With Every Initiation: A Purification
You must first be clean to enter the temple
You must first be clean to enter the temple
You must first be clean to enter the temple
Initiations, often symbolic of rights of passage, but there’s a right of passage to even make it to the doorway of that passage. In this case, that pre-requisite is the purification.
Prepped and Primed, Thinking you're ready to dane on over to the next level… meanwhile…your initiation is just barely starting. An interesting dichotomy exists, you are being prepared for the next while the past is what prepared you to be prepared… this moment relies fully on your accumulated skills, stress, and the orientation of your perspective. And yet equally, and any given point, you can break free of your velocity and take on an entirely new direction.
KEY to making huge leaps: how you deal with a hard moment, that very moment. Or at least, how soon you let yourself recover. The goal is to continue shortening the gap. This one only takes intention and effort. As with many things in life, true desire is the number one ingredient. Being very clear on that desire can help it take form, there is less indecision because whether or not something fits that desire is easier to spot.
So back to purification:
How is purification related to initiation? The pre to step 1 is being clean, absolved. to be clean is to be ready
the same way you would clean your counter, or your paintbrushes before starting a new piece, or your underwear for a new day. your being must be clean before embarking on the next. Same way you would have a shower before your first day of school.
Purification sounds cute, but its isn’t neseccasrily. Sometimes you get a lush waterfall, refreshing you yet simultaneously cleansing your being of all that isn’t you (mud, sand, leaves etc). And other times you get thrown in the fire, burn the the impurities off, solidify what is on the surface as being integral to the porcelain vase type of purification. And whatever you experience will do what you need done before your next level. Some purifications are more gentle than others, but the benevolence in the intention is always present no matter what side of the spectrum you experience.
It comes down to how do you chose to grow through your most difficult moments. Do you just suffer them and then go into clean up mode after? or do take it as an opportunity to learn and become better.
(Better in this case as more and well developed virtues of character)
On initiations:
Initation is like training day. Often big life initiations take place without a clear syllabus. You signed up for what you signed up for, but you’ll be reminded of the fine print as you go along, not before. This also makes it exciting if you let it. This is where the wonder finds you. God has quite the sense of humor and the more present you are the more you’ll catch the winks and nods left to you on your path. The more you are aware of your experience (and no one else’s, it’ll just confuse you) the more you’ll understand the very personal language your story is being written in. You’ll spot the full circles, see the geometry, colors, textures that makes the beautiful life tapestry you are weaving. When you trust the big picture your motivation for navigating the hard, the dark, the unknown, is strong as all hell. Doesn’t make the test easier, it just makes you better prepared.
The best advice for all tides, come back to your breath: I come back to my breath, In…. Out….
and breath through the nose! (We’ll get more into that later)
And if it hurts like hell, you're probably exactly where you need to be! As I journey through life, and as life molds me, through the pain I am often reminded of the Jilal Al-deen Rumi quote : The wound is where the light enters you
And it calms me, I then move to instructing myself to allow in the light, allow for my wounds to serve as doorways rather than jail cells. The wound is a teacher, the healing is the magic, and the upgrade comes when you are through the fire. The upgrade in capacity, in readiness, in centeredness - and as above so below; often the challenges are more challenging too, but too are more capable than before. If you feel weak, if you feel at the edge of your limits: congratulations my dear, you are growing.