Embodied Soul or a tattered cloak upon a Stick? By Ann Moir-Bussy

In our last column we recounted the story of the Selkies and the need for each of us to reclaim our Seal Skin – our SOUL.  The Selkie had to not only take back her Sealskin – she also had to get back to the depths of the ocean and let her soul be nourished again and feel the connection between her soul and her body.

The following poem written many years ago by the poet William Yeats describes what can happen to men and women if their soul connection is lost:

An aged man is but a paltry thing

A tattered cloak upon a stick, unless

Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing

For every tatter in its mortal dress.

Have you ever thought what it would be like to become a “tattered cloak upon a stick”, waking up with rigid spine and symbolically stuck in being older and not living freely? So many people are afraid of growing older and are left with the stereotypes and societal denigration or discounting of old people and their statements of what they can or cannot do. It need not be, for the poet continues “Unless soul clap its hands and sing”. What does it mean to clap one’s hands and sing? It’s telling us that our body MUST become connected with the SOUL – we need to become an an embodied soul.

So many women have been separated from their soul – either by choice or by being coerced to give themselves to work or to others as the tale of the Selkie warned. Like the Selkie, we must reclaim our soul and only then can we grow into being the CRONE – the one who crowns her wisdom.

Being a CRONE – crowning one’s wisdom is not an age – rather it is a process that goes on throughout our life, and especially as we physically grow older. It is where everything is finally connected, where we become “she who is one in herself” – it is a movement to wholeness.

An old Indian woman once said, “Can you imagine reaching the age of 70 and realised you had not lived your own life – you’ve pleased others, you’ve done what you thought was wanted by those around you, you’ve conformed to what others have told you that you should do, or ought to do or be, or you have to be like this or have that – but you have not become YOU and you did not make your own choices.

To be an embodied soul we must tear down the fences that society or others have built around us and we must choose to BE. Live your own being – BE YOURSELF.

How do we find our own pattern? Find our own imagery?  We need to surrender to what is essential in our life – an energy that is stronger than our ego. Surrender to our spirit and soul. And the many old myths and stories remind us that to do this we often need to take some time away or apart form the busyness of our lives.

A beautiful Aboriginal elder, Miriam Rose Ungunmerr, calls this Dadirri: The quiet stillness inside us. “Dadirri is inner, deep listening and quiet, still awareness. Dadirri recognises the deep spring that is inside us. We call on it and it calls to us. This is the gift that Australia is thirsting for. It is something like what you call ‘contemplation’.

(Check out more of her message hers: Deep listening (dadirri) – Creative Spirits, retrieved from https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/education/deep-listening-dadirri)

To be one in herself is to embrace the Virgin – the Beingness in us. The Virgin orients us to wholeness. She is the woman who has worked on her feelings, she knows her values, and she has the courage to live them. To reclaim her soul, she has to work out what is her and what is not her. And this is the root of the CRONE who no longer lives by others’ shoulds and expectations.

Another aspect of this is that we stop trying to control our life – we embrace our body and our feelings and surrender to the spirit within – it is a marriage of the masculine and the feminine. It is deep listening to both body and soul.

Marion Wookman, Jungian analyst says, “Crone is that energy that comes to that place where there is no investment in power – she will tell you the truth and release you from the illusions that cripple you”.

If you’d like to learn more be ready for the workshops and seminars that are coming very soon on our new website: annmoirbussy.org where you can Embrace Life Now or you can email me on annmb.ab@gmail .com