A quiet, still body of water now rests at the center of our online journey circle. This is an actual place, one that exists in the imaginal realm (different from “imagined”) thanks to our continued ritual blessing of water and our shared commitment to receive the messages of Spirit in our weekly circle.
You can visit this place, too, in meditation, your dreams, or with us through shamanic journeywork on Wednesdays at 4 pm PDT.
I had planned to suggest that we journey on the element of fire this week in keeping with an unfolding theme, but something shifted when I visited this quiet lake in the predawn hours of morning.
Silence permeated the scene. Not even a bird made a sound. The water was so still it was like glass: an invitation, an invocation. In this stillness, without a ripple of emotion, thought, or wind, the water between and within us mirrored the heavens.
As a culture and as people, we like to act and to make change in the world. When we are frightened the impulse to do something–anything–is especially strong. The same holds true for our spiritual lives, too.
Our efforts can be likened to building fires of warmth, safety, and light to counteract days of dark difficulty. These spiritual efforts in the face of challenge, however, can border on the frantic. The blaze of all of our fires, no matter how bright, cannot overcome the shadow of fear that prompted us to build them in the first place.
Crowding out the fact of our mortality with the light of fire and effort does not help us to feel safer; on the contrary. Our fear of losing the precious gift of life does not subside until we slow down, summon our strength, and receive the fullness of life into our beings.
These times call us to become equal to life, equal to loving something so charged with power, so freighted with the beauty and weight of impermanence, that it will tear us apart. The irony is that once we receive life completely and fully, once life devours us, we can never lose it. Being devoured by life is the work of a lifetime.
These times invite us into tender intimacy and subtle communion with the deeper mysteries of life. Instead of changing this moment, instead of pressuring it for meaning, instead of building fires of thought and devotion to keep this moment at a distance, let us meet it.
Let us explore this quiet twilight landscape together. Let us soften and grow still. Let us reach out and touch the tender countenance of reality. Let us behold the heavens reflected in the still center of our turning world. The truth is that there is nothing to fear. In the silence, at the center, heaven is with us still.
May we not miss this opportunity to receive the gift of life, a gift that grows gaudy and cheap with familiarity. Let us receive the gift of life anew and know it again for the first time.
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If you yearn for companionship and to visit the still waters of Spirit, consider booking a spiritual guidance session to nurture yourself in the midst of quarantine.
Sessions can be tailored to your needs, dropping the journey component if you don’t have the time or the privacy to journey.
30-minute sessions, one-hour sessions, or the full hour-and-a-half journey packages are available.
Pay-what-you-can for the duration of the crisis.