I felt like things were getting too hectic, with too many activities, too many demands, too many efforts by others to take my attention away from things close to my heart.
So, I began at the Full Moon in mid-July and brought it to a close at the second New Moon at the end of August. Life went on, of course: yet another massacre and the usual impotent outrage, and another and another; my cat’s strange death, etc. Put in Jung’s terms, I turned from the Spirit of the Times to make space for the Spirit of the Depths. I withdrew from performances, obligations, and social interactions. I avoided public places when I could, gave greater attention to my diet and exercise, and indulged in 24 to 40 hour fasts every few days.
Fasting and relative seclusion were not deprivation to me, but a privilege of withdrawal from habitual and conditioned interactions with transitory social currents.
I arose in the morning in time to sing a song of praise to the rising Sun at dawn. To honor the Sun’s disappearance in the West, I played music – usually my Irish whistle.
I withdrew from social media, news and almost anything televised. I did not lack for things to do, however. There are always land and shelter tasks, reading, meditation and, for us, bees, cats and chickens.
Overall, I gave primacy to the activities that nourish my spirit: meditation and contemplation, Druidic practices, Rosicrucian studies and shamanic states of consciousness. And I finished editing the current edition of my manuscript Shadows in the Light of God.
In my withdrawal, my favorite cat also withdrew, slept, refused food and water and died.
Each dawn, I found, can be so different one from another – from the mists on the meadow to the clouds in the sky and trees dancing in the wind. What may look like the same Earth and Sky instead changes hour-by-hour.
By the end of the six weeks or so, the days were an hour and 34 minutes shorter than when I started.
When I took respite from news, media and phones, I realized how much of my life I lose when my attention is captured by the posturing clowns that dominate the airwaves, much of it pushed at us by propaganda outlets that have no regard for truth, but attempt to distract us into a consumer’s trance while they concoct schemes to move our wealth in their direction. Now, after a few days back into the outside world, it’s clearer than ever the difference between the Spirit of the Times and the Spirit of the Depths.
Exceptional. And something we all (myself included) forget that we really need for ourselves…to unplug and reconnect with the Sacredness of Self. Thank you for posting this and reminding me!
Indeed, it was that attending to the “Sacredness of Self,” as you so aptly described it, that made all the difference.
Karl, thank you so much for sharing this experience. Knowing that you were on sabbatical, I often thought of you and wondered just what it was like, as that is so far from my present reality that I couldn’t even imagine how your time would be spent. Well, I knew you would read and meditate, etc., but wondered how you would spend the rest of the time. You have opened my eyes to a new way of being–and I’m sorry to hear about your cat.
Oh, I had no lack of things to do. The decision-making was primarily based on, “What would I like right now?” although I did have tentative plans much of the time.
Karl, how have I lived so long without knowing you had a blog? I miss your voice.
I can still here your laughter, Dorothy, with a touch of, shall we say, sardonic reality.