All the form in your life . . . the conflicts, the struggle, the shit, the emotions, the symptoms, the heartbreak, the crushed longing, the dying dreams… the falling apart of hope, the despair, the sense that something is wrong with you… this is the rich material you have to work with. While it may seem that the freedom and aliveness you long for will be found in the eradication of the dark, the reality is that the darkness is filled with spirit, magic, meaning and the gestating seeds of transformation.
The ash and the compost are the alchemical substrate, the foundation of your connection with the sacred source from which you yourself have emerged. There is no need to transcend your life, your problems, your symptoms, or your neurosis to know the truth of this. Inside the core of all form is an innate intelligence that is found only there. The truth of what you are; the truth of how you have come into existence is already known to you. With this in mind, understand that ALL your experiences are occurring to reflect and remind and reconnect you to the truth in this absolute intelligence.
Sadness has something to show you that joy could never teach. Inside aloneness is a secret offering that can never be found in connection. Hopelessness, when held and entered into relationship with, holds meaning that hope is unable to reveal. Multiplicity is just as holy as oneness, matter just as consecrated as spirit.
Your innate intelligence is pure and creative inside the "symptom," but this is something our conventional world has lost contact with. We have come to overemphasize "becoming" or "doing with an objective" and have lost track of the important role of timeless imagination. The alchemists, healers and shamans work with the unseen realms . . . they understand what the moon, the sun, and the stars have come into form to remind you of . . . they understand that imagination is the medium of communication for this innate intelligence.
There is life pulsing through matter . . . this is also articulated as "spirit" buried inside matter. Matter is ragingly alive with spirit. Your feelings, emotions, your senses; the colors, the fragrances, the trees, the mud, and the water… there is no separation between inner and outer nature, they are drenched equally in spirit. You "know" and can experience your connection to source or spirit via the gift of imagination.
“What about my passion,” Rumi asks God.
God says, “Keep it burning.”
“What about my heart?” says Rumi.
“Tell me what you hold inside it,” says God.
“Pain and sorrow,” says Rumi.
God says, “Stay with it. The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”
Before you conclude that there is something wrong and that life has failed you, slow down. You have been conditioned to find a problem where there is an invitation. Use your imagination and dream a new dream. See yourself receiving gifts or wisdom and insight from teachers in other realms. Touch the earth. Imagine the earth is touching you back. It is. Place your hands on your heart. Attune to the aliveness of you inner body and listen. There is a sound in the aliveness there. Imagine yourself singing that sound from deep in your heart . . . Imagine your heart is a choir of collaborating sounds! Don't stop! Keep Going! Imagine!!
