I have of late been having images arrive in my mind while being in a state between sleeping and dreaming.  These images are of flowers and also include the image of a virginia creeper that clings the wall of this cottage.  This is simply an exercise in paying attention.  It arises from the willingness to have the imagination be free to express in its unique way without my need to manipulate it for some idea of personal gain.  This is a subtle process.  It is a process of faith development.  This is not faith in some outer form but the willingness to be guided by what arises from within.  “So what,” you might say.  How is the image of a flower going to make my life different.  That depends on the significance you are willing to assign it.  Most of us, including myself, have little patience.  We want instant results.  We are enticed into ideas of becoming attractors of some get rick quick schemes and instant soul relationships.  This is the consumer mind within us that tells us because we want it we can have it and that if we think certain thoughts long enough we will manifest a certain result.

You are unique.  How that uniqueness is to flower within you is your responsibility.  It is not a flowering from without.  It is a flowing from within.  The world is created from the inner to the outer and to live a wild and precious life your primary focus needs to be directed inwardly.  You need to pay attention to the inner promptings.  In the story of the Tuatha de Danaan and their four magical gifts one of the gifts is called the Stone of Destiny.  It is told, that whoever, sits on this stone, and hears their name being called from within the stone will become the rightful King or Queen of Ireland.

Many  who read the above lines about this old Irish folk tale will take this story literally.  They will assume that this is a  story of olden times.  In their imagination they might visualise a large stone.  They might visualise a King or Queen dressed in the fashion of Kings and Queens of a particular period of Irish history.  They might hear the stone scream out some old Irish name.  Finally, they might imagine that the stone is situated in a land called Ireland.  The same process happens when people read metaphysical books such as the Bible or the Holy Koran or the Bagavad Gita.  For example, they take the virgin birth to be a literal virgin birth.  They take the flight from the Land of Egypt to be the literal flight from the Land of Egypt.

This is why the mystic poet William Blake laments

They read their bible day and night

where they read black I read white.

If you read folk tales, fairy tales, biblical stories from a literal, logical point of view you are reading in the dark.  You might have the ability to quote your bible or Gita chapter and verse but this is only from a knowing about basis.  All that is known are the words and not the essence. The emotional and transcendent aspect of the symbol are not known and neither is the meaning that is inherent within the symbol known.   You might be able to say that “God is Love,”  but without knowing that as a direct living experience within these are only words.  You could spend a life time in Bible study classes and never touch the transcendent wisdom that is invited to be known by the words of the bible.

When the invitation to stories, whether they be stories in the bible or stories of myth leave out the poetic then the imagination is left out.  All that is left is cerebral knowledge.  This allows you to think you know and understand the invitation when all that is happening is that you have read the signposts pointing the way.   Those who say they know tend to manipulate those who are more honest in their admission when they admit to not knowing.  Those who come to be true knower’s of the poetic invitation tend to be suppressed by any hierarchy that they happen to belong to, be it religious, political or social.  To enter the real knowing of the transcendent invitation contained in holy books one has to be prepared to enter the cloud of unknowing.  This is a state where you are literally speaking out on your own with no support from outside sources.

So how do you go about learning to read a story in a poetic, rather than a literal way, and why is this skill of any importance?  The reason why it is important to learn this skill is because it opens the heart and the creative imagination.  Without living from the heart and the heart of creative imagination life will be something you tend to know about rather than allow to be the wild and precious gift that is given to you to co-create from.   Be aware, however, that there are those, especially those in religious authority, who will warn you against claiming your own authority in matters of spirituality.

These stories of old are not about a long time ago.  The Genesis story is not about a long time ago.  It is a story about the eternal now.  The story of the Jews as being the chosen people leaving Egypt to cross the Red Sea to a land flowing with mild and honey isn’t the story of a tribe leaving captivity to find a better place to live in freedom.  It is your story of captivity in slavery to the idea of the separate self.  In that sense it is a story of the journey of the flowering of human consciousness and it is your story as part of that eternal process.

The crossing of the Red Sea is the metaphor for crossing the threshold beyond your blood ties with the tribe and entering the waters of your unconscious.  The land flowing with milk and honey is the metaphor for your living the wild and precious life beyond your limited identification with the ego (slavery).  You have within you the wisdom guide.  You have the one within you who is the prophet.  This is only available to you should you wish to trust this possibility.  You have been taught for most of your life that you should give your authority to someone or something outside yourself.  Learning to trust the wisdom voice within – the still small voice within – is the real beginning of the working of the Law of Attraction.

If you doubt that such wisdom exists within you then it will not be available to you.  You will do what the collective do.  You will remain enslaved to ego desires and be metaphorically speaking enslaved in the land of Egypt and refuse to cross the sea of the unconscious mind into the revelation of your Divinity.  This is your at one ment with Love and the meaning of atonement.  This is your realisation of your connection with the state of being that is Oneness and is represented in the story of the flight from Egypt as the land flowing with milk and honey.   Reading the story of the Flight from Egypt in this way places the responsibility on you to leave the slavery of your identity with the separate sense of self and cross the threshold into a free land.  This is not the work of someone else.  You cannot give this responsibility – which is a soul responsibility – to your preacher, your guru, your life coach or any other person.  They can guide you but be sure that they do not control you.

In the Irish folk tale about the Tuatha de Danaan – the shining ones the same is true.  The shining ones who are also called the beautiful people are you as potential.  Ireland, in the story of the Tuatha de Danaan is not a land set somewhere between Britain and the USA.  Ireland represents the experience of sovereignty.  Sovereignty meaning wholeness.  The King or Queen is you.  The King or Queen metaphor is the invitation to the realisation of the true self.  In biblical terms this is the realisation of what is called Christ consciousness (7th chakra level of awareness).  The stone metaphorically speaking is the armoured heart.  It is the heart that has turned to stone.  Within this heart of stone is the wisdom voice that speaks your name.  This is your true name.  It is not the name you where given in words after you were born but your name which is that unique vibration given to you from all of creation.  This is your unique good vibration.

When you are ready you can listen to the voice in the stone.  Sometimes it screams.  Sometimes there is turmoil in your life.  You loose your job, you become seriously ill, you get divorced or you have someone close to you die.  The voice in the stone is screaming and asking you to become the integral sovereign ruler of your life in service to the chosen people.  These are the disparate and desperate aspects of your psyche that you have enslaved in the dark of your unconscious mind.  This is not an easy choice.  The way is, however, known by that unique wisdom voice within you.  It might begin simply as the image of a beautiful yellow flower caught in the mind between sleeping and dreaming.  The beginning of the journey out of slavery begins by paying attention and trusting how this flowering will move through you.

Make it real by writing about the experience.  Write no matter how long or short you make it.  This is journaling.  This is a spiritual practice that connects head and heart via the hand.  Don’t worry that you are not a writer.  Just write and in this way you demonstrate to the King or Queen within you that you are ready to claim the sovereign life you are here to live.  Be very discriminating about who you share any of your insights with.  There are plenty of Pharaohs’ out there who want to keep you enslaved to their personal idea of what spiritual stories should tell you.  It is in their interest to keep you in the dark.  If any of the above sparks some sense of delight in you then follow that feeling.  Trust it and leave the slavery of ego desire for the true desire of your heart which is to live in the knowing of Love.

Be discriminating in your use of the Law of Attraction should you be attracted to use it.  Many of its adherents are inviting you to stay in a more comfortable kind of slavery.  If you are a sincere spiritual seeker then be discriminating in your use of this wonderful power of co-creation.  Ask yourself if your true intention is to use this Law in serving Love’s purpose.  If you are honest and humble then you can follow the promptings of that which is truly attractive within you.  If not then understand that using the Law of Attraction for manifesting material trinkets has karmic consequences.  This is not a punishment but the way in which the soul refuses to allow you to miss its most beautiful and life affirming invitation to what is wild and precious within you.

I hope that you will begin to look at the stories of myth and the stories in religious texts in a more poetic and heart conscious way.  Always remember that these old stories are not just about the time they were written in but were written for all time and are written primarily as an invitation to the timeless.  If you find that any one who you give your authority to in matters of spirituality debunks this kind of invitation to the wisdom voice within you or in any way makes you feel bad about your personal journey into Love then I suggest you look elsewhere.