PASSION is another life value on the WHSP3R Wheel.

Until very recently I considered PASSION to include only so-called “positive” emotions, such as joy or exhileration. Then three influences thankfully converged to convince me otherwise.

My partner Terrie had actually been encouraging me for some time to embrace all of my feelings–whether sadness, anger, fear or joy. In fact, part of my own journey of personal growth has been my struggle to be fully compassionate toward others when they are feeling the so-called “negative” emotions like sadness or anger. I have come to realize that my inability to fully embrace “negative” emotions results from my experience with my mother as a child.

The second teacher who has helped me see the full spectrum of PASSION is one of my best friends of 30+ years. He and I have been discussing PASSION as part of our regular conversations for some time now. When we began these discussions, my friend rather consistently identified so-called “negative” emotions as part of his experience of PASSION. I had a very difficult time accepting this, and I kept insisting that we focus on the so-called “positive” emotions as examples of PASSION.

Finally, I recently came across a wonderful little book called The Power of a Broken-Open Heart by Julie Interrante, who was a hospital chaplain for many years. Julie writes, “It is important to understand that…all feelings are necessary and are neither good nor bad. Fully experiencing our feelings is what breaks open our hearts, allowing us to engage fully in life, healing our inner wounds…”

So, now I understand that PASSION is simply feeling our emotions–all of them–deeply and fully. I am grateful to my partner Terrie, to my good friend and to Julie Interrante for guiding me toward this profound realization.

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On our first such venture we passed alongside a cornfield and arrived at a grove of maples trees wearing ugly skirts of white plastic 5-gallon buckets. It is syrup harvesting time in our neighborhood.

In the middle of the grove of maples stood one of the largest trees I had ever seen. It’s massive trunk, which I figure to be 15-20 feet in diameter, is severed some 30 ft. above the ground. Two branches the size of a “normal” maple’s trunk split off to each side of the main trunk at about six feet above ground and reach high up into the sky, where they appear to still bear leaves in season.

This marvelous tree’s deeply rutted bark, gnarled and knotted branches and exposed roots make it look like wisdom incarnate. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that it feels like wisdom incarnate. Upon first sight, I just stopped in my tracks and stared transfixed for several minutes.

This morning I was reading a wonderful book by Stephen Harrod Buhner (Sacred Plant Medicine) and came across this passage:

“I have often felt that the tree holds some special significance for human beings. It is the one plant that has a long tradition of a separate sacred archetype that is found in all religions. When people come upon an ancient tree, some event occurs that takes them out of themselves, and they, for a moment, feel the touch of a greater and much deeper reality.”

I have felt this touch.

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So, for example, we can choose to live most of our lives indoors (either in buildings or in moving vehicles), relatively immune to and unaware of the changing seasons. We can ignore the rhythm of the moon’s cycle of waxing and waning. We can choose to ignore or delay many of the natural rhythms of our bodies, such as when to rest, when to sleep and when to rid ourselves of body waste.

It seems that we have lost our sense of “organic timing”.

And why should we even care? Is this movement away from nature’s rhythms simply an inevitable reflection of the evolutionary march toward human freedom?

What have we lost by falling out of rhythm with Nature?

11Mar2010
Lunar Day 27:  TRANSFORMATION
Associations:  Release
Mayan Sacred Calendar Day:  2 LIZARD
Associations:  Duality, Liberation, Organic Timing

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In response I share this five-minute video, which I had mixed reactions to, actually:  Universal Consciousness is the Life Force

I love the beginning with its focus on trees and plants, and accompanied only by the sound of running water and chirping birds. However, I found the footage of humans to be disturbingly out of place with the images of the rest of nature. This reminded me of movies such as Baraka and Koyanisqaatsi. Perhaps this is what the creator of the video intended.

I was also disturbed by the fact that most of the footage of animals appears to have been taken at a zoo. Only recently have I decided never to visit a zoo again.

Despite the above concerns, the video still inspired within me a heartfelt appreciation for the diversity of nature and power of the creative life force.

What do you think?

10Mar2010
Lunar Day 26:  MOUNTAIN
Associations:  Reversal of Consciousness (from Outward to Inward)
Mayan Sacred Calendar Day:  1 BAT
Associations:  Creative Force, Clarity, Warmth

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Bioenergetics has a profound respect for the wisdom of the body (the human physical form). The body is a living record of the events of our past. Unfortunately, this means that our bodies have a tendency to hang on to traumatic emotional content from our past, as well.

According to Alexander Lowen, the founder of Bioenergetics (pictured above), “Few people in our culture are free from muscular tensions that structure their responses and define the roles they will play in life. These tension patterns reflect the traumas they experienced in growing up–rejection, deprivation, seduction, suppression and frustration.” (from Bioenergetics by Alexander Lowen, M.D.)

This trauma from the past contaminates our personality, and in turn our entire lives, if it is not released. Bioenergetics therapy uses physical movement plus verbal processing to facilitate this release of past trauma.

The body hangs on to past trauma in countless ways, from knots in our muscles (especially, for example, in the jaws and the neck) to the way we stand, sit or walk. A skilled bioenergetics therapist can “read” a person’s personality and past by observing her body language.

Bioenergetics teaches a variety of physical exercises that can be done on your own throughout your life to keep both the body and the mind clear and flowing with vibrant energy. According to Bioenergetics “…a commitment to growth (i.e. maturation) involves a commitment to the body.”

9Mar2010
Lunar Day 25:  KNOT
Associations:  Form, Release
Mayan Sacred Calendar Day:  13 HAWK
Associations:  Transmutation, Contamination, Maturation

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Then I came to understand the law of polarity: “everything has two poles; everything has its pair of opposites…opposites are really only the two extremes of the same thing…the difference consisting of varying degrees between the two poles of the phenomenon in question.” (from the Hermetic principles as described in The Kybalion)

Peace is the polar opposite of confrontation and conflict. At the extreme end of the pole opposite peace is violence. According to the law of polarity, the pendulum will inevitably swing back and forth between peace at one extreme and violence at the other extreme.

The challenge we face is to minimize the breadth of the swings of the peace/conflict pendulum. We do this one person at a time  by practicing personal power. The path of personal power is a path of the heart. It is a path of humility and inner strength. It is a path of personal peace.

As more and more humans claim their personal power, the swings of the peace/conflict pendulum become shorter and shorter, and this is certainly a more desirable condition of balance. But balance is dynamic, while peace is static–located at one end of the pole. Life is dynamic, characterized by polarity. This is why ultimately, peace on Earth is not possible.

8Mar2010
Lunar Day 24:  SACRIFICE
Associations:  Conceptual Net
Mayan Sacred Calendar Day:  12 SHARK
Associations:  Group, Confrontation, Peace

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Only recently have I come to realize that perhaps what I wish for them most, is that my three children discover and express their unique creativity. I am so grateful that each of them has begun to do so, whether it be through podcasting, computer graphic design or pastels.

The entire universe came into being through a process of cosmic creativity. One of the most potent and liberating aspects of personal power is to express our own creativity at the microcosmic level of our individual life.

5Mar2010
Lunar Day 21: DREAMWEAVER
Associations:  Beauty
Mayan Sacred Calendar Day:  9 TOUCAN
Associations:  Intuitive, Liberate, Love

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But is the brain merely a machine? And what does it learn? Facts? Knowledge? Facts or knowledge alone are useless, just like a computer is useless unless or until it is actually used for some purpose.

As I see it, real learning–or you might say wisdom–is a marvelously holistic process, an act of personal power that celebrates and enhances our freedom and engages many aspects of our being:

First, we FOCUS on a source of knowledge, using a capacity we might call our will or our intention, which ancient wisdom teaches is “located” in the region of the solar plexus.

Next, we SURRENDER ourselves to the source of knowledge. This is essentially an emotional act, centered perhaps in the heart and involving the feminine aspect of our being.

(NOTE:  Recent scientific studies have confirmed that there are neuron, or “brain”, cells in both the solar plexus and the heart regions of the human body.)

Next, we ANALYZE what we have received in order, for example, to fully understand its meaning and its relevance. This engages our left brain and our frontal cortex and is more a masculine activity.

Finally, we INTEGRATE what we have learned into our lives. This is a profoundly individualized and transformational, or even evolutionary, activity.

4Mar2010
Lunar Day 20:  TRANSMISSION
Associations:  Surrender
Mayan Sacred Calendar Day:  8 WOODPECKER
Associations:  Masculine, Analyze, Focus

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Nevertheless, as is the case with all living things, bees have something to teach us. For example, each bee in a hive has its clear purpose and role; and this contributes to the achievement of the hive’s objectives.

The trick is to balance this dedication to a specific purpose and role in a community with the evolutionary imperative of individual freedom. It seems that we humans are Nature’s great experiment. One of our challenges is to integrate the qualities of the animal kingdom, but do so selectively by free choice.

We freely choose to sacrifice our personal preferences on behalf of the community. We freely choose to take on a role that we could cast off any time we care to.

On the other hand, look what happens when we act like bees–that is, when we join a community and take on a role, but do so blindly or passively, under the influence of some person or ideology. Then you have a potential tragedy, such as Nazi Germany or Jonestown.

3Mar2010
Lunar Day 18:  LAKE
Associations:  Collective Aspiration
Mayan Sacred Calendar Day:  7 BEES
Associations:  Harmony, Sacrifice

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Perhaps the flight of global consciousness is like the flight of the condor, which is the largest flying bird in the world, with wing spans that can reach as much as 12 feet!

The flight of the condor takes us high above the mundane concerns of our physical existence. Can you imagine the feeling of freedom and power experienced by such a magnificent flying creature?

Personal power enables us to achieve self-mastery, but only after mastering ourselves are we ready to fulfill our destiny of service to the world. Only then does the real journey begin–the quest for self-transcendence and global consciousness.

2Mar2010
Lunar Day 18:  MASTERY
Associated Archetypes:  Self-Transcendence
Mayan Sacred Calendar Day:  6 CONDOR
Associated Archetypes:  Physical, Global Consciousness, Growth

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