What would it be like to live in a world filled with unconditional love? A world where we fully trusted in ourselves, where we felt utterly supported in showing up for the lessons the universe has laid out for us? It’s aspirational, for sure. But maybe it’s not quite so out of reach as we often feel.
In this soul-nourishing conversation with spiritual counselor Julie Day, we talk about how to put that kind of spiritual conviction and practical mysticism into action in our daily lives. Offering a vision of a loving, expansive God/Divine/Source, Julie brings a message of hope and light to these challenging times.
For anyone struggling with your relationship to the Divine or just those of us in need of a reminder, this episode serves to bring home the message that we are all on track and on time for our soul’s curriculum.
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Connect with Julie
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Resources, References and Links
Note: book recommendations include affiliate links. If you buy a copy, I’ll get a tiny commission, and that would be super cool.
Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910). American author and spiritual teacher, founder of Christian Science.
Religious Science & Science of Mind.
Jivamukti Yoga. “A path to liberation through compassion towards all beings.”
You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay.
The Power of Now by Ekhart Tolle.
Thích Nhất Hạnh (1926-2022). Vietnamese monk and prolific writer.
Agape International Spiritual Center.
Michael Bernard Beckwith. Founder of Agape.
Transcript
Note: this transcript was generated by AI. Please forgive any malapropisms and misspellings. It’s the robot’s fault!
[01:06] Cate Blouke: Hello my love.
[01:08] Welcome to today’s episode about trusting the divine and really leaning into our relationship to spirit, to Source, to God, to higher power, whatever name we want to give it. This is the most spiritual episode we have had so far and it makes sense to me that I am talking to the most spiritual, wonderful, bright, shiny human in my sphere about all of this stuff.
[01:37] Today’s guest is Julie Day, someone very near and dear to my heart. I have worked one on one with Julie around astrology readings as well as we worked together pretty closely around my relationship programming a number of years ago.
[01:53] And Julie is hugely responsible for helping me cultivate a relationship with God, with Source, with my higher power that is really loving and expansive. That’s a huge component of 12 step recovery.
[02:08] And Julie is a spiritual counselor. That’s. That’s her deal. So I’m really stoked to have her on here to talk to you about light and hope and love in these really chaotic and crazy times.
[02:22] Julie Elizabeth Day is a spiritual counselor licensed by the Agape International Spiritual Center.
[02:29] She’s also a spiritual astrologer and has a really wonderful community going over on Substack. Julie is here to help remind you of what is fundamentally true, that right where you are is exactly where your higher self would have you be, learning and growing in perfect order that you are held by an unconditionally loving God, that you are not alone and that life is for you and never against you.
[02:56] Those are just some of the really juicy messages that Julie shares in her teachings and on this podcast that you’re about to listen to. And I just love the exuberant way that Julie talks about spirituality.
[03:09] It’s really in alignment with how I show up, and I love how she shows up, and it was such a treat to get to show up together. The end of the episode is a little atypical in terms of my formatting.
[03:20] So if you like what you hear, go to the show notes at the end and visit Julie’s website at thejulieday.com or please, please, please head over to Substack and follow her at practicalmystics.substack.com
[03:35] it’s well worth having anything she offers land in your inbox. And I really hope that you find this episode as nourishing to your tender little soul as I did.
[TRANSITION MUSIC]
[03:57] Hey, Julie.
[03:59] Julie Day: Hi, Cate.
[04:00] Cate Blouke: I’m really excited to talk to you about practical Mysticism, because I want to understand more about what you mean by that term. It sounds very juicy to me, and I’ve experienced it directly.
[04:12] I’ve. I’ve known you for years now and worked with you as a coach or as a spiritual counselor.
[04:19] Do you identify as a coach?
[04:21] Julie Day: I don’t.
[04:23] And I’ve asked that question many times over the last several years. I mean, I’ve been a practitioner. A spiritual practitioner is the actual term of the license that I got years ago, and that was in 2010.
[04:37] So over the years, I keep checking in, like, I mean, am I really just a coach? And I don’t. Because I think that coaching is really helping people to get to a goal.
[04:45] Yeah.
[04:47] And I’m not doing that at all.
[04:51] Cate Blouke: I’m.
[04:51] Julie Day: I’m helping people to. To understand themselves, their life, their challenges through the lens of spirituality, Earth school, practical mysticism, you know, so. So it’s not about getting somewhere.
[05:05] It’s about being somewhere.
[05:07] Cate Blouke: Ooh. Where do you want people to be?
[05:11] Julie Day: That’s a great question, Cate.
[05:14] I think I. I. My. My wish, my hope, my intention is for them to be in. In a state of peace with wherever they’re at.
[05:24] So, you know, if you go through a breakup, it’s sad. It’s really sad. And there’s a lot of stuff that comes up, so I’m not trying to get someone out of that feeling.
[05:39] I’m trying to help someone be at peace with the curriculum that is in front of them and to. To bring more love to their humanness, more compassion to their humanness, and.
[05:52] And more of an understanding of kind of like, their place in the grand scheme of things, you know, like, everything is all right already. That this breakup is not because you did something wrong or, you know, if only I had done X, Y, Z, then we’d still be together.
[06:08] You know, that there’s a divine design held so. So hopefully that would bring more peace to whatever is present.
[06:17] Cate Blouke: Yeah, I know in our work together, I was bringing kind of my relationship, you know, programming and tangled up knotty-ness and found the work we did together so profound in really shifting my sense of… yeah, like, “I’m okay, it’s going to be okay”.
[06:39] And if this is for me, it’s. There’s nothing I can do to fuck it up. And if it’s not for me, then like, I can’t do anything to keep it.
[06:49] Yeah.
[06:50] Julie Day: Yeah. In fact, that’s one of my favorite principles to. To lean on principle. Just like a statement of. Of truth, capital T, truth, which is if it’s for you, it will find you.
[07:00] If it’s not for you, you can’t make it find you. Um, so there’s a lot of. Of letting go and trusting the process and, and to me, that brings me a lot of relief.
[07:11] You know, it’s not up to me to like effort so much that I get it, that I get there. I get the thing, I get the money, I get the love.
[07:19] You know, it’s more so just allowing myself to be at peace with me and to like, vibe up in whatever way I want to around love or money or freedom or health and let that come to me in its own perfect time.
[07:34] And, you know, I know we said we wouldn’t talk that much about astrology, admittedly I’m a huge astro nerd. And I do use astrology a lot just to affirm and confirm because, man, it’s right there like, oh, it’s not your season for love.
[07:51] You know, this is a hard season. Or oh my gosh, you are about to really power up. There’s. You’ve got a lot of wind in your sails. Astrologer, you know, no wonder why all this stuff is coming your way and, and go for it.
[08:07] So it helps me to. It’s like a twofer, you know, like, not only do I have these principles and the spirituality says you’re right on time, you know, wherever you are, you’re right on time on purpose.
[08:19] But then I have astrology to back it up. So.
[08:22] Cate Blouke: Yeah. And anyone who’s been listening to me for a while or reading, like you’ve probably heard some julisms show up in.
[08:29] Because you were really instrumental in helping me find a sense of spirituality that works for me.
[08:36] Relationship.
[08:37] Julie Day: Yeah.
[08:38] Cate Blouke: Yeah. And, like, really embracing my woo. I know that we started to work together. Oh, God, what was it, 2018 maybe?
[08:47] Julie Day: Yeah.
[08:48] Cate Blouke: I wasn’t very astrologically out at the time, and I found it so wonderful and supportive to have space held for me to explore that and to figure out, like, who I am and what I want and what my relationship to all of this stuff is gonna be.
[09:05] And I know for me, that was a process that took a few years.
[09:10] Moving to Portland, Oregon, definitely helped because, like, I remember when I moved here, within my first month of being here, kind of every initial meeting, people conversation I had, somebody else would be like, so, what’s your sign?
[09:25] Julie Day: And I’m like, okay, my people are here. Yeah.
[09:30] Cate Blouke: Yeah. And so I’m curious what your journey with spirituality has been a bit. And, like, how you came to this sense of knowing, this sense of ease and comfort with God, the universe and everything.
[09:48] Julie Day: Oh, Bess, I haven’t talked about that in so long. I love being able to talk about that. Thanks for asking me that question.
[09:56] Cate Blouke: Well, yeah, because, you know, I. I think in these times, especially as we move into talking about, like, practical mysticism, like contemporary now moment mysticism, for a lot of us who maybe didn’t grow up in religion or grew up with religion and were like, that’s not for me.
[10:14] I have always really loved and appreciated this sort of expansive approach to spirituality and. And God that you have offered and that some of the teachers you’ve introduced me to have offered.
[10:23] And. Yeah, I think it’s important to foreground that, like, for me, certainly that wasn’t just like an overnight. Like, oh, yeah, like, now I’m on board with all of this, and it’s just easy.
[10:35] Right. So I think so many of us are seeking something.
[10:39] Julie Day: Yeah, yeah.
[10:40] Cate Blouke: You know, but there’s so many systems that are broken and failing and hurting and bad and.
[10:45] Julie Day: Yeah.
[10:45] Cate Blouke: That it can be hard to find our way.
[10:48] Julie Day: I so agree with you. And I do believe that there’s a spiritual revolution that is. That is right now happening. A lot of people aren’t feeling truly fed or nourished or connected and.
[11:01] And looking for ways to connect. And by the way, I fully support whatever way people find that nourishes their being, whether that’s just nature or a community or just being, you know, more in the Buddhist side of things.
[11:18] You know, it’s all good in the hood.
[11:21] So. Okay, let me start to. To answer this question, this juicy question of yours.
[11:29] So I actually grew up in the Christian faith, and it was a overwhelmingly positive Experience. It was a net positive. I actually was a part of a sweet, loving, fun youth group.
[11:45] Cate Blouke: Oh, yay.
[11:46] Julie Day: And a lot of the youth that were there were my besties from childhood and my brother’s besties from childhood. So we had a great sense of belonging there.
[12:02] And I know a lot of people don’t have that in, in religion.
[12:08] They experience oftentimes, at least this is what I hear a lot, because these are the people that are coming to me, right? You know, an enormous amount of shame, an enormous amount of, you know, I’m inherently bad or wrong, and I have to please God in order to receive the blessing or receive an answered prayer.
[12:27] I have to get it right in order to fill in the blank.
[12:32] And I just grew up in a community where there was a lot of love and a lot of belonging and a lot of joy, too.
[12:40] Something did feel like it was missing for me. And cut to, like, after college is when I started to shed that. And then after college, I moved to New York, New York City, and I moved in with, like, a college bestie who happened to be a Christian Scientist.
[13:01] Cate Blouke: Okay.
[13:02] Julie Day: Like, full on. Like, when she got sick, she would pray.
[13:05] Cate Blouke: You know, like, Christian Scientists don’t go to doctors. Right? That’s my correct.
[13:09] Julie Day: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But there. So Mary Baker Eddy was the founder of Christian Science, and she, like, around that time in our history, in our, like, country’s religious history, there was religious science, and there was science of mind.
[13:26] There was also Unity Church that was starting. So all these religions started to spring up around the same time.
[13:32] And even though I didn’t go down the road of Christian Science, there was a lot of talking about God as a unitive force that, you know, we are not separate.
[13:46] We are one. And that’s how a Christian Science, you know, works their healing, right? I am one with God. Therefore, this sickness is a lie. It’s an illusion. That’s how they work with it.
[13:56] But it was the first time I had heard anything like this. And, like, my mind was blown. And I was watching this bestie of mine come down with the same cold that I had.
[14:07] And she’d go over it in a day, huh? It would be gone. And so I, I, I was witnessing that in action. And a lot of how she would speak to anything, you know, go through the dating, you know, world of your early twenties in New York City, you’re trying to find progress in your career.
[14:26] And the way she would support me would be through her faith. But I found myself so inspired by it.
[14:36] And shortly after that, like, my mid-20s, and I was exploring everything. I was very into astrology. I was exploring, you know, a very spiritual form of yoga called jiva mukti.
[14:50] So I was exploring, you know, all kinds of different faiths and going to all kinds of different, you know, religious meetings or workshops or whatnot.
[15:00] And at the same time, I started to go through what I discovered only years later, a term for which is a dark night of the soul. Yeah, I had so much that the world tells you should make you happy.
[15:15] You know, I. I was engaged to a really good guy.
[15:19] I had incredible friends. I was having success in a career that most people don’t have success in.
[15:27] I had my health. I had, you know, some amount of money. Not a lot, but some. You know, and I just had this. This sadness inside of me, this whole.
[15:40] This lack of fulfillment. And I was devouring books. You know, this was before the Internet really took off.
[15:47] Cate Blouke: So.
[15:48] Julie Day: So people still read books a lot, and there were no Kindles. Some of us still do.
[15:54] Cate Blouke: Some of us still do. Darn it for holding on with our death grip. But.
[15:59] Julie Day: And there were two books that I just treasured. One of them was Louise Hay’s you Can Heal your Life.
[16:09] And forever after that book, I have called her my. My fairy godmother. Like, she just speaks to me in a way that no one else does. And I, in. In my own path.
[16:21] Like, that kind of love. But simplicity when talking about spirituality, you know, that just gets me. And then the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, that had just come out, telling everyone my age that had just come out, and I was like, oh, my gosh.
[16:39] Oh, my gosh.
[16:41] Cate Blouke: Okay, for those of us who haven’t read it, Leto, what’s the takeaway? What’s the sum it up in two sentences?
[16:48] Julie Day: I mean, it’s all in the sentence. It’s all in the title, you know, that it’s not about getting somewhere like that. That if we can just be fully present in the now moment, everything is there.
[17:00] Everything.
[17:02] All the love, all the peace, all the abundance, like whatever we’re striving to get to. And by the way, you know, hand raise that. I still, in all my spiritual practices, strive to get somewhere.
[17:14] Yeah, I mean, I have.
[17:16] Cate Blouke: I host this podcast. I write what I write. I talk to the people that I talk to because I need reminders, because, you know, it’s.
[17:22] Julie Day: I’m still in a human suit.
[17:24] Cate Blouke: Rest, not perfection. And. And it takes effort. Yeah. Yeah.
[17:28] Julie Day: So. So, yeah, the Power of Now. Just, if you can be fully present in the now moment, you know, that’s. That’s where it’s at. And actually, gosh, I’m kind of losing my timeline because I didn’t read that book until after this experience that I’m about to tell you about.
[17:44] And that held a big key for me. So. So I’m reason. I’m reading things like Thich Nhat Hanh and Louise Hay, and I’m having insights, but it’s not getting me out of this black hole.
[17:55] And I finally decided, and I had no reason to decide this for myself. I was not surrounded by a lot of people meditating. I just decided that was my answer.
[18:05] So I was going to meditate for 40 days. And again, no idea where I came up with that number. I just went, I’m going to meditate for 40 days. And it just.
[18:14] And I. And I had no training. I had. I’d gone to no work. I had no idea what I was doing.
[18:21] But I. There’s something. There’s a knower within us that knows the way. You know, like, we know how to be, we know how to be present. You know, our human will convince us otherwise, and we’ll put up a lot of resistance.
[18:34] But that knower within, like our soul self, really, you know, that’s our natural state. So something within me really took to it right out of the gate. And one of the things that I would do is this gratitude prayer.
[18:47] And I would just be old school. Thank you, God. Thank you, God, for the fact that I’m breathing. And remember, I was so depressed. I had nothing that I felt truly like that energy of gratitude.
[18:59] So just thanks for the sun, thanks for my dog, thanks for my friends. You know, it was just boring, but I would do that. And it was around like the 10th day or something that I started to feel a shift.
[19:12] And I went into that gratitude prayer with a different kind. There was juice, you know, I finally had some juice and I was really, really grateful for several things. And at one point I just stopped with the gratitudes to begin my meditation.
[19:29] And something opened up for me and it was my first mystical experience. I had no idea what was happening.
[19:41] It’s just that everything fell away. The. My ego fell away. The mask of Julie fell away. My pain fell away.
[19:50] There was no, like, hot emotion. There wasn’t even, like, joy. It was just peace and. And nothingness, but everythingness.
[20:02] And I just stayed there for. It felt like an eternity. I’m sure it was five seconds.
[20:08] And the moment I had a thought, and my thought was, oh, my God, I’m really meditating, like, this is meditation. And the moment I had that thought, I got out of that space.
[20:20] But. And then shortly after that, I found the power of now. And. And that explained that space to me. Like I. Oh my gosh, I had found the now.
[20:28] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[20:28] Julie Day: But I was so hungry to know more. Like it was more than just the power of now. Like it was, it was something of truth, it was something of God. That was more than what Bibles and religious texts had taught me.
[20:42] It was more than I had experienced or heard. And so I was just hungry, hungry for more. And as fate would have it, as divine timing would have it, my then husband and I moved to California just because we were done with New York.
[20:58] And we moved within 10 minutes of the Agape International Spiritual center, which if anyone has ever lived in LA, a 10 minute drive is just. That just doesn’t happen. Like everywhere is at least 20 minutes and really it’s like 30 to 40 minutes.
[21:13] And agape International Spiritual center was one of the first, like, truly juicy.
[21:20] At the time it was religious science, but it then shed its ties to religion and became like non denominational. And it was my first taste of that. And the first Sunday that I was in la, I was at a service there and Reverend Michael Bernard Beckwith started to do his thing.
[21:42] And I felt transported and I couldn’t understand the words that he was saying because I wasn’t there yet. You know, it was. It was like he was speaking a foreign language, but my soul knew.
[21:56] And I was just weeping and weeping the whole time, like, this is truth. This is truth.
[22:01] And they were all things just to give you all a taste of things that I were, that I was hearing, you know, these principles that I talked about earlier, like, the fullness of God is everywhere present.
[22:11] The fullness of God is everywhere present. Like a sunbeam to the sun. Like. Like the sunbeam has the fullness of the sun. And even though it is not the totality of the sun, but it has.
[22:22] Julie Day: The fullness of the sun.
[22:24] Julie Day: And so the fullness of God is right where you’re at, you know, that means the fullness of love and light and peace and freedom and abundance and joy is right where you are, you know, and just weeping with recognition of the truth.
[22:38] And at one point he had the practitioners stand up and hold, hold prayer. And I just went, yes, that is my path. That’s what I’m to do. It’s what I want.
[22:51] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[22:52] Julie Day: And that was it. Then I. And I was at Agape for nine years straight, learning and I became a licensed practitioner and praying with people and hanging out in the field, you know, it was like a Hogwarts of spirituality and just a bunch of modern mystics all around me and I just devoured.
[23:11] Yeah. And it’s interesting, I did want to say one more thing.
[23:15] I did get out of that depression as I came to know more and more of the truth of who I am and whose I am and just my place in the universe, but also, you know, being here on Earth.
[23:29] And I learned that there’s a peace there. So it’s not about getting out of earth school curriculums. Right. I got a divorce. I moved across the country. I, you know, had times of having $2 in my bank account, you know, so I would still have my curriculums.
[23:47] But in knowing this truth, you know, that there’s no spot that God is not or the fullness of God is everywhere present. Like it just brings more grace. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt like hell sometimes, but it just brings grace.
[24:00] So that’s, that’s what I get super passionate about helping others with.
[24:06] Cate Blouke: Yeah, I’m just sort of basking in the glow of that energy.
[24:12] Right.
[24:14] You really light up when you talk about it. And for me, as someone who didn’t grow up going to church or in, in a religious practice of any kind, my search for God or higher power or whatever I choose to call it on any given day was a lot less easeful.
[24:36] I remember before I got sober, I was really looking for something and having a hard time connecting with it. Traditional Judeo-Christian versions of God have never really resonated for me, but I didn’t know where to go.
[24:50] And I went to some church services and I wanted what was there, but didn’t feel like I belonged because at that time I was still drinking and had slept around a fair bit and you know, wasn’t following the rules, so to speak.
[25:05] And one of the things I have so appreciated and has been so transformative in 12 step recovery is cultivating a relationship with a, with a higher power. But for me it’s been like a really slow unfolding and it’s been so helpful to have people in my life either in recovery or folks like you to listen to and to really be able to just like marinate in other people’s belief and to see what it does.
[25:40] I remember having a conversation when I was first getting sober with a friend who is very traditionally Christian. She actually was the one that took me to church with her a few times and we were talking about God And.
[25:55] And I was trying to figure out, like, what I believe and what I want to believe and whatever. And. And she was like, man, that sounds so hard for her.
[26:06] She’s like, I have the Bible and I have church. Like, it’s. It’s. I don’t have to question it because, like, I have this answer, you know?
[26:15] And what I have found is, is that now, on the other side of my own spiritual journey, is that having a relationship with a power greater than myself, having a sense of connection to source, to God, is so much easier.
[26:30] It is so hard to go through life feeling like the universe doesn’t give a fuck about you.
[26:35] Julie Day: Yeah.
[26:36] Julie Day: Yeah. It’s lonely, huh?
[26:38] Cate Blouke: Yeah, lonely. And it’s scary. And it leaves me feeling like I have to do everything on my own all the time.
[26:47] Julie Day: Yeah. Well, and still, when people find that connection, they still really struggle with feeling that it’s all on their shoulders, you know? Oh, yeah.
[26:56] Cate Blouke: Like, hand up. That’s still a thing for me, especially as I’m, like, in entrepreneur land now. I have to keep coming back to, like, oh, wait, like, I don’t actually believe that I have to do this all on my own.
[27:06] I just forget all the time. I don’t believe that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[27:11] Julie Day: You know, as you were talking, I was trying to imagine which. Which path is harder, Right, To. To grow up without any connection to God or to grow up with a very judgmental, punitive form of God.
[27:28] And I think both have their.
[27:30] Cate Blouke: Yeah, I don’t think it’s a competition. I think they’re both really.
[27:33] Julie Day: Yeah, they’re both really hard. They’re both really hard. I know even though I had this loving community, I still, to this day, have to check myself for good girl for God syndrome.
[27:46] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[27:46] Julie Day: You know, that’s a big one for me. And.
[27:49] And actually, now that I say it, I recognize that I’ve come a long way because. Because it’s not super present in me anymore, but, you know, doing things in order to be a good girl, you know?
[28:01] Cate Blouke: Yeah. Oh, I do know. I know that one. Real good. It’s just my inner critic and perfectionist. Like, it didn’t have anything to do with God. It just had to do with this, like, interpolated sense of, like, I am fundamentally always that enough.
[28:14] Julie Day: Yeah.
[28:15] Cate Blouke: Which I’ve also come a really long way with.
[28:17] Julie Day: Yeah. Yeah, you really have, Cate.
[28:20] You know, I think, too. And. And this is something I. I’ve been working with some clients for, gosh, six months now. It’s a new. It’s a new program that I developed because I went through this myself of realizing that for, for me I had a, a pretty big father wound and realizing what a cock block that was to, to really knowing God because I was projecting unknowingly the, the traits of my father onto God.
[28:53] And it’s just because I was wired that way that I had to do it all that, that, you know, my dad definitely had some narcissistic traits about him and it was, it was all about him.
[29:03] And so I just had to be the perfect one, the, the sweet one, the kind one, the not messy one, you know, et cetera, et cetera. And I just totally recreated that in my relationship to God.
[29:13] So not only are we, you know, up against, quote unquote. Right. Either a shameful religion imprint or, or no teachings around God or something greater imprint. But also there’s our parental imprints.
[29:30] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[29:31] Julie Day: That we, that we get to unpack and dismantle before we can really feel the love of God. I mean, if you did not have a loving parent and bless them, you know, a lot of parents just did.
[29:44] Julie Day: The best they could that they were.
[29:46] Julie Day: Wounded themselves and not knowing how to heal.
[29:50] But if you did not receive a lot of love or if you received a lot of negative messages, that, that’s going to stand in your way of feeling that, that, that true connection to source.
[30:00] So finding that connection to something greater is not the easiest thing in the world. People want to know that. It’s just about, you know, kind of like my aha moment.
[30:10] Right. Like you just start to meditate and 10 days in, you connect to the infinite space. Like it’s not usually like that.
[30:19] Cate Blouke: Yeah, yeah. Well, and, and, but, and that’s why you’re on your journey and the rest of us get to come to you to talk to about this stuff. Right, right.
[30:29] And lately especially, I don’t know why this is coming up for me, but like lately especially, I’ve just been so aware of and present with the slow unfolding right.
[30:40] Of thinking of myself like a tree. And again, this is probably because I live in Portland now and I have started gardening. But you know, like, you plant a goddamn seedling and the thing doesn’t like, immediately become a tree.
[30:52] It takes years for trees to be trees. And I just am so amused with my precious little human for thinking that I’m gonna like, plant myself in certain areas of life or certain practices and then like, oh, I’m gonna be a tree in six months.
[31:10] Like, right.
[31:12] Julie Day: Oh gosh, it’s so, so common. So common.
[31:15] I so Identify with that and. Or relate to it. And when you said. What was the first thing you said? The slow roll or the.
[31:23] Cate Blouke: Oh, the slow unfolding?
[31:24] Julie Day: The slow unfolding. I felt like a total relaxation in my system. Just that phrase, the slow unfolding. That’s so beautiful.
[31:33] I almost want you to write a whole book on that.
[31:36] Cate Blouke: Ooh, someday I probably will, but it won’t happen overnight.
[31:40] Julie Day: Yeah, but it. Right, exactly.
[31:44] It made me think of when I got my license as a spiritual practitioner. I really thought that I was there, you know, wherever there is. I thought I had made it, that I was there, that I now knew the truth of the universe and I was going to proceed forward and start manifesting like a crazy woman, you know, like everything would just bloom.
[32:08] And what I ran into instead was the healing chapter of my life. Like, that was the, you know, okay, here’s my learning and my education, and now here’s all the healing that has been waiting for me to have some greater understanding around these things.
[32:26] And it was, you know, another. Like, that agape section was nine years. It was another nine years of really working deeply on all these wounds, these false imprints, these false ideas and stories, until I could have some kind of coherence in my system or some kind of, like, inner integrity between.
[32:48] It’s not just now what I know about God. It’s now like, it’s in my bones and my blood. You know, I’ve. I’ve now lived. I’ve had to live these truths.
[32:59] So that’s, you know, 18, 20 years on the. On the path, and I feel more integrated now. But that doesn’t mean that I’m there. I don’t, you know, I’m. I’m sure there’s going to be a whole host of.
[33:13] Of curriculums in front of me to go even deeper with all of this. Um, so the slow unfoldment just feels so good. It feels so loving.
[33:23] Cate Blouke: Yeah. And like, to use your term, like, just the, like, long curriculum, Right?
[33:30] Yeah. I’m amused. Like, I spent eight years in grad school to get my PhD, and I guess, like, thinking about, you know, most of this stuff doesn’t happen in a semester.
[33:41] Julie Day: Yeah, that’s not.
[33:43] Cate Blouke: You know, we take the first class and then there’s another class. Like.
[33:47] Julie Day: Yeah.
[33:49] And, you know, I just. I just want to. I want to speak to whoever’s listening here and just say, like, your soul, our souls, remember that on the other side, there is no interference.
[34:02] There’s no. There’s no density that we’re navigating. So it makes sense that we get down here and we, we hold on to a nugget of remembering. Oh, it’s quick. I want love.
[34:13] It’s quick. Love should. Love is right here. Oh, abundance. It flows, it flows from my being out into the world and returns to me tenfold. Like, it’s like, like there’s these things that even if our human doesn’t remember, our soul remembers.
[34:25] And so it makes sense that we get here and we think that things are going to happen lickety split, you know, but, but then we wake up to, oh, gosh, no, I agreed to be here on Earth.
[34:35] And the Earth school is one of density and contrast and, and the, the learning. When it doesn’t happen lickety split, you know, when, when I have just energetically or spiritually, but also, you know, on the physical, material plane too, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s a whole different game here.
[34:55] And so for whoever’s listening, if you two have been the lickety split, this is going to happen super quick.
[35:01] I think we all are that way. And, and I think that’s you remembering who you really are and where you come from.
[35:09] Cate Blouke: That just feels like a warm blanket, that idea. Remembering who we are and where we came from.
[35:15] Julie Day: Yeah, there’s just so much shame to.
[35:16] Julie Day: Constantly weed through so many messages of shame, even in the collective consciousness, you know, like, oh, this guy didn’t pick me on Tinder. I must not be pretty enough, good enough, smart enough, witty enough, you know, whatever it happens to be.
[35:31] There’s, there’s such a, like, I’m now going to put all the blame on me for somehow getting it wrong. Oh, I didn’t get this job. It’s because my resume wasn’t great, or I didn’t, I didn’t have enough education or, you know, whatever it happens to be.
[35:45] There’s, there’s always. There’s so much gunk to swim through, so much shame layers to swim through. And I, I don’t know how people get out of that shame just on their own without.
[36:00] I mean, sure, like, maybe I didn’t self help. Huh?
[36:03] Cate Blouke: I didn’t, like, you know, it takes therapy and other people and, you know, sharing about it.
[36:14] Right. Like, I don’t, I don’t think there is a way out on your own. Yeah, Personally, that’s, I totally agree. Right.
[36:21] Julie Day: We need each other. We need each other. And then I would say that for me, I don’t know how I would get through that without also adding that layer of a connection to something greater, you know, A greater power.
[36:32] One that is loving me 24/7 unconditionally in my human journey.
[36:39] Cate Blouke: Yeah, I don’t, I don’t either. I mean like I, my kind of up leveling as a human and in my emotional well being. And all of it came after I got sober.
[36:50] You know, I got sober at 27. Like I was doing the things on the surface and I was in grad school and I was on track and, you know, but I had that hole inside of me, that shame pit, the whatever you want to call it.
[37:04] And it took me getting into 12 step recovery and finding a program designed to be like, hey, believe in something bigger than you.
[37:11] You get to pick what it is. Like, that’s what I really loved was that there was this expansiveness of like, you get to pick whatever this is, but life really will get better if you believe that you are not in charge of everything all the time.
[37:27] And that, that has been my experience, even if it was a, like slow unfolding. Um, yeah. So I’m, I’m just a huge proponent of community and connection and mutual support and witnessing and how vital that is to, to emotional well being.
[37:46] Julie Day: Me too. Me too.
[37:48] Cate Blouke: I’m going to make an abrupt pivot because I want to actually ask, okay, what do we mean by practical mysticism?
[37:55] Julie Day: Ah, perfect time to ask that. So I mean, you know, the, the breakdown of the word literally would be the practice of mysticism. You know, putting your mysticism into, into practice, taking it to the streets, making it a part of your everyday life.
[38:14] What I like to say is practical mysticism is about learning these higher truths, learning the nature of the cosmos and your place in it, learning, learning who you are and whose you are and then using that in your everyday life.
[38:29] So if I’m, you know, driving and I get a ticket, right? So Julie without practical mysticism might feel victimized, might want to blame the cop, might want to blame myself.
[38:46] Julie, with practical mystics, mysticism is going to practice. And you know, it’s not perfectionism, it’s. It’s practice is going to practice saying, okay, this is for me, not against me.
[38:56] This is for me, not against me.
[38:59] Like everything in life is all right already. There’s a perfect order to all of life. Okay? So now I can let go of shame and blame in either direction, or I can practice letting go of shame and blame in either direction.
[39:11] And I can open my eyes and say, what’s here? What’s here for me to learn?
[39:15] What within me needed this experience? What is this experience showing me or teaching Me, or perhaps I have a great conversation with the, with the police person, and there’s, there’s some connection there that I can just say there was something about that and I, I, that fed me.
[39:32] Perhaps it fed him or her. And I’m just going to trust that everything’s all right already. And that, that was part of the, the perfection of the timing of things.
[39:40] Um, and, and so that’s how you work with it now. That’s just a little thing, but you take it to a bigger thing like a divorce or, you know, loss of something, loss of an important career, or loss of health or loss of loved one.
[39:56] And that is the master level of practical mysticism. But taking it to loss like, okay, nothing is ever truly lost. If it is for me, it will find me.
[40:09] This job clearly was no longer aligned with me for some reason.
[40:14] And I’m going to trust that the knower knows the way. You know, the infinite knower in back of all things and all beings knows the way here. So there must be something better for me.
[40:26] Or maybe there’s something creative in me that I haven’t been allowing because I’ve been in a secure container and let myself be rigid around that. You know, I want security over everything else.
[40:37] Loss of a loved one, there’s. There’s no loss. There’s no loss. You know, life is infinite. This, this, this person is right here with me right now. I just can’t.
[40:45] They’re not in human form.
[40:48] So how, how can I work with this? How can I bring compassion to my humanness? How can I bring compassion to my anger? If there’s no spot that God is not?
[40:55] That means that God is with you when you’re angry, that, that the presence of the universe is with you when you’re sad, that God can take your, you know, blame of God, right?
[41:06] So, so these are just some examples. But taking the mystical and bringing it into your everyday life so that there’s more grace, and I think ultimately it leads you to unleashing more of who you really are into the world, right?
[41:24] If I’m undoing knots of blame and shame or not enoughness, I’m starting to realize who I am, Then I’m going to unlock my gifts, my natural inherent gifts and talents, and I’m going to know that I’m safe to give them out into the world in bigger and bigger ways, or however I’m called to give them.
[41:44] And by the way, some of us, those natural gifts and talents might be a smile, a laugh, a joke, might be being a Wonderful mother or father or a wonderful gardener.
[41:54] But the peace that’s there when you let yourself be more authentic with who you are and to give more freely from that space, it’s pretty. Pretty worth it. Pretty worth the road taken.
[42:09] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[42:10] Julie Day: Yeah.
[42:11] Cate Blouke: And it’s.
[42:12] Julie Day: How did that land with you? Cause I just kind of went rat. Tat, tat, tat, tat, tat. Oh, no, it landed.
[42:15] Cate Blouke: I mean, it landed great. Like, it was just.
[42:17] I mean, I’ve been working with and following you for a long time, so this is familiar messaging to me. And there is this sense of peace and relief in the idea that nothing is wrong, that I didn’t do anything wrong, and that the work is in peeling back the layers and.
[42:39] And letting myself be who I actually am. I mean, that’s one of the things I took out of that. That has been very true for me and been part of my journey in the last several years that you’ve gotten to witness is, you know, doing this podcast, right?
[42:53] Stepping more and more into what I do believe is my path, and I do believe my higher power would have me be.
[43:02] And it’s getting scary because it requires. It requires faith, and it requires really trusting in myself and trusting in the universe, and that even if and when. Well, even when this doesn’t go exactly how I want it to go or how I envision that, like, that doesn’t mean I’m doing something wrong or that I’m off track.
[43:25] Julie Day: It’s.
[43:26] Cate Blouke: It’s in the unfolding, and it’s in the ways in which, like, that grows me that I get to experience the fullness of life.
[43:37] You know, this is a podcast all about claiming joy, but I’ve been talking lately. Like, I’ve been in. I was in a depression pit last month, and the truth is that knowing lows helps me appreciate the highs.
[43:48] Right? That. That life really is about contrast, and that part of going into the pit or the dark nights of the soul that we all have at different points in time is just one aspect of getting clearer and clearer on, like, what I’m actually supposed to be doing.
[44:06] I’m actually supposed to be being and who I want to be and what I want to be different, you know, And. And for me, there’s a lot of, like, leaning into community and learning how to receive and learning how to be imperfect and vulnerable and good enough in my imperfection.
[44:27] Right?
[44:28] And, like, suiting up and showing up.
[44:32] Julie Day: Suiting up and showing up.
[44:34] Cate Blouke: Yeah, that’s a. That’s a great phrase, recovery phrase that is used in Sort of like, just like going to meetings whether you want to or not. And. But I like it.
[44:43] It’s like suiting up and showing up for our commitments and being where we are instead of slapping a happy face when we don’t have it to slap.
[44:56] Julie Day: Yeah. You know, well, and that, that leads to another like trap that’s easy to get into, which is that like kind of bypassy, like toxic positivity.
[45:10] Right. Where oftentimes like if you’re in a healing lane, whether that’s through self awareness or through spirituality or even through religion, there can be that chapter where you, you think that it’s about just being in that positive affirmative space all the time – affirming your, your health and your wellness and not flinching from that and having shame or blame or guilt when you do have those moments of, of sadness or, or depression or anger and just to step into something, whether it’s, you know, the, the sober community or whether it’s a spiritual community or whether it’s just a community of friends that affirms that right where you are like, you’re perfect, you are lovable, you are enough.
[46:02] And to recognize that these emotions are catalysts and they’re, they’re their way showers and their messengers and their teachers and they’re, they’re valid. That is so transformative to have that.
[46:15] And I’m really hopeful, even with the outer picture that we have right now. Yeah, I’m really hopeful and I’m going to drop some astrology here with Pluto in Aquarius until 2043, that we will get there.
[46:32] We will get there. To not just these small communities here and there, but a larger, broader collective sense of belonging to one another and letting go of shame and blame and a lot of the ways that we separate ourselves from one another.
[46:49] Cate Blouke: Good. I’m, I’m also. Well, I don’t know if I’m like cosmically hopeful, so it was really good to hear from you to say it, but I think like I have felt really micro level hopeful of like this is the opportunity to lean into each other, to really cultivate the community that is immediately around us.
[47:13] Julie Day: Yeah.
[47:14] Cate Blouke: And to show up and to nourish and to water that. Like that’s the call of the times.
[47:22] Julie Day: Absolutely. And may I share what your rising sign is?
[47:26] Cate Blouke: Yes.
[47:27] Julie Day: So Cate has an Aquarius rising and so she is here to be a leader of the Aquarian times. So you just spoke to it a hundred percent. Like, I think that what’s going on right now is driving us into each other’s arms.
[47:46] Because how else are we going to survive if not having a place where we can be held and heard fully.
[47:53] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[47:54] Julie Day: Yeah.
[47:55] Julie Day: And even though the outside world is. Is a lot of scaries or wobblies can bring up a lot of scaries or wobblies, you know that, that phrase, and excuse me for being cheesy, you know, it’s always darkest before the dawn.
[48:11] Like, it’s the. The sickness that you’re. You’re sickest right before the fever breaks. And I. I saw this someone quoted somewhere, I don’t know, blue sky or threads or something like that.
[48:25] Someone quoted. I think we’re closer to the end than we are to the beginning.
[48:32] Cate Blouke: And.
[48:32] Julie Day: And I found that to be so true. Speaking about what’s happening politically.
[48:36] Cate Blouke: Yeah. And that. And that just gave me, like, a little bit of goosebumps. Like, not the end of the world. Right. Like, it’s. We’re not closer to the apocalypse than we are to the beginning.
[48:45] We’re closer to the sort of end of whatever the fuck gunk.
[48:49] Julie Day: Yeah.
[48:50] Cate Blouke: Than we are to the beginning of it.
[48:53] Julie Day: Yeah. And even if it is apocalyptic, you know, like, I. I actually have a weird.
[49:01] I like that space, weirdly so, because, you know, and I like the phrase that came through me. Like it just runs us into each other’s arms.
[49:11] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[49:11] Julie Day: You know, it’s times like that where everyone’s masks fall away and. And you’re just raw and vulnerable.
[49:19] So I’m. I’m hopeful that as the systems start to dismantle that what will emerge is going on. The other side is going to be way better and. And way more about unity.
[49:31] I mean, I was talking about. I had a. I had a zoom call and I. And during all this chaos that’s emerging right now, and I wanted to start it by talking about the power of the light.
[49:43] And so, funnily enough, I just did a little chatgpt, like, what’s the. What’s the power of light over darkness? Or something like that? And chatgpt gave me a great response that I quoted in this workshop, which is, there is no power in darkness.
[49:57] Darkness does not have power because darkness is just the absence of light.
[50:02] And. And actually there’s no place that light is not. It’s kind of like there’s no spot that God is not. There’s no place that light is not. It’s just where there is light and where there is light that’s unaware of itself, but it’s all light.
[50:17] So whether you’re going like, you know, the scientific light versus dark or, or the spiritual version that I talked about. Like, the lightness is where it’s at and that, that’s the thing that has the power, and it is infinitely more powerful and potent than any shred of darkness could ever be or shadow.
[50:34] So I have it on good authority that the light will prevail. And you know, it just takes.
[50:40] Takes way, showers and practical mystics and people that are willing to be the love or willing to be the peace or willing to be the stand, the advocate when they’re called.
[50:53] And not all of us are going to be called in the same way, of course. And it’s important that we each take our own guidance seriously during these times.
[51:02] Cate Blouke: Yeah, I really feel so called to be the love.
[51:06] Julie Day: The love. Love is the word.
[51:09] Cate Blouke: Yeah. And I think I just really appreciated that because, yeah, some of us are supposed to be the advocate. Some of us are supposed to be this, that and the other thing.
[51:20] And it can be so easy for me as just a, like, tender hearted, highly sensitive human, to feel like, to, to get really caught up in the, like, I’m not doing enough.
[51:31] I should be more assertively activist and, you know, the shit’s creeping in. And I think that, like, what is true for me, at least in this moment, is that my pocket of space and my calling and what’s true for me is offering love and compassion and connection and care, a tremendous capacity for that.
[51:56] Julie Day: My goodness. Like, imagine a world in which you felt shamed into doing something that wasn’t your, your true nature. And we, we had to miss out on all your love and care and compassion, which I think is so needed.
[52:10] Yeah, so needed. And, and like, here’s the, the principle that I would see in this, which is that we are all divinely designed. You know, we are all divinely designed.
[52:22] Like the, the person that’s just a good comedian, a good jokester, you know, that is by divine design. Like, that is needed, that is necessary.
[52:33] I mean, how many times have I been moved by a comic just needing the levity for a night, needing that, needing to get out of my seriousness, needing to get out of my head.
[52:45] Or sometimes comics can put things together that are so incredibly potent because they crack open our hearts and then they zing us with those zingers. So, you know, to, to let yourself follow your own divine design.
[53:00] And for some listening to this podcast, it might just be being a good mother or being a good friend or being a good, you know, community person, just bringing the love, the care, compassion that you were speaking of, that is huge.
[53:17] I Mean, those are the qualities that we’re looking to have more of in this world. So how could that not be a beautiful thing and a. An additive thing to what we’re all doing?
[53:29] And those people that are all called to be the door knockers and the, you know, petition writer uppers, they need the levity, they need the care, they need the nourishment.
[53:39] They need those places and spaces where they can soften and be held. So, you know, we all have our place in this web that’s happening right now. And the important thing is to listen to your God signals, to your inner voice and where it’s calling you and how it’s calling you.
[53:59] And that’s how we all just show up for our assignment right now. You know, like, I don’t even know where this is going.
[54:06] Cate Blouke: Ooh. I think it’s going into you praying us out is what I’m feeling right there.
[54:11] Julie Day: Okay.
[54:12] Cate Blouke: A nice moment for. Yeah, let’s me to just offer. Offer a prayer for whoever’s listening.
[54:21] Julie Day: So happy to do that. And let me say before I go into prayer, I do a style of prayer, and the. The label is called affirmative prayer.
[54:35] So I just wanted to put that out there in case you’re going, like, what is that? Like, you can look it up. You can. You can learn.
[54:40] Cate Blouke: I’ll put it in the show notes. I’ll Google it for us.
[54:44] Julie Day: Yeah. Okay.
[54:48] Julie Day: So I just invite everyone to take a deep breath and just to remember that there’s no spot that God is not.
[54:56] That means that in your fingernail. Like, right now, I’m. My hands are together, and I’m feeling my fingernails.
[55:07] And like God.
[55:09] Julie Day: The fullness of God is in each and every cell and tissue.
[55:17] The fullness of God is right where you are in each blood cell that makes up your heart.
[55:28] And then all the things that make up a cell.
[55:30] Julie Day: I don’t even know scientifically enough.
[55:33] Julie Day: Like, the fullness of God. It’s fractal. Like, the tiniest thing that there can be. What is it? A neutron? An atomic. The fullness of God is right there.
[55:44] And then that fullness just grows and expands, becomes a blade of grass, becomes a tree, becomes a bird, becomes a me, becomes a you.
[55:57] And what is that fullness of God?
[56:00] The fullness of God is, at its core, love.
[56:05] The substance that’s in back of the entire universe is love.
[56:10] Unconditional love. Unconditional love.
[56:14] Julie Day: No judgment, no assigning. Good, better, best, Unconditionally loving. Just take a moment and, like, imagine that.
[56:24] Julie Day: Unconditionally loving.
[56:27] If you have a child, if you have an animal, you know, this unconditional love.
[56:35] It doesn’t matter what I do. I stepped on my dog’s ear today. She loves me.
[56:42] Julie Day: It doesn’t matter what your child does.
[56:43] Julie Day: How big of a mess they make. You love them.
[56:47] And God’s love is infinitely more.
[56:53] So if the fullness of God is everywhere present, if there’s no spot that God is not, that means that God is through, in, and as each and.
[56:59] Julie Day: Every person on this earth right now.
[57:01] Julie Day: Through, in, and as each blade of grass, each grain of sand, each drop in the ocean.
[57:05] Julie Day: And yes, even in our government, even in our political sphere, even in our celebrity sphere, even everywhere.
[57:15] Julie Day: Everywhere.
[57:18] And so we can know that God is on the scene, that there is something unfolding that is for us and not against us.
[57:26] And we might have fear. God knows our fear.
[57:30] We might have anger.
[57:32] God loves us in our anger.
[57:35] We might want a particular outcome. God loves our creative energy, our desires, our yearning.
[57:43] And yet there’s one thing that is assured, that the light will prevail.
[57:49] And so whatever is happening right now, it’s a curriculum for us to know more of love, more of belonging, more of freedom, more of joy, more of peace and harmony.
[58:02] These are all divine qualities.
[58:05] And so we just bless what seems like the mess.
[58:10] We bless it. And, and, and I’m speaking about, like, a bigger scene, but this could also be in your own life. There might be a mess in front of you.
[58:20] There might be a mess in your relationship. There might be a mess in your physical body. There might be a mess with money.
[58:28] God is loving you.
[58:32] And there’s a beautiful curriculum that’s unfolding here. And on the other side, there will be more. More you, more truth, more authenticity of you and more of you to give to this world.
[58:44] And so we just give thanks for that. I give thanks for Cate’s podcast, I give thanks for Cate’s curiosity, and I give thanks for each and every one of you listening here.
[58:54] Thank you for being here on Earth. Thank you for bringing you to earth. You are so needed. You are so loved. And so it is. Amen.
[59:04] Amen.
[59:10] Cate Blouke: Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please help me grow the podcast by subscribing, leaving a review, and sharing it with anyone you think would benefit from hearing it, too.
[59:20] Your support means the world to me. If you’d like to get updates about new episodes, posts and offerings, please visit settlingisbullshit.com to subscribe to my newsletter. You can also find information there about working with me one on one to build your most amazing life.
[59:36] Until next time, remember that I believe in you and that you are fucking awesome.
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