In this blog I would like to share a vision that I received in a dream recently.
In my early days of shamanic training, I was once instructed to undertake a shamanic journey to meet my Higher Self, meaning the part of me that exists outside Time and Space and sees all events from a higher perspective. This is the perspective serving the highest good on the level of soul, not our ego or everyday desires (“what we think we want” or “what we think is good for us”).
She appeared to me as The Divine Mother, a Madonna-alike figure holding her child. When I reported this to my teacher, she thought that this was a bit unorthodox, but never mind! Go with it! - Later I discovered that in some spiritual traditions people actively and intentionally work with their Higher Self. I have often had excellent results calling her in during both one-to-one healing sessions and group work.
In fact, I cannot not discover the boundary between her and The Divine Mother as a Divine essence or cosmic blueprint. There is a point where they merge and become One. I don’t need to understand, I only need to surrender and trust - and she will work her magic.
When I returned to my spiritual point of origin (Norse cosmology) I discovered that a female figure called the Fylgja is said to watch over individuals and that families of clans have a "kin fylgja". This figure is most commonly described as an Ancestral Mother but sometimes people view her as a part of our own soul (or the clan soul). This resonates with my own experiences in this lifetime (meaning: dating from well before I learned the world fylgja!)
I have sometimes asked Her to mediate between me and my own mother to bridge the generation gap or any unhealed material dividing us (and some of my clients have had good results with this too). It is always magical when such work is done while you sleep or focus on something else! Other times I have deliberately placed an issue, worry or problem in her hands and asked her to resolve it for the greatest good of all.
When my eldest son (who is now at University!) was about four years old, I found myself in the situation where I had to explain to him why family friends were getting divorced. He got extremely upset and said: “Love is a forever feeling! Maybe we get upset or angry or whatever. But once we love someone, we cannot un-love them ever again…” His issue was not with them moving apart and leading separate lives. He felt that made good sense. His issue was the claim that they no longer loved each other the way they once did…
Today (fourteen years on) the divorce rates remain high in the Western world. Many of us are forced to navigate difficult periods in family relationships, friendships, with colleagues at work - and so forth. Sometimes space is the best medicine of all. Releasing someone to their own path and own learning – stepping back, not staying involved. Withdrawing emotionally speaking. Pulling up the draw-bridge where we once traversed so freely between You and Me.
In my dream The Divine Mother showed me how we can build a temple in our own heart for those people we need to release from our everyday lives. They may be people who broke our trust, hurt our feelings, harmed us in other ways, took things that we didn’t gift them, or left their messes for us to clean up.
Outside Time I can travel to that place where a soul connection remains, where that “forever love” my son described still vibrates/exists/sings. I can ask The Divine Mother to create a temple in my heart where she will do the job of loving these people and tending to the relationship, while I step back.
This way you receive the best of two worlds: the relationship is in safe hands, you stay in the place of love, but you also gain the freedom of stepping back on the everyday level and taking a break, focusing on other things, starting a new relationship or friendship. You could say that it is effortless – because someone else, a power greater than you, does the hard work.
This felt like good advice to me. The Divine Mother has many manifestations (depending on your culture, belief system or lack thereof and childhood experiences). I already mentioned the Fylgja. For some she is Quan Yin, for others Mother Mary, Frigg, Demeter, Durga and so forth.
To me she appears as the Madonna, the person who feels unconditional love and adoration for any of her children. This is a love that does not need to be earned by means of good behaviour, or indeed in any other way at all. She embodies that moment when a new born baby is placed in your human arms and you fear your heart might explode: it is surely not big enough to contain so much love!!
To me this is a workable idea. I have some people in my life that I need to offer “temple space” in my heart – and leave their care to The Divine Mother. All that is required of me is to be willing to open my heart. If that is difficult, I can ask her for assistance with unlocking my heart. The temple is also a template: a working model for handling emotional pain and gradually releasing the attachment to that pain. If my heart is not big enough - I can ask for her help in growing it bigger...
The benefits are immense – they transcend the arena of human needs, desires and conflicts.
This is the reason why I am sharing this idea with you. I invite you to do this too! (And let me know you get on! I will read any comments with great interest!)
Imelda Almqvist
Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of shamanism and sacred art. Her first book Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit For Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) was published by Moon Books in 2016 and her second book Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) will be published in March 2019. She was a presenter on the Shamanism Global Summit in both 2016 and 2017 and is a presenter on Year of Ceremony with Sounds True. She divides her time between the UK, Sweden and the US. She is currently in the editing stages of her third book “Medicine of the Imagination: Dwelling in Possibility” and has started her fourth book "Evolving Gods: The Sacred Marriage of Tradition and Innovation"
www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk (website)
https://imeldaalmqvist.wordpress.com/ (blog)
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=imelda+almqvist
(YouTube channel: interviews, presentations and art videos)
