From Dance to Freedom

In a conversation with friends at the end of 2010 I realised my word for 2011 was DANCE. For me this represented so many qualities including  a deeper exploration of a somatic sense of knowing, finding and being in the flow, as well as moving in union with the energetic entities I meet along the way be they human or other than human. So often the movement I would make to describe this experience is the sign of the caduceus or the double helix. Caduceus is associated with Hermes in Greek mythology and Mercury in Roman mythology, both of whom are notable tricksters. The trickster is a figure in stories that often acts as the hinge or the pivotal point. They are much needed characters that offer moments of transformation and change necessary for a story to move forward. Interesting that this waving movement symbolised my meaning of dance. As I sit here dwelling on what has happened during this year I can say that many beautiful dances were co-created and there is always a dance to be found. Somehow the trickster knows when a situation or person becomes stuck they need some assistance to reconnect to the dance of life and flow again. I wonder, who were the tricksters in my life this year? I can think of one or two already !!! My inner desire remains one of observer more than participant. But hey, at last now and again I also get up and dance.

On my walks this week I have been asking myself what is the word that is emerging for 2012. And for now the word that resonates most is FREEDOM. I am not sensing a movement, sound or image to express my meaning for freedom just yet;,however, today FREEDOM FEELS GOOD. And while reading a book last night about a story called The Maiden Tsar, I came across these words by Marion Woodman:

"In life, we can be so over-whelmed by what is happening that ... we do not know whether we are driven by compulsion or by our own free will. To be asked the question in the midst of our apparently irrational behaviour, is an invitation to look at our behaviour as a way of finding within it what had remained hidden ... The drive that remains hidden is compulsion; the drive that is revealed is freedom. In the question [I am/you are] being invited to enter into [our] own authentic life. The authentic life is the transformation of compulsion into freedom without the loss of the energy contained in the compulsion."*

My interpretation of this is that for us not to be under the influence of our unconscious we need to wake up to our feelings of emptiness, lack of worth and disconnection from our bodies. By finding our loving connection to the inner positive mother, to the Great Mother, Pachamama - we can trust life and not fear life. And we no longer seek this yearning for security through external opulence, greed and possessions.  Instead we experience wholeness, balance and love. What marion Woodman calls the inner marriage of the masculine and the feminine. In so doing we find our freedom, we can let go of our fears and our actions and behaviours will be transformed and informed by a loving compassion that has always been there, that has always be part of us, it was simply hidden until we uncovered it and awakened to its presence. And it follows, what changes on the inside also changes on the outside - as within, so without.

Let it be ... FREEDOM it is for 2012.


* Bly, R. and Woodman, M. (1998) The Maiden King: The Reunion of Masculine and Feminine, Henry Holt, New York. (p.132)