January: A Spell for Letting Go
Welcome to our monthly blog on the paintings and spells in Safe Passage. Come here to learn a little more about our process, and for meditations on each spell.
We create a container for intuition to come through when we make our calendars, and when we arrange the images with each month—but even so, neither of us knew how appropriate the January spell would be for this month. With the US inauguration on the 20th, so many of us are feeling a need to release old understandings of what our country is and was and could be—we are doing what we need to do in preparation for a different world.
About the spell:
Letting go is one of the hardest things we have to do in this life--especially in times of scarcity, or when we're already grieving, or when we've never had quite enough to keep us feeling full and held and loved. But letting go is the magic that readies the soil for new growth, it happens in the moment you choose to compost what has already happened--good or bad, healthy or unhealthy--in order to create fertile ground for new experiences. Holding on is one way to refuse reality and deny the cycles of life and death and rebirth. A spell for letting go is a spell against stagnation, against apathy, against the larger death of the soul that begins when we cannot accept our present moment and fully engage with life.
This is an important spell for people who hoard, who are attached to the past, who weigh down their lives with old energy and need to cut ties. I (Corina) need this spell fairly often! This is also an important spell for those who put the world on their shoulders and try and take enormous tasks on single-handedly. Those who think there’s a such a thing as “being in control.” I (Jo) need this spell often, too!
A meditation on letting go:
Find a quiet, calm place to relax for five to fifteen minutes, somewhere without much distraction or chance for interruption. Close your eyes, pay attention to your breath and spend a few minutes getting as relaxed as you are comfortable getting.
When you're ready, visualize whatever is making you feel trapped and stuck as something tied by ribbons to your legs. You can focus on just one person or situation, or you can include many.
Visualize that you take a scissors and cut all the ribbons away. Watch these thought forms float away.*
Untie any ribbons left on your legs. Stretch your legs and run. Stretch your wings and fly. Or watch the loosed ribbon get scattered by the wind as you sit in silent sovereignty, free and wide awake to your senses.
*(if you're not ready to fully cut ties with whatever it is you are feeling trapped by, just say "I'll see you later" as you cut the ribbon. Creating an energetic distance won't destroy your bond--what you're cutting is the dynamic that has you feeling trapped, not your actual connection.)
About the painting:
Corina: This is my favorite painting in the calendar. I love how Jo painted the crow, especially the purple gleam on the wings. I also relate strongly to this spell, as the last few years of my life have been working this magic: learning to let go of so much that I didn't want to leave behind. Letting go is terrifying. But not knowing how to let go is like inhaling and holding your breath forever. Exhaling is the only way you'll be able to breathe again. The magic of this spell is to trust in new beginnings, even before you have proof that anything good will come next.
Jocelyn: Even though this painting has its message sewn right into it, it keeps speaking to me in different ways. Sometimes I glance at it and feel a heavy, cold dread come over me. Oh no, I think, what is going to get taken from me this time? Other times I sense that letting go can be my choice, that I get to open myself to discover which conditions allow life and vitality to keep moving through me. This spell reminds me to let go of my addiction to creating and controlling my experience… Experience just happens! We don’t have to work so hard to have it. Let go. Let life happen to you. Trust that you will also be happening to it.
This month's offerings:
This image is on sale for the whole month of January! Buy a print of A Spell for Letting Go and get 15% off, using the coupon code LETGO.
Corina is offering a free resource, Skills for Sensitives, available on January 12th.
Jocelyn will be teaching a class, Yoga for the Obliteration of Tyranny, the day after the US presidential inauguration at West Asheville Yoga Studio. Space is limited, please pre-register if you plan to come.