Sunday, May 29, 2016

JUMPING MOUSE The Role of the Raccoon , the Guide


As soon as the raccoon completes his task of guiding Jeremy to the River, he leaves quietly, unnoticed. He will return to the edge of Mouse Village and await the next person who needs a guide to the River.
Raccoons are midwives who assist in the birth of consciousness. Although the role of the midwife is critical, the focus is the birth, not the midwife. Once the birth process is complete, the midwife is often forgotten. As soon as the raccoon safely delivers Jeremy to the River, he appropriately averted Jeremy’s attention away from himself and his role as a guide and directed attention, instead, toward the next phase in the mouse’s journey. The raccoon’s timing was impeccable. He knew when his task with Jeremy was complete. He sensed when to introduce Jeremy to the frog and when to slip away unobtrusively.
All animals, including raccoons, represent the instinctual self. Meeting with the raccoon was also an indication that the little mouse was coming face-to face with his own instinctual self and was beginning to trust inner impulses.
Raccoons have no need for control, no need for adulation, and no attachment to outcome.
No limit is placed on the number of Raccoons we can have in our journey. And our Raccoons need not only be people. Raccoons can be turning-point experiences that can appear in any number of forms. A book, for example, can appear at a critical juncture and serve as a guide to the next stage of our journey. But no matter how many Raccoons we may have, the experience with our first Raccoon is always a cherished memory.

Activity

Pause a moment and reflect on a significant Raccoon in your life. Who was that person and /or experience waiting on your path once you left Mouse Village?


In what way did that Raccoon guide you into the next phase of your journey?

 Write you reflections down and then can share them with us in our next session.

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Jumping Mouse- The River of Life


An interesting point in our story is that the mouse went to a river. If Jeremy had gone to a mountain instead of a river, her would have began to climb, for mice can maneuver in earth. But mice can't manage in water. His mouse self was rendered helpless before something he was unable to manipulate and master. He could only surrender to the song of the river and listen to its voices, which together make up the music of life.
When we live in Mouse Village, our identity is determined by who and what others tell us we are. Once we look in the river, we no longer need to depend exclusively on the opinion of others for self-knowledge. The River of Life gives us a more profound way of knowing ourselves. The River, which is life, is a mirror. The people, the situations, the symbols in our life merely reflect inner aspects of self. The mirrors in our outer world reveal messages we would otherwise not be able to hear.
When we look in the River of Life, we begin to see our inner selves. We begin to take responsibility for our underlying issues which determine why we attract certain people and particular situations in our lives. In time, we can detect our weaknesses, the aspects of self we are most afraid of, reflected in life around us. We see our greatest strengths mirrored and face those fears as well. What would happen if we claimed all our power? What would happen if we allowed ourselves to be all that we are? What would happen if we did not undermine or sabotage ourselves?
When we listen attentively to the many voices of the River, as did Jeremy, in time we may discover the oneness in it all and realise that the voices in the River belong to each other. We no longer distinguish the merry voice from the weeping voice, or the childish voice from the manly voice, or the lament of those who yearn from the laughter of the wise. All the voices are interwoven and interlocked, entwined in a thousand ways. All of them together are the world.
We enter that transcendent state of oneness, described so poetically by Herman Hesse in Siddhartha:

"When he listened to this river... to this song of a thousand voices, when he did not listen to the sorrow or laughter, when he did not bind his soul to any one particular voice and absorb it in himself, but heard them all, the whole, the unity; then the great song of a thousand voices consisted  of one word: Om- perfection."

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Saying goodbye to Other Mice

When we stand ready to cross the threshold and leave Mouse Village, we review the people and experiences in our lives. We place the people and events in our lives with a new perspective by beginning to understand their significance. We relinquish judgment and become gentle with ourselves and with others.
If you have ever examined the underside of a homemade quilt, you are struck by what seems to be a hodge-podge of knots, hanging threads, and raw edges. How could anything beautiful be made from such randomness and confusion? But when you turn the quilt over, you see a beautiful, intricate, delicate pattern. Each piece is an integral part of the whole design. Each piece is placed deliberately in relationship to the other pieces. Placing people and events in your life is rather like turning a quilt over to the right side. You begin to see how each part of your life is an integral part of a far grander design.
Once we place the people and events in our lives, we are no longer restricted by our history; we are empowered, instead, by a deeper understanding and a sense of honor about our past.