Photo by Jordan McQueen on UnsplashEverything I offer through my counseling, writing, and teaching provides guides, perspectives and prompts for the most challenging aspect of being human…knowing yourself. I look at everything as a potential mirror for self-reflection.
One key benefit of this work of self-awareness is the more we know ourselves the more we can more fully understand with reverence the selfhood of others. We don’t just see the humanity of others, we see their uniqueness and we love them for their uniqueness. But first we must love ourselves and see our own uniqueness.
Let’s look at our uniqueness through the month of June.
This is the fifth essay on the meaning of the month. Perhaps I will call them the monthly mirrors of our souls. Writing thoughts on the mirrors of the month June amazed me. I hope they amaze you and that you choose one or two mirrors to seek the reflection of your humanity and your individuality during the month.
If you plan your month, I hope you will start to plan your “mirror moments.” Block out time, 10 minutes? 30 minutes? to look at your soul in one of these mirrors and journal.
June Imaginations
June is here. What are the impulses of June? How will these June imaginations support the unfolding of your self-awareness, your self-compassion and your self-expression?
Cosmic June & the Solstice
It seems best to begin with the Cosmic June and the Solstice. Please journal about the longest day…when your life was the brightest so far and the light of the day seemed to still your soul in your highest expression of love for others. For me, as I wrote these words, I felt a spiritual glow pouring over me, I don’t have any explicit memories although the birth days of my two children come to mind/heart. If each human being on the planet could imagine their inner solstice of light would all our human shadows disappear for a solstice moment?
And if you are living in the Southern Hemisphere, imagine your soul’s longest moment of self-love. In the dark stillness of the soul’s winter, we are tasked with knowing ourselves. Feel the fullness of self that makes the fullness of the other’s self perceptible.
Father’s Day
My online course, Inner Mother Inner Father, describes the four great paternal gestures: protect, provide, direct, name. Naming is the paternal deed of recognizing and empowering the Ego/Selfhood of the grown child. With the pandemic and the protests we clearly need and clearly lack global leaders capable of protecting, providing, directing and naming with wisdom, inspiration, courage and compassion…the leader who becomes the pivot on which the group turns.
My current binge-watching on Netflix is devoted to Agents of Shield. The character of Coulson is a great example of this paternal pivot leadership. Although I get tired of the martial arts fights (stunningly choreographed), I love the lessons in leadership and the sense moral imagination that shows up in every episode.
The Imagine Self Academy course, Inner Mother Inner Father, offers guidance in waking up these parental gestures inside of us. How do you protect, provide, direct and name you self and your world.
Shavuot & St John’s Tide
Next in my June thoughts are the religious holy days: from the New Testament, we have St John’s Tide, celebrating the birth of John the Baptist. And Shavuot, the Hebrew Old Testament Festival of the Weeks.
In the movable Hebrew calendar, Shavuot occurs seven weeks after Passover. Seven is the inspiration here. I love the Hebrew imagination of the Seven Species for which the Land of Israel is praised: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates (Deuteronomy 8:8). Date syrup was the honey in the “land of milk and honey.” Can you write a poem about your soul as each of these seven? Or maybe create a collage? Imagine the bread and wine and sweetness of your soul. Where in your soul do you need the benefits of oil?
John the Baptist is the part of your soul that sees the Christ Consciousness in your heart. How do you catch a bright glimmer of this part of your soul? Perhaps on June 24th, you can take some time to contemplate this deep spiritual question of self-knowledge. Do some research on the extraordinary being of John the Baptist.
Gay Pride
Socially, June is Gay Pride Month. So many of us struggle with being different and hiding our individuality. What part of your self do you hide in a closet? Is it a small pearl of truth? (Pearl is a June birthstone.) Where do you feel shame when you should feel pride (the pride of the true self, not the pride that is a defensive grandiosity)? Some time in this month stand out for who you are!
And June offers us weddings, graduations, roses and Wimbledon. What imaginations do these monthly elements offer?
