copyright Bela Johnson, published by The Maine Eagle, September 2002

Do you have a painful physical condition which eludes diagnosis, or do you know someone else thusly afflicted? Most of us know at least one person in chronic pain. How has this condition become almost epidemic in recent times? We live in a time unlike any preceding it. Moving at an increasingly faster pace, we are at the same time opening to knowledge that once existed only in mystery schools. As human consciousness collectively expands, we are similarly being stretched to our physical limits through the stress of living in a technological age. These two forms of expansion, whether we are conscious of them or not, are pulling us in opposite directions. This makes it challenging to maintain a level of physical comfort, not to mention wellness. Consciousness and conceptual thought are expansive. These energies seek ground in the physical body in order to be felt, integrated and finally understood. Like a funnel, we are pouring expanded awareness through a big opening into a stressed out, restrictive vessel. This can and does cause problems.

In her book CONSCIOUS FEMININITY, Marion Woodman shares both her experience as a Jungian analyst over the past twenty-five years, as well as her personal struggle with body image. Both have shaped her career in helping others come to terms with being in the bodies we must reckon with, here on Earth. She describes the body, whether male or female, as our feminine element (earth, the MATER-ial). We are entering a stage of human evolution where the feminine is becoming CONSCIOUS for the first time. This does not mean that matriarchal societies, for example, did not HONOR the feminine. Rather, this feminine energy was never CONSCIOUSLY INTEGRATED. And patriarchy has, as we know, little respect or space for its feminine counterpart. Thus, we find our collective selves in a state of disembodiment, a place where we value mind over matter. Enter the feminine, which many of us feel is emerging to balance the scales. Our bodies have become an afterthought, and they are demanding our attention.

Many of us on a path of personal growth are finding our bodies betraying us, but here's the funnel effect again. As Woodman states, "You can't put spirit into dense matter. Matter is dark; it's obtuse. There has to be a consciousness to receive spirit. The way I'm understanding it, more and more from dreams, is that consciousness exists in matter, and that consciousness opens to receive spirit." We may resist this process, for it requires we surrender our habitual way of being in the world. This resistance creates pain we are currently experiencing, individually as well as collectively. For, as Woodman continues, "We are adolescents with a hydrogen bomb and without a sense of the love that can use that energy creatively." She likewise believes the addictive quality of our society contributes to the awakening of this feminine energy. For as addicts are confronted with healing their condition, they are forced to surrender. This is "the point of vulnerability ... where the god enters ... The feminine is forcing her way into consciousness by means of these addictions."

Whether alcoholic or workaholic, addictions are distractions that keep us numb to the presence of feelings, of emotional pain, both within ourselves and in relation to others. As the feminine element awakens within us, our numbness begins to thaw and we experience more physical discomfort. Medicating this pain is one choice and moving through it, another. One step we can take to move through pain is to breathe more deeply. Woodman states that "most of us keep our breath as shallow as possible because the eruption of feeling is too intense if we inhale deeply. Breathing is very important because it is a matter of receiving and that is the feminine principle incarnate." Exercise, such as walking outside, can help enhance our breathing capacity in a safe way. With our feet grounded on Mother Earth, we are able to discharge some of this emotional intensity. Joining a meditation group or doing yoga can help move the breath, as long as we choose a body centered practice. Otherwise, we are gathering yet more spiritual energy which has no container to ground itself into. Bodywork and massage can be powerful ways in which to move emotional residue, yet these modalities, if effective, are not without pain.

Our collective resistance to pain is deeply rooted in Western culture. Westerners value life without pain over living a full, rich, complex life. We compromise this fullness for the escape our addictions offer us, though ultimately, addictions are but a temporary salve for much deeper wounds. Choosing to move through pain is to honor these wounds, to heal them. As we move through layers of denial and fear, our bodies become freer and we become greater vessels for spirit to penetrate. Woodman affirms that "body work is soul work, and the imagination is the key to connecting both. To have healing power, an image must be taken into the body on the breath. Then it can connect with the life force, and things can change, physically and psychologically. A man might come into therapy and say, 'I can't cry.' Yet if I ask him to breathe in a symbol of his grief, the tears will start." She also stresses the importance of doing this kind of work with a facilitator, as it can be frightening on one's own.

Asking for help is surrendering our need for a controlled, safe existence. Yet piercing our illusions of safety might be the only way in which to heal the deeper pain that besets us. Again, Marion Woodman: "Life is a matter of incarnation. The soul is an entity we have to live with in our human body ... Suffering and conflict are the only way to grow. As life moves from phase to phase, you have to suffer the death of one and the birth of the next."