When I was experiencing the first wave of my spiritual awakening in 1993, I had a vivid dream that disturbed me greatly.
I was in a dark labyrinthine place I could not comprehend as it was so dark, and I was scared into a panic. Then the dream spiraled out into a black wrought-iron cage with labyrinthine passageways. I was a bird inside of it, hopping around, trying to find my way to what I could see was an open cage door through the spaces between the bars. I couldn’t find the way to the open door. Once again, the dream spiraled out, and I was outside the cage in my usual human form, looking at the open cage door, the bird, and the strange labyrinth cage.
My uncle was my spiritual mentor, so I asked him what the dream might mean. He told me I was the bird, and the cage was my mind. I couldn’t understand what he meant, as I thought my mind was well-ordered and practical. How could I have such a negative seeming labyrinth to navigate?
It was quite a while before I could see the labyrinth for what it was. It was a while before I realized I carried a carrier wave of epigenetically and astrologically transferred programming. It was a long while before I realized I had been in total denial of being affected by early childhood trauma. And it was also quite a while before I realized that the shadows I saw and reacted to were projections of myself.
Eventually, I realized our experiences in the twisted labyrinth are based on our consciousness – or lack of consciousness. If your light is dim, the shadowplay appears large, close, and exaggerated. If your light is bright, the shadowplay appears small, far away, and nothing to be concerned about.
Practicing presence is necessary to become conscious of the unconscious. The more presence one cultivates, the more conscious one becomes.
