24th – 25th August 2013: Preparing for the Big Day!!

Contradictory Wholeness

As we edge ever closer to the powerful cosmic alignments of 26th August, the heavens encourage us to prepare by exploring evermore deeply the existence of opposites within our psyche. To embrace those bits of ourselves which seem opposed whilst also occupying the same space. Here we often find less attractive qualities we want to hide from the outside world.

We like to own one end of the spectrum but not the other. We consider ourselves patient so we ignore the part which gets really irritated. We see ourselves as compassionate so we ignore the bit which wants to judge and condemn. We want to support those who are being tyrannised by others, so we ignore our own inner tyrant which rears its ugly head from time to time. We see ourselves as a failure so conveniently ignore our successes. Yes, it works in both directions!

It’s very human to be this way. Everyone does it. Few of us are entirely comfortable with the paradoxical opposites from which we are constructed. Life would be so much simpler if we could just be one way, the way we want to be, and the other bits would just shrivel up and drop off! But they won’t, no matter how much we avoid, deny and ignore them. In fact, the more we do that the stronger they become in their fight to be acknowledged and heard. So what to do?

Well, the advice from the heavens right now is to give up the fight, stop trying to be what we’re not (uni-dimensional) and start being what we are (a great big mass of fascinating contradictions, paradoxical opposites and irrational thoughts and feelings!). Because, and this is the nub of it all, that’s exactly what we’re supposed to be. That’s what being human is!

We embody all these powerful energies and forces, we exist amid multifarious influences coming at us from all directions, and from all of this we emerge into being with the task of living out our unique individuality born of this complex energy field in which we live and breathe. We were never meant to be straightforward. We’re here to live amidst complexity and still find a way to do so with integrity and authenticity. We’re here to be complicated, and in being so to its fullest, to recognise that the complexities point always to a still centre which can contain every contradiction there ever was in a state of balance and peace.

We cannot know this still centre until we own and embrace all the parts of ourselves we find so hard to accept. As long as we deny or ignore them we are living in a state of constant tension, with part of our psyche in permanent lock-down just in case one of them should try to escape at some inopportune moment! And we cannot know our true selves until we know all of who we are, which includes the bits we don’t like, the parts that disgust us and the aspects of our nature which don’t fit with who we perceive ourselves to be.

This weekend the cosmos speaks about these parts and urges us to open our hearts a bit wider to let them in and have their say. Whatever it may be, however heinous its message, if it’s inside us we need to hear it now and recognise that it’s there for a reason; it’s ours to work with and, if necessary, heal. But even healing may not be necessary once we let it speak, because, having heard its message we may begin to realise it has a perfectly valid role in our life if we would just let it do its thing.

Maybe our inner judge is the other face of wise discernment, or our inner tyrant is the other face of responsible leadership. It doesn’t matter what’s in there, it’s how we apply it in our lives that counts, and few things have no useful application whatsoever. Even if that application is only a better understanding of others once we can recognise our own disowned parts which cry for recognition.

This is the crux of the inner work we humans have to do. It’s deeply challenging but commensurately satisfying when we do it. And this weekend is a prime time to get stuck in and empty out the darker recesses of our psyches where all those disowned voices live. They are part of you and me and consigning them to the darkness is an act of cruelty beyond measure, like locking a distressed child in a darkened room. All it creates is greater suffering and deeper pain, and we really need to stop creating more suffering right now, as individuals and as a collective!

So this weekend is a time for the ignored, the suppressed, the denied, to find their voices within us and be allowed to speak. And as we listen we can breathe softly and deeply, stay focused and hold them within a loving space that acknowledges their words, meeting them with the recognition that they were spoken in our voice. Their words are ours. Whatever they said and however we felt as we listened, there is nothing to fear. We are merely paradoxical, contradictory and surprising, just as we are meant to be: beautifully human, wonderfully flawed and perfectly whole….all at the same time.

Enjoy your weekend everyone.

Sarah Varcas