Tag: Led Zeppelin

Illuminating the Dark Night of the Soul

“Dark Night of the Soul”, otherwise known as “Dark Night” is a poem written by the 16th Century Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross. He writes of the journey of the soul from isolation to its union with God. The journey itself is “The Dark Night”, darkness representing the difficulties the soul meets in detachment from the world before reaching the light. Once the soul touches the light, union with the divine takes place and the person is transformed.

Loreena McKennitt has a beautiful rendition of it in song. You can watch her  here.

A dark night of the soul has come to mean a spiritual crisis when life has lost its meaning and the person has sunk into depression and despair.

Some people experience many dark nights of the soul while others may have a prolonged one lasting many years.

I myself have had many dark nights starting at age 13. Puberty is a difficult time for most of us. In my case, my friends had drifted away and gravitated to new groups. I was alone, desperately alone.

Making new friends was difficult because I was an extreme introvert. I didn’t know what to say because I never could do the whole chit-chat thing. I still can’t. It is simply not part of my personality. Deep conversations interest me more.

Back in the summer when I was 13, I was lonely for companionship. My depression had reached the point where the only thing I could think of was suicide to end the misery.

My only solace was Led Zeppelin‘s Physical Graffiti double album which I had received as a present for my birthday. I had asked for the album that had Stairway to Heaven on it but it was April 1975 and Physical Graffiti had just come out 2 months before. That was the only Zeppelin album in stock at the local department store.

Back in the pre-internet age, information like names of albums and where you could purchase them was not readily available for a young teenager.

If you grew up with the internet, you might not be able to fathom not having all the information you need at your fingertips. But back then, the main use for your forefinger was to dial the phone. It was actually fun to leave your finger in the cutout circle of the dial and let it move back on the return rewind. At least I enjoyed it. But now, having arthritic fingers, I am grateful for technology.

This was also the time before the popularity of antidepressants when depression was not talked about. When I finally told my mom that I was suffering from it in 1989, her response was to deny there was anything wrong with me. The stigma of depression was still strong, even with the introduction of the drug Prozac.

Back to Physical Graffiti, it literally saved my life. The song Kashmir stirred forgotten memories of sitting with elders of a gentle race, which in my imagination actually happened.

10 Years Gone reminded me that “We are eagles of one nest, the nest is in our soul.”

But it was In the Light that saved me. I would listen to it repeatedly under headphones on my older brother’s stereo.

To me, the beginning of In the Light feels what a sunrise would sound like. It gave me hope. The ending is pure exhilaration.

One of the lyrics puzzled me. What I thought I heard was: I would share your love. What Robert Plant actually sang was: I would share your load. It makes quite a difference.

One of the lyrics that I really identified with is:

And if you feel that you can’t go on
And your will’s sinkin’ low
Just believe and you can’t go wrong
In the light, you will find the road (You will find the road)

I would close my eyes and envisioned I was standing in the light. It felt uplifting on one level. On another, felt I was connecting to something more. Something I could not grasp, a notion that felt just out of reach.

I realize now that listening to the song back then was an integral part of the larger story of my life. That getting through that difficult time enabled me to write about it and share it with you now.

There is a deeper, more mystical revelation that came out of this. I will go into further detail at another time.

The road in the song reminded me of J.R.R. Tolkien. If you haven’t read them yet, I wrote a few posts about him here and here. There is more forthcoming also.

Many of Led Zeppelin’s lyrics contain Tolkien references. The author has several passages in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings that feature the Road. Here is one:

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

I read that verse often, thinking that I needed to hold on and continue down that road not knowing where it would go, but perhaps somewhere where I needed to be.

Are you suffering from the Dark Night of the Soul right now? If so, you can get through it. You must believe that you can and you will. You will find the road.

It needn’t be through Tolkien or Led Zeppelin but what calls out to your soul.

Music heals. Stories help us to see ourselves in them.

Listen. Read. Sing. Dance.
Go out in nature.
Play.

Do something that you love,
something that uplifts your soul
and connects you with the divine within you.

Lighten the load of depression and despair. Find the way that lightens yours. As Robert Plant sang: Everybody needs the light.

You will get through it. You must have the determination and resolve to do so. Believe that you can and you will.

Often in the spiritual awakening process, a dark night of the soul precedes a breakthrough. Remember, the night is darkest just before the dawn.

Always,
Alice Always

P.S. This blog post features Invictus, an empowering poem that might help you through the Dark Night of the Soul.

Diary of An Elf – Feeling Like Frodo from Lord of the Rings

Diary of an Elf is a reoccurring feature here on AliceAlways.com. Alice shares her story as her elf-self.

It was one of those crisp winter mornings when I finally left the closet of Elf Cabin Number 9 at Santa’s Magical Realm at the North Pole.

It seems that the other elves at the cabin had left to go on holiday and taken whatever blocked the closet door. I assume it was luggage, as all the bags that are usually stored under the beds were gone.

My recent rereading the novels of Tolkien filled my head. My life in what we call The Real World had its challenges.

At this moment, I really identify with Frodo in The Lord of the Rings. Frodo is the Ring-bearer who must journey to the darkest depths of Mordor and throw the Ring of Sauron into Mount Doom.

As I am writing this, the Led Zeppelin song, Ramble On is playing in my head. The exact lyric I hear is:

‘T was in the darkest depths of Mordor
I met a girl so fair
But Gollum, and the evil one
crept up and slipped away with her

I am dealing with my own burden which is my own thinking process. Sometimes I feel that I am in the darkest place imaginable. Recently I totaled my car in an accident and contemplated suicide.

My life has been a struggle and I am still working on releasing limiting beliefs that plague my conscious and unconscious thoughts.

I am a work in progress. I will get through this and not succumb to the darkness.

In The Lord of the Rings, many are tempted by Sauron’s Ring, especially the Ring-bearers. On one level, the Ring represents the thing we hold onto even if it is causing us undo suffering. It is a tangible object in J.R.R. Tolkien’s books, but deep down inside it is a thought, either conscious or unconscious.

For some, letting go is easy. For others, the repetition of unwanted thoughts can play like a broken record in our heads.

But as the elf queen Galadriel said to Frodo, even the smallest person can change the course of the future.

We are not our burdens, we are not our doubts.

We must all rise above what holds us in a dark place by releasing whatever is causing our suffering.

To do that, we must believe that we are able to get through whatever challenge we are going through.

Frodo is the unlikely hero, a small hobbit with an enormous task. He volunteers to take the ring by saying, “I will do it, though I do not know the way.”

He doesn’t follow a map, instead, he is guided by circumstances. He perseveres because he trusts that he will get there.

It is Frodo’s faith that gets him to Mount Doom. He knows what he has to do and he keeps moving in the necessary direction until he accomplishes his goal.

We all can do the impossible.
We just need to have faith that we can do it.

Always,
Alice Always the Elf

My Illuminating Rainbow Led Zeppelin Sungazing Meditation

I’m a sungazer, and as such, I meditate with the sun at the dawn on sunny mornings.

The title of my last blog post was Eleven Illuminating Insights about Illumination.

Because I was bubbling with silliness, I decided to use that phrase as a mantra in my morning sungazing meditation on the second day of the New Year. Knowing that we were still in the midst of full moon energy, I knew it would be extremely powerful.

Every sungazing session is different as each day different energies are present on all levels. More on energetic influences and levels another time.

Sungazing is an intuitive practice for me, so I don’t prescribe any formal techniques. As I said in a previous post, sungazing is dangerous, so, if you are thinking of doing it, read my post about it and do diligent research before attempting it.

As I repeated the magic phrase that pays, eleven illuminating insights about illumination, I saw the sun with two large number ones in the center forming a gateway. In my mind’s eye, I felt myself pass through this gateway and into the sun.

My seven chakras were lit up with the energetic colors they represent: red base to violet crown.  A curved rainbow ran through my body and into the ground behind me and connected me to the sun in front of me.

My Faerie feet lifted. I call them that because they remind me of Irish dancing and my maternal Celtic ancestry. You have Faerie feet if you walk or stand naturally on the tips of your toes. I’ve been doing that since I learned to walk. Maybe children outgrow it; I didn’t. I even got teased in sixth grade for walking on my tippy-toes.

Back to the meditation. I saw the chakra rainbow as a flattened lp album and I was part of it. Now, if I get to choose which album it is (which I do because I’m writing this) it would be the second record of Led Zeppelin‘s Physical Graffiti double album because I used to play the first track of side 3, In the Light, repeatedly over and over when I was 13. More on that another time.

Oh, my! So much to write. Sorry about the tangent. Back to the subject at hand.

In my meditation, I saw the Green Fire.

I have never heard talk of the Green Fire and I will not even do a Google search until after I complete this. I don’t want my awareness to be colored. Yes, pun intended, so make sure that you do that ba-dum-bum-tss drum sound in your head.

The green fire in my vision is the energy burning through my own heart. Green is the color of the heart chakra, the color we associate with the Earth, just as blue is to the sky.

My internal programming is high visionary functioning. I think I just made that phrase up but that’s how I would describe it. I have what others call mystical experiences on a regular basis when I am connected with my Source.

When I am in disconnect, I fall into depression. That might be the same for you. Your disconnect may be anger. Or greed. Or hatred. You can pick your own deadly sin or add a new one to the list.

Whenever you, me, or anyone else is out of harmony with our true selves, we react instead of responding rationally to any situation.

We go into the darkness that is our shadow. I’ll write on this topic another time.

Anyway, back to my vision in my morning sungazing meditation.

The green fire separated into as ones and zeros. I went into the Matrix, the binary code that runs computers.

I saw the Matrix completely for what it is, an elaborate program, that was created to connect our disconnect. It’s also its opposite: a system that sucks us into it and disconnects us from our true Source, which is within.

When we were ready for this insight, it became available to us.

It’s part of our collective imagination. I thought I made that term up but it’s an actual documented term.

This is what we create collectively. It’s been going on since our arrival on this planet.

Wait! Did I just say arrival? Did I mean to say that, you think?

Anyway, there’s more to the Matrix thing and collective imagination and I’ll write about them at other times.

In my vision, I left the Matrix and ended up back in my own heart.

In the Light played as music in my head. I felt peaceful.

After a while, I spontaneously started repeating the phrase: I Am the Light, the Light I Am. I learned this mantra from Matt Kahn, a spiritual teacher whose wisdom corresponds to my inner knowing. His talks are filled with humor and insight.

Because my mind is so enmeshed with the Led Zeppelin song, it was a natural progression from that to repeating I Am the Light, the Light I Am.

The meditation ended with my hands on my heart and a feeling of being pure light.

Always,
Alice Always