Melissa
“The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea.”
I have a raw hunger for water; cold, ocean water, flowing water, singing waters over stone. I love the morning, misty peace of a clean pond. Our stormy, wild Atlantic Ocean is the greatest healer I have ever met.
This past weekend, I visited the ocean with some friends who live nearby. Whenever I am in the presence of the sea, I'm afraid I'll never leave the rolling, wave~love of the Mother Ocean.
It's late May now and I wonder if there is a more perfect time of the year to offer myself to the body of the Goddess of the Sea!
Walking along the shore or swimming out, just past over-my-head, is my preference. I once said to my friend Barbara, "I love the ocean!" She replied, in her practical, Taurus way: "No you don't. You love the shore." She's right about this. I'm not a fan of deep, dark water, except from a distance, and in it's symbolic reference to the depths of our unconscious selves; our deep psyche! Oh, then I love the deep waters!
Water as the Symbol of Our Deepest Self
At the sea, in a bath, or by a crystal-clear, clean pond at sunrise, I am filled all the way through myself and feel overflowing with love. I am welcomed home. I feel so
welcomed home.
And that, too, is how it feels when I am at peace with my emotions. This is how it feels after I have held, in honor (even if with great difficulty and feeling like I am being tortured in the process!) the fire of my anger, the depth of my grief, the ecstasy of my joy, and the song of hope and faith that gets me through the journey that is my soulful life. Water is indeed the symbol of our emotions, our soul, and our subconscious selves. Yet it also brings us right here into the very conscious, totally aware place, of this very moment.
I have always said that I would rather be fully alive and feeling everything I can, than living in a state of numbness (though sometimes we need this too, for a little while, as a reprieve from pain...); because if I am closing off my feelings of anger, you can believe that I am also closing off my feelings of passion, creativity, and power. If I am closing off my feelings of sadness and grief, you can believe that I am also closing off my feelings of love and joy.
The sea is my Mother, my Sister, my History
I got a vanity plate this year: SEA MOON. I love this because it reminds me of my love of the sea, the moon, and what these things represent to me: intuition, magic, dreams, emotions, history, family, safety and security, rhythm, wildness, healing, peacefulness, the sacred night, ancient women's mysteries, raw beauty, wisdom, and our instinctual nature.
The Song of the Seals
When I spend time near the ocean, it's as if I have risen out of this great, salty cauldron of transformation, and I feel that my seal-skin, my soul-skin, as Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes calls it, has been returned to me.
These archetypal stories bring me very deeply into my own soul, then up, again, to float on the waves; a reprieve, a rest, a blessing from the bright sun before I
return to the magical depths, to do the work of my soul.
Through the most profound pain of my life, love comes to me through magical synchronicity and divine timing. Divine guidance, blessings, miracles, and messages come to us from every direction. Opening the soul-eyes helps us to see these! Some of my favorite serendipitous experiences involve seals.
One year, at sunrise, on my birthday, I swam naked in the sea of Cape Cod. To my delight and surprise, I noticed a seal swimming near me!
On another visit to the Cape, my son and other children were swimming at sunset, in the waves. A red glow, from the lighthouse behind us, rhythmically scanned the waters. What is that beside the children? Seals!
More recently, I went to the ocean at Beltane, the sacred holiday of my Celtic ancestors, falling halfway between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice. It rained in the night, by the sea. I pulled my car into several look-out points but kept feeling called to move further along the coast. Finally, I saw the perfect opening between two boulders. It drew me closer. "The gateway...", I thought. Even through the thick fog and rain, I saw it: a swimming, jumping seal. Suddenly, another followed behind.
The seals were my gift from the Mother.
First one, then two; swimming in that wild sea!
Magic discovered by my intuition calling me
to that space between stones, to watch the wind-swept waves.
Beyond them, my eyes caught the first Seal Maiden!
And the one following behind is my true love.
This written last spring:
I got lost this past weekend in Maine - took a wrong
turn somewhere, but oh, what a blessing in disguise, and under the direction of La Que Sabe, The One Who Knows, because while driving the winding road within feet of the sea, I came upon a life-sized sculpture of Neptune
with his trident! Oh my God of the Sea, my Goddess of the Sea, how I longed to jump in that body of water, as naked as on the day of my birth, like one of the Wild Seal Maidens!
A Sacred Container
In my work, I am a witness to many emotions. For those of you who understand astrology, my Moon is in the fourth house, in the sign of Cancer. I am at home with emotions. Creating space for, and offering emotional safety to others is one of my highest priorities in life. I am committed to expressing my own emotions, however challenging, and I strive to learn as many skills as I can to strengthen my ability to offer emotional counsel to others. I know that one of my gifts to the world is a true comfort with emotions of all sizes, shapes, and intensities! I tell my clients, "I will create a sacred container for you, a sacred space for you to shed your tears, speak your truth, tell your stories, explore your dreams (nighttime or otherwise!), and feel your rage, grief, and pain."
We are mind, body, soul, and emotions. Our emotions are our guides. Our love and passions guide us to our joy. Our anger brings us to our power and informs us about what is and what is not acceptable and authentic to our life. Our sadness washes us clean, releases the past, and allows new doors to open.
Welcome Home
Welcoming your emotions brings you home to yourself. When I feel something, I say to myself, "Welcome Home. This feeling is welcoming me back into my body. This is where life is. This is where love is. This is where my hope and my dreams are."
Welcome Home, to the Beloved.
You are the Beloved you have been waiting for all of your life!