Ostara, at the time I am writing this, is a few days away.
But as usual, I’m getting its download early.
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
I have always been a proponent of The Four Agreements by Don
Miguel Ruiz. As a Witch, it’s just a very wise thought system based on ancient
Toltec wisdom.
Personal power issues & wisdom lessons are year round if
not daily. Following our gut is the simplest way to start practicing &
refining our own self empowerment. The Solar plexus is the seat of Survival
Intuition, the turn left, turn right guidance we are constantly offered.
Whether we feel & act upon it accordingly is squarely in the center of
personal empowerment.
When your Solar Plexus says NO & you say YES, you are
sabotaging yourself. Period! Sure, small choices may seem small, but that’s the
paradox of wisdom isn’t it: small things are big & big things are small
very often on the spiritual path.
But there’s a more subtle & challenging aspect to all of
this. Hence my above reference to The Four Agreements. They follow as such:
This blog is about #2
Don Miguel Ruiz goes into each one in the book heavy duty.
The whole book is life changing as is his follow up, The Mastery of Love, where
he applies the agreements to personal relationships. There is of course a
steady focus on the relationship with your Self/self.
But what draws my attention the most is the 2nd
Agreement of the four, “Don’t take anything personally.”
What could be more important at Ostara than a claiming of
personal responsibility by making an agreement to practice, at least till
Beltane / May 1st to not take anything personally? It sets up a
boundary to contain your own focus as well as protect yourself from emotional
hell rides that delay you manifesting what you really want in your life.
To me it’s right up there with forgiveness, kindness &
spiritual practice. Not taking things personally is a spiritual practice
because you have to understand what’s really going on, which leads us to the Shadow & Grace of Ostara & the Solar Plexus Chakra, Entitlement &
Understanding.
The Solar Plexus is the Yellow One
When you take things personally & you get that knot in
your stomach, look & see if there is an aspect of Entitlement at work. Entitlement
is a tricky shadow, well they all are tricky, but this one particularly so
because it is so very easy to spot in others, but not so much in ourselves.
What is Entitlement as a Shadow Passion? We can identify it
easily on TV, especially reality TV. It is a sense of being owed something we
didn’t earn or attract via our own life process of growth. We liken it to Princess Syndrome or The Brat Child Archetype. It’s toxic & nauseating,
because it hits right in the stomach.
I discuss this more in last year’s Ostara
Blog: Understanding Ostara.
What the Four Agreements give us is a framework in which we
can understand what’s happening to us & others when we are possessed by the
Shadow of Entitlement. That Understanding is the only Grace I have ever found
to untie that knot in myself whether it is my own shadow or another wresting with
Entitlement.
Classic case of Entitlement vs Understanding
So we can quite literally go with our guts through Ostara,
keeping in mind that if we take things personally, we will derail & delay
our own process, growth & the manifestations of what is wanted.
It behooves us to re-estimate day to day on how we feel in
this chakra. One of the powers it manage is Self Esteem, the basic verb of self
empowerment. When it twists, it’s an indication that we are thinking something
without the Understanding that our soul has on the subject. So we can hear that
alarm in our stomachs, pull back, reevaluate & re-estimate where we are in
the moment.
Does this really have anything to do with me? Am I taking
this personally? Does this trigger my own unfinished business inside? Am I
playing Victim? Did I not keep my personal boundaries & Honor code in tact?
It’s a lot to look at & I am sure from personal
experience that taking ‘personal time’ is essential to my own process. Without
it, the alchemy from Entitlement to Understanding or lead to gold takes longer.
But if I listen to the wakeup call, pull back & claim personal space, I can
begin the alchemy by entering into the sacrament associated with the Solar Plexus – Confession.
Hades & Persephone in Passing
The good news is, I just need to confess my issues to myself & the Divine. If confessing to another
person is required, I know who to turn to. But if I confess it to everyone & in a
toxic way, it turns into gossip. So yes, even Gossip into Confession is
alchemical lead into gold.
It’s just really easy to alchemize it from gold to
lead again. Personal power, boundaries, self esteem, intuition, self
empowerment, it’s a lot, but we have a whole season to refine our personal power.
So I wish you a very blessed Ostara. It’s a Witchcraft week
for me. I won’t have a day off till Sunday & even then, there’s stuff going
on. But I will be traveling & teaching in New Jersey at Jean’s Place: TheSacred Hearth. We’ll be making Ostara Eggs & sitting round a bonfire.
Personally, that feels empowering to me.
Blessed Ostara,
Rev. Mark A. Lyons, President
Drawing the Circle Productions INC.
DrawingtheCircle@aol.com
631-968-8307 @ProfWitch on Twitter
