October 16, 2022
October 16, 2022: Welcome and thank you for visiting my website and checking out my blog, “Healing Conversations.” I hope you enjoy what I have written~
I’m excited about the changes that web designer Abell Smith (growyourworldweb.com) has made to my website, Crossing Thresholds. This is the first post for my Blog, “Healing Conversations” and I invite you to visit my website at mariondumont.com, to learn more about my work and, if it is of interest, to subscribe to my biweekly posts.
As Mercury the planet of communication is now in a more favorable relationship with us, it seems to be an auspicious time to write a new blog post.* In the northern hemisphere the autumnal equinox took place on September 22nd, marking the beginning of my favorite season when the days are shorter and the temperatures begin to cool. On September 29th, the feast day of St. Michael in the Christian calendar and known as Michaelmas, the Great Bear returns to Earth with the departed souls of the dead after a long summer journey through the Milky Way. In some tellings of this story the souls are represented by honeybees that travel with Bear. This tradition is part of the European Bear culture and their return leads into a time of preparation before they descend to the Underworld on November 11th.** I especially love the imagery of a great bear traveling through the cosmos with a swarm of honeybees trailing behind. Who are these departed souls and how have they come to be entrusted to bear? What is this journey about?
Questions without clear answers activate the imagination. In a recent conversation with a good friend, the question of whether or not chickens have souls arose and that got me to thinking about what it means to have a soul and to an exploration of the verb, to ensoul.
We can understand the soul and spirit as being one and the same thing. It is the life force that animates us and all living creatures. It is the immaterial essence that gives form and function to the corporeal. Just as the physical body grows and matures, so too does the soul and its development is beautiful and complex. ***
Merriam-Webster’s definition of “ensoul” is to endow or imbue with a soul. The body and soul are interdependent. The body requires the life force to live and for a soul to function on the Earth it requires a body. Positive and negative experiences impact our bodies and our souls. Some of these happen to us and we mediate the outcome as best we can. For example, our childhood experiences are largely dependent on the environment and people that we were brought up with. When we reach a level of maturity that allow us to make choices then the responsibility falls to us to engage with our environment and the people in our lives in ways that nurture our well-being. The beauty of life, is that it is dynamic and change is a given.
As I thought about the verb, ensoul I began to wonder about our interactions with one another. In our conversations, behaviors, and actions do we engage with one another in ways that nurture and uplift or confuse and entangle? In other words, viewed as a life force or energy do we have the capacity to give to or take from another’s soul? How can we ensure that our interactions with family, friends and coworkers ensure a positive exchange of energy so that we ensoul one another?
*If you are interested in astrology see the work of Chani Nicholas at https://chaninicholas.com/ I’ve taken her workshops and enjoyed her astrological writing for many years. She now has an app that is fun and for a reasonable subscription fee you will have access to detailed information about your own birth chart and weekly horoscope. Check it out.
**If you would like to know more about this write me an email and I will send you the links to the writings of Dr. Roslyn Frank who is an expert on European Bear culture. Or, you can go to academia.edu and access her publications that she has graciously made available to the public.
***To learn more about this process I recommend you read volumes one and two of The Final Appeal to Mankind written by Nicolai Levashov. These important works are available in multiple languages and can be freely accessed on his website.
