Soul’s Homecoming

In the photo, Healing Moon, the dark night reveals a circular hazy moon that to me is both robust and ladened. There seems to be a network of branches, a dark matrix of capillaries absorbing the energy from the nucleus of her moonlight bringing it back to the Earth. It is nature’s lifeline, pulsing heart-energy out to those who would walk on the land below. This brings up another question about which I wonder. What if your eyes don’t allow you to see what I have shown you here? Does nature have a message for those who sense her in other ways? I have a story to tell you about my mother Madelaine. She was an artist and she was blind in the later part of her life. However, for most of her life she enjoyed near perfect vision. She spent a lot of time in her home studio painting portraits of her children or replicating her version of startlingly intense magazine photography. My sensory memory easily recalls the aroma of oil paints and acrylics. I see paint brushes of all shapes and sizes carefully cleaned with turpentine standing together in a large container. Her artist tools helped set her imagination free. Later in life as she began to lose her sight instead of brilliant portraits she painted landscapes that were big washes of bold, dramatic watercolors. The trees and rivers and open spaces from her imagination were not always proportional nor were they perfectly formed but, nonetheless, they pulled you into her inspired genius. After the blindness took over she used her hands to create pottery and it became her passion. She felt how the bowl was forming. She would intuit the shape, the texture and even the color. Laughing with joy at all of it, my mother allowed the vibrational interaction between her hands and the clay to form what wanted to emerge. As an Earth empath I can understand how this vibrational energy works in the artist’s mind. Walking among the trees – sometimes barefoot – and feeling the rhythmic heartbeat of the land, intuiting the memory of the ancestral rocks and trees, and sensing there is an Otherworld that is trying to convey itself requires we use a part of ourselves we do not typically access. The land is asking us to use our metaphorical “hands” as well as our “eyes” to understand. It is another way that our sixth sense uses our bodies to know or intuit its presence. Envision With Different Eyes Inner Wisdom sends us messages from the unconscious, nature, or our dream world. This indwelling wisdom energy has been given different names in various spiritual traditions such as Sophia, Shekinah, or Shakti. She has manifested as a goddess, an intricate mandala design, or as ancient geometric stone circles. There are ways that she has yet to be known. What is evident is that she is a communicator who regardless of how often we miss her signals, and how often we mistreat her, she never stops caring or giving. Her favorite language includes signs and symbols. This language does not always make sense to the intellect; she prefers to make herself known through feelings and sensations or moments of intuitive insight. Inner Wisdom also manifests herself in special people in our lives. These are people who call out to us and reflect back the gifts we hold. They tell us about the importance of our curiosity and wonderment like my ninth-grade teacher did for me. They are often in plain sight. It may take years to discern the meaning of their insight and yet the synchronicity of their presence may spark us in the moment. My daughter Erin has this type of synchronistic knowing. Periodically she will contact me and begin to call out the gifts she sees in me by telling a story or asking a question. For example, years ago when moving back to the United States after a long-term job she asked me to help her set up a session with an energy worker. She was confident that I knew who to call and was equally comfortable that there was no explanation necessary. I would understand what she needed and why. Another time we were chatting online with several other people. As we all discussed possibilities for a new business venture Erin said, “All we have to do now is to have my mom manifest this idea and it will happen.” This made me smile. Erin has a gift that calls forth the truth that she sees in other people and in the formulation of ideas. She speaks the truth that she sees, says it aloud and gives it a voice. Here again, through the gifts of others Inner Wisdom makes herself known. Journey Exercise Start with a deep breath before beginning either a nature walk or gazing skyward. Ask wisdom to show you what she wants to communicate. The key is to enter into a state of deep curiosity, keep breathing, then observe and wait – without analyzing. Journey Question What is it that has come up for you in this meditative exercise? Did you notice a sign, symbol or intuit a gut feeling? How does this new insight change who you are in this moment?