On White Buffalo Woman + Discernment
As you're probably aware, Root + Rise, the membership space for mythic inner alchemy is open for spring enrollment. At the beginning of each seasonal cross quarter, we enter into working with a new story - and we'll be beginning our next mythic excursion on Spring Equinox, which this year is on 20 March.
When I opened up this new round of enrollment, I had the new season's story that we would be working with, how we would be working with it, etc. all planned out and organized.
A few weeks ago, as I was sitting in my daily practice of being in communion with the spirit of Root + Rise, I was told in no uncertain terms that the myth I had decided to work on with the group would have to wait for a future seasonal cycle. Instead, this time I was to offer up a completely different story, followed by a clear download of how I am to teach and practice working with it.
Given that the spirit of Root + Rise is one of my beloved guides, I knew better than to question these directives, especially from an ego-based attachment to already having everything planned out with the other story, and the "inconvenience" of having to change this...
Around the same time, a couple of beautiful new human connections set me the challenge of speaking about Root + Rise in a video - again something which my ego would prefer to avoid at all costs, but which my soul has been nudging me towards for a considerable while now.
Recognizing the gifts of true guidance (from both the humans and other-than-human), I deferred. (Link to video at the bottom of this transmission).
So -
For this new cycle of Root + Rise, we will be entering into relationship with the Lakota story of White Buffalo Woman, or White Buffalo Calf Woman as it is sometimes known.
In particular, we'll be moving into an intentional space of invoking the archetype of White Buffalo Woman into our own lives and psyches, and working with her in this way. If you're familiar with the story, you'll know that White Buffalo Woman is a powerful and transformative figure, central to the spiritual and evolutionary axis of the Lakota people, and the bringer of the peace pipe to human beings.
If ever there was a time that she needed to be called into the collective, it's now. And of course, when this sort of work is done in a group situation, the effects are amplified.
I was also given instructions on the specifics of one of the things we are to be working with in collaboration with the story and the archetype - namely, energetic discernment.
Energetic discernment is connected to the stage in alchemy known as Separation. In this context, it's learning to separate our own native energy and emotions from those that are not ours.
From infancy onwards, we have made unconscious survival-based agreements to take on energies, emotions and related belief systems that were not ours, that were not in alignment with our soul-spirit's innate essence. This was not our fault; we were literally doing whatever we needed to do to survive, especially if we experienced any degree of trauma and abuse.
As we journey into adulthood, we are further conditioned and infiltrated by cultural, societal and institutional matrices that again do not harmonize with with our soul's song.
In the process, we become colonized by these energetic cords, agreements and belief systems, feeding them through a siphoning out of our energy. (Over the years, I have come to perceive the actual energetic "cords" in my own and others' energy fields).
Usually, we don't realise that the waters we're swimming in are toxic to our innate, authentic essence - except for that nagging state of inner conflict that we try to numb or shut down, leading to rampant dis-ease in and with ourselves. Not to mention the fact that the inauthentic belief systems that we've taken on create our lives which can often feel deeply misaligned with our truest Self.
Yet we continue on because these unconscious agreements were made in the spirit of keeping us safe (usually by remaining helpless and victimised) even though they are well past their expiry date. Evolving our conditioned notions of safety and well-being hinges on releasing these outdated, colonized definitions, timelines and identities.
Learning the art and alchemy of energetic discernment is a powerful way to start separating our own energy and emotions from those that are not ours - including those coming from distorted familial, inter-generational, cultural, societal and economic intrusions, not to mention the manipulative agendas of the centralised mass media industrial complex.
And any centralised monopoly of power that weaponizes propaganda to enforce their way as the only way is not-very-well-cloaked imperialism.
(Clue: if you feel depleted, drained, disassociated, inflamed or reactive after you've consumed media - including social media - your energetic boundaries are compromised, your energy is being harvested without your consent and your nervous system needs to build capacity through care and attention).
Doing this work of energetic discernment within the supportive container of a transformative story, and in collaboration with an archetype such as White Buffalo Woman is potent - both for the inner and outer experiences of human incarnation, creating the inevitable ripples of much needed healing out into the wider world
It is going straight to the heart of soul-decolonization.
But why is energetic discernment important?
The ability to successfully wield energetic discernment is much like having a healthy digestive system. Indeed, in Ayurveda, the ancient Indian science of alchemy, the health of a person's digestive system, in accordance with their particular constitutional (energetic) make-up, is crucial to the health of their whole system.
When our digestive functions are working well, we are able to successfully process and absorb nutrients necessary for our health and release wastes and toxins that would be harmful if they built up in our systems.
When our digestive systems are functioning optimally, we have more of our own vital life force energy available to us to direct towards the nourishment of our lives and beyond.
In much the same way, if our psyche and energy field has been by colonised by harmful, depleting energies that are not ours, and do not have our highest and deepest intentions of well being and evolution in place, we spend vital life force energy - chi or prana - processing that which is not ours, only to find that we cannot digest them.
A better use of our life force would be to feel, process, alchemize and integrate that which is authentically ours to tend to. This transmutes what needs to be transmuted into the nutrition of wisdom, insight and harmonious evolution - in resonance with our soul's unique song.
Your energetic boundaries become healthy and robust, allowing in what is in resonance and releasing what isn't. Eventually, this becomes spontaneous and automated - much like you don't have to think about processing your food when your digestive system is functioning well.
And the more you do this work for yourself, the more the wider networks of your life are empowered to do the same, and the more you are able to give and receive from a deeply nourished space of freedom and capacity.