Just the other night, howling and blustery, I decided to read a Goth horror story, which seemed to fit with the raging wind, the trees slamming against my window, and the dark clouds scudding across a very angry sky. I sat there eating way too many peanut butter cookies, one after the other, as I turned the pages of this story.
It was about a vampire who not only lived off the blood of his victims, we all know that one, but also off the light of their souls. He trapped them as they were leaving their bodies and kept them encased in little globes inside a murky workshop ( this story is called Haints and Hobwebs by Jennifer Estep) where they fed him and kept him alive for as long as their light flickered. A very nasty piece of work.
And so, because I see metaphors in everything, I thought about how that really reflects how we also give our power away to those who feed off our souls and our life blood, and sometimes we do this consciously. We stay in an abusive relationship because we don't feel we deserve anything better, we allow brutality and bullying into our lives, whether from schoolmates or from our family or community. We incessantly give our power to the corporation, to the banks (who are particularly expert at feeding off our souls and draining our lives), to our religion, and our governments. We do absolutely everything we can because we don't feel we have a choice.
But we do have a choice. If one allows captivity, fine, there you have it and you will be captured. But if your listen to your song of internal freedom and refuse to be bullied, preyed upon and scorned, if you refuse to give your soul to anyone, then you will notice something quite marvelous happening.
It's called freedom, and when you feel this freedom fill you from inside with the purest light you can imagine, then you can move confidently into your outer world and say no, this is no longer acceptable.
And then you demand change.
It was about a vampire who not only lived off the blood of his victims, we all know that one, but also off the light of their souls. He trapped them as they were leaving their bodies and kept them encased in little globes inside a murky workshop ( this story is called Haints and Hobwebs by Jennifer Estep) where they fed him and kept him alive for as long as their light flickered. A very nasty piece of work.
And so, because I see metaphors in everything, I thought about how that really reflects how we also give our power away to those who feed off our souls and our life blood, and sometimes we do this consciously. We stay in an abusive relationship because we don't feel we deserve anything better, we allow brutality and bullying into our lives, whether from schoolmates or from our family or community. We incessantly give our power to the corporation, to the banks (who are particularly expert at feeding off our souls and draining our lives), to our religion, and our governments. We do absolutely everything we can because we don't feel we have a choice.
But we do have a choice. If one allows captivity, fine, there you have it and you will be captured. But if your listen to your song of internal freedom and refuse to be bullied, preyed upon and scorned, if you refuse to give your soul to anyone, then you will notice something quite marvelous happening.
It's called freedom, and when you feel this freedom fill you from inside with the purest light you can imagine, then you can move confidently into your outer world and say no, this is no longer acceptable.
And then you demand change.