A friend spoke the other day about continually trying to keep focused on the spiritual. I had been doing the same for much of my life, I told him, until I had a dream that changed my mind.
Dream:
I am in a dense forest of pine trees, almost perfectly shaped. Despite my protests, two little men in overalls dig up one of the trees, an exceedingly tall, straight tree, almost a perfect triangle. Very upset, I urge the little men to replant the tree, but instead, they upend it and plant the top in the hole where the roots had been.
At first, I am totally perplexed but somehow know that this is meant to be. So I help prepare the hole, and help to balance the tree on its tip in the soil, making sure that the soil is firmly compacted to hold the tree in place, and it does. And I recall that handling the soil with care was a crucial part of this.
Which reminds me of an even earlier dream where a gardener is making holes in which to plant trees and shrubs, and the holes are perfect rectangles. When I ask why he spends so much effort getting each hole perfect, he gives me a withering look, and says, "If you want a beautiful garden, you must create the best possible foundation for it that you can.
Back to the inverted tree dream. The men in my dream were actually several little men in white overalls that sometimes enter my dreams to 'do' things. They never speak, never look at me, and seem to obey some higher power, for they know exactly what to do.
I intuitively drew only two people in the mandala, representing male and female energies - yang and yin. I have met them in dreams before, male and female, always working together as they are meant to do to draw wholeness into the earth.
The inverted tree represents the channel for divine energy to enter this reality and grow here. The tree of life reaches upward, its inverted counterpart grows downwards, both necessary, the sacred pole - the navel of the world - up which shamans and our souls climb towards the Divine and down which the Divine flows to us on earth.
The spine of the human being with its pathway of energy centres, the chakras, up which the magic serpent rises and down which the sacred serpent flows with its holy wisdom, manifesting spirit into the world.
Among other things, the bird is the Higher Self, which seeks to become manifest in our present being, that is, to divinize the lower self, the ultimate goal of what Carl Jung called 'individuation.'
There is much talk these days about being spiritual, about ascending, developing our
higher chakras, creating kundalini experiences to transport us to higher levels of being. A lot of talk about, and striving for results, expecting gardens without the hard, patient, humble work of building good foundations, of creating rich, friable, nourishing soil in which gardens cannot help but grow.
That's our primary task here, to engage fully with this life, to give it all we can, to develop our lower chakras and feed the serpent with that lies coiled at the base of our spine. WE do that by developing positive, loving, helping attitudes and relationships with ourselves and others, to do that wherever we are, whatever our circumstances. That's where the truly spiritual starts - on the ground.
(image from https://workouttrends.com/naruto-uzumaki-seven-chakras)
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