In order to go through the initiation and participate fully in the generativity of the death-rebirth cycle, we must slow down, return into the earth and listen to the music, poetry, and high-voltage guidance found in the depths.
There may always be an urgency to overcome the dissolution and get to the next phase as quickly as possible. But there is wisdom in the dark, preparing the vessel for the next illumination. Allow the old to wash away and grieve the way you thought it was all going to turn out. This grief is holy and opens the heart to imagination and revisioning.
As tempting as it may be, we cannot skip stages. We cannot say to death, no thank you, I’m not interested. For to do so is an affront to the soul. Take time to mourn the reassembling of your world and provide safe passage for all that you will inevitably lose as you heal and awaken.
In times of transition, it is often unclear, uncertain, and unknown. From the conventional perspective, these experiences are not envisioned as vision-carriers for the way ahead. But merely as “processes” to get through, as quickly as possible, so that we can return to the next series of accumulations and births. Or they are fantasized to be “lower vibration,” which only places them deeper into the personal and collective shadow.
Upon closer examination, these states are awash with meaning. Within the core of confusion is a wisdom that cannot be unearthed in times of clarity. But we must reorganize our perception to discover this. New images, new myths, new lenses must emerge through which we can navigate a new world.
Even more than a shift in perspective, perhaps it is a turning of the heart that is most required, a willingness to befriend ourselves at levels previously not thought possible. If what we long for is aliveness, creativity, intimacy, and meaning, we must revision the model which pathologizes the darkness and the moon, while glorifying the solar and the light.
Inside the body is a temple which reveals the union of opposites, a sanctuary where they dance and play, fall apart and hold it all together, a secret place where they meet as one.
Befriending Yourself - you are invited to join me and my friend Jeff Foster at our new online membership site at the intersection of spirituality, meditation, and depth psychology. Dialogues, teachings, practices, live meditations, and a moderated support community.
My most recent book – The Path Is Everywhere: Uncovering the Jewels Hidden Within You – is available in both paperback and Kindle editions.
My next book, A Healing Space: Befriending Yourself in Difficult Times, will be published by Sounds True in 2021.
