The deeper I walk this medicine path and hold space for myself and others, the more I can see that it was never about "Healing the dark by removing it and becoming just the Light". The more I see the distorted and harmful western narrative of separation and labeling.
The path of shamanism is about relationship and duality. To be in relation we need "two". And we understand the two sides are the ones who create life and harmony when they come together.
Visible, Invisible
Inside, outside
Inhale, exhale
Above, below
Day, night
Winter, summer
Dark, light
...
On that path of "becoming a good relative", It seems more and more clear to me that it is about embracing the two sides, the two opposites, the dark, and the light, all in one dance, one smile, one breath, and one prayer.
It is understanding the labels our mind, society, and pain have created, are getting us away from the truth and preventing us to reach balance and wisdom. It prevents us to return to a good connection, to wisdom.
The work then becomes aiming at holding two opposites in the same love and tenderness.
Holding everyone in their opposites in the same love and tenderness.
We know that instinctively in our bellies. In our bones. We cry with the same tears for pure joy and also for deep sorrow. We can experience love and pain in the same breath.
Good human life is really about allowing the opposites to be seen and accepted in the same way, never pushing them away, never clinging to them. Being curious about the opposites, the two sides of the story, the open questions without answers.
I can feel that the deepest path of healing is to become whole again by stopping to judge and separate the "good" from the "bad". What may have seemed bad at a time now looking back was a blessing. What felt good at a time now looking back may be an illusion of a story I held too dearly.
I can finally arrive in my center, the only place of strength, peace, wisdom, and equanimity. The only place for voicing the prayers of Gratitude, Clarity, Unity, and Love. The only place where I can feel my soul so closely while receiving the whole universe.
God is the center and the opposites.
We are the center and the opposites.
"Visionary experience springs from dichotomies that at first seem irreconcilable.
There is desire and despair the desire to commune with the soul, the despair born of soul estrangement.
There is attraction and repulsion attraction to the rich realm of the dark, repulsion from its monsters and demons.
There is danger and seduction, the threat of death, and the allure of a new life.
There is knowing and not knowing.
There is hope for a new and joyous way of living, and grief for years passed in emptiness.
If we sink deep enough into these dichotomies, they shift into paradoxes not either/or but both/and. Soul embraces the poles.
We are both light and dark, both knowing and not knowing, both lost and found, both living and dying, felled with both angels and demons.
If we can accept the opposing elements and endure their collision in full consciousness, we, too, can embrace the poles." Bill Plotkin, Soulcraft
May we keep returning to the good life, through the soft gazing into all we are, and all there is.
Angell Deer
Art: Alfredo Zagaceta
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