Group Communication Guidelines not only keep groups on purpose, they also create a sense of safety and trust within the group.
These Guidelines have been developed and refined over many years in countless groups at the Institute for the Advancement of Service. For this reason, it is recommended you use them as written rather than adapt them.
The Guidelines are provided here to support you in evolving a group that is productive and nurturing for all group members—including the leader.
Download a printable copy of the Guidelines HERE
Explore the
"Living Our Destiny"
series on this blog
HERE
In 2023, I reissued, with new introductions, a series of three teachings I originally wrote in 2016 on the subject of destiny – personal destiny; the destiny of families, groups, and organizations; and the destiny of the United States.
I chose to revisit these teachings because acknowledging and claiming our destiny – at every level – is crucial to understanding the unique time in which we are living and the critical role we are to play in it.
Here I reintroduce another blog series that can be considered a ‘Part IV’ in my teachings about destiny and which discusses what could be said to be the most important of our various destinies: the destiny of humanity and Planet Earth.
We are going through an unprecedented ‘Cosmic Shift’ on our planet – the transition from the Piscean Era to the Aquarian Era. This transition represents the ending of one 2,000-year era (the Piscean) and the beginning of the next 2,000-year era (the Aquarian).
The transition also represents a seismic shift in human consciousness, as our planet and humanity as a whole transition from the third and fourth dimensions, where we currently reside (the Piscean Era), and take a quantum leap into the edges of the fifth dimension of the Aquarian Era. The transition has been foretold in various world religions and cultures, anticipating a ‘Golden Age’ of Light, peace, and unified consciousness.
The transition from the Piscean Era to the Aquarian Era reaches its precise midpoint in the years 2021 to 2025. This blog series, which can be read as an exploration of the destiny of humanity and Planet Earth at this unique time in our planet’s history, is about these specific years through which we are living right now.
Aquarian energies began to emerge on Planet Earth around 1760; by the year 2260, Piscean energies will have fully yielded to Aquarian energies. In the meantime, as the Piscean plays out its remaining years and the Aquarian energies continue to become stronger and more prominent, our planet is experiencing an extreme increase in turmoil and unrest as the darker energies rise to the surface to be changed into Light.
Of all our destinies – personal, family, group, national – our planetary destiny and the destiny of the human race is the most important. It is by recognizing, understanding, and taking action to support the fulfillment of this destiny that we can support the wellbeing and continued existence of each other, of our world, and of the earth upon which we live.
The series explores the unique characteristics of this midpoint between the eras in relation to what is happening today, recognizing that we are at a moment of great significance for the survival or our planet, and what we can do – what we must do – as conscious members of the human race to fulfill our role in the destiny of our world. It is up to us – Lightbearers of the new era – to manifest our destiny by helping to usher in the New World of peace, joy, love, and Divine Light.
Part I: Becoming a Lightbearer
The four years between 2021 and 2025 will be a particularly disruptive and dangerous time, as dark energy rises to the surface to be changed into Light.
Part II: Awakening of the Heart
Despite its distortions, there are durable remnants of the Piscean Era that are vital to the success of Aquarian times.
Part III: An Extraordinary Invitation to Live a New Reality on Planet Earth
This unique period offers a magnificent gift for ALL: an invitation to enter into a new reality now being created on Planet Earth.
The transition of the Piscean Era to the Aquarian Era – the ending of one 2,000-year era (the Piscean) and the beginning of the next 2,000-year era (the Aquarian) – is also referred to as the “Cosmic Shift” in human consciousness, when our planet and humanity as a whole will transition from the third and fourth dimensions, where we currently reside (the Piscean Era), and take a quantum leap into the edges of the fifth dimension of the Aquarian Era.
The transition has been foretold in various world religions and cultures, anticipating a “Golden Age” of Light, peace,
and unified consciousness.
~ from Part I: Becoming a Lightbearer ~
It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead.
The chain of destiny can only be grasped
one link at a time.
~ Winston Churchill ~
What is destiny? Why is it especially important right now that we know and embrace our destiny? Although our destiny can indeed be said to be “written in the stars,” we each have a decisive part to play in its fulfillment.
Several years ago, I wrote a series of three teachings for this blog on the subject of destiny – personal destiny, the destiny of groups and organizations, and the destiny of the United States.
More recently I wrote an additional series for the blog about the years 2021 through 2025 – the midpoint of the transition from the Piscean Era to the Aquarian Era, when, it has been foretold, our planet will experience an extreme increase in turmoil and unrest as dark energies rise to the surface to be changed into Light. The series about 2021 to 2025 explores the Piscean-Aquarian transition as the destiny of humanity and Planet Earth.
Taken together, these six teaching present an exploration of our comprehensive destiny at this unique time in the history of our planet – as individuals; as members of families, groups, and organizations; as inhabitants of individual countries and nations; and as members of the human race and dwellers upon our precious Planet Earth.
In 2023, we are experiencing, as predicted, an exponentially increasing chaos and dis-ease in our country and in the world. At the same time, our planet is being flooded with enormous amounts of high-vibration energy and Divine Light. As we ride the increasingly turbulent waves of the next few years of this cosmic transition, this is a good time to revisit the concept of destiny.
Although this series begins with the exploration of each of our personal destinies, our destiny by no means stops with the personal. As real and fascinating as our personal destiny is to us, it is equally and crucially important that we discover, accept, and claim our collective destiny.
You would not be reading this teaching if you had not been born expressly to serve as part of the earthshaking transition of our planet at the time of its momentous spiritual awakening – from its third-and-fourth-dimension reality of separation, duality, inequality, and strife, into its fifth-dimension rebirth as a radiant world defined by love, light, and group consciousness.
Our ultimate destiny, in all of its expressions – at once that of individual, family member, leader and/or group member, citizen of our country, and inhabitant of our planet – is to be a Lightbearer of the New Age.
I invite you to embrace your destiny at all levels as essential to your wellbeing, as well as to the wellbeing of humanity, Planet Earth, and the Universe.
Part I: Personal Destiny ~ Our Life's Masterpiece
Destiny emerges, one amazing step at a time, as precious seeds planted in the present for future sprouting.
Part II: Living the Destiny of Your Group or Organization
A group's spiritual destiny emerges when the group begins the journey of the evolution of its soul.
Part III: Choosing America's Destiny ~ Lincoln Answers Our Nation's Call for Help
The spirit of Abraham Lincoln, the great wayshower, responds to our collective pain.
The Years 2021-2025 ~ The Dark Gets Darker/The Light Shines Brighter ~ A three-part series and parts IV through VI of the Living Our Destiny series
Provide support and guidance for those you know by gifting them books from the Institute
Institute Ambassadors gift our books to people they know, invite others to participate in The Bookgiving Project, and share about the Institute’s work and our teaching website.
We invite Institute Ambassadors to consider giving our books to the following individuals and groups:
Join the Institute in sharing our books far and wide to provide support and guidance to as many people as possible as we navigate our planet’s transition to a new, Light-filled reality.
Email us if you wish to be an Institute Ambassador at info@showanotherway.org
Read about The Bookgiving Project HERE
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During the past 25 years, Susan Trout, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Institute, has written four books about Planet Earth’s extraordinary transition to a new, Light-filled reality. These books address humanity’s psychological and spiritual needs during this profound time of the evolution of our planet. The purpose of these books is to help us understand the reason behind the current chaos of our changing world and to offer ways to heal, uplift, and serve both ourselves and others.
These four books describe both the nature of this planetary transition and how to support ourselves as we move through it by using certain psychological and spiritual teachings and practices. We invite you to request copies of these books for yourself as well as copies you can give to others. When you choose to request these books for yourself as well as request them to give to others, you make available opportunities to learn, heal, and serve during this unprecedented time of crisis and renewal in our world.
The four books we are gifting include the three volumes of The Soul and Service Trilogy –
– and Susan's latest book, published in July 2020:
Click on the box below ("Request Books HERE") or email us at info@showanotherway.org. Let us know which books and how many copies you would like, as well as where you would like us to ship them. Shipping via USPS Media Mail will be fully covered by the Institute.
If you are local to the Institute (we are in Alexandria, VA): Please consider picking up your books to save us the cost of shipping. You can arrange to pick up books by emailing us at info@showanotherway.org.
If you are outside the United States: We are currently exploring ways to ship to countries outside the U.S. at reasonable rates. Please let us know of your interest and where you are located, and we will do our best to get our books to you.
We are so grateful to share our books in this way and make them available to a much larger audience!
Please request copies of any or all four books for yourself, first and foremost. If you enjoy them, we invite you to request more copies that you can give to others who might also enjoy them. If you know even before reading that you will want to gift these books to others, feel free to request them now. We have many copies to share!
By gifting our books to people you know, you become an ambassador of the Institute. In addition to sharing our books with others, we invite you to tell them about the Institute’s work and The Bookgiving Project.
So many of us have been asking what we can do during these challenging times to restore Light and Love on our planet and to help others do the same. Sharing our books is a way to offer life-altering teachings and practices that can help guide ourselves and others through the stormy seas of these times.
Learn more about becoming an Ambassador for the Institute HERE.
The Institute is supported solely by donations
from people like you. If you would like to make
a tax-deductible gift to the Institute,
visit our Donate page HERE
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To pray is to make a solemn request for help from God, saints, or angels on behalf of ourselves, humanity, and Planet Earth. We receive God’s grace, guidance, healing, and protection through prayer. Prayers can also be an expression of thanksgiving or a confession. Other names for God are Divine Presence, Divine Source, I am Presence, God-Goddess-All-That-Is. Prayers are practiced in all major religions and metaphysical traditions.
Members of the Institute’s Prayer Circle use this Buddhist prayer:
“I pray for ___________’s highest possible evolution.”
This prayer places the decision for the person’s highest possible evolution in God’s hands. We do not pray for a certain outcome or result, as we cannot assume we know what is best for the person. Only God knows that.
The Institute’s Prayer Circle prays for individuals, families, and groups. Those who pray are Institute volunteers.
Email us at info@showanotherway.org
to request that your name (first and last) or that
of another person or group be placed on
the prayer list.
Names will be kept on the list for six months. At the end of six months, you may request to continue to receive prayers for another six months. Names will be removed after six months if you do not make this additional request.
]]>
In 2023, I reissued, with new introductions, a series of three teachings I originally wrote in 2016 on the subject of destiny – personal destiny; the destiny of families, groups, and organizations; and the destiny of the United States.
I chose to revisit these teachings because acknowledging and claiming our destiny – at every level – is crucial to understanding the unique time in which we are living and the critical role we are to play in it.
Explore the
"Living Our Destiny"
series on this blog
HERE
Here I reintroduce another series that can be considered a ‘Part IV’ in my teachings about destiny and which discusses what could be said to be the most important of our various destinies: the destiny of humanity and Planet Earth.
We are going through an unprecedented ‘Cosmic Shift’ on our planet – the transition from the Piscean Era to the Aquarian Era. This transition represents the ending of one 2,000-year era (the Piscean) and the beginning of the next 2,000-year era (the Aquarian).
The transition also represents a seismic shift in human consciousness, as our planet and humanity as a whole transition from the third and fourth dimensions, where we currently reside (the Piscean Era), and take a quantum leap into the edges of the fifth dimension of the Aquarian Era. The transition has been foretold in various world religions and cultures, anticipating a ‘Golden Age’ of Light, peace, and unified consciousness.
The transition from the Piscean Era to the Aquarian Era reaches its precise midpoint in the years 2021 to 2025. This blog series, which can be read as an exploration of the destiny of humanity and Planet Earth at this unique time in our planet’s history, is about these specific years through which we are living right now.
Aquarian energies began to emerge on Planet Earth around 1760; by the year 2260, Piscean energies will have fully yielded to Aquarian energies. In the meantime, as the Piscean plays out its remaining years and the Aquarian energies continue to become stronger and more prominent, our planet is experiencing an extreme increase in turmoil and unrest as the darker energies rise to the surface to be changed into Light.
Of all our destinies – personal, family, group, national – our planetary destiny and the destiny of the human race is the most important. It is by recognizing, understanding, and taking action to support the fulfillment of this destiny that we can support the wellbeing and continued existence of each other, of our world, and of the earth upon which we live.
The series explores the unique characteristics of this midpoint between the eras in relation to what is happening today, recognizing that we are at a moment of great significance for the survival or our planet, and what we can do – what we must do – as conscious members of the human race to fulfill our role in the destiny of our world. It is up to us – Lightbearers of the new era – to manifest our destiny by helping to usher in the New World of peace, joy, love, and Divine Light.
The four years between 2021 and 2025 will be a particularly disruptive and dangerous time, as dark energy rises to the surface to be changed into Light.
Despite its distortions, there are durable remnants of the Piscean Era that are vital to the success of Aquarian times.
This unique period offers a magnificent gift for ALL: an invitation to enter into a new reality now being created on Planet Earth.
Receive a free copy of
the Trilogy books!
Read about The
Bookgiving Project
HERE
An exceptional reality is opening to us––an era of conscious individuals, conscious leaders, and conscious groups. In this pioneering series, Susan Trout translates key spiritual principles into practical blueprints for transforming the lives of individuals, groups, leaders, and organizations, inviting us to move out of the personal into the collective and out of duality into wholeness. A unique roadmap to navigate the challenges of our current times, The Soul and Service Trilogy offers templates for an innovative model of leadership and groups. To engage with these books is to answer the clarion call of soul-inspired leadership and group consciousness.
with a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
An extraordinary handbook exploring the link between service and the soul, Born to Serve guides individuals, groups, and organizations in deepening their consciousness of the relationship between their motives for serving and the quality of their service.
Published by Institute for the Advancement of Service, 1997. Cover design by Jane Perini.
Read excerpts from Born to Serve
HERE and HERE
The Awakened Leader envisions an unparalleled era of conscious leaders able to balance the virtues of heart and mind, spirit and matter, and feminine and masculine while working with shadow issues and maintaining right relations with those they lead.
Published by Institute for the Advancement of Service, 2005
Cover design by Jane Perini
Read an excerpt from
The Awakened Leader HERE
Offering both an urgent message for our times and an invitation to engage in our lives in a wholly new way, The Clarion Call shows leaders and groups how to articulate and manifest a dynamic model of leadership and group life at this unprecedented time in our planet's history.
Published by Institute for the Advancement of Service, 2009
Cover design by Jane Perini
Read an excerpt from The Clarion Call HERE
Visit The Bookgiving Project page to discover how to receive free copies of any of our books!
This includes Susan Trout's latest book,
To Show Another Way: How to Learn, Heal, and Serve
at a Time of Crisis on Planet Earth
Several years ago, a group of Masters from the higher realms dictated a message in which they shared that many souls were asking what they could do, as part of humanity, to help restore Light and Love on Earth NOW–during these dangerous, unpredictable, and transitional times. The Masters' reply to the inquiry was this:
To Show Another Way: How to Learn, Heal, and Serve at a Time of Crisis on Planet Earth is author Susan Trout’s direct response to the Masters’ suggestion. A compendium of universal teachings and practical applications, To Show Another Way offers a vision for humanity and Planet Earth that transforms life events into learning, healing, and service. It draws upon spirituality, psychology, neuropsychology, metaphysics, physical and mental health, leadership, and group consciousness in such topics as:
Showing another way to ourselves and others is our life’s ultimate purpose. When we commit to showing another way, we take the first step toward our ultimate destiny as human beings: to extend the gifts of our learning in service to others and Planet Earth.
Read a featured teaching from the book
HERE
To Show Another Way: How to Learn, Heal, and Serve at a Time of Crisis on Planet Earth was published by the Institute for the Advancement of Service in July 2020. The cover was designed by Jane Perini.