Rising From The Ashes
Welcoming September and the Cycles of Change
The other day I was conversing with our neighbor who is remodeling a new home he recently bought. I asked him how it was going, and thankfully he didn’t sugar coat his answer simply for the comforts of convenience — something I feel we have become accustom in our culture. Needless to say, his remodel was challenging. The foundation of the house wasn’t built with integrity, offering obscure wiring patterns, lacking studs and the list goes on. He was realizing he was in a place of starting over, of having to deconstruct much of the foundation in order to create his vision. He felt this was a huge set back and was irritated.
As I listened, I held in the field how change is hard for us humanly creatures. We want change and yet we hold on to the very thing that restricts us from change. There must be a destruction of something for us to create something anew. I kept hearing, “for creation to happen, destruction must too.”
The ego clings to the idea that things do not change, including ourselves, which is the exact thing that causes us to suffer. We are designed to evolve, to create, to hold, to dissolve and to be reborn anew, again and again. Our lives are an interwoven tapestry of energetic breaths in constant flux with the changing world around us.
Not too long ago, someone told me that “no one really changes, anyway.” I disagree with this notion. While I know that we can become stuck in our patterns, that does not assume there is no change, at some level, even subtle. We must wake up to align ourselves to the alchemical movement that is dancing around us all the time. It is as if we are in two worlds at once, but can only see one option when we live this way — when we live as if possibility and an open heart are not our birthright.
An analogy I have used for years with clients is to imagine you have the palm of your hand to your forehead and the answer you seek is written in the palm of your hand. But you cannot see it. It is too close to you. You are too close to the pattern. Because you cannot see it, you are identifying as the pattern, the part, the masked you. It has blinded you. In order to see it, you need space. To shift or change, you must create space so to see and acknowledge your pattern, to bring light to its shadow. As you learn how to gently pull the palm away from yourself, the vision becomes more clear.
When we can learn how to sit with our inner wisdom as an anchor for transformative healing, knowing we are made to be in fluctuation, like that of Nature, we find inner peace and freedom. Our clinging, the attachments, our aversions and misconceptions block our ability to allow ourselves the process of our own inner guidance and thus, connection to our highest good.
We cannot simply think our way into the alchemy of healing. We must be willing to enter the place of the wound, the cave of the unknown, which asks us to see where we are grasping, resisting, numbing and lost in translation. Shadow work is a deconstruction, and yet also a creation. The creation comes from learning how to be with the shadow parts of ourselves without losing ourselves in it.
Sitting with it isn’t sitting in it.
After my neighbor shared his experience with me, I validated his irritation. Indeed, change erodes many human emotions. It is suppose too. We are not robots. We are suppose to feel the aliveness of our humanity. It is our birthright. How we hold it though can be with great wisdom and care. Briefly, I shared with my neighbor the thought that kept running in my mind, “for creation to happen, destruction must too.”
He smiled.
He softened.
He asked where this came from. I told him it is a spiritual perspective on change. He asked if he could use it when he was irritated.
Naturally, I said of course.
Sometimes we need to remember, like the seasons sing to us annually, like the rotting of garden vegetables left amiss, like the sunflowers complete with the Summer cycle, that with destruction comes creation and with creation comes destruction. From our creation or reconstruction of our connection to our nervous systems, to our healing, is a dissolving of some part of us, an idea or a pattern, a way of being, a foundation that no longer serves. From our ashes, a part of us that was deconstructed, we rise — we are reborn. Every time we step into a new aspect of ourselves, the alchemy of our being transforms, a shedding ensues. We can look down at the ashes of our demise, and we can also look up at the possibility of what we are becoming. We can hold both truths.
Jens Lekman says,
“Sometimes you have to burn yourself to the ground before you can rise like a Phoenix from the ashes.”
When Nature Speaks
Nature knows it must not cling to evolve. Nature understands its aversions will not allow it to become. Nature holds clarity in its process even when the shifts are unknown. Nature is always a teacher, if only we gave way to the great mystery of its medicine for our souls. This is how we evolve, like a caterpillar within its cocoon, pressing up against its encasing, and a chicken in its egg, growing under the stress. Each must endure their own walls until one day they break them, they destroy the barrier in order to create the next version they are to become.
The symbology of the Phoenix is a mythical golden bird associated with renewal and regeneration. Rising from the ashes of its previous life (an aspect no longer serving its highest good), the phoenix is a sign of hope, of life and of better things to come, born from the knowledge and experience of difficult times and challenging circumstances.
On August 11, 2024 my sweet family and I hiked to Crystal Lake at 9,500’ in Mammoth, CA. As we swam in the clear waters, I looked up at the vast blue sky to be greeted by a rainbow Phoenix shaped cloud. We all stopped. Awe-struck. We had never seen anything like this before.
For me personally, Phoenix has much spiritual meaning, but I am not alone in this possibility. That day, for my family the omen had deep meaning to all of us, each in our own unique way, as I imagine even for you this photo arises within your heart some measure of spark! What a beautiful, mysterious life this is.
Welcoming the changing season where the Autumnal Equinox is just a few weeks away, we will find ourselves in closer connection to the deconstruction of Nature, blessing us with the cycle of transformation yet again. I offer a warm hello to September in the Northern Hemisphere. The changing leaves, the decaying Earth soon to be moistened with rain and snow, hardening the soil below to hibernate and rest reminds us of our own cycles within. We can find respite in this sacred pause between seasons, one portal opening while another is closing — that with destruction comes creation.
Embracing the Autumn season can be a powerful teacher, urging us to understand our own transitions and let go of what no longer serves us with the anchor of our innate wisdom. As we turn inward to our own “autumn” in the upcoming online container of Sacred Journey, this season we will continue to discover and re-imagine our relationship with the Four Immeasurables, in particular that of Equanimity. The falling leaves and the earthy aroma of the damp soil in Autumn signify the beauty of impermanence, in which we can learn to harness and bring into our own lives.
The waitlist for the Autumnal season of Sacred Journey opens today!
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Carl Jung said,
“Even a happy life cannot be without measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity”
And so may it be for me. And so may it be for you. And so may it be for all beings.
As always, thanks for being here.
Take care of you.
Take care of one another.
Much Love,
Kristina Renée
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The perspective of being allowed to hold two truths is so liberating and comforting. It feels like a big hug. Thank you for introducing me to this concept 💕