Melissa Reddick

Life has taught me that everything you hold near and dear can be taken away from you with nothing more than a word.

We experience this as children, when parents, teachers, and other adults talk about us and reach conclusions without our input. We experience it as adults, recognizing that every legal decision is based off which lawyer can convince another person better than another lawyer. Which word wins? Which judge will have the final say, and what will he or she say?

So this might not be a relaxing process to start with, but hopefully it will be in the end. Like giving a cat a bath so he can be healthy and clean again.

If everything in your life was taken from you EXCEPT for your life itself, what would you be left with?

What is the foundational value of you as a person and only you, just as you are? No flash, no baubles, no security guards, no TikTok or cameras or microphones, no phones, no attention at all from the outside world. No status indicators – no home, no cars, just you, and the food and shelter you need to survive. No clothes, even.

What do you have if you are totally naked and alone? What do you have if you are homeless, living on the street, a vagrant, with only the clothes on your back and the shoes on your feet?

What do you have if you are imprisoned for fines you thought you found a way to get around? Or bills you lied your way out of paying? Or money you thought you were slick enough to earn illegally?

Who are you when you are stripped of everything, including your dignity and pride?

What then?

That is where the real work begins. That is where the only work worth doing can even begin to start. Who you are underneath every single layer and mask that you wear? When it has all been taken from you by force?

That fear, that anger that rises up when I evoke this imagery of being stripped against your will is your ego trying to protect you from going deeper. Don’t let it.

Who you are within the body that houses you?

Without that connection to yourself underneath everything else, you have NOTHING. The more you betray yourself for a dollar, or for approval, fame, popularity, attention, the more you weaken the foundation that the rest of your life can be built upon.

So, let us imagine this connection with our inner self is a peaceful one. Calm. Relaxed.

Thank your anger, fear, and pride for rising to protect you. Ask it to move aside and let you look behind it, within yourself.

At the center of who you really are, it is not hostile. There is no anger. There is no fear. No pride. There is strength, power, stability, but it’s not defensive. It’s meditative. Reflective.

There is nothing to forgive. No betrayal. No hurt. No harm done. Just all that is Good. All that is Good, Healing, nurturing, loving, and solid as iron is within you.

Iron doesn’t roar. If you strike iron, does it strike back? No. But do you get hurt anyway? Yes.

Can you imagine that sense of stability within yourself as strong, solid, and unquestioning as iron? Or do you sense that there is a grudge between you and yourself that is getting in the way of connecting with this part of You?

If there is a grudge, what is it? A dream you have always wanted to realize but you put to the side in order to hustle? Or the career you chose to pursue that your parents told you would be more worthwhile even when you didn’t want to?

Is it the way you talk down on yourself in order to earn the respect and forgiveness of the elders in your community? Is it the hobby you gave up because everyone said it wasn’t worth your time?

Is it the way you treat your body like it doesn’t matter in order to pay the bills? Or all the alcohol you consume, the weed you smoke, the pills or drugs you take just to gain some sense of cohesion in a world that is constantly ripping you apart at the seams?

Whatever comes up, document that in it’s entirety. Write down everything that your inner voice is telling you is blocking you from harmony within you and with yourself. Listen to it like you listen when you want something from someone.

Put your writings to the side once you are done, and try again.

Repeat this process as many times as you need to. Maybe you only had to do it once. Maybe you didn’t have to at all. Maybe you have to do it a dozen or more times. It’s all a matter of how willing you are to connect with yourself that will drive what happens.

Remember I said this would be painful, like giving a cat a bath. The thing about giving a cat a bath is that the cat may never come to enjoy the process. But you as the one responsible for the cat learn to anticipate how it will react and handle it accordingly. That is what you have to learn to do for yourself everytime you want to heal and grow. Your mind is the cat. Your ego is it’s claws. Well, your negative ego is it’s claws anyway but that distinction is better saved for Empower Thyself Inititation.

Whether you’re presenting your mind an opportunity to be cleansed through meditation, an actual healing session, or a class, you have to remember that it also becomes more aware of what you’re trying to do. Just like a dog who hates going to the vet, and knows when he sees his pet carrier that that’s where he’s headed, you too are going to have to learn to anticipate your own mind’s reactions and outsmart it. Notice I did not say outsmart yourself. You and your mind are not one. Your mind is not you.

Return to the mission, the process, the vision. You connecting with that iron pillar within the center of yourself. We won’t get there entirely through this process. It is just a start. If you want to go deeper with this experience outside of a simple mental exercise, check this out.

What does it feel like to connect with all that is good, healing, peaceful, calm, strong nurturing, powerful, stable, loving, and as solid as iron within the center of you? Do any words come to mind? Colors? Visions? Do any of your senses pick something up aside from a feeling?

How does it feel to embody this wholeness?

Can you expand it so that it fills your body entirely?

Walk around with this sense of embodying your Higher Self today. You can always go deeper with it.

If this is something you want to explore on a higher level, in a higher plane of existence, the Modern Mystery School offers a class called Sanctuary Meditation to help you with that. Every Certified Modern Mystery School Teacher is trained to guide you in a process that can support you in cultivating a deeper connection with your Higher Self cohesively. Every Guide might also teach this class, but they can teach this process in it’s entirety in the Empower Thyself Initiation as well.

For today, all you have to do is imagine. Sense. Feel. Allow those imaginings, sensations, and feelings to expand and fill your whole awareness of what it means in order to be you at your most stable, your strongest, and your most powerful. The word “pride” evokes a defensiveness that doesn’t align with all that is truly Good about you.

Remember the wise old crone or magician, the grandfather today.

Patient, kind. They are no longer ambitious nor competing in life. They have not given up on life either. Their rat race is run dry. They’ve already come out a victor. Now is not the time to rehash the past nor recant every battle they’ve lost nor won. Their medal of honor is worn within the self rather than decorating it. They are at peace and proud of the life they’ve lived. They have nothing to prove to anyone, and yet the respect they deserve is cultivated within themselves first and foremost. It radiates outwards.

It can be felt. They don’t have to order anyone around in order to be respected. They don’t have to scold nor remind. Their mere presence evokes a sense of duty, honor, respect, reverence, and most importantly, wisdom. You are working with someone who is extremely wise.

Wisdom doesn’t come from reading books alone. It doesn’t come from getting straight A’s in school. Wisdom is earned. It is time-tested, and God-approved. Only the wisest among us can make it to this age and still be joyful to be alive.

This wisdom can be seen in the way he and she holds themselves. It can be felt. It evokes a sense of admiration for all they’ve done in order to be here. In order for US to be here too. At least from those of us with any sense of honor, respect, admiration, and reverence within us to give to another person.

Keep that archetype in mind today. Whether you chose an elderly man or woman. Let that connection guide every decision you ponder or make. Check in with your body, the vessel that houses you, and see where you feel that connection most deeply. Where is it the strongest?

You may be familiar with this exercise by now if you have been with me since the beginning. You know it is one of my favorites.

It’s one of my favorites because it’s important. It works. Most people ask why you want to do something. I like to ask myself “where is this push or pull coming from? Within me or outside of me?” And I like to know the answer so I can connect with it. It is something worth acknowledging and respecting too.

If you don’t have a sense of where your connection can be felt most strongly, what can you get a sense of? You must have something to hold onto that indicates you’re doing the exercise correctly, don’t you? Follow that thread, whatever it is. It will Guide you well in this world, even if it doesn’t always appear to immediately.

Nurture your connection with the wise old Crone, Grandfather, Magician today. Feed it. Be attentive towards it. Do the same tomorrow, and for the next 29 days, as that is who is guiding us forward into this phase of our existence. Young, old, somewhere in between. It doesn’t matter. We need this kind of anchor to help us live a life worth living.

And if these exercises didn’t work for you today, it’s alright too. This process can be a lot to glean from simply giving it a read. If all else fails, turn within and ask yourself “what is there for me to connect with today? What is there for me to learn?” and journal that instead.