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Deep breath here, Hung, as I return to read your post once again, this time more slowly, taking in your words and experiences bit by bit.
This is much more than a “story,” it is a multi-generational, multi-cultural saga. It is your personal journey – specific to you in its historical, geographic and cultural details – and yet, it is also an archetypal journey as the trauma of dislocation, violence and repression is affecting more and more beings on this planet every day. I have no doubt that the inner work you are doing to transform the wounds and scars of your early life will allow you to go deeper in your alchemical healing with others and to shine your radiance and Buddha nature more fully and freely into the world.
I am deeply grateful that you have joined our community, that you are bringing the wisdom of your wounds as well as your resilience and compassion to this alchemical conversation. Like Benjamin, I am grateful that, in the face of all the doubts and reluctances, you found the bold audacity to say, “yes!” It is also a gift to all of us here in this community to be able to bear witness to your process of transformation.
In the next segment of the mentorship (between the Wood and Fire gatherings), one assignment will be to watch the virtual class, A Five Spirits Approach to Trauma. In the course, I look at trauma from a Western as well as a Taoist psychological perspective and offer a number of tools that can be helpful in “rewiring” the nervous system and transforming trauma-based patterns. Once you have watched that video, let’s open a conversation on how to apply those tools and practices in your life.
Meanwhile, keep writing! Stay in communication with Benjamin and me, with Alana, your lab group and others in the community. Remember the order/disorder – connunctio/nigredo – principal. As you “unpack” these entrenched patterns and defenses in your emotional and physical body, there may be many liberating and expansive moments but there may also be feelings of confusion and tendencies to contract and withdraw. From an alchemical perspective, this is normal and inevitable and part of the transformational process. However, resist going back to being the “lone crusader.” It’s better not to isolate too much when the contractions occur. At very least, be in touch with someone in the group or let me or Benjamin know. And FYI, you can contact us here on the Healthy Seminars platform on the Questions for Lorie and Benjamin Forum or you can private message Benjamin through the members chat on the A New Possibility platform.
The one specific thing I would suggest is that in addition to the flower essences that called to you – elm, gorse, walnut and mustard – you consider Star of Bethlehem Flower Essence. This flower is an ally for healing both acute and chronic, deeply embedded trauma patterns. It helps us align with our own “North Star,” the bit of starlight that comes to us from Heaven Above and lights the path of our Tao here on Earth Below.
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