A Journey of Soul, Within and Without

Last updated on: December 11, 2015 at 6:03 pm by Guest Contributor

A Journey of Soul, Within and Without 2015-12-11T18:03:45-05:00 Guest Contributor

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Excerpt from Path of She Book of Sabbats: A Journey of Soul Across the Sabbats by Karen Clark now available on Amazon and iBooks. Visit the Path Store for details.

Take a moment to step outside your door. See the sky, smell the air, feel the press of humidity and temperature on your flesh, heed the quality of the light and colors of the landscape, and notice what the plants and animals are up to. Open to the kiss of sunshine on your skin, or the wetness of rain, or the nip of frost, or the bite of the wind, or however else you experience the season and weather of the day.

Breathe deep and settle into your creature instincts, the part of you that knows that your engagement of Nature matters to you, deeply.

This is your home, without, this Earth. Your human form has emerged from and evolved out of the material elements that constitute all things of this living world. Physically and energetically you are inextricably linked to Nature’s seasons and conditions. Whether you live in close communion with the wild realm or in a crowded city, still it is the mingling of sun, soil, rain and seed, and the natural resources of this planet that feed, clothe and house you, and on which our continued human existence depends.

Witness the trees reaching their limbs toward the sun, the birds’ effortless navigation of the air space, and the myriad of ways that the wild things around you are seamlessly expressing their innate essence through their form and actions. There is a place and purpose for all living things of this world, each in accordance with the unique, luminescent spark of Creation at its core.

Breathe deep and settle into your Deep Self, the part of you that holds your spark of Creation, and place and purpose in the great weaving of life.

This too is your home, within. Here you find your true beauty and gifts, and your innate, indisputable worthiness and authenticity. Like the wild things you are witnessing, you were put on this Earth to live and flourish from your Deep Self outward. And in the most secret places inside of you, your soul longs for your outer life to be a seamless expression of this inner wellspring of beauty and potential.

Our home on this Earth and our home within our Deep Self are entwined reflections of our authentic humanity. We are magnificent beings, woven of light and matter, an immortal soul encased in the mortal coil of flesh and bones.

Like all living things of our Earth home, our life is governed by the turnings of the Cosmos and the laws of physical existence. The dance of these elemental forces reveals itself in the cycle of Nature, and of our life story, through the seasons of light and dark, life and death, and joy and sorrow. And just like our wild kin, our life story is sourced from the inner spark of Creation of our Deep Self.

In our modern society, with its homocentric attitude toward Nature and disconnect from the inner stirrings of soul, we have abandoned our roots in these primal, vital manifestations of home, within and without.

We can go about our everyday existence paying little attention to what is happening outside our door in the natural realm. Through the turn of a thermostat, flick of a light switch or trip to the local grocery store with its worldwide access to foodstuff, we seem to transcend Nature’s travels through the seasons of light, life, darkness and death that ordered and suffused the lives of our pagan, agrarian ancestors.

This same disregard extends to our inner, spiritual landscape. We collectively suffer from a myopic fixation on things of mind and materiality, and order our sense of self and external life in accordance with outer-imposed norms and ideals. While our soul longs for an authentic existence, living from the inside-out of our Deep Self, social conditioning entrains us to homogeneity and conformity rather than the discovery and expression of our individual beauty and gifts.

In this profound disconnect from Nature and our Deep Self, we have lost our way, forgetting who we are, what we are made of, and how to best navigate and flourish in this tricky business of life. And from this disconnect, a vast, voracious hunger arises that expresses itself in the dysfunction and malaise that haunt our personal life and shared society. So much of the harm we do to ourselves, each other and this wondrous Earth springs from the simple, overshadowing fact that we do not live in loving, respectful communion with our Deep Self and Nature.

It is this very hunger that sets us on our journey of soul. Though we may have many positives in our life, deep, deep inside, we sense that something essential is missing. We long for more meaning, more presence, more connection, more joy, more contentment, and below this, we hunger for more of powerful forces that we can sense but not name. We know, in our sweet hopes and best instincts, that a richer, fuller life is possible, as is a human society based on generosity, goodness and a sustainable relationship with the Earth.

Breathe deep and say hello to your own sacred hunger, the part of you that understands and responds to these words.

Your journey of soul beckons, calling you to step past the life and world that you know in search of home within and without, and your true, most beautiful Self.

_____
As a writer, witch and waking woman, Karen Clark doggedly pursues one intention: to return the sacred feminine and the Goddess back to their rightful place in our everyday lives. In her mid-twenties, a series of synchronistic events conspired to wake Karen up in the midst of a corporate, achievement-driven life and set her on a spiritual journey of reclaiming the lost pieces of her feminine soul and true self. As a witch with an MBA, Karen bridges everyday and magical realities, translating Goddess mysteries to our modern search for the beauty, goodness and power of our feminine nature and whole/holy humanity.

Karen’s Path of She writings focus on the transformative powers of the sacred feminine, drawing on twenty-five years of spiritual and feminist studies, gender-based consulting, and dreaming and healing with the Dark Goddess. She is the author of Tale of the Lost Daughter, a fictional spiritual adventure into the life-changing world of magic and the sacred feminine, and The Path of She Book of Sabbats: A Journey of Soul Across the Seasons. You can find out more about Karen’s work at her website and blog Path of She.

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