Shedding the Old Life

People have forgotten the wisdom embodied all around them and how to access it. In part I blame the ABC books we were given as children. Right away they taught us animals can only symbolize one thing. They only make one noise or they are only connected with one letter of the alphabet. We are taught each thing has only one meaning. A chair is only for sitting. “Don’t stand on it, you’ll fall and hurt yourself.” Well, one of the first things which happened when I arrived at college was a party where the roaring drunk seniors balanced all the chairs in the common room at odd angles so they became a 10ft tall art installation we called the “Chairway to Heaven.” I knew I was going to love undergrad right there and then. :) Meanwhile, our need for simple pat answers has only been reinforced by the internet and social media. We need answers now, don’t have time for ambiguity, just Google it and move on. Therefore when working with the Akashics people assume an animal guide can only represent one thing and the thing is very simple and easily reduced to one word. I’m sometimes startled when students tell me they’ve figured out what their animal guide represents. They tell me one word which seems simple and has magnitudes of meaning in it. Most times I can’t tell whether they do or do not understand things like love or compassion or empathy or devotion or loyalty are not simple concepts. Like a lake or a river they can seem like one thing…