Unearthing the Sacred

Victor Oddo (if you haven’t heard of him yet, do google him – talks a lot about Ascension) called the long inward chapter I’ve been in the Hermit Phase. An apt name as I rather love my Hermit Phase, my going within. It’s a necessary phase for many of us, if not all, to experience and readjust. Now, technically speaking, I am, according to my rather extensive Myers-Briggs test, an INTP which means I am most certainly a rather reclusive individual to begin with. Over the years though, I have learned to work within the societal construct, as we all have had to do, and even some of my closest friends have believed me to be an extrovert as I can make great conversation with total strangers. However, the last couple years I have been more reclusive. It was a phase that began with working in an emotionally intense environment, having more demands made upon me day after day, and losing my brother – the one person who I thought would always be there for me (at least in this physical realm.) For many of us, perhaps mostly us older ones coming into more awareness, this dramatic and heart-wrenching event is unfortunately necessary to experience and has a tendency to force us onto the Ascension path. I, for one, knew at a young age how I wanted my life to proceed (ie. as a spiritual entity and positive energy that disperses to all I meet) but this physical world, as we all know, will throw us for a loop, batter us until we hit bottom, and we inevitably forget about it while trying to deal with the drudgery of life.

It took 4 months for me to leave my position after my brothers death and it was another 3 months before I had to return to the outside world for financial reasons. In able to deal with the overwhelming chaos of my emotions, I turned to my Art and just created every day during that 3 month period. For me, it was the best therapy I could have achieved. But it has taken another year of work frustration to take charge of my life, define how I want it, put myself on a path that I may achieve the life I desire, and come to clarity. I still reside in the Hermit Phase to an extent – making my “leisure” days ones that are focused on setting me on the path of slowly releasing my inner world out on to you with the intention of a spiritual community. For one of my essays I wrote in a college course I took, I interviewed women artists. The running theme of their analysis of why they create was “community” which can be viewed by the outside world as an oddity coming from an Artist. Art is usually a very individual, focused, inward kind of practice and yet, as Wassily Kandinski concludes in Concerning the Spiritual in Art, it is a practice that is akin to meditation, a spiritual communion. Spirituality in its very essence is a communion with the Divine, of all that is, and having that feeling and knowing of interconnection and intuitive sensing.

So, sometimes we have to go inward to go outward, commune, and connect. It is the becoming confident within ourselves that we can then proceed to release the greatness of all that we are.

Take some time for yourself each day. Stop with the excuses and create sanctuary – of time, of peace, and of understanding. The excuses only make us miss out on lighting our souls on fire. The excuses create obstacles for not only ourselves but others from knowing our very essence. The excuses are only causing disappointment and guilt within us, aren’t they? I dare you the next time you start a “but” sentence (“but my kids…,” “but what will others think?,” “but I don’t have time…”) just stop and take five minutes for yourself, with noise cancelling earphones if necessary. And the next time, bump it up to ten minutes. Just breathe and think of that most beautiful place that you’ve been to or want to go to in that time.

And please, don’t forget to be awesome!