Ordinary
Gold
“Whenever
there is a numinous quality, there is gold…Gold comes in many varieties.
Sometimes our gold is bright, but other times it is heavy and difficult, and
seems anything but golden.”
Robert
Johnson (Inner Gold, 2008)
Robert Johnson,
renowned Jungian Analyst, and elder wiseman, wrote many books. His gifts to the
world live on after his death in 2018, at the age of 97. In Inner Gold,
he explored the alchemy of our psyche. In the quote above, he described our
inner experience, our inner struggles. In order to integrate all the parts of
us, especially our shadow side, we must wrestle with our demons. If we are
willing and able to do that long enough to find the gift inside them, we will discover
alchemical “gold.” Sometimes dreams present things to us that are aglow, almost
as though the dream is highlighting it so you can’t miss it. When that happens,
it’s described as “numinous;” a representation of the holy.
We also experience the numinous in “real time” in our
outer lives. For me, this most often happens in relationship to the natural world.
For instance, the sheer beauty of these orchids strikes awe in me. It has been
a mystery to me as to why all six of my orchids have bloomed so abundantly this
year, including one very young plant with only two leaves. Now, I believe they
are blooming so beautifully to light the darkness of these weeks of uncertainty
and fear in the face of the coronavirus. Call me crazy, but we share our
habitat not only with human beings, but with other living things—our pets, our
plants—who come to know us very well. They know our moods sometimes better than
we do. And they know when we need pepping up. The sight of all this beauty delights
me.
I’ll
bet there's alchemical gold in your surroundings, too. My friend, Anna, says a
little chipmunk comes to her kitchen door every morning and begs for food. My
cousin Carrie, like mothers and fathers all over the world, is spending unexpected
time with her precious child who is out of school. Yesterday, she and her
little girl learned about gardening, and planted seeds together. The pair of incredibly
beautiful red-headed woodpeckers returned and is nesting in the tree at Stan
and Marcia’s house across the street from me. Just watching them spread their
wings and fly excites the eyes and opens the heart.
In this difficult time,
when we are all scared and confined to home, look for the gold, the numinous,
the sacred in your life and in your backyard. You will find it in the most
ordinary places if you try—because it’s trying to find you, too. I promise!
In the Spirit,
Jane
No comments:
Post a Comment