(inspired by the Pluto/Mars conjunction, and Mercury/Libra opposition of October 2016)
As we move closer towards the Samhain season, we are turning towards the Great Mystery of death and rebirth. This week our bodies and minds are being activated and prepared for radical transformation and awakening. We are in the death throes of dying paradigms.
Do you feel the stirrings and churnings of this chaos? Do you see the utter havoc all around and within? Have all of your plans been turned upside down, but in absolute service of divine perfection? This is a Cosmic Dance. This is Chaos in service of Evolution, Death in service of Rebirth.
You have power and agency to create from this Chaos, and to see the beauty inherent in the destruction. In this, you are deeply supported by a force beyond your wildest imaginings. Call it Divine; call it God; call it Goddess; call it what you will…
This is not personal, and at the same time it is! Call your power from the mayhem.
Are you afraid of who will show up when you lift the lid from Pandora’s box, or when you open the gates of the dungeon?
When you hear them knocking and pleading to be heard, ask:
- What is needed?
- What can i do today?
- What is dying?
- What is being reborn? emerging from the ashes?
- How can i assist the transition?
What if we didn’t have to fight these voices and pound them into submission? What if we could come face to face with our shadows, and not only love ourselves, but like ourselves, as well?
We must all go through the Valley of Shadows, encountering our unowned emotions, thought forms and tendencies. For years, we might hide or only give so much, withholding our beauty, love and magic from the world, saying: “no, wait, hold on, not yet, i’m not ready.” Then a person or opportunity comes and says NOW. The door is open. You are needed. Come.
In this moment, there is still choice. But, as it is written in the Gospel of Thomas: “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
Participate in the unfolding unwinding, unpacking and uncovering. Be conscious of what is not working. Be willing to see the shadow and the light, rather than glossing over, meditating the world away, and pretending everything is fine (spiritual bypassing).
Spiritual bypassing isn’t a shortcut to the Divine. It may seem so for a time, but the snake will bite your ass eventually. To heal we must be willing to feel. You may come across some bliss bunnies along the path, but don’t follow them down the rabbit hole. It’s a maze with a dead end at every turn.
There is a path for you, and it will twist and turn, and take you up and draw you down. Follow your own map, the one laid out by your heart. There is no dead end with that one…death is a portal into the Great Mystery. At the end of every road, a new beginning is offered as an honoring of the past.
We move forward, rebirthing, nourished by all that is behind us.
At this threshold space of something or someone (re)birthing - a marriage, baby, move, or project - something or someone is dying. Often in the celebration, there is little attention or energy left for that which died. But, you may notice a hollowness somewhere within the fullness - a moment of unexplained and seemingly irrational grief.
At the other end, you may catch yourself laughing amidst the grief of death. Has this happened to you? Has this momentary lightness of being been quickly followed by a shock of shame or guilt for still being able to smile at all? You see, at the threshold of death is birth - within the despair is a spark of life.
It’s all here, all at once. As a dear friend said to me this week: “This is life life-ing.”
Welcome this beautiful life-ing and this beautiful dying. Together. Hand in hand. Dance.
* The Guided Meditation this week is “An Inquiry into the Heart.”