Cracking Seeds
In a dream this week I had a brief vision of a seed, surrounded by a hard shell (as a nut is), cracking open so the fresh green shoot can begin to grown into the plant that is to come. In the dream it was clear that this was a metaphor for spiritual growth.
In reflection the shell is aspects of ego and mind which are formed from old hurts, pain, anger, fear. We hold onto these and make a shell of them to protect ourselves from possible future hurts. But, while it protects us, it also limits new growth.
Just as the shell must crack so the seed can sprout, we have to relax our old protection and release the old emotions so that we can be open to new spiritual growth. Growth that allows us to emerge above ground in this time of spring, to bask in the sun of Spirit, to be nurtured by the rain and the soil.
In this growth beyond the shell of the old ego/mind we find our true nature and purpose. While the “cracking” may be painful or hard, it is also necessary for us to move to a new level and be reborn. Like most processes if we resist it it will take longer, if we relax it can be easier.
May we all be able to recognize the times when our shells are trying to crack open so that we can grow and find our souls.
Butterfly Cells
We have all heard the metaphor of the inch worm becoming a butterfly. When the caterpillar is ready to transform it spins a cocoon. Inside the cocoon it begins to break down, the cells coming apart into an organic goop. As this happens a few new seed cells appear, cells that will be part of the butterfly.
At first the old cells attack these new ones as foreign, perhaps as diseased. But they multiply very fast, and more and more are formed, too many to be suppressed. The old cells continue to fall apart, and around the new seed cells the butterfly is born.
How often to we attack the seeds of transformation in others or even in ourselves? But they are there inside us so that when we let go of the fear of dissolving, of coming apart, when we crack, these new cells, the seeds of the spiritual self are already there to guide the new form. We will loose the old self, but that is not the self/mind that will create the butterfly of our soul. Your higher self, your deeper self, the seeds of your soul already stirring within you will do that.
Relax your self/mind. Just as the new sprout, struggling to be free of the seed shell, knows how to grow into a plant, the seeds of your soul will guide the alchemy by which you become the butterfly of your soul-manifested-through-the-body.
(© 3/2009)
