The Trail Through the Dark Wood
April 7, 2013 Leave a comment
The Trail Through the Dark Wood
In the Valley of Shadows and Death
The trail of inner descent work may be a long trail. For a traveler, working with a group in the process can be sustaining and rewarding. The value of solo carpet work, alone in the woods, can be magnified geometrically, exponentially, (don’t get carried away…) if the traveler can navigate the trail, capture and witness the learnings round the campfire, so to speak. Those are some tools I have found useful, or created for myself, along my trail. My sense is that such can anchor and intuitively chart the way. Over all, the idea is to make progress, discover source and action of wounds, realize wholeness, cross the Wounded River, and get out of the boat!
In sovereignty, I am my own guru, best friend, shaman, spiritual director, caretaker, lover. My simple glance at sovereignty is, as a person, to aim myself (ego: body, pain bodies, intellect, heart) to take the seat of my soul and sit it it. This is the throne of my individual sovereignty, This is where the axes mundi come together in single-pointed wakefulness. [eventually] This is about sharing the journey.
Hot-seating a new group member. The joining traveler gets to meet his fellow travelers in a process that gives the joiner an opportunity to review shadow bits and gold nuggets of which the traveler is aware. The group listens and then has the opportunity to insightfully comment “a shadow I see in you is…” or “some gold I see in you is….”. As a courtesy, these comments are oft spiced with “…that I also see in myself”, which adds to the acknowledgment of projection, upholds safety and recognizes unity. This is a formal way to become acquainted with a new traveler, and the traveler to test openness with the group. This is always compassionate as a process, though fierce attention to protocol and boundary helps establish and maintain good protocol and boundary awareness. Naturally, all declared protocols and boundaries for the group of travelers ha been put before the joiner prior to the request for ongoing connection. One learns about the others present as to how each holds himself, pays attention, regards others, and demonstrates warrior speech. [clear, concise, direct, and truthful]
Brief Life Review. It has been noted over time that people can meet for ritualized descent work for years AND NEVER GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER! This has been found in the main to be sad, especially when a traveler crosses the veil and is visible no more. Fifteen minutes or so for a traveler to tell the tale of the years. Fifteen minutes or so for questions and appreciative comments. I have found that what I choose to bring in, and leave out, of my tale is instructive to my steps on the trail. I am grateful to have been hosted to the joy and tears, the anger and the grief, the leaps and the despair, the love of others shared and sometimes lost. Life is a rich fabric of experience, a tapestry of learning and wisdom when the many threads come together in warp and woof. Each traveler has then, in the group, a resonance chamber of knowing regard, from which the descent work is enriched, insights allowed, trust amplified, results made attainable, comfort and recognition available. Forgiveness becomes understood in practice! Forgiveness is the core of freedom.
Summary Court. I hope always that the inner descent work is continued in absentia from the formal group. I have laughed and cried, writhed and thrashed, danced and shouted, and prayed, raised voice in song in grief and gladness. Me, the musical. All-one in the wood. Fifteen minutes or so, similar to the life review, with the emphasis specifically and with particularity on psychic discovery and the captured learnings, perceived next steps and how I feel about it all. A few minutes for clarifying questions and appreciative (and sometimes additive reminders) complete the process. I thereby make real in witness what I have accomplished in group or in solo descent. I am not lost. I look back and see my path in plain memory. I know I missed a lot of the landscape and ignored some dangers that may have lurked. I move on from where I am, discovering my BEing in the context and contrast.
Declaration for Order. I reach completion on a segment of exploration and discovery. Perhaps I have identified several shadow animals or archetypes. I have created conscious and aware relationship with them, and made a space for them in the lands of my individual sovereignty. This piece feels done, this segment complete for the now. By declaring order and summarizing for myself this truth, I witness a choice to limit the fascination with the material and move on to other areas of interest or concern. I may choose to not continue to go down rabbit holes, especially if my time and energy management are tasked by other things. Descent work becomes ever more a conscious free will choice, and less do I find myself surprised and alone in a prison of my own making, with an immediate need to escape or remember where I put the key, the password, the map. There may be more than a few such declarations along the way, and any chapter may be re-opened at need. Making such a declaration to the group has the aspect of an accountability stretch, witnessing determination and focus.
The Royal Flush. By segment or chapters of segments, This traveler arrives at grand points of achievement. Time to come home, drop the bags, sort the contents, repair and replace, wash the soils of travel and toil from the personal container and its garments. One can arrive with a nicely repaired and fully functional Warrior vehicle; time for a new windscreen and a paint job. One can at long last find the deliciousness of the Lover, bring home the recipe of yummy artfulness. The Magician has matured to a level of mastery in which service to others is humbly and beautifully effective. An authentic sovereign BEing finds itself alone and totally connected to the eternal heart of the Universe Creator. Reduced, in the end, to Love and gladness, fully a vital part of the grandeur of it All. Technology transcended. Speech inadequate. Resting a moment. Quite ready for another adventure. Deck of cards stacked and ready for the game. How lovely it is to see this in fellow travelers! How powerful to resonate with such as we are! Forgiveness, in eternal Truth, the core of freedom. Acknowledge and claim this in its time!
Time is not linear. Space is no constraint. I am but one traveler, one of the people. I resonate healing and awakening throughout out time and space, knowing this good is real and home is here. Throughout all time and space, I love, I forgive all that I am and have been, all that I that I believed was done or not done. The dimensions of my sacred geometry radiate in harmony and grace. Remembering all the faces and places, the sharps and veils, the highs and lows, all plays of dualisms, I set my foot on what once was the distant shore, the haven of arrival in the living grandeur of All That Is. I get out of the boat.
Beach Party. Here I am. Here are you. We are distinct. We are one. We laugh. Recently, I met some Sasquatch on a gravel shore. I was invisible to them as I was saying “I am this tree on which I am sitting” Suddenly, I couldn’t help it, I laughed out loud. They all jumped. Someone pooted. We all fell down rolling around laughing. A little one (!) poked me in the nose to see if I was real. They have been waiting for us a long time, tracking with Gaia. Now, She is ascending, big beautiful creature! Nobody laughs as deep and strong as Sasquatch. My heart is bursting.
The technologies of inner descent work are not terribly complex. Awareness of multi dimensions is required in the work containers. Attention to safety and care of personal boundaries is paramount. My favorite delivery systems for these technologies are the initiation trainings and facilitator trainings of The Mankind Project and Inner Yaga. Grateful I am to walk my trail with accomplished fellow travelers and shipmates!