Written by Keri Mangis essential ingredients
It’s easy to lose hope when your personal life doesn’t go according to plan. When the world feels overwhelming, it’s tempting to feel helpless.
essential ingredients We reconstruct these moments through a never-ending cycle of collapse, reflection, and rebirth. It is based on Jungian principles and inspired by alchemy, the art of transformation.essential ingredients It asks us to explore what it takes to reshape ourselves and our societies from the inside out.
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The Ant in Us: Surrendering to the Spiritual Process
Spiritual healing and growth requires hard work…right?
Well, that’s what I always believed.
For me, spiritual growth was something I believed could be achieved through hard work and dedication. Hours of butt cushion time. The right mantra to open the right chakra. Regular practice prioritized over getting the kids to school on time…I don’t know.
I admit it now: I thought of spiritual practices as a method. outside of my life. never as a means into the that.
I finished school, got my first job, and took the same drive and ambition that brought me to my career as a competitive runner and applied it to my spiritual practice. To be fair to myself, what other way was there than the superhuman way? Power, power, effort. I thought that if I had this, I could do anything.
This harsh approach to spirituality led me to a state of emergency rather than enlightenment.
It took many years for me to stop following the example of the god Hercules in my spiritual practices and instead draw wisdom from Psyche.
Let me share some of her story.
Eros and Psyche
A beautiful human woman named Psyche was coveted by men throughout the kingdom. This made her two sisters jealous, but it also angered Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, who feared that her own beauty would be forgotten by her admiration for Psyche.
Aphrodite curses Psyche by enchanting her son’s god of love, Eros, to fall in love with the ugliest and meanest of creatures. However, when Eros sees Psyche, he is unable to follow her orders. He falls in love with Psyche and she also stays with him. Eros takes her to his castle, marries her, and treats her with great kindness, but he never shows his face to Psyche. No one, not even Psyche, can know the truth. Otherwise, they will face Aphrodite’s wrath.
Day and night, Psyche enjoys the whispers of bliss and love that Eros brings. But during the day, she is left alone in boredom and confusion. She loves her husband, but she doesn’t know him.
One night, Psyche, prompted by evil whispers from her sisters that the man she is marrying is actually a monster, decides to discover the true identity of her husband. After he falls asleep, she holds a candle to his face. She was so relieved to have found such a beautiful man. But then a drop of oil falls on her husband and he wakes up in pain. Seeing his true identity revealed, he flies away in a rage, leaving Psyche in a state of confusion and heartbreak. Soon, Aphrodite discovers the truth.
To punish Psyche, Aphrodite gives her an almost impossible task. It is to sort huge piles of small grains and seeds like wheat, corn, millet, barley, poppy etc. and create separate different piles.
Psyche stares at the huge mound in disbelief. She only has until morning to finish the incredible task before her.
Psyche doesn’t know what to do or how to start. She sat helpless in front of the mountain for several hours. She was so exhausted and overwhelmed that she finally fell asleep.
While she is sleeping, a swarm of ants invades her room. They take on the arduous task of sorting from the pile. For them, this task is easy and natural.
When Psyche woke up in the morning, the ants were gone, but all the seeds and grains were neatly arranged. Psyche is very relieved and grateful.
Until, of course, Aphrodite gives her her next mission…
One might imagine a different ending in which Psyche sits by the pile of seeds and immediately goes to work, staying up all night until her fingers bleed. In that case, what we get may be more than enough to satisfy Western ideas of work ethics, such as hard work, personal sacrifice, or sacrifice for the good of the team. Those species aren’t automatically classified, right?
Psyche doesn’t do that. Instead, she falls asleep at work. She’s some kind of hero!
Yet something magical happens while she sleeps. The ants come one by one. Ants may be small, but they are mighty. They are responsible for the sorting work, which is known for its diligence.
What could Thor have done to help Psyche if he appeared with a hammer? Does Hercules have his strength and power? What about Athena, who used all her wisdom and strategy? She could have planned, organized efforts, and delegated tasks. But even then Psyche could not have been helped here. This was not a problem that could be solved with a plan. None of these mythical heroes is of any use during the critical stages of Psyche’s growth and transformation.
We humans also have an inner ant that works even when we are sleeping, resting, or just resting. They help us organize our lives through dreams, imagination, and reflection. The ant inside us doesn’t need our guidance, much less our willpower.
I always believed that spiritual work was something I had to work on. Well, it turns out that our inner self already knows how to do this work. We just need to surrender. Ants are approaching.
Source: Spiritual Media Blog – www.spiritualmediablog.com
