calcination alchemy in Coronavirus times /// 7 essential forms of inner work
Hello there,
Yesterday (and in this video) I talked about the way that the current global crisis with the coronavirus pandemic is a giant wake-up call for us all to start showing up with a way higher level of presence, leadership, and compassion.
In other words, maybe in daily life up til recently you felt quite comfortable. The status quo seemed stable; you knew how to navigate your world; everything was in order.
Now: the status quo is not stable. No one knows exactly how to navigate life with all the lock-downs and cancellations that are happening.
Some people are freaking out; some are in denial that a major societal shift is afoot; many are hoping that life will go back to "normal" soon.
Here's the thing though: life may never go back to "normal" - not to the "normal" we knew previously, at least.
This morning, The New York Times quotes public health officials saying it will take 18 months of "social distancing" to slow the spread of the virus so healthcare systems aren't overwhelmed.
Who among us is ready for 18 months of no gatherings larger than 10 people, of avoiding contact with the world? No restaurants, no concerts, no parties, no movie theaters? Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze. It's a lot to deal with.
This is scary, and it's also a joyful opportunity.
Alchemically speaking, our society is going through a calcination phase.
In the alchemy of the psyche, calcination is an alchemical operation of purification, one that involves burning away false attachments and false identities, of getting stripped down to our bare essence so we can be reborn.
Up to now, I've seen calcinations operating on a personal scale: calcinations happen to individuals who lose jobs, experience divorce, go through a prolonged illness.
Calcination periods always involve intense introspection, grief, and solitude. They're not exactly pleasant.
They can be immensely productive periods, though, if we go through them with a willingness to learn, to grow, to surrender our previous selves and become closer to our inner divinity.
Right now we're in a massive societal calcination: our attachments to previous social identities, our old confidence in navigating the world, our feeling that we could just coast by with whatever wisdom we had...
... that's all getting torched right now, and we're all being presented with opportunities for plenty of introspection, grief, and solitude.
The great thing about this kind of calcination is that it will liberate vast amounts of emotional and libidinous energy; energy that was previously tied up in old forms and will be made available for fresh creations.
We all have a unique opportunity now to dissolve our old egos (like caterpillars melting in cocoons) and re-assemble ourselves into a new, more epic shape (like butterflies emerging from those cocoons).
Here's my top 3 suggestions for how to work with this dissolution so you can show up as your most powerful self at this time when your loved ones need you to do so:
1) Meditate
Of course I would strongly recommend Existential Kink meditation...
... and actually right now I also very strongly recommend good, old-fashioned "joining attention with breath" meditation, samatha.
For a much more centered day, meditate when you wake up in the morning, before you read or watch any news or social media.
Samatha is so important right now because it's all about repeatedly detaching attention from compulsive thought, and compulsive thought is what we probably all have WAY TOO MUCH OF at the moment.
The more you can liberate your attention from being trapped in grooves of thought, the more free presence you'll have to respond to those around you out of love instead of out of stress and reactivity.
So set an intention to focus only on the sensation of your breath as it flows in and out for a specific period of time. Starting with 5 minutes is good if you're new to meditation.
Whenever you notice yourself thinking, just note to yourself "thinking" and then return your attention to the sensation of your breath.
2) Journal every morning and night.
In the morning, ask yourself:
What did I dream about last night?
Do your best to record what you remember. If you don't remember much, keep trying. As you fall asleep at night, tell yourself, "Tonight I will dream, I will know that I am dreaming, and I will remember my dreams."
Then, do your best to interpret your dreams. There's a whole art to this that I can't get into right now -- but you can start by just making notes of what themes or characters in the dream "remind you of."
I recommend doing this dream work practice because it's essential to be in touch with what's going on inside your unconscious at times of calcination.
In the night, ask yourself reflective and priming questions like:
What's the most transformative insight I had today?
how did my meditation go?
what did I learn today?
what did I do brilliantly?
what could I improve upon for the future?
what kind of person do I want to become?
what do I want to create?
what exactly do I need to accomplish tomorrow?
These kinds of questions can seem simple, but they prime the mind to give attention to evolution and transformation, and create a sense of continuity and forward-momentum, which we sorely need in times of confusion.
... and more which we'll have to get into tomorrow
Stay tuned for my next message, where I share with you about Fear Inventory, Hot Seats, Tarot, and Astrological observation, and Planetary Magic -- the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th essential forms of inner work right now.
best,
Carolyn Elliott
author of Existential Kink: unmask your shadow and embrace your power
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