Walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Death

Some have called it the Dark Night of the Soul.
Some regard it as "deep things coming up not yet dealt with." Needing work, perhaps.
Or workshops. (Perhaps there's money in this for someone?)
Some smile like the Buddha and just allow. Non-attached.
Some, like Jesus is said to have done, just go away and pray more fervently.

And this "it" - what is it really?
When "things" don't "work" any more, manipulating ceases to have the desired effect, health perhaps threatened, money perhaps notable by its absence, relationships "screwed-up" and time going on and on, giving only temporary respite?

The Silence.
When there is no "Secret" to understand or reach.
The Void.

Yes, we know the Void is the crucible and cradle of all divine Creation - but when the Void has no seeming potential, is like the deepest Winter of the frozen wastes, never really ever thawed....

And we have pretended enough that this is OK, that this is right, that the nothingness is fruitful and nourishing and fertile........

And then?

A good shamanic friend of mine has said often recently that he has begun regretting being "awake" and connected - it hurts so much to see the sleeping and the unawareness; it feels as though it is in him...

Ho'oponopono would say - it is in him....! That is the only real place to heal it.

Does this healing then become the void, neither happy nor sad, neither passionate nor dispassionate - or is this another way of experiencing the bliss of nirvana, the nothingness that the Buddhist monks spend their life going towards?

And when it isn't bliss? When, like Quan Yin, we understand that there is no "coming home" until all are home, and we then suddenly countenance the possibility that this is home.....

Now.

Just like this.

I don't know about you, but in this space I need community. In the 3-dimensional reality that is Earth, in my sometimes forgetful state of believing that there is a veil that separates, the seeming cosmic alone-ness is utterly painful. "My God, why have you forsaken me?"

This trend of the modern world, to shut ourselves up in boxes, watching moving pictures on a screen to divert us, or running through woods listening to iPods, or whatever, is even more Source-alienating than ever before. There is no comfort in these, or in any outer remedy, save perhaps in Nature.

But in community, I may see my mirror, and know that I Am not alone.

I believe that is why there is Creation.
For the experiencing. The touching-full knowing. The talking-laughing-embracing feeling of Cosmic Laughter.

Thank you Zaadzsters for this space. Thank you, all of you who are manifesting different ways of community in a world alienated from itself and its Real Source.

What is this Dark Night? Perhaps it is a time of potential cosmic wonder, a time of  possibility to do "dangerous" fun things like "partying in a tundra-landscape" - a cosmic wonder-full party of sheer awe and delight....

We together in Oneness, in ways we had forgotten since time immemorial.......

Remember the song Come together...?
The last line of the refrain over me.....

Creator Spirit, you, me, the Earth and all the dimensions....

Quite a party.

Can't help smiling when I think of it......

Perhaps, over there, a faint shimmer of the Light before Dawn?

In Love and Light and Laughter

John O