Musings from the Land of Enrealment
The above quote speaks to the belief that each of us carries what James Hillman referred to as the “innate image.” That is, an intrinsic soulshape that reflects who we are and who we can become in this lifetime. In other words, we enter this incarnation at a certain stage in our spiritual development, with indicators of our uniquely constituted true-path residing within us. Those indicators come in many forms—i.e. callings, gifts, offerings, and archetype that live to be explored, expressed and embodied—and a wealth of learnings, lessons, and realizations that hold the potential to expand our consciousness steps closer to wholeness. Because of the uniquely organized nature of these potentialities, it is essential that we don’t look to others to inform us of our directionality. Only soul knows the path it is here to walk in this lifetime.
That’s not to say that we don’t engage the world for the information we seek. It’s not all an inside job to excavate and clarify the who we are in this lifetime. Some part of the quest requires us to do the inner work to excavate our truths and to integrate our experiences, and some part of it asks us to explore the world in order to get more information about who we really are. And both the inner and outer work usually require that we step beyond our conditioning and our habitual range of functioning to try entirely new ways of being on for size.
I took to calling these conscious explorations of who we really are: “depth charges”. In the context of spiritual path, depth charges are intentional efforts to ignite our inner knowing and excavate our soul-scriptures from below the surface of our daily lives. By confining ourselves to a predictable range of experience, we often fail to come into contact with ways of being that might be more fitting to our particular soul’s journey. Sometimes we need to drop a depth charge to bring them to the surface. Sometimes we need to turn our world upside down in order to see straight.
Depth charges can take many forms. Some are terrifying free-falls into inner space through breathwork, bodywork, radical changes in diet. Some are outward forays into the scary unknown: terrifying workshops and vision quests, intimate relationships with people who challenge and awaken us, experiences that feel entirely different from our habitual self-identifications.
Depth charges can also be gentle efforts to vacate our usual ways of being. They might include making love in a different way, dating someone different from our usual pattern, or taking trips to foreign countries with the intention of exploring shifts in perception and self-identification.
At the heart of the depth charge is a quest for the involuntary. I think of it as a sort of self-forgetfulness, where we allow ourselves to let go of our organizing systems and surrender completely to the unknown. In order to self-forget, we have to deal with the unhealthy aspects of the ego—no easy feat. This is not about diminishing our self-concept, or undermining us when we most need to feel good about ourselves. It is about humbling ourselves and making ourselves porous enough for a depth charge to get through.
Because one thing is very clear in the world that we live in. Most of us are locked into ways of being that don’t truly serve us or reflect our inherent genius. It doesn’t serve the powers that be if we are sovereign and uniquely self-organized. And so we must make a determined effort to see through the structures that imprison us, and to fight for our own unique (and collective) right to the light. One of the ways that we can do that is to prioritize depth charges that turn our habitual range of experience upside down. As we engage in new experiences, we check their resonance against our innate image: How does this compare? Do I feel like I have touched into something that is fundamental to who I am, or am I walking down a blind alley? Is there something here that calls me? Something here to learn? Something of value to bring to this starving world? Something truly me?
What depth charges call to you at this stage of your life? Below all the adaptations and distractions of modern life, what wants to be experienced and explored?
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At some point in life, you will look back on your journey and may ask yourself the question, Which part mattered to me the most?
Yes, life gave way to some unexpected pain at times when there was just no stomach for it. The heartache of grief felt like a concrete cross you had to carry over mountains. Then there were days you learned about things the hard way, feeling the sting of regret a time or two (although you may not care to admit it.)
Even so, you’re likely to treasure each triumphant victory and playfully recall the twinkling markers of time. Because you were blessed to be uplifted and became familiar with being let down.
You walked through fire and danced with elation. And though you may have stumbled more times than you can count, you held the space and kept the faith.
All the while, with a fearless and tenacious heart, you forged ahead, holding everything and everyone you ever loved inside a precious world where gratitude spread like blooming wildflowers alongside gushing streams of joy.
Even when it hurt you persevered—as your light burned fiercely and bright.
It wasn’t all for naught. And in the end, you’ll embrace the entire panorama and kiss the ineffable bliss as you declare the final answer:
I lived. And it ALL mattered.
Every.
Single.
Moment.
written by Susan Frybort. Her brilliant work can be found right here on Substack... Susan's page
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Karmageddon is now available for free!
Some years ago, I made a documentary about my personal experiences with Bhagavan Das—of Be Here Now fame. It was quite a ride! Although incredibly uncomfortable, it meaningfully informed my subsequent writings about the ‘New Cage Movement’ and ‘Patriarchal Spirituality’, and the book that followed: Grounded Spirituality Also featuring Seane Corn, Ram Dass, Wah!, Jivamukti’s David Life, Deva Premal & Miten, Karmageddon covers a lot of choppy ground on its road to realization. If you feel called to watch it, here is a free link to watch on Tubi....
Also free for those who cannot access Tubi...
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WRITE WITH ME THIS SUMMER!
For anyone ready to explore and energize their calling to write, my next ‘Writing Your Way Home’ course begins on July 19th, 2023 at Soulshaping Institute. This six-week course will inspire you to put pen to paper and to work through anything that prevents you from honoring your writing voice. AND, I will be directly available to provide feedback and support for your writing. If you are interested, check it out and join me here:
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This week’s Enrealment Hour Podcast
In this heartfelt dialogue, counselor Gavi Strauss and I address the current mental health crisis in youth. We acknowledge its severity, explore its roots, and make an effort to find grounded and inspiring solutions. It is a very discouraging time for many young people. I am interested in your thoughts on how we can inspire them to bring their brilliant callings, gifts, and offerings to our world.
On Spotify...
And on Apple… Enrealment Hour
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“Inner peace is made even more challenging by the cultural fantasies that attach themselves to it. Inner peace can mean different things, but it often implies the ability to rise above the distractions and needs of the body and slip free of the concerns of the world—as though our state of consciousness ought not to be blemished by mundane matters; as though the idea of purity, which by definition excludes, is superior to wholeness; as though the issues of wholeness and integration were mere inconveniences that could be sidestepped rather than the work we are here to undertake. This, again, is the dream of the dissociated male principle within us: to cast off the immanence of embodiment like a smelly coat and strive towards the pure, transcendent realization of the self… Of course, an inclination to manage your way to peace is an inclination to divide the self—and where there is division, there cannot be peace.”
~Philip Shepherd, “Radical Wholeness”
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Relational Inquiry
In my first book, Soulshaping, I defined the word soulpod in this way: “That person or group of people whom our soul finds the most resonance with at any given point in time. It can include anyone that appears on our path to inform and catalyze our expansion—our biological family, significant figures, door-openers (or way-showers), strangers with a lesson. Figures of soulnificance, you bond together on the basis of shared resonance. You support each other in becoming all that you are meant to become. You have no agenda for each other, beyond celebrating one another’s uniquely unfolding sacred purpose.”
And wrote this:
There is no question that friends often fall away as we heal and grow. What has been your experience of friends lost and friends found, as you have embarked on your unique transformational journey? Has it been difficult or easy to let go of connections that no longer fit? Has it been a challenge to find connections that reflect your changes? Do you feel that your current social network reflects the steps you have taken to embody the truest you? Are you with your people, or is it time for a depth charge to explore new possibilities?
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
So called ‘late-bloomers’ get a bad rap. Sometimes the people with the greatest potential often take the longest to find their path because their sensitivity is a double-edged sword—it lives at the heart of their brilliance, but it also makes them more susceptible to life’s pains. Good thing we aren’t penalized for handing in our purpose late. The soul doesn’t know a thing about deadlines.
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With great faith in all of our possibilities,
Jeff
2 things I would like to say.....1)the coordinates of time and space are null sets in the fluid dreamscapes of the human psyche. 2)co-evolution with Sophia depends on contact with the Goddess in Her epiphany of the substantial milky light, as the ancient initiates experienced it, but such contact is impossible as long as single-self identity dominates consciousness. thank you Jeff Brown...your words carry truth, and power.
Jefff Brown! Your very RealWords Weave Wholeness withIn me out of my life's tattered threads, down to the marrow, core & soul and then some ... Heartfelt Gratitude.