Tapping Primal Life Force
by: Keith Varnum
When the residents of the Scottish spiritual community of Findhorn first encountered Pan in the forest, Pan asked them to convey a message from the Beings of Nature to the rest of humanity. Pan said: “Tell them, ‘We never left—you did.’”
The colorful toucans squawked from within their tiny cage: “Why would any free spirit ever confine another free being?”
The incarceration had rendered the once vibrant birds withdrawn and lifeless captives. Their eyes cried this piercing question just as the same bewilderment echoes from the dull gaze of every animal in every zoo:
“Why would any being with heart ever drive the dagger of imprisonment into the heart of another being?”
The answer is obvious. No being with heart would shackle another free being. No being whose spirit still lives would ever kill the spirit of another being—by any means.
The beseeching toucans were on exhibit at the country inn where I stayed in Costa Rica. The innkeeper explained he was building a huge cage around a tree so the birds would have a whole tree around which to fly and live. But the confined birds told me they didn’t want a larger enclosure. No cage would ever be big enough. Their spirits needed to be free. After a few days, I could no longer look into the toucans’ eyes. Before long, I avoided going near their cage altogether.
Instead of focusing on the plight of the caged toucans, I was guided by my inner coach to explore the free and untamed treasures of the stunningly vibrant and beautiful country of Costa Rica. During my travels, I was blessed by direct encounters with wild animals, virgin forests, raging rivers and an erupting volcano. In their natural state, these diverse elements of life were undomesticated, unbridled, unfettered and unspoiled. Every cell of my body felt the raw, free essence of each basic kingdom of nature: mammal, reptile, bird, plant, water and mineral.
I connected with a sloth hanging out in its jungle haunt, a tabor scouring the forest carpet for grubs, a crocodile sunning in a sultry swamp and a very curious iguana checking me out through the mist of a waterfall. I shuddered at the primitive roar of jaguars too close for comfort. I witnessed reptiles called “Jesus lizards” with so much aliveness they literally walk on water, skimming across the surface on webbed feet.
I reveled in the unrestrained, exuberant expression of brilliant orchids, enticing mushrooms and outlandish fungi. The beauty and grace of exotic parrots, wild toucans and resplendent quetzal birds awed me. I was gratefully battered by the uncontrollable strength of ocean surf. Standing at the edge of an exploding volcanic cauldron, I exalted in the undiluted rapture of the fiery, flowing lava.
Soon I began to appreciate my soul’s purpose in sending me to this lush, virgin land. My spirit’s strategy was for me to encounter so many dynamic examples of the exhilaration of raw nature that I would break through to the other side of my rigid, conditioned, overly civilized state of being. And I did!
Through diverse outer appearances of vitality, I connected with the inner source that animates all forms of life. I danced with deer riding waves of natural electricity over grassy hills. I soared with caracara hawks spiraling with wind currents above luxuriant valleys. I clamored with howler monkeys playing in the rain forest canopy. I surrendered with meandering sea turtles to rhythmic tidal currents.
On the surface, animals, plants, rocks and volcanoes appear to be solid forms. Through intimate contact, I discovered firsthand that what creates these seemingly immutable shapes is primal life force, the basic essence generating and driving all forms of life.
A volcano in Costa Rica was the natural element that shared this secret with me in the most dramatic, effective and revealing way. When the molecules of mountain granite are sped up by intense heat, the true nature of this solid form is disclosed as being fluid, moving, alive energy. Universal life force is so fundamental and powerful, it melts granite. It transforms the most condensed form of matter into molten lava, liquid rock. Primordial life force is so alive, pure, wild and basic that it’s potent enough to liberate the most rigid crystallized matter into free-flowing life expression.
My soul arranged for me to “accidentally” stumble through the dense fog onto an active lava flow for the purpose of exposing me in a very palpable, tangible way to the true nature of all reality. Walking on this semi-solid river of fire, I absorbed the raw, innocent, spontaneous vital energy lying at the core of all physical manifestations of life. I merged with the alchemical power of basic life force—uncontrollable, undiluted and pristine.
The direct transmission I received from the volcano and all the other wild creatures of Costa Rica is that this fundamental life force energy is as available to us humans as it is to them! If we choose to unite with this energy and allow divine alchemy, we also can become one with the pure, primal, passionate, undivided, unqualified, unlimited expression of life. This underlying flow is referred to by the Chinese as the Tao—the river of knowing, the central stream of consciousness, the God current that is our true nature and essence.
The harsh contrast between the toucans in captivity and the toucans in the wild awakened me to the magnitude of the aliveness and connection we humans lost somewhere along the way in our collective life journey. The fact that we cage toucans and other animals in zoos and homes around the world is a clear indication of how far we have removed ourselves from the natural vitality and joy of freedom—both our own and that of other inhabitants of Earth.
Our human quest for love, security and energy cannot be achieved as long as we remain in a state of consciousness in which we systematically seek to control the freedom of our fellow beings—human and otherwise. In the process of “civilizing” our species, we humans have become conditioned to not feel deep, dynamic passion and love for life. Our collective heart, the world’s heart, has become so crystallized and armored that it is now as hard and cold as the granite of a mountain. Our collective heart has turned to stone. Only a granite heart could do what we are doing to the natural expression of life—within ourselves and on the planet.
The original Old English meaning of the word panic was “of the nature of Pan: wild and free-flowing.” But now we humans are so shut down, controlling and cut off from nature—and from our own vital electric nature—that we experience “wild and free-flowing” energy as scary and threatening. Life’s creative enthusiasm sends us into a panic in the modern sense. Most of us are terrified of living fully alive and free.
How can we humans reverse this process? How can we melt the granite façades of our public institutions—and our own faces—that so starkly reflect the state of our hardened soul? How can we re-light the pilot light and stoke the cosmic fire within us?
(continued...)
Tapping Primal Life Force
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About The Author
Keith Varnum
Drawing from the wisdom of native and ancient spiritual traditions, Keith Varnum shares his 30 years of practical success as an author, personal coach, acupuncturist, filmmaker, radio host, restaurateur, vision quest guide and international seminar leader with “The Dream Workshops”. Keith helps people get the love, money, and health they want with his F-r-e-e Prosperity Ezine, F-r-e-e Abundance Tape and F-r-e-e Coaching at http://www.TheDream.com
keith@thedream.com
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