Of Light and Clay Johanna Bell & Rian Bodner

On our hearts this month is the part of the path known as the Return or Descending. Our dear friend Tanya Birl Torres joins us for our monthly conversation.

What people see as success, as the culmination of the journey is  often the concept of Rising, Transcendence, Climbing the Highest Peak…an  arduous journey that leads  to a spectacular view or expanded  perspective. In our collective mythology, what is often neglected or  washed over is the journey of return.  This is perhaps the most  important part of the journey and the one that is skipped over in favor  of the next glorious vista or ascendant experience. Ascension…how many  times do we hear that in so called “spiritual” circles.

Descendre!

The journey of return is not so glamorous for it requires us to  collect all we have learned and bring it into the sweat, blood and bone  of our bodies…to have awareness and to DO something about it…to carry it  into the hidden space of our psyches and the harrowing corners  of our  society…to plug into the diverse and overwhelming web of connection  which is longing for us to remember it as Holy and Whole.

This last year has been a grueling one…one in which I believe all of  us have had our eyes opened and our hearts laid bare in some way.  There  will be no going back to what was. Yet we must use all we have learned  to RETURN to the belonging and balance that is the birthright of all

DESCENDRE. To Descend.

Shall we do this dear friends?… like a legion of flesh and blood  angels…awareness wide open, minds connected to hearts, hearts in our  hands, leaning into our experience… knowing this earth, this time, these  beings as our only sacred and transformative ground.

Beloved Friends.

This month, we are moving deeper into the collective fire and the  process of dissolution. Here in the states, we are approaching an  election that feels for many like life or death. Divisiveness runs  rampant and lives are being challenged and changed in an instant. In  nature (in the northern hemisphere), we are entering the deep release of  autumn with shapeshifting happening everywhere around us. Astrologer  and Yogini Tracy Mohr reminds us that October also begins with a full  moon in the fiery sign of Aries which is ruled by Mars (the god of war)  and Mars in retrograde, sitting in challenging aspects to Saturn  (Governance) and Pluto (Death/Rebirth & Personal Power).

All of this to say that the communal Kiln is burning hot right now.  And like all fires, it has the power to both destroy and create.

Oh my friends, I know you feel it too…summer slowly sliding away in the heightening of the winds and the sweet cool of the evening.  I call it the quickening toward Autumn because everything starts to speed up, from the shift in light to the pace of work.
I resist. Every Year I resist…
And yet, It is bitter and sweet.  For there is work to do and change to make. That one inside me who lives for transformation, her heart quickens and her feet dance with the accelerando of the rhythm.  There is another one who has been longing for rest and has found it here and there in the miraculous barefoot moments that summer can provide…moments of coming home to the sacred spaces of sea, forest, mountains, grass. She is dragging her feet and praying to remain in that sun-filled and time-expanded season.
To that part of myself and to all of you who might feel the same way, I offer this Joseph Campbell Quote:

“When you have found the center within yourself that is the counterpart of the sacred space, you do not need to go to the forest, you can begin to find a technique for extracting repose from that center. You can live in that center, even while you remain in relation to the dance of the world. Take rest. A field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.”

There is so much deep and active transformation required of us this year in particular.  The drum beat of my heart agrees. Yet, the greater the pull of profound change, the more we must counter with sanctuary in which to rest, renew and re-envision.