The See(k)er's
Journey
Discover the Medicine within the Wound &
the Creative Source within your Difference
How will my life and my relationships be enriched by going on a See(k)er’s Journey?
It’s not always easy, to feel called to be a See(k)er. Yet, in my own experience, and also from what I have seen in my work with others, exploring your inner depths can lead you to discover new and more fulfilling ways to connect with yourself and others, it can bring you in touch with a sense of inner empowerment and help you create a more meaningful and congruent life, it can unleash your creative expression, and it can even lead to unexpected experiences of reconciliation, healing and transformation.
What’s the See(k)er’s Journey like?
See(k)er’s Journeys involve a spirit of curiosity and exploration. This may bring up a mix of feelings, both exciting and edgy, because it is often about going towards the unknown, towards that which feels outside your familiar experience or identity. The way this looks is different for everyone: it depends on your life’s trajectory and what you meet on the way and what you are called to explore.
But whatever it looks like, it will involve ‘crossing edges,’ like for example: exploring new ways of relating, having a courageous conversation, looking at a part of yourself that’s maybe not easy to see, bringing out your unique voice, learning to say no, and so forth.
The benefit of this process of crossing edges is that it is the way through which we build our inner power. Throughout the See(k)er’s Journey I will give guidance on how to work with your edges.
How did you develop the See(k)er’s Journey?
The See(k)er’s Journey described below is inspired by the original template of the “Hero’s Journey” by Joseph Campbell. I adapted it specifically for See(k)ers based on the universal and archetypal themes in different stages of my own journey of transformation as well as my four decades of working with transformational processes in others. Because it is a standalone term, just like pilot or doctor, the term See(k)er should be taken here as applying to all genders and non-genders.
How should I approach the steps in the See(k)er’s Journey?
For example, you may find yourself in a state of yearning for something unknown (step 1) in a later stage in life, or you may jump from being in touch with your creative expression (step 10) to going through a confrontational relationship experience (step 6).
Steps cycle and recur, you may not resonate with all the steps or there may be missing steps that you would add: feel free to do so and create your own template for your See(k)er’s Journey, which is a great way to track yourself and develop a “meta-position:” a way for you to reflect on your process and gain a more expansive perspective.
How do I get most value from the See(k)er’s Journey Map?
What if there is no ‘Read More’ button under a section?
I will populate each step with more content over time so if you don’t find right away what you’re looking for, keep checking back in, or feel free to drop me a question and I may address it in one of my next newsletters.
STAGE 1: THE DEEP END
The doors to the world of the wild Self are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door, if you have an old, old story, that is a door. If you love the sky and the water so much you almost cannot bear it, that is a door. If you yearn for a deeper life, a full life, a sane life, that is a door.
~ Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves
01. The See(k)er’s Scar :
The Wound of Not Belonging
I was born with eyes
that can never close.
~ Joy Harjo, She Had Some Horses
Here’s where the seeds are planted for becoming a See(k)er:
someone who is propelled to seek out their own path and purpose in life
- Often this is prompted by a painful experience, some kind of initial wounding
- See(k)ers often ask deep questions from an early age. Therefore, their experience can be one of a sense of disconnect or lack of resonance and belonging with the world around you, feeling different, like an outsider or outlier, being the ‘sensitive’ one, the one who feels what no one around you seems to feel or perceive. Even if you speak the same language, on an emotional and soul level it can feel like no one speaks your mother tongue. It can be a lonely and even isolating experience, and depending on context and circumstances this feeling can vary in intensity
- Because of the experience of not quite belonging, there can be a sense of “what’s wrong with me” mixed with a background yearning even if you don’t know exactly what for
02. The Flirt :
First Electrical Spark
And something ignited my soul,
fever or unremembered wings,
and I went my own way,
deciphering that burning fire.
~ Pablo Neruda, La Poesia
Core Themes
- The subtle sense of ‘homesickness’ of step 1 propels an urge to carve out and discover your own path in life instead of following the trodden paths
- Something is calling you, even if vague, often sparked by a crisis
- Your soul is as it were ‘flirting’ with you in the sense of trying to catch your attention in the form of a book that opens your eyes to something, a person who makes you see the world differently, a chance encounter that opens you to a new world or way
03. Behind the Veil :
Symptoms & Shocks
Grief permeates life and grieving can take many forms, but grief can never be outrun or simply thought away, transcended, or meditated into nonexistence. Necessary grief when shunned or unattended can easily hide for years, even generations, in the skeletal structure of the family collective psyche. Like light, matter, sound, and energy, grief will eventually manifest even among those in the future who did not consciously experience the loss.
~ Martin Prechtel, The Smell of Rain on Dust
Core Themes
- Even as we carve out our own paths, we carry the untold stories and secrets of our ancestors in our bones
- Symptoms of the unconscious wound of step 1 begin to manifest but you don’t have any way to make sense or meaning of them
- Because the original wound is one of disconnect, this carries through into the inner world and manifests as a disconnect between outer experience and personal/collective/ancestral history
04. Shimmers of Resonance :
Dawning of New Awareness
All that you are seeking is also seeking you.
If you lie still, sit still, it will find you.
It has been waiting for you a long time.
~ Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women who Run with the Wolves
Core Themes
- Finding resonance, guidance, new awareness
- Meeting a teacher, mentor, therapist, guide, book
- Getting in touch with deeper layers of the self
05. Bridging Worlds :
Healing the Split between
Sexuality & Spirituality
Lovers share a sacred decree -
to seek the Beloved.
They roll head over heels
rushing toward the Beautiful One
like a torrent of water.
~Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi, One Whisper of the Beloved
Core Themes
- Embodiment: resolving the disembodiment that came with disconnection
- Engaging with sexuality and relationships from a new place
- Expanding into Eros, pleasure and intimacy
- Joining Sexuality and Spirituality
- Discovering new worlds
STAGE 2: THE GATES OF
INNER POWER
06. Teachings of the Night :
Meeting the Other in Me
When your vision has gone
no part of the world can find you.
Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes to recognize its own.
~David Whyte, Sweet Darkness
Core Themes
- From Expansion into Descension
- Confrontation with unintegrated parts and (ancestral) histories: “fate”
- Meeting your shadow – often in context of relationships, circumstances
- The journey to wholeness: I am that too
07. Stewing in the Cauldron :
Facing Inner Oppressor
These places of possibility within ourselves are dark because they are ancient and hidden; they have survived and grown strong through darkness.
~Audre Lorde, Poetry is Not a Luxury
Core Themes
- Inner empowerment
- Meeting your core edges
- Taking back the projection: having it out on the inside
- Birthing yourself
08. Death as an Ally :
Standing in your Truth
Go without sight, and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings, and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings
~Wendell Berry, To Know the Dark
Core Themes
- Finding the gold within the shadow
- Crossing core edges
- Finding your authentic voice and inner power
- Standing in your truth
- Inner freedom
09. Inner Power :
Entering the House of Belonging
The work of the eyes is done. Go now and do the heart-work on the images imprisoned within you.
~Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
Core Themes
- Inner cohesiveness: Belonging with yourself
- Depathologizing yourself
- Developing inner authority, sovereignty
- Deeper sense of meaning and purpose
- Inside out relating
- Shifting relational patterns: Crossing edges in relationships
STAGE 3:
WEAVING THE WEB
Remember the sky that you were born under, know each of the star’s stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is.
~Joy Harjo, Remember
10. Dancing with the Muse :
Embodying the Unique Powers of Outliers
The sun shall always rise upon a new day and there shall always be a rose garden within me. Yes, there is a part of me that is broken, but my broken soil gives way to my wild roses.
~C. JoyBell C., The Sun is Snowing
Core Themes
- The See(k)er becoming a Seer
- Embodying and manifesting unique powers: being the visionary, the artist, inventor, healer, writer, inspirer, actor, the one with profound perception and intuition
- Re-entering the world with the Seer’s forcefield and unique and magnetic powers from within: some force for good/ truth/ awakening/ transformation/ liberation/ inspiration
- Feeling on purpose, connected on to one’s soul’s path from the inside out
11. Healing Relations :
Reconciliation with the Living & the Dead
We need to sit on the rim of the well of darkness and fish for fallen light, with patience.
~Pablo Neruda, The Sea and the Bells
Core Themes
- Going full circle from the loss of home (the wound of not belonging) to finding an inner home to returning to tribe/community/family as ‘wounded healer’
- Where the previous step related to the Seer’s path on the world level, this is about the fruits of the Seer’s transformational journey on the level of family, personal relationships, relations with the ancestors
- This step can entail the surfacing of family secrets, witnessing stories that could never be told, healing old wounds, resolving ancient conflicts
- Because this is about entering a subtler realm, this can also be the land of synchronicities, chance encounters, ancestral healing, dreams and visions
12. Song of the Ancestors :
Living the Legacy
Moreover, my ancestors' souls are sustained by the atmosphere of the house, since I answer for them the questions that their lives once left behind. I carve out rough answers as best I can. I have even drawn them on the walls. It is as if a silent, greater family, stretching down the centuries, were peopling the house
~Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections
Core Themes
- Death as an Ally: integrating death as a teacher for living & loving more fully
- Deepening your purpose as part of an ancestral web
- Discovering your ancestral legacy & Exploring your Covenant with the Dead
- Closing the loop: bringing the wisdom of the dead to the living and offering our responses to the questions their lives left behind