Dear Friends,
Three words and . . . , selected from the deck of “Angel Cards” as I have been writing this update.
Tenderness, Courage and Birth.
The fourth card is blank – or it contains unlabelled spaciousness, depending on your point of view!
The cards seem perfect for this moment, may I explain?
As I write, my body is tender after a series of new yoga classes. Yesterday’s class took me to a pose that I cannot pronounce and on one level makes me question why I would want to contort myself into this position!
On another level, it feels good! This morning, I feel a little more upright, a little more open, aligned . . . and tender!
Experientially and intellectually, we know that, as Denise LaBarre describes, we hold, often unconsciously, issues in our tissues.
We know that our inner and outer worlds mirror each other. My online yoga teacher, David Procyshyn speaks of the need to balance effort and release. He says it’s not about pushing or tensing, it’s often about letting go.
There is something about stretching my body, that enables me to let go – to release the hidden physical and emotional tension held within. To become tender.
And tenderness often finds expression through tears.
This moment is no exception.
“There are only two things that pierce the human heart.
One is beauty.
The other is affliction.”
Simone Weil
Hmm Courage!
I always find I need a little courage to send out an update – but that didn’t seem to fit today.
Courage, what are you asking of me?
The response –
With Courage as your guide,
Will you allow yourself to feel the affliction and suffering we are seeing across the globe, so that it pierces your heart?
Will you hold the tension there until a new way forward appears?
Will you allow yourself to truly weep for those who, rather than seeing our oneness, see separation and the need to dominate – those who are clinging to a power-over paradigm and releasing their unhealed trauma and fear through violence and destruction?
Will you allow yourself to truly weep with the people and the land that is exposed to that violence and destruction?
Will you allow yourself to weep with the parents whose children have been killed and with the children who have been denied the opportunity to bring their full creativity and life to the world?
Over the years, especially when the flow of tears seems to be without end, I have found great comfort in understanding that in myth, tears protect the psyche from harm or evil intent.
Knowing this, I have learned to welcome tears, to accept them, let them flow and, if they wish, to tell me why they have come.
Might our understanding of the connectedness of all things, our empathy and compassionate tears offer some protection to those who are afflicted and suffering today?
Let’s take a breath together.
Let’s weep together for the pain of the world.
Coming back to the here and now, I wanted to offer a reference for the mythological understanding of tears that I shared above, but as I scroll through Women Who Run with the Wolves, these words stepped forward to be shared.
“Tears are a river that takes you somewhere.
Weeping creates a river around the boat that carries your soul-life.
Tears lift your boat off the rocks, off dry ground, carrying it downriver
to someplace new, someplace better.”
Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Could it be that the river of our compassionate tears will carry us to someplace better?
To someplace where there are no more tears, or pain, or violence, or death?
Since I paused the International Days posts, I have silently, watchfully been holding space in my humanitarian, mother heart to see what emerges.
I am sure that I have a place, that I can contribute towards the creation of a more loving, new world . . . I just don’t know what that looks like yet!
Two images from my time in Barcelona speak to me. They sit within sight of each other at the harbour.
The first – Miraestels – Stargazers, invites la contemplación de las estrellas – contemplation of the stars.
I see myself in this figure!
Bobbing about being carried by the current, gazing skyward in awe of the vast heavenly beauty, gradually beginning to see patterns and interconnections – all the while searching for understanding!
The more I’m learning about astrology, the mythological / archetypal symbolism of the planets and their interactions and influences, the more fascinated I become!
Today’s new moon – the dark or liminal time between moon cycles, with its placement in Sagittarius is, according to Heather Ensworth another invitation into greater awareness of the life-death-life cycle of all things. All the horrific events in the world look and feel life the death of ways of being that no longer serve us, or our planet.
And, as with all new moons, we are offered an opportunity to shed the attitudes and behaviours that no longer serve us, and to set intentions – seeds of new life, new ways of being, so that together we may create a more just, compassionate, inclusive and loving world.
Of course, in the port of Barcelona, the Miraestels are anchored to the sea floor.
Whilst my gaze might be towards the heavens, I still feel the need to be connected with the ground, at least while I wait for clarity.
This is where Barcelona’s Monumento de Colom – depicting Christopher Columbus decisively pointing towards the “New World” speaks to me.
The two images offer integration.
For me, the Miraestels represent the Soul-Self, the right brain, awe inspired, receptive, yin, “feminine” connection to the cosmos, whilst Columbus represents the ego, the left brain, linear, decisive, assertive, yang, “masculine” energy. Very clear of his direction.
Of-course, we need both to function.
My direction is becoming clearer. The boat that carries my soul-life is not yet fully formed.
Here in the Northern Hemisphere’s winter, I’m content, for now, sheltering in the harbour, rather than setting out to sea. I’m cherishing a light tethering to the ground, my more familiar terrain, through participation in a weekly contemplative prayer gathering.
This week, our advent passage from the Gospel of Luke, describes the Angel’s visit to Mary. It tells of the child that will be born to her.
The word liminal popped up again!
This time from John Philip Newell’s description of the expectant “liminal time between the womb and birth”, described as a time of recognizing and celebrating what is already here – the “What” that births.
I was reminded of my first pregnancy, and the first quickening of new life within. That wonderful merging of expectancy and mystery, of knowing – knowing I was going to have a baby, and not knowing – not knowing the gender or personality, or who this new life would be. Not knowing what joys and challenges birthing and parenting would bring!
The not-knowing brings me to my final Angel Card . . . .
Blank, empty space . . . or overflowing with possibility and unlabelled spaciousness, waiting to be revealed.
"Live like the river flows"
John O’Donohue
With deep gratitude for your company as we navigate the mysteries together.
Be Safe, Be Well
Annie