Breathe into your heart and awaken its love energy, for what do you seek more than this? The energy of love is the connecting energy between all things, between the seen and the unseen, the known and the unknown. Awaken the love energy first within yourself so that you may experience it all around you, so that you may connect with others and know yourself in a new way, as a being of love, as love itself, for that is what you truly are. Be love itself and let love guide you to know yourself in a new way and to experience the world in a new way too, as love energy. And remember, love permeates and surrounds all and it is powerful. Let it do its good work through you and in you. Be loving today and see what happens!
How many times have you tried to accomplish something and failed, not completed it, or lost interest in it? Maybe you’re trying to do the impossible or going about it the wrong way. It might not be working out because it just isn’t right to be doing. Success may only come when you stop doing what you’re doing, turn in a new direction, and do something that is more in alignment with what is right. You will know it is right by how seamlessly it is accomplished, by how good it makes you feel, and by what it opens you up to. There is truly something good about change. You might want to try it. It’s the perfect solution to all that keeps you stuck. Your stuckness may actually just be an idea you are fixated on that has no real value or purpose except to keep you stuck. Your stuckness might actually be trying to wake you up to the fact that this isn’t working! It might be telling you that it’s time to change! Are you ready to listen?
Our baldheaded cardinal going at it again! – Photo by Jan Ketchel
A doggedly persistent male cardinal smacks into our living room window throughout the day. The top of his head is bald and blue, like that of a turkey vulture, from his incessant headfirst crashes. We have noticed that this cardinal has a mate and we surmise he must be trying to fend off his perceived enemy reflected in the window, but the truth is that his enemy, unbeknownst to himself, is himself!
Our Soulbyte of Tuesday July 17, 2018 begins: “Pay attention. Become more fully aware of nature assisting you on your unfolding journey.” What is the guidance of this display of nature, of this seemingly crazy cardinal?
A bird is a spirit being. It flies like angels. The cardinal is named after the Cardinals of the Catholic Church in early Rome, adorned in their bright red robes and pointy red hats. Thus the cardinal is an earthly representative of a spirit being. Closer to home, the ego is the earthly representative of a spirit being. Consciousness, the hallmark of spirit, is born as the ego at the chakra center located at the solar plexus.
The solar plexus is the fire in the belly chakra, the home of personal power, where the ego discovers its ability to rise above the absolute control of nature’s primordial energies that command the lower chakras and choose its behavioral responses to the world. Nonetheless, choices are inevitably constricted by the narcissistic, self-referential cognitive and emotional limitations of the ego at this newly awakened youthful state of emergence.
Our cardinal reflects this narcissistic fixation. He cannot differentiate his enemy from himself. This results in a repetitive pattern of self-destructive behavior based on a distortedly applied archetypal instinct of defense. That distortion is a narcissistic reflection that won’t allow him a perspective beyond himself.
When Donald Trump asserts that American intelligence is the enemy, not Russia, he reflects the cardinal who sees his own reflection as the enemy. Trump unwittingly sees his own country as the enemy, which he subsequently incessantly verbally attacks, just as the cardinal incessantly attacks his own image reflected in our living room window. This is likely a developmental issue where ego is fixated on a narcissistic worldview.
The question is why this developmental stage is being so graphically mirrored upon the world stage at this point? What does it mean for all of us, as holographically we all share an inner Trump?
If we bring attention back to our friar, the baldheaded cardinal, attention is drawn to the redness of its firery spirituality. The cardinals of Catholicism, as well as the leaders of all spiritual traditions, have stood for a morality that rises above instinctual dominance. This is the equivalent of transcending the solar plexus and rising to the heart chakra with its more inclusive consideration of others.
The heart center can recognize and value life beyond itself. It can see truth and make decisions based on the overarching needs of the interdependent whole world. Our spiritual traditions stalk a higher chakra than we have actually developmentally reached. Obama stalked the heart center, which resulted in major inclusiveness of groups long rejected and cast out by society.
The truth is, however, that developmentally we truly have not reached the heart center perspective, and the Trump election avalanche was fueled by the collective narcissistic shadow which now unabashedly asks: “What about me, why do we have to care about everyone else?”
We are guided to take up this issue on an individual level. As our cardinal reflects, we must incessantly ask ourselves: “What repetitive self-destructive behaviors am I engaged in based on illusion? Who within me is in charge of my decision making? Am I properly including my deepest instinctual self in my decisions, or do I avoid the fire in the belly of emotion by blindly adhering to moral platitudes that defend me from the tensions within and without?”
The greatest individual contribution we can make in this time of fierce splitting apart is to face squarely our own inner Trumps. Clearly the planet beckons us to take up the challenge to reconcile our deepest instinctual selves with our highest spiritual values.
Suspend judgment. Take responsibility to know the self beyond illusion. Bear the burden of instinct and spirit. Find wholeness in the self. Let love join body and spirit, as well as neighbor to neighbor.
Let your heart warm within you, bringing laughter and tears, the truth of both your joy and your pain. Let your heart acknowledge all that you are, all that you have, and all that you yearn for, for it is the heart that knows and feels all. In heart centered breathing begin anew today, fully aware of yourself in the universe, connected, included, and held sacred, for that you are: cared for and sacred in the arms of love. Accept this and be at peace in this moment of loving kindness, granted to you from all that is. Accept your sacred self today and know that you are loved. Carry this knowledge within you always, but especially today.
Pay attention. Become more fully aware of nature assisting you on your unfolding journey. Listen carefully, see clearly, and intuit correctly by being fully alert and aware of what you need now. Everyone needs help at some point in making decisions or in knowing where to go next. Ask for guidance to assist you and then wait for a response. It will come in some form. Question its meaning so that you choose correctly. Is it right? Be patient as you let nature guide you. The right answer will come. Have no doubt, because if your heart is open and innocent you will be heard and love will find you. For love is what will guide you. Love will help you. The energy of love is everywhere. Be open and it will find you. Love is and has the answer.
