The discovery of meaning, richness,
beauty, and depth arises not only through an encounter with the light, but also
by way of immersion in the dark.
In ways
the conscious mind isn’t quite able to understand, we can also be held by the
darkness, inside the womb of the unknown.
It’s going to feel
counter-instinctual to allow ourselves to stay in that place of not-knowing,
meaning we’re not going to want to do it. The pull will be back to certainty,
clarity, and knowing ahead of time how it will all turn out.
Holding the tension between
all the contradictory feelings in the body vessel is the activity of love. Providing
a home for the burning, the longing, and for the darkened material to reveal its
nature is the essence of the alchemical journey.
There is wisdom here in
the shattered – and profound guidance for the path ahead – but it can’t be accessed
with ordinary awareness. It can only be felt and known through the heart.
This process involves an
emptying of the cup, a cosmic decaying and recycling, where we’re shown that
the path of awakening and healing, while giving us everything, will
simultaneously take everything away.
This “taking everything
away” is one of the signatures of the beloved, of a fierce and reorganizing grace,
but it’s not necessarily the sort of “grace” we had in mind when we started out
on the path.
It is only through the
process of embodiment and incarnation that the beloved, her being and blessing
can find its way here, with us as the vehicle for that sort of embodied, ensouled
transmutation.
Yes, it can be so shaky at
times: “I can’t take any more. Can I just go back to the way it was?”
But this tenderness and sensitivity,
that ache in the heart, that burning in the body for union, is a sign you’re on
the right track, that you’ve crossed the threshold into the liminal place where
the Friend is there to receive you.
That longing is the
doorway in.Learn more about Matt’s online group and communityView Matt’s YouTube channel here