Metaphors of Transformation

Posted on March 15, 2009 by mcallister

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)

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The Flavor of the Seasons

Posted on March 1, 2009 by mcallister

by Alan McAllister, CCHt PhD-phys

Have you ever taken time to notice the emotional flavor to a day or a season? Its easiest on those days that are noticeably un-seasonal. Its always easier to notice things that are different or changing. Those days in late August or September that we get a first hint of Fall, or the warm days in February or March that stir up the feelings of Spring. Often its a fleeting sense that we may barely notice, sometimes a whole day that has a different feel.

Here in the front range we have been having a very warm Winter, that has been feeling like late Spring for a while now. Even for Colorado’s infamously variable weather its been pushing things a bit and we have had a consistent feel of May through most of February.

For me the awareness is emotional, and the triggers mainly subconscious. It may be the temperature, the color of the sky, the way the light hits, or a smell, but suddenly it feels like a different season. Our subconscious memory structures are all associative, so when we get key sensory cues to the season the associated feelings and sometimes whole memory chains pop up to the surface.

We all have our favorite seasons, or ones that are challenging. Fall for me has long had a flavor of new beginnings, because of the school cycle that I spent so many years in. A mixture of excitement and anxiety. Other seasons have their own flavors that have built up over the years, some coherent, others mixed.

These flavors become the background of our lives, the layering of old emotions that form the stage dressing for current experience. As long as the progressions are as they have been in the past, and reasonably stately, we don’t notice them much, the emotional background is simply part of each season for us.

When things are different we can begin to be aware of how much old flavor we are constantly bringing to the present.

This whole Winter I’ve had the feeling of “summer”, of light in the darkness, of a joy and contentment that are not (for me) usual Winter fare. Now we are in high Spring in February I am noticing whole seasons of emotional content that are showing up. Past springs that were good or challenging, floating through my being. Other days I wake up and there is no particular feeling at all, and that feels strange, disorienting, and perhaps a bit uncomfortable.

Its actually a bit confusing. Part of me is, unexpectedly, calling out for more Winter, more inward processing time, more time to nurture my body and being. Am I ready for even more expansion?

I wonder if the clearing processes are moving so fast now that we are releasing the emotional charges not of single memories or events, but whole seasons at one shot. So I watch the old seasons roll through and know that they are clearing the way – to approach the new ones free of the old overlays.

When we can be aware of these associations we have the opportunity to transmute our relationships with each season: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. To clear the season’s past emotional flavors, to come to each one fresh and open, as children do, with excitement and anticipation. We are being stirred in a way that makes it clear that much of what shows up each day or week is not about the present energies and being in relationship to them as they are, but is echoing out of the memories of the past.

Releasing these old associations, attachments, resistances, we can actually feel today, rather than all the yesterdays. Not that we have to get rid of the past, but to allow it to be past, a faint echo, so we can be present to have new experiences of joy and wonder. That’s what makes the good memories so good, they were times in childhood or in love, when we were truly present to the moment, fully alive.

The churning of the seasons, by bringing the emotional overlays to conscious awareness, gives us the chance to claim this state again: being present and fresh in all moments, choosing new ways of relationship to the events of our lives, and new emotional flavors.

May your season, whatever it is, be wondrous and joyful, and all your moments deeply alive.

(© 3/2009)

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Relationships, Space, and Spirit

Posted on February 15, 2009 by mcallister

Whether its because Valentine’s Day has been on the horizon, or the moon in the 7th house of relationships, aspects of relationship have been showing up all week.

I have written before about the value of viewing a relationship as a third space that you create with another person. Each party has their own space and together they create a third space in which to have the relationship, whatever that may be; romantic, friendship, familial, or business.

This is in contrast to some views of relationship in which the two independent spaces merge into a single unified space. While this may feel wonderful and work for a while, it is generally not sustainable, and is often confusing and leads to power conflicts and many other challenges.

When I have my own space and you have yours, we are rooted in who we are, we have a sense of self, a space to relate to ourselves and Spirit. We can then easily give our partner permission to have their space in the same way. From this foundation we can come into co-creation in a third space, the space of the relationship.

At times we may both dive in completely and revel in loss of self and unity of body, heart, mind or spirit. When we need a breather we can climb back into our own space. We can have both connection and independence, unity and selfhood. We can be complete in ourselves and joyfully go beyond ourselves with another.

In ceremonial work it is advised to remember that as you co-create with others, Spirit is always present as a unifying, encompassing force. It is easier to step out of attachment and ego when you are surrendering to Spirit, than to your partner or partners, no matter how much you love them. It is amazing how easily and smoothly creation happens in this way.

Having your relationships as independent spaces provides space for Spirit to enter in this way. In the field of conscious relationship the concept of a “Third Presence”[1], a sort of relationship oversoul, is viewed as not merely helpful, but essential to a successful intimate relationship. This spiritual presence becomes an ally, and can hold the space when its hard for you to do so. It brings in creativity and assistance, understanding and perspective, when they are most needed.

When we are mashed together in a single space, mine, yours, or a combination, there is not much room for Spirit to enter in. Spirit moves in the Void, the in-between, the space between atoms and the spaces between people. Remembering the saying, “When two or more are gathered…”, I wonder if this is not a similar creation of space in which Spirit can arise, or appear.

May you fully enjoy the process of co-creating your relationships with your friends and beloveds, in partnership with Spirit it’s easier and safer to open to another, and manifest your dreams.

[1] Flesh and Spirit, J. Zimmerman & J. McCandless, 1998

(© 2/2009)

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The Ego, the Soul, and the Id

Posted on February 1, 2009 by mcallister

by Alan McAllister, CCHt PhD-phys

When I was young I read a lot of science fiction. I enjoyed this genre in part because it was really many genres depending on the author and the book. It might be rollicking space adventure, but it could explore psychological, environmental, political themes. Essentially any time, place, theme, or idea was a potential subject.

One theme that was implicitly, and sometimes explicitly addressed, was the age old question of man’s true nature. At the end of the day, or century, are we “good” or “bad”? Will we destroy ourselves and/or the planet, or learn to live in harmony and peace? Should we be optimistic or pessimistic about the future?

This discussion is echoed in psychological terms in how we think about the ego. Does it save us from our animal self (id) and thus perform a necessary and heroic role? or does it distract us from our spiritual self (soul) and thus is something to be removed, outgrown, or deconstructed?

Much of western society is based on the idea that we need the ego, and by extension discipline, education, religion, and constant vigilance, to live a civilized (Dr. Jekyll) life, rather than a barbaric (Mr. Hyde) life. If the ego falls, we are thought to be subject to passions that will shortly cause us to do all sorts of horrible things.

In much of spiritual practice and tradition the focus is more on the ways in which the ego limits our ability to progress and realize our high aspects, weighing us down with distracting concerns and emotions. Freeing ourselves from this ego is a path towards realizing the divine, learning to live from the soul as brothers and sisters in love and peace.

Like much in the dual relative world, it all depends on perspective. If we lump the ego with the id, as against the soul, it seems negative, and freeing ourselves is a glorious spiritual pursuit. If we lump the ego with the soul, as against the id, it seems positive, and we need to train it as hard as we can.

In fact, as human beings we are all three (ego, id, and soul), comprising body, emotions, mind and spirit. We are here to learn to weave all three together. It is true that we can rise into light as spirit, but then we are not human and there is no reason to be present on the earth. Dropping deep into ourselves does not (contrary to many early psychiatrists and western theologians) lead to ever blacker darkness, but if we make it through the layers of pain and fear we find the light again.

We are often scared of our inner world, because it does have uncomfortable, and scary things in it. There are other things that we have judged in many different ways as negative. In the middle of the last century psychologists began to realize that even in pain there is life, and by giving it space to be we can find the light in the darkness.

This may be a slow and challenging process, but it does move always towards wholeness. We all know the way home somewhere deep inside. While we may carry dark and scary pieces, when we bring compassion to them, give them space to be, they do not destroy us or our life, but unfold themselves in a healing process that allows us to be more fully alive. By accepting all of who we are we find our way back to light and life.

The ego only holds back the shadow side of the id because we have not brought in the soul to heal it yet. We have learned to fear ourselves as we have come to fear our world. But the truth is that our core, our essence, is not dark, but brilliantly bright. As we move through the shadowed places and create space for the soul to enter, the ego becomes something clearer, something that serves to manifest the soul through the personality. As the ego relaxes we naturally find our way to clearing, integrating.

We are not meant to choose among our different aspects, but to learn to unite them all, to create living temples for spirit to manifest on earth. We are not meant to do this by caging or cutting away whole levels of our being, or to choose the material or the spiritual but through compassion to heal them and integrate all. Just as man walks between heaven and earth uniting them in the dance of existence, the ego walks between the spirit and the id, weaving them together in a single divine expression of what it is to be fully human.

Remembering that you are a spiritual being having a human experience, be joyful for the future is bright.

(© 1/2009)

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Positive Intentions

Posted on January 15, 2009 by mcallister

In the post-Secret world we understand that setting intentions is a key to manifesting the life that we want.

One of the key rules for intentions is that they need to be set in positive terms, like affirmations and hypnotic suggestions, which are used to reprogram our subconscious. Positive phrasing is important because the subconscious, which holds our most important beliefs and programs, apparently doesn’t hear negative words like “not”. So if you set an intention to “not overeat”, the mind hears “overeat”; with contrary results.

My own sense of why the subconscious is poor at negatives is that the coin of that realm is not so much words as sensory experiences: pictures, feelings, sounds. These do not include equivalents of “not”. When we say I will not smoke, we are most likely to see a picture of smoking, perhaps with a red slash through it, with the verbal “not”. What the subconscious receives is the image and/or feeling of smoking.

Intentions are more often thought of as being addressed to spirit than the subconscious, so you may wonder why spirit also has trouble with negatives. Perhaps it is because while we think in words, what spirit receives is the pictures and feelings that words invoke as we think them.

It is known that aligning our emotional state with our words is important in powering all these processes. It is likely that the emotions tend to follow the picture or sensory experience evoked by the words, rather than the words themselves. We are back with the subconscious.

There is another reason for working with positive phrasing. It forces us to clarify what our true intention is. If we can’t say “my intention is to not worry”, what replaces worry? Where is it we do want to go? If this is fuzzy then spirit still has a hard time knowing what we want. Even with things that are better defined, “I don’t want to be fat”, is more clearly something like “I want to be my ideal weight”. But what exactly is that for us?

In every case the exercise of really envisioning what we want; how does it feel to be our ideal weight? perhaps we also want to be more athletic? how does that look and feel? engages us in a whole different way and begins to bring hope and joy into the process. And if there are any underlying blocking beliefs it will flush them out as well, helping to increase our havingness.

Life should be lived manifesting the positive, not fighting the negative.

In this coming year there are great opportunities to realize the positives. May you find out what you really want to create; aligning your senses and your heart with positive words, bring it easily and effortlessly to your life.

(© 1/2009)

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