Reflections, Day 4: Days of Awe, Days of Repentance

As I came awake this morning, aware of this day's call to the reconciling and healing responsibilities of the Jewish New Year, I recalled an article I wrote about ten years ago. It was written as I took another, similar inventory at the start of the new millenium. As I read it over, not having paid much attention to it for many years, I noticed how alike are the journey of healing from loss, the tasks of the Days of Repentance, the search for awe and the reconciling of problems of diversity and polarization.

Each requires a good deal of soul searching, personal responsibility, forgiveness and compassion for others, if one is to do it properly. It really is all essentially the same; searching for the mountain high of awe or the diving to the depths of one's Essence. I offer the article in parts as I wrote it ten years ago, beginning below.

The Cycles of My Personal Healing Process Part 1 of 3 parts By Anastasia Rosen-Jones, New Horizons Executive Director and Founder (Copyright permission -- courtesy of New Horizons Support Network, Inc. Reprinted from “The Voice Of the New Horizons Support Network” Vol: 2, Number 1, January – April, 2000)

Many of us, today, finding ourselves standing on the threshold of a new era, the 21st Century, are reviewing the past, present and future more conscientiously than, perhaps, ever before. For me, the process of doing healing work has as its normal structure the implementing of reviews on a regular basis such as are currently being signaled by the new millennium.

A healing process such as I am suggesting here begins with the identification of some kind of obstruction in the way of experiencing joy, fullness and the well being of one’s Essence. From this starting point of recognition, the healing process adventurer begins a descent much like a deep sea diver into the very depths of the psyche, moving down through layers of defense: anger, terror and gut wrenching pain until at last the Essence is retrieved. This is the sought after treasure that has been buried on the floor of the sea.

Much to our delighted surprise the rediscovery of the Essence carries with it even greater treasure than itself alone. With its resurfacing, a powerful sense of enlightenment, almost a jolt of knowingness, the experience of one’s Higher Self and a vast Cosmic Consciousness accompanies the cycle’s completion.

At this point, the healing process journeyer is aware of the cycle’s culmination, accompanied by a significant shift into a stare of well being. A powerful release of energy, formerly bound up, is now free for the individual to employ in new and creative ways. (To be continued)