you & me

The Labyrinth: A Series of Art. {Part Twenty: Where the Light Enters}

{Photo credit: Kristi Stout}

 

“Whenever I told my significant other ‘I love you’, the relationship always went to shit after that,” somebody once told me.

It was hard to explain the mix of things I felt and analyzed surrounding their statement, namely my own woundings with that phrase. Such a powerful incantation it is, yet so often taken for granted and abused — making it diseased in certain ways — like what happens to my plants when they are in the wrong micro-climate or in soil that has ceased to provide proper nutrients.

That phrase has been used so often as a cliche, or a cookie-cutter next step phrase, versus an actual expression of what it was initially intended for: speaking the power of love upon the one you love, which was something I learned in greater detail when I became a mother with a daughter. This kind of love and power has no words.

This being said, I replied to their statement, “It’s not saying ‘I love you’ that ruins relationships. Not at all. Only soul wounds can do that.” 

Therefore it isn’t the incantation itself, but rather the source from where the incantation draws its nutrients, which gives it the power behind it to grow and bloom. So it depends on how the phrase is delivered from the intent of the one saying it. Mostly that phrase is said too casually, too carelessly, and in too cliché of a way.

Most of us have deep wounds. And, like soil that is not properly allocated to the plant that is trying to thrive there, what comes out into the light is weak, not laced with the proper magic of what it actually is. Like the deliverance of the phrase I love you.

Also, this same idea shows up in the way we are in the world. How we experience it, understand it and live our lives in it. There are layers upon layers of truths and insights into Self and the Universe that I will never get to the bottom of, which is kind of exciting to me, as it means there is so much yet to discover, and I’m a soul explorer. But to keep it simple, for now, I like to think of it like this:

We have a physical body, subject to the laws of science: biological. But, it is my intuitive understanding that we also have a soul body which is subject to the laws of metaphysical science and metaphysical biology. And this body can be injured just like our biological (physical) one.

To talk more about the physical body, I am a dancer, I consider myself an athlete of dance, for lack of a better term, and as I’m approaching 40, I’ve started to experience my physical body differently, particularly in the realm of injuries. As an athlete, it’s very disconcerting to be taken out by an injury, as it keeps you from doing what you love to do, which for me is moving to music, rather letting it move me.

When I was younger, in my early 20’s, it was a quicker recovery and I’d barely notice. Now however, I take it more seriously when it happens, and I pay closer attention to avoiding things that cause injury, with right movement. But when my body is wounded, the injury begins seeping into my soul, and this is how I started to consciously understand that body — my soul body.

It depresses me when I can’t dance.

The body and the soul therefore go hand in hand, and don’t function optimally when one is separated from the other, as in the cases of injury, either to the body or to the soul. What happens is, the climate becomes unstable. The soil gets dis-eased. And as a person, we start to become unhealthy, what we put out becomes yellowed and sallow.

You have an injury to your soul, it affects your body, and also relationships around you.

You have an injury to your body, it affects your soul, and that relationship you have with yourself, within you.

It is only when we can align these two components, that’s where the light enters and radiates through us as a solid and beautiful human expression. If these aren’t aligned, it’s like one is constantly overshadowing the other, causing the other to suffer. Therefore not operating as a unit, but rather at odds with one another, like a bad relationship.

The body and the soul are both masculine and feminine principles that are attributes of the Self. Your soul could be considered the overall feminine part of your entire human self. Your body could be considered the overall masculine part of your entire human self. Because remember, the Sacred Masculine rules structure, while the Sacred Feminine rules what is soulful.

We all em-body both principles, regardless of gender or how we identify.

How we express — as male or female, LGBTQ, or asexual — is but one micro-factor of the truth of “It All.” And it is absolutely necessary right now that each one of us expresses exactly what we feel our souls identify as in this regard, regardless of what body we came here with. Because not expressing what you actually are injures your soul’s body.

And if you have an injured soul body, humanity as a whole is injured and corrupt from within, which all in all is a Feminine wounding. As a whole humanity and world, we are suffering from a deep wounding to the feminine principles, no ifs, ands, or buts. This wounding to the feminine body (on all levels, and in each one of us) is the cause of all the problems we face in this world.

Something needs to change from what has always been (a heavy identification with the masculine principles alone, we are learning, is unsustainable and causing a global breakdown) — I’m feeling and seeing this theme echoing through the mainstream. And it’s getting louder and louder. 

Those of us with half a brain know that putting a Band-Aid on a torn ligament does nothing to help the damaged tissue. Just like drowning the soul with gross consumerism and or substance abuse, does nothing to help what’s torn in the soul. Only time and genuine attention can heal what is damaged.

With the right  cultivation of nutrients and restoration of your own personal microclimate and natural state of homeostasis, you can correct yourself.

But it does take time and proper attention.

Ultimately, what seems to have been entirely forgotten is that the soul is a body too, and sustains injuries just like a biological body does. But how many of us take this seriously?

It is my feeling that if more of us can take this seriously, we will begin to see an overall change in the climate of things. Particularly having to do with anxiety and depression, and a lot of other diseases (dis-ease) which more and more of us suffer with every day, or rather its simply coming to light that more and more of us suffer with it.

How often have we truly taken our soul injuries seriously? How often do we spend time nurturing those wounds? Is it as much effort as you might spend at the gym? It should be, if not more so.

How often do we take on physical therapy for that body — the soul’s body? Have we considered that it is a body that is just as important as our physical one? That perhaps the body and soul are in fact united in a Sacred Marriage, a Hieros Gamos? And that perhaps they are both suffering right now in a bad marriage based on lack of attention and love, without a keen understanding of masculine and feminine principles?

This is the ultimate wounding right here, that we never learned about the body of our soul.

Many great masters and teachers have come into the earth and throughout history trying to tell us, but we never learned or took it seriously. We weren’t ready as a whole, but regardless the seeds were planted. And now the soil and the microclimate are arriving at the right mix and nutrient level for this idea to begin to take root and sprout.

Already, more and more of us see this, and this is the light entering.

{Photo credit: Kristi Stout}

Yes, we can seek western medicine to fix a physical problem, but if you aren’t visiting it at the soul level, what is injured is likely to continue to plague or recur. Yes, injuries like torn ligaments do heal, but ultimately we need to start looking at how our soul injuries are connected, linked, related to what manifests in our bodies. And how what happens to our bodies also affects our souls.

That we think we can just work on one and not the other is pure madness, in my opinion, not to mention utter carelessness. I too have been guilty of not recognizing both bodies for what they truly are: physical and also divine.

Rumi once said, “The wound is the place where the light enters you. Stop acting so small. You are the Universe in ecstatic motion.”

Phrased differently, but with the same meaning, Jesus said, “The kingdom of Heaven will not come with observable signs. Nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is,’ or ‘there it is.’ For you see, the kingdom of heaven is in your midst.” (Luke 17:20-21)

The answers are right in front of our faces and we’re experiencing them every day, but are we giving them the right attention? Or are we just slapping Band-aids on torn ligaments?

The best thing you can do is pay attention and stop numbing. Your body is the first thing to start listening to, as biologically it’s what you are, metaphysically it gives you a pathway to the wounds your soul has sustained.

If we pay better attention, and start to do diligent work there, perhaps we will eventually see an overall rise in health, contentment, and in the well-being of our bodies and humanity in general, which will also feed a pathway to better care of our planet, which is another body that is part of our body.

Taking a closer look at our woundings, and overcoming our fear of looking at them, and feeling them, and sitting with them, opens a pathway to greater understanding and healing overall, which is what enlightenment is. To shed light on. To bring to light. To give a greater understanding and awareness level to that which we may have had our eyes closed to, or been in the dark about.

And we need to honor this within us and about us. Once we do that, only then can we truly honor others.

Wounds have a way of changing our lives for better depending on how we choose to approach them, and are therefore powerful things. Are we stuffing our wounds? Covering them up? Or icing them, letting them aerate?

What we know to do for our physical body when it gets injured, the same methods apply to the soul’s body. Is the Band-aid helping to hold the skin together and aid its recovery? Or is it just being used to cover up something unsightly?

With this one thought, so much light could come pouring into you. It might make you go: Aha! Or Oh my! Or I never thought of it like that! And with a simple change in awareness, we can shift the entire universe that is our Self and rise like a Phoenix from the ashes. From dust and darkness to a great mythical being trailing fire behind it,burning all that never served our greatest good.

And this is why it’s important to understand pain. This is why it’s important to look darkness in its fiery black eyes and face it. This is why it’s a necessity to understand the Sacred Wound. Knowing pain creates greater compassion, deeper awareness, and overall wisdom.

When the light enters though our rips and tears, we start to watch our wounds seal up and repair, becoming inimitable light sources on their own — Divine Scars that make us radiate a new kind of light upon the world around us.

With our soul’s woundings, which are no small affair to examine, it is necessary to recognize them, bless them, contain them, and then release them. And that will be discussed in the Labyrinth, Part Twenty One, and exemplified through my next piece of art.

{Photo credit: Kristi Stout}

This is an ongoing series by Kristi Stout. Tune in monthly for the next chapter in ‘The Labyrinth’. If her art resonates with you, and you’d like prints, contact her through her website or Facebook.

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Kristi Stout

Kristi Stout

Kristi L. Stout is an artist, mother, and lover. She considers herself a Renaissance woman, in service of Love in its many forms. It is her belief that inside each of us is our own sacred, Wild nature -- a hidden instinct that is not forgotten as much as it is dormant, like leafless trees in winter. It is the part of us that is connected to all things. A knowing without knowing. The part deep inside that understands darkness is necessary for the moon to simmer silver, and recognizes that even if you’re lost in the middle of nowhere you can always find a sacred somewhere -- like an internal compass pointing true north to your heart center. Her passion project, work in progress, is She Is Wild. You can find more of Kristi’s work here or connect with her on Facebook.
Kristi Stout