I am in a dream space. Close to my bleed. My body spirals inwards, shedding into the earth, receiving from the unseen.
It is from here I write.
It is from here I contemplate the paradox and balance expressed through my inner experience as the Spring Equinox dawns. The spiral outward, as I spiral inwards. I, close to an inner winter, as the world around me warms and awakens. A moment within a moment.
I am with the birds. As we unfurl and emerge through our ReSource sessions, the birds have been our companions. In our moments of quiet and listening, their songs arrive in my heart, interweaving my life with theirs.
They call me to the trees, standing tall, steady and ancient. I recall my own connection with the ground beneath me alongside the air that brushes past me, lightly touching my skin.
As I tend to my own inner cycle, my roots reach down to drink and I, too, will rise. I will emerge from this place, but not before I have curled deeply into it.
The most natural response to a full and complete expansion, is a drawing inwards. The most natural response to a complete spiralling inwards is a spiralling outwards. This is expressed through our own cycles, whether we are of male or female body, and within the cycles of nature.
In the dominant cultures of the western world, the cycles of expansion are celebrated, validated and striven toward. We are encouraged to portray the image of ourselves as ever available, ever open, ever socially prepared, ever positive, ever sparky, ever striving toward the light.
We spend increasing amounts of time on electrical and battery operated devices. While our bodies yearn for the natural light of the open sky and the darkness of the night, there is a tendency to provide electrical stimulation, day and night, which is known to impact the systems of the body.
Is there not a deep tension within this striving for expansion permanence?
Is there not something deeply artificial within this striving?
Increasingly, so many people are becoming exhausted. Not just a mild exhaustion, but deep fatigue. Chronic illness is on the rise. Addiction is on the rise. Unhealthy power dynamics are rife throughout the world through war, the horrendous genocide occurring in Gaza right now, the idea that we can dominate nature instead of remember our place within it.
As I sit with all of this, I notice parts of me that wants to collapse in a heap on the ground. It is simply all too much. Better turn toward my device, numb out, scroll, continue sleeping. Yet never rested.
I recognise a tendency in our culture to ignore the natural rhythms of life, the cycles that spiral inwards, in an attempt to remain in a permanently expanded state, as encouraged by dominant culture.
By law of nature, this is impossible.
It will, most likely, result in the multiple collapses we are seeing and experiencing within and around us – the collapse of individual bodies & health, the collapse of unhealthy social and racial structures, the collapse of entire systems…
Could it be possible that the cycles of spiralling inwards support the cycles of spiralling outwards? (and vice versa)
Could it be possible that when we allow space for curling in, our capacity to reach out becomes greater?
As we see through nature, and as those of us in the UK and Northern Hemisphere are witnessing now through the dawn of the Spring Equinox, life spirals inwards and spirals outwards.
As we experience through our own bodies, when we don’t fight the cyclical nature of their expression and relationship with the world, we, too, spiral inwards and spiral outwards within our own rhythms of life – death – life, dream – awaken – dream, receive- give – receive.
I invite you, now, to sense into something of your own body, your own inner rhythm.
I invite you to notice this pulsation through the cycle of your own effortless breath.
Your body is an intelligent organism, deeply interwoven within the patterns of nature. Returning to the simple stuff of your body, and connecting with the cycles that pulse through you in rhythmic harmony with life, is not only deeply nourishing and restorative. In these times, embodiment and embodied listening are gentle, yet powerful, acts of resistance.
May we all stand in our ground.
May we all dance within the open sky.
May we all inhabit the cyclical nature of our being here on Earth, as part of Earth.
I include here a video of a moment of movement I am calling I Rise Rooted. Here, as I connect with the shifting energies of Spring Equinox, I connect with my root, my pelvis, coccygeal bodies, perineum… and I allow these parts of myself to guide me and sequence through my body.
I rise, rooted, from earth to sky
My connection downwards essential
In supporting my rise.
Beneath the earth I spread,
Communicate,
Receive.
And, as I rise I extend,
Express,
Give
Gifts from the earth.