Finding meaning in a maelstrom

A maelstrom isn’t a word you see often anymore, but it’s a word that’s been on my mind to describe recent external energies. The mixed media painting above captures the current feelings I get from global and closer events.

A maelstrom is a powerful watery whirlpool with a strong downward pull. There’s a lot of speed and movement involved (ie. lots of developments, changing circumstances, and realisations), and depending on what’s in the water, maybe some old flotsam threatening to whack you in the face. I find it interesting that on wikipedia, it explains that anything lost in the currents of a maelstrom tends to float up again somewhere else, sometimes after being dragged along the bottom of the sea bed. (If there’s anyone out there for whom this is an accurate description of recent experiences, you have my utmost sympathy!)

In the realm of imagination, I like to imagine the maelstrom as much like a whirlwind, but stationary and centered upon oneself. One can remain in the calm center–the still eye–while still observing the frenetic activity around. This would be the stance I recommend in any volatile or fast-moving situation. I don’t feel being at the bottom of the storm is any worse than being above it, if you’re in the right place.

In dreams, there is a usually negative cast interpreting any downward movement, whether one is dreaming of descending stairs, a hill, or an elevator shaft. I don’t feel all descent is negative (and Digging in the Dirt partly explains why). I think there is an innocent beauty in returning to one’s roots or Mother Earth, in starting from the bottom or square one again when one has no fear of the journey, whether it’s an old or new one. Maybe we’re meant to build some new foundations or redo the old ones. In some new age models which put this human existence in “3D” or the third dimension (or is it the fifth now?), there is the danger of looking down upon the lower dimensions, 1D or 2D,  when we actually would not exist without them–the earth and the elemental energies. In the chakra system of the energy body, same goes about our lower chakras–they are part of the human experience, and we cannot ignore them to chase spirituality apart from our physical needs. In the realm of emotions and vibrations, to fear negative emotions is in itself, negative. Buddhists know it as aversion, which is as bad as attachment. It is far wiser not to resist anything, but to remain non-attached and aware that all emotions, good and bad, pass in time–and we’re simply human for experiencing them. We may emerge in a different place when the storm passes.

Just thoughts for now.