Whatever happens remain accountable for the self, and without blame carry on. No matter the trials that land on your doorstep, keep yourself in a state of constant awareness that you are on a journey through the density of life on Earth for purposes of growth and learning. Everything changes, as it will. That’s not the real challenge; the real challenge is how you react to those changes. Remain always heart centered and aware of your own mission, to personally evolve.
Calcinatio in the retort of the body… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
My Spirit sees everything from an evolutionary perspective. Thus, even the sobering truth of Maureen Dowd’s editorial, Apocalypse Right Now, is not a dealbreaker for my optimism.
All are encouraged to examine the truth, to the extent that that is possible, but then to exercise Carlos Castaneda’s number one dictum, Suspend Judgment, in order to reach the deeper truth of the soul’s fantastic voyage.
Sir Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos sought to actualize achieving such a high level perspective in their respective launches into space these past couple of weeks. I see their journeys as transcendent attempts to free their spirits from the gravity of the mess on the ground of planet Earth.
Indeed, the thrust of the Spirit now is for the human race to up its Olympian game. This does not require that all go in search of transcendent out-of-body experiences. In fact, though I am impressed with the recent space adventures, they appear a bit compensatory to the truth on the ground. Good to be reminded of the potential of the human ego spirit to rise above the mess, but can it apply itself to the needed changes below?
We are all in this world on missions of growth. Most are born with a blank slate to protect those intended missions from confusion and interference from their Spirit’s prior journeys in infinity. Though the soul brings with it the fruits of its prior adventures in the form of its innate intelligence, it temporarily releases the memory of those experiences to be fully available to the life at hand.
Thus, the purity of Spirit’s intent imbues one’s life with purpose yet becomes clouded over by one’s material DNA and physical life circumstance. Nonetheless, one’s physical life remains the playing field for the Spirit’s intended growth.
We could say that the purity of Spirit becomes muddied and weighed down by the imperfections of material physical life. The journey then, in this earthly life, is one of working through the impurities of our physical trials to further add to our Spirit’s clarity, knowledge, and growth.
Carl Jung spent much of his adult life unearthing and studying ancient alchemical texts. Most modern psychological researchers question his sanity for having wasted so much time on such obscure nonsensical pre-chemistry texts. Jung, however, discovered that the alchemists were deeply engaged in a series of operations seeking to release the Spirit from its material impurities.
Psychotherapy, for Jung, was the application of a series of alchemical operations upon the psyche, seeking to free one’s Spirit from the bindings of illusion that overshadow one’s life and block fulfillment—the refinement of one’s Spirit.
The alchemists began their operations by choosing a substance to work on. In psychotherapy, one chooses a core stumbling block in one’s life to work on.
Alchemists used a retort, a vessel that the substance was placed in and then sealed, while they performed their operations upon it. In psychotherapy, the retort becomes the introspective ego that is asked to stay in body and be with the thoughts, beliefs, feelings, memories, sensations and dreams that arise as one works with an issue.
In psychotherapy, the sealed retort is equivalent to the body and psyche containing the intense energies of a conflict that has arisen, which is so tempting to release through blame, rationalization, a new illusion, or an emotional catharsis. Like the pot of water that never boils if we keep lifting the lid, we will never achieve the desired transformation if our retort is prematurely opened.
Planet Earth is clearly in the midst of its own alchemical processes of solutio, via flooding, and calcinatio, with fire. The retort of Earth is performing the necessary operations to reshape itself, and the lives of its inhabitants, and to cleanse itself of the illusions that have encumbered its Spirit.
Humans are simultaneously being asked to stay grounded and face the truths of their own lives, without opening the retort to the inflation of Icarus or the deflation of morbid depression. Containment of volatile emotion is a necessary precursor to transformative change. Acquiescence to necessary behaviors that reflect the truth is the ego’s greatest challenge.
These are the earthbound tasks for all humans now, as we individually and collectively seal the retort and are driven, by the thrust of the Spirit, to advance deeper into truth, survival, and evolution.
Refrain from judgment of others even as you must decide your own path of heart, for to judge others is to fail to fully confront the self, and to fail to fully confront the self is to remain incomplete and unfulfilled. When judgments arise within you turn inward and ask, “How am I like that?” In so doing allow others to be as they must be but allow yourself the opportunity to evolve. And don’t forget to always turn away from others with love and bring love always into your inner probings, for love is the universal energy that all understand and need if evolution and fulfillment are to become the norm.
When destruction seems to be the norm do not despair but look upon it as the necessary sacrifice that will result in new life. There cannot be real change without something being lost or given up. Though it is dark now this is the sacred moment before the return of the light, bringing with it the first hints of new life. Remain heart centered, upon a path of heart, so that love, kindness and compassion are at the core of that new life soon to come.
In the grand scheme of things great forces are at work, instituting changes that are evolutionary and for the greater good of all. Though you may not be able to fathom the good in the world around you at this time, do look inward at the self and know that each individual is being asked to evolve as well. So do not dismiss yourself from the collective but turn to the self as a member of the collective being asked to change the self for the great good. When one evolves all have the opportunity to evolve. Take the first step for the greater good of the self and the greater good of all as well.
