To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear;
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.
By Jo Harjo, U.S. Poet Laureate,
and Mvskoke Nation member

Dear Anam Caras,

My heart is with you as we enter into the season of traditional family gatherings with all their joy and angst. This year, many of us have to make the difficult choice between alleviating our isolation by being with loved ones. Or making the choice to postpone that very human need so we may improve the odds that we and our loved ones will be together next year. Thank you for the blessing you are to me and so many others.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO “CHERISH What Is” IN THE NINTH HOUSE OF HIGHER MIND?

In meditation, my Divine Intuition answers, “I aspire to live in Harmony with Life as it is unfolding. I aspire to do my part each day to bring the healing vibration of Beauty to our hurting world. I aspire to act with compassion towards ALL beings, including our Mother Earth.”

What is your Divine Intuition telling you these days about the values you aspire to live each day?

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

In four days I am to lead a ritual for Healing World/Collective Shadow with the Phase II Beauty Way Circle members. Our focus for October is Beauty and Shadow. Each Circle member has done her own personal shadow work. She will bring to the ritual an image of World Shadow that she wishes to heal.

The ritual I’ve led in previous years feels irrelevant to our time. I Google “Healing World/Collective Shadow.” There are surprisingly few resources. A link takes me to the inspiring work of Joanna Macy, the 91 year old environmental activist, systems thinker, and Buddhist teacher.

There I find my way into creating the Healing ritual. I see more clearly than ever before how Beauty Way practices allow for healing of Personal and Collective Shadow.

“Sometimes people get the mistaken notion
that spirituality is a separate department of life,
the Penthouse of Existence.
But rightly understood, it is a vital awareness
that pervades all realms of our being.”
—Br. David Steindl-Rast

What is Personal & World Shadow?

Many brilliant books have been written about Shadow, the concept introduced by Carl Jung. I summarize here and sincerely apologize for oversimplifying this vast and deep topic.

Seena B. Frost and her Jungian mentors describe Personal Shadow as the disowned, hidden parts of one’s soul/psyche. The child hides these parts when she realizes they do not conform to her family and/or community norms. For example:

• An artistic child in a family of athletes.
• A mystical child in a family of scientists.
• An athletic child in a family of scholars.
• A gay child in a traditionally religious family.

With its survival dependent upon powerful adults, the child learns to stuff the unacceptable parts way back into its psychic closet, hoping to hide them from loved ones.

It’s important to understand disowned parts are neither good nor bad; neither evil nor pure. The problem often occurs later in life when the hidden, disowned parts erupt in some attention-grabbing way: “I don’t know what took hold. I’m never like that!”

Or the disowned parts are projected onto others. “I can’t stand mean people. Why can’t they be kind like me?” A person denies her meanness and projects it onto others. If we refuse to recognize Shadow in ourselves, we are in its powerful grip. 

Doing Personal “shadow work” involves naming, claiming, accepting, and integrating the disowned parts of self. In the process, we become more functional, more complete, more whole, and more at peace. Ideally, this work is done in a safe environment with the help of a skilled guide.

World/Collective Shadow (Archetypal Shadow) is when a group of individuals who are unable to acknowledge their disowned parts band together and project their shadows on to the Other. They wage war against the Other. Through thoughts, words, or actions, the Other is murdered. Today the consequences of this ancient “WE/THEM” divisiveness are writ large in our world.

Archetypal Shadow energy is huge and overwhelming to civilizations and individuals. (It manifests in things like greed, violence, misogyny, homophobia, nativism, ageism, racism, etc.)

It’s important to acknowledge how World/Collective Shadow lives in one’s own psyche. It’s vital to do Shadow Work as a way to protect ourselves, our communities, and the world.

“They’re only concerned with their own interests.
That’s what happens
when you put ‘the I’ ahead of ‘the We.’ 
When you emphasize ‘the We,’
something extraordinary happens.
You get the most heroic behavior —
from doctors, from nurses, from health care workers,
from people who are stacking the shelves in supermarkets.
These are people who live ‘the We.’ ”
–Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

A MEMORY WAKES ME UP

The nuns are explaining to me and my 45 first grade classmates that only Catholic Christians who have atoned for all their sins will go to Heaven.

Wait, what???? Are the nuns telling me that the people in my tiny world, the ones I love most, cannot be in Heaven with me? Are they saying I won’t be in Heaven with my atheist father or my excommunicated mother who married my divorced father or our family’s closest friends, all of whom are Jewish or our beloved Black babysitter who sings us to sleep with Baptist gospel songs? I begin to wail and am sent to the Principal’s office.

My mother arrives to take me home. Try as she may, she fails to calm me down or give me a sensible explanation. Though my seven year old mind could not articulate it, in my heart of hearts, I knew that it is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG to be dividing people up like that. I cannot sleep at night. Finally, my mother takes me out of parochial school.

Fast forward to October 2020. I wake up and realize I have spent my adult years following in the footsteps of the nuns. I have become skilled at dividing the world into two groups: WE/Enlightened Ones and THEM/Ignorant Ones. WOWEE, GOOD GRIEF, OY VEY.

What the heck!!! I wrote essays about “See No Stranger” and here I am perpetuating World Shadow???

Stunned as I am, I’m also grateful for this late-in-life realization. Now I face the arduous work of integrating this disowned and unlovely part into my psyche and soul. And must be forever vigilant as this piece of ancient shadow lurks in my consciousness and in the world.

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” —Mother Teresa

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HEAL WORLD SHADOW?

Emma Jung and others suggest that true balance of Shadow energies will come about when women are able to integrate the masculine principle (animus) into their souls and men are able to integrate the feminine principle (anima) into their souls. We can do significant work in correcting archetypal Shadows.

Seena Frost and her colleagues suggest that first, we step back and identify Shadow within ourselves. How is World/Collective Shadow reflected in my psyche?

At this time, many white people are waking up and realizing our privilege has allowed for systemic racism and classism. An accident of birth cannot make us immune from our part in this centuries-old injustice.

Some white men are waking up and realizing the impact of misogyny. An accident of birth cannot make them immune from their part in this ancient injustice.

Many humans are waking up to the environmental crises caused by our greedy pursuit of comfortable lifestyles. Time is running out. We have willfully denied that we are part of our living, breathing Mother Earth. We have exploited her resources and now face a human-made disaster that threatens all species. Life as we know it cannot be sustained. Only humans can respond to this crisis.

It is a time of reckoning for all who have woken up. It is a time for joining together to discern how to repair, reconcile, and balance the wounds of human history. Coming forth out of this messy, painful process will be a profound healing of Justice and the possibility of a life-sustaining society.

The healing begins with each individual owning their part of the Collective Shadow and then interrupting old patterns and bringing forth new healthier ways.

Next, joining up in communities to employ our strongest Council Neters to help balance some of the world’s Shadows.

We must become aware of the dualistic thinking that splits good and evil into opposing camps—whether within our individual souls or our communities. (Watch your mind as it judges those who disagree with your politics!)

Then correct that dualistic thinking in your own consciousness!

• Realize there is no “them” out there.
• “They” are you and you are “them”!
• We are part of Life, not apart from Life.

Bottom line, healing World Shadow begins with individuals stopping the insidious divisive pattern of OTHERING. Will you join me, Anam Caras?

“There are two ways of spreading light:
to be the candle
or the mirror that reflects it.”—Edith Wharton

Peace be unto you, dear Anam Caras. May you find Harmony in your willingness to bring healing to your world. May you find new, uplifting thoughts about how to take small steps to heal and sustain our Mother Earth. May you bless Life with your special gifts of constructive thoughts, words, and actions that unify rather than divide.

May each of us “take the utmost care and kindness in all things.” May your love and compassion become an ever greater blessing to all you encounter. May your Heart-Light be a beacon for those who are discouraged and in despair at this time.

May you walk in Beauty today and all the days of your life, dear ones. With great love and respect,

Take a break from the anxious churning of the endless news cycles. Here are some enlightening offerings:

The possibility of healing our democracy.

More on living the ‘We.”

President-elect Biden’s promise to be serve all Americans.

Remembering Our Way Forward.