Soul as resistance
Photo of the sunset over a lake with the HS2 in the background
I've been reflecting on soul this past week. What is soul? What does it bring? How do I even find the words to describe what soul means? After a beautiful and profound conversation with Francis Weller this week it shifted my perspective on soul. It bought me to how powerful the way of soul is. Soul is the underworld, it's the fertile darkness, it's aliveness. It's a resistance to the systems we live in. Soul guides us, soul deepens us, soul is wild. Often the whispers of soul are deadened by the noise of the culture we live in. We can respond to these times soulfully and it's powerful. My apprenticeship with Francis has been one of grief and soul, and in a simple moment I saw what it is to live in the ways of soul in a way I hadn't before.
Francis has called himself a Soul Activist for years, and I never quite felt it. I do now. Soul activism is resistance. Soul activism calls us into aliveness. Soul activism requires us to question everything we ever thought we knew. Soul activism brings us back into connection with ourselves, with the earth, with others, in a world that creates disconnection. Soul activism asks us to grieve and love. Soul activism asks us to feel deeply, to wail, to cry, to allow the despair to seep into our bones so that hope grows from the roots. Soul activism looks beyond what we see. Soul activism brings us above and below. Soul activism asks us to remember all that we've forgotten. Soul activism reignites imagination, awe and wonder, and it never neglects the sorrow. Soul activism requires us to fully participate in life.
Soul is so very needed right now, soul can show us the way with everything that is going on in the world.
Life is hard, filled with loss and suffering. Life is glorious, stunning, and incomparable. To deny either truth is to live in some fantasy of the ideal or to be crushed by the weight of pain. Instead, both are true, and it requires a familiarity with both sorrow and joy to fully encompass the full range of being human.
Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow
Francis and I also spoke about how the six gates of grief are very active at the moment. This is true. Go gently, go with care, for yourself and each other.
With love and blessings this Sunday,
Nicola (Soul Activist) x
Next week's Sunday Soul will be coming in the form of a live session through the meadow-verse - Wails an exploration and ritual in grief. It's Sunday 13th July at 10am BST. I know some of you won't be able to make this time (there will be recording) and so I'll aim to drop in with some of what we'll be tending to in our time together through the meadow-verse. There are lots of wonderful offerings as part of the meadow-verse and 10% goes to the Gaza Soup Kitchen.
