Honouring & Loving the Soulfulness of Children into Being
When the raising of children moves with the rhythms of their soul and Mother Earth then we will have woken up. Nothing rushed, nothing forced, just enough structure to allow what wants to unfold to happen in its sweet soulful time, trusting and honouring divine order, the higher nature and agenda of the child, and that of life. While looking at children from our physical eyes, let’s also remember to see our little wonders from the eyes of our soul. What might we discover, and remember, if we did? Perceiving from our physical eyes we delight in their bright smile and twinkling eyes. We cherish their playful exuberance — their sudden spiral twists and cartwheel turns, and mud puddle stomping explorations; we savour their latest […]
Of Love, Life & Truth ~ Secret Wisdom in the Poetry of WordPlay
~ by Vince Gowmon Know, know now, the only time you can k-now, and you’ll win your Heart over, now won One. But you may need to say a brave No to what is false, what is not You, to say Yes to what is real, what you know is true now, know now. And so trust your inner No, your inner k-no-w, its strength, its worth, its reason for being, so you embrace and follow your Heartfelt knowing, and boldly own what is kn-own within, making You more authentically known to the world, hiding less, if only a little, if only from your beloved, co-worker, friend, cat, plant… If only you own not just what is known now but what you’ve always known since […]
Silence of Soul
Silence is always more authentic, more truthful, than words. Yet, how much time do you give yourself to silence each day, and thus give yourself to your soul and its quiet murmurings? How much do you reveal yourself, your forgotten depths, to another through the space between your words? How much do you reveal in intimacy, into-me-see, through tender eyes, a vulnerable smile, through the tears and trembles of your emotional body, and gentle, asking touch? How much do you share what words cannot possibly capture, what your mind cannot grasp, yet what your heart knows, feels, all too well? There, waiting for you in still silence, is the voiceless voice of the Ages that knows you far more than you realize. If only you […]
The Power of Seeing Others for Who They Truly Are
In 1998, while living in London, England, I began seeing my first counsellor, a wicked and wise 63 year-old name Valerie. Every two weeks I traveled to Wallingford, Oxfordshire by train, always eager for our sessions. I yearned to speak to someone who could help me make sense of things, of why I felt so different and troubled, and with whom I could be myself, as best I could in those early days of inner work. Valerie was intelligent and fierce, which bode well for the one in me who could easily deceive and out-wit others. Unique in comparison to all healing practitioners I saw after (and there were many!), she was not afraid to pull out her sword and call my bullshit. One time, […]
Alchemizing Wider Spectrums of Dark into Light: The Evolution and Maturation of the Soul
Through the many faces of fear we learn the many faces of love. That is, until we are finished learning from fear, and are fully ready for love. The evolution and maturation of the soul is a path of holding wider spectrums of dark and light without resistance. This comes from many heroic lifetimes of facing and integrating our shadows, alchemizing them into embodied gold — the crystalline light of our higher self. Light reveals darkness. It conjures lower vibrational states and aspects — our deepest fears expressed as shame, guilt and unworthiness; parts vehemently announcing, “I don’t deserve love!” For people unready for the light, too attached they are to their suffering, they turn away like Dracula from the sun. It simply is too […]
The Tragedies of these Dark Times Initiate Us into a Remembrance of Love, Soul and our Human Family
Ultimately, in any given moment, we have only two choices: the Path of Love, Light and Unity, or the Path of Fear, Darkness and Separation. In the extremity of these times, these choices have never been more evident. The future of humanity and Mother Earth depends on which path we take. It is up to us. Life is tragic. There is no doubt. At increasingly alarming levels we are experiencing drastic and confronting lifestyle changes, while witnessing across the globe immense human suffering and violent eruptions on Mother Earth’s land and sea. Despite the rising apocalyptic energy, I remind myself that there is no tragedy without some form of redemptive beauty. Though that beauty may not come in the immediacy of the adversity, it eventually […]
To Welcome Someone into Our Heart, First We May Need to Learn to Push Others Away
There is a great emphasis put on letting love in. “Open your heart” says the self-help teacher. “Give yourself to love” sings the romantic poet. They make it sound so easy! Yet, for the one who learnt that love is unsafe, the heart is quite guarded. Coiled around it, usually for decades, is protective barbed wire. The closer one gets to the heart, the closer one gets to the wound and the protective mechanisms keeping people away. For this wounded one (who makes up many, if not most, Euro-westerners), asserting boundaries may be the necessary first step. Before letting love in, the old truncated impulse to protect must be exercised. Completing survival responses A precursor to the vulnerability of receiving is so often the vulnerability […]
Losing Yourself to Life: Surrendering to the Ancient Cycle of Death and Rebirth, Dark and Light
Maybe you are searching among the branches for what only appears in the roots. ~ Rumi “Remember, like a tree, you rise into the light only as far as your roots will take you, as far as you are willing to immerse yourself into the medicine of the dark, tear-soaked soil beneath your feet. Therefore seek those who have the capacity to honor your tears, to hold you in them, to deepen your immersion into cold chambers of yesterday, and to help you rise anew, fed from the light of truth found only in darkness.” ~ from Awakening to Darkness, by Vince Gowmon The light of indescribable joy arrives in our hearts when we enter the depths of forgotten darkness. Down, through the many doorways […]
Taking Time to Feel Authentic Forgiveness: Healing in a Culture of Quick-fix Solutions and Spiritual Bypassing
For more on forgiveness, please read the description for my ceremony, Temple of Holy Virtue. Otherwise, enjoy this article, as well as the related video at the bottom. Forgiving is a liberating act of love to self and others. It can free us from pain, resentment, from feeling separate from others and life. But forgiveness, if not felt deeply and given with enough rooted authenticity, can be a means of bypassing uncomfortable feelings (spiritual bypassing), the truth of one’s raw inner experience. Long held as a virtue in religious teachings, cultures and, more recently, in new age / personal growth circles, we have and continue to be taught and even expected to forgive; to let it go and move on, for it is the kind […]
From Prince to King: To Graduate and Welcome a Queen, the Old Contract—the Need for Mother’s Love—Must End
“Much male fear of feminism is the fear that, in becoming whole human beings, women will cease to mother men, to provide the breast, the lullaby, the continuous attention associated by the infant with the mother. Much male fear of feminism is infantilism—the longing to remain a mother’s son, to possess a woman purely for him.” ~ Adrienne Rich, On Lies, Secrets and Silence For the male to graduate from Prince to King he must forgo his dire need for his mother’s love. So long as the old contract stands—the insidious, unconscious and fear-based agreement between he and his mother—he cannot fully enter the heart of his waiting Queen. His mother was once a God to him, an ardent provider of love. She was love, and when that love […]