What's being born in you? - Interspirituality.org

“What is being born in me right now? What is simultaneously dying? For the truth is that both are occurring at the same time. Let go of concerns about dying each day, but place your focus on what is being born afresh. It’s a new day and great opportunities come with each passing moment.”

promptings from an Inner voice of wisdom

There was a feeling of discomfort as I sat to practice an exercise from the Deep Time Leadership program on Interbeing assigned to our leadership class by presenter, Gail Worcelo (Sisters of the Earth Community) of the Green Mountain Monastery. Before me I placed a large Poinsettia and Ivy bowl on the kitchen counter asking for guidance on its care. Parts from both plants seem to be dying, and I’m unsure how to properly care for it. My friend Dana had gifted me with this bowl at the time of her visit this past December. Knowing that Poinsettia’s are notoriously hard to grow, I graciously accepted the gift and for many weeks the plant seemed to thrive. Noting this past week the drying and dropped leaves I found myself questioning whether I had been watering it too frequent or not enough. Either way, there were clear signs of pathology.

Yesterday seemed the perfect opportunity to engage in the practice as temperatures soared up into the upper fifties. I established the ritual by asking the plant if I could enter its space to sense what might be going on. A greater care for the plant’s wellbeing emerged in me which I took as a “yes”. Sitting by the plant, my first sense was to check the water in the lid under the large pot which was full of water. This felt like part of the problem. Also, I moved the plant from the table to the kitchen counter for better access and light. In the 20-minute session with the plant I simply tried to tune into what might be going on for it. Why was it evoking feelings of sadness for me? Could this be associated with concerns I have for the friend who gifted me with the plant? Was the condition of its soil not right for the plant to thrive? I couldn’t answer these questions after the first session, but afterwards, it occurred to me that plant communication might not come in the form of words, but rather through feelings or promptings even hours after the encounter. Nothing dramatic happened during the session, but afterwards it did occur to me to consider checking on the Internet for articles about Poinsetta’s grown indoors after the holiday season. That evening I participated in an Ecstatic Posture Session with Paul Robear and Laura Lee of the Cuyamungue Institute using what is referred to as the “Lady of Malta” posture, a pose performed while lying down on one’s side with the help of a pillow as a prop for one’s head.

The posture has been derived from a small clay statue artifact found in a burial ground cave on the Island of Malta.

Paul Robear conducted us through the opening blessing and ritual and then began 20 minutes of a very deeply focused drumming. For me, the posture experience evoked the following experience:

“I was laying outside on the grass under the starry night sky. I felt a tremendous warmth emanating from the back of my head. It felt as if my body, my head specifically, was being planted in the Earth, as if growing roots. In between the drumbeats I could hear an elder chanting an ancient song in a language which I did not understand. His voice and chant were comforting, and soon I could hear a chorus of voices singing along with him. I then saw a village laid out in a circular grid-like fashion where each hut had several paths connecting to the next hut, in almost like a fish-net like pattern. At that point I felt that I had become a small fetus floating in larger space connected to the beat of this community. I felt an intense longing for connection with the tribe. A snake was nearby and momentarily I felt oddly vulnerable to being eaten while laying in the grass in this posture – an unsuspecting prey for the predator, perhaps a first chakra related fear. Overall, I felt a deep feeling of connection with the elder singing the song that wove together this deeper feeling of community.”

The images which I received from this posture helped me better process my first interbeing encounter earlier that day with the Poinsettia. I realized that it had evoked in me uncomfortable feelings around my own experience of living and dying. But a larger theme began to emerge as I considered both the interbeing and posture experiences together. Regardless of what befalls the body which is constantly subject to loss, decay and growth, my true essence is Consciousness, which some may term “Soul” – perhaps that ancient elder heard chanting in between each drumbeat was the voice of this Soul Power. The appearance of the Snake in the posture was noteworthy not only as a symbol of the activation of the Reptilian brain, but also the rising of Kundalini energy. Could I trust that I would not be devoured by this energy? How might the reptilian mindset contribute to the flourishing of life?

In these uncertain pandemic times, both environmentally, culturally, and geo-politically, this “Sleeping Lady” posture helps me remember to seek greater connection with Earth for guidance and support. The uncertainty I’m experiencing in life is a kind of darkness, not too unlike the darkness encountered in the subterranean Hypogeum burial pit where all that is unessential to a Soul is stripped away. Is that the role of the feminine (Yin) energy to remove what is no longer needed, helping us to better focus on what is waiting to be born anew? Having seen in my trance state the image of a fetus floating in space reminds me to pay greater attention to the new life emerging and to seek the comfort of connection with community, the Divine Feminine at play within the whole of Creation.

“It’s a new day and great opportunities come with each passing moment.”