I have ambivalent feelings towards
the festive season. My primary reason for hating it is the commercial side of
Christmas. Whereas Christmas presents held appeal when I was a child, working
in marketing for more than five years has cured me of the need to buy things and
exchange gifts for the sake of tradition. The one part I like about the festive
season is that the bustling of working life comes to a halt. This gives me time
to reflect and do introspection without feeling guilty for not being
productive. In this post I will share some of my reflections on the turn of the
year in the light of existing traditions.
This festive season has been
different from former ones because I am on the brink of major life changes.
Pending immigration related admin my plan is to be fully self-employed as a
healer in the very near future. I used to face the year ahead of me wondering
how on earth I made it through another twelve months of wasting effort not
getting anywhere. I felt despair as I asked myself how I could get out of the cycle
I felt so stuck in. This year I felt excited about the prospect of directing
myself in future, but the part of me that feels afraid wanted to put brakes on
the rolling in of the new tide. Feeling that I am about to throw myself off a
cliff and hope I’ll fly is daunting, but I know that it is time to give more energy
to the wheels that have been set in motion.
Although I’m not sure about the exact
historical origins, I believe that most religious festivals that are still
celebrated today share roots with pagan traditions. The Christmas and New Year
festive season more or less coincides with the winter solstice, which marks the
beginning of a new cycle. For me this is a good time to think about my goals
for the next year. Since I do shamanic work, I spent some time journeying, which to those not
familiar with shamanism I would describe as a way of accessing the unconscious
to work with the intelligence of the universe. A year ago I wrote about the
association of trees with Christmas. I haven’t done much research about the
tradition of Father Christmas, but I have read articles proposing that it
originates from the use of psychedelic mushrooms (see for instance this interesting article). Seeing the symbol of Father Christmas in one of my recent meditations however
got me thinking about the concept of manifestation through the shamanic upper
world: that layer of the unconscious where creativity and wisdom come from. I
have come to despise the tradition of over-indulgence associated with the
festive season because from my perspective it serves as a justification to
spend one’s entire year doing meaningless things for the sake of gaining money,
which again needs to be spent to have meaning. But the concept of gifts
delivered from the upper realms reminded me that the unconscious finds
expression even in the Western world where we have become profoundly
disconnected from the spiritual aspect of Nature. Applying the concept of gifts
to New Year’s resolutions, my belief is that gifts come from Spirit, but it is
what we do with it that will determine how it manifests in our reality. I
journeyed to my future self a year from now to ask about practical goals I
could work towards achieving. The advice was to lay strong foundations for my
life work. Although it would not be easy, I would become stronger as I applied
all my effort to building what I would like to see grow. Working on publishing
the books I have written is a priority, as is practical shamanic healing work.
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| The Eagle: Symbol of Courage, Focus and Communion with the Higher Self |
I also have to look back and
honour the help I have had along the way, as well as express gratitude for the
gifts from Spirit that have manifested. My first novel was inspired by my
knowledge of shamanism and initiated by a journey to the shamanic upper world
in order to find a story that needed to be told. The eagle emerged as the
primary symbol in my first book. On 1 January 2014 I drew this picture of the
eagle with the intent to get my first book published. It so happens that
exactly a year later, on 1 January 2015, I was offered a publishing contract. Those
who would like to access other realms through fiction can watch this space…
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