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Epiphany: A Personal Transformation
By Jim Miles
The month of January is the threshold we cross over from the old year to the new. The word "January" has its roots in the name of the ancient Roman god Janus, the guardian of portals and patron of endings and beginnings. He is shown having two faces, one looking backward and the other facing forward. As a time of transition, might we not want to take stock of our past so as to more effectively face the future and initiate some changes? Is not change inevitable? Is it not time to be proactive rather than reactive? We have the power. It is within us. As we grow and change individually, the collective whole of humanity also changes.
On January 6 of every year, many orthodox Christians celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany, the presentation of the Christ child to the Gentiles in the persons of the Magi, also known as Twelfth Night. The word "epiphany" means to show forth, to manifest. It also refers to a moment of sudden, intuitive understanding, a flash of insight or an experience that occasioned such a moment. Epiphany can be experienced at any time, and I had one in late November.
It had been almost three months since my dear friend, Tess, had passed on after a valiant but frustrating five-year struggle with a debilitating illness. For weeks, I had held on to her ashes contemplating without success the appropriate disposition of her remains. When old friends invited me down to Galveston for Thanksgiving, I suddenly remembered my many early morning walks on the beach and meaningful sacred sunrise services. And, just like that, I knew what was to be done.
On Thanksgiving morning, I awoke at 6:00 a.m. in my Galveston friends' home, quickly dressed and drove to a special part of West Beach, which had become sacred to me. Rolling up my pants legs to my knees and firmly clutching the container plastic bag of Tess' remains, I began to wade into the ebbing water wondering where exactly the sun would rise. I slowly sloshed through the water toward the resplendent pre-sunrise celestial color-fest. As the far horizon began its rich multi-hued spectacular explosion of color heralding the rising sun, I scattered Tess's ashes into the wind, watching them gently drift and merge with the waves. Sea water symbolizes the creative power of feminine energy, the cosmic womb, often times referred to in sacred scriptures as, "the deep," "the abyss" or "the void" from which the manifest world is generated, incubated and reborn.
Symbolically, as Tess's ashes dissolved into the sea (the Gulf), I knew my dear friend was returned to the sacred source wherein she would be transformed and resurrected into the fullness of the resplendent light of the sun. In this world of polarity, the sun represents the masculine energy of infinite, divine spirit. Within seconds, the sun crested the horizon and actually appeared to be rising up out of the water. Intuitively, I felt Tess's spirit, transmuted in the cosmic abyss of the divine womb of the sea, now emerging luminescent and radiating her light on us all. As the sun climbed higher, above the horizon, I felt the liquid pulsation of her dazzling radiance permeating throughout my body. The feeling was euphoric. The sunrise service over, I remained awash in gratitude and thanksgiving. This experience was indeed for me an epiphany.
Rituals to honor and thank our deceased friends and relatives can offer closure as well as something more powerful. As we walk through our own ceremonies with deep intentional feelings of loving, thanking and releasing our loved ones, not only are we uplifting their spiritual energy fields but also our own, and the vibrations of the entire world. As a mystic rabbi once said to me, "Jim, you lift your finger with love and the remotest outreaches of the galaxy are affected." That is how profoundly interconnected and interdependent we are and how awesome are our deeply felt intentions! Rituals provide the space to allow our sacred heart to powerfully express itself.
Having a surfside, sunrise ceremony can provide many practical applications for us all. Instead of the remains of a dear friend, "your container" might include old thought forms, thinking patterns, attitudes, people, relationships, situations and/or conditions which have been in your life but are now gone or you would like for them to be gone. At times in our lives, it becomes necessary to "let go" to make room for new experiences. As these "old attachments" are released into the sea, visualize them emerging brilliantly as the sun of spiritual transformation. This is an effective way to lovingly cleanse ourselves of people and situations, which are no longer with us or are no longer capable of serving as positive influences on us. Thank them for they have served us and have brought us to this place in our lives.
This is a powerful technique one can utilize when at the beach or the bay to transmute negative energies into positive aspirations. Results vary, but oftentimes changes begin to take place in us, in others, and in conditions wherein greater harmony ensues.
As we believe, so it will be. Release the past and embrace the future. Live the mystery, trust the magic and experience your own personal epiphany.
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