When we move into the north and are faced with the unpredictable force of fire, glimpsing or even grasping a greater understanding of our own power, there is suddenly a deep comfort in sensing the path that runs from there back to the south. Reaching out into the the high blue sky, up to the glorious shining sun, we become poignantly aware of the state of our roots and all that is keeping us grounded and stable.
If our foundations are shaky, our stretch will be disastrous. Our actions, ungrounded, will have no secure basis and the energy will be burnt up without purpose.
We call this the place of the wild, the untamed, the unpredictable.
It is often seen as the height of masculine or male energy, of assertiveness, thrust, push and growth, the linear and overt: the opposite of the dark embrace of the south. It is the place of power...
it is the spark of our courage, felled by the oxygen of our thoughts and the old wood of our past experience, all of which make the fire that is our drive.
All too often the north is avoided...but avoidance doesn't teach us. To learn, to grow, we must stop, find out courage...we turn to look at the beliefs we hold about power. We look at the energy, the unpredictability... We acknowledge the thoughts which we've not allowed the energy they need to express themselves, fearing just what me might do if we did. We come to understand what we believe to be strength, courage, power, both within our adult minds and also the depths of our subconscious, where our attitudes are those of the child and the wounded.
(ref: Restall Orr, 1998 p134)
And so I reach out again, with sturdier foundations and a more courageous heart, I reach for the high blue sky and acknowledge and draw upon the masculine energy of the season. I accept the unpredictable and the wild and I am open to learning through asking. I see the power of the creative and I am in touch with the aching need for transformation
