Spring Washam - The Spirit of Harriet Tubman: Awakening from the Underground

Praise for The Spirit of Harriet Tubman

Wow! An extraordinary and inspiring story, one of power and heart. Read this and Harriet will touch your spirit and change you for the good.

Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart

A powerful and astonishing book on the liberator Harriet Tubman, whose courage and vision, determination, and love will light the underground of our lives. Spring Washam brings to us her life and Harriets in a voice that is both beautiful and courageous.

Roshi Joan Halifax, Abbot, Upaya Zen Center

Mother Harriet, as an awakened bodhisattva, knows that real freedom is realizing the essence of everything, and to do that, our abolition practice must also be a spiritual practice where we are allying with the unseen world of beings who are working alongside us to get us and everything free.... In this text Spring has consented to allow Mother Harriet to speak through her to offer to the world a vital message of hope as well as a call to action.

from the foreword by Lama Rod Owens

Praise for A Fierce Heart

Washam brings considerable gifts for conveying her vision of personal change and offers vivid, inspiring testimony to the power of Buddhism (and other wisdom traditions) to help heal suffering.

Publishers Weekly

ALSO BY SPRING WASHAM

A Fierce Heart:
Finding Strength, Courage,
and Wisdom in Any Moment

The above is available at
your local bookstore,
or may be ordered by visiting:

Hay House USA: www.hayhouse.com
Hay House Australia: www.hayhouse.com.au
Hay House UK: www.hayhouse.co.uk
Hay House India: www.hayhouse.co.in

Copyright 2023 by Spring Washam

Published in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com

Published in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au

Published in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk

Published in India by: Hay House Publishers India: www.hayhouse.co.in

Interior design: Bryn Starr Best

Cover illustration: Lobsang Melendez Ahuanari

Cover design: Claudine Mansour

Lines from The Hill We Climb copyright 2021 by Amanda Gorman. Used by permission of the author.

Photo of Harriet Tubman on reproduced courtesy of the Ohio History Connection, image AL03231.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise copied for public or private useother than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviewswithout prior written permission of the publisher.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4019-6322-4

E-book ISBN: 978-1-4019-6323-1

Audiobook ISBN: 978-1-4019-6324-8

This book is dedicated to all the abolitionists, freedom fighters, and supporters of the Underground Railroad.
Its also dedicated to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one of the greatest conductors in the universe.

We are soldiers in the army.
We have to fight although we have to cry.
Weve got to hold up the blood-stained banner.
Weve got to hold it up until we die!

WE ARE SOLDIERS,
TRADITIONAL BLACK GOSPEL HYMN

During the summer of the 2020 quarantine, Spring and I chatted one afternoon about her connection to Mother Harriet Tubman, a connection that had resulted first in an online gathering space called the Church of Harriet and later developed into the inspiration for this very text. Spring spoke of the intensity of opening to the immensity of Mother Harriets awakened consciousness, a series of experiences that would often leave her deeply inspired but also incredibly depleted and shaken. Mother Harriet was asking her to write a book to clarify aspects of her life that had been previously misunderstood. I empathized with Spring. I was not only serving the grief of the pandemic but also having to navigate a lot of powerful energies, so I too was feeling weary. I loved Mother Harriet and had a deep appreciation and reverence for what she did to free our people, but I remember thinking that I really couldnt handle what she was serving Spring!

Later that year, a student offered me a large framed portrait of Mother Harriet and a hoodie with her picture on the front. The portrait is the famous shot of her in her late elder years, sitting in a rocking chair draped in white. Her left hand is resting on the chairs arm and she gazes just past the camera. This student felt that Mother Harriet was attempting to connect to me as well. I was appreciative of the offering but still didnt feel at that time that I had a strong connection to her.

In the iconic photo, her face as well as her expression are hard to describe, even as I sit here gazing at the picture in my practice room. Its as if her face is carved of stone, but it doesnt feel rigid or hard. It feels like her face as well as her whole body has been shaped by the richness of the earth itself. She radiates the power of mountains, emanating an energy of foundation and unshakability, embracing the wisdom and fortitude of someone who had no choice but to force the world to bend to her will. Her eyes are clear and swirling with intense joy that has known the darkest sorrow. Her eyes are doing much more than gazing beyond the camera, they are gazing into the unseen heart of this world to which she came free of delusion. She is wrapped in love, held by stillness, and yet she is tired. She seems to be communicating, Ive done what I can, and I am grateful.