A red rose born of the ashes

This is post I wrote at Christmas in response to much that was being shared by fellow bloggers.  I would like to set it free from drafts.  So many of my posts don’t make it as far as being published.

This is a post I am writing ia response to some inner thoughts forming after reading through so many powerful posts filled with pain, loss and sadness evoked by this time of year today.  I had a thought that something may be born out of all of this pain shared here, especially after reading the ways in which so many bloggers out there who are suffering have also reached out from the pain in their own hearts to support others undergoing dark, dark, painful times.

In the midst of this rumination I had a vision of a pile of ashes giving birth to a blood red rose of suffering, of pain, of wisdom, of courage, of insight, of love.  I had the thought that something powerful and loving and good could come of what are the ashes of all of our collective suffering.

At the moment we are in the midst of painful and healing square between the planet of wounding and healing, Chiron and the planet of limits, boundaries, aloneness, restrictions, karmic burden and self sufficiency, Saturn.  Is it any wonder that so many people out there have been feeling as though they cannot go on.

I do know that it is when we reach the absolute limit of what we feel we cannot bear that some of us find something that is incorruptible that births deep within us from out of and in the midst of this place.  It is an experience and process that is difficult to give words to.

The metaphor in astrological symbolism would be the bird that goes into the flames and burns clear of pain and suffering to emerge as the phoenix.  Maybe many of us at the moment are in the depths of the dark precursor of the phoenix experience.  Our capacity to give  voice or structure (Saturn) to wounds and pain (Chiron) is part of the healing for there is not only a personal but also a deeply collective quality to this suffering we are undergoing.

I feel that on some level so many of us are going through this dark night, phoenix experience for a reason.  I hope it is just not wishful thinking and that this idea strikes a chord or sounds a note of recognition in the hears of others out there.