RAW NATURE SPIRIT
nature based spiritual path ~ intuitive life ~ psychology ~ poetry
Lessons in challenges 2019
Now is a very futile time for psychic material to align with the universal wisdom. This year has been challenging, but what is beginning to transpire that this time round challenges are dressed as opportunities. More than that these opportunities present themselves as a deeper way of working with what we need and want in order to shift and move forward towards thriving. The goal now is to change how things are done on a more meaningful, conscious and intentional level.
You might have been experiencing creation of space or an ‘emptying out’ effect. This is true for me. Emptying in a way that might look like ‘lack’, but actually it is clearing the ground for us as an opportunity to create completely anew. It is challenging us to see whether we fall into our old patterns of thinking through our core believes, defaulting, or going towards needs and wants with clear intentions instead. To notice is the key here.
When you observe your reality right now, what do you notice? Do you feel a certain shift in energy and things around you lately? How does it feel to you? What do you think this shift is asking of you? Remember that whatever happens in the universe at large it always has your best interest at heart. It wants you to grown, thrive and be your best creative self. It wants you to manifest, so it is a positive even though it might feel as negative.
If it does feel bad to you ask yourself what your instant reaction is? Do you see yourself resorting to old ways of trying to bring back what you think you are losing. Any shifts, chellenges or changes are designed to trigger you, but if you are aware of what is being triggered and why (doesn’t matter what triggers you), then you can catch it and resist an automatic reaction that you had always used. Instead stop and be with what is happening.
For example you might experience a decrease in sales in your business or a number of your regular clients dropped to a minimum. One reaction could be fear and panic, which is being triggered and we automaticallly beginning to think of things in a way of ‘surviving’ and then making choices based on what we think will stop us feeling that way. Natural, but there’s another way. Notice how your intentions in such cases come from ‘lack’ rather than what can be possible or in other words, abundance. Another response could be to say it is ok to be where you are. Pause, reflect on whether what you have been doing had been fulfilling to your true heart’s desire. You might be surprised. And if the answer is no, exactly that empty space is offering you an opportunity to create anew and move into your next stage of consciousness with your true needs and wants in check. It is not something you are doing or not doing, none of it relates to your abilities and gifts it is all about applying default, historical patterns of thinking to one situation after another. Time to change the method itself.
It is this month in particular that is so opportune for old stuff ‘exploding’ in our faces, it is a build up of energy (Solstice in nature) that is not often pleasant for everyone. Cycles begin to go back to zero, resetting time, which is an opportunity to create again consciously and with a clear intention. It comes as a tough test to see if we fill this space with stuff that’s coming from fear, position of ‘whatever it takes to feel safe, doesn’t matter what and how’ or will we allow for things to come to us via intuition and awareness, therefore, manifesting what we truly need and want.
Emptiness triggers fear and pulls us back into ‘unsafe’, ‘not enough’, into a survival mode, but what if we looked at emptiness as an opening for creation, a blank canvas where anything is possible.
Beta readers needed
I am looking for willing beta readers for my poems and essays on Scotland. If you’d like to sign up please contact me on nataliaclarkeinbox@gmail.com
Appreciate having you on board.
Many blessings!
The body of my body
What does it mean to belong to the wind, water and sand
When your body craves its wilderness like some light or food that promises heaven
Heaven it is, indeed, it is
I know it by quenching my thirst by standing on its ancient shores
I am you and you are me eternally bonded like perfectly matched body cells
Like an animal I crawl through heather-fragranced hills sniffing its soft magic as if my last breath
My body relaxes
My senses awake
I know this land is my home
Go ‘outside’ to come back ‘within’
By going outside one goes deeper within whether it is outside in nature or outside of your comfort zone or out out into a company of people that you might never do.
Sometimes we have to challenge ourselves to ‘step out’ to come back to the core of things that matter. I took a trip recently that reaffirmed me further into myself, what I am, what I want and don’t want and most importantly what my soul needs. Solitude and quiet have become essential parts to my everyday everything. I almost feel I will not be able to survive and certainly won’t thrive in conditions other than what my soul needs. My body talks loudly to me now as over the years through a lot of work we have finally made friends and my body and soul are good pals too these days. Mind is a useful companion but it also knows when not to interfere with a voice that is always louder being it my body or my soul.
I feel I am becoming more and more inward-looking and my preferences are always away from noise, crowds and rush that happens everywhere. I feel my whole body constricts to a point I can no longer tolerate and before I could but at a high price. Switching off amidst chaos is a tough gig as everything in me absorbs things instantly and getting rid of it takes time, so I aim for minimum exposure.
Being on this trip I felt like I froze and now understand it as a defence that drowns the noise and protects my shell from being penetrated. It is protective. There’s a lot of energy and vitality on the inside yet i found this time it didn’t get affected and I became more of an observer than a participatory partner in it all. I don’t mind observer, it is my other state that somewhat helps me keep calm within, but curious on the outside. Observer state can teach us so much about ourselves, others and how we all fit. I noticed things I never had before and that’s been wonderful.
It has been a year of settling back into yourself but on a much deeper level or one might say yet another spiral downwards got revealed and reaffirmed. There are many cycles or spirals on our journeys towards what we seek. It has not been without challenges but one thing for sure is that it is much harder to know what’s really desired without it being challenged. I find the work interesting as once you know what you don’t like you immediately know what you do like very often.
I enjoyed spring this year immensely and through the years of building a relationship with the seasons I can now say it is my favourite season starting from very early spring to the end of May and beginning of heat. Now as we are building up towards Summer Solstice my retrieval into myself (more than usual) feels like an intentional preparation for my seclusion for summer, which is my least favourite season. It makes sense. I go into hiding, so to speak when the sun rises high and peaks at Litha. I learnt not to rage against it, which I had done for years but to soften instead and focus within giving myself exactly what is needed. I concentrate on early mornings and watering my plants. Enjoying bike rides in the cool evening air when the sun goes to rest. I learn to use water element when fire rises just like in nature. Nurture and compassion instead of rage and harshness, coolness instead of heat. Rather than ‘instead’, perhaps we go for ‘in addition to’ or ‘in compliment to’, as we always aim to balance elements out rather than dominate one over another. I have created a set routine for myself, it seems that neither judges or forces, but flows instead and here I am staying for now watching the year unfold further.
Forest bathing
There’s a place in North Wales where forest is like no other. Gentle yet imposing, soothing yet dark. It never fails to stir the soul within me. Air so fresh it speaks of the deepest, most nourishing sturdiness and wisdom. It compares only to the most delightful embrace where I bury myself utterly in bliss. Forest bathing is by far my favourite spiritual experience where my body comes alive in completely in tune with my soul and I feel complete, at home.
One such experience earlier this spring reaffirmed my love for the forest yet again and spoke to me loudly of a place of belonging. As I walked deeper into pine kingdom covered in emerald moss I felt myself coming alive in every cell in me. Both my skin and soul screamed for exposure, immersion into what I can only describe as the light of spirit, ancient and completely perfect
Its welcoming voice whooshed through tree tops roaring me into its body and I became as one with it. Stripping layer after layer till bearing all I gently rested on its moist floor never wanting to be anywhere else ever again. Complete bliss enveloped my senses and pure peace entered my soul. I wanted to stay in that glorious house for eternity. Such feeling is rarely replicated in life. Like a mother the earth licked my exposed feet with soft caresses and I felt myself melting into the ground. It took a while to awake myself into the world again and sorrow of separation entered me as I left the forest.
Beauty in a heartbreak
When a heart breaks magic happens. It reawakens qualities in us we forgot existed.
Ever since I was young I have been an advocate of feeling. Feeling deeply, openly, letting your pain spill out into the world like a cry from a place of the darkest shade. There’s beauty in suffering and sorrow and that is because something in us awakes when we are broken hearted, sometimes subtly, sometimes profoundly and we all know that nothing can be the same again and we are changed by it. It often goes unrecognised as we are programmed not to feel, shamed and punished for it from tender age and so it goes from one system into another. For as long as I remember I have been revolting against the oppression that is ‘no dark feelings are allowed’ and have been fighting against suffering in silence. It damages the soul to the extent of it being either abandoned or exiled.
Do you know what a gift it is to be able to feel to the deepest places which only soul can touch? Sorrow speaks of the depth of feeling one is capable of and most of the time it speaks of the power of love that is immeasurable and precious. Through the pain it shines like nothing else.
If only we let ourselves feel to the full open capacity, with honour and compassion not only healing occurs but a transformation that takes us to another level of being present in our authenticity. There is nothing more real than a broken hearted being. It’s raw, it’s tender, vulnerable and beautiful.
In my practice I work with feelings more than anything else. It is the work of carving the light out of a dark cave that is pain and trauma. It is hard, labour intensive, emotionally taxing yet when the break occurs and the heart turns to healing through allowing feelings to flow, results are stunning in its beauty. One touches the soul place once more and it speaks of all that’s been forgotten and suppressed. It offers gifts to us that we had always had within and now we can use them.
Feelings are wise. They live in our bodies and attempt to bring us back to who we are truly from the first moment before the world stamped its hard armour onto us. Through opening up to pain we recognise and accept and visit all the places within that had iron gates on them for what seems like eternity. It is that stepping off the predictable, lit and well-walked path into the dark woods where treasures lie and transformation back into the soul beckons.
Embrace your pace
A vibe of steady pace manifested on this beautiful and gentle Beltain morning. The air was still and fresh and very present through my body. Something landed in me this morning. How interesting the timing yet so divine. I felt something has arrived finally to say ‘this is it’, ‘the time is now’. It was like a door opened into the light of green and as I dug my hands into fresh soil I felt the heart softening and breathing steady itself.
In the society and through centuries for women it has been all about go go go and do do do, the more tasks the better, the more organised and achieving the more valuable you will be perceived. Such a false human race for time, more jobs and tasks, more activities, etc. No wonder maidens coming out of attachment are exhausted and feeling low in self-worth.
This morning the triple goddess stood strong in her message. Being free and spacious is vital for manifestation of the whole within a being. Slower is not lazy, slower is wiser. It is intuitive, flowing, knowing. Rest and reflection are necessary for manifesting true identity and purpose. I felt it jolt and slot in my body this morning like a piece that’s not always acknowledged or allowed. I have been awareness of my self-created freedom for some years now and consciously been practicing my gratitude for all that it represents, for all that it’s given me. The most sacred thing I always wanted.
Freedom is so desirable and often seen as unachievable and a dream and when it arrives we resist it, putting ourselves in prison, overloading ourselves with more to do to contradict it, as it is not something we are used to. The sadness hovers over it within, as we know we truly desire to be free, but can’t allow it.
It takes a lot of practice to feel completely free and in a slow pace of life. It is the most precious gift, it seems, we all seek and now is the time to say yes to it and recognise as truly ours for the taking.
