Originally written in 2021, as I was navigating my own path, making sense by writing and sharing, I have been prompted to share this newsletter once again. Although several years old now, there are many aspects that are still relevant. So enjoy this short series, published with the aim that anyone new to the path may find something of value to help them on navigating their own.
Welcome to this first issue of Challenging Times, a seasonal newsletter in tune with the Celtic Wheel. Although the concept came during the Winter, Imbolc is the most appropriate time to launch, with its association with early spring budding and new awakenings.
Challenging times are certainly where we are at the moment: trying to navigate the world that has changed dramatically over the past year in particular. So much has changed that the world is a place we almost do not recognise. Not only the restrictions that have been placed on our living and our lives but the inner turmoil these restrictions have brought up inside us. How do we hold on to and nurture ourselves, whilst all around us appears to be going mad? Our perception of reality has been tested and our mental and physical wellbeing too.
It appears to me that now is exactly the right time for some different news, and some different information, to help us keep hold of who we are, who is trying to come through us, and help bolster us for the ongoing journey still in front of us. Spreading positivity rather than fear. Love rather than hate or blame. Offering a gentle hand to hold on your own journey.
There is good news, amongst the lockdowns, there have been a whole raft of wonderful spiritually uplifting online festivals. And significant planetary events, such as the amazing Jupiter/Saturn conjunction at Winter Solstice 2020.
Viewing some of these online events along with my own inner journey this year has spurred me on to produce this newsletter. Something I hope will bring a little inner calm and nourishment to others, on their journey as it is with mine.
Inner listening
To me, inner listening is both an art and a practice, something we can learn, and attune to. During most of my life, the dominant narrative is to not listen to ourselves, but to seek outside ‘expert’ interpretations on our own needs and relying on the thoughts of others, not trusting to our own feelings and intuitions. Learning to re-tune to our inner wisdom and our body compass takes a little time and practice, like learning any new skill, or practising one that is a little rusty.
When we can start to tune in, these feelings will be some of our very best guides, tentatively at first, then with more certainty. When we listen and act accordingly, we can always be in alignment with ourselves. What a beautiful and powerful place to be!
How can we achieve this? A good place to start is with the one place that we have not totally lost touch with: our gut. We often talk about our gut instinct, it is something we recognise, particularly when this inner wisdom falls in line with an event, we often say, 'I just knew something was wrong!' It's worth spending time with this instinct, tuning in and meditating allow its subtle voice to become clearer, taking note of the feelings and what they may be telling you. You may be surprised at how well you can be guided.
There are of course other body wisdoms to tune in to as well. Our heart is one that we often speak of. Such examples of our heart missing a beat, when we're frightened or we fall in love. I discovered that my heart had been trying to tell me something, reacting to thoughts and words and giving feedback. Becoming more aware and tuning in to its rhythms, noticing these changes, and observing what else is going on: what thoughts were journeying through the mind; what event happened; what could you be taking note of? A pattern can emerge, guiding you toward your heart's desire.
A journal or diary may be useful in jotting down these observations, of when you’ve tuned into your instincts and note the feelings and what the situation was surrounding them, and then you may start to see more connections, as you cultivate and recognise your inner wisdom surfacing.
Coming to our senses
I have become more aware of my sense of smell. In the past few years I have been slowly eliminating any chemically perfumed items such as soap, shampoo, fabric conditioner and washing liquid or powder, along with other household and personal products. This change first came about from wanting to reduce my impact with the amount of plastic waste produced, but through this, I have developed a keener sense of smell too.
Like a reformed smoker, the sense of smell has been released and I notice chemical fragrances more. When I purchase secondhand clothes from the charity shop for instance, I notice the smell of fabric conditioner. It is amazing that it takes at least three washes to remove it, and then items that are washed with it all take on the fragrance for a short time too!
I notice when other people give me something in a recycled carrier bag that has been stored near their laundry area, it too absorbs the fragrances around. I even had the experience when someone gave me some cash and joked that it had been kept in the laundry room, it too smelt of fabric conditioner! A new take on laundered money!
We are surrounded by different manufactured smells and I do question whether they dumb down our sense of smell, and whether it can become overwhelmed with the use of these products?
Our sense of smell can inform us of so many things, not only whether something is good or bad, like with food, but it is also a powerful memory trigger, taking us to other places and times in our life. Just the fragrance of blossom or cut grass, can transport us back to childhood, or lazy summer days in a park.
So like the smoker who does not notice their clothes or hair smells of smoke, many of us don't notice the smell of our washed clothes. Instead I now use a small amount of white vinegar in the washing machine rinse cycle, that both removes any excess soap and does not leave a smell. Such a small step helped to give my nose a chance to breathe. So much so I can pick up smells that some others are unable to, now sometimes that is good, and on the downside, other times not so much.
I do wonder whether we get the full enjoyment that is offered from the cacophony of natural smells, like the new blossom and the fresh cut grass, or would they be enhanced by being able to stand out, free from other influences?
Be The Change
We often hear the phrase, 'be the change you want to see', and 'we are the ones we have been waiting for', but how do we fully live into those statements?
It takes great courage to align fully with what you would like to see. It is often radical, and not an easy move to make. Often having to swim against the current, like salmon going up stream. What would others think of you, your friends, would they still be your friends? Or do you find a new tribe? Do you change your job, do you have a job? Where do you live? How do you live? How do you live authentically? The questions go on and on when you start to look deeply.
The easier path is to look for changes outside of yourself, look for others to do things differently, hoping that their changes will resolve some of the societal and planetary issues. Some changes just offer a bandage over old ways, calling them by a new name, but this is not true deep change.
True deep change starts from within. Then, as you change, there will be a ripple effect, that change will automatically affect what surrounds you, helping to bring about, as Charles Einstein would call it, “the more beautiful world your heart knows is possible.”
I always questioned how do we get there? Satish Kumar gives the answer, 'by taking the first steps ourselves'. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for! So be brave, take the first step on the road of change, set your intention, to be the best version of yourself. You won’t regret it!
Ho'oponopono Prayer
I was first introduced to this Hawaiian prayer by a lady who had been using it as a mantra for many years. Being intrigued by the words I did some further research and found many claims to it's potent healing capacity.
Its aim is 'to make right', a reciprocity, when we forgive ourselves, we forgive everyone.
As interconnected beings, it makes total sense. For our modern rational minds it can seem far fetched. However it is used in much of the South Pacific to good effect. Its method is to clear blockages and its repeated use helps to cleanse and heal.
There are many variations of the prayer, some longer and some with slightly different words. All with the same aim of assisting healing.
Try the words and see where they take you. I have mine on the bathroom mirror, so each day I am reminded to speak them.
Healing anger
“The inability to forgive is like drinking poison and hoping it hurts someone else ”.1
One very simple practice to help release anger that can get stuck within our bodies when we are unable to forgive others for what they have done, is to write it down and then burn the paper.
This activity has two parts, the first being the writing, leaving yourself sufficient time to bring up all the stuck emotion attached to an event or series of events, or a person, and release it onto paper. Be intentional about the exercise. State ‘I am releasing my anger onto this page’. One good suggestion I came across is to write this onto newspaper, so it is impossible to read it back, so as not to take the anger back inside you once again as you re-read. The second part is to burn the paper. Fire is a powerful healer and a ritual cleanser, which will help to complete the healing. State ‘I intend to release this anger from my body, I offer it to the fire in order for it to be transformed’. Then burn the paper.
This activity may need to be done many times, for different events or maybe even the same event, as we can hold on to so much anger and resentment from past events that have caused us pain. But when we are able to look back at the events, or people that angered us so much in the past, with no attached emotion, only the thoughts of the lessons we may have learned, with compassion for yourself and the others involved, have you truly released that emotion and completed the healing.
Anger weighs us and our hearts down, it makes us denser beings, and as we learn from the Egyptian god Osiris, your heart needs to be lighter than a feather.
Practicing releasing emotions like this, increases our awareness and we will be unlikely to fall into default behaviour when a similar event presents itself, and be able to move through to a more calming and peaceful way of being.
When you consciously choose to tread your spiritual path, the cosmos responds.
Collective Consciousness?
I was listening to a BBC radio programme talking about children's playground games. The commenter was investigating the origins of the song and clapping games and their influences, and how they are found around the globe. It was fascinating to hear that the same tune but with different words were being sung in the UK, Iceland and Hong Kong, even in times without the ease of travel and communication we have now. It was debated how these songs travelled and the conclusion was, by the people who moved from one country to another.
This discussion reminded me of the phenomenon known as the hundredth monkey effect, which is best explained by this quote: “This is where a new behaviour or idea is said to spread rapidly by unexplained means from one group to all related groups once a critical number of members of one group exhibit the behaviour or acknowledge the new idea. This behaviour is said to propagate even to groups which are physically separated and have no apparent means of communicating with each other.” 2
The descriptive term originally came from behavioural studies of wild monkeys on a Japanese island where they learned to wash the food they were eating. It began with one female and then spread to others on the same island. Another story added after the initial research, suggested that monkeys on another island learned this skill also, this later report has been hotly debated ever since. However, the descriptive term has been retained as a useful analogy of the transfer of learning across groups and into the wider community.
A Fire Blessing
We bless this fire, may it not only keep us warm and cook our food, but also help light the fire inside us. To help us listen to our inner guidance and trust its words. Let it help us open to the greater fire that is awakening within and all around us.
Coping with change, a path to personal growth
Paraphrasing the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, 'change is the only thing you can be certain of in life'. Having an understanding on how we may act in a situation of change can be very useful to help navigate our way through the varying emotional states we could experience.
We may begin by experiencing shock, something I think most of us can relate to in one form or another. We may then move on to denial, believing that the situation is not real, or not possible. We can then move into blame, blaming others, the perpetrators, then in some circumstances blaming ourselves, thoughts such as, I must have done something to create this situation. Then maybe moving into a state of chaos of not knowing what to do and being powerless, which can lead to depression or hopelessness.
Through these initial stages it is possible to loop back from chaos into blame, or denial, and become stuck in a loop. If we can move back round again and reach the chaos and depressed/hopeless state, perhaps asking what can I do? This can lead to an acceptance and it is possible to allow ourselves to go on to be open to allow for a solution to unfold.
There may be several options to the unfolding, and some deliberation as to which option would be the best, before then producing a final decision as to what the responsive action could be.
If we think of this complex array of thoughts and behaviours that we can experience with any small or large change, sometimes it is possible to move through this cycle very quickly without much thought, though others may take weeks, or longer to work through.
Being aware of where we are emotionally when experiencing a reaction to change, we can help ourselves through the process in a more positive manner. Gently holding ourselves, knowing that we can move through, at the same time knowing that “both darkness and light are essential in the soul journey.” 3
It may be helpful to know, that contrasting experiences, like the ones that we would prefer not to be having, are often those that help us to grow and change the most. The friction the experience causes, the uncomfortableness provides the urge to change.
Once we realise when events happen, upsetting the comfortable normality, it is a way of showing us that a change maybe necessary, when we are presented with what we don’t want, this can then lead towards the clarity on what we do want.
As we become more comfortable with riding waves of change, they can become less dramatic and maybe even seen as positive. Comments of ‘why didn’t I do this before?’, and ‘why did I put up with this all this time?’, are heard when a change for the better has been achieved.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but knowing yourself and how you act and re-act is invaluable, to help make change as comfortable as it possibly can be.
Recovering the spiritual
“It is sometimes difficult for those of us living within the mindset of contemporary western culture to grasp the depth of spiritual insight present within the consciousness of former times. We imagine that the evolution of consciousness has occurred in a straight line and that humankind's current position represents the ultimate achievement for human consciousness.”4
The above quote from ‘Ever Ancient Ever New’, gives us an insight to the Celtic world, both Christian and pre-Christian. It demonstrates what we have lost and what it is possible to perhaps find once again.
A complete way of being that is not separate and shallow, but a deeply intertwined wholeness. Is it perhaps that we have strayed away from our full potential and the possibilities of what that potential can be, are just able to be dimly glimpsed through our squinting eyes?
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience”. An often used quote from Pierre Teilhard De Chardin. It sums up the different perspectives there can be on opposite sides of a coin, they are the same coin, but depending whether you are looking at the 'head' or the 'tail', the picture and interpretation can be quite different.
To help in life's journey in search of the spiritual, the Celtic tradition offered support, an anam cara, someone who was on their own journey but further along, who was able to provide guidance: a soul friend. An anam cara needs to have a certain level of spiritual and psychological understanding who can hold a safe space for you. It was recognised that the journey itself was hard and needed support and this aspect needs to be rekindled today, as it seems we can find ourselves floundering around, not knowing where to go in a world that dismisses the subtle and spiritual, in favour of measurable, scientific and rational. Indeed this present moment in time is favouring preservation of life devoid of the key aspects that make us human, this leaves us in even more need of the spiritual.
The rise of the spiritual is changing at a rapid rate, and it depends on where you look, as to whether you can see the birthing of a new way of being, or whether you can only see the chaos of the dying of the old ways. To know that both are happening at the same time, and like that coin, you need to flip it to see both sides.
Wikipedia
Ever Ancient Ever New, Celtic Spirituality in the 21st Century, Dolores Whelan
Ever Ancient Ever New, Celtic Spirituality in the 21st Century, Dolores Whelan