As Universal Forces Converge…
December 2023
The film Lion, set in both India and Australia, depicts a well-adjusted young man before something affects him so deeply he leaves his career, state and beloved partner behind, hiding himself away and succumbing to what looks like an unkempt life of obsession and secrecy.
Modern wisdom may attribute such a turn to depression and anxiety, and he certainly appears that way. Though what was also clear was the build up of triggers and synchronicities that led to a state of such searing and pervasive pain that nothing else could be attended to. We watch as his life becomes smaller and smaller and his focus more and more myopic…
Much of life is free will and we simply co-create situations with our universe for our continued learning and growth. However, when you’ve either attained a level of comfort or veered too far off the path to achieve something destined, and/or a spiritual awakening is needed, our free will suddenly plummets. Life feels a lot less like a collaboration and like more of a dictatorship.
Sometimes there are things that are more important for the progression of our soul than being a productive, well-adjusted member of society. Most people don’t find it easy to walk away from things or people they are attached to, so the Universe will typically need to turn up the heat to unliveable levels. This is to force change and growth and also to ensure we complete something that was written for our lifetime or to get back on our authentic path.
We will understandably feel trapped, stuck, powerless, humiliated and depressed as no matter what we do, no matter what we try, nothing will work or come to fruition as we want it to.
Saroo temporarily lost almost everyone and everything in his life while the universe course-corrected him to ensure a destined reunion could come to pass and bring peace to all parties.
While he surrendered to his mission and achieved it, he also learned a crucial lesson about connection - that we need to allow others to love us in our pain. We can’t love someone while excluding their pain. The false belief that he was protecting others by hiding his pain caused immense, needless distress to others by pushing them away when they actually would have supported him.
But what is it about The Dark Night of the Soul that isolates us to such extremes? Even in cases where we cannot cloister ourselves away an invisible barrier can appear between ourselves and anyone else nearby. The Hero’s Journey is predominately a solitary one, however there isn’t a single soul who completed their journey and made their return, forever changed, without others helping them at multiple points along their path.
Imagine if Saroo could have seen a practitioner who addressed the functionality and mood issues but who concurrently supported him through the alchemical process of nigredo - a blackening and deepening needed for any mature soul and could act as a guide - because they’d already lived that hell themselves.
Some people who resist seeking support do so under the assumption that that others won’t get it and their pain is somehow different from the pain everyone all over the planet experiences at different intensities at different times - a nice trick of the ego mind, which is designed to sabotage and disempower you, to lie to you saying, “It’s different for you.” The circumstances that brought you to where you are might be unique, but the pain and need for healing and transmutation is an experience shared by all human beings.
And certainly, you may need to work with a few different practitioners to find someone with the range of life experiences and years of inner work needed to support you in whatever you are experiencing…
Some questions I like to ask clients who are going through something they find difficult to share with others include:
- What does your soul want?
- Where is it trying to steer your path?
- What needs to be learned?
- What needs to be transcended to find peace and get back in the flow of life?
If their nervous system is flooded and they are unable to articulate answers, the questions can start rhetorically and can be re-addressed in later sessions as they become more regulated through small daily actions and thoughts.
And sure, it is helpful for most to play guitar or something they enjoy doing three times a week and to examine false thoughts and beliefs, but it is not enough. There is no cognitive behavioural therapy that is going to alchemise a soul-level experience!
Viktor Frankl, who devised logotherapy after surviving four concentration camps, quotes Nietzsche to understand why he created meaning-centred psychotherapy:
“He who has a Why can withstand almost any How.”
Saroo had a Why so important that universal forces converged to force him back on the path and fortunately for him, lionheart that he was, he was made of strong enough stuff to answer the call - at great personal sacrifice.
You can imagine how things looked from the outside and the concern, judgements, gossip and even diagnoses that would have come his way throughout his transformation into authenticity and wholeness. Such people refuse to sense and feel and insist on only seeing life through a limited physical, material or psychological lens, while failing to recognise what’s happening at a soul, or even cosmic, level.
And if he hadn’t surrendered and committed to his soul’s mission but, like many, contorted and forced himself to just “keep on keeping on” or ran away from the fear of failure, hurt or overwhelm, he, and others, would have been haunted for the rest of their lives.