Shaking the snow globe

Soul to soul

I recently had a vivid dream about my lovely Aunty Vivienne, who passed in 2020. She’s the namesake of my middle name and her presence in my dream felt meaningful. In the dream, Aunty Viv sat to my right and said, “My guides told me that you’re hard to get hold of and they have a question for you. What word would you use to describe the transition that humanity is currently undergoing?”

The question struck me as almost comical. I can hardly comprehend my next threshold, let alone a word for humanity’s transition! Will I be spending more time in New Zealand or hunkering down in India and finding a way to flourish here in the ways I need to? Or, zooming in closer to village and local time, what will I make for lunch? Then, panning back out to flourishing in this one short life, Rumi’s “out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing” there is a field of wild flowers. I will meet you there.

Aunty Viv’s question, “What word would you use to describe this transition?” wasn’t about humanity as a whole, but on behalf of my humanness, the part of me that is all of us. As we navigate the shaking of the global snow globe, is it possible to truly comprehend the transition that we are now in? Are we as a species aware that we are going through a massive evolution? We know that we have a “species-wide longing” for change that cannot be ignored. We feel it in our bones. In our future, when we look back at the us of 2024, it may be asked, just how much did they know, fathom, comprehend of what change was coming?

Aunty Viv’s question was not just about finding a word but about how vividly one could cross this extraordinary threshold of initiation. Who will we be? What will we become? A word, after all, is not just a word, it’s a doorway to meaning and understanding. So here we go down the rabbit hole, the dark quiet soil of contemplation of what’s true for me, the unknowable that is inside this body. I can’t speak for humanity, but we are increasingly challenged to keep pace with accelerated change, the urgent irrelevancies of instantaneous, everywhere, all at once, overwhelming information and the blurring between reality and unreality. We will need to be able to stand firmly on our own feet and know what we truly know. We will need to rely on the one voice we can trust, our own voice, the voice of our soul that always has our back and is here to support and empower us from the depths. The soul isn’t some remote and pristine beauty. It holds a deep emotional truth, “the darkest of the dark and the lightest of the light”, something that is the most true thing about a person. A human. The soft animal body of love. The Goddess shimmering through everything.

Embodying the Goddess

“There will never be a voice outside of you that is wiser than your soul-voice or holds more authority over what is best for you. You need guidance and support not to follow someone else’s truth but to remain loyal to your own. The voice that will guide you to your highest potential is within you.”

~ Meggan Watterson

I was deeply moved by Sera Beak’s account of meeting Marion Woodman, a renowned Jungian analyst and author. As a Harvard scholar of comparative religions, Sarah had interviewed numerous spiritual teachers, gurus and lamas worldwide. Yet she felt an unshakable sense of something missing. That was until she met Marion Woodman. During the interview, Sarah cried throughout the entire meeting, overcome by the profound presence of a woman who had fully embodied her soul. She realised that she’d never been in the presence of somebody who had integrated her spirit into her physical body. Her holy flesh. It was heart breaking for Sera.

This is what we truly yearn for: to come home to our unique core, our feminine soul, the sacred bridge between heaven and earth. It’s said that we ascend to spirit and descend towards our soul. As humans, we often strive to transcend and rise above the pain and complexities of being human. We’d rather soar up, up and away in our beautiful balloon than face the music and delve into depths of our own soul. But it’s precisely this underworld journey that allows us to become fully human and fully divine.

~ The 5th Dimension, Up Up and Away, 1968

Impossibility becomes reality

We’re in the midst of a profound transformation, evolving into the future human, here, now. It’s going to be beautiful but there’s a difficult passage to pass through and it’s good that we know this. Death and rebirth are happening simultaneously. A collapse and a resurrection. Many people are experiencing a sense of free floating, causeless anxiety and depression, adrift without meaning. The world’s promises have fallen short. As a species, we’re undergoing a radical shift. The next few years will bring unprecedented change, marked by unpredictability and strangeness. It’s going to be a gentler ride to consciously accustom ourselves with the unfamiliar. Here are two examples of the “strange” that are present in plain sight.

When Cyclone Gabrielle hit New Zealand in 2023, a whole summer’s worth of rain fell in a single day, triggering devastating floods. Witnessing the destruction from afar, it was a surreal experience, leaving a haunting and unsettling feeling. As one reporter described it, “It was like seeing someone I knew really well, acting totally out of character.”

Last night we watched a documentary called The Lost Children. One scene left a lasting impression: a young boy native to the Amazon jungle, encountered a blue and white plane that had recently crashed. When the search and rescue team asked if he’d seen anything unusual, he innocently replied, “There’s a blue house in the jungle not far away.” When confronted by something so strange that it defies our senses and our understanding, we are floored by the impossible. An impossibility that now exists as a strange, new reality.

Beautiful edge dwellers

Most of us reading these words can relate to being an “edge dweller.” We’re inhabiting the edge of our life, the gate of now, and the frontier of the beyond. We stand at the boundary of the known and the unknowable, where the margins of certainty are rapidly dissolving. The people of the world, grappling with the challenges of change, startled by the new, may find themselves becoming fledgling edge dwellers. For those who are unprepared, and that’s all of us, this can be a daunting and frightening experience. Yet, as we stand together on the edge of existence, we will be met by a profound openness. How heartbreakingly tender. The whole world bursts open, and we’re all together arrested, changed and made real. Comprehended by love, held in the arms of consciousness, even if we don’t realise it.

Soon there may not be much to hold onto in the way that we’ve been used to. For those of us accustomed to moving in the unknown, this shift presents an opportunity to bring forth our strange gifts of space, stillness and luminous darkness to the table. Pluto moving into Aquarius assures us that all will be invited. We’re being woven into unity by divine hands that ask for our trust and surrender, to hold the next hand, and the next.

Soul to soul

Many winters ago, I was sitting up in bed, wearing a woollen hat like a character in a Leunig cartoon. With a little note book and a pen in hand, I was suddenly struck by something both startling and profoundly obvious. It was as if I had remembered a beloved, yet forgotten companion － my own soul.

I wrote down these words: “Dear Soul, what do you want? Please show me the way?“ After years of seeking, this little turnabout of intimacy towards the deepest, most essential part of myself was a gesture of love that embraced my soul as my support, my home. Home to her.

~ Michael Leunig

We can all cultivate a deeper connection with our soul. It begins with a simple hello, a gentle conversation that invites our soul’s voice to emerge, an intention of listening to the voice of truth and love within us, the guiding wisdom that will forever have our back and love us home.

May you be loved and accepted exactly as you are.

May you hear your own voice.

May you embody the wisdom of your soul.

PS: The dream question still lingers, awaiting an answer. What word describes humanity’s transition? But that’s another story . . .

✨⭐✨

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