Feeling is the Essential Instrument of Knowing
“Feeling is the essential instrument of knowing.”
- Jeanne De Salzmann
Once again the fall has arrived. More of our time is being spent in darkness and we begin to naturally turn inward. And as we do, will we pay attention to what is going on below the surface? Spring and summer have been all about our outward experience, but the darker seasons of fall and winter have us spending more time tending to our inner activity. And here, below the surface, is where I have been spending my time.
My latest enneagram work has got me working with the Law of Seven. This is the movement on the hexagram of the enneagram that connects the numbers 1-4-2-8-5-7. It is also called the Law of Process. In these steps of the hexagram we learn to process our emotions.
I read today in a book by P.D. Ouspensky, a student of Gurdjieff, about how we shy away from certain emotions. I honestly feel that most of us steer clear of ALL emotions, but according to him, we choose certain emotions to share, but keep many others repressed and out of the picture.
He says “we have our favourites”. One’s we give ourselves permission to feel, and the rest are just not dealt with. Upon reflection, I realize my most ignored emotion is my sense of abandonment, I had no idea how many times I have avoided this emotion throughout my life. I have expressed all kinds of other emotions in its place, such as anger, jealously, blame and even indignation, but I skillfully have dodged feeling abandoned. My work of figuring out what emotions I feel and avoid has “paid off” as I begin my work with the Law of Seven.
In The Law of Manifestation, the upcoming book by Carol Ann Gotch, we learn about the importance of being with all our emotional reactivity and residue in order to process it -- not just stay caught by it, or avoid it all together.
As I work with her process on the hexagram, I get a chance to, not only work with loosening the hold of my feeling of abandonment, but also get to explore the insights that come to help me see what other emotions are being held at arm’s length.
Her method is helping me come closer to a place of valuing all my emotions. They are important parts of me and I see that each is to be welcomed, and even loved, as I grow into my humanity. Working with them helps me to grow into a more complete person who chooses to grow and not just avoid.
May the fall and approaching winter provide a quiet, dark space for new things to grown in you.
Dale
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