Loneliness, connection, and the holy art of solitude

There is a wordless ache moving through humanity now, an ache of separation. You’re probably sensing it around you… it in the specter of people hunched over their phones in public spaces, in the air at cafés where people are fixated on their computer screens, in the faces of students walking school corridors as hundreds of others swarm around them? Even amid noise and chatter, there is a quiet cry: “Does anyone truly see me?”

Maybe you’re feeling it, too?

Loneliness has become one of the great initiations of our age. It is the shadow twin of hyper-connectivity. We may scroll through thousands of images of other lives yet we forget the intimate need to breathe and be present to ourselves. We communicate constantly but seldom commune.

But let’s remember, in all of this we’re not wrong or flawed. We’re simply being shown how hungry the soul is for genuine connectivity.

The Sacred Roots of Loneliness
When I was grappling with how loneliness has been a recurring leitmotif in my own life, Mother Mary said to me, “Loneliness is not punishment; it is the echo of your original unity calling you home.” I love that powerful reframing.

She reminded me that birth, we were woven into the chorus of creation, held in seamless belonging. Then, we entered matter, where we forgot that symphony for a time. So the longing we feel is the compass pointing us back toward that divine intimacy.

Mary Magdalene says, “When you feel lonely, you are standing at the threshold of intimacy with yourself. Do not rush away. Sit by the fire of your own company and listen. Beneath the ache lies the pulse of the Mother calling, Return to Me.”

And my Pleiadian guide Electra offers, “Loneliness is the chrysalis between worlds. You entered Earth as a star among many, yet the density of this realm makes you forget your constellation. Every moment of solitude, when entered consciously, rebuilds that stellar map within.”

The Modern Epidemic
My choir director, who works with young people all day long, says disconnection is epidemic especially among the young. Technology gives the illusion of togetherness without the nourishment of loving resonance. The human nervous system, designed for eye contact, touch, shared song, and silence, is now bathed in constant simulation.

But this crisis holds its own medicine. It is awakening a fierce hunger for authenticity, for community that feels alive rather than posed or curated. The collective soul is saying: We are ready to feel our belonging again.

The Bridge Between Solitude and Relationship
The Marys point out to me that there is a difference between being alone and feeling alone. True solitude is spacious, like a temple at dawn; loneliness is that same temple when we forget the light that still lives inside. The bridge between them is the presence of spirit ~ our spirit, divine spirit.

When you sit quietly and place a hand over your heart, breathing (as Mary once breathed, too), you cross the invisible river from isolation to intimacy with life itself. From there, all relationships, human and divine, arise naturally.

Practices for Reconnection

1. Daily Embodied Presence
2. Before turning to screens, step outside or place your bare feet on the floor. Whisper your name to the Earth. She answers.
3. The Five-Minute Listen
4. Choose one person each day and listen without agenda for five minutes. When you truly hear another, the membrane between souls thins.
5. Solitude as Ceremony
6. Light a candle and invite your unseen companions ~ ancestors, guides, friends across the veil ~ to join you. Speak aloud your gratitude. Loneliness cannot survive gratitude; it transforms into belonging.
7. Sacred Gatherings
8. Create or join circles where the invisible is welcomed ~ song circles, meditations, shared meals. The presence of the divine magnifies in community.

A Message for the Sensitive Ones
If you are one who feels the ache of loneliness or isolation keenly (as I have at times in my life), know this: you are the tuning fork of a new era of communion. Your sensitivity is the bridge through which a gentler world will enter. By honoring your own need for connection, you open pathways for others to remember theirs.

A Closing Blessing
Mother Mary wraps you now in her mantle of blue light.
Mary Magdalene anoints your heart with rose oil.
Electra traces a spiral of gold above your crown.

They say:
“You are not alone in your longing.
Every heartbeat in the cosmos is pulsing with you.
The loneliness of this world is the birth cry of a greater union.
Breathe. Belong. Remember.”