Update:

I started this blog when I lived in Columbia, Missouri, but several years ago I moved to Colorado. I kept this blog because I’m quite attached to it, but from time to time I’ve wondered: can I still call myself a Heartland Soul?

Well, the truth is I feel very much like I carry the spiritual imprint of my years in central Missouri deep in my being, and always will; the local culture awakened something in me that inherently belonged, and now that I’ve moved away I hold the romantic idea that I am cross-pollinating the seeds of that community with my new community here in the Front Range.

But now I no longer have to rely on my subjective opinion, because I have objective proof: the Colorado Rockies are indeed part of the American Heartland: I heard it on BBC! (The text of this story does not actually say the word “heartland,” but I swear the announcer said it like three times when introducing and concluding the story!)

Anyway, I’m just a person who’s interested in spirituality and personal growth, and in this blog I’m writing about the challenges that come up and the insights that sometimes float in while I’m trying to get through life and get a little closer each day to the Divine.

I’m a community college English teacher as well as an ordained minister through the Miracles of the Spirit Church, founded by Lynn Woodland in Minneapolis. This is a metaphysical, New Age-oriented, nondenominational My thoughts about these topics are also shaped by Sufism and the devotional practices of Bhakti Yoga, which form the core and compass of my own spiritual orientation. I’m a universalist from way back, having grown up with a father who was and is very involved with the Unitarian Universalist church. It is one of my foundational beliefs that all paths sincerely undertaken lead to the One Source.

And then, just for balance, I also draw on my academic background from time to time. I have a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Minnesota, and I am very interested in culture and society and the distribution of power and the forces that shape what we believe and how and what we think. I usually stay out of fights these days, but sometimes I just can’t help opining. I hope you’ll forgive me for this and any other shortcomings of this blog!

Below is the original description I wrote when I started this blog in 2009, and it pretty much still describes my intentions:

This is not a comparative religious analysis. The writings in this blog are my own attempts to make meaning out of the things I “know” and the things I sense. They are the elaboration of my gut feelings, intuitive hunches, and energetic perception. They are sometimes wild opinion statements, sometimes sedate academese. This blog is where I want to deposit the trail blazes of my personal spiritual journey in the hope that someone else blustering about, like me, in these woods and this desert might find them helpful in developing their own orientation.

It hardly needs to be said that everything here is in process, even when it sounds “figured out”; it’s a combination of hypothesis, speculation, situated knowledge, provisional theory, and whatever helps me to navigate and make partial sense of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Most, if not all, of you readers will know things about the traditions or beliefs that I reference that I don’t know. You may know facts that contradict what I write. You may have a different interpretation than mine of the materials at hand. Please, don’t hesitate to share your knowledge, arguments, etc. in your comments! I love learning new things and engaging in debate and I welcome all contributions. I appreciate your taking the time to read this and I hope you’ll come back.

Yours in magic,

Angela Gayan Galik, Heartland Soul