CLEANSING
the healing power of communal gathering
Have you recently been feeling the collective residue of anxiety gathering on your skin?
If you are a mover or a dancer, maybe you have felt the need to shake-out your body more often. I sure have! Have you ever watched deer shiver their bodies when they start to move and become restless? It’s a marvel to watch their tough hide wrinkling in undulating waves of repressed energy being released, in order to sustain their essential need for awareness.
How alert do you feel to danger these days. On guard? Numb? Sheltering? Moving so fast you can’t feel anything? Possibly all of the above?
If you read stories of the Dustbowl years of 1930-1936 when the semi-arid, drought-laced grassland areas of the mid-West were torn up and devastated by severe windstorms, you’ll recall how the dust seeped into everything – everywhere. Dreadful stories of animals and people being buried alive in the ruins of their lives and remarkable stories of survival through the will to live.
I have the strong sense that being a witness to our present human-made and climate-change-induced ravages on Earth right now feels like endless waves of a monster dust storm passing through our well-protected lives. Our insular systems for self-preservation are fully ramped up as our nervous systems carry the weight of this barrage of chaos. Each day harbors fresh shocks of incredulity and fear which shake our human structures of material and spiritual support.
As humans who have been socially wired for comfort, we are under a powerful systemic drought of security.
The dust is swirling in clouds of dis-ease.
Where do you find ‘cleansing’ to wash away the accumulated crust? Most of us more activist-types just keep rushing along unaware of where the weight is accumulating.
On our skin.
In our pores.
Sinking into our bones as toxic trauma for the next generations to deal with.
It brings me to tears as I write this morning, sensing an urgent call that we pay attention to both the long-term and short-term results of our present-day cultural upheaval. It’s not that anything is really new, it’s that we cannot, must not ignore reality. I hear so many who have “turned off the news” as a way of self-care which is understandable in a way, but this collective dust will kill us unless we find fresh forms of cleansing in order to shake-off the effects of this storm of devastating uncertainty.
Hunkering down and isolating is not a cure. A certain form of powerlessness will allow fear to accrue in pockets of darkness which has long-term effects as individuals and then squashes the capacity for collective creativity. The power for us in our Western world is to reclaim the collective energy of both Spirit and Soul. Each one of us is needed to join the Whole with our unique capacities and colorful gifts.
It is time for community to gather and heal together. Can you hear and see the communal call arising from under the weight of extreme unconscious individualism? Let’s look beyond the horror show going on and grope our way one step at a time into the light that is hidden in darkness.
Years ago, I had a powerful dream about “soul plaque”. Curious-eh?!
Think about it – Soul Plaque. You have it. I have it.
Like needing to go to the dentist to have plaque removed, even though we eat well and brush our teeth, plaque is a natural build-up of residue. Despite all our best intentions and best practices, we may end up moving forward in strength but still layered in the resulting residue of focused work.
As I have met in groups, this idea has been so clearly visible to me. Dear ones who have made it through some unimaginably difficult knot-hole of life, arrive “weary-in-well-doing”. Their souls may be aligning into some new phase of development, yet their body-beings remain unconsciously dusty, maybe ashamed with their lack of joy. This is the accumulation of life-lived-to-the fullest.
It’s time for a cleansing.
What does it mean to rinse away, brush off, this very real human, soul-accumulation of living authentically?
How do we cleanse our body-beings, our nervous systems?
How do we wash away, brush off like wild-things, the individual and collective residue of staying present and engaged in these dangerous storms of life?
Join me friends, as we stay strong in the market-place of honest discourse and action, as we work hard to remain soul-clear for ourselves and for those around us.
Join me in recognizing my/our accumulation of soul-plaque. Let’s lovingly pay attention together.
Tomorrow – I’m taking all day to sit in an Earth circle as participant, not as leader, to wander in wild community and do just this!
What might you do this weekend to cleanse and awaken your soul?
SOUL PLAQUE Waiting for the fire We find our way here to sit together. A filmy haze obscures our inner light. Scales from the dead skin of living slough away slowly. Soul plaque Erodes the sparkling essence of our being. Calcified emotions pit our soft body contours Evident lumps and bruising as normal outgrowths of generative lives. Can you see how very human you are? Layered in crusty soul plaque. A part of us comes here for our monthly cleaning, after regular brushing and spiritual practice, we wait for help in cleansing. A communal gathering of hominids who open tender hearts and mouths. Vulnerable to the light of searching conversation. Never truly alone, we are more together than separate. Listen now to the electric threads of relationship that have brought you to this moment. The surge of energy drawing in through feet, the pulsing vibration of repressed voice, the longing that leaks from outstretched fingers. Consider for a second, this fire is not your own. It has been luring you to this moment for millennia. You are the sacred flame of future generations to come. Listen. Feel the heat. Draw closer, lean in. It is here, She is here. We are here for this brief time to explode in Fire. Carol Kortsch
I am publicly sharing this poem today after using it in our Circle of Trust last week with a group of my faithful supporters.
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