Water & Fire: The Dance of Creation

When you learn to flow like water, you learn to dance in the fire of creation without getting burned. All creation stems first from water - the source of birth, renewal, and cleansing. As you emerge from the formlessness of water, you may then use the passion of fire to create form. However, attempting to create with only fire lead only to destruction, burn out, and suffering. Think of all the past artists whose lives ended tragically, remembered for how brightly they burned and how quickly they faded away. Most of my life I was led by the fire burning inside me, anger, irritation, and dismay. I let the fire isolate me, push people away, and punish me for lack of discipline or perfection. Rather than motivate me, the fire paralyzed me. I could not move forward in my life with so much tension, judgment, and self-blame. But the fire was all I knew and so I used it to create, to learn, and to navigate in life as best I could. I would let my anxious mind drive the way in all decisions and actions, even just getting out of bed in the morning. I did not spend much time creating as a child because I did not know how to let go of the fire. Even when I “played” as a young child, I did so compulsively and obsessively, not allowing myself to finish until I had completed all of my fictional, and emotional, battles. I was rigid in my habits and seized by my mind’s various attempts to control the uncertainty in my life. Not until I could surrender to the flow of life, both within me and without me, was I able to dance like water.

I needed to learn how to ride the intensity of my emotions like waves rather than letting them command me and consume me like fire. When I can surrender to the complexity within me, I can surrender to the complexity without me - the struggles of my fellow people and the world itself with both its light and its darkness. I practiced surrendering to the mystery of myself and, therefore, to the mystery of others and to all things. I began to trust my own heart even when my head was confused in thought. I am still learning, growing, and practicing each day, of course, as can you. If you practice trusting a more thought-less existence, you can be led by your sacred heart and intuitive connection to Great Spirit. This is no easy task for someone victim to over-thinking. The mind will continue to pull you down into pits of analysis paralysis, attempting to get the right answer for how to proceed – in creation and in life. Striving for the “right” answer is attempting to bring fire to a water dance. The flame will be quickly extinguished leaving you no tools to ride the waves.

The passion of fire is of immense value on the path of healing and of co-creation, but it must come from the depths of your being, from love not dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction arises from the ego’s attempts to control and often produces effortful, grinding, and punishing action. Many who create success from this place value “work ethic” above all else and see anything worth doing as requiring great sacrifice. Certainly, many people have produced successful lives from effort, forging their tools from stone and carving their way forward. I am not here to say that those who endure great hardship to bring their vision to form do so the wrong way, only to say that we are entering a new age, an age of rebirth, of possibilities, of water. There is no longer only one way to bring your highest vision and intention to form. Of course, life is a dance and is not always meant to be easy, but that does not mean that all great creation must stem from great sacrifice. Specifically, it does not mean you must sacrifice your truth or your joy. It does not mean you must suffer or be a “tortured soul.” This is an old and outdated paradigm. If you go toward alignment with your highest self, your creation will stem from great love. Painful and challenging experiences may arise in the process, but they do not define the “work,” they are only a means to accessing your love When you need your fire to keep you burning into the night, to act courageously and to make difficult decisions, it will be there for you, carrying you through to the next state of flow. You do not need to carry a lit torch at all times, trust you will know the way through light and darkness.

In the world of spiritual healing, many seekers hold the notion that you must grind the ego down into oblivion, ridding all trace of this form of “self.” But this idea, in and of itself, is an ego-based endeavor, an attempt to override and overpower the hard drive to take full control of the mind body system. In this new age, creation is not about control but about surrender to the mysterious present, a practice of letting go and releasing attachment to whatever vision you thought needed to come true. In order for dreams to remain sacred, they must remain fluid like water. When you attempt to craft your dreams meticulously, every piece in its “right” place, they lose the essence of a dream and become a hardwired necessity, often leading to despair, disappointment, and destruction if you do not live up to its precisely projected measurements. Whether that dream is material success or inner peace, you must be willing to set the intention and let the “how” take its own course, like the flight of a paper airplane reaching its destination in accordance with the conditions of the wind. In this new age of water, you are not building a house to exact measurements, but allowing the most expansive vision of your life to unfold in co-creation with Spirit. Remember you are not doing this alone! Whenever you set out to bring something into form, you enter into an agreement - a contract - with Spirit, and you enlist help, guidance, and support beyond what your eyes can see. When you set intention, trust that the universe receives it and allow Spirit to bring you the resources for your journey. Like a group project, trust your partner in creation and be sure not to take on all the burden. In this case, your partner is the source of all creation and holds endless possibilities within its grasp. With trust in your co-creator, you allow yourself to be guided by instincts and intuition to chart a path never before seen or envisioned, even by you. Like any great creation, it will be messy, but in the messiness is where you learn how to dance with both water and fire, mastering both energies within you.

 There are many ways to unfold your vision and you cannot be sure which is meant for you at this time. You may be meant to begin with a routine only later to be called to drop everything and enter into uncertainty. All you must do is tune in to your mind body experience to discover which path, which next step, is meant for you. You do not have to know where you are going, you only have to know what comes next, and that comes from taking time to listen to yourself and use whichever tools work for you to hear Spirit calling - journaling, meditation, nature, etc. I do not write to you as someone who has it all figured out. In fact, it is clear I was not meant to know, only to take the journey. I, too, am still learning how to live in flow. As I took steps to leave everything I knew behind and journey West, I did not have a true destination, or “home,” in mind, only an idea of what was meant for me. As I travelled, I experienced many twists, turns, and deceptions. I experienced great fear and great bliss. I discovered that there is a “home” within me even when there is not one without me.

I continue on this path presently, learning to live a day at a time, and to settle into this dance, to slowly wear down the old version of me needing to have it all mapped out, which was only ever an illusion. As I go deeper into the spirit of adventure, letting go of what, when, and how I need to be at all times, I begin to notice the ease with which life can flow while I am busy living. My traveling takes my focus much more outside my self, needing to navigate the constant change of new environments and new experiences, broken up by long drives with attention on the road. An old version of myself may have lamented the lack of time to focus on creation, my writing and my service to others. But I AM creating. I am creating in flow with my experience. The more I experience, the more I have to write and the more it flows with ease when I finally sit down or pause in the middle of a hike to do it. I am sure that soon I may find myself in a more settled place for a period of time to unfold my writing with more diligence, but for now I am guided to continue adventuring onward, upward, and outward. The adventure born in me at this time is not merely a glimpse or a window into another life, but a rebirth into a new version of myself. I was not meant to be locked away in a room with only painstaking thought as I once believed, but to be awe-struck like the child in me thirsting for a new adventure daily and hungry for more. I am retraining my brain to embrace the mystery rather than to recoil and wait for the dust to settle. There is no settling. I continue to dance and go deeper into the forest than ever before. This is my guidance. To go forth. And as I go forth, my creation will follow.

In order to be a vessel for creation, you must practice living the way. Not just thinking it, not just planning it, but living it. Contrary to the advice of most parents and grade-school teachers, leap before you think! This is the flow of water. Water does not question its destination or if it has all the tools it needs for when it arrives. Water simply flows with full confidence and conviction toward the path of least resistance. As you flow toward your destination your fire will ignite and burn brighter than ever before, and you will know instinctively where to channel this energy. As you dance on the wind, your spark of passion will be forever fanned within you, never at risk of extinguishing nor consuming you. You do not need to churn tirelessly at the wheel of creation. Creation is a byproduct of your witnessing experience, which flows as you address what is right in front of you. The most aligned and organic way to bring formlessness to form is to simply take the next step. Rest, relax, adventure. Go where you are called. Do not sacrifice the flow of your journey just to jump a few steps ahead by burning, and extinguishing, the midnight oil. Creation is carved not from effort, but from the very dance of experience itself.