Holding the Opposites
Hannah Green
Waterhouse
Dear Community,
How are you holding up? How is the summer going? Many have talked to me about the pleasures and challenges of being more social...how is that going for you?
According to some sources I trust, feeling distracted and like time makes no sense is appropriate given the current astrological weather. Neptune is waltzing retrograde through Pices. I love imagining this blue, sea colored planet moving mightily and dreamily through space. Neptune holds the archetypal energy of dreaming, longing and imagination and the shadow side of this energy is illusion, escapism and distraction. I certainly I see a rich mix of the both elements in my own psychic, emotional landscape.
Part of me wants to sit quietly, center myself and listen deeply within. Another part of me feels unable to focus and feels a mysterious wind blowing that whispers..."escape, explore, get lost in order to find yourself again."
I am reminded of this lovely scene from Chocolat....
This film is a moving depiction of a woman learning to live with and hold the tension between the stable and "north wind" parts of herself.
I recently re-listened to the brilliant and inspiring Marion Woodman talk about holding the tension of the opposites. In this hour long talk she gives us one of the clearest descriptions of the shadow how working with the shadow or "holding the tension of the opposites" transforms us.
Dialog makes holding the tension and unleashing stuck energy possible. Dialog allows for both parts, all parts of us to offer their medicine and be integrated.
Dialoging with the part of me that longs for neptunian and dreamy escape and with the part of me that wants to be centered and still, helps me find the middle way. Through dialog I honor both sides and through integration I experience wholeness.
In session, I dialog directly with clients and most potently I facilitate a dialog my client has with herself. This dialog unfolds in the sand tray, through the images she is drawn to and through the role play she embodies.
Dialoging might be quite literal, like writing this email or talking with my husband, friends or mentors. For me it is also creative and means paying attention to dream symbols and taking the time to collage. It means exploring film, story, music and art that touches on my current themes and polarities.
What parts of you have been coming up?
Do any of these parts seem different or in conflict?
How are you bringing these different parts out and dialoging or spending time with them?
I wish you a wonderful July and hope that you have time, space and support to honor all the different parts of you.
Sending my best to the parts that want to retreat and the parts that want to explore, to the parts that want to be present and the parts that want to escape, to the parts that are seen and the parts that are still yet a mystery.
You can listen to this Marion Woodman talk here...