“People the world over consistently acknowledge each other in four ways:
We acknowledge each other’s skills;
each other’s character qualities,
each other’s appearance and
the impact we make on each other.”
Angeles Arrien
My hands are sticky and sweet golden juice drips off my wrists onto the table!
This is my first experience of such an abundance of peaches and what a sensory delight it’s become! Colour, texture, aroma and taste all begging to be noticed!
Having fed some to the chickens and prepared some for jam, I came home from an impromptu visit to La Flor del Agua, the Rose Farm where I spent the summer, with a bag full of slightly bruised, slightly muddy peaches. Some didn’t look so great, but all were calling out have their potential seen, to be prepared, eaten and enjoyed!
There’s been some shift in me.
Some of you will have witnessed me saying that I would be happy if I never had to cook another meal, and here I am, looking up recipes, experimenting with ingredients and talking with my friends about baking.
As a parent and stepparent, my most dreaded and exhausting task each week was to plan the menu and load the shopping trolley with sufficient goods to satisfy the seemingly insatiable hunger of six teenagers.
What has changed in me?
Am I remembering something from my childhood? Sitting in the garden, stringing beans with my mother & grandmother or the glut of plums being turned into jam.
Yes! . . . And there’s a deeper remembrance too.
“No matter where we are, nature is there and welcomes us back to participate in her wholeness”
Anne Wilson Schaef
In my last email, I mentioned Mabon, one of eight seasonal festivals that mark the solstices, equinoxes and the mid-points between them.
Whilst there are different interpretations for the number eight, one that resonates is that eight represents finding a balance between the spiritual world and the material one.
And as I am participating with sun’s annual journey, noticing nature, offering gratitude and holding ceremony, connecting the spiritual world with the material one, I can feel balance and wholeness return.
But balance requires integration – of masculine with feminine – the yang action born from yin, receptive ground, of dark and light, strengths and vulnerabilities.
As I write this, we are once again, entering the dark of the moon – such a wonderful, evocative phase for those of us, who like me love darkness and the underworld mysteries!
In Mysteries of the Dark Moon, Demeter George explains
“The story that the moon tells is of birth, growth, fullness, decay, disappearance, with rebirth and growth again. In every cycle there is a naturally occurring dark phase when the life force seems to disappear for a period of time . . . Here is where life cleanses, revitalizes and transforms itself in its evolutionary development, spiralling toward attunement with its essential nature.”
On 2nd /3rd October, the new moon will reappear as a slender, silver crescent, reborn after her dark phase. Nestled in the stars of Libra, this new moon symbolically speaks of being in right balance, harmony and right relationship with Source and with all things.
Is this an invitation in which nature is welcoming us back to participate in her wholeness?
~
In her interpretation of this new moon’s astrology, Heather Ensworth suggests that at this time, we are being asked to recognise the preconceived judgements and ideas that we hold, to set them aside and to see ourselves and others clearly.
To support our process, Pholus, the healing centaur is again activated.
You’ll remember from my post “What is this?” that, having “taken the lid off” the jar of intoxicating, potent, sacred liquor, survived the resultant chaos and brutality, Pholus entered a new level of awareness through his curious enquiry.
I know for myself that taking the lid off – letting lose all those suppressed thoughts and emotions can be a frightening prospect.
But I have learned that through curious enquiry my shadow aspects have come forward, longing to be given a place to belong within my psyche.
While they might snarl and prowl for a while, they are simply afraid of being exiled again. Their bark is much worse than what turns out to be a toothless bite!
And, knowing they are a natural part of me, that they have kept me safe up until now, I can appreciate my shadow aspects, acknowledge their existence and, rather than them being let loose, unconsciously and harmfully on the world, I can choose how to respond when they are activated.
My intention in so doing is to transmute shadow into love.
As we recognise and embrace our own strengths and vulnerabilities, the aspects of ourselves that we love to share, and those we’d prefer to keep hidden, compassion is born – for ourselves and others.
Of-course, the voice with which we speak to ourselves is the same voice with which we speak to others.
Ask yourself,
Is my loudest inner voice critical, compassionate, harsh or gentle?
How do I like to be spoken to?
What simple change could I make, so that I speak to myself and others in the way that I like?
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, in his article “The Antidote to Self-Criticism” says
“When we begin to appreciate, we can make a lot of great discoveries from within ourselves.”
When we begin to appreciate . . .What might a be helpful step in the direction of appreciation?
Perhaps Salacia*, the dwarf planet of higher love can help!
Salacia is opposite the new moon/solar eclipse, challenging us to emanate a higher level of love and consciousness in all our relationships.
What might this mean?
Angeles Arrien suggests that by extending “the arms of love”; acknowledgement, acceptance, recognition, validation and gratitude, we extend healing to ourselves and others.
In describing the archetype of the Healer, Arrien says that
“Healers in all traditions recognise that the power of love is the most potent healing force available to all human beings.”
“the greatest remorse is love unexpressed”.
How powerful, how healing would it be if we could consistently extend these arms of love to ourselves and to others!
But how?
Arrien goes on to say that
“People the world over consistently acknowledge each other in four ways:
We acknowledge each other’s skills;
each other’s character qualities,
each other’s appearance
and the impact we make on each other.
Wherever we receive the least acknowledgement is where we carry a belief of inadequacy or low self-esteem.”
Notice, and ask yourself
Where do I need to receive acknowledgement to counter a belief of inadequacy or low self-esteem?
How might I extend the arms of love to myself?
How might I extend the arms of love to another?
I think that we can all sense that individually and collectively, we are in a time of great change. So how might the healing we are offering and receiving move us forward collectively?
Circling back, Heather Ensworth also asks
Are we seeing the potential in ourselves, in each other and in the planet?
Perhaps as we extend the arms of love to ourselves and to others, the potential hidden in each of us will shine though more clearly.
Like the peaches I was given, we might be a bit bruised, a bit muddy, but we each have such potential!
I encourage you – look below the surface, appreciate all that you see there and call out that sweet, golden deliciousness that lies within!
I’m looking forward to being with you soon,
Be happy, be safe, be well,