Everlasting

“There is no death, only re-invention”. This is the message I received in a very potent sacred meditation on the full moon in Taurus this month.

There has been so much beauty expressed in November for me. So many new-beginnings in work, in love, in life. The Phoenix appeared to me in a strong vision showing me the layers of my own re-invention. As I rise from the ashes of my own destruction and begin again. Interestingly, the Phoenix is the crest of my old high school with the byline “everlasting”. As I find myself back there as a teacher I reflect on the power of symbols to shape our lives.

All roads lead you back to where you belong. That sense of belonging is at the core of our humanness. The foundation for our sense of self and inter-connectedness with life. The Phoenix for me has been a re-occurring beacon shaping and re-shaping my experience of life. As I find myself once again in the a halls of my old high school. I sense what it means to return to the beginning of where my creativity was nurtured. And, serendipitously, as the one nurturing the creativity of my students. That legacy certainly does feel everlasting.

What is meant by ‘everlasting’ in a time in history when everything appears to be transactional, artificially generated, instant and disposable? The lessons of the Phoenix is paradoxical. As is life, for we exist in duality. In the shedding of the old self and the birthing of the new what are we transmuting in the fire of our own creation and destruction / destruction and creation cycle? These are things I think about in the middle of the night. And this for me is the way into the permanence of impermanence. Perhaps, that is what the surface level of our insta-culture is trying to show us?

I feel quite comforted by this notion of spiritual death. It allows me to take radical responsibility for my life. I can surrender to the flow of my own creative impulse. I can find something tangible to anchor myself in the tide of noise. There are others like me who seek the raw, the real, the fire, and the transmutation, and I salute you friends. It is not an easy path to walk. All of the ” little deaths” that need to happen to re-invent the life we are living can be challenging to say the least.

There is so much beauty in the immolation of the Phoenix. The divine spark of transformation to up-level each of us willing to stand in the flames. This is the truth of resilience and re-newal. To build a muscle we must break it. To know the light we must walk in the dark. To feel loved we must know loss. To gain strength we must power through the adversity and find the peace. It takes work. Persistence and patience. Mostly, it takes courage. For all of existence is everlasting, in a continued cycle of re-invention.

As we begin to close out the year of 2024, I am excited for that re-invention. The formlessness beginning to shape itself through the flames of the destruction of my old self. I am still in the flames at the moment, yet to emerge. It is coming soon, with each new day as the light breaks through the darkness.