I am feeling into the change of season, noticing that the recent
Vernal Equinox has opened the door to the Via Negativa that we find in the work
of Matthew Fox. That might sound dark or
even sinister, but it is not. The season
of the Negativa is about the daylight growing shorter up until we reach the
shortest day of the year on the Winter Solstice.
Our awakening includes paying attention to seasonal shifts
which are not just about changes in the weather, but also about energetic and
vibrational shifts. Last night we had
heavy rain and powerful lightning and thunder.
Before long we will be past the season for lightning storms.
The Lakota call winter “the time between the thunder”; the
time when the red willow which has been green all summer changes back to its
true color, signaling the time for harvesting the cansasa that we use in the chanumpa
– the sacred pipe.
The storm last night also opened a door for the writing
workshop I will facilitate today; helping to create space for these authors to
go inward and let go of the pieces that are ready for release.
The Via Negativa is an overlay for the season. It does not mean we will not have sunny days
and rebirth and vital active times. It
is the general theme, and as we calibrate our bodies and our minds with the
rhythms of the planet we want to make sure we are aware of the call to move
inward and to be quiet.
The Negativa is the dark half of the Yin – Yang symbol and
this season holds an abundance of mystery and intrigue that I find irresistible. Indeed, the idea of the dark and mysterious
and unfathomable woman is attractive and mesmerizing for many of us. I also see the convergence of the upward and
the downward pointing triangles that unite to form the six pointed star.
I am mindful of the workshop I have scheduled for the
end of the month, entitled Dancing with Your Shadow. I thought it would be fun to dive into the
aspect of shadow around the season of Halloween. Not all of our shadow is scary; there are
parts that are bright and tender and comforting that have merely become lost,
and now rise to be reclaimed.
It seems counter-intuitive that we have hidden so much
pleasure and enjoyment from ourselves; maybe we felt undeserving of these
gifts. Now we pull these parts out of
shadow: the mischievous and adventurous
little boy and the innocent and laughing little girl. Even the darkest corners of our shadow
contain treasure.
Generally there is some strong emotion attached to
uncovering our shadow parts. Our
emotions come forward as evidence of our successful journey inward; evidence of
the effectiveness of our process.
Bringing our shadow parts into the light of consciousness is a critical
part of bringing our spiritual nature more completely into form and the Via
Negativa is the ideal environment for this “Shadow Work”.
My friend does not like the word Negativa in describing this
season. But it’s just a word that either
assists us or doesn’t. To me it is the
season opposite the sunny positiva. It
is the season that is deeply feminine, and historically some have attached the
ideas of evil and the demonic onto the feminine. Now we are reframing those ideas though
remnants of the Dark Ages and the witch hunts remain.
To me this season is moist and warm and comforting like the
womb. It is the time for going in before
we are reborn so we must necessarily move into this dark place. Now we find we are not afraid of the dark and
those who hung evil onto the idea of the feminine are exposed as ones who could
not face their own feminine nature.
