Air and fire are interdependent. As I pick the alchemical process intuitively this position has come up earlier on 6.13.2010. We are always moving many levels of ourselves, and our lives, so in the alchemical process there is a shift on a level that has become priority.
I sense this level today is in the level of my own physical body. I have felt it shifting to a strong position and needing for me to bridge the physical doing with my imaginative idealistic conceiver.
Maintaining the fires between my creativity and my mental process is an art form I have had to learn, and re-learn. To allow my body to raise the fire, but also allow it the breath of meditation, relaxation, and inspiration, while stoking the fire of creation and imagination. I have to ground myself to breathe even in the middle of painting and writing.
Robert & I take a 20 minute meditation nap every day after lunch, to utilize the carbohydrates which assist sleep and rest, and renew our bodies for the rest of the creative day. I do Yoga 1/2 hour each morning, so that I give my body room for air and heat, to be able to shift easily from passion to compassion, as in Dr. John Mumford's book, "Magical Tattwas": "A time to "contemplate in the temple of the heart, atop the summit mountain of the diaphragm."
When we are working together and we enter a space of frustration, we together withdraw and let the answer come to us, rather than heating up the fire to high and cracking the Aemblic Egg. This is so true with my body, I have had to learn to honor its needs, listen to its voice, and make room for the grace of physical movement, rather than force.
I have had five children and seven pregnancies, and my body, after starting the body of work that we have now been doing daily for 20 years, resembles a pregnant cauldron that knows its way through the seeding, wombing, and emergence of a creative life.
I take the ancient ways of woman and allow my frame to express itself in a volume of motion that Robert & I, as Air & Fire, utilize to embody knowledge, patterns, portals, and elements, that bring the world of the invisible, visible to us in our daily life.
We are the emissaries that ferry the world to its other worlds. When these worlds come into mutual harmony our work has bridged what was split apart.
Over the many years of knowing you, I have been constantly amazed & inspired by the ways you have found to balance and channel your incredible fire and the grace with which you move "...passion into compassion..." You have articulated that process so beautifully here. Working so much with "Air" energy, I tend to want to cool and be cooled, but I've always seemed to surround myself with people of much fire and passion -- I think to keep this balanced. As I'm now advancing into middle age, I'm finding myself intuitively moving to balance fire and air within myself -- to be my own inspiration and fuel my own passion instead of relying on others who are more comfortable with that "fire" to hold it for me. You have so generously given me (and I'm sure many others) the road map for how to find this balance in order to receive the incredible gifts of passion & creativity the fire has to offer without being destroyed or consumed by it. Thank you! This entry will be a great one for me to return to again & again...
ReplyDeleteGeez....what a powerful, truthful, honest uncovering of what makes you able to function in a world that is struggling to find its own importance. I have known your passion for the harmony you two create, but it is really powerful in these words. Thanks for pouring forth such compassion for yourself and your body.
ReplyDeleteSuzanne, this was such a great conversation and this comment has created many more conversations.
ReplyDeleteI love getting to hear your thoughts and feelings written down, so i can take them in even more deeply.
I love that we are not only talking about this alchemy online, but also more in our conversations when we're all together.
Sandra, thank you so much for your words. These words that you share create more words I can share.
ReplyDeleteI love the power of the enthusiasm you expressed, because enthusiasm is not an effort that many will give, so I treasure it in all its places. Thank you.