Spiritual Geography, LLC

Our Mission

“Successfully functioning in a society with diverse values, traditions and lifestyles requires us to have a relationship to our own reactions rather than be captive of them. To resist our tendencies to make right or true, that which is nearly familiar, and wrong or false, that which is only strange.” ― Robert Kegan

We each have a unique way of looking at the transcendent. Our mission is to foster self-exploration of personal beliefs, allowing that others may see that which is transcendent a little differently. Our understanding of the transcendent is always incomplete since there is far more to know than any one human is capable of understanding. By acknowledging that we don't have the complete picture ... and never can have the complete picture ... maybe we will be more patient, more accepting, more generous with those who see things differently than we do. By discussing and sharing our thoughts we each become more -- growing as we learn about the divine.

Guiding Principles

There is something beyond our understanding and earthly experience, whether someone calls that something God, the Infinite, Source, Spirit, the Transcendent, the Divine .... This something has a core attribute of Love.
We have the ability to connect to this something and can grow the ability for deeper connection.
We can never know if we have the "right" understanding of this something. We only know a small amount. We don't even know the scope and breadth of all that we don't know.
Because we can't know if we've gotten it "right," we can't definitely say that someone else has gotten it "wrong."
There are elements of beauty and truth in both religious and spiritual-but-not-religious perspectives. Finding how these are life-giving to the person allows our acceptance of perspectives unlike our own.
The potential harm from our spiritual perspective often comes when we believe our perspective is correct (and others are incorrect).
We can expand our knowledge of this something by hearing other people's perspectives and interactions with this something.
We can make peace with not knowing all the answers and step willingly into the unknown.
Walking into this space of not knowing creates a gateway to deeper love, acceptance, and understanding.
Each person was created with unique gifts and talents; finding who they were created to be unleashes possibility.

Testimonials:

“I have been extremely fortunate to attend the workshop “Why the Truth Doesn’t Matter” and a weekend spiritual retreat facilitated by Joni. Her expertise in areas that are vital in our troubled political climate can be applied in many situations and with a variety of groups. Joni’s delivery is wonderful – knowledgeable yet inclusive and down to earth. I heartily recommend her.” – CWC, Rockville, MD

“Thank you so much. Very insightful and well done!” – Anonymous, Rockville, MD

“Very valuable workshop that created a space for me to think about ideas in a different way.” – Anonymous, Rockville, MD

“I am not a ‘natural’ for your program, as I am truly an introvert and don’t enjoy telling my ‘story,’ since I’ve never been able to figure out what it might be. However, the session of creating a spiritual timeline was very meaningful to me – I had never done anything like that before. After a period of a year or so of feeling ‘stuck’ in my spiritual seeking, I had an insight on Monday which feels like it’s pointing me in the next direction, the right direction. It has created a great feeling of peace and I am happy to give you (almost) all the credit.” – Anonymous, Rockville, MD

Joni's story of the development of the Spiritual Geography Card Deck

The concept of the card deck came first, with a simple question in 2010: Why does the values card sort used in career counseling only have one card about spirituality? If "spirituality" is one of my top values, the way "spirituality" expresses itself in my life is very different than the way someone else expresses spirituality. So I started mulling this over -- creating a card deck exclusively for spiritual and religious values. I had to come up with my understanding of spiritual and religious values first. This wasn't about beliefs, per se, but more about what aspects of our beliefs become values. How do we experience the transcendent? What aspects of religious experience are found in many different faith traditions? How does "spirituality" express itself in those who are atheist or agnostic? I read ... a lot ... and, after several iterations, came up with the Spiritual Geography card deck. In general, these values fall in the following four areas:

Personal

Other People

Understanding

How do you understand that which is transcendent?

How do you relate to/understand other people’s beliefs?

Experience

How do you experience that which is transcendent?

How do you interact with other people because of your spiritual framework?

Our spirituality impacts more than just our personal practices and understanding. We relate to other people differently because of our belief systems. For example, what do you say to a grieving widow at a funeral? Or a parent at the bedside of their sick child? How do you feel about a religious building (church, temple, mosque, etc.) being built in your neighborhood? How do you interact with people who believe differently than you do, especially in conversations that touch on our transcendent beliefs? And how do you process these conversations with those who believe differently than you after you have the conversation? In all of these examples what we believe influences our words, actions, and feelings.