes of achieving Knighthood in those present times, Self-empowerment has now come from doing the self-healing work required – all to clear out the pockets of painful memories that karmicly amassed in my Heart. These emotional pockets were the old, stuck and wounded energies that prevented the Sacred from entering and filling my life. I believe this has always been the case and is quite common for most of us. We all share our basic humanity in the truly exceptional and enlightened, to our most Heartbreaking humanness.

Over the years, I’ve learned to attend to my Heartspace and yet, this hasn’t pardoned me from changing how I behaved. In fact, just the opposite. ‘Awakening’ is an action word and as such, has demanded I change the ways I acted in life. And central to this discussion, change how I acted as a man. Spiritual evolution is like this. Only when your behaviors have favorably changed, will you know you’ve evolved favorably. You’ll know how you are by how you act. To turn a paraphrase – Sacred is as Sacred does.

After all, this is the miraculous gift of being in a human body. By acting more consciously, you can evolve your Soul. Just by creating a different behavior, you can create a different consciousness. And vise a versa. Doing this well, allows you to create a different and more favorable outcome. As you evolve and grow, your behaviors will likewise change. As they are intended to. This will be especially apparent in your personal and intimate relationships. Oh boy is this holy ground - where there’s no place to hide - though run you will. Not, however, if you’re paying attention with an intention to awaken. But it takes being present to do so and that’s the catch. Ha! When the positive shifts show up in how you relate, you’ll know you’ve got it.

Remember the saying - to know better means you have to do better. This may sound rather pithy but the bottom line is, unless your behaviors change in positive ways, specifically in your primary relationships, you haven’t actualized your Sacred Masculine or Feminine, for that matter. And yes, it is a gradual thing. You may have gained insights and understandings but core to the masculine principal for instance, is action expressed and embodied out in the world. In this respect, consciously ‘doing’ your Sacred, is what this is all about. Again, Sacred is as Sacred does.

This ebook is a compilation of a series of blogs I’d written over the past few years. Out of 179 blogs posted, I’ve chosen to rewrite a select few that express the essential themes and values of my awakening journey. There were many other posts that wanted to join in, however, for need of brevity, I’ve chosen the ones you’re about to read. The blog chapters begin with ‘Growing Up White & Black.’

Over & Underviews

This section is the background rundown, the Sun and Shadow’s shade if you will, of this story.

As a Soul in human form, over a great many lifetimes I’ve played through my ego’s, enormous bag of mischievous tricks. I’ve exhausted my personal self-interests and eventually, run out of road to end up here. Again, a steady practice of surrender and release has been required, especially when it’s come me to getting my way. In keeping with the saying, an old Soul is a slow learner, it’s taken near endless scrubbings of my personality, over a very long period of time to reveal my Sacred Masculine. Never however, have I done so especially willingly, sometimes not at all. I’ve fought this, tooth and nail more often than not. Up until now, that is.

It’s been a process of becoming more emotionally accountable, first to myself that’s demanded a greater self-honestly than I initially possessed. I was never taught this growing up though again, I’ve learned. And yet, learning to do this has been more of a royal pain in the ass than any blessing I’d ever heard about. Here’s why. The shamanic consequences, accurately foretold in my astrological birth chart, have played out most dynamically in my intimate relationships with women. Yikes. This is where the deep trench and drudge work of awakening my Sacred Masculine has taken place. Then and more poignantly, in the lonely aftermath of these relationships.

It’s been obvious in these instances that transforming my sense of emotional unworth, insecurity and neediness has been my primary, course curriculum here in Earth School. Sound familiar? As with most growing up, these painful imprints were set early in life where childhood was no picnic. No fault or blame mind you and with all due respect, I just didn’t get the conscious support, love or emotional nurturance that would have set a very different tone in me. Like most, I’ve had to make it up on the go and find out the answers, as I went. Also, it’s been up to me to make the best of what I’ve been given. This is why it’s called Life School. Besides, it’s a human thing and again, not unusual. We all had parents.

Like what’s new. Whether an expression of learning how to fly while falling or stumbling along gracefully through life, awakening my Sacred Masculine has exacted I accurately read the tell-tale signs, along the way. However, embodiment is more exacting. It has specifically demanded I show up to do the self-healing work necessary to bring my awakening about. This is no small point, in fact, an essential element of the masculine principle. In a direct sense, it’s conscious intentions, awareness and behaviors that have ignited the Sacred in my life. Prayer is essential but facing my shit and doing different, is even more so.

In retrospect, I’ve spent my adulthood healing the wounds of my childhood, all to become free of the chaos my woundedness and neediness created. What has slowly emerged, is my Heartspace shining through my male physicality and more transparent, personality nature. Yes, some days are better than others, though on the bad days, I’ve learned to become still and get present. That’s the kicker. Please know, it’s not as pretentious as it sounds, though without a doubt it’s come at a very steep price.

What is this price, you ask? It’s distilled down to just one thing - the grand elixir, very laboriously accrued, is ever found in facing and embracing all of my fears, angers, reactions and regrets in my Heartspace, whenever they arise. This alone transforms them, with a step or two that follows. In this respect, I’ve learned this act of courageous self-love and self-responsibility is the most Sacred thing I can do to awaken. Doing this has saved my life. This has become my immediate and intimate final frontier, the pathway to embodying my Sacred Masculine and is encountered, each and every day.

Inexplicably, all of my repressed and ignored emotions along with blame and shame, insecurities and addictions too, have now become the guardians at the gates of my awakening. Profoundly and all too paradoxically, they’ve also offered me my very deepest healings as well. As I’ve encountered and embraced these ancient, scab crusty emotional wounds, they’ve welcomed me through allowing these deep-rooted places to finally heal.

I’ll explain as I go, through appropriately enough, this is where the infamous ‘Shadow’ energy enters the narrative. I’ve found only by facing and embracing my Shadow and contents thereof - by empowering my Heartspace and employing the powers therein - have these painful emotional patterns been transformed. This is the mega mother-load of all. Which leads to a most basic fact. Again, crucial to awakening my Sacred Masculine, has been changing the self-destructive behaviors that were expressions of my wounded Shadow.

This was and is 100% mandatory. To effectively do this, I’ve had to open and expand my Heartspace to such a degree that my Sacred could safely embrace all of the pain, struggle and sadness in me. This singular act is what’s ongoingly transformed my considerable pain body, helping it dissolve and release. It ever remains the case. This of course, is what makes it Sacred, the power to transmute painful shit. From all I’ve observed, personally and while working as a healing facilitator for many years, this is consistent for one and all. If you don’t love it, you don’t heal it.

Doing this Heartspace embrace has created a profound, alchemical magic to occur. It always ignites the shifts that allow the releases of all the funky, emotional energies I’ve held within me. This is the self-healing and Spiritual work I speak of. Whether these chronically painful emotions were merely the compulsory grist for the mill or the primal fuel of my ego’s, transformative melt-down, going into these emotional places and coming out cleaner and clearer – and more empowered – has been required..

I’ve found embodying my Sacred Masculine has hinged on accessing the grace and power of the Divine in my Heartspace - with each breath I breathe. This is nonnegotiable and universal in everyone I’ve ever worked with. Without it, I wouldn’t stand a chance. In this, my Spiritual guidance has been very clear – awaken in my Heartspace, adapt, grow and evolve or wither and die. Perhaps a bit drastic but there you have it. Personally, the carrot and the riding crop that drives me forward and the glistening prize that makes it all worthwhile, is so very simple. Most of all, I only want one thing. To live in the Beloved’s love. That’s it.

Of anything I’ve ever felt or experienced in life, in all the ways possible - and believe me, I’ve tried – the embrace of the Beloved’s love, is the # 1, Juicy Juice of all. This Divine union makes everything worth it. Once I felt this Spiritual joie de vivre pour through me, I was spoiled for anything else or less. After all, I am a Lifeforce junkie deep down to my core. My Soul’s desire is very simple, I only want the very best. The Beloved’s love.

In this way, only my Sacred has satisfied the deeper longings of never feeling met or held or acknowledged and most of all, loved by others. Only my Sacred has held all the parts of me that the world and everything in it, never has.

Consistent with anyone who’s chosen to awaken their Sacred, the purification process necessary, has happened over the course of my lifetime. All mind you, were passages into and through places I needed to open and explore, in order to consciously grow and evolve. I guess, it was just my time this go-round and thankfully, my number was called early. However please know, few of these passages or places I would have entered, otherwise. These blog stories are a few vignettes of how this has looked and the awareness, grace and fortitude necessary that’s moved me forward on my path.

Sacred’s Basics and deeper backstories

For humankind and for men in particular, there are a great many collective themes, desperately seeking resolution. We have an enormous amount of misbehaviors to reconcile, transform and be accountable for. And forgive. Attending and transforming these old, dysfunctional behaviors is necessary for men to evolve and grow, not to mention to awaken our Sacred Masculine.

As a man, awakening my Sacred Masculine has come from living in more Heart conscious ways. Simply by being more thankful in life, I’ve felt more gratitude. This has combusted into feeling more loving kindness and wham, compassion and forgiveness soon followed. It’s amazing how this works. After all, this is the sublime power of the Sacred - of love and joy and all the qualities of an empowered Heartspace. This hasn’t been especially easy to do though, on the other hand it has come down to a very simple thing. To consciously evolve during these highly pivotal times, all who walk this path of awakening will have to face their own dysfunctional emotional patterns, energies and behaviors.

From my perspective, this epitomizes the Hero and Heroine’s Journey and whether we acknowledge it or not, it’s playing out in all of our lives, each and every day. I believe this book is a valuable marker for others, especially men who seek insight and support in finding their Sacred Masculine. Goodness knows, we need all the help we can get – at least, I certainly have. Growing up, I can’t say ’d have paid close attention had a conscious man shared their Sacred’s insights in this way but I sure wish I’d heard someone say them, just the same. Had I heard and better yet, really listened, I may have course-corrected my highly unbridled approach to living life. It may have made a positive difference, who knows?

Perhaps in doing so, I would have come earlier to embodying the Sacred Masculine’s decree, which is to live in respect, integrity and honor for all life. This is a core precedent for any consciously evolving man, in whatever ways he chooses to awaken. As a man aspires and works towards this goal, he reestablishes his personal values and codes of conduct. As a direct expression of this, it means doing what he says and saying what he does. It’s being accountable for who we are, what we do and why we do it. In doing this, our honor and integrity supports us, our relationships and our communities.

Acting from this awareness, we connect to an essential aspect of the Sacred Masculine - which is to fulfill a higher purpose, one greater than satisfying our own needs or benefitting our personal gain. This in turn, empowers the masculine’s inherent role of creating and holding safe space for others, whether family, friends or larger tribe. This sense of living a greater purpose becomes paramount to us, because it also supports these attributes of those in our lives. Profoundly and most essentially, creating this for others requires a man to first create and hold safe space within himself.

This of course, applies to women as well. Rest assured, awakening and embodying your Sacred Feminine will require no less of a commitment. After all, awakening your Sacred is totally gender-inclusive. To awaken and actualize this consciousness in your body, mind, emotions and Heart, you’ll have to live it from the inside out and only then, will you come to embody it in your life.

Honestly, whether called the Sacred Masculine or Sacred Feminine, it really doesn’t matter. The Sacred is Sacred, no matter what it‘s called. The Sacred is always One and the same. It’s just our human nature to personalize the Sacred as we do. And that’s OK because bottom line, you’ll have to find and do what works best for you, to make it come alive in you. Besides, your gender doesn’t define the Divine, your Heart, commitment and behavior does.

Again and most essential for anyone on this journey, awakening your Sacred Masculine or Feminine requires developing an interdependent and symbiotic relationship with your own complementary natures. For men, with our innate, feminine values and natures. For women, equally so with your masculine natures and perceptions. For all of us, embracing and empowering these fundamental parts of ourselves begins the healing of our internal, core split. Doing this significantly supports the dissolution of our habitual sense of disconnection and separation. Isolation too.

For all of us, accomplishing this feat is where our wholeness, sovereignty and integration comes alive. For a man, this pivotal act of self-love lessens his tendency to struggle, fight and do battle within himself. Consequently, this crucial energetic unification diminishes the need to project his personal dissatisfaction and resulting hostility, onto others. And you know, this has got to be a really good thing!

Finally, from this core integration, a man creates an inner sense of safety within himself. It