The experience of polarity
We are multidimensional beings living simultaneously on different levels of consciousness. The dimension of ourselves which we most frequently identify with and which society in general takes as its reference point is the dimension of polarities. Here we are winners or losers, aggressors or victims, sinners or saints, loving or resentful, spiritual or worldly, good or bad, a success or a failure. Being born into a physical body means that our soul has chosen to experience the whole range of physical sensations, emotions and thoughts which form part and parcel of the world of polarity. Our experience of polarity is reflected in all our relationships because it is intimately connected with our own personal experience of life and who we believe ourselves to be.
The creative process
As divine creative beings we naturally tend towards creating unity and balance through the expression of love. Separation means to have temporarily lost contact with one aspect of polarity. Conflict means an opportunity to balance and harmonize opposing polarities. Tension is the driving energy to create and manifest our vision. To be successful in creating what we want, we must therefore balance and harmonize the polarities in our lives, including separation, conflicts and tensions. If we do not do this, then the circumstances of our lives and unconscious habits will tend to determine our experience of life. We actually need both aspects of polarity to create and ironically we can only embrace polarity when we go beyond opposites to find the wholeness or healing of union. This means bringing in the third element of awareness or consciousness which has the effect of completing an energetic circuit or circle of energy enabling a different flow of energy to be created.
The Sacred Breath
The breath clearly represents these principles. There are two opposite polarities: the in-breath, inspiration or intake of divine energy, prana, which represents tension on a physical level, desire on an emotional level and opening up on a psychological level and the out-breath or grounding of divine energy which represents relaxation on the physical level, letting go on an emotional level and willingness to start over on a mental level. By joining both in-breath and out-breath in a connected breathing rhythm, we complete an energetic circuit which enables us to experience the divine union of the Spirit of Breath in our body. Conscious connected breathing is the basic key to resolving all polarity conflicts on personality levels and is the essential tool for living as truly creative beings, manifesting our divine vision here on planet Earth.
Heaven and Earth – the Vertical Axis
One of the basic polarities of life is the relationship between our divine self and our personality. Who we essentially are and who we believe ourselves to be or who we have learnt to be as a result of our experience of life often seem to be in conflict with each other or to be unconnected. We could call this the vertical axis of life in the body. The divine impulse or inspiration should naturally flow through us and manifest in our lives through the body and be grounded in the reality of our earthly dimension or Mother Earth. If the flow is blocked we will have difficulty in following our inner guidance or intuition or in easily manifesting out spiritual vision in our lives. We need the vehicle (our body) to support the creative impulse (our spirit). Spirituality is dancing with life, not denying it. From the soul perspective all creation is spiritual – including and embracing all that life has to offer including our sexuality, our relationships and all our creative impulses.
Human Relationships – the Horizontal Axis
Another basic polarity of life is the relationship of self to others. We could call this the horizontal axis of life. Creating a balance and harmony between personal interests and service to others from the perspective of the personality seems to be an impossible task and often we go to extremes, exclusively serving our own self-interests or, in the role of saving the world, exclusively serving others. This dynamic is fraught with guilt, shame, power games and control strategies and patterns. By moving the center of operations to the heart and soul levels, we can go beyond these seemingly irreconcilable opposites and find a middle way based on the perspective of unity. There is no real separation. Others are only mirroring my own patterns out of love so that I can finally heal those which are no longer in alignment with the highest good of all.
Male & Female – the impact of collective consciousness
An important aspect of human relationships is the male-female polarity axis. It is particularly important for several reasons. It includes the inner aspects of the male and female principles within each individual – the creative union of spirit and body, the divine and the worldly. If we are to truly master the creative process we need to balance and harmonize these principles within ourselves and open up the vertical axis of the central energy column of the body. This cannot take place without the balancing of the right and left sides of the body, the right and left brain.
Another opportunity to work with male and female energies obviously comes from the horizontal axis of our relationships with others. From childhood relationships within our family, relationships with our peers and friends to relationships with life or sexual partners, we are constantly striving to achieve a workable balance and harmony. Our relationships with others are perhaps the greatest gift life gives us to free ourselves from old dependencies, repressions and limitations and to truly co-create our heart’s desire here on Earth. This aspect of polarity is perhaps the one with the greatest need of healing in the collective consciousness. Distorted non-creative and destructive versions of these energies have been handed down generation to generation from time immemorial and are still very present in society. A full scale war is in full swing. Our deepest anger, fear, guilt and shame can probably be found here. By working consciously with the male and female energies in our bodies and in our lives, we can truly make a major contribution to planetary healing.