Episode two of The Changes is up, and we’re exploring Gate 29 along with the energy of Turquoise 🩵 This one’s about commitment - but not the version of commitment that gets sold to us as never giving up, never wavering, picking a “lane” and gritting your teeth through it until the bitter end. I’m talking about a kind of commitment that is wise about when to stay, and when to go. When to embrace change, and when to stick around a bit longer… Leaky energy The current transit is Gate 29, which in the Gene Keys moves from half-heartedness, through commitment, into devotion. For me, the pressure that shows up around this theme is this: don’t be flaky, don’t flit from thing to thing, stay the course. But I don’t think that’s actually what commitment is asking of us. The deeper version isn’t commitment to one thing. It’s commitment to yourself, in the present moment, whatever life happens to be asking of you right now. Whether the direction is staying or changing…can you stay with yourself either way? Gil Fronsdal, a Zen teacher I love, once said one of the best ways to simulate life in a Monastery is to just do one thing at a time. Making tea, you make tea. Writing an email, you write the email. Eating an apple, you eat the apple. Richard Rudd makes a related point about this Gene Key: real commitment can only ever be commitment to the present, because you can’t actually know what you’ll be committed to in the future. So the pushy energy of forcing yourself to stick with something because you said you would? That’s leaky. It’s a different frequency entirely from committing because you’re grounded enough to stay with yourself, no matter whether the cycle ends or continues. The whole rainbow, not just the best bits This week’s crystal is Turquoise, and one of its central themes is wholeness. Naisha Ahsian writes, in The Book of Stones: you can’t have a rainbow with just the colour purple. I love that image. A rainbow needs the whole spectrum, not just its highest frequency colour. So much of the self-improvement instinct is a purifying instinct. If I could just get rid of the half-heartedness. If I could just get rid of the way I jump from thing to thing, get rid of the inner critic, then I’d be higher vibration, better at calling in what I want. But is wholeness really about filtering yourself down to the best parts? I think not. I think it’s the capacity to hold the full spectrum of who you are, and let the wisdom of when to stay and when to change come from that fuller place. Because what actually makes you want to jump ship too early? Usually discomfort. Not wanting to feel a thing you’re already feeling. And what makes you stay too long? Often the same discomfort, just facing the other direction, not wanting to feel what leaving would require. I have a lot of third line energy in my own profile - I’m always exploring, always drawn to new experiences, so I’ve had to build a litmus test for myself: am I changing because I’m bracing against reality, or because something has genuinely come to a natural end? Either way, the real question underneath is the same. How do I not abandon myself, whether I stay or whether I change? A traveler’s stone Turquoise is traditionally a protector of travellers, which makes sense, because aren’t we all on a journey somewhere? I want to be careful with the idea of protection here, though. It can tip into superstition, into a fear that without the right talisman you’re somehow unsafe. What I mean by it is closer to this: what helps you not abandon yourself while you’re moving through uncertainty? Maybe it’s a practice. Maybe it’s a person. Maybe it’s simply the decision that you won’t abandon yourself, whatever happens. A strong back and a soft front, as Roshi Joan Halifax says. What if the ultimate protection isn’t surrounding yourself with an energetic, but being rooted in love? Luck comes from going all in Turquoise has one more association I couldn’t leave out: it’s traditionally linked to cloud-busting, to calling rain. And Gene Key 29 carries a teaching that luck comes from commitment, from going all in, heart-centered rather than white-knuckled, rather than keeping one foot out of the door. Maybe you will recognise where this connects: Gene Key 46 carries the story of the rainmaker. His secret was never that he could make it rain - he simply knew where it was already about to rain, and he went there. That’s the same wisdom turquoise is pointing at here. Alberto Villoldo’s line always stays with me: Information is knowing water is H2O. Wisdom is knowing how to make it rain. Commitment to the present, and devotion to how life is actually unfolding is the road toward that kind of wisdom. And wholeness is what emerges along the way. Not a rainbow that’s only purple, but one with every frequency present. If you have turquoise, give it a cleanse and carry it with you this week, or wear it if it’s set in jewellery. I’ll be doing the same, and I’ll let you know what it brings up. Here’s my question to you in the meantime: If you were handed a traveler’s stone right now, what would you want it to carry for you? Get full access to CEO With a Singing Bowl at drcharlottewebb.substack.com/subscribe
