Unravelling to return to the One Living System

The weaving of the Hero/Heroin journey with the One Living System Philosophy, finally we find our wholeness.

All my work and writing is based on my book the One Living System (found here). Our place amongst the sacredness of Life and the journey of our return back to its oneness ... how we live into this, will determine our ‘next’ and will depend on our waking as the giants that we are to all we can offer to Life. All that I write and offer - is from Divine connection (meditative space) tossed with Life reality (#Living) and massaged thoroughly with conscious intention (universal awareness) to grant Gnostic Cadacia.

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Unravel to Return

A part of the journey of the work that is returning to the One Living System is going to take us through the sacred way of both heart and mind, the intention of this is for each of us to unravel and return. Unravelling is a vital component.

What does that mean? After a lifetime of deep study into ‘us’, who we are, as people, planet, how we exist now, how we move and function, all that we have endured to this point, what ails all of creation, …….. along with study into metaphysics and wholistic wellness, I dove into many years of submerged listening to thousands of clients, only to discover great pain within all voices. Unravel and return became a common theme. Not just in those seated next to me, but in the living voices from the soil, the food it offered, the animals we shepherd.

Everything around me was looking to break free from trauma and return to peace. Everything was sorely missing deep connection and feeling frayed to the winds.

Placing all I know to be human ailment to one side, which was catalysed by the dire state of our social injustices, I plunged long and hard into research and study in the catastrophe of the earth, our water, the lands, the air, our food and non human connections, what became all too clear was that our separation from life and from ourselves, was one in the same.

The deep pain of the earth is our own, the trauma to us is the trauma of life itself, that moving forward we had to be united in our healing.

Without reuniting as one sacred existence we will neither find our own greatness, nor care to heal the earth. Our unravelling of human centric perspective towards our return to oneness as a part of the Living System is the journey we will all have to embark upon to offer Life hands in which to help ‘regenerate’ or ‘save’ all life on earth.

The unravelling will take each of us spiralling through the awareness of our own self, reaching realisations of oneness, that allows us to return to a place amongst the Living System of life, home.

Unravelling til now has been messy, but more a confused separated mess, now we will dive into an unravelling that will finally see us make way home.

Until now, this journey has been ours alone. An egocentric meliorism of a hero’s journey, created to twist our minds into a world of seeking ‘our own’ consciousness, seeking ‘our own’ enlightenment. A story based on humanities evolution. It was never enough, for it was never everything. Neither consciousness nor enlightenment are attained through the ‘I’. Our place amongst all that is Life sees us only ever capable of true evolution, true consciousness as a part of the Living System. It is ours to deeply experience Life and at every turn express into Life.

True consciousness is alive and living. Not living as we use the term as ‘I am living here’, rather it is a fluid, vivid, alive living expression of life.

In our learning, unravelling, disrobing - we are walking towards greater realisations - an opportunity to then live amongst life in this manner, which makes our slow growth, our steady unwinding, lead us to revealing our sacredness, a path of Self that has long been spoken about.

Arguably the writing of Joseph Campbell on the Hero’s Journey is still viewed as one of the easiest frameworks in which people can see their Life unfold, or indeed through which they ‘do the work’

I must say I don’t fully believe that it describes the true path that we each take, one because it is written as a coming of age journey through which we step into life as a hero (which does not take into account that we are continually spiralling through the lemniscate in our awakening), the other that we indeed must journey to be a hero, life is far more complex and individual and we arrive at every moment realising we always are the hero in our own experience of life. However it sets an easy and recognisable path that is always unfolding into our awareness which grows, and it is important to offer ‘way’. Way being some form of forward motion that highlights we are in fact progressing.

But let’s do it through the lens of the Living System.

Let us have a small dalliance into how we unravel through the lens of the Hero’s Journey into the Sacred Self. Whilst many describe this journey in its most basic form, as the archetype called the hero on their way to achieve great deeds, in truth this is each of us as heroes called to the revealing of our greatest self. The stages of this journey can be described as the departure, the initiation, and the return, (or for some the setup, the confrontation and the resolution) it is of course from a Living Systems perspective life's calling, asking us to step in, and to reveal all that we are.

What's most important through these stages is the phases that we move through. As we flow through these phases (which in adding to its complexity is of course happening at once with various aspects amongst different stages of our life) we meet our ‘hero’ as our Sacred self.

As the Hero’s journey meets the Sacred self we realise the ever changing capacity that is our experiences of Life. In the learning phase, we are unravelling, dismantling, deprogramming at the very same time as living. Whilst we can describe them as separate, they are at once within one moment.

Who we live as is evident of the self that we know. How conscious we are is revealed in our living.

This is important for two reasons, first to cut us some slack in our becoming, the second to help us be aware of our truth as we are living it.

Which means in the hope of our awakened state we are able to be honest with where we are at - in the layers of complexity that we are disrobing - and to be ‘ok’ with who we are, at the same time holding ourselves accountable to further growth. We are such complex species in our evolving. It may be seen as fortuitous to hold the capacity to reason but in this we also hold great responsibility.

HERO’S JOURNEY as a return to Sacred Self

We begin in the ordinary world,

the space that we identify as being less than special, the place in which we would all seek to run from and we feel connected to the plight of the hero seeking ‘more than this’. In our development to meeting our true self, this moment is recognising what is our ordinary life. Identifying what it is that makes it less than spectacular and the actions and habits of our own self that ties us to this. It is not to be ridiculed as sad and empty despite it feeling like this, it is more the capacity to acknowledge its ‘less than everything’ feeling in which we seek to recognise there is more to who we are that can be offered to life. From a Living Systems (LS) perspective we are recognising the world around us seeing it for what it really is and wondering where we are and how we arrived ‘here’. The here as a separated space of disconnect. (This is an important moment where we are beginning to awaken to the notion that life isn't just for existing amongst and paying our way forward through debt, rather that there is meaning)

The call to adventure,

see’s the hero receive news that sets them on the journey of action to create this special world, which is of course the call to life that we each hear continually during the course of our life. This calling urges us to know and reveal more of who we are and we are dared just as the hero is, to adventure to bring this to light. I am called, becomes the ‘why’. As the journey traverses the highs and lows of life the hero has reason to refuse the call, there is insecurity and fear of the unknown that sits loudly at their side tugging to not go on, as there is in the ‘way’ to knowing self in which we are dared to go on by the rocky terrain we continue to encounter. LS hears this as Life’s calling saying there is more within who we are than we know and it urges us to explore more our inner world, and its oneness amongst the outer world.

The seasoned traveller,

becomes the secure voice that allows our hero to ‘meet the mentor’ that offers guidance and advice to journey on, this guide does not venture with the hero, but gives more strength to the way. This voice on our LS unfolding is the Yoda within. The wise council as inner guidance and intuition that we each hold, who whispers words to us of insight to urge us to keep walking through the valleys and ravines of life, so that we may cross the threshold.

Crossing the threshold,

is the moment that asks us to step in, and up. It is the mark that denotes we have departed and have accepted the call to adventure and moving on, at this point in our sacred journey (LS) we find ourselves stepping up but that we are now confronted by life. It is really important to be succinct at this point to remind each of us, that the departure represents a time of preparation, in which we ‘prepare’ to leave, pack bags, ready ourselves, question our journey, to overlook this stage, which many do in the quest for knowing the self and attempt to jump straight into ‘I am going’ in which the confrontation of life becomes overwhelming and an emergency occurs. That is a sacred emergency. One where the call is being answered with haste and without readiness. If we wisely recognise this we can allow ourselves to step back and take a breath and remind ourselves to ‘start at the very beginning’ (as sung to us in the Sound of Music, another movie that follows the hero's journey).

As we are confronted,

we realise early on that we will be confronted by that which will test us the most, namely, that which we fear. The LS road becomes heavy and we are asked to lean on all that we have within us to endure, and that at this space there is a gatekeeper to whom we become accountable to, our conscious self, most often the part of our ‘self’ we are yet to meet.

In stepping into the phase of Initiation we encounter trials and tribulations,

There are tests, allies and enemies at every turn and whilst victorious in some battles the hero also knows defeat and failure. The least of which is in discovering who is friend and who is foe. Likewise in our LS ‘way’ to self we are tested by all we have known. In our rise in consciousness to sacred self, that which tries us is our own old ways and old beliefs. The habits that have shaped us to this moment are those which will come to haunt us in this time. As well, we discover as we grow we are challenged by those we have around us and make great changes to those who stay at our side. For us to stay on the path, we come to understand that what holds us there is not only our own inner strength but the love and support of those around us and we begin to choose more wisely whose counsel we keep. In addition we begin to determine the outer world not as outer but could it be a part of who we are?

The approach to the innermost cave,

for our hero means the valleys become deeper and we find greater obstacles to battle. Shielded by our companions we build capacity for the ordeal to come. As we take this LS innermost cave to our own journey of self, we encounter a deep see dive in which the obstacles and challenges become the life we are pushing away from and what must be endured to do this. Moving on, letting go, releasing is hard work for the heart and soul and this begins to prepare us for the greater ordeal to come. At this stage there is also a recognition of more than self oneness emerging.

The ordeal,

for our hero is the greatest challenge yet with an antagonist who is a formidable opponent. Using all of the knowledge and skills our hero fights for their life and often just avoids death. In our own LS plight, who would be our greatest opponent? Our most formidable warrior is of course our own self. By being confronted by ‘me’ means we finally meet our inner anger and fear the space where we are empty, nothing and lacking lustre for life itself, the space that holds our separated selves. We are met with all we have been, all we had hidden and all we had denied at once. A time of deep purging.

Our hero discovers there is reward to this moment,

that in many stories reveals new life, a new world, victory. There is triumph over and treasures to be found. This is a moment often famously spoken about in identifying the ‘life isn’t happening to you but for you’ phrase, where we come to realise that life is on our side through this darkness. It is pertinent to remember that in LS form we will come to know ourselves as fluid beings requiring movement, that in opposition to this darkness is the space of holding, which is everything against how we want to feel into life, this holding is the hardest part of darkness and can be seen in our ‘struggle to be free from the pain’ as if we are breaking loose from the straight jacket we are bound in. This moment of holding is our desire to get back into the flow, how do we do that, what does it take, darkness wants us (in fact encourages us to stay and be fed by all that is going wrong) to stay, yet as we writhe we know something in us wants to push on - this is life - calling us back. This is oneness revealing itself and calling us to it.

And it is here that we celebrate our place in the sacred way. We begin to breathe again and bring reward to our aching bodies. We step into self care and nourish and nurture our souls. It is a time for deep pausing before we journey home.

It would be easy to think our hero has a simple road home.

The road back begins the return. With treasure in hand our hero tackles lesser adversaries to enrich the story, at all times knowing there is greater power within them now. As we begin our LS journey back to self, back to our ordinary world, we can struggle to hold onto the jewels we have discovered. It is not that they are heavy, but more that they are unfamiliar and have not yet fit this new revealing into our being. We are clumsy with all we have discovered and not yet sound in who we have become. We would be naive to think that the story has ended for we know there is a twist at the end we never expected and it comes in the form, for the hero, of the Resurrection. For LS it is the doubting darkness of individuality that beckons.

One last battle as the antagonist re-emerges.

Exhausted yet willing to fight on, our hero once more overcomes death and tackles the antagonist with the last will to live. As do we. Exhausted, overwhelmed, battle weary we are cleansed one last time. Easiest to describe as the moment we are on the floor, struggling to get to our knees, unaware of what blow has struck us and from where it came, yet willing more than ever to fight for what we have found. What we discover in this moment is that the final hit came from our own self, that all that stops us in our new becoming is ourselves and we battle that inner ego fighting us that we can in fact herald in our true self. That we never have been an individual self and that we are amongst the wholeness of lIfe.

This moment is represented by the return with the elixir,

the treasure that is going to change the ordinary world, and give to others a better world. Rarely is the reward only for the hero, it finds betterment for others in their community and their life. As is our return into the LS. What we find in the return is more of who we are. This gift is not only beneficial to our own life but aids the consciousness of those around us. It is a reward for all when we rise to our greatest self.

It is what begins the movement for the rise of the collective conscious as we each rise to our truth.

This is what lay within our learning.

On repeat

All of this work to be done over and over once and again. Through lifetimes. While it may feel disheartening, it would not bring this moment now, where we have arrived here at this meeting ground ready to continue with an already heightened consciousness that sees us ready to defy the odds of capitalistic ways and stand for a new world.

The LS Journey represents only one part of the village that will raise us, I urge us all to go further in this journey of self, that asks us to endure the learning phase of our becoming and extend an invitation to be willing to continue to dig deep, to burrow long into our being over and over again.

From this point, as we evolve through our rise of consciousness we live into this through what we will find to be our new values from our focus on the Living System. That bridge that we now step onto will at first seem tottering and dilapidated, it may appear fragile or frail; this is only because we have not walked this path and cleared the way that has been offered to us. To build its strength we step onto its platform and rebuild it as we walk. We reconstruct it as we step plank by plank reminding life as we go that we are here, that we are a willing participant to its REbuilding and that the steady flow of the current that runs under it flows with the sacred force of our own being.

In our living forward we must let so much rest

That we allow parts of ourselves to die sounds terribly dramatic until we realise without the act of cutting away the umbilical cord that has fed us layers of limited existence, we will never truly embrace living into a new way.

Hold death and live. Let all that has been, wash away as we carry into the now. Memento Mori, that we must die, is the reminder in this moment to begin with questions boldly asked as we unravel and return,

• where am I at with my awareness and consciousness?

• How do I live into that amongst each touch point of creation?

• How do I live forward to raise myself and be an agent of change for the people and place around me?

• How do I actualise my consciousness into action towards change?

The challenge now is that our solutions come from bottom up, us, as change agents, letting the silence go within to carry the rising of our own pathways as one with All That Is. A beginning to know our sacred self as one with all of life.

IDEAS…

• Creating sacred self through the OLS has never been done before - we have only ever journeyed through any ‘self’ work with a limited human centric view - try it now as a part of Life - as ONE with Life, see all that you are as the vital element to Life that you are and find yourself within it.

• Map your way - like a bioregion - through people / place as you timeline your becoming - the traumas and events that happen both to you and to all that is around you - for all is impacting the other…

• This is true and valid for past lineages as well - as there is no past life for life - there is only life through the ages - we have died and reborn to her again and as we have done so greeted her at every step as a new form - yet held within ALL that is the memory of form before and the past history of that people and land plays enormous impact in our lives - if you can truly grasp this truth you realise the depth of all that you are.

• Understand that this is where belonging comes in - that we belong in a place and have held deep connection to it - we are called to it - and when there we heal ourselves and the people and place .. where is that place /s that you can move to and through (even in mind and spirit) to heal you and land as one?

• In the journey to sacred self, walk yourself through the chart and begin by saying, where are you on this chart? Think about yourself in every way you can and plot yourself so you can see where best you may be lacking consciousness in your life what areas you can start to pick up on and you can do that

remember growth doesn’t happen in a linear fashion more like the wave as shown

Decolonising

When it comes to a Living Systems return perspective - ultimately - what we are doing is decolonising ourselves. Pulling ourselves away from the assimilated tone in which we have been ordered to live. Unravelling - pulling - ourselves away from the shackles that bind us to a man made system - and return us to that which we belong, as oneness amongst all of Life.

The work in this is as one. It is not ever for us to do alone, nor can we do it alone, for all things are shaping and changing through us and with us at every moment. We are one as Life with all of Life.

The work in this, is what sets us free to walk home. In effect most of our rise to our true self will occur naturally as we unravel - for it is our core knowing - and it will open as we let go.

May we all cast off the ropes that tie us and return to that which we belong

Author: One Living System, Life’s Sacred Language and Our Collective Journey.

Educator: Living Systems Learning and Alignment

Counsellor / Consultant / Healer: Wellness and Wellbeing for Human, More than Human, Place and Planet.