Watch your energy; it’s your life force. Beware of rituals that have no meaning, grounded in ideas that have no substance and no connection to reality. Stick with what is real and true, and if you are to engage in rituals give them real meanings based on personal experiences that are profound, moving, and important to you personally. Create your own personal rituals, for there is no sense in carrying on or carrying out rituals that you have no connection to. That is merely a drain on your energy. It’s important now to conserve your energy, to protect it, and to engage it in creativity, healing, and for the good of all rather than in using it carelessly or without due cause. Your energy is your life force. Protect it well and use it wisely. And stay youthful and energetically alive by letting love finds it way to you and through you. There is no better ritual and no better use of energy than that!
Remember the magic. Remember the underlying current of energy that connects you all. You are not fully separate and alone but interconnected with all living energy. Use your intent to influence all that you are interconnected with for the greater good. Use your intent to make the world a better, safer, more positive environment. Use your intent to keep love in the air, the most positive of all energies. Use your own energy to manifest what you desire. And don’t forget to be thankful that you get to be part of it all. With love and gratitude, be energetically proactive!
There’s no time to waste on worry or fear. Let old ideas go as you look forward to each new day. Free yourself of your old self, the one who held you to certain standards and rules, who kept you from fulfilling your potential. Now is the time to fulfill your potential, to let your heart finally lead you and show you that indeed you can do all that you set your mind to. Put your strong will to good positive use now, on behalf of your greater self. And with heart centered love, allow yourself to change, for your own greater good. It’s not a bad thing at all!
Be more loving. Let love surround you and ground you. Let it emerge from within and send it soaring. Let love become your mode of operation, your first and last thought, your go to action when all else fails. Let love be your guide and your helper. And what is love, truly? It is kindness and compassion. It is openness and trust. It is goodness and helpfulness. It’s not selfish. It is without judgment. It simply is. It is like the air you breathe, free for the taking, immeasurable, infinite, and yet you can capture it and utilize it for more than you know. It’s not personal but it is infinitely personally useful, for self and other. Get your love going and use it for good. The world needs you now, the loving being that you truly are. It will do you some good too, to be more loving. From your heart to your mouth, speak love. From your heart to your hands, give love. From your heart to your mind, think love. It’s not what you get, it’s what you give that matters.
We can use words to communicate, but connection requires more than words. Connection is meeting in pure transparency.
The intimacy of meeting so directly can be overpowering. The removal of boundaries, at that level, recalls a state of union and oneness that long preceded the notion of a separate self.
The terror of loss of self in such encounters generates ambivalence. Though we might seek the closeness of connection, we seek refuge in the protection of small talk, roles, and prefabricated expectations and interactions. Why do we find it so necessary to hide?
Carlos Castaneda was emphatic that we should avoid looking into the mirror; at most, a brief unfocused gaze for shaving or combing of the hair. For the shamans of his lineage, looking in the mirror results in the fixation of attention upon self-reflection, what the psychotherapist of today calls narcissistic preoccupation with the self.
The more we focus upon the presentation of the self, the more we become alienated from our true selves. The more we stare at our reflection, the more Bobby the Flyer takes command, and we find more and more fault with ourselves, which leads to a state of narcissistic loathing. Why then do we hide? Because we are so damned unacceptable!
Loathing the self is then compensated for by the insatiable attention we seek for our outer presentation of self, what Jung called the persona, or the mask we wear. Regardless of how much attention it receives, it is never enough to erase the underlying belief of unworthiness of the true underlying self.
Mirroring, in the modern psychological sense, happens between two people, not one person viewing their own appearance in the mirror. To mirror with another is to feel, know, and be with the truth of one’s own and the other’s experience in the moment. A meeting of the eyes in that moment reflects an unmistakable acknowledgement of a shared experience.
Mirroring requires no words, though words might be exchanged. Words are not necessary because the knowing of the meeting has already been validated through the mirroring effect. Meetings of this kind crack the mirror of fixation upon self-reflection. Meeting in transparency, with nothing hidden, transcends judgments of self and other.
Mirroring actually requires no special skill. In fact, shamans suggest that we all have access to the direct knowledge experience of mirroring. Direct knowledge is knowledge unfiltered by the mental processing and judging of the mind’s internal dialogue.
The key to direct knowledge is inner silence, a state of mindful presence that shuts down the mental process, that is, thinking. Devoid of thinking we are treated to the experience of what is, unbiased by interpretation.
Connecting at the heart level is mirroring at the level of truth. Of course, this can be experienced as extremely romantic, where “hearts meet as one.” Romance is highly sought after for this mirroring experience of transparent meeting.
Unfortunately, romance soon becomes overwhelmed with archetypal expectations of each other, which quickly engages the judging mind. This closes down the purity of the mirroring channel between partners, who then become utter strangers. The mirroring of romance is co-opted by nature’s underlying intent to simply continue the species, not deepen spiritual connection.
Romance is a limited subset though valuable experience of mirroring. That is, while it lasts. Mirroring is possible in all human and non-human interactions. Mirroring frequently happens between humans and animals, or humans and plants. Mirroring is the basis of successful early parenting. Mirroring is the essence of true bonding.
Mirroring is the active relational tool for the current and coming evolutionary advance of the human species. It springs from the heart because the heart brings us to the true interconnected oneness of everything, which is the active principle in mirroring.
Relax the mind, suspend judgment, and mirror. See what happens!
