Chapter Three

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Stage: The Plateau / Element: Water
““I am the shore and the ocean, awaiting myself on both sides.”
~Dejan Stojanovic

The Deep End of the Ocean

With possibility and inspiration now amplifying the resonance of your signal, you’ll travel from the river of awakening to the ocean of divine exploration. Let’s get clarity around the concept of divine. In this instance and for the purpose of this book, we are breaking the concept into two parts: di, meaning twofold or double, and vine, representative of a living, vein-like network from which fruit is yielded.

Twofold symbolizes your co-creative relationship with the Universe and once in union with that Force, you are enfolded into the richness of Universal flow. Vine speaks to the connectedness of all things, translating ultimately to the larger structure of the Grid.

The current that runs between the Grid and the oceanic Universal space in which you now float is the most powerful source you can access in human form. This electro-charged stream infuses you with a celestial spark while fostering growth and the shedding of encrusted soul-deadening debris; it is here that you will incubate your truest form of self.

Resistance, fear, self-hatred, and forced separation cannot survive in the nutrient-rich waters into which you’re choosing to immerse, and you can now, in essence, experience a kind of synchronized swim with your soul. While you further detach from the mental framework of your resistance and become comfortable with what is, you will meet, allow, and see who you actually are—to the degree that you’re able to let go and let flow.

If we snapshot your journey thus far, we have the awakening to what is, which triggers your state of resistance coming into your conscious awareness, in turn allowing your soul to resonate and communicate your truest expression.

As you flow toward the deeper end of your ocean, you will come into contact with all that you previously pushed downstream while in a state of resistance, an action driven by limitations placed on you by your mind and ego: “I’ll follow that dream when I have enough money”; “I’ll learn more about that interest when I’m not working so much”; “I’ll spend more time on what I love when my children/partner need me less”; “I’m happiest when I’m doing that hobby/pastime/activity, but I can’t make money doing it. So why bother?”; or most commonly, “I’m happiest doing something I feel no one will respect/honor/understand.”

In analyzing the thought patterns above, which are prevalent in all of us, you can see the circular pathways of self-neglect, stagnation, and confinement. Like a snake eating its own tail, our mind would have us subscribe to a belief system that causes our greatest asset—our soul-filled expression and corresponding connection to the Grid—to consume itself.

Such circular thinking makes us feel as though there is movement from one consideration to the next, but it’s an illusion fashioned by the mind’s need to secure what it deems a safe environment. In truth, this flurry of mental activity leads you back to where you started; only now, you’re too exhausted to question your surroundings or the method used to entomb you within them.

It’s important not to attack the mental construct and its respective function, as its efforts are in earnest and driven by age-old assumptions derived from our primitive roots. The impulses of the mind will not cease with this Grid Work, nor will they ease their assault, but they will have to pass through a newly adopted filter: your conscious awareness, or willingness to accept what is.

By moving through this purifying net of accepting what is, you will clearly see what is not—or that which is out of alignment with your soul and its truest expression—and in allowing that truth to enter into your conscious awareness, the mind loses its power. Now when it releases its circular thought patterns, you’ll have a different relationship to both what you’re experiencing and what your mind is choosing to show you because you are not bound by resistance or fear; you are willing and able to identify what is and therefore able to create in resonance with your expression.

Playing this out in metaphor, as with Dorothy in Oz, you’ll have the ability to pull back the curtain and see the truth of the self-proclaimed Wizard (mind), which is that he only projects a portion of the truth, a curated version of himself and his environment (mental construct). Fast-forwarding to the story’s end, once Dorothy has taken in the full journey and associated information, she realizes everything she needs is already within her: she is her own wizard and her own source of magic.

So, when the tornado of the mind whips up and carries you away to a strange and unknown land filled with circular paths and story-based characters, you need only call upon the truth of your soul—your ruby slippers—to safely carry you back home, or back to your natural, resting state of balance. When heart, soul, and spirit are aligned with the Grid’s current, you are in a perpetual state of harmonic resonance, where you radiate what you desire to receive and you receive what you intend to create.

Let’s look at a practical example: Sally has a job/profession/role that sustains her just enough to keep her on the circular path of the mental plane. Yet something deep inside—her true expression—pushes upward and every so often, pounds on the door of her consciousness with fists of longing, sadness, and discontentment.

Sally may entertain the idea of opening the door for a few seconds before she is struck down by mental resistance: “You are lucky to have a job in this economic climate”; “Think of all the people who can’t pay their bills”; “You don’t have a skillset to get something better, and there are people with more advanced degrees”; “Other women would kill to have a partner like yours”; “You can’t switch careers now—you’d lose everything you’ve worked for”; and so on.

Sally has now eaten her own tail and has let the mind stop her from pulling back the curtain and finding the wizard—the magic—within her. Instead, she muddles her way through knowing her heart longs for something more meaningful, her very soul using its resounding voice to demand its right to create, to express. But her state of resistance deadens her instincts and the resulting forced circular motion perpetuates Sally’s refusal to accept what is, which in this case is her disconnection from her expression.

In one way or another, we can all identify with Sally’s plight. Again, it’s your relationship with your plight that matters. And the first step to unearthing your purest expression is to accept what is. The moment you bring your truth into your conscious awareness and allow it to permeate your alchemical experience, you have exited the mental plane and merged with the co-creative current of the Grid.

In acknowledging that you’re not aligned with that which you are born to express, you have moved away from a state of resistance and into a state of discovery. Di-vine exploration is now part of your elemental DNA, and it will infuse you with the light of possibility and creative play. By doing this, in many ways, you have conquered the hardest part of this work, which is to leave the mental plane of resistance and leap into the ocean of the unknown—a body of liquid magic teaming with limitless life.

You were not born to suffer. You were not born to suppress your spark. You were not born to live only half your truth. Everyone has a unique signature of light that is theirs alone, their guiding star above a dark sea. It doesn’t matter where you came from, what’s been done to you, or how many people made you believe you weren’t born to run, to fly—what matters is that you leap. That’s all it takes to start the awakening. You don’t have to do anything else at this point. You’re enough just as you are, floating in the unknown and soaking up the majesty of your making. You are precious, you matter, and you are not alone.

Go Fish

There’s a vast difference between floating in the freedom of the limitless unknown and floating, yet stagnating, in the discontented known. It’s an important distinction to understand that water known isn’t always water stagnant. Still waters of the known—when in alignment with the Grid—can allow for an open-channeled current to growth and joy.

While floating in the newness of your acceptance of what is, you now have the capacity to do something that in putrid, motionless waters you wouldn’t dare: turn and float belly-down, face submerged with your eyes open, staring into the ocean of who you are. Breathing is effortless as, like an unborn child, you rely on the current-filled cord between your ocean and the Grid to serve as your lifeline; a cord that is infused with the elemental strands you need to grow.

Having rotated in to, rather than floating on top of, the ocean of yourself, you have moved from acceptance to surrender. This is where your elemental evolution begins. Here, you will see all that makes up, lives within, and relies upon your oceanic environment to survive; you can observe the entire ecosystem on which your being is based.

This is why the first stage of the Grid Work, the Sounding, is paired with water: it’s the element that allows for surrender, incubation, saturation, and exploration. Only the ocean of you can offer the insights needed to surrender to the unknown, eventually flowing you from what is to what’s next.

As with the planetary ocean, nothing within your oceanic ecosystem operates without connection to itself: what dies gives life, what changes forces adaptation, what gets consumed is transformed, then dispersed and repurposed. The system is cyclical and most importantly, circular. Your ocean contains all that you are, all that has happened to you, all that you come from, and all that you will become—each respective event leading back into the broader ecosystem.

This is evidenced by countless change-makers throughout history, each with their own stories of adversity, pain, and insurmountable obstacles. Yet the common current running between them is their ability to allow their ecosystems to work for them, on their behalf and for their benefit. Oftentimes, those who radiate the brightest lights are those who came from the darkest of circumstances; they used the influence of darker matter to seek the resonance of their innate light, which is the essence of the ecosystem in play.

As a non-parallel example, imagine a large ship sinking and taking with it a cargo of valuable imported goods. For the shipping company, the loss is devastating but results in the implementation of improved safety regulations for ships and their crews. For the manufacturer of the goods, the loss triggers an executive to invent a shipping container with an emergency raft inflation mechanism, which becomes a shipping standard, in turn saving millions of dollars in lost goods. The vessel itself transforms into a haven for sea life, a steely coral reef that positively affects the environment in which it’s submerged.

Cleary, this scenario cannot be form-fitted to the events in a human life, but the nature of cause and effect, necessity to invention, and dark to light can be extracted and applied. For it’s the willingness to step out of resistance, move into acceptance, then flow into surrender that allows the scenario’s participants to thrive. What’s being illustrated is that each scenario’s participant is willing to float in an ocean of possibility, then take the spark of creation and forge a way forward.

With that in mind, studying the inhabitants of your life-filled sea will provide invaluable insight. You’ll see all the colors, creatures, and mysteries existing in the deep end of your ocean. And there, too, will be sharks and dark-finned giants emerging from the shadows to get a better look at you. Rest assured, nothing you’ll see is to be feared, as these things, both beautiful and beastly, are part of you. They have always been there, and they always will be. It’s your relationship to them—and how you use it in tandem with the spark of creation—that will change.

As you marvel at the inhabitants of your ocean and surrender to the experience, know that what has happened to you informs what you are, but not who you are. The what is a label, the who is eternal. You are what you’re born to express, as that is the pinnacle of your light. Therefore, any labels forced upon you are external, whereas you are eternal.

Your ocean is a body of water: it lives, it breathes, it feels, and it’s renewing and flowing with resilience and bounty. So, harness the curiosity that fuels di-vine exploration and dive. Swim strong, go deep, and revel in the richness of all that makes you, you.

How to Move the Mountain

Grid Focus: Self-assessment
Elemental Phase: I am but an ocean, deep.

• Get still and imagine the air around you transforming into water. See yourself submerged, yet breathing easily: air and water are now one.
• Drink in several long, slow breaths and feel the sensation of water and air having merged. Focus on how it feels on your tongue, in your throat, and in your lungs. Notice how calming the sensation is, as though you are one with the liquid air and energized by the richness it offers.
• Play with these sensations in your mind, being able to stay underwater endlessly. Breathing effortlessly.
• Now imagine that your pores are emitting a light-gray substance, almost as though liquid clouds are escaping from your skin. As you watch the cloudy vapor gently leak from your skin and begin floating around you, notice how light you feel. How free.
• Take your time watching the gray cloud-like vapor ebb and flow in the gently rocking current. You’re breathing without effort, one with water and air, and peacefully taking in your environment.
• Without urging from you, notice how the gray vapor mutes to white, then eventually becomes transparent until you can no longer decipher the vapor leaving your pores from the surrounding water.
• Experience every moment that passes as blissful; you are lighter, clearer, and increasingly more comfortable breathing the liquid air continuing to move in and out of your lungs.
• Stay with the feeling of releasing and breathing as long as possible. Then, when you’re ready, watch the water around you transform into pure air. As though having evaporated into a warm breeze, the water becomes completely replaced by air. Stay with the visualization of being calm, dry, and unburdened.

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