Imagination – CreativeMythology

Working with Qualities of the Soul: Individual

My apologies, I had intended to have this post on the site yesterday morning. I have had my daughter visiting and we’d made plans for yesterday so I put this on the backburner.

I’m always interested in what might be going on for me from a soul perspective when I notice a song running a continuous loop in my head or the words for a song. The words that were running – I feel so uninspired – are from the song Sway by one of our beautiful Kiwi singers, Bic Runga.

Sorry little sidetrack here: I just love doing this. I went to find lyrics for the song. While re-connecting with the words I found this neat widget that you can put in your sidebar that scrolls through the lyrics of whatever song you’re inspired by. Its from MetroLyrics. The heart may not appear to be in keeping visually with the overall tone of the blog. It is representative, though, of the underlying message. The Path with Heart. The heart is the seat of the Soul in our bodies.

Anyway part of me was feeling uninspired considering the challenge facing me. And I was enjoying having my daughter with me though our time would only be a few days. I let her know the challenge I’m facing at the moment without letting it affect the specialness of her presence. I’ve seen what I can be like in the past when I’ve been in similar headspaces. I allowed myself to be with all of it without withdrawing.

As I consider lyrics I find myself directing those lyrics inward to my soul or divine self instead of turning them outwards to an external person or event. The following are those lyrics from Sway that speak to that place – the place in me that wants to know and be connected to the divine.

Say you’ll Stay
Don’t come and go
Like you do
Sway my way
Yeah I need to know
All about you
Its all because of you

As I do this sometimes I connect to something deep within. A chord is struck within my soul and I feel touched by something greater than myself. I’m not sure what you call it, God, Source, Higher Self, Spirit, Essence, Buddha, the Divine, Love, Life. Whatever you name it is a part of you and a part of all that you experience.

With this essence that is a part of us all and connects us with all manifestations of life what is the need of an individuality to our Soul? Why can we not just be like everybody else?

Because it is within the infinite manifestation of variety that The Divine is able to understand each nuance of what it means to be a spiritual being having a physical experience. This is the fascination of life.

What makes you unique? How are you experiencing life in a way that is different to those around you? I’ll bet we all know someone who we consider eccentric – that isn’t following norm – who isn’t conforming to our own imagining of how life should be. And that may be a key – our own imagining of how life should be.

If in our imagination our life should be a particular way that should creates an attachment and as we become attached we either stop being in the flow of life or are attaching ourselves to someone or something with whom we imagine we want to flow through life with. And yet within that we can still find our individuality our uniqueness.

Being with the challenge has been eccentric behaviour for me. I have seen that I’m not like the rest of my family, that I won’t allow myself to be treated like the sheep that New Zealand is famous for, mustered off to the first position the government finds for me. I also get lots of email calling me to follow this system or that to make lots of money and yet I find that a hollow representation of what we are here for.

I believe we need to find ways of creating a nurturing world wherein each person on Planet Earth has the opportunity to experience themselves as a representation of the Divine Energy, to celebrate their individuality, to feel passionate about who they are and what they’re doing, to gratefully share it all without thought of what’s in it for me.

Who are you without what you do? Who are you without what you have? Who are when you allow yourself to be?

Blessings

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The Soul: Part One

The Soul is undiscovered, though explored forever to a depth beyond report
Heraclitus

I will never discover fully what the soul is. No matter what I do. It is limitless. It goes beyond even what I imagine the universe might be as it is said that the universe is finite; that if I was to shine a torch out into the depths of space that eventually after eons and eons of time it would come back and hit me in the back of the head. This earthly existence doesn’t give me the time.

I am unable to wait, for life changes from moment to moment, cells are dying in my body as I type and new ones are taking their place. I embrace change as a part of life. All I have is the precious now for what was, is now gone and what will be is yet to come. All I have to do is engage my soul and trust that whatever I need in this moment I will receive. And to receive without judgment.

How do I engage my soul? Where is my soul?

I see the soul as being our connection to the Life Essence and through that to each other entity from the denser energy of the stones, through plants, insects, birds, and animals. All are affected by what I am broadcasting to the world.

If I’d been in that engaged soulful space since birth I wouldn’t know what it was like to be out of it. In this earth-bound existence I can only experience one state when I have experienced its opposite. And so rather than judging my negative experiences as bad I now see them as a way to embrace and appreciate more fully the positive.

Jung said once that the soul does not reside within us, but that our bodies exist within the soul. Sort of like an egg where the yolk is the physical body and the white is the soul that surrounds it.

The place of the soul in my earthly vehicle is my heart. The heart provides a rhythm for life and as it beats, pulses the energy it is experiencing out into the world. It’s no surprise that we are able to discern a person’s disposition though they may be silent. Whether they are happy, sad, joyous, jealous or angry they are broadcasting it to the world each time the heart beats. When I look into my heart, when I connect with others from a heart-centred attitude, then my soul is engaged.

Finding pleasure is considered the foremost quality of soul. When I find soulful pleasure in whatever I do I am increasing the vitality of this temple I call my body. It may take me a while to get into that zone and as life changes I may easily slip out of it again. So why wouldn’t I want to be in that state constantly?

From the stand point of Creative Mythology I look at our traditional mythologies and the stories they tell. Most of them can tell us how to connect to this soulfulness, if we look at them in a metaphorical sense rather than a literal telling of a story. Rereading my post on Chaos may give you some insight into this.

Or consider the mythology of the Birth of Adonis.

The Mother of Adonis, Smyrna, was concerned about her incestuous feelings toward her father and tried to take her life to avoid what seemed to be the inevitable result. Her nurse discovered and saved her from this fate, colluding with her to bring this relationship to fruition which she did while the King, Smyrna’s father was drunk when her mother was away.

This continued until the King became suspicious of who the young girl was. Smyrna left and began to journey through several countries, praying to the gods along the way, unsure whether she wanted to live or die. In time the gods answered her prayers turning her into the tree bearing the name Myrrh.

After several Months the tree split open and Adonis was born.

When we look at the image of incest as a symbol we find that in ancient cultures it was sometimes considered incestuous for not only family members to have a sexual relationship but also for members of the same tribe or clan. While it doesn’t necessarily take the curse away from the act it may not be as taboo as incest within immediate family. It may be that it caused unpleasant dynamics within the power structure of the tribal community which then forced Smyrna to leave the tribe and wander searching.

There may have been a cult around the myrrh tree. A tribe which tended to and traded in Myrrh to which Smyrna was drawn and in that community she was to give birth to Adonis.

I’m reminded of how soulful I feel when I’m in nature. How nature can speak to those deeper places of connection within me. A feeling of coming home. I imagine that Smyrna may have had those same feelings as she may have connected with these people who were the stewards of the Myrrh.

This is obviously a construct of my imagination based on the symbolism contained within the story and the concepts you construct around the myth may or will be different to mine. And this will be absolutely perfect for you and what you’re needing in the present moment.

Resources:

For more on the power of the Heart see HeartMath

Incest: Rape Crisis Online Encyclopaedia

Greek Myth: GML

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