Cycles of Seven – Part 3

This is the third in a series of articles entitled “Cycles of Seven.”  They contain a personal review of my life grouped into stages of 7 years.  Each cycle carries an emphasis on a range of personal awakening and acknowledgement as viewed by being. The intent in sharing this is so that any who read this might create their own life overview and may find rest in the memories and experiences remembered and forgotten. Then perhaps closure may occur in the unresolved places of life as they fall away. Then there can be the experience of gratefulness for the happy, fulfilled moments so that they can be placed into the stream of the future adding to the richness now. These are in a bulleted format because they are vignettes of thoughts and impressions.

Ages 15-21 years – The Gonads: the awakening of heaven and earth.

The spirit of the new earth (grounding the conscious connection of the human and the Being).

• The time of searching and finding my own way, figuring out conscious independence: rebellion is liberating.
• Exploring contrast and learning to honor limitations while questioning rules and regulations.
• I am not what everybody says and thinks I am.
• Exploring the depth of feeling, concerns about body image. Loving myself just as I am, making peace with who I am, and learning to understand and accept others as they are.
• Life is so full and crowded:  school, homework, social activities, working in a job, participating in sports.  There is little time to ponder and find space to know myself.
• Defining what I like and don’t care for, dealing with the pressure to conform to the mould of society, to be the ideal student.  What do I want to be?  Am I good enough?
• The compulsion to choose a direction of career while needing to fit in and belong.
• Desiring more understanding about how things really are and how they really work.
• The longing for relationship and intimacy
• Working with the compulsion to provide leadership and the pressure of being “responsible”: maintaining and driving a car, keeping up acceptable school grades in subjects I could care less about, choosing a college, serving in the military
• Developing relationships, friendships that will last a lifetime and exploring the depths of intimacy with the opposite sex, managing raging hormones
• The time of individuality, feeling good about me, what life has given me with the seeming limitations.  Seeking assistance with my limitations (the guru phase) while empowering and expanding my inherent gifts and talents.
• Leaving home, the foundation and support I’ve had from the beginning, heading out and deciding which direction my life will take, wanting to be a part of something that is personally meaningful
• Being okay with the people of authority that have governed my life that say “we have taught you all we can, now go out and make something of yourself.”
• Acknowledging and committing my life force to something higher.

The time of the gonads (new earth) primarily focuses on connecting the individual spirit with what is resonating among all living things, a fuller awakening to how I connect body (physical), mind (mental) and heart (emotional, i.e. Spiritual) with life itself.   The greatest challenge in this cycle of awakening is not to be swayed and distracted by the monsters of technology and “the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them.” You begin this cycle identified in the human urges that focus in the hormones and complete the time knowing full well that these powerful influences are part of the many gifts given to us by the Great Spirit to be used by Being. Mantra: I am trusting and move on even though I cannot fully see the road ahead.  My prayers deepen with each passing year and the longing to understand more is exhilarating.  Accepting things just as they are will be a life long lesson.