Permission Slips

“For years, we have been learning, practicing, been in training for and just waiting to meet on this exact plain of engagement. I cannot tell you often enough that we are definitely the leaders we have been waiting for, and that we have been raised, since childhood, for this time precisely.” – Clarissa Pinkola Estes

by Astara

At Illuminating Hearts we have fun sharing the metaphor of the permission slip with our clients. At the end of our Sound Alchemy events and sessions we often encourage people to write their own permission slips afterwards. Permission slips to go home and treat themselves special. A hot bath. Time out from the family. Nap. Sleep. And just in case attendees don’t feel empowered on their own, we often say you have an Illuminating Hearts permission slip to take extra care of yourself.

Remember when you were young and someone wrote a note out for you? They were the ones with the authority to issue you permission to do something special. The note from the doctor to skip school because you were sick. The note from our parent to let you go on a field trip. As we grow up, we begin to have more authority in our lives. Even as adults our culture leans heavily on the notion that authority is outside of you. The expert who knows better about your life. When it comes to brain surgery, we want an expert. When it comes to building a bridge, we want an expert. When it comes to caring for ourselves, we are the best authority of what we need and want.

We haven’t been taught how to emotionally and spiritually care for ourselves in school. It sure helps to talk to someone who is good at it to mentor us. Eventually though, we ideally learn to step into our authority in regards to what is essential and true for us.

There has never been a better time than now to write our own permission slips, and some new ones at that.

World Theater, Personal Theater

We the people–of the world–have an immense transformation underway. And it is dramatically playing out across our world theater. Enter stage left the COVID-19 virus. Enter all theories on the virus, disparate data, and botched statistics. Enter potential economic collapse. Enter climate events we have not experienced before. Enter continued environmental degradation, even when we know better. Enter a greater disparity between the rich and the poor. Enter a myriad of news reports churning fear. Enter 5G Technology silently and stealthfully, modernizing regulations even amidst scientists’ warning that this technology is harmful to our biology. Enter trains and trucks carrying signs, tents, and tanks for martial law–in the light of day–while we quarantine indoors.

Enter mass cancellation of events and gatherings in efforts to protect our loved ones and flatten the curve of the virus. In the current global theater, a wide array of lost freedoms are emerging overnight. Just like with 9/11 when traveling drastically changed, we became used to that new world of enforced security under the guise of national security. All these issues weave together, they are all connected. That is because everything is connected. It always has been and always will, it is how the laws of nature and the universe work. No one issue stands alone in a simplified silo, each weave complexly together, influencing our now. For over a century, we have been slowly steering towards a new normal where corporatized interests pull invisibly at political, health care, media, technology, and pharmaceutical puppet strings. Our world now feels more than ever we are living out the Star Wars movie series with daunting imperial forces looming.

To take the Star Wars metaphor a bit further, let’s dive into the power of the force. If we look at our current situation from a quantum holographic perspective, what is happening in the world is just a reflection of what is already happening inside of each of us. As above so below. As within so without. Each tiny piece of a hologram contains the image of the whole. Unfortunately, although I do not have enough information to claim what is true about the virus in regards to 5G or pharmaceutical or other corporate motivations, I have enough soul awareness to know that all our current systems are broken and failing. I have intuition and core wisdom and I listen to it. My core wisdom says something hidden IS in the process of being revealed. Things are not always what they seem at the surface individually as a well as globally.

Archetypal Dark Night Cycle

Our systems are failing because they were built on a faulty cultural reality. A paradigm that doesn’t align with the holistic, mutual, and reciprocal laws of the universe. Our systems to date are built on a Newtonian reality fueled by deterministic, separate, and reductionist perception where we put our authority outside of us and ignore our intuitive knowing. Things are disrupted and collapsing in our world because they are not serving the greater good, and they are not aligned with holism and connectedness. Most of us have been through a dark night of the ego. Those tough nights (or days) where a crisis reaches a peak and we die to parts of ourselves to wake up the next morning surprised we made it through. That is what is happening to us right now. We are all suffering inside a dark night of our culture, that will take months to process if not longer.

Typical process of the Dark Night:

1. Build Up. Tensions build and we are bombarded by lots of intuitive hits that something is amiss.
2. Disruption.  Life as we know it is interrupted, business as usual is no longer.
3. Deconstruct or Dis-member. Disintegration and dissolution of familiar systems and loss of solid ground. Taking apart the old toxic world.
4. Surrender into nothingness. A chosen or forced release of tension, surrendering into the unknown and feeling the death of identity. Feeling meaninglessness, valuelessness, nothingness, and nobody-ness. This is the peak moment, where symbolic death occurs (and if a soul is ready for the next step physical death could occur).
5. Emerge. New viewpoints and perspectives emerge. New visions and ideas begin to gestate that we couldn’t access before the surrender.
6. Upgrade or Re-member. Rebirth of a whole new world, a whole new perspective, and re-membering a whole new you.

Our dark night cycle is already underway. It is a dark night personally. It is a dark night collectively. It is both. I offer we are somewhere in between the disruption and the disintegration phases. Some of us might be personally a few steps ahead and feeling that “I am nobody” and “I have no idea” feeling of surrender. Wherever you find yourself in the cycle, know this. It is not linear, you could be personally in one phase, and collectively in another. You could be in two phases or more at once. You could be feeling the rebirth while also lost in disruption. Any transition or change by its very nature is messy, complex, and disorienting. The dark night version of change is designed this way to build the tension to the point where you choose–or are forced into–the magic of surrender. Where we finally stop telling ourselves a good lie in an attempt to love or be loved; we are willing to see the lies we have told ourselves to date. Where we surrender the false and outworn. Where we start loving all of who we are in the face of difficult truths. We seek and desire more awareness. We mature spiritually. This is the task of the dark night: lifting consciousness.

You do not see the world as it is. You see the world as you are. You are your perception — your level of consciousness or awareness. – Astara

Now is the Time

We open up our awareness through simple choice. To dissolve a limited perception and worldview, to welcome truth from a curious, open-minded, open-hearted, and diverse perspective, we choose it. A great way to start is write yourself some new permission slips. Ones that honor the truth of where you are at, where you want to go, and are honest about the depth of experience along the way.

Here are some new permission slips we think might be helpful at this time:

1. I give myself permission to take my authority back. We can appreciate the experts and the stream of information, but don’t let them become your authority. Your authority lies inside your core. There is a lot to feel powerless about right now. First name where you feel powerless. This is very helpful and can be empowering in and of itself. Ask yourself, where do I feel powerless? Next ask, where do I have power? This is you getting inside your own authority and power. Take action from there. Voila, power shift.
2. I give myself permission to look at what is hidden inside me and let go of what no longer serves me. This is a big one. Our hidden shadows personally and collectively are the main reason we are in this mess. There will be a lot of letting go personally and collectively. The good news is our lives will be better with the old outworn stories gone. In my life and with my coaching clients, I have gotten a lot of mileage out of the book the Dark Side of the Light Chasers by Debbie Ford, with great activities to guide you through integrating lost shadow parts. Some of this work is quite taxing emotionally, and I suggest you seek the support you need to help you.
3. I give myself permission to move through resistance to change. The funny thing about facing hidden toxicity and suppressed truths, is that when those aspects get revealed it doesn’t feel so good. It feels a lot like death (it is to the ego). We have to let ourselves die to our old identity, and this is quite uncomfortable. Don’t worry, the ego will still be there until you leave your body, but the death is in the role and authority the ego has in your life. There are a lot of simple tools out there to help you move through egoic resistance. You will feel resistance, guaranteed. So give yourself permission to have it, and to move through it at your own pace. This is where the next permission slip really helps.
4. I give myself permission to be gentle with myself and take care of my needs no matter how small. If you feel even the slightest hint right now inside you, a tug or pull towards something you need. Listen. Take care of you. Support yourself. Ask for help. Reach out. Connect when you need. Go within when you need. Listen to you.
5. I give myself permission to receive and know my worth. Receiving is audacious and vulnerable, and we have been somewhat conditioned against it in our society. It is one thing to let go of what no longer serves, and then reenvision the world you want. If you can’t receive it, the cycle will start all over again until you can. This is where the work comes in to remember you are enough, you are worthy, and you are loved just as you are. It is big beautiful important work. It is your birthright.
6. I give myself permission to live the life I have always wanted. This may look different for each of us. Only we know what we deeply want at a soul level. NOW IS THE TIME. If there is one thing a dark night cycle is trying to do, it is to reveal the more authentic you. How do you find out what you want? When you think of a situation in the world that fills you with emotion and bring tears to your eyes, that is a very big clue! When you consciously give permission to live more authentically, and fulfill your vocation or calling, you are letting your life speak. It is like saying to the universe within and without an unequivocal “Yes!” to your soul.
7. I give myself permission to give my gifts to the world. Like Clarissa Pinkola Estes says, you were made for these times. You came here for a reason. The earth needs you to step up your game and re-member more you. We each are the leaders we have been waiting for.

Orion and I write ourselves permission slips all the time. Be creative. Write them big, make them into art. Put them where you will see them as reminders. When we live our authority from the inside out, we become authentic and present. You become a walking permission slip for others; just by being you the whole earth sighs in joy.

During this suddenly strange world we find ourselves immersed in, we ask ourselves, how can we be the most help? Your biggest power lies inside living authentically, lovingly, truthfully, and bravely bringing your gifts to the world. It lies inside of being the change you want to see. Gift yourself a Sound Alchemy or other soulful private session with us, so we can give you some permission slips in person! Or subscribe to Inner Space Academy and find your wisdom within.