Mary Oliver, one of my favorite poets, writes the following in her poem Messenger.
“Let me keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.”
This is our job in being with a client. We might as well be with God. Perhaps, we are…
I hesitate to use terms like God for Craniosacral Biodynamics, but our modern language lacks adequate words. Perhaps no language has ever been able to accurately portray this kind of undeniably spiritual experience. I remember taking a course in my first year of university called Miracles, Mysticism and the Occult. The definition in the course for a mystical experience had to do with its ineffable quality. There is something about it that is beyond words. The Breath of Life that we are privileged to meet and be in service of in Craniosacral Biodynamics is like that.
I love the experience of letting go and resting into a sense of a vast field of support and intelligence. William Sutherland, founder of Cranial Osteopathy, called it Intelligence with a capital I.
As in many spiritual practices, I am challenged and blessed to go beyond my little ego needs and perceptions, yielding into the vastness of being where my client and I are not so separate and not so wounded.
Deeper than the hurts and pains of everyday life, the conditional forces engendered by what we meet in life, there is something profound and universal. We speak of biodynamic or universal forces. These are the same forces that guide our formation as little embryos in the womb and continue to be available throughout life to support our health and healing.
Can I let go enough to trust these invisible forces? Then, I begin to sense them. I almost don’t experience them as invisible anymore. I sense strong wind-like forces sweeping across the body to where they are needed, resolving old issues as if blowing them away. Deep fluidic tides well up and wash over the wounds of the past, carrying potent healing powers to the scene of need. Can I allow my awareness to soften and widen enough to witness and appreciate the force of what we call potency in action? It is when I settle back and down and widely out of my narrow everyday perceptual state that I begin to perceive the magic of this powerful life force. I may even feel like I am holding a tiny embryo re-forming in my hands.
We are conditioned to think of miracles as being rare. No. They happen everyday on the treatment table when we can be present, grounded and open enough to hold and witness them.
Within the stillness of being, let me be astonished, and in awe of the unfolding of the miracle of life and health.
Please note: If you’d like to have a Biodynamic experience in your own body, it’s not too late to join the Embodying Biodynamics webinar tomorrow! If you aren’t able to attend live, registering now will enable you to access the video recording after the event.
Thank you, just what I needed today. Beautiful and grounding, a wonderful reminder for me.
Thanks, Claire. So grateful the reminder is received…
I have recently completed a Biodynamic Craniosacral training and it was through my experience of it that I wrote the following . I’m finding this way of presence to be Divinely
Special, it is such an amazing embodying experience of the Divine.
Stillness
“Nothing but stillness can remain when hearts are full of their own sweetness, bodies of their loveliness”. W.B. Yeats.
I have experienced stillness in nature, the calm after the storm, bird song in the evening so clear and pure going from song to that last evening note as darkness sets in on a balmy night… gentleness..peace…softness.. the falling downy feather settles on the moist still earth. So stillness is out there in nature in abundance but it is also within if I give it space. Stillness is a magical spacious phenomenon that I can access when I can leave aside my stresses; of past experiences and future expectations. It is as simple as breathing deeply into the lower belly, letting go of past and future and being in the now but in my hyperactive world that overwhelms every aspect of my life it takes a conscious effort to be ……in the now.
The Awakening
At the age of 28 I took off on my own through France and Spain, walking and hitch hiking. I went where ever the road took me. I ended up at these amazing beautiful mountains near Manresa , Spain.
I felt stillness in my experience of that mountain in the North of Spain, When I lay before the beautiful mountain, looking out from my tent , admiring it with my pen, I came into a profound stillness, lost track of time and saw the true nature of the mountain, knew the mountain was Holy, knew the mountain baptised me as opposed to think it to be holy. Be still and Know and I KNEW when I came out of the trance OF STILLNESS something amazing had happened to me, I was awakened in that stillness like never before or after. It was my awakening, my Damascus EXPERIENCE born out of the stillness of a summer’s evening in a stubble cornfield, no cars, no people, no houses, solitude. I discovered afterwards the mountain was Mont Serrat.
If I’m in touch with Stillness I’m in touch with the essence of my being, at one with all, in harmony with all. I have experienced this at pivotal times in my life and found I made very clear decisions in my life from these profound moments. After the the experience of Mont Serrat many things changed in my life.
Stillness has been for me moments of magical awareness and transmutation. In another experience during an experiential enacting of the story of Cuchulain, at a nine day Paul Rebillot Workshop, The Hero’s Journey. I the son (Con) of Cuchulain died in my father’s arms after fighting him, he and I in healing tears, in that moment I saw my own earthly father (we too had done battle before he had died) and we forgave each other with beautiful soft tears in that still moment…. I lay in the water of the stream motionless and at peace. It may have been for just a Moment, a timeless SACRED moment of PROFOUND STILLNESS, at Peace and then I noticed my finger moving again, coming back to life, being conscious in my rebirth I spontaneously stripped naked no longer feeling shame about my nakedness, in that moment I came to life and reconnected with my kinghood, queenhood, druidhood essences. That night I dreamt a woman came to me and told me I was no longer Hound but Bird, Ravenbird, …..two birds flew past me a black raven and a white raven. I flew with all my family to PNG a year later to work with the indigenous people of Aitape after a tidal wave, as a therapist and I planned healing dream and myth workshops based on the Paul Rebillot format and had the most fulfilling year of my life. I have since worked as a therapist for 10 years and brought all that richness of experience to my work as a therapist and teacher.
As a therapist, I experienced stillness many times, these were timeless spaces between my client and I, there was a presence of oneness in the therapeutic relationship and in these spaces healing took place. This happens when I have totally let go of past and future and am totally present in the moment with my client, it’s a very special, precious, sacred timeless space. The healing happens in this loving , unconditional, non judgemental holding. It gives space to Stillness and Peace to infuse into both the therapist and client and the space that surrounds them. After such sessions I always felt energised and in awe of the experience and grateful for that loving experience.
To me Stillness is a time of wonderful presence to oneself, beyond ego, beyond race difference, beyond religious differences, beyond therapeutic skills, it transcends all, it brings us to Wholeness, Oneness with ALL whether it be mountain, tree, animals or people, there is a wonderful bliss, grace, sweetness….Awe.
Dwelling in Stillness
When I dwell in it
In the moment
I dwell in stillness
In oneness with all
At peace with all.
The moment is infinite
It goes on and on
Within and Without
“It’s all the One”
The Mountain of rock and I,
became a fluid spiritual experience,
It washed me with water
There was oneness, stillness, wholeness, gratitude…….. AWE
Baptised in a moment of stillness.
Sitting with another person
Connecting with stillness within
Experiencing oneness
A melting of boundaries
A caring loving oneness
A moment an endless moment
Yet, aware of me and the other and
an infusion of Divine stillness
Oneness
Love
Joy
Bubling up through the depth of Stillness.
Wow, Michael! So beautiful. Thank you for sharing your experience. Stillness is indeed so powerful. What can I say?! Thank you.
Hi Cherionna, it’s amazing to come across this while searching on Google almost a year later to the date I posted it. I hadn’t seen your reply until today 24th Nov 2018. Thanks for taking that time.
And I have the wonderful privelidge of meeting you in Clare in March.
Hi Michael, Looking forward to that meeting in Clare!
Beautiful to read this Michael. Having trained together as a Biodynamic Psychotherapists over 20yrs ago I can know the depth of your words. Back then you were very true to something of your own essence- when you walked barefoot around the centre and on the beach. Your sensitivity to nature and the self in all respects always had a profound effect on me. Lovely to read your journey again and since. You were destined to this divine calling.