Dear reader, do you know the story of the Rainmaker?
Apparently, it was one of Carl Jung's favourite stories, originally told by the German sinologist, Richard Wilhelm. I first heard it through Richard Rudd and the 46th Gene Key. Rudd uses the story to talk about the Shadow of the 46th Gene Key - Seriousness. Even though I'd read the story over and over, it didn't make sense to me until Friday evening, when the realisation of its meaning hit me in a very visceral way.
As I was sitting in my comfy chair in Nick's room, winding down from a long week, I pulled up the Shadow part of the 46th Gene Key in Rudd's book and my eyes stopped on this sentence:
"He doesn't make it rain; he is simply attuned to where it is about to rain. This is why he doesn't have to do anything other than show up wherever he feels like going."
It was in that moment that I realised my personal meaning of the story. I was reminded that when we live from that deep place of inner knowing and intuition, that place of unconditional self-trust, that's when our external lives match our internal ones. Our lives become full of beautiful coincidences. And it is not about being lucky but rather having a natural ability to say "yes" and "no" to the right things.
It is about embracing life as it happens.
Very often, when I play board games with Nick and his mum, they tell me how lucky I am. I tend to draw the best cards or roll the exact dice that I need. It may seem like it's luck to the outsider, but I see it as being attuned to the present moment and making the most of the cards or the dice rolls that I receive. I let go of any attachments that I may have. In that moment, I let go of what could be. I simply show up and play the game with the cards and the dice I get. According to Rudd this act of not interfering with life is what luck truly is. I would agree.
So why is it so hard to bring that same mentality to everyday living?
When it comes to knowing what to say "yes" or "no" to, we most often allow our minds to obsess over things. We forget the art of embracing life as it is, and instead, we interfere with life. We force things. We try to fit into things that are not meant for us. We get frustrated and angry until we break down or until life breaks us down. We allow the Shadows within us to run the show, whether consciously or subconsciously.
As I mentioned last week, it is not about eliminating those Shadows, rather, the aim is to learn to live with them, to allow them in, to accept them as part of who we are.
The more I've sat with that idea in the past week, the more I've become to realise that the aim is to open up a conversation with our Shadow. And that is literally what I've been doing in my journal. I've been having a conversation with my Seriousness. I've given my Seriousness a voice. And you know what? By doing that I've been able to accept that my Seriousness will never go away. That my Pathway of Challenge is here to stay for life.
That means there is a well of wisdom to be uncovered from our Shadows, and through that, embody our Gifts. It is all part of the lesson we are here to learn. Your shadow is may not be Seriousness, unless you were born around 24 September. Your way through your Shadows will also look different to mine because it is your way, your quiet contemplations, your inner knowing, your path to tread. But the process of allowing, accepting and embracing is what unites us.
And I keep coming back to this question of how can we as a collective utilise this modality, or any other modality and the wisdom they allow us to uncover so that everyone benefits?
I am seeing a direct correlation between my astrological natal chart and my Gene Keys profile. My prominent Virgo, Gemini and Mercury energy is a correlation to my 3/5 profile and the Gene Keys themselves. Both Virgo and Gemini are very mental energies. And what I mean by that is this need to analyse and discriminate, to communicate and to learn with and from others, to improve both systems and the self, to - what my teacher Britten refers to as - filter out the unnecessary gunk.
Gemini is the throat, the lungs, the breath; Virgo is our digestive system. Mercury is - again, borrowing the words of my teacher Britten - our "capacity to think, speak, learn and reason." That means that I am literally here to test stuff, to experiment, to embrace the process of trial and error, to follow my joy. But I am not here to do it in isolation. I am here to talk about it all, to share my voice, to have an impact, and to offer the wisdom of my lived experiences to the collective. And the only way I can do that is when I embrace my Shadows - a process I like to refer to as my Sacred Work. The Sacred Work of my Virgo, the Mutable Earth within me; and the sharing of my Cardinal Air of Libra, my Sun, my Life's Work.
Again, your natal chart may look a lot different to mine, but there are gifts within it to discover. Your role within the collective is mapped out in that chart and in the Gene Keys. It is mapped out in your DNA, whether you're aware of it or not. But just like Rudd suggests, we are not meant to take the language of the Gene Keys so literally. And this can also be said about the natal chart. As Rudd writes in his Genius Book, these modalities allow us to familiarise ourselves with our storylines, and it is up to us to figure out the external role in our life. Most commonly, and I see that pattern in my own life, it is the Shadow that stops us from figuring it all out.
If you're familiar with astrology but not the Gene Keys, or you're familiar with the Gene Keys but not the astrology, I'd love to invite you to dip your toe into the one you're unfamiliar with and open up the magical door of even deeper inner work, your Sacred Work. Allow yourself to sit with one piece of the puzzle for as long as you need to. Allow yourself to be frustrated by the process because sensemaking does not happen in a linear way. More often than not, I've found, the breakthroughs happen when you least expect it, when you're winding down from a busy day, or doing something practical - when your mind is not obsessing over it or forcing it to fit into a neat box.
Even this letter to you, dear reader, started with one thought but ended in a place I didn't see myself go. What a Delight it is to embrace life as it happens.
Wishing you a week full of unexpected delights.
Til next time,
Love,
Silvia
P.S. Thank you for allowing me to share with you my deep, deep love for music. Last week's unexpected delight: Leif Vollebekk - Hot Tears
P.P.S P.S. If you feel called to support my work, I’d love to invite you to buy me a coffee. No pressure though as I share these contemplations out of pure joy.