Small Talk #12 (July 2004)
A MESSAGE FROM JACQUELYN SMALL, Founding Director of Eupsychia Institute:

UNREST-OUR CURRENT HUMAN PLIGHT


Our whole nature is under undue stimulation these days because of the chaotic world situation, of which we are all an intricate part. Then, add to this that a paradigm shift of major proportions is hitting us both inside and out. For many, inner guidance is warning us to stay alert, that all this chaos carries with it much danger, for we have no experience with this much rapid shifting of the very ground beneath our religio-philosophic feet. We here in the U.S. have never experienced being in a world like this – except for those of you who may have lived in third world countries. And we are as yet scarcely aware of the risks involved.

Now, I don’t mean to scare you: I’m just reporting to you what I’m hearing, not only from my own inner guides, but from dozens of you who contact me for validation or guidance concerning situations in your personal lives.

So even though, for many of us, our more transpersonal inner life still glows with a sacred sense of meaning and purpose to all around us, we are each facing the responsibility of living a personal life. And hopefully that life can offer stability and hope to others, as well as keeping us on the mark ourselves.

God knows, our egos detest uncertainty! And people who are not on a path of personal transformation – who wouldn’t even be reading this, of course – will naturally see everything that’s happening as outside themselves. And there they will place the blame. You who are on the path, however, cannot get away with this. You know you are participating in a divine Plan, and that we each have our part to play. More likely, you will say instead, "What is the lesson in this, for me and for my world? And what do I need to know to better help us move gracefully forward?" So here’s hoping that some things said in this article will serve to help us all live into this moment with more balance, inner fortitude and grace.

First, all over-reactions must cease. Any kind of fanatical stance is never a balanced view. And even worse, it can be filled with judgment and partial, ill-thought-out beliefs. So any time you hear yourself sounding like an impassioned "true believer," go inward and discover what it is about yourself that you fear. Your over-reaction will always be about you.

Next, there is an educational process involved here. We must study and learn to understand something about the nature of chaos: All potential exists in the implicate order of reality where it appears there is nothing but chaos. This is the giant pool of the yet unknown. The Void. The Cosmic Soup. Big Mind.

Yet, when examined by the subatomic physicists, it’s been found that this apparent chaos is all the unrealized potential spinning ‘round and ‘round, with no formulation of anything – until, that is, we focus on something we desire. Then, whatever we focus on and give our full intention to begins to rise up out of this all-encompassing sea of chaos in its full statement. Now, it shows! It becomes real. By our focused intention, we pulled together in one mass all the tiny particles that make up this thing we’ve imaged. The substance it is made of was there all along – just not yet molded into form. This is how we bring order out of chaos. This is how we create our reality.
Another super important thing we need to understand about the nature of chaos is this: It is only by fully entering into it that we can become partners in creation and avoid being overcome by chaos. In this manner chaos cooperates with us as we cooperate with it. When we fear it, we remain outside it. Then chaos has no choice but to tear at us from the outside. In other words, chaos will come upon you like Fate, and your outer life will be a mess and you will feel its victim.

The biggest mistake we make in our decision-making process is trying to solve a problem before we even begin to understand what the problem is! We rarely take the time to enter fully into anything, to know its nature fully. So our choices of action are so often half-baked, or downright mistakes that cause our lives to feel more and more chaotic.

Anything going on in your life right now that feels chaotic, ill-formed, or in any way out of balance must be fully entered into consciously before you can make it whole. Feel your feelings about it, your resistance to it, your ideas or wishes about it all the way through. "It’s not out, but through that we heal," said Carl Jung. And this is a powerful statement with much depth of meaning.

By entering fully into a thing we can know it. And until we know something completely, we cannot expect to accurately counteract it. Patricia Sun once said "When you fear something, open that door and walk right in. Then, you will find there is nothing there." Chaos is merely spinning particles of all the unmade stuff in creation. We have power over what we choose to call up, or invoke, from this "cosmic soup" as our reality.

So today, I have invoked Persephone, not Aphrodite or Psyche, out of this giant collective unconscious mind, to be my guide. If you recall, she was once a young beautiful goddess who lived in the natural sunlit earth with Demeter, her mother, the Goddess of Nature. Kidnapped by Hades and taken to live with him in the underworld, this is the goddess who understands what it means to live in both the heights and depths of the human experience. For six months every year, she reigns in the night world, the wintry cold world of death. Then, to fulfill a bargain between Hades and her mother, Persephone returns to earth, bringing with her the warm breezes of springtime for the other six months of the year. A profusion of butterflies and wild flowers celebrates her annual return to the land of the living.

This divided life gives Persephone deep wisdom. Better than all the other goddesses, she knows that nature moves in cycles of death and rebirth, and that winter always turns to spring. She demonstrates that it is possible to rise above the vicissitudes of life’s misfortunes and cope with eloquence and beauty with its inevitable ups and downs – without bitterness toward one’s fate. She models for us the tranquility that comes from mirroring the natural rhythms of life. She teaches us that the mature soul is able to stay present even in the midst of paradox and to ride life’s changes with serenity and grace.

Persephone represents the transition from innocence to wisdom in our psyches. As a young girl she was unaware of her own talents and potency. Are you still living like that? Am I? It was by marrying Death itself and finding she was not destroyed by it that she rose in stature to the full expression of who she truly is, a mature goddess wise to the ways of the world. She reminds us that conscious suffering leads to growth. The dark side of the Divine Feminine Principle has much to offer us, if we can bow to Her grace. Today, more than ever before, it is the mature Divine Feminine that’s so needed to lead us beyond this war-torn world overrun with a Masculine Principle gone wild in beating-the-chest dominance, aggression and arrogant declarations of power over others.

In the teachings about initiation from every spiritual tradition, we’re told that in order to be transformed, we cannot be attached to anything at all, even to our own salvation. We are here to live in the freedom of knowing we are complete within ourselves, just as God made us, and to serve as sons and daughters of God. Before we can mature into our whole selves, we have to die to any held-over child-like innocence that keeps us locked in naivete and unrealistic thinking about how to live in this world. Death must always precede any kind of rebirth into a new and greater form. No matter how clever we are, we can never escape the death part of any death/rebirth cycle. We must sacrifice our lower drives – that lead us into insecurity and doubt – for a higher good.

The word sacrifice comes from the word sacer which means "to make holy." When we make a sacrifice, we offer up that which we hold dear, not knowing what, if anything, we will gain by our courageous act. We simply wait, as though dead, until some act of grace or new vision arrives. And we go fully into deadness, taking those feelings to the very bottom of ourselves, all the way through.

Life often presents us with situations in which we hang suspended longer than we like between the old that’s gone and the new that has not yet appeared, with nothing to hold on to but faith. No act of will can get us past this place. All we can do is make our suffering conscious, be aware of what we wish to explicate from the sea of unformed, unconscious creative force, remain strong in our intention, examine our faith, and hold steady in the nothingness.

When I’m hanging suspended between the old and the new, it helps me if I say to myself as often as I need to: "This, too, shall pass." I never doubt that this is the truth.

The essential dignity of the human soul is never denigrated nor forgotten by our Creator. Our essence is not just created by God, it IS God. As one collective whole, humanity is part and parcel of the Divine. Our psyches may be subjected to a lot of muddy consciousness here on this planet. But in the end, our very nature – which is so obviously both human and divine – entitles us to the greatest respect.

What I’m reminding us of right now is this: The best way to overcome any depression, feelings of emptiness, or grave misgivings about yourself or our human plight – at any given point along your journey– is to remember who you truly are, and stand tall in that Identity. And if you don’t feel like doing this, do it anyway. You are not your feelings; you are a precious, unique Spark of the Divine. And your nature is pure consciousness. So never forget this and all will be well, no matter what. As so beautifully stated in the Gospel of Philip:

"When the pearl is thrown into the mud,
it does not become therefore devalued,
nor does it become more valuable
if it is anointed with balsam.

Rather, it possesses the same value
in the esteem of its owner. It is the same
with the children of God wherever they may
find themselves, for their value
is known by their Father."
(Logion 48)

So join us anytime you can and discover members of your soul family you've always known, waiting to greet you and support your next right step in coming whole! if you've read this far, your new life is already beginning.


Be conscious out there! In loving service,
Jacquelyn Small

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