Edgar Allan Poe wrote about the quest to find Eldorado, a gallant knight who sought this city of gold Eldorado
Having read the poem, does it not strike you that the quest for happiness is similar? More now than ever we see, and thankfully are beginning to recognise the signs, of the search outside of self for happiness. This idea that material ‘stuff’ makes us happy is still on the horizon. The promise of not just if but when. When I have this, a house, a car, a place in the sun, a partner, a million pounds, then I will be happy.
Are we not all in some ways guilty of this?
We are fed the notion, sometimes quite literally. I see children and parents, when the child is upset, ‘have a sweetie’. When the child is doing well, ‘have a cake’.
We feed love.
Love is it’s own nourishment, this is forgotten also.
So many times, on a daily basis I talk to people who are trying so desperately to find love so they can be happy. They all say it. When they have someone in their lives to love them they will be happy.
The trouble is, none of them, not one, loves themselves.
We are a Universe of galaxies, our bodies are the most amazing and truly awe inspiring manifestations of our being.
The brain is a giant nebula of wonder, an inner space as yet very much unknown. We know what it does, though we’re not all that sure how it does. We sort of know the centres where certain things take place or are held, like short term memory and facial recognition to name but two.
It all goes on without any thought from us.
The thoughts we do have, well where is the seat of that? We have way stations of endorphins, our very own stores of happy! Yet we constantly see people seeking outside of themselves for someone to release them for us.
Where does Spirit live? That inspirational, all encompassing entity that we all are a part of, is somewhere inside. Some call it faith, some call it God, some don’t know what to call it but they know there is something they are a part of that is a part of themselves.
Where does the Soul live? Does it live or is it just being? What is it being and what is the purpose of its being?
In Shamanism we are very much involved with the Soul and Spirit. We are aware of the two as separate and as one at the same time – I am sure the quantum physicists have a term for this. sometimes it comes under the umbrella of the Unconscious Mind – I prefer to use Universal Mind – as that particular function is just omnipresent – Jung called it the collective consciousness, though we really are ‘jacked in’ to that mainframe we have so much for ourselves it makes me giddy just to think about it.
We have so much more going for us and yet we relinquish our power into the hands of others who are just as wounded as we are.
Isn’t that why we have faith in something bigger, something more?
We are constantly told we are not enough. Not always directly but we get the jist of it – because we speak more than one language. Whether we know it or not we speak body language and energy language. The former we build on but the latter that comes with the lifetime guarantee as a factory setting.
Still we give over our ‘happy’ to the care of others – then we wonder why nothing ever fulfils our expectations. How can we make another person happy, if we don’t know how our own happy works?
How can we love someone else if we don’t know how to love ourselves first?
No seeking Eldorado, it’s there right inside, deep inside.
Speaking from the Heart – all we have to do is hear it.
Shamanism Scotland 