Changes manifest in many ways, by intent or by happenstance. Often it is not what you want that is most right for you but what comes to you in other ways. You may have definite desires that never manifest, but if you step back and look at your life from afar you might notice how often things arrive uninvited. Such surprise manifestations come from the unconscious, another part of you that intends on your behalf, secretly, but just as strongly as your conscious self. This unconscious self reflects deeper desires of your spirit rather than what your ego wants. Spirit provides what is most necessary and evolutionary though often most unexpected. It might not be what you think you want but what you actually need the most. Gifts come in all kinds of packages. Is gratitude in order? Simply for what is?
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I was six years old. Powerful rhythmic music filled the room. A young woman, Rita was her name, and my older sister broke into a violent hip swaying pelvic dance—the Twist! I was overcome with dizziness and fear. I hid in the closet.
Rolling force of nature… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Today I understand that experience as my first conscious encounter with what the Shamans of Ancient Mexico called the Rolling Force, the primary vibrational energy behind life that shapes the reality we live in. In this instance that vibration manifested in the Kali-like physical body movements of Rita and my sister.
What I was to learn from this encounter was how overwhelming this expression of the rolling force of animal rhythmic abandon was for my tender child spirit. In effect, my human spirit, or growing sense of ego identity and consciousness, was extremely fragile and needed to ward off the disintegrating effect of this rolling energy of nature. The key was to be able to maintain control over this flow at all costs.
My retreat to the closet allowed me to stop my exposure to the flow of energy, to separate my consciousness from the raging, twisting river of dance energy that threatened to drown me. This was spirit triumphing over matter. And so it begins.
Our evolving species has fixated its awareness upon a consensual reality of mind over matter, or spirit over nature. Within ourselves we prize the rational goal-oriented mind over the instinctual animal we are encased within. We joke about the animal we are, like the comedians among us who are proving to have taken it too far.
The consequence of this disidentification with the animal is a complete miscalculation of, and unrelatedness to, the power of its instinctual energies that flow within the human body and are essential to human life.
Sexual desire, for instance, is an essential component of the human animal. The human spirit, as ego, must deal with its instinctive hormonal promptings yet has no clue as to how or what to do with it. To truly relate to this instinctive energy is to encounter the Twist!
How does mind get comfortable being taken on a ride by an impersonal force of the body? How does consciousness hold on, channel, remain responsible and related with its instinctual, rhythmic self? Tall order for a spirit that just wants to exploit this instinctual energy without a real relationship with the body.
The present outing of the sexual behavior of powerful men clearly evidences the abusive use of control to obtain some measure of twisted sexual release by exploiting the bodies of both women and men. Outings of these behaviors must continue, yes, to bring justice to crime, but even more fundamentally to give credence to the dire state of immature relatedness to the sexual instinct in modern culture. The consequence of this dissociation and hubris is quite apparent: aberrant sexual behavior.
The powerful raging rivers of opinion and outrage that flood the gates of social media run the same risk of miscalculating the power of thought (spirit) over instinct. Nature always prevails.
The young boy in the closet has spent his life building a relationship with his rhythmic animal partner. Shortly after his encounter with the Twist he was to experience the same vibrational shattering in a pure spirit meeting while his body lay frozen in deep sleep. Rhythmic vibrational contractions permeate life in the body as well as life in the spirit.
In physical life our opportunity is to partner our spirit consciousness with the sensual rhythm of our animal nature. This is the key to the mastery of intent and manifestation. The abuses of control and power are really maladaptive attempts to solve the riddle of who we really are and form some form of relationship with our mysterious other.
What the abuses currently reveal is the underlying terror of powerful men to connect with their mysterious other in a genuine meeting of respect and love. This is indeed the greatest challenge of life in the body.
That little boy continues to learn how to meet his partner in love and the Twist. Perhaps a partnership with our younger other is the place to start.
Though you may not realize it, you are energy first, flesh and blood second. As energy you have power over your flesh and blood, your physical and mental bodies. You have power over how you feel, act, and think. Keep your energy tuned to its highest healing power. Ask it to work within you to keep you in tiptop shape. Hone it, melt into it, let it do its magic. It’s right there, for you are energy at all times. You just have to relax and feel it, breathe and become it, acquiesce and know it to use it for your greater good. In this way know your energetic self and know the greater possibilities of all beings, the power of your own spirit. Energy first!
Take care of the body, take care of the soul. Keep spirit alive in body and live from their union of calm yet active groundedness. Spirit in body is life aglow, body without spirit is empty of soul. Keep your two natures in balance. And what is body but dark and what is spirit but light. When you live with spirit and body entwined, you always have a light in the dark—you!
Get grounded and stay grounded no matter how bad the world gets, no matter how sad the world gets, no matter how absurd the world gets. Bring spirit fully into body and live grounded in knowing the self as fully spirit-in-body, as fully whole and alive, as fully sane and capable of right decision making and right action, for the world needs grounded people now to keep an even keel, to clear away the fog of illusion, to steady the course and sail in a new direction with goodness of heart, kindness of hand, and compassion of word and deed. Even if you only do this in your own little world you are doing what is needed, and that is good. Take care of yourself. Stay grounded in yourself and keep your spirit alive. Know who you are and why you are there: to accomplish even the smallest of good. That is a fine life indeed!
