I have learned that it is never anything to do with getting something right or wrong, saying the right or wrong thing, or picking sides as us and them, for in the end there is only one thing that matters. It is always, always, about Love.

Whilst the energies remain intense, with the upcoming Lion’s Gate and the recent Full Moon in Capricorn, both bring a heartfelt message and calling to all of us. We are each in our own way being pushed, pulled and moved to step into a new phase of personal growth and follow the calling of our Heart. And that means focusing on what the Heart wants and anchoring that into action.

And it is a call that needs to be heeded. More than ever now, we are being called to presence, and to unfold our inner Light. Many are finding the courage to rise up in their own way to make a difference in the world, or wanting in some way to help transform a world that appears confused, lost, and breaking down.

Yet the outer world is a reflection of our inner. To heal and transform what appears darkness in our world, even if we perceive that as our boss, our government or people and things that irritate us, transformation starts from within. So Love’s healing message for this revolutionary and rebellious time is this:

When the Rose and the Sword become One, then we shall have peace

We contribute towards world peace and Love only to the degree that peace and Love is embodied within us. No longer able to live in denial of our own personal lies, each and every one of us will eventually have to be broken open so this Truth can be revealed to us. For the mastery of self is our ultimate destination.

To live an authentic life in the outside world we are required to heal and transform our life within. It is the mastery of our thoughts and emotions, without judging them as low vibration, good or bad, or positive or negative. It is the balancing of our masculine and feminine energy as life flows through us. What is required of us now is the loving presence to hold everything in Love and focus on what our Heart wants to create.

To be whole and balanced our mind, body, Heart and soul are required to work together in union. And it is within every Heart of every man, woman and child that this reconciliation of the masculine and feminine must take place so its effects can eventually be witnessed and lived in the outside world as peace, Love and unity.

The Shadow: Our Dark Side

If we are really honest about self growth and self exploration, by embracing our darkness and owning our shadow we become whole in an authentic way. It is the unknown and the chaos. And the biggest barrier in learning to love ourselves and live our lives authentically is all our repressed emotions. How can we possibly truly accept and love ourselves for who we are if we are too frightened or scared to explore the unexplored?

It may have been easy in the past for us to ignore events happening around the world, but now they are in our face everyday and being brought closer to home we can no longer ignore the shadow of the planet – unless we are in total denial or oblivious to what’s going on. None of us can ignore the fear, the terror, the despair, the retaliation, the frustration, the anger, the shame, the lust we see being projected and playing out, for to do so does not make it go away.

We see a lot of religions and particularly “New Age” spirituality that just wants to focus on the Light, the peace, the love and compassion. This can be a perfect escape route for those who do not want to take responsibility for them selves or what’s going on in their lives. And because anger, fear, guilt and shame are perceived as “negative” energies, inner work is avoided out of fear for what might be uncovered. From my own experience in the past of just focusing on the Light and believing my darker qualities could be transcended, could not be further from the truth. Just like a volcano when the earth’s crust rises to the surface, eventually it has to erupt to ease the pressure – as does our shadow if we ignore it.

The revolution and rebellion that we see in the outside world manifested as war and destruction is not just an external event. Whilst we see the collective shadow being played out as suppressed emotions have risen to the surface and are being released, it is a reflection of our inner world, showing us to wake up and make peace with our shadow, the enemy, the violent intimidator, the terrorist, the blamer, and the tyrant within – the war and destruction we create for ourselves in our own personal lives.

We may distract ourselves with social media, mobile phones, TV…anything that will distract us from doing the inner work of transforming and mastering our emotions. Maybe we don’t watch the news because we believe it is depressing and a distraction. Yet if we continue to disconnect ourselves from world events because of what we perceive as the negative energy of every tragic event and injustice we see in the world, how long will it be before we have disconnected from life itself and not living in this world anymore?

We cannot keep projecting our anger, hatred, grief, guilt or shame, or anything else for that matter, out onto others. We have to hold our hands up and own it. And in owning it our challenge is to embrace and integrate everything, find balance and peace in everything, so we can function in the world despite what’s going on around us.

I will no longer remain in denial or “conform” to what others expect of me just to get their Love or approval. Neither will I lie, ignore and be “nice” just to keep the status quo, or tolerate and put up with falseness and in-authenticity as a substitute for the deeper truths. And if that means anyone is offended by these words and wants to “un-friend” me for saying such things, I am ok with that.

The Pilgrim’s Journey

One of the first plants I planted in my garden three years ago was the climbing David Austin Rose “The Pilgrim”. It was a symbolic reminder of my own life changing pilgrimage over a thirteen year period to my Beloved Whitby in North Yorkshire. As well as a place of pilgrimage, Whitby had been the home of a Saxon Saint – a woman Abbess at that.

Whilst there are many in the world feeling despairing and lifting their symbolic swords and going into battle to fight their cause, even at the cost of their own lives, as we may do when arguing for right or wrong and getting our point across at all costs at the expense of hurting someone else, there are many that are taking up the sword for peace too. Peace is not about what’s “out there”, it’s about creating that peace within our own Hearts first.

I used to be someone who avoided confrontation, inner and outer, but it did not serve me well or for my highest good. We cannot assume that giving the impression to others that our calmness and letting things go, or letting them wash over our heads is always authentic. It wasn’t until I looked within that I saw that mask of calmness and being nice was hiding and suppressing all my fear, anger, resentment and shame. And because of the fear of the repercussions and being punished in some way for speaking up and against others, I said nothing. And in doing so, it made me inauthentic, a liar and a fraud. That is not Love.

I have shared my story of the abyss into self in the blog “The Importance of Healing Our Core Wounds”. The truth is, the deeper we go within the further we see the Truth. Truth arose for me when my own personal revolution came through illness and failing health because I had ignored too many of my shadow self traits, and because of my own complacency and denial, the life I once had and knew was shattered. And as good measure to make sure I could no longer remain in denial, complacency, and living a lie, my job, business and relationship were felled, shattered and smashed to smithereens in one fell swoop too.

Get up from that. Weary, wounded, and grieving for what I had perceived I lost through illness and in the many months of silence and despair that followed, along with the excruciating, debilitating pain of rheumatoid arthritis, I had no choice but to confront my inner struggles and inner ugliness that I had denied all my life. All of it was toxic and had poisoned my blood.

I was not a victim of circumstance. It was in my darkest hour that I was called to take up the Sword of Truth, cut through the illusion to lay the truth bare between my real self and false self, and give attention to and Love my demons that lurked in the shadows. Until I had removed the masks of in-authenticity and made peace with my shadow self, the gifts and treasures that were hidden could not be revealed to me to move forward into my purpose and potential. But in this darkness I was not alone, for in surrender the invisible presence of Divine Love became my guiding Light that was lighting my way home.

Over the years through tears, sadness and heart wrenching grief, I savoured every memory and moment I had on my visits to Whitby, without fail climbing the 199 steps to the Abbey and mesmerized by its haunting shadow and silhouette when illuminated by the moon. But in recent years, the time came when it was time I had to say goodbye, no longer able to visit the place I loved so much.

Innocence Revealed

In the early days, the heart wrenching sadness, tears and longing I felt every time I left Whitby left a hole in my world and nothing could fill it. Over the years I came to realise that Whitby was not my final destination. It was a journey of initiation to unfold and awaken my inner Light. It was through ascending into the darkness of my own Shadow Self to be reborn, with the insight and experience to heal myself and bring that healing wisdom back with me as an Alchemist to share with others and my tribe.

And that also meant peeling back the veil to remove the layers of fear and limitation that I had placed on myself through distorted thinking and beliefs, and to heal them. And the more adept I became at mastering my thoughts and emotions, the more my intuition and wisdom increased, along with peace and harmony, and time to reflect on the profound changes that have happened within.

The signs I followed along the way, external and internal, brought me to where I am now. But the journey is not over yet. Hindsight is such a wonderful thing. As the three Wise Men followed the star to Bethlehem to see the born Christ, I followed the synchronicities and the calling to Whitby to find my true self and eventually the birthing of the Christ Light within me.

I know enough about perceived loss. And the sacredness in tears is that although we never stop missing something, we learn to carry on and live with the gaping hole left by its absence. But the truth is we can never lose what we have deeply loved, it becomes an integral part of us. And Whitby is, and always will be, a part of me. It is in my Heart, and in my soul.

If we truly want to uplift the world in some way into peace, we must first start by uplifting ourselves and find that peace within first. That is the alchemical process of transmuting our selves into becoming Light. For when we turn our focus and attention within, something magical begins to happen. We get real and stop hiding behind our masks.

When the Rose and Sword are One

And when we have brought our shadow home to Love, integrated it and made peace with ourselves, graced with intuitive insight, we see the world and its occupants in a new and totally different Light.

When we have healed, transformed and mastered our thoughts and emotions and our Hearts are open, we see that we are all interconnected. And it is in this interconnectedness we learn to stop judging and labelling – others and ourselves. We start to see the world through the eyes of Love, compassion and authenticity. We learn the wonder of Creation and see that all events have an intrinsic purpose. From the human intellect this will mean nothing.

Then we come to the realization what an amazing being we are. Not from an arrogant perspective, but humbled by Grace because from the perspective of Spirit we see that all is in Divine order and we are all part of the Divine Plan. And that includes each and every one of us living on the planet at this time – even those we perceive as “evil”. When our Hearts are opened, we then all have a choice as to how we perceive, and act, to the atrocities and misdemeanours we see happening to us and in the outside world.

It means observing what is going on in the outside world without judging it. It means allowing the anger, the fear, the blame, the condemnation, the revenge, the resentment, the despair, and the fury within to rise and to feel it all without trying to push it away. We will know when we have healed and transformed our emotions because we are no longer dominated by them or have them triggered by outside events. It does mean we will no longer feel pain or have “bad” things happen to us, it means we recognise that they are part of our spiritual growth and learning, always guiding us back to Love so that through our own interactions we can bring that Love to everything we say and do, and contribute to bringing peace to the world.

Looking beyond the illusions, labels and judgements, we now see God in everything.

We are all part of the whole so now comes the hard pill to swallow, challenging to accept – and controversial for some. Our shadow projection of demonizing what we perceive as our “enemies” whom we may believe should be destroyed, only serves to separate and divide.

That perpetrator, rapist, murderer, molester, abuser, terrorist, shooter, immigrant, whatever label we want to put on “them”, the person we want to blame or condemn for carrying out those atrocities or what they have done to us….the person that betrayed, rejected, humiliated, hurt and disrespected us and we want revenge or we think vengeful thoughts towards….

They are our brother and sister, so disconnected from their own True Self that ignorance, control and chaos ensues in their own lives, and then gets projected out into the lives of others. When we understand that truth, who are we to continue casting stones ourselves?

Hearts may be closed to Love but the light of God unrecognized is still within. When we transcend our emotional wounds and imbalances and learn to bring the Heart and Mind together in perfect union – we will know Love. We will know peace. For the sake of Humanity’s evolution and future survival, let us now, individually and collectively…make it so.

If this article has resonated or touched you in any way, please feel free to share Love’s healing message with your friends or network, or post a comment in the reply box below.

In Love and Grace,

Linda