The One Spirit Alliance works to promote and provide a forum for spiritually-minded people, organisations and networks to foster connection and collaboration between them.

Our vision

The One Spirit Alliance is founded on a recognition of the One Spirit that underpins all life.  This One Spirit inspires a shared consciousness that takes us beyond all established boundaries. It is underpinned by values and principles that ignite our love for each other and foster care and appreciation of our planetary home and its place in the cosmos. This awareness has grown out of meditation, individual and collective spiritual experience and new approaches to science which have lead to a realisation of the greater whole.

The vision of One Spirit Alliance is to facilitate the coming together of the diverse spiritual paths which draw on a variety of faith, ethical and ecological traditions as well as new explorations. By engaging in conscious conversations and shared silence we can discover the unity that lies at the heart of all paths that seek a harmonious way of life. We believe in the principle of one global family. For more on the background of OSA, click on <About OSA>.

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A selection of inspirational verses and quotations

May you find the time to celebrate the quiet wonders
which often do not have any admirers in this noisy world.
Irish blessing

The wind of God’s Grace is always blowing, but you must raise your sail.
Swami Vivekananda

The strength or weakness of a society depends more on the level of its spiritual life than on its level of industrialization.
Neither a market economy nor even general abundance constitutes the crowning achievement of human life.
If a nation’s spiritual energies have been exhausted, it will not be saved from collapse by the most perfect government structure or by any industrial development.
A tree with a rotten core cannot stand.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Life and death are one thread. The same line viewed from different sides. 
Lao Tsu

‘To know all means to renounce all. To love all means to have understanding of everything.’
White Eagle

“One kind word can warm three winter months.”
Japanese proverb

‘Love lights more fires than hate extinguishes’
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“Unless you believe in divine revelations, what I’m saying will sound like nonsense,
but I believe that when God created the world, he created everything, so music is something that already exists.
You just have to be very still and hear it. Plato believed that was the case.
I’m not being over-pious if I say to God, ‘Guide me, help me.’ It’s a kind of prayer, so therefore writing music is a kind of prayer.”
John Taverner

Our mother earth has hardened
through pain.
Our mission is to
spiritualise her again,
by reworking her through
the power of our hands
into a spirit-filled work of art.
Rudolf Steiner, over 100 years ago

“The ultimate lesson all of us have to learn is unconditional love, which includes not only others but ourselves as well.” 
Elisabeth Kubler Ross

“When I am judging a theory, I ask myself whether, if I were God, I would have arranged the world in such a way.”
Albert Einstein

A new page! – Visions of Hope

We have started a new page, Visions of Hope, with contributions from readers, and which will also be featured in ‘newsletters’ during the course of this year to those on the mailing list. If you would like to be added to the mailing list, do fill in the form below, or write us with your details (name, email address – that’s it).

Click here to view our Privacy Policy.

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Some highlights

See our Facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/onespiritalliance/ where we put  regular postings about groups, events and inspirations which people have sent in. If you have something which you would like posted, let us know! Send to our email: contact@onespiritalliance.net or send a message via Facebook. We look forward to hearing.

In the Journal – find short articles and inspirations from present and past contributions. 

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Articles and reports

“If Christ be not risen… then is your faith also in vain.” 
Paul, 1 Corinthians 15

We pass from spring towards summer, from Easter to Ascension and Whitsun. And we may ponder on these words of Paul and the mysteries of Easter, the death on the cross, the blood falling to the earth which becomes connected to the whole Grail mysteries, the resurrection, the Ascension, the Holy Spirit. The deeds surrounding the events of Golgatha at that Easter time stand as a turning point in world history; the word, the light of the St. John prologue entered human destiny in a new way, not for any one religion but for all of humankind. Bringing a new inner self realised potential out of a free deed of love to be gradually realised through the course of the millennia to follow …  a new resurrection!

Reflections on Whitsun ~ a festival for our time and into the future

Hope in the midst of crises –

Facing present challenges and moving into the future, it is important that we see each one of us as creative, spiritual beings, as co-creators and part of the solution to social and environmental crises, rather than simply part of the problem.

In the mainstream media we continually have hammered into us all the dreadful things that we as human beings have wrought, bringing destruction, poverty, extinction, death. Yes, we have that freedom – to succumb to a materialistic way of life that inevitably brings greed and, in its path, destruction. Yet, we also have the freedom to recognise in this a path we do NOT wish to take further and to work instead co-creatively together: in recognition of the spirit that works in all for harmony and regeneration, if we open our hearts to it. An enlightened love, not just for each other as humans but for the earth and all the wonders of life, is an essential ingredient in this.

This renewed creative thinking can be applied to what we see around us in the many environmental crises. The emphasis on the ‘climate crisis’ that seems to project doomsday scenarios which supposedly can only be solved by ‘world leaders’ coming together and taking action takes perhaps our attention not only away from pressing environmental problems in front of our nose (eg polluted soils, waters and air) but also takes attention away from — ourselves! We look to those higher up, putting blame on them if things are going wrong, and putting our hopes on them for making things right. But is this right?

In truth, WE — each and every one of us — are the world leaders, and WE are the solution. There is a danger in the doomsday scenarios and the COP talks which we see to address them — complete with the mega-rich ‘leaders’, politicians and industry heads alike, flying in on personal jets in rather contradictory manner — in that solutions are taken away from us and put in the hands of those who have mostly created the problems in the first place. There is a bitter irony there, and one, if we don’t maintain our vigilance, could lead to a very centralised authoritarian control of the so-called solutions. Which if rooted in the same thinking, will only lead to further problems. We need to recognise that those so-called ‘world leaders’ are really our ‘servants’, not the other way around as it is usually experienced. That is, politicians are elected by us to represent us, not their own personal interests, and industry leaders (also represented at COP and whom we may be supporting by using their products) are there to serve their customers. They too often present themselves, and we let them be, as the ‘head’ determining things, whereas actually we — each one of us — need to be the conscious head, and the politicians and business leaders are the feet helping our interests and needs come into being.

There are so many positive grass roots initiatives taking place around the world which aren’t given enough attention but which have huge impact. These are efforts taking place by individuals coming together and taking responsibility, with a re-newed vision of the earth and world working in harmony, with human beings at the centre of a new co-creative approach. It is spiritually enlivening, and a bringer of light and hope.

Merely as one example of this is a creative essay entitled, Breathing with the Climate Crisis (click here to view and download), which we recommend reading. It is a coming together of youth groups and bio-dynamic agriculture, in a document presented to the last COP27 conference. Let’s hope the so called ‘world leaders’ were listening, as it was prepared by the real world leaders, which you and I and each one of us are!

A contribution by Richard Brinton

(Click here to view on separate page)

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A New Story to guide us forward – reflections by Janice Dolley

It seems that immense changes are afoot, calling us as a global society to shift from the materialistic and separative thinking that has led us to the critical ‘code red ‘situation that we are in on so many fronts today. As a planetary society this has resulted from a loss of perception of the greater whole of which we are an integral part, our place within a vast cosmos, and the loss of connection with our inner life — the invisible spiritual worlds that invisibly interweave with our everyday lives.

The reality of our daily lives so often consumes all our attention but once we  grasp the reality of the loving creative consciousness that embraces all life – for which every religion has a different name – it is easier to be no longer fearful of the chaos of change that is underway but instead see this as the outer forms of outgrown ideas disintegrating so that new energy can be released to act in ways that better serve the greater whole.

The first step in this shift is the dissolution of the limiting old structures, habits and ways of thinking which is already underway and is causing distress to many. The second step is envisioning and working hard to bring into being new ideas, new visions and the much-needed qualities of love and compassion for all life. In other words, following the universally accepted Golden Rule of “Do unto others that which we would have them do unto you.” Our challenge now is to have the wisdom and creativity to use the power of our thoughts and the love of our hearts to begin to co- create new ways of being.

Here are some questions to start our thinking and our discussion with others(1):  Click Here to read more

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A focus on Love as a task for human beings and the earth evolution ~

Christ and Love

“Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.”  (First letter of Paul, 1 Corinthians 13:13)

“A new task and aim I give you: Love one another! As I have loved you, so you should love one another.”(Words of Christ, John 13:34)

“Let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love has not recognised God, for God is love.”(1 John 4: 7-8)

THE HYMN TO LOVE

Yet I will show the way which is greater than all others.
If I speak out of the Spirit with the tongues of men and of angels: if I am without love, then my speaking remains as sounding brass or tinkling cymbal. And if i had the gift of prophecy and could speak of all mysteries and could impart all knowledge and, further, had the power of faith which removes mountains; if I am without love, then I am nothing. And if I were to give away everything that is mine, and lastly were to give away even my body for burning, if I am without love, then all is in vain.

Love makes the soul great
Love fills the soul with healing goodness
Love does not know envy,
It knows no boasting,
It does not allow a falseness,
Love does not harm that which is decent,
It drives out self-seeking,
Love does not allow the inner balance to be lost,
It does not bear a grudge,
It does not rejoice over injustice,
It rejoices only in the truth.
Love bears all things,
Is always prepared to have faithful trust,
It may hope for everything and is all-patient.
If love is truly present, it cannot be lost…

   We find permanence which bears all future within it in the exalted triad:
In faith,
In hope,
And in love.
But the greatest of these is love.

(1 Corinthians 13:1-8,13 — J Madsen translation, The New Testament, Floris Books
For the complete Hymn to Love, Click here – as part of the full article, Focus on Love)

Buddha and love – a meditative exercise

When your mind is filled with love, send it in one direction, then a second, a third, and a fourth, then above, and then below. Identify with everything, without hatred, resentment, anger, or enmity. This mind of love is very wide. It grows immeasurably and eventually is able to embrace the whole world. Practise the same way with your mind filled with compassion, then joy, then equanimity. (Madhyama Agama, Sutra 86)

The Greek words for love

The ancient Greek language and the philosophers of ancient Greece recognised eight words for love, reflecting different forms in which it may express itself.

Plato’s dialogue, has love as its topic; Platonic love is a familiar concept, where love is no longer love of the body and its physical beauty but love of the spirit, of the divine, in other human beings. In the speech of Socrates, he speaks of the “ladder of love“: ‘The Ladder of Love is a metaphor that relates each step toward Being as consecutive rungs of a ladder. Each step closer to the truth further distances love from beauty of the body toward love that is more focused on wisdom and the essence of beauty.’ (Wikipedia) Each step of the ladder uses a different word to define it.

‘We have found a path’

I have looked into the deepest depths of man,
I know the world to its foundation stones.
Its meaning, I have learned, is Love alone,
And I am here to love and ever love again.

Christian Morgenstern

Inspiring short texts on Love

from three of Rudolf Steiner’s lectures

“What love is, is something so complex, that no human being should have the pride or audacity to ‘define’ love or to claim to see through it without further ado. Love is complicated. We perceive it, but no definition can possibly express love. There is one picture, a simple sense picture: imagine a glass of water that, the more you pour out from it, the fuller it becomes – that gives us an impression of one of love’s qualities.” (R. Steiner in ‘Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly Bodies and in the Kingdoms of Nature‘, lecture in Helsingfors, 5 April 1912)

“What then is essential for love? What is essential in order that one person love another? It is this – that he be in possession of his full self-consciousness, that he be wholly independent. No one can love another in the full sense of the word if this love be not a free gift of one person to another…
Christ is the bringer of the impulse of freedom from the law, that good may be done, not because of the compulsion of any law, but as an indwelling impulse of love within the soul. This impulse will still need the remainder of the Earth evolution for its full development.” (R. Steiner in ‘The Gospel of John’, lecture in Hamburg, 1908).

“Love is higher than opinion. If people love one another, the most varied opinions can be reconciled… this is one of the most important tasks for humankind today and in the future: that we learn to live together and understand one another. If this human fellowship is not achieved, all talk of esoteric development is empty.” (R. Steiner)

Further texts on love ~

In the realm of the heart of the sun which is Christ,
each person bears the other person’s burden.  True
community is revealed where sin is replaced by forgiveness 
and love.  Forgiveness is not just getting rid of something,
it is also something positive, a gift.  Only those can for-give
who possess inner riches, who can turn evil into good 
through love.
Rudolf Frieling

Egotism erects its center in itself; love places it out of itself in the axis of the universal whole. Love aims at unity, egotism at solitude. Love is the citizen ruler of a flourishing republic, egotism is a despot in a devastated creation. Egotism sows for gratitude, love for the ungrateful. Love gives, egotism lends; and love does this before the throne of judicial truth, indifferent if for the enjoyment of the following moment, or with the view to a martyr’s crown–indifferent whether the reward is in this life or in the next.
Friedrich Schiller

Where there is love and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance.
Francis of Assisi

Love seeketh not itself to please, nor for itself hath any care,
but for another gives its ease, and builds a Heaven in Hell’s despair.
William Blake
From ‘Songs of experience’

Click here for this article, Focus on Love, on a separate page, where it will be amended and added to over time.

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Newly published!

Corona and the Human Heart:
Illuminating riddles of immunity, conscience and common sense
by Michaela Glöckler, MD, foreword by Branko Furst, MD.
InterActions, September 2021

Dr Glöckler gives new inspiring perspectives on the significant role of the human heart in the development of the immune system, from early embryological growth through to adulthood, and the importance this understanding has for the Covid crisis. The heart is intrinsically involved in the interplay between inner and outer, the dynamic boundary between self and the environment. At the same time it is the centre and life-blood of the human organism, just as the sun is for the living earth. In exploring the wide fields of the heart’s functions, Dr Glöckler sheds light on how immunity is integrally connected with the heart and the inner sense of self. If we disempower the individual through anxieties and fears, or through dependence on outer authority, we reduce the confidence and strength of self; this in turn leads to a significantly reduced ability of the immune system to fend itself against outer influences, such as viruses and other pathogenetic influences.

The author leads us on a path showing how by strengthening our inner spiritual life – our inner sun – we will be strengthening our health and immunity, as well as illuminating riddles of conscience and common sense.

“When people follow their conscience and have the courage to speak the truth, even when it is unpopular, without the fear of stigmatisation or exclusion, not only is the immune system strengthened but also people’s trust in the future.”  M. Glöckler

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Mistaking the Problems for the Solutions: Reversing the Fatal Flaw Behind Our Proliferating Crises

by Kavita Byrd, 26 May 2021

Have you noticed how, since the beginning of this pandemic, we’ve been told over and over that this measure or that proffered by those mandating the pandemic agendas would save us — lockdowns, masks, social distancing, and now, of course, mass vaccinations — but that in fact, each time, the opposite has been true? It’s gotten progressively worse, with new mutations, the promise of endless “top-up” boosters, censorship of adverse effects as well as of natural solutions, and now, with vaccine passports, ever-tightening control and surveillance over every aspect of our movements and our lives…

The fact is that, unawares, we’ve been ushered, step by step, into a new perpetual pandemic order, not our salvation from it and a return to normal, as we believed we were promised. It’s time to wake up, take stock of where we’re heading, and decide if this is what we really want.

The problem is that we have our analysis of the situation, and therefore the solutions, backwards…

And what we have gotten backwards, in the simplest terms, is this: the relationship of nature to man-made agendas, and which are really on our side. Man-made agendas for the private profit of the few have overridden our natural connections with the Earth that have sustained us for millennia, and if we do not recognize and reverse this, we will not survive…”

Click here for the rest of Kavita’s insightful article, and here for her longer related series: “Disentangling the Web of Illusions That Have Led to Our Present Crises”. Kavita’s website can be found at https://shakticentre.blogspot.com

Kavita Byrd has just published a new book, a compilation of 25 articles she wrote from lockdown in rural India during the first momentous year of the coronavirus pandemic: Chronicle of a Tectonic Year – Point of No Return, Or Returning to Our True Wholeness? Tracing the pivotal arc of events unfolding during this world-changing time, and responding to them in real-time, Kavita brings a spiritual and holistic perspective to how we can meet our crises with grace, wisdom, love and vision, co-creating a new regenerative world of interconnection, justice, thriving, wholeness and communion…
For further information, click here for her entry in the Journal ‘New Book by Kavita Byrd’.

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Newly published, May 2020! –

Awakening to a New Reality – 

Conscious Conversations across the Horizon of Death

by Janice Dolley, with Ursula Burton

Awakening to a New Reality: Conscious Conversations across the Horizon of Death is the title of a newly published book by OSA  co-worker , Janice Dolley. These conversations are a personal example of what researchers are now calling ‘After Death Communication’ (ADC). Janice’s best friend and previous co-author Ursula, Lady Burton, passed on in 1993. To Janice’s surprise their new connection began only three hours after her death. read further…

The book is available through Sleepy Lion Publishing (click here).

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“The Coronation” –

A long read by Charles Eisenstein, full of insights and information on the Corona crisis, woven into an inspiring narrative.

Eisenstein’s wrote this essay March 2020 at the start of the Corona crisis, but his insights are as relevant now as they were then. The Corona pandemic raises many question for the individual and for humanity, including the ‘threat’ of death seen from a materialistic side, which can be transformed through inner work to see death as part of life and  greater spiritual processes. A needed step which the pandemic has prodded us to realise in creative ways in order to combat the otherwise isolation of ‘lockdowns’ and social distancing is the human being’s intrinsic need for community and the transforming effect it can have for our inner soul life. Woven into the narrative is consideration of the physical and scientific details surrounding the pandemic, and how through these alone, with often conflicting elements, it is impossible to arrive at a true understanding of the pandemic’s significance. We are called upon to take broader perspectives. Click here for the website link on Charles Eisenstein’s website, which includes translations in other languages and download possibilities. Or Click here for directly viewing a PDF version in English, which you can download.

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Spirituality in Education – countering materialistic trends

(Click on the heading above for a compilation of articles on education, including a video on celebrating 100 years Waldorf Education.)

A very relevant quote from Rudolf Steiner about trust and love – and the importance of this in education…

“It is a question of seeking those forces by which man’s evolution can progress; this is necessary if man is to develop ethical individualism, which holds the community together and fills it with real life.
Such a force is trust — trust between one human being and another. Just as in our inner being we must call upon love for an ethical future, so we must call upon trust in relation to men’s intercourse with each other. We must meet the human being so that we feel him to be a world-riddle, a walking world-riddle. Then we shall learn in the presence of every human being to unfold feelings which draw forth trust from the depths of our soul. Trust in an absolutely real sense, individual, unique trust, is hardest to wring from the human soul. But without a system of education, a cultural pedagogy, which is directed towards trust, civilization can progress no further. In future mankind will have to realize this necessity to build up trust in social life; they will also have to experience the tragedy when this trust cannot develop in the proper way in the human soul.”

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>> Do you have a report to share? <<

on an event or initiative of yours or which you have been involved in?
Send us an email, and any attachments (e.g. write-ups, pictures)

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Drawing Stability and Nourishment from Within

    Northeastern Alumni

In a world where very little can be truly relied on, it’s hard to know where to turn for a sense of solid ground beneath our feet. Perhaps the ‘new normal’ is to accept that the ground we stand on constantly shifts as we learn new ways to keep our balance. With practice, we can learn to draw on stability from within ourselves, and through inner strength become our own still point in a turning world, finding the nourishment needed to ensure we have the stamina to keep moving towards our goals.

This session will feature an interactive panel of Raja Yoga Meditation practitioners who will discuss how to find inner strength and stability balancing your personal and professional lives and lead a short meditation at the end of the event.

 

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…from the Nature Spirits –  and the need for humans to act!

(A short extract from the book, Nature Spirits and What they Say: Interviews with Verena Stael von Holstein, new edition Nov 2019, Floris Books)

WW (the interviewer): Can you describe what the most urgent tasks for humans in the immediate future will be?
The High One (an elemental):  Act!
WW: There are lots of things one can do. Can you be a bit more specific?
The High One: Do what your heart tells you!
WW: That says something different to each human.
The High One: Humans have to begin to perceive the elemental beings and the spirit beings and act with them in the same direction. Otherwise the earth will disintegrate… Humans have to learn what beauty is. They have to learn not to just simply act and produce any kind of objects, but that everything has to be beautifully formed.
WW: What’s most important for the personal development of humans in the immediate future?
The High One: Raise your children in beauty and they’ll find their way in life

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DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

See our Places, People & Events page for more information , with links to a selection of centres or groups which hold inspiring events.  

See our Facebook Page for a selection of events taking place which may be of interest for you.

Click here to view our Privacy Policy.

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Science and Spiritual Practices  by Rupert Sheldrake

This book, first published in 2017 in hardback edition, is now out in softback! Well known for his book, The Science Delusion, Sheldrake takes the topic further in this new book, Science and Spiritual Practices, exploring how spiritual practices are now being investigated scientifically by many.

Rupert Sheldrake summarizes the latest scientific research on what happens when we take part in spiritual practices, and suggests ways that readers can explore these fields for themselves. For those who are religious, Science and Spiritual Practices will illuminate the evolutionary origins of their own traditions and give a new appreciation of their power. For the non-religious, this book will show how the core practices of spirituality are accessible to all, even if they do not subscribe to a religious belief system.

For a YouTube video interview with Sheldrake about his book, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBhpfETrRuw

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The Biology of Belief

Some 10 years ago, Bruce Lipton came out with his groundbreaking book, The Biology of Belief. As with Rupert Sheldrake’s books (see above) or Eben Alexander’s book, Proof of Heaven, it especially shook scientists, as here were scientists themselves, not just some spiritually minded mystics, challenging materialistic views of the prevailing science of today and showing how we can apply scientific thoughts and methods to spiritual matters.

New clips keep appearing of Bruce Lipton on the themes of his book, delightful and provocative on various themes. This clipping here appeared on YouTube recently. Enjoy!

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