Imaginal Journal
Imagination is Medicine
Phases of Descent to Soul - Preparation
#1
Preparation
This is the first part of a five-part Musing
“The Descent to Soul is a psychospiritual expedition into one particular precinct of the underworld — the precinct I call Soul Canyon — and, if fortunate, the eventual emergence from those depths having been radically transformed by an encounter with soul. My names for the five phases of the Descent are Preparation, Dissolution, Soul Encounter, Metamorphosis, and Enactment. These are not at all the same phases as identified by Arnold van Gennep for rites of passage, nor are they the same phases as identified by Joseph Campbell for the hero’s journey. The Descent to Soul is not a rite of passage and it is not a Campbellian hero’s journey.
With the metaphor-image of Soul Canyon, a Descent to Soul always ends with an ascent from the Canyon, but do keep in mind that once the ego begins being rooted in soul (by way of our first Descent), we never really leave those depths. Our everyday lives in the Village world above the Canyon become expressions of those depths. As our lives unfold — as we continue to grow — our ego is rooted ever deeper in the mysteries of soul as our center of gravity spirals down always closer to the core.
The first phase of the Descent, Preparation, readies you developmentally and psychospiritually for the journey and supports you to ultimately arrive, for the first time, at the Rim of the Canyon, from where you can gaze down toward the incomprehensible, intimidating, and alluring mysteries that await you below. There are several realms and dimensions of personal development that you will need to address in order to arrive at the Rim and be able to descend with a good chance of not only surviving but of being blessed with an encounter with soul. This kind of preparation is something you would have been provided, as a matter of course, in a healthy (ecocentric and soulcentric) culture during your everyday routines of living, learning, and loving. But these are realms and dimensions of development that are at best absent from contemporary egocentric societies and, at worst, actively suppressed.
Although it can be said, without exaggeration, that your entire life before the moment you first peer over the Rim has been your preparation, nothing less, please do not fool yourself that you are therefore ready to descend now. In our current cultural context, the specific Preparation for the Descent usually takes several months or more. You will need to engage in practices that support you to develop in ways you are not likely to have addressed in contemporary Western society. The Preparation phase, for example, is not a matter of what the Western world considers to be psychotherapy or the healing of emotional wounds. It is not something you would have gained through even years of meditation, contemplative prayer, yoga, healthy diets, or nonviolent communication — as valuable as these and other practices are. It is not a matter of journal work, ceremony design, physical conditioning, or the clarification of intentions.
The majority of contemporary people are never adequately prepared for the Descent. The historical and religious evidence suggests this may have been true, at least in Western culture, for several millennia.”
Content from SoulCraft Musings, Animas Valley Institute
Being Your Own a Best Friend with Carissa Karner
Incredibly proud of one of my own very dear best friend’s Tedx Talk on the art of befriending one’s Self.
Rumi on Goodbyes
“Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul there is no such thing as separation.”
Nobody-but-yourself
“A poet is somebody who feels, and who expresses his feelings through words.
This may sound easy. It isn’t.
A lot of people think or believe or know they feel — but that’s thinking or believing or knowing; not feeling. And poetry is feeling — not knowing or believing or thinking.
Almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know, but not a single human being can be taught to feel. Why? Because whenever you think or you believe or you know, you’re a lot of other people: but the moment you feel, you’re nobody-but-yourself.
To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”
-ee cummings
Yes and Hallelujah with Raina Manuel Paris
God is a Black Woman Writer by Raïna Manuel-Paris
God is a black woman writer
her name is Maya
Toni and Angela
God is a black woman writer
Alice Walker
sister outsider
God is a wild woman writer
Oh Oh Oh what a numinous power
God is a wild woman writer
‘Cause Pale and Male is not forever
And you got to know Mirabai and Sylvia,
And you got to know Emily and Djuna
And you got to say YES and Halleluiah (x2)
And god is a wild dancer
A winter night shape shifter
A new born cosmic dreamer
‘Cause your mother needs a prayer
And anything DEAD coming back to life hurts
Because never having your own life hurts
And you got to love your flesh
You got to love your flesh
And you got to love your hands
‘Cause they won’t
You know they won’t
They would rather cut off your hands
And tear out your heart if they can
And sew up your lips
Sew up your lips
And keep you silent
Yes keep you silent
But you were not born to be a slave
No! No! No! Not a slave
To history or family
Bigotry, or Patriarchy,
No! You were not born to be a slave
And you got to say YES, and Halleluiah (x2)
And the way forward is with a broken heart
All the way down to the wet ground of the heart
Because it’s all about love
It’s always been about love
Your inside eyes, you must trust
Before it all turns to dust
They show you a new vision
Your genius-heart-life-mission
Dancing like a maenad,
And praying like a nomad
Gathering all the storms
‘Cause you’ve never had a home
And there is no time to rewind
The trap of your embattled mind
Because it’s never been about making sense
No, it’s never been about making sense
It’s always been about making Self
O yes, it’s always been about making Self
God is a wild woman writer
And your broken broken broken heart is the healer
And you got to say YES and Halleluiah (x2)
Source: Soul Crush