With Imbolc fast approaching and my commitment to magic and traditions that are full-hearted, I have been deeply invested in identifying where I feel connections. Imbolc speaks to the return of the spark, the beginning of the necessary cycle that brings forth a season of renewal and the abundance of Spring. It is the movement happening deep within the soil and so it goes with inner aspirations, those little seeds that have been planted within us, that are us, waiting for us to pay attention.
What Lies Beneath
Many of us have been thinking about our goals, our next season, planning, and preparing for it. Some of us have even encountered a bit of resistance or wonder where our drive to accomplish these goals has gone. This is the time to check in again. Check in with those deeply hidden seeds, to make sure that the resistance isn’t caused by the tension of conditioning and what it is that we are truly seeking. What lies beneath is an evolutionary function, one that initiates us into not just understanding what we want, but also the journey of belonging fully as we are.
In Mother Night: Myths, Stories, and Teachings for Learning to See in the Dark (2010), Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D., discusses this idea of the journey. Of how we are disconnected from our gifts (usually as children) through stories like that of Erlkönig, where a father traveling with his son, cannot see that this being is coming for his son. The son is fearful. He warns his father that this monstrosity is coming for him, but the father does not see it. The father does not see it because the monster has already stolen the dreams and ideas and unique gifts from him, the same that the Erlkönig will do to his son. This rends the son lifeless to himself. This monster is our conditioning. It can leave us lifeless unto ourselves, deeply unseeing of what it is we truly desire or our own gifts.
It is here that I ask, what am I renewing that I have hidden from world so it could not be taken? What am I fascinated by? What is it that society says serves no purpose or has no inherent value, that I have pushed to the side?
Can you feel it yet?
That tension?
It is this tension, between our conditioned selves to be busy with things society tells us holds value and what we deeply want to be involved in for ourselves, that can lead to resistance. When the loss of drive towards some of our goals appears, it could be this tension. This is also involved in our feelings of belonging, feeling as if we have lost our magic, our purpose, or our passion. The renewal is required and just as the earth has begun her process, so do we.
A Witch’s Renewal – Journal Prompts to Cultivate Awareness
Below are some thoughtful prompts for things that you may want to renew or bring back into your awareness. Look for the threads that may weave together into a specific idea or follow a pattern.
- What is one thing that I want to do (or have done) that I know will bring me a better sense of self, of wellness, or of wholeness and belonging?
- If money (and time) were no issue, what is something that I would spend more time doing?
- If there was no need to be perfect and no chance of failure, what is one thing I would love to try out?
- If I could do anything, anything at all, what would it be today? (Money and time are not factors)
- What might I have to give up or move around to create the space for this thing?
- What do the answers to 1-4 have in common with each other (besides me of course)?
- What is your definition of success?
Reflections
There are so many clues that come bubbling up from underneath the surface with the answers we give to the journal prompts. More than ever, the responses I get have to do with connecting: connecting with ourselves, connecting with others, connecting with art, and connecting back to spaces, places, or the Earth. When we look at the goals we have given ourselves or our definitions of success, there is a good chance that some of us stop in our tracks.
Sometimes is here that we realize our goals don’t match our fascinations or our gifts as much as they meet a conditioned definition of what success “should” look like…
Or the amount of productivity or busyness that it takes to meet that definition.
This is where we can go beyond, where the journey begins again and again, where our renewal starts. We begin to clear the way for own authentic spark to cultivate the seeds of our next season.
A candle and a key,
Kaycee
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Feature Image Credit: via Pixabay
