SKYE stephenson

 This is the time of the year when we begin to go inside. The weather is slowly getting cooler, the vegetation is changing from emerald green to russet browns and oranges, and many of the birds that sing in the summer sky have flown to warmer latitudes. This is a rich time, at a soul level.

And so, we turn inside: into our houses and constructed living spaces. And also – perhaps – into our own inner world. Into our own inner landscapes: invisible to the eye and very present and personal to each of us.

Of late, I have been considering what exactly is this inner world. Who inhabits it? What energies and colors swirl within it? What are its sounds and melodies and poems?  And how does this liminal space morph and change?

According to the Mayan calendar and wisdom teachings, we have recently entered into the next planetary/cosmic cycle, which will last for more than five thousand years. It is the cycle of the Dark, meaning going inside of us, into our own dark spaces. A period when humanity will begin to turn more fully within in our search for meaning and answers – rather than seeking this from the exterior world.

In keeping with this new era dawning, I have been trying an experiment in my meditations. When I encounter a familiar presence in that liminal state, I will now invite it to come inside me. By this I mean that instead of viewing such a presence as “outside of myself”, I see it as dwelling within me. As part of my inner landscape.

This began in a rather informal way, as such new ventures often do. I was calling upon a certain dragon energy I will often connect with when I begin to meditate one morning when I thought: why is that jade dragon outside of me?  Why do I always see that being as something exterior?  Why can’t that being become part of me?

Like so much in life (and spirituality), this is still in the experimental stage. And I am finding it a most interesting experiment.

This brings up other possibilities like what would be like to invite an angel or an ascended master or an animal totem to dwell within our inner soul garden?

 Of course, this does not suggest that in doing this, one becomes a dragon or angel or ascended master. We are who we are.  

But it could mean that glimpses of those potential possibilities could reside within us, as something that can inspire us to become the best we can be, at a soul level. This is, in a way, not so different as having a statue of an angel or Mother Mary or the Buddha in your garden, or even going to church or the synagogue or some external place of worship.

And so, I ask you to consider who you would like to invite into your inside, as a friend, guide, and support? What energetic presences would help you cultivate your interior soul garden to be as bountiful and fruitful and sacred as each of us are capable of being? And how would this contribute to the ever-evolving web of cosmic life and conciousness?

Published in the Monadnock Shopper News, Oct. 11-17, 2023