To be ready for wholeness, first be fragmented. To be ready for rightness, first be wronged. To be ready for fullness, first be empty. To be ready for renewal, first be worn out. To be ready for success, first fail. To be ready for doubt, first be certain.
Tao Te Ching
Happy New Year! If you’re like most of the people I’ve spoken to in the last few days you may be saying,” I’m glad 2008 is over, that was a tough year.” We’re all hoping for something better but hope is not enough. We have to choose, intend and consciously create the new.
Yes, the latter part of last year was tough here in the States. It was a time of disillusionment, loss, stress and chaos for many. Seeing the winter trees as I drove home the other day reminded me how disillusionment is a state of being stripped of comfort, stripped to the bone, down to the place of bare necessity, to the vulnerable self with no place to hide.
To lose one’s illusions about anything is ultimately a good thing because it means we can get real, and once we know what’s real we can become empowered to make conscious choices and create our reality anew.
But disillusionment is also uncomfortable and confusing because it creates a shift in identity – in our sense of who we are. Do you know those moments when you suddenly see yourself, your relationship or your situation differently? You may feel shocked, betrayed or tricked. You wonder if you have been blinded or bewitched. And of course most of us do walk around blind to parts of ourselves. These are the parts we have hidden or disassociated from, way back in the past when it wasn’t safe to experience ourselves fully. Many people disassociate from their vulnerability for instance, or from their need to be in control, or from their anger or spite. We can usually see these aspects of self very clearly in others, especially our nearest and dearest, and we try to get the other person to change because we can’t stand to see that part of us we’re hiding from. When we’re in a conscious relationship this is what we call shadow work or mirror work: seeing our friend, partner or family member as a mirror revealing to us our own blind spots. It’s a good idea when making a judgment of another to check and see if that quality or behavior we’re judging is also in us. But we’re all very good at fooling ourselves so we may not even see it when we look! Notice what you become most reactive to in others, reactivity is a very good warning system that there’s part of your self you are defending against which may be getting ready to come out of the closet.
But it’s all good! Dis-illusionment strips away old limiting patterns of thought and perception and shakes up our sense of who we are. It can be like the playground game, Blind Man’s Buff, where you blindfold someone and turn them around and around, then when they’re totally giddy, you point them in a new direction and they stumble off in blind faith.
We could see illusions rather like the chrysalis stage of the butterfly, in which we need the outer casing to keep us safe while we grow and then at a certain time the innate patterning to transform into the butterfly becomes so strong we have to shed the outer protection. Was the chrysalis in a state of illusion about itself and the nature of reality or was it simply living out a natural phase of its development?
Illusions usually crack apart when we’ve played them to the limit. As creative beings we all do the best we can to adapt to the situations of our lives, especially when we are young and vulnerable and have no choice but to stay in the difficult situation. At a certain point our creative adaptations start to hurt us more than they comfort us because they are preventing us from being whole and authentic. The growing self is like a plant that’s ready to be re-potted. It’s uncontainable life force pushes against the limitations of its pot, its roots ache to stretch out and draw more sustenance from the earth, it can’t breathe. It is like this for the fetus too as it nears the moment of birthing.
As we reach the point where the old identity cracks and strains, we may feel restless, trapped, we may play out some old dramas one last time, just so we get to see them clearly.
There is terror in breaking out of one’s cosy pot, the warm womb, one’s chrysalis shell, and entering into the unknown, the void, the blank slate. We are not conditioned to deal easily with emptiness and not knowing, especially here in America where identity is built on doing, achieving, being super-independent, being the best, the expert, the knower, the success story.
At the point where limitation is hurting most, if we’re lucky, we surrender, let go and free fall into emptiness.
More next week…..
Namaste
Rose
MESSAGE FROM THE HOPI ELDERS
You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour.
Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour.
And there are things to be considered:
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships? Are you in right relation?
Where is your water? Know your garden.
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community. Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.
This could be a good time!
There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold on to the shore.
They will feel they are being torn apart, and they will suffer greatly.
Know the river has its destination.
The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river
Keep our eyes open and our heads above the water.
See who is in there with you
And celebrate.
At this time in history we are to take nothing personally.
Least of all, ourselves.
For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.
The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!
Banish the word "struggle" from your attitude and your vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we've been waiting for.
(Contributed by Vivienne Wright, Founding Member, Auckland)
— THE ELDERS / ORAIBI, ARIZONA / HOPI NATION
