My intention for this fall was to walk the first leg of the Celtic Camino, from Santiago to Toulouse, which also reflected walking from the first chakra (Santiago) to the second chakra (Toulouse). In walking this journey, I would begin to heal the split that starts in my first chakra and metaphorically continues all the way up to my seventh, or crown chakra. As I have mentioned many times, I have a physical split in my belly that begins right around my second chakra and goes up above my third chakra.
The book that inspired the journey of the Celtic Camino, Rosslyn - Guardian of the Secrets of the Holy Grail, written my Tim Wallace-Murphy and Marilyn Hopkins, describes the journey as a sacred pilgrimage of initiation.
Celtic pilgrims who worshipped the Earth goddess journeyed from Iberia to Scotland via the seven planetary oracles, associating the alignment of the spirit senses within themselves to the corresponding alignment of the Earth chakras...The pilgrimage is not simply one journey encompassing each of the seven sites, but a series of journeys made in a predetermined order, starting with the Druidic oracle at Compostela, representing the base chakra, then moving northwards to each site in the alignment before culminating in Rosslyn, representing the crown chakra. Each stage is only accomplished after an appropriate period of intense and spiritual preparation.I italicized the last sentence because of its pertinence to my experience.
While I thought that I was walking to Toulouse this fall, I know that it was perfect for me to only walk a part of the way, and also to walk the Camino Frances to St. Jean Pied de Port, rather than walk to Toulouse via the Camino Aragones and Somport Pass. I have not yet completed the "appropriate period of intense and spiritual preparation" to be fully initiated into the second chakra. I was not ready to walk all the way to Toulouse.
What I was prepared for was to walk from Santiago, and to move up along the path toward the second chakra. All the work that I have been engaged with over the past eighteen months or so, and with fully engaging and committing to healing the split has been the intense emotional and spiritual preparation for the journey I have just returned home from.
Carolyn Myss (www.myss.com) talks about the first chakra as the foundation for emotional and mental health, and about how our connection to traditional familial beliefs support the formation of identity and our sense of belonging to a group. The issues that can often come up out of first chakra imbalances usually have to do with a concern about belonging, and a fear of abandonment, and also an ability to provide for life's necessities and to stand up for oneself. The sacred truth of the first chakra is that "All is One" and that you are connected to all life.
Leading up to my pilgrimage this fall, I got to confront my first chakra imbalances and challenges. My commitment to undertake this journey triggered events in my life so that I could address these issues. I confronted my making decisions that people I cared about had issues and judgement around. I made a decision that was for me, and did not include others to come along and be a part of. I had to confront my fears of being abandoned, unloved and unaccepted in making this decision to go on the Camino, again. I got to stand up for myself. I got to experience that even though I may make unpopular choices and decisions, and even though this may make me different from others, that underneath it all, WE ARE ALL ONE. This fundamental, sacred truth of the first chakra is actually what supports us to be fully ourselves and to express our uniqueness, because no matter what, we are connected to each other, we are one, and even bigger than that, ALL IS ONE. That every choice I make and every belief I hold exerts an influence on the whole of life, and given this influence, don't I want to contribute with the most positive, loving, compassionate, and creative choices and decisions that I can make?
This is what propelled me from Santiago to St. Jean!
I got to live into, actually walk into, this understanding and this healing. I have come home feeling more clear, and more able to communicate directly and clearly. I have written a few emails that have required some direct communications, and I have been able to write what I really wanted and needed to write. No not saying what I need to say, no apologies, and yet done with love and respect. I am not sure that I would have done that before the Camino. I am also more clear about what I truly desire, and what I want and need to do and accomplish. I have moved more deeply into owning both my dreams and responsibilities, and I standing up for myself as well as my ability to provide for life's necessities and life's dreams and desires. I am excited to be home and to get to step into fulfilling all of this.
In the walking, I also knew that I was not ready to walk the Camino Aragones over Somport Pass to the Via Tolosana to Toulouse. I could feel my resistance and fear to undertaking this part of the journey, especially so late in the season when albergues were closing for the season and snow was likely to be in the Pyrenees, especially at the higher altitudes. It wasn't just fear and resistance. It felt more like I was being guided to let go of what I thought it would/should look like and allow the authentic, and "rightful" journey to be walked. When I listened to and allowed this picture to emerge, everything fell back into balance and into flow again. The Camino guided and provided every step of the way. My commitment was to listen, honor and heed this guidance.
Coming home the next challenges and preparations are revealing themselves. I am being prepared for the next journey, this time to Toulouse and the site of the second chakra.
Visiting by car and getting to touch and see the Eglise Notre Dame la Dalbade in Toulouse sewed the seed for this next leg of the initiation. I knew it was perfect that I had missed the hours when the Church would be open. The sacred places that have been closed when I arrived there are calling me like magnets to come back another time, when I am prepared and ready to receive their gifts. I specifically think of Ermite de San Nicolas, the Church at Eunate, Camino Aragones, Via Tolosana, and Toulouse and the Eglise Notre Dame la Dalbade itself.
Toulouse is calling me, the second chakra is calling me...
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| Eglise Notre Dame la Dalbade, Toulouse 2010 |
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| Eglise Notre Dame la Dalbade, Toulouse, 2010 |
Carolyn Myss says that your second chakra is your center for personal power, creativity, sexuality, finances and one-on-one relationships. The sacred truth of the second chakra is to "Honor One Another" and to recognize that every relationship I develop, from casual to intimate, helps me to become more conscious. No union is without its spiritual value.
How perfect that Steve and I are opening to asking new questions and to co-creating our relationship and our lives in a more balanced, co-creative and actually more intimate way...all the issues of the second chakra, of course! Through Steve, I am actually being invited into all the issues of the second chakra, and that I get to deepen and develop my relationship with him, money and work, and ultimately, with myself, and my creativity, sexuality, and power.
The journey continues...as my dear pilgrim sister, Sue Kenney, has so wisely said, "When the Camino ends, the journey begins."
The next leg of the Celtic Camino journey begins. And I choose to continue on the path of this sacred pilgrimage of initiation. Thank you, Celtic Camino. Thank you, Spirit.
Suseya!
Sarah
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