Great change is only accomplished through great suffering. To experience enlightenment, one must suffer through the darkness of one’s being to reach the light of one’s spirit. To experience peace, one must experience its opposite, war. To experience the light of the day’s sun, one must also experience the darkness of the night. Without contrast there is no change, no difference, no experience of something else. And though suffering is hard and requires discipline, the end result will bring furthering of the human spirit, and love, already inspiring many, will prevail. For just as with everything else, love’s opposite must be experienced before love itself may reign.
Do not let old ideas stand in your way. Clear the mind of its old controlling mantras and turn to the wisdom of the heart for guidance. Fear will arise, but that is a natural reaction to breaking with the old self and old ideas of the self. Use fear as your motivator rather than your regulator. Release its held energy into your heart and from there let it boost your intent to change. Transformation is never easy, but it is completely worth it!
Another go round? Or emergence? – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Why am I here?
What is the purpose of life?
“Just to love” was songwriter eden ahbez’s answer. For Bob Monroe it was all about reaching Super Love. This was the answer he was given when he posed the same question to his non-human guides, what he termed INSPECS, his acronym for intelligent species, astute observers of human life that he encountered in his faraway journeys in infinity.
The INSPECS gave Bob Monroe the metaphor of human life on Earth as an energetic factory that transforms the raw material of emotion into the purest grade of love, or Super Love. Carlos Castaneda used the metaphor of humans as chickens in a chicken coop, unaware that the energy spikes of their emotional trials on Earth symbiotically served the energetic needs of another inorganic species.
The exchange offered by such a parasitically binding relationship is the opportunity for humans to develop their consciousness and refine their emotions, to eventually free themselves from such servitude. The process for such evolutionary advancement has been dominantly that of Groundhog Day, celebrated today, February 2nd, where the necessity for continued repetitive behavior is assessed: more of the same repetitive darkness, or return of the sun?
The question for humans is the same as the groundhog’s: Have I accrued enough consciousness—that is, the bright sun—to see my shadow, and with that awareness be ready to change? Or do I go back to sleep, in the repetitiveness of habitual behavior? The ability to see one’s shadow and own it, is the willingness to retire one’s addiction to a central illusion that one has been living.
The illusions we live are intricately woven into our emotional attachments. At root is the attachment to human physical life itself. Humans are beings who are going to physically die, hence, powerful emotions are engaged in the counter-effort to continue to survive.
Attachment to caretakers, food, shelter and power are prime emotional movers of most daily activities to ensure survival. Sexual activity, as well, has at its core the survival drive, as sexual intercourse ensures replication and continuation of the human species.
Much of human life energy is spent in the passionate activity of ensuring survival. The emotions of fear, anger, sadness and joy punctuate the daily round of repetitive survival activity. Jealousy, possessiveness, worry, doubt, and hope further augment the emotional volatility of daily encounters.
Most individuals are driven by a captivating primary story, their personal karmic groundhog day, the main obsession of their lives. The repetitive behaviors of their lives generally entail a need to fully explore a passionate fixation until they solve it. Solution requires a genuine release from obsession with the desired or feared object.
For example, many people who were obsessed with a fear of death obtain release from this fear through an experience of life beyond the body, for instance, in a Near Death Experience (NDE). This experience of knowing that life continues after physical death can genuinely transform a fearful being into a being of magnanimous love.
The refinement of all emotion to the delicacy of pure love turns out to be the key to all spiritual advancement. True love is the acceptance of everyone and everything. This does not imply not protecting oneself from an aggressor. It does though require that one have compassion for the other, regardless of circumstance.
True love requires nothing from another that is not freely given. True love is guided by right action; action completely filtered from illusion. True love evidences no possessiveness. True love lives fully but is ready to leave in a heartbeat, when it is time to go, with no regretful turning back.
True love is letting the other go when it’s time for them to leave, with no requirements. True love is loving the body and the experiences of the senses, but releasing them all with good wishes when it’s time to change form. True love is remembering all, with equanimity.
If this groundhog day evidences no shadow, may your dreams in hibernation accrue to future sunlight. If the sun reveals the shadow of your illusion today, grab your opportunity to know and own it. Perhaps this might be the time the obsession lifts and you may move forward into the adventure of new life.
Whether you be a repeater or are ready to be launched, know that ultimately, all roads lead to advancement. With compassion for all, step forward.
The New Year of Intent has barely begun. Remember your healing intent and stay upon its steady path of change. It’s so easy to forget and yet so necessary to change, for change is the agent of transformation. Envision yourself each day transformed. See yourself as you dream of being. Tell yourself each day, “I am that,” and walk onward in the direction of change. No matter how many times you forget, change is always ready to meet you once again and guide you along. Take the hand of change and travel on another day with your healing intent firmly in mind.
Get your circuits in order… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
In a nutshell, archetypes are the inherent programs that govern the behaviors of a species. Human archetypal programs rely heavily upon attachment and interaction to complete the inner circuitry of the growing child.
For instance, attachment to and attention from a loving parent figure are critical to the establishment of basic security in a growing child. The quality of these interactions will impact neural pathways in the brain that will reflect in the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral development of the child. For instance, a neglected child may precociously exercise conservative survival circuitry, whereas a more well-attended child might branch more comfortably into curious interaction with the outside world.
The legacy of incomplete development of brain circuitry at critical periods in life results in one becoming biologically older while remaining emotionally and cognitively younger than one’s physical age. Human adaptive ingenuity frequently develops compensatory strategies to work around such limitations imposed by incomplete circuits.
Thus, for instance, a neglected individual might seek a special relationship with an alternative parental figure to compensate for needed attention. Another strategy might be to utilize one’s own body to provide soothing, via rocking or thumbsucking behaviors.
Generally, one develops a persona, or outer self presentation, that varies significantly with how one knows oneself inwardly. This gives rise to a sense of being a ‘false self’ or living an ‘imposter syndrome’. Often, the hope in romantic relationships is to receive the longed for attention and validation from one’s partner that can provide a bridge to the completion of unfinished or malformed circuitry.
In the honeymoon stage of most relationships, partners glimpse such an idyllic experience of being loved and valued as they truly are. This reprieve from a more limited sense of self can result in a dependence upon reinforcement of one’s worth by one’s partner, as the actual internal transformation into a different sense of self has not occurred.
This predicament generally ends the honeymoon period of a relationship, as the symbiotic oneness of the couple evolves into contentious separateness, as individual selves with personal needs emerge. This is the very familiar course of most relationships that become polarized and lose the glow of their former promise.
Couples who can be vulnerable enough to reveal their truer sense of selves, versus projecting blame upon their partners for inadequate responsiveness, may be able to actually provide an emotionally corrective experience that could help facilitate the creation of new circuitry.
The key here is transparency. One must be able to be completely transparent to all that one is, to one’s own self. Beyond this is the ability to be equally transparent in owning and sharing one’s true self with one’s partner. This is a monumental feat, to accept the fullness of one’s own shadow and share it with one’s partner. That’s intimacy.
Nonetheless, the lion’s share of that possibility requires deep inner work, with each individual decidedly working toward their own inner self-acceptance. No outer relationship can supplant one’s own inner conviction of non-acceptability.
Ultimately, beyond childhood, the completion of inner circuitry rests in the inner work of every individual. Fortunately, all individuals have a higher self that orchestrates life events to challenge the ego to take this daring restorative journey to the wholeness of completed circuitry.
This journey can take many forms. As a psychotherapist and shamanic practitioner I am a huge proponent of this journey of individuation via dreams, synchronicity, and recapitulation. On the physical side, I highly recommend yoga. Yogic knowledge of bodily and subtle body functioning is unsurpassed.
The regular practice of pranayamic breathing literally changes the automatic central nervous system’s reactions to subconscious programs, such that it can override a fear reaction with deep calm. Equipped with such leverage the individual is afforded greater tolerance and opportunity to carve new circuitry, as they encounter a long-held trigger.
Similarly, meditation, aided by simple neurofeedback or biofeedback equipment, can empower one to develop direct mastery over one’s brainwave state, enhancing the ability to heal disjointed circuitry. These body focused practices greatly enhance mental and relational efforts to change.
Archetypal completion is the necessary mandate to heal and forge our deepest connections. Inner work, relational work, and bodily mastery all offer tools and venues to achieve such completion. Completion then becomes the solid foundation of fulfillment in human form.
