From the Darkness

 There are many things that come to us from the dark. As the darkness lingers longer and the rains moisten the soil,  the mushrooms appear. The property has many different types and none of them can we say is edible. So we watch them blossom and then fade into their inky black blob shapes.They are very beautiful in their variety of shapes and sizes.

When I was studying biology in the late 70's there were three kingdoms identified in the textbooks: animal, plant, and fungi. There was discussion about there being some other things that didn't quite fit in any of the categories, but they were swept under the rug quicker than in a college dorm room the night before parent's day. Today there six kingdoms... that isn't even including viruses.

 So, what's the big deal with all this naming? On one level, it doesn't really matter- we have a bunch of mushrooms on the property, so why do we need to classify it into some category? That is a question that used to occupy my time when I was studying science, but it doesn't mean much anymore. The one thing that it does do is that it provides us with a common language to talk about things.

As people, we communicate with each other. By having a shared language, we are able to talk about abstract ideas: theories, history, and the future. When we see a clump of feathers heading to our bird feeder, we are able to say "Bird" and someone knows what we are talking about. The power of this can easily be understood when one considers what happens when I'm driving in the car and I tell Susan "Look over there" and I give no clues as to where or even what I might be looking at. Without being able to articulate a word like "hawk" or "Red-Tail". She'd have no idea to what I was referring. So language gives us the ability to connect.

Now darkness also brought to mind the unconscious. It is a part of us that is in the dark from our everyday way of operating. Does the unconscious actually exist? Is there something that one can be opened up to and revealed? Of course not. There is no tangible thing called the unconscious though it is something that is readily accepted as being a part of human beings. But where is it? No matter how much we search, we will never find it growing from the dark like some mushroom. The term unconscious mind comes to us thanks to Sir Christopher Riegel and then came to us in English thanks to  Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Did the unconscious exist before the 18th Century? Thanks to the creator of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kublai Khan, we have this term describing the things that happen in the darkness of our inner world.

In some mystic traditions it is silence that devotees embrace. There is an understanding that the power of language can be a barrier to understanding the inner truths. Our little cabin on the property affords us a place to turn inward and into quietness. If I were able to settle into the rhythm of the season I would retire into the cabin like the bear into its cave for the winter. It is a time for contemplation and meditation.

May you, and all beings, find solace in the unconscious world that runs through us all like the current in the ocean.

S