The Grace Space: How I Manifested My Dream Home Part 4

The spiritual purpose of desire is to help us dissolve the doubts we have about our worthiness to receive what we dearly want in our heart of hearts. Though the object of desire may take the form of something in the material world, such as a soulmate, our dream job, or our dream house, these forms ultimately reflect the deepest longing we have to feel whole and complete again and to live in beauty, ease and grace.

Transcript

Take a deep breath and remember there's a power breathing you.

This is your space of sanity in an evolving world where we learn about spiritual law and how to apply it to our lives in a way that is practical and life-changing.

This is where we remember truth to make the world a better place one person at a time.

I'm Claire Lothier,

Inspirational speaker,

Teacher of the technology of transformation,

And a certified Life Mastery consultant and spiritual coach.

Welcome to the Grace Space.

I've been telling you this story of how I came to find and how we came to eventually acquire the beautiful home and property where we live in southern France.

It's a story that illustrates what happens when we live in alignment with the spiritual laws and that's some of the time,

Not even all of the time.

This came about in spite of the doubts,

The fears,

And seeming impossibilities that presented themselves and to which I occasionally fell prey even though I know better.

After all,

These principles of spiritual law are what I teach.

When I work with clients,

We are working precisely and in very practical ways on coming back into harmony with truth,

Coming back into the flow,

Coming back to our natural state of true freedom,

The freedom of knowing who you really are.

I say coming back because in some sense we've never left.

There's always a part of us that dwells in perfection and nothing can tarnish or even touch that part of us which is greater.

It is the greater part of our being.

But part of our reason for existing on earth in the material realm in this state of seeming separation is to experience limitation and fear so that we can eventually see that they are an illusion to be transcended.

And I'm no different from you.

I'm no different from anyone else.

We're all in a process of evolution here.

We human beings have long been under a powerful hypnotic delusion that we are sinful and deserve to be punished.

Now whether you have a religious background or not,

Whether you consciously believe it or not,

Doesn't change the fact that it's the water we've all been swimming in for thousands of years.

Even such seemingly innocuous beliefs such as the belief in struggle or hard work or the necessity of suffering belong to the paradigm of sin and punishment and guilt.

The unquestioned perspective that we earn favor by how hard we work,

We're even proud of it.

Now I'm not saying that we shouldn't work hard,

But I'm saying wearing that as a badge of honor and pushing ourselves to the edge with work,

Becoming obsessed with it,

That comes from a need to be more deserving.

And this idea that accomplishment is even necessary is part of that paradigm.

We are enough as we are without any accomplishments.

We don't tend to trust things that come easily.

We don't tend to trust gifts that we receive for no reason at all or anything that seems to have no strings attached.

And yet this is the definition of grace.

It is the unmerited favor and unconditional love of our Creator for us for no reason.

Living in a state of grace is living in joy,

Peace,

And abundance as your birthright and as a living reality you can experience here and now,

Not in some future time when things are going to be better.

It's a state that transcends and actually encompasses the duality of good,

Bad,

Light,

Dark,

Positive,

Negative in a space of unconditional love and acceptance of all that is.

This is true spiritual alchemy,

Not transforming darkness into light,

But accepting the darkness and the light as part of the perfection of our own becoming.

Would you believe that the will of the infinite Creator is for your perfect happiness?

Perfect happiness is not a state where only the positive exists.

Again,

We're talking about transcending duality here.

So rather it's a state of total freedom to love and accept everything that presents itself,

Knowing that it's all part of the play of this earthly realm and that ultimately everything is for us,

Not against us.

This is a school and we're here to learn and to grow.

There is no judgment.

Could it be possible that there's nothing you have to do to earn that happiness?

Could it be that perfect happiness is our God-given right and natural state?

Somewhere within there is a deep well of joy and peacefulness that has no cause in your life circumstances or the world.

It simply is.

Could it be that our ultimate purpose on earth is to hold that state and that awareness,

To become established in it,

And to trust it,

And in so doing,

To make it possible for others to remember it too?

What kind of world would we live in if every human being could resonate with that joy and peacefulness in a state of total trust?

Today,

As I sat down to write my notes for this podcast,

The internet went down for about an hour.

This has happened before,

So instead of wandering around trying to get a signal and feeling frustrated,

I surrendered and I went to sit in the sunshine on the lounge chair.

I said to myself,

Claire,

You're not allowed to do any work right now.

You're just going to sit here and feel the presence of spirit in and around you.

I noticed a little undercurrent of resistance,

The part of me that's,

You know,

Gets antsy.

Like if I'm not doing something,

Somehow I'm being irresponsible,

Right?

It's the part of me that doesn't want to trust that sitting and being for a few moments is actually a far more valuable and productive way to spend my time than getting lost in my to-do list.

How can I be productive to just be?

Well,

It's because when we're just being,

We're actually tapping into the infinite organizing power of the universal mind,

Which can then work through us in ways that we know not of to bring about all kinds of things that with our mind alone or our attempts to be productive from the mind,

We would never be able to accomplish.

So this is where we're going now on the planet towards a much more global recognition of the vital importance of the being state as opposed to the doing state.

In the stillness and peacefulness of the being state,

We feel much more connected to our true nature and to other beings and the planet.

We become more aware of ourselves as a collective rather than identifying as an isolated fragment in a hostile universe.

So much of the conscious manifestation process is actually about learning to let go of this false belief in separation as the reality.

The main block to manifesting what you deeply desire is the fear that you won't receive it.

Nothing is hard to manifest for the universe.

Nothing is a tall order.

The universe knows no large or small,

Important or unimportant.

Everything in creation is the effortless manifestation of a thought.

So any limitation that we place on that belongs to us.

That's all us and our perception,

Which is based on our paradigm.

So if it's just as easy for the universe to bring you a million dollars as it is to bring you $100 or to bring you the home of your dreams as it is for it to bring you a place you think you can get,

Then the limitation is necessarily with us and our perception.

What could be blocking the appearance of what your heart desires other than that somewhere in you,

You don't believe you can have it?

And what could be at the root of that idea that you can't have it if not the belief that you don't deserve it?

What else could be standing in the way,

But you yourself implicit in this way of functioning,

And it is how the majority of people function.

There would have to be some belief in us that the universe does not want us to have what we want.

And why would that be?

If it doesn't want us to have what we want,

It must be against us.

It must be out to thwart us.

It must be punishing us.

We must not deserve what we want.

We must not be worthy of it.

We have to work really hard to earn brownie points with God so that he can finally forgive us and give us what we want.

Do you see how distorted this view of life and the world and the universe is?

Do you see how much anthropomorphic projection there is onto the infinite power?

This is all just a reflection of us and what we believe.

For us to live within so much limitation,

There would have to be a belief that the universe's will is in opposition to my own.

And that necessarily means that on some level,

We are at war with the universe.

Think about what that means for how we live every day.

Think about what that means for the state of our nervous system.

No wonder people are so stressed out.

It's because we unconsciously believe in attack and being under attack in a constant state of battle and struggle.

And the belief that in order to get what I want,

I have to overcome the opposition of the universe to my desires,

It presupposes conflict,

Obstacles,

And difficulty.

So we would not live in this state if we did not have a profoundly distorted view of who we really are and what our place in this universe is.

Until we open our hearts to the possibility that happiness is all the universe wants for us,

And accept,

Deeply accept,

That we are beloved extensions of the one infinite power that creates all that is,

Manifestation,

Like everything else,

Feels like hard work.

A desire of the heart,

A dream,

Helps us to overcome the very limitations that seem to stand between us and the object of our desire.

So there I was,

Finally face to face with the owner of this beautiful property,

And he had the keys in hand,

And I was finally allowed into the place.

As he took me from room to room,

I was getting more and more excited because it did not disappoint.

It was just as I had imagined,

And it felt so good.

Even though you could feel that the energy hadn't moved in some time,

There was dust and cobwebs and there were spiders in the corners here and there,

As soon as I began to walk around inside the rooms,

I felt almost like a response from the place to me,

Like it was glad to see me.

The rooms were still furnished with beautiful,

Authentic Balinese antiques,

Solid wooden beds,

Console tables,

Rattan chairs,

And beautiful details like carved wood panels that were used as closet doors.

There were travertine tiles in the showers,

Solid marble sinks,

And two of the rooms had massive stone soaking tubs.

There were floor-to-ceiling windows looking out onto the hills and over the pool,

Poured concrete floors in a terracotta pigment,

And two of the rooms had little private gardens with outdoor showers.

I live half the year in Laos,

Christophe,

The owner said,

And I grew up spending a lot of time in Southeast Asia,

So I wanted to recreate the indoor-outdoor lifestyle here too.

To me,

The two most beautiful places on the entire planet are Laos and here in the Corbières,

He continued,

With a twinkle in his eye.

As I listened to him talk about the place,

I could see his love and passion for what he had created,

And it became obvious that he was the creative brain behind all of this,

Including the way it was decorated.

I'm leaving all the furniture,

He said,

Everything stays,

Except for the art,

Which were works of my father's.

Well,

I later learned that Christophe's father was a very well-known and respected French modern artist,

And that the canvases hanging on the walls were extremely valuable.

Anyway,

It's all included in the price,

He said.

Then I got even more excited hearing that,

Because everything was to my taste already,

And I knew that my husband would feel the same way,

Because we had quite a few similar pieces of our own from his travels in Bali many years before.

The place just felt like me,

Felt like us,

Like our own sensibilities and style.

It was modern,

Clean,

Sophisticated,

But also natural,

Rustic,

And authentic.

It felt solid and well-built,

And I could see that the building materials were all top notch.

In French,

They call them materiel noble,

Noble materials,

Things like stone,

Iron,

Artisan terracotta tile,

Travertine,

Those kind of materials.

Perhaps now is the right time to explain that this house was not actually a house.

I described before seeing two buildings at a 90 degree angle to one another.

One of them was a big open room with a breezeway going through to a separate studio on the other side,

And the second building was composed of six separate bedroom suites,

Each with its own bathroom.

The place had been a boutique hotel,

And together with the old stone house across the road,

Which I had seen briefly in my conversation with the neighbor,

The entire complex had been a popular restaurant and boutique hotel with a total of 12 rooms.

He had sold off the first half,

A 17th century forge,

Which he had fixed up and turned into a very successful restaurant with six bedrooms where you could stay,

So successful that he had built the second part of the property to add another six rooms and a conference area.

For years,

They had done weddings and conferences,

And the restaurant was a going concern,

But then,

You know,

Life happened,

As Christophe explained to me,

And a few years ago,

He had decided to sell the whole thing and change his life.

Well,

He wasn't able to sell the whole thing in one piece,

So he split it in two and sold off one half,

And now he was looking to sell the other.

I was already drawing up plans in my head for how I would reconfigure the smaller of the two buildings,

Which contained the reception room and small studio where Christophe used to stay when he would sleep over.

There was only a tiny corner kitchen in there,

But all of it overlooked a beautiful infinity pool,

Which was now covered.

It had the feeling of a retreat,

And I could see myself hosting people there and doing yoga by the pool.

I could also see my whole family gathered there,

Enjoying meals on the terrace.

At the same time,

It didn't make any sense.

It wasn't really a house,

But it had such a strange magic that I felt at home,

And those practical concerns didn't really occupy much space in my mind.

The great beauty and serenity of the location trumped everything.

Christophe told me about a Dutch couple who had fallen in love with the place a year before and wanted to turn it into a yoga retreat,

But they couldn't get the financing.

They were brokenhearted,

He said,

And I really wanted them to have it,

But they just couldn't get the money together.

We're still friends,

Though,

He added.

Even though I knew I shouldn't,

I couldn't seem to help myself telling him how much I loved the place and how much I wanted it.

His face kept breaking into enormous grins,

And I felt a strange connection with him.

I've had a lot of disappointments,

He said,

A lot of deals that almost came together and then fell through at the last minute.

But I can see you love this place.

I do,

I replied.

Well,

It's good thing you got in touch with me today,

He said,

Because tomorrow I'm leaving to go to Laos for six months.

I said,

Well,

I'm also leaving tomorrow to fly back to Canada.

I was supposed to be here for another two weeks,

But then with the new confinement,

I have to get back.

I have a husband to consider,

I said to him.

He would need to see the place,

Too.

I'd like to get him out here as soon as possible.

As soon as we can fly again and travel,

I'd like to bring him out.

Of course,

Christophe replied.

Well,

Let's stay in touch about it,

He said,

And we exchanged our phone numbers for WhatsApp.

I want someone who's serious,

He said,

Looking me in the eye,

Someone who has the money and is ready.

Is that you?

Well,

Let me tell you,

I was about as far as far could be from having the money and being ready.

How could I tell him that it was a feeling that the place was mine?

How could I share with him that I had no idea how to make this happen without him thinking I wasn't for real?

I didn't know how to explain how I had ended up on his doorstep,

Even.

So I simply said,

Well,

I don't do things the way that most people do them.

I believe that if I truly want something from my heart,

The resources will be given to me.

I can understand that,

He said.

When I started this whole thing,

I had no idea what I was doing.

I'd never even owned a restaurant.

I knew nothing about the restaurant business,

But I just built it.

I decided to do it.

I didn't let anything stop me.

Built this whole place from the ground up based on a vision.

Well,

Hearing those words,

I thought to myself,

This guy and I are on the same wavelength.

Would you do me a favor,

I asked him.

Would you hold an image in your mind of the two of us clinking champagne glasses right here on this terrace,

Celebrating the successful transfer of this property from you to me?

Another huge grin spread across his face,

And he chuckled.

Yes,

I will absolutely do that.

And I said,

I'm imagining you handing the keys over.

I can feel them.

And we laughed.

And then he says to me,

You know,

I have a place about 15 minutes away up at the top of the next ridge.

It's an old sheep coat,

Actually two sheep coats that we renovated.

And there's a stream that starts up in the hill where I've created a little altar to Venus.

She's one of my favorite goddesses,

He said.

This morning,

I was up there saying a prayer to Venus,

Thanking her for all the abundance in my life.

And I asked her to send me someone to come and buy this property,

He said.

And when I came back down,

I picked up my phone and the mayor called saying,

There's a woman here who wants to look at the property.

Wow,

I said.

That's pretty cool.

Here I am.

I wasn't surprised that the place I was so attracted to had been conceived by a visionary.

Even upon our first meeting,

It was clear to me that Christophe was not a conventional thinker.

He had lived his life outside the norms.

And I could feel that in his spirit,

In his vibration.

I later learned more details about his life that confirmed this.

So I guess you could say we had a meeting of the minds at our first encounter.

Another sign that this crazy idea that seemed to make no sense and seemed completely unreasonable in some ways was perfectly reasonable from the higher perspective.

Reluctantly again,

It was time for me to leave.

As I was going out the gate,

He leaned over and pulled a fragrant rose off a rosebush at the side of the house and handed it to me.

With a gallant flourish.

For you,

He said.

A little piece of La Fargo.

For that is the name of this place.

La Fargo.

It means the forge.

And it's not French,

But Occitan.

The old language that was spoken here before France became France.

The language of the Qatar.

A language that resembles Catalan more than French.

Hundreds of years before,

The stone house across the way had been an iron forge.

They were typically built by a river or water source with a water wheel that could turn a power hammer to beat the iron.

That system is still visible at the side of the property.

A kind of giant stone disc right by the water course that flows down to the river.

It wasn't until later that I recalled a scene from several years before and heard my teacher's voice in my head explaining why the property where his ashram is in the Alps bears the name Le Martinet.

I had always thought it was named after the bird.

A Martinet is a swift,

But I was wrong.

One day during a training in the Alps,

He says to our group,

Why is this place called Le Martinet?

Why?

What is a Martinet?

A couple of hands went up.

A bird,

Someone said tentatively.

No,

It's not for the bird.

A Martinet is a system with a water wheel that operates a hammer for giving iron a form from the old days.

This place was a forge for hundreds of years.

That's why it's called Le Martinet.

And today we're still using the energy of the forge to burn you up and transform you.

The land itself has the energy of transformation.

That's why it attracted the forge.

You think this was an accident?

You think it's an accident that I'm here?

You think it's an accident that you are here now doing this work?

The Martinet is a hammer that beats the metal and using very high temperatures can transform something very dense and hard to become malleable and take a new form.

That is why you're here.

So what is the metal?

He asked us.

What is the metal?

Well,

To be honest,

We were all just sitting there with our mouths open trying to take in the last thing he'd said.

The land itself has the energy of transformation.

It attracted the forge and now us?

Well,

My mind was definitely blown.

Anyway,

The question was hanging in the air and no one answered.

What is the metal?

Your resistance,

He thundered at us like Vulcan,

The god of fire.

The metal is your resistance.

And you come here to have it burned and beaten away so you can be transformed.

At my teacher's school,

I had passed through many trials and challenges that seemed arduous,

Only to realize with time that what felt arduous,

Hard,

Frightening,

Rigorous,

And even at times punishing,

Was my own projection onto the experience of what I believed was necessary for my purification.

In more recent times,

As I've gone back to mentor and be part of the teaching team at Le Martinet,

Things and places that had once seemed alien,

Cold,

Isolated,

And scary to me had taken on a totally different aspect.

And seemed to brim with a kind of luminous love.

Everything there seems friendly now.

I realized that it's because I have let go of so much of the belief in shame,

Guilt,

And punishment.

And I was now ascending through the recognition of love as the only reality.

And so here I was at another Martinet,

Another forge.

The forge is a symbol in alchemy,

By the way,

A symbol of transformation.

I had been magnetized to the land where for hundreds of years the fire had burned and the wheel had turned and the hammer had beaten the iron and reshaped it.

Looking over at the stone house,

Which was the original forge,

I could almost hear the old sounds.

It had been given a second life by Christophe as a place of beauty,

Relaxation,

And retreat.

And now it would be a place for me to anchor a pillar of light and transformation.

I thought,

I have attracted my own Martinet.

I've had the blessing of a teacher,

But now I am my own teacher in my own forge,

Transforming myself and helping others to transform.

The old forge is gone,

But the energy remains.

It's no longer necessary to beat the resistance out of us by force.

The age of punishment and burning is at an end.

There is no more inquisition here.

I have died by fire and been consumed countless times,

And I have returned.

The crucible of transformation is now one of love,

Forgiveness,

And letting go of the past.

I drove away with the rose he had given me,

Symbol of the heart,

On my dashboard.

In the next installment,

I'll tell you about the reckless promise I made to my cousins and my family,

And how I began to work on the inner planes to make the place mine and turn a possibility wave into a probability wave,

And how I seriously doubled down on my dream to hold myself publicly accountable,

Even when I could not see the path ahead.

Yikes.

I'll see you next time.

Meanwhile,

Walk in grace.