May 4, 2024

Apocalyptic
Imminent disaster.
Momentous.
Catastrophic. 

So above, below.
So within, without.

No question. There is an apocalyptic energy that lands with a cancer diagnosis. Like a powerful storm, it blows through our lives, turning our worlds upside down and challenging our foundational beliefs. 

Dancing with my personal apocalyptic storm, I was more acutely aware of other storms. Dark clouds of anger, fear, pain, and grief raging through the collective consciousness. Fiery winds of climate change blowing around the globe. Storms of accelerating intensity. I’ve written before about how these times have been prophesied by wisdom elders in cultures around the world. It seems we are now in the bridge time between one collective consciousness and another. A battle for the soul of humanity looms large in our landscape. 

Dramatic? Yes. Too dramatic? Not from where I stand.

Now. Let me be clear. Yes. There are amazing and wonderful things happening across our nation and around the world. Like many, I subscribe to the good news letters and relish the stories of hope and possibility. There is much to celebrate and I hold fast to that.

However, I hold both the energies of hope and deep concern. John O’Donohue wrote that holding such duality is an Irish characteristic although I would suggest it’s true for many beyond an Irish heritage. As I take nourishment from the hope, it strengthens my resolve to stand with the Light in these times. I believe we are called to withstand the storms by rooting ourselves more deeply than ever in the spiritual energies of love and joy and peace. In the Sacred Alliance of earth, ancestral, cosmic, and otherworld energies. 

Rooting myself more deeply was among the gifts of my personal apocalypse. One act of faith in my journey was to know that I would be going to Ireland this year, something the medical teams said would not be possible. There was only one among the tumor board I met with that really heard me. In his chart notes the surgeon wrote: She will decide what treatment best fits her. An important consideration is always one’s life and passions and commitments. She leads pilgrimages to Ireland for spiritual growth/development for people. She will reflect and contemplate the different options and decide what best fits her goals. Pretty remarkable for a surgeon. I still wonder whether him being second generation Irish and his wife being first generation was an influence. 

Standing with and holding the Light is indeed my goal. And I am so deeply grateful to be on this journey more deeply rooted than ever. I know that it is indeed time to be mythic. For the work is not yet finished, nor is it doomed. As it is now with the sacred sisterhood, I was in the middle of writing this post when a sister shared these words of Teilhard de Chardin. On one level she didn’t know what I was writing or even that I was writing. On another level, she clearly did.

No, the work is not yet finished, nor is it doomed…
The only danger would be to hope too little, and to trust insufficiently.
If ever you have the impression of any shadow, just laugh at it.
There is light, and only light, in front of us. 
Teilhard de Chardin

May there be only light in front of us.

Beannacht,
Judith