The death of curiosity is the birth of ignorance.
The enthusiasm of youth must meet the clarity of lived experience in order to sanctify wisdom and save it from the congestion of bitterness.When our wise self meets our naive self, internal alchemy is achieved.
True wisdom is meant to return us to a state of wonder with greater depth. The wisdom of lived experience, when joined with the curiosity of the unknown, becomes the alchemy of life itself. If the spark of enthusiasm and wide-eyed wonder is lost, wisdom may become calcified, brittle, and weak. The buoyancy of wonder, curiosity, trust, and hope keeps wisdom from stagnating.
Wisdom can do nothing when locked in the crotchety cave of “I know, therefore, I do not wonder.” Wisdom which smothers wide-eyed wonder will eventually strangle the heartbeat of life itself. We must leave space for curiosity, mystery, and the wild unknown.
Excessive pattern recognition may stunt the growth of the individual who decides they already “know” the result before an action has even been taken. This holds the individual back from inspired action, remaining locked in a space where “they know best.” On the contrary, actions taken with genuine curiosity expose the individual to consequential spiritual forces which charge the aligned action with life force energy and greater meaning.
The moment we lose our sense of wonder is the moment death begins, as life will not penetrate a calcified mind or heart. Actions taken from this bitter outlook will weaken our existence and petrify the soul, keeping it locked in the position of “bitter knowing.”
A certain transformation occurs when wisdom is exposed to wonder. Existential grumpiness in old age (or any age) is the heavy feeling of “knowing it all because I’ve seen it all.” It is the death of the spirit which precedes the death of the body. This is a choice to shut out life which may manifest in many forms, such as self-hatred, externalized hatred, depression, addiction, and bodily dis-ease.
We should take care not to calcify ourselves as we move through time. Rather, we should learn to consciously participate in the cyclical process of death and rebirth that takes place all throughout life. This participation results in a “tender heart” rather than a calcified one.
An alchemical representation of self-fertilization, and the constant lifetime cycle of death and rebirth which occurs moment to moment.
We find this ancient mystery contained within the story of Persephone. She descends into the darkness and returns again to the light, belonging to neither world exclusively. Her descent does not negate her return, and her return does not erase the wisdom of her descent. She becomes a figure of the cycle itself: the living soul moving between worlds, learning that darkness and light are but movements within the same great rhythm of existence.
This process, which also results in the mastery of Time itself, requires evolution. It requires distillation, which is the ability to take important lessons and experiences into the next moment … and then the next…embody the Truth that was learned, and then let the rest go.
An astute Time Master will eventually realize they must learn the art of letting go. An internal discarding system must be developed. Meaning, every experience, expectation, projection, and action must eventually be distilled from the heaviness of raw experience to the lightness of knowledge. The residual scraps (such as grudges, dogma, or biases) which are left after the distillation process must be discarded.
The incredible weight of holding onto every bias, past hurt, projection, every expectation, every situation, or grudge … becomes an unnecessary burden for one who seeks to become a Time Master. Eventually, the aspirant must distill their life experiences and discard the time and place in which those moments occurred. And with that, the aspirant is free to rebuild the Self with a freshness that reflects the ability to let go of that which is no longer spiritually viable.
This process exists delicately between two paradigms which the spiritual aspirant must navigate: One paradigm which bypasses all learning under the guise of shallow “love and light,” which does not encourage the individual to self-reflect or cultivate knowledge of deep Truths. And secondly, the spiritual depression which stagnates and confuses the individual who cannot see any meaning in life at all.
This alchemy is delicately placed on the middle path, which teeters gently between the two, demanding the utmost of dexterity.
The reason this is precarious is because the human ego actually prefers to be stationed at two extremes: A savior paid it all and therefore I am not accountable OR nothing matters and therefore I am not accountable. The hidden middle path emerges for those who willingly confront their own ego and take accountability. As we move through this process successfully, we begin to realize and embody a deeper sense of clarity and brighter light.
Persephone descended into darkness and returned carrying a wisdom that could only be gathered there.
Paradoxically, the moment the light of clarity arrives is the exact moment the darkness begins to descend again. Just as the noonday sun spent hours building up to its zenith, this point of zenith marks the moment it will begin to subtly fade again until the darkness of night takes over.
Even so, the darkness reveals what the light cannot: In darkness we will witness just how much light we have been able to generate through our processing. The cold darkness only becomes calcifying to those who can neither trust in nor hope for the next warm sunrise. Those who have left no room for the wondrous because they “know” so much already, and so they opt out of participating in this cycle.
The cycle begins again with the subtle feeling of a new perspective “dawning” upon the individual. The dawning of a new reality is the gravity which keeps the curious soul youthful, buoyant, flexible, and full of life.
