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| Hold yourself with balance and control ... never abandon Your Self |
For many of us, if we are surrounded by negative people, we find ourselves in a negative state some time later - or even right away (and I am not suggesting that we are always aware of this). We also become roused and excited when in the atmosphere of excitement. Children feel pressured into fitting in with their peers and families and most adults are no different. To demonstrate individuality, unique creativity and thinking beyond the box of what is considered NORMAL is often seen as a threat ... or worse - madness.
Have you seen the movie Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp? The movie starts off with a scene called Dreamers and Alice is a little girl. She wakes up late in the night with another one of her nightmares. Her father takes her back to her room to talk with her. She explains the recurring nightmare to him as falling into a dark hole and seeing strange creatures. She tells him about these creatures and then asks him if he thinks she has 'gone around the bend'. He places his hand on her head and says quite seriously, 'I'm afraid so. You're mad ... bonkers ... off your head. But I'll tell you a secret - all the best people are.'
Alice grows up into a fine young woman and is still having this recurring dream. She wonders if it is normal to keep having the same dream over and over. Her father has since passed away - leaving her no one she can talk to about these things. Her mother wishes to see Alice happy - supporting the proposal of a marriage to someone Alice does not find herself compatible with. It is clear that her mother does not think like her father did - and certainly does not understand Alice. She tries to get Alice to be a 'proper' girl:
Alice's mother: 'Where's your corset?'
Alice: Looks at her mother (somewhat annoyed, it seems to me), saying nothing.
Alice's mother lifts up Alice's dress and looks disapprovingly at her: 'And no stockings,' she says.
Alice: 'I'm against them.'
Alice's mother: 'But you're not properly dressed.'
Alice: 'Who's to say what is proper? What if it was agreed that proper was wearing a codfish on your head. Would you wear it? To me, a corset is like a codfish.'
Alice is taken to an engagement party - where she is going to be asked to marry a young Lord. It is obvious that they are not well matched and Alice runs off at the last second -- right in front of the crowd as she was proposed to. She disappears into the forest and 'falls into a dark hole' ... not unlike her dream, likely. ( As a side note, consider, here the relation to the astral plane and dreamtime. Those who are so inclined find much growth certainly does occur in just such the manner that Alice experiences ... albeit in differing degrees, depending on the nature of the person).
She finds herself facing puzzles that question her current view of reality. Along the way she meets up with very interesting characters and finds that the best of friends are sometimes found in the most unlikely places.
What happens to her in there is quite fascinating. She finds out that some of the creatures she comes across are not at all sure that she is the same Alice they have seen there before. She wonders if she is in a dream. During the adventures in this strange land, she discovers she is indeed the Alice of the prophesy and the same Alice these creatures and beings have seen before. She undergoes a transformation of sort: She is told she is not the same Alice ... then she is called almost Alice ... to Alice indeed ... in her full glory.
Alice struggles with her identity and is very confused when the others talk about her as though she was the wrong Alice:
``You'd think she would remember all this from the first time`` (she has obviously been here before, and doesn't seem to recall)
``You brought the wrong Alice!`` (Imagine that it takes Alice of a certain nature to complete this task .. so it is with us and manifesting our true potential, is it not?))
``She's the right one - I'm certain of it``
``Give her a chance!``
``I told you she is the right Alice!``
``I am not convinced``
``She doesn't look anything like herself`` ``That's because she is the wrong Alice!``
Alice: ``How could I be the wrong Alice, when this is MY dream?`` (How, indeed - a good question...)
``Absolum will know who she is.``
Alice: ``Who is this Absolum?``
``He is wise. He is Absolute.``
People have various ways of accessing the divine in their search to discover themselves ... who they really are ... what they are really capable of ... in Wonderland, it is Absolum who assists Alice (among other interesting characters who also assist her) and determines when she is 'Alice indeed' .... what and where is Wonderland? ... the answer to that tells you who Absolum really is ... how you answer that tells of your level of being, your personal belief system and so on ... so answer it for yourself ...
In Wonderland, Absolum is a blue caterpillar. He is known in the land as being all knowing. Alice has a few interesting encounters with him. He is one of the ones who states quite definitively that ``this is not the same Alice that was here before.'' Each time she meets up with him, he assesses her current state until he finally tells her that she is Alice indeed. This is not until she seems to come back to having her ``muchness`` return to her when she succeeds in her mission while there. How do we access this muchness ... how do we lose it, and if/when lost, how do we regain this?
Alice ends up fulfilling the prophesy as laid out and even slays the Jabberwalkie in order to save the land from being controlled by the obsessive, jealous, conniving and ignorant Queen of Hearts.
Alice has no one to talk with about her dreams ... or about seeing things differently than what is considered normal and acceptable in the social circles her family engages with (and also different than what was considered normal during those times in the culture she was in). As we see in the beginning of the movie, her father was a man who believed in dreams, taking risks, and forging into the unknown - even at the risk of being called mad himself by his fellow colleagues. But her father is no longer there, and Alice embarks on an inner journey of discovering and recapturing her true inner essence, which is also quite different from the norm - but brilliant indeed.
This story is a reminder to us that "Great Spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds" (Einstein). Throughout history, we have seen time and time again that humans cling to what is known (or what they perceive and BELIEVE to be the truth at the time). Forging outside the edge of what is considered acceptable, appropriate, common knowledge, popular religious belief, current social standards, family beliefs and traditions etc. still continues to haunt those spirits who are not at ease with what is already being done, but who go before others and pave the way for further growth and advancement in all fields and endeavors.
There are times, in some people's lives, where they feel they may be standing on the brink of a precipice ... or a fork in the road ... or a dark place with no support or anyone to relate to ... or in a place in life in which there are sooo many routes to choose from ... with every move we alter our path in life ... sometimes it takes falling into a dark hole and entering Wonderland to see the path that is fully ours. Sometimes, risking appearing mad is necessary in order to do something great.
Though often ridiculed, judged, isolated and/or labelled in one way or another, these individuals are the ones who can lead us to new heights. Sometimes, they have a Queen of Hearts to deal with or a Jabberwalkie to slay ... or Lords to leave ... or families to disappoint (as many families have projections and expectations on us and how our own dream SHOULD look like .... according to whom?) In the end, once they make it through their own Wonderland, they come out on the other side stronger, prepared to move forward and ignore the opposition they are likely to encounter ... daring to believe in their own visions and expanding the known world's horizons.
One last point about the movie: Once Alice is close to completing her mission, she is convinced that Wonderland is all a dream and that none of what she's encountered while there truly exists. This upsets the Mad Hatter - who has become quite fond of her, and who is not aware that he isn't real ... by the end of the movie, the lines between what is real and what is a dream are thinning. When Alice wakes up from her `fall into the hole`, she does not marry the Lord ... she stands up to all the guests, her mother, her sister, and engages in a business deal which is quite out of character for a young lady of that time. The gentleman who takes her on as an apprentice in his company can see her brilliance and steps out of the norm himself. Alice is Alice indeed .... suddenly quite confident and assured within herself. The movie ends with her embarking on a journey aboard a ship. A beautiful butterfly flies by her and she sees it as Absolum. This leaves us with a wondrous feeling: Was it REALLY a dream? What is real and what is a dream? She is transformed ... how could it not be real in some way? And do we really need to define that?
The end of the movie, with the butterfly reminds me of an old story from Chinese philosophy. Rather than going into an explanation of this, I leave it up to you to reflect on over time ... its meaning may change for you over time as well - even if you have heard this before:
The Butterfly Dream by C.W. Chan
Once upon a time, Chuang Tzu dreamed that he was a butterfly, flying about enjoying itself.
It did not know that it was Chuang Chou.
Suddenly, he awoke, and veritably was Chuang Chou again.
He did not know whether it was Chuang Chou dreaming that he was a butterfly, or whether it was the butterfly dreaming that it was Chuang Chou.
Between Chuang Chou and the butterfly, there must be some distinction. This is a case of what is called the transformation of things.
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The story of the transformation of Alice holds a key: all (true) mystery schools hold keys which can open doors for us. Though there is never any guarantee to our personal results, this is due to us and us alone. Like the journey Alice took, we may find our way into Wonderland ... what we will find is part of our own story and our own possibilities.
