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Guilt is deeply rooted in our psyches and can put the brakes on letting life in when there is no foundation in our formative or current experiences to support the energies of life, thus threatening collapse into obsessions, compulsions, or other unconscious defenses. To hold love, delight, grief, loss….life itself…. we need metaphorical midwives to help us open to the energies and experience the fullness of grace. 

When we witness a story that is brilliant and seamless in its’ writing, we are transported into the worlds of the characters, experiencing our hearts touched in such a way that we are left exclaiming “What happened?!” as if we were touched by the transcendent…..left trembling with a resonance in our bodies….or expanded in such a way that we feel transported to something new, something unexpected or beyond our imagination….as if by magic. Such a story embodies the gestalt of a symbol, a wholeness full of meaning that our soul craves and relentlessly pushes us to know and be transformed as a result.

Within each of us is a writer, a narrator for the story we are living, that may also leave us stunned and asking, “What happened?” or “How did I get here…. again?” or a myriad of questions in this vein that do not feel transcendent, but rather, feel boring, futile, tiring, and meaningless. It is precisely these moments that used to have my full attention…. the moments of conscious awareness that force us to take pause, reflect, take stock, ask new questions, and seek new pathways. I realized, however, that these moments are fragile, easily buried in distraction, comfort, projection, and illusion that seemingly weave a story that is different but, at its core, is the same.

We need to go deeper.

There is a another moment that I have become well acquainted with and is certainly worthy of my full attention and yours. It lies just beneath the fleeting moments and its’ impact is anything but transient. It is the moment we try to bury with comfort, distraction, and illusion. It is the moment when all that is known disappears, including the writer….and there are no witnesses….until a Writer from a different realm appears. It is a moment that is unimaginably terrifying and deep as it fills all of time in an instant. It is a moment that is also eternity. It is both empty and pregnant with life. It is dark night and a dawning of a new day. It is pure paradox. Illusion is absent. Comfort is absent. Exit doors are absent. The Writer is Sophia. She is the container and mantle of Wisdom that lies within. She is beyond reason, beyond rationality. She is everything all at once. She is time, ceaseless cycles of becoming and ending, wholeness, nature as process. The story She reveals is emptied of illusion and dross, the shackles or curses that attach us to the unreal and fuel our addictions to satisfaction, comfort, perfection, self-sufficiency, power, and worldly passions. She is the feminine side of God, the Transcendent.

A workshop is coming in November to teach women a framework for building the spiritual scaffolding necessary to engage uncertainty, mystery….life itself…and dance in the fire with Sophia, thus allowing Her to clear the dross, transform, and be your midwife.

Life can unknowingly become about addictive efforts to contain, control, regulate, perfect….and therefore end up weakening, frustrating, or altogether annihilating pathways to our True selves…. our awakening, our life force. Existential questions and crises are rampant and the architecture of our communities no longer support, carry, or contain us the way it has historically so that we recognize and go into initiations into rebirth, consciously and willingly.

This workshop is designed to introduce women to Sophia who goes by many names cross culturally, also known as the Divine Feminine. The teaching provides a method of inquiry designed to connect with our symbolic lives where we connect most intimately with Sophia and our spiritual needs, allowing the “lead” of our suffering, the crosses we bear, to become the gold of higher consciousness or the key to rebirth. Understanding patterns inside our psyche is like having a map for entering the unknown, entering the transformative fire. Changes in our outer lives and in our dreams become more evident. These patterns will be outlined, not as intellectual fodder for debate but as a spiritual and emotional meal nourishing healthier relationship with self, organized religion, and community. From there, the skills for discernment of what is unfolding meaningfully or regressing endlessly can be developed. Women will leave with a meditation practice to continue their explorations and deepen the teachings.

Pre-Enrollment Cost: $60

Andrew Cohen

“The soul–which I’m defining as our capacity for these deeply positive human qualities–is something that, in most of us, desperately needs to be developed. Too many of us live in a fractured state, deeply divided against ourselves–often far more so than we are aware of or able to feel. We exist in a self-generated vacuum of moral ambiguity, where everything is relative and our attention is focused mainly on our emotional state. Most of us know a lot more about what really matters than we are willing to live up to. Indeed, we are attracted to that which is beautiful, profound, and meaningful but find ourselves lacking the soul strength to really struggle, to engage in a life-and-death wrestling match with our own division, cynicism, and inertia. The awful truth is that it is just easier for us not to care that much. In order to care that much, we have to be willing to feel a connection with life that is so deep that it hurts. We have to be ready to step onto the field of our own experience in a way that is authentic, unconditional, and deeply committed–to embrace a kind of fearless vulnerability where our transparency is our strength and the living experience of connection is permanent, unbroken, and inescapable.”

 

Quiet friend who has come so far,
feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let this darkness be a bell tower
and you the bell. As you ring,

 

Rainer Maria Rilke

Translation by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows

“Free from desire, you realize the mystery.  Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.”    Lau-tzu, Tao Te Ching

Within the mystery lies wisdom, discernment, and free will.  Tapping into the mystery requires removal from all that we desire, if only for a moment at a time, to see and truly understand.  All schools of thought in modern psychology would agree about the blinding nature of desire, destining us to repetitive patterns and creating illusions until they become conscious in the heart and expand our attitude toward our human experience and fellow man.   As for the existence of the “mystery” or unknowable something beyond what we can observe with our senses…..

Lao-tzu goes on……

“Yet mystery and manifestations arise from the same source.  This source is called darkness.  Darkness within darkness.  The gateway to all understanding.”

Arriving into that moment where mystery lies can take a catastrophic event that shatters the legitimacy of our safety nets, plunging us into bleak darkness or a state of mind wherein everything feels unreal, pointless, hollow.  It is in this darkness that we need a practice, a foundation, preferably built before the tragedy, that will reveal Truth, a higher knowledge than that which enables social adaptation and re-engages the bondage of desire, dependency, and/or attachment to our safety nets.

As Albert Camus pointed out, “there is no sun without shadow, and it is essential to know the night.”  He examined the tragedy of Sisyphus and realized the tragedy was that Sisyphus was conscious of his torment, pondering how many live as Sisyphus without knowing it.   As Lao-tzu points to the blinding nature of desire, Camus imagines Sisyphus using tragedy to silence “all the idols” wherein the mystery could be heard.  He describes the mystery as “the myriad wondering little voices of the earth ris[ing] up. Unconscious, secret calls, invitations from all the faces, they are the necessary reverse and price of victory. ”

Camus leaves us to ponder:

“Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

What do I mean by Faith?  We should all pause and ask ourselves this question and attempt to answer.  When I speak of faith I am not talking about sitting back and waiting for something or someone more powerful, smarter, stronger, or better than me to handle things.  That is magical thinking, not faith.  To be clear, I am not saying I am immune or anyone is immune for that matter from falling into magical thinking, regardless of age, intelligence, education, and life experience.  Rather, we are far from immune and are all inclined toward magical thinking in its many forms throughout our lives.  It doesn’t end when we stop believing in the tooth fairy.  In fact, we evolve out of magical thinking into spiritual faith only through active intention and EMBODIED experience of suffering, our own and others’….. as well as EMBODIED trust, compassion, and forgiveness toward ourselves and others.   EMBODIED….not dissociated through the myriad vices of the mind that can twist anything in and from the light into darkness. EMBODIED.  PRESENT.  ALIVE.  The act of distinguishing in our minds between magical thinking and faith needs to be routinely performed, adjusted, and remembered,  lest we quickly fall into the blissful trap of magical thinking where we can be lost for seconds, to hours, to days, to years, or to a lifetime.  

Facebook posts have remarked to “Move on” and what is wonderful is that this movement is about something even better.  It is about Moving Forward….marching together and out loud for human rights, getting informed versus hazily aware, and getting involved in what makes America great…..OUR democratic process. Practicing our right to vote every four years is not sufficient….and relying on those voted in to do the work and do what is right…..is not sufficient.  Let us all remember……. “A democratic process is a practice that allows democracy to exist. Democracy is based on the idea that EVERYONE should have equal rights and be allowed to participate in making important decisions.”  (Wikipedia)  And so, may EVERYONE share their voice without fear of retribution.    

Focusing on impeachment, who lost, Trump’s appearance, Trump himself, our anger……. is too narrow a focus….Whether he is impeached or not, tweets or not……FOCUS on getting involved and organized to productively share your voice and share your principles out loud versus reacting to others.  Make your voice heard for justice and peace WHILE MAINTAINING OUR COLLECTIVE DIGNITY AND INTEGRITY……refraining from seeking the pleasure of anyone’s demise and focused on seeking the reward of human rights being protected….. THAT IS THE HIGHER CALL.  Dare to become a part of the government versus complain about the government  and do the laborious and humbling personal work against power highs, anger, distraction, mirroring hate, etc.

May this Movement inspire people to exercise their voices in a positive, peaceful, intelligent and reverent manner….proceeding with patience, humility, and calm…….TOGETHER WITH OTHERS, knowing that no single person is greater than a critical mass of people behind PEACE AND JUSTICE and no bigger than God.   This is a spiritual practice. 

May we come to know that the President is not more powerful than the people, a fear currently being battled…and fading.  In order to know this, the people have to speak versus sit and wait for more outcomes, helpless and hopeless, complacent, passive, or……….overly optimistic, in denial of all the warning signs. Keeping the balance, on either side, is a responsibility….and learning we are all ONE, impacting the other, and that the separation is only an illusion….learning the true meaning of respecting differences and living with one another without sacrificing life…….

The level of organization behind this march is unprecedented and positive, not to be confused with the agitators or those who are focusing too narrowly on Trump. This march, that quickly became a movement, IS about unifying people’s voice in favor of human rights. We must all be aware that some are involved for the wrong reasons and may get high on hate and all of its’ rhetoric. That too, is the enemy. In the end, we are all human and have to find out what we stand behind…especially when the sensationalism fades or when the chaos or terror presides.  The capacity to sustain attention to the work ahead will require reprioritization of our lifestyles …which is the real test.  

Rachel Magnell

At the moment of awakening,

we have to ask real questions

and be prepared to take real action.

It doesn’t matter any more

what mother did to me,

what father did to me.

Shall I stay in this job?

Shall I stay in this relationship?

The real question is……..

Am I going to live even if I don’t know what that means?

– Marion Woodman

 

 

 

 

“Artists Marina Mabramovic and Ulay started an intense love affair in the 1970’s, performing out of a van they called home.  When they ended their relationship, they decided to walk the Great Wall of China, each from one end, meeting for one last embrace in the middle….That was the last time they saw eachother……In 2010, as part of her MoMa retrospective, ‘The Artist is Present,’ Marina shared a minute of silence with each stranger who sat in front of her.  On opening night, Ulay arrived without Marina knowing…..”   (http://smarturl.it/Adonis_EP)

 

Feminine consciousness

is the transformative energy

that can contain the energies of matter

and, through the fire of love,

connect them to the energies of the soul.

– Marion Woodman