Our True North

As you may know, on the weekends, I like to turn my posts over to the wisdom, insights and creativity of other visionaries.  Today, I offer a meditation from Caitlin Matthews’ glorious The Celtic Spirit, Daily Meditations for the Turning Year.  Her wise words are guidance for all in the midst of transformation and transition.  For now,  for better or for worse, all that has comprised the year of 2010 is quickly drawing to its close. Blessings to you and yours.

Our True North

There’s one white star, of all the rounds
That wheels high overhead,
And it is hung on heaven’s pole
And will not rise nor bed.
– John Morris-Jones, The North Star

If we could set up a stop-frame film of the solar year and point it up toward the northern heavens, we would see revealed the dance of the circumpolar stars about the polestar in a fantastic circle dance.

Among the peoples of the north, the polestar is called “the nail of heaven” because of its unchanging position in the sky: an unfailing and welcome guide to travelers and sailors in the darkest night.

Discovering our own true north as the compass point of our soul’s direction is a worthwhile enterprise on our spiritual path.  Our true north may not be an actual belief system or ideology, not a religious figure or archetype, if we are still searching.

It may be something that is nearer to an instinct or feeling of traveling in the right direction, something that we sniff in the wintry air, or intuit from the glancing rays of the sun through the leafless trees.

Our true north is a homing instinct innate to each of us, privileged information that defines the nature of our goal — even though we may have no clear idea of that goal or of an otherworldly locus.

Suggested exploration:
In the middle of a darkened room, or in nature at night, with sufficient space about you for you to revolve with outstretched hands on the spot, close your eyes and, asking to be shown your true north, your spiritual home — slowly turn until you find the direction that feels right for you.

Facing that direction, sit down and make a soul-flight toward it, asking for spiritual allies to aid your search.  What kind of landscape do you pass through; what encounters do you have; who accompanies you?

If you have any difficulties, consult the spiritual allies in your company, asking them for help.  Repeat this journey later to clarify your feelings.