Waning Compost Moon
I've just finished re-re-re-reading Ritual by Emma Restall Orr. It is one of my return-to spiritual books. And this time I noticed something I hadn't noticed before.
In the book, although she doesn't say this in so many words, Bobcat speaks of us, individual human beings, as equal to any other aspect of nature: sacred and filled with spirit. This stopped me short a little, as that doesn't tend to be the way I think of myself.
A few months ago, though, I received a teaching from my spirit guide that has similar implications.
"The tree has accumulated power and strength from all the elements and from all its connections with its surroundings. It carries that power majestically.
I stand before the tree with awe for its age, its obvious presence, its serenity. I stand before the tree humbled by its strength. And rightly so.
But I, also, have accumulated a lifetime of power from the elements and from my connections to all that surrounds me. I can stand as proudly as the tree. I can learn serenity."
I have no problem recognising trees as sacred, as expressions of the endless creativity of Life, and as holders of great wisdom. It's a lot harder to see humans, who are capable of so much that isn't pretty, in the same light. And I never think of myself as sacred at all.
And yet we are. We have the same power of Life flowing through us. We are as valuable as any tree, and as inextricably connected to the other people, human and otherwise, who touch our lives each day.
We're just not used to thinking of ourselves as sacred beings. We find it hard to acknowledge our own power and shine our own light. Because that powerful side of ourselves, that part that is the sum of what we truly are, is also the most vulnerable. It is like a tender flower, reaching for the bright sky, that could get trampled on so very easily. And our culture has a tendency to do just that to people who shine out a light that is coloured slightly differently from the norm.
It takes courage to be fully human. Trees have it easy, really. They just do their thing. We have to overcome a lifetime of rejection and a whole world that doesn't want to see. But I feel inspired to try anyway, to make a new relationship with myself as a being equal to a great tree, or a river, or a deer in the wild. I am another expression of the creative Life force and I carry my own life experience.
Knowing that, I can relate to the world in a different way, knowing that I can make relationships of co-operation and mutual support. With you. With the Goddess who inspires me. With the spirits of Westacre.
You can find daily inspiration, often from me, sometimes borrowed, right here.