Spiritual Spiral

I was somewhat surprised to hear so many people in class this week share their beliefs that the spiritual path is a linear process.  I understand that thinking.  That is how I used to live my life.  Today, at least for me, the spiritual journey has become a spiral.  Here is how I look at it...

In the premodern world, indigenous cultures like the Native American Indians lived seasonal lives that flowed in a circle.  From Fall, to Spring, to Summer, to Winter, these people lived as one with nature.  Native American's call this pattern "The Hoop" and as a circle it represents feminine receptive energy.  The circle also represents a pattern of birth and death.  Natives were cycling through life for survival, but may not have been evolving.

With the introduction of the industrial revolution in America, the modern world moved away from this circle pattern.  Instead of the circle, people began honoring the penetrating energy of straight line growth.  Imagine an arrow shooting off in a diagonal into the sky!  I believe it was at that time that America more fully embraced the male leadership model.  This linear model exemplifies masculine action energy.  True growth abounds as people strive to reach a target.

I believe the post-modern world combines the best of both of these feminine and masculine energies and creates a spiral.  Like the slinky toy I used to play with as a child, the spiral brings the circle into a three dimensional world.  Here, circular birth and death patterns are constant...but so is the ascension to a new way of being.  This is the best of both worlds...receptivity and action unite!!!  At this level of maturity, I believe the feminine and masculine energies in each individual come together, bringing a new level of wholeness to the community and to the world.

A few months ago I graduated as a Shamanic Breathwork Minister & Facilitator.  I find it interesting that I attracted this practice just at the time I was uniting my own male and female energies.  The spiral reigns in the breathwork world and I am so grateful for this shift in perception.  I feel it is a huge leap to something new.  I can't wait to see what it will manifest for me and for others!