February 2019 - Compassion Group Notes

Going Deep and Going Dark

“If each day falls inside each night, there exists a well where clarity is imprisoned. We need to sit on the rim of the well of darkness and fish for fallen light with patience.”   ~ Pablo Neruda

When I was a little girl, I was terrified of the dark. My mother would say, “Your imagination is running away with you, my girl.” It was true - the state of consciousness of a young child is one that consists of an inner landscape of archetypal, symbolic, imaginal, swirling energies - represented as monsters and ghosts, angels and fairy god mothers. In many ways her statement was helpful – it helped me know that what I was experiencing was in consciousness and not the physical world. It was hard as a child to sort out which realm and which reality was internal or external, literal or symbolic – especially when the internal, imagined representations of fear matched the external realities of my life quite closely! For more…. Read here