Alchemical wound as treasure for depth and beauty of soul

 

     So much of life today focuses on the positivist attitude where people don't want to acknowledge times when life chipped away at us; it seems we are supposed to only see light and not darkness and not feel sad. But if we skim over the shadow and its contents we miss many points of the journey. I am not saying that we should wallow in pain. I am just saying how many people don't even want to acknowledge any of it, almost like it is a bad or inappropriate word or socially unacceptable.I hear people make comments on how if only you had more faith, or more belief in God, or you were more brave or more this or that, you would not have any problems in the first place. I think this seems a tremendous disservice to the life of the spirit, whether in religion or the mythic human spirit. Yes, the point of the journey is to answer the call and perform a feat and bring back the boon; yet, ignoring the dark or chipped parts of how life sculpts us doesn't seem to me to be the answer either. Where we are broken is often where we become golden, like stardust, how we get back to the garden..I imagine in the garden there were many trees, and the sun danced through the trees, but that there was shadowdance on the ground from the trees, too. That is where the light and the shadow converge. And not that there are not times that look like pure light, either! But true sometimes things simply are simply monstrous! As my friend Caroll mentioned, also, it is alchemy at work here-- the alchemy of monster slaying! This gold filling here is like tending to the wounds of battle.

 

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     This is also like the "wounded healer."

     I have also noticed a tendency in society today to go ahead and applaud the painful part of one's journey when it is endorsed by an organization such as fighting for a cure for cancer or diabetes, yet when an individual is suffering from illness that is not backed up by an organized cause, people often seem to victimize the victim by blaming them for causing their own illness, telling them to think more positively, for instance. What if they are already trying to think incredibly positively, but that some toxin in the environment caused their illness. Is it then their fault for "choosing" to live there? Where does the blame end that is placed upon the sick? And what of the test of Job? And what of people who tell the sick that it is due to lack of faith in God, or that somehow they were not strong enough to fight off the devil or are not living "right"? If it is always true we create our realities including our illnesses, then what of infants born sick or children who get cancer or another serious disease? Is this past-life karma in action or is it a pre-birth contract such as in James Hillman's "The Acorn Theory" as found discussed in his book The Soul's Code--which I really love, but I still have questions about illness. My mother once told me that not everything that happens to someone is happening because of it being their own karma and that sometimes we take on situations to help another face their karma and help others develop an awareness or compassion or patience or some such trait needed in life.