Sacred Acts

My mother used to take a bath on New Year's Eve and at might-night, when everyone else was setting off fireworks, she would burn her calendar in which she had marked up all the important events of the year. I didn't think much of it when I was a boy, but today I understand that these were ancient cleaning rituals - taking a bath and having the old consumed by the sacred fire. So consciously or subconsciously, she managed to let go of the old and got ready for the new year.

Do you know that it is part of the Jewish tradition to burry the equipment used for animal food production regularly in the ground. For food to be considered kosher you need to let Mother Earth clean the equipment regularly to wash away the sin of killing animals. Modern man may consider these rituals as superstitious, but modern man is simply disconnected from his roots, and these roots eventually will catch up with him. The Chinese tradition of Feng Shui explains what we do, and what would be beneficial for us to do, by simply stating ancient real and symbolic energy patterns. We do what we do for a reason, and once we study what we do, we often find sacred acts behind them.

Once we are aware of these connections we can use them to our advantage, and that's where the notion of a talisman and the so-called superstitious acts come from. C. G. Jung wasn't shy to remind the psychological community of our collective soul. We are all part of this collective unconscious and we can use these psychological and spiritual procedures to our advantage. For those of you who are interested in more depth on this subject, the Chilean author Alexandro Jodorowsky's book "Psychomagic" gives some great pointers.

Green Symbols

There was point in my career when I was struggling and around this time one of my colleagues who went back to business school left me a little money plant. I watered it religiously, but apparently didn't have a green thumb as it withered in front of my eyes. But sick as it was, it was indestructible. Whenever my assistant came into my office she said "Christian, please take your poor plant out of its misery". It was then that it hit me that in a sense this poor plant was a symbol for my career. We both had survived against the odds and nothing apparently could kill us off. I smiled at my little plant and said "Well, let's see whether we can turn this around".

Seven years later my plant very much as my career has taken off. Actually, a money plant doesn't stop growing unless you find a way to harness its expansion. I found a little trick. I let it expand in a circle, the symbol of completion, perfection and wholeness. This plant will not live forever, so when the yellow leaves start appearing, I will know that it is time to move on. After all, I have a second career waiting for me, the career of a spiritual writer and a life coach. I can't wait to find out what symbol I will associate with this fascinating next chapter in my life.

Self-Mutulation

We all know about cancer, this strange disease that is literally and symbolically an attack on yourself. When your mind chatters on, are you attacking yourself in the process? Those who have tried monitoring the voices in their head would probably say yes. The hard thing though, we feel like the voice in our head is us in the same vein as the cancerous cells also belong to us.

I happen to have sensitive teeth and often feel the urge to 'hammer' with my tongue a particulate area where a crown feels a little too tight. This feeling doesn't exist in the morning, but gets more intensive in the evening. When I do mediative breathing the irritating feeling disappears. At one point I just figured that my cancerous mental frame and my tooth ache are actually connected. Feeling my teeth helps me to center myself again, while it is harder to detect when the voice in your head takes a turn for the worse.

A similar episode happened years ago when I realized during golf lessons that I couldn't stand up-right. At the driving range, instead of practicing my swing, I literally used most of my energy on keeping my posture straight. For years now I have taken my posture as a symbol for, well, righteousness. Align everything you say and do with your spiritual path, I told myself, and you will be able to walk straight. My posture has become much better over the years, but there is still effort involved.

Being on a spiritual path doesn't insulate you from physical problems, but it does allow you to look out for symbols and respond. You know the sad fact on cancer, if you detect it late, the recovery chances are much worse. A spiritual path is about fine tuning and reacting to imbalances as they develop.

People as Mirrors

At the gym I used to meet someone I really disliked. He had a goofy-like appearance, at least as far as I was concerned, was in his early fifties, spent his whole time exercising with a medicine ball, and the remaining time chasing women in the gym. I tried to stay out of his way as much as I could, but he must have felt my resentment: one day when my little boy played with the medicine balls he got really angry.

I tried to figure out what it was that got me exactly, and I remembered a womanizer from my high school days who I disliked as well. I never had any difficulties hooking up with women, but I also, due to my shyness, never really pursued any girl aggressively. Well, this chapter is now closed for me given that I am happily married, but I have consciously changed in several ways nevertheless: I now take much better care of my appearance, have built my body consciously and have regained some of my old youthful appearance - some gray hair notwithstanding. I also tend to be much more assertive now with both sexes despite my introvert nature. I guess if I had to summarize the entire paragraph in one expression, I have finally worked out the sex appeal I always wanted to have. Hardly had  this personal transformation taken place, the gym guy in question disappeared. It was almost  as if he was a mirror, a symbol of my repressed desires who came and went as needed.

Similarly, at work there is a colleague whose name I routinely forget. No matter how often I remind myself, his name always slips out of my memory. Oh, a Freudian slip I thought to myself. And indeed, when I tried to figure out what exactly I dislike, it's his professional style of lecturing, his flamboyant nature, and his aggressiveness. To be honest, the expression peacock came to my mind when I saw him, an expression some have used for me in the past as well. So after my recent learning experience at the gym you can probably guess what my new work-out will look like: develop the character traits I like to see in me, while cutting out the stuff I don't care for. And there is progress already, the other day the colleague in question couldn't find his key and I opened the door for him. We both smiled at each other, and while I still couldn't remember his name that instant, I am pretty sure that this slip will disappear soon like the gym guy before him.

Symbols

At work we have a conference room shaped like an amphitheater. One day I observed that 6 female colleagues who I all consider attractive where sitting in two columns of 3, leaving one column of seats empty between them. All 6 were facing me and when I focused in on the empty seats, I was able to look right through them into the blue sky and the forest of the city outskirts. The symbol was immediately clear to me: my spiritual freedom would be complete if I only was able to redirect my sexual energies and the sky is the limit.

You may say that this occurrence was a message of God or the ramblings of my super-ego, in either case, I attracted this group formation into my life that day. The Law of Attraction at work! I mentally thanked this group for sending me the message and thought that really every moment we are connected with the universe and all we have to do is to observe and listen. If you view life that way you can have so much fun. There is so much to discover about our subconscience, our soul and our misconceived notions. Just have your eyes open and learn.

What symbols have you attracted today into your life?

Symbols

Why did Eve tempt Adam? Because a man wrote the story and naked Eve was a perfect symbol for him to express his idea. Have you observed the symbols that you choose in your life? I talked the other day to an attractive colleague and as I was standing opposite to her, I observed how a 12-inch wooden ruler that was lying on her desk was pointing directly towards her - Mmm, I wonder what this symbol stands for. When I left her office with my water cup in the hand she said, "Enjoy your coffee". Apparently she doesn't know that I am in the process of weaning myself from coffee. As I wondered as this might have been a message from the universe to get a little jump start to the day, I nevertheless resisted the temptation. As I went to the investor meeting in the morning I ran into the colleague who I always meet when my mind is on coffee. "Still off the coffee" he asked, when I nodded he said "Amazing". This is how my life goes these days. Everything seems connected, people and objects increasingly become symbols and they move around in my life in accordance with my thoughts and actions.