It's a fun process, actually. Sometimes the book is a delightful surprise. Other times it's less than I had apparently hoped for when I ordered it six weeks earlier. Among The Beasts & The Briars by Ashley Poston falls into the latter category. It's not that it's a bad book. In fact, it's sweet, goodhearted YA fantasy fiction, and has held my interest sufficiently to keep me reading. But it lacked something. Depth? Complexity? Gems of wisdom?
Until the bottom of page 273 when Petra explains to Cerys the Vorynian concept of deep heart. "You trekked among the beasts and the briars," she tells her, "and the deep heart led you all the way to Voryn," a fabled city deep in the Wildwood, just as the dark magic of those Woods intensified. Petra shares that deep heart is "that feeling inside you, the part that leads you, draws you forward—toward some great purpose." And that concept is applicable even in a world in which princes do not become foxes, and forests are not teeming with a menacing evil.
I have been a psychotherapist and spiritual companion for well over four decades now, a career that has gifted me a ringside seat in the transformation arena. I have had the honor of witnessing hundreds of people as they access the deep heart Petra describes. Perhaps a sudden health or relationship issue has them reeling, or it could be a deadening depression that clamors for attention. Their life might be in a shambles. Or perhaps a gentle but insistent urging arrives for something different, something more, something heretofore unknown.
Sitting hour after hour with such courageous souls continually bolsters my own commitment to nurturing a living, breathing, intimate relationship with my own deep heart, that part of me that calls me to a greater and fuller vibrancy. I know that my clients and I are not alone in this or any more special than are you. Regardless of the particulars of our lives, we each have a deep heart, and an ability to listen for its guidance, to ascertain its messages, and to follow as it leads us forward.
It may not be easy~~okay, often it is not~~but deep heart is the navigating force that helps us find the pathway, or perhaps supports us as we create a path where none existed before. I prefer the latter sentiment. As poet Antonio Machado put it, "The path is made by walking."
Deep heart is part of our internal wiring, the guiding force that helps us create the path as we walk it. And yet it is rather mysterious, and cannot be fully understood or explained, though many have tried. We may see it as having its origin in our genetic past, being a subtler, more developed form of mammalian instinct. We might call it intuition or Wise Mind. Or perhaps we identify it as the soul's urging or the still small voice of God.
But no matter our personal theories, the trick is to listen for that guiding voice and follow its lead. And to do that best, we need an inner stillness, which can be challenging to cultivate in the busyness of modern life. And yet we all know how to do this, don't we? We know the practices that allow us to intuit our best next step.
The possibilities are as varied as we are. For some, it's dropping into the stillness of meditation, prayer or conscious breathing. Physical activity might get us there~~jogging, cycling, hard physical labor, or any other activity that calms the mind and allows deep heart to whisper its wisdom. Perhaps artwork is our best avenue, or talking with a trusted companion. Or a mix of these...or some way uniquely our own.
And after the listening comes the deciphering. We must figure out what that guidance means within our own lives and how best to enact its messages, often not an easy task. And then we need to place one foot before the other as we make that pathway a reality.
But there is another part of Petra's definition of deep heart. She tells us that this part of us draws us "toward some great purpose." What is that great purpose? True, most of us won't be saving a fabled city from an ancient evil. Our purpose will likely be much subtler. And to find it, we too must trek through our beasts and our briars. These are our individual challenges, ones that stem from our biology, personal histories, or cultural influences. And we trek through them because it is what life asks of us. Our path moves us through those beasts and those briars to become who we alone can become, to be who only we can be. That is our great purpose, to become our true and authentic selves.
I wish you happy trekking, my friend. May your beasts ultimately be kind and may your briars bloom with roses galore.
🌹🌹🌹...and many more!
Leia
