Opening to the Mystery of the East

It was the final session before his solo wilderness rite-of-passage ceremony next week. He will cross the threshold and mark what is alive, what is calling, what is waiting to be heard.

But for now, we were in a redwood and bay forest along a creek and Opening to the East. East was the last of the four shields (School of Lost Borders) or four facets of the psyche (Bill Plotkin) that we’d been diving into over several sessions among the trees, along the river, on the rugged wild coast.

That meant today we were Being, much more than Doing: Spaciousness, Lightness, Play.

We have all the other parts of ourselves and our lives, for the all the Doing.

East signifies the Dawn after the long night, the New, the Spring after the long winter. 
Its Archetypes include the Innocent/the Sage/the Sacred Fool/the Trickster, and abounds in Paradox, favoring both/and over either/or thinking.

It’s living from Joy, lightening up, finding the humor in things, making fun of our ever-so-serious selves: “Hey, we’re out here in/with nature talking about wholeness and doing activities, we’re going to conduct a fasting ceremony in the wilderness, how freaking weird!””

It is Beginner’s Mind, fresh eyes, a young heart. The East is living with Mystery, knowing we don’t know and Living that largest Non-ego Transpersonal narrative, Belonging to Universe, Belonging AS the universe. Expressing and Embracing Spirit and spiritual love.

It is relinquishing attachment to outcome, it’s accepting—maybe even reveling in—being thwarted in getting what we think we want. It WON’T turn out how you think.

The trickster energy means things get turned on their head, Rules get ignored or overturned. It’s also being spontaneous, so we find ourselves picking up rocks and sticks and drumming rhythmically without a why, climbing trees, and splashing our feet and faces with creek water.

We Imagine our colorful robed-mountaintop sacred fool selves reacting to our mundane take-every-little-thing-so-serious selves.

We simply rest on a boulder with the flow of the water.

Yes, this is East. This is a rounding out. How miraculous and amazing it is to be alive!