Love Unleashed

In her endorsement of this wild, passionate and free-spirited book, Marci Schimoff remarks that it is ‘an exceptional and essential read about how to turn around the tide in our lives and this shaken world by unleashing embodied love.’ Nothing short of this is up to the task, and we are each called to play a role, drawing on the strength of the Spirit within. Just this morning I have been reading a verse quoted by Beinsa Douno in his Testament of the Colour Rays of Light from Ephesians 3:16: ‘Be strengthened with the might of His Spirit in the inner man,’ while the next verse refers to being ‘rooted and grounded in love’ and later to ‘the power that works within us.’ It is all the more important to remain rooted and centred in the swirling turbulence that surrounds us.

Nicola’s biography refers to her love of riding horses in the wild, and the cover features horses galloping by the sea. There are a couple of extraordinary stories connected with horses. The first was in the mountains of California where she was riding near a wildfire. When she arrived at the top, she realised that a ring of fire below the mountain encircled her and that she and her panicking horse only had minutes before they were consumed by raging flames. Her inner voice spoke: ‘Get present. Connect, root in love and you will find a way.’ She centred into her larger presence and connected down to her belly, her horse and the earth all at once. The horse (called Magic) felt the shift and calmed down. She herself dropped into stillness, her fear dissipated and she felt guided by an invisible hand. Miraculously, they wended their way through, drenched in sweat, arriving eventually at a cooling river. On another occasion, Magic stumbled and fell in a remote spot, unable to get up, and his knee swelled up. Only a miracle could save him, so Nicola humbly asked for the power of life to flood through her hands and heal him. She felt a surge of strong, cooling energy, and within seconds the swelling had vanished. Magic shook himself, ready to go! Other spine-tingling episodes involve a shamanic initiation in the Amazon intertwined with an anaconda, and swimming in freezing waters near Findhorn with a dolphin. Elsewhere, she refers to the pressure cooker of adversity.

It is when we move beyond our comfort zones that we are fully open to life and can experience ourselves as a force of love, connected, awake and present. Nicola explains that her approach is non-dual, where transcendence meets immanence in real life. This involves down-to-earth embodiment and actively engaging in the world, ‘unleashing love’s power right in this moment where we are.’ She was instructed to write the book she had lived as a direct message and wake-up call to readers: say yes, ‘connect with wild aliveness and this timeless moment now.’ The 30 chapters blend powerful stories with spiritual teachings and practices, celebrating Life, Love and the Divine Feminine. This is wisdom for crazy times, touched by grace and grit in a quest to overcome our deep-seated sense of separation, cultural conditioning and unhealed wounds. One section describes various episodes where she spontaneously comes up to ordinary people and asks them if unconditional love matters to them. The responses are astonishing as she taps into their deepest layers of motivation. On one occasion, she is buying stamps and asks an African-American woman what is most important to her, to which she replies, ‘unconditional love is the most important thing in the world.’

The voices of land, animals and saints are included, so tuning into Mt Shasta she hears, ‘The mere survival of humankind depends on realising love. That which connects us, which breathes life through you and is alive in all forms of creation, is love. Without it, humans cannot live and will go insane.’ (p. 35) Likewise, a redwood tree invites her to rest into stillness, observing that ‘humanity has cut itself off from the roots of life, from nature, but without roots, humans are lost, deprived and become sick. If a tree has weak roots a storm will take it down.’ (p. 394) Nicola invites readers to open their own well of wisdom and allow their unique soul voice to sound in our world. (p. 39) We are living through an initiatory ‘Great Passage’ and are all called to wake up, to heal our trauma, face our fears, leave behind our old clothes, strip ourselves down, open ourselves to grace and birth a new way of living. This requires commitment to show up, trust, authenticity, openness, vulnerability, grounding, discrimination, connecting with others, spiritual practice, resilience, benevolence and service: lean into Life, open your Heart, ignite your Fire, live true Love.

This inspiring and profoundly moving book is a powerful transmission from the Earth, from Life itself, from Divine Love in action at the heart of existence. In our depths, we are far more potent than we realise on the surface, as we are fundamentally One with the Spirit. Within us too is Life that can be a Light in the world. Women Rising is crucial to the Great Turning as they step forward to connect with the power of Life, with Shakti, the wisdom of Holy Sophia, of Mary Magdalene, walking courageously into the unknown. ‘In our heart we all want to love and be loved… we are the One in its many expressions.’ And in facing our collective shadow, we must affirm our common humanity: ‘it is through love’s power that we are able to stand fierce for what is true and just, while keeping the heart open, seeing another as a human being.’ (p. 430) If we all ask what we stand for, and what our life is for, we can open up to sacred activism and take sacred action, moved by the force of love. I strongly advise you to take the plunge into this fiery and compassionate book.