During my childhood years, my father would take our family on yearly vacations from northern Germany, where we lived, to our summer house at the Adriatic coast. Eager to arrive at his destination where he could finally begin his vacation, Tata (father in my language) drove us in a straight line from point A to B in a good 17-hour car ride through Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia. We were allowed pee-stops but everything else was done in the car, all in the service of executional excellence. We would arrive promptly but under some stress and duress from the ride, deprived of the cornucopia of sightseeing options along the way, and Tata completely drained from so much striving.
What Tata did not consider is that ‘vacation’ is not a destination but a feeling of fulfillment. His omission is the mind’s omission of wisdom, when it presupposes solutions to alleviate pain and fulfill need, while failing to question and understand the underlying reason for having such feelings. Herein lies the core of the power of wisdom: to question our feelings and not force solutions before their message is fully received and understood. In Albert Einstein’s words: “One should never impose one’s views on a problem; one should rather study it, and in time a solution will reveal itself.” This solution is guidance from Spirit, which always arrives in the form of desire.
The mosaic shows a female figure, her head the large lapis lazuli richly endowed with feather hair, the two agate geodes her upper and lower body. She is firmly perched on a vertical row of turquoises representing the Soul’s seven chakras or spiritual powers, more precisely between the 4th and the 5th turquoise from the bottom up. She is our Spirit, and her seat in the human energy system is the higher heart. Her purpose is for us to fully express her, i.e. to become aware of our potential, manifest it and be abundant. Her guidance to that effect comes via the three powers she appears to hold in her lap: our feelings, or ability to receive guidance; our wisdom, or ability to value guidance; and our meaning, or ability to grow from following guidance.
Feelings are the reaction of our consciousness to outside vibrations, be it in the form of body and mind stimuli (e.g. thoughts of lack) or energy (e.g. family tension in car). They provide clear guidance to all those whose wisdom is willing to entertain them and understand their message.
Spirit’s guidance to Tata was that the long driving is exhausting and definitely not fulfilling. Had he been open to wisdom rather than forced his own solution to fulfillment, he would have dropped the 17-hour trip idea and replanned the journey by adding colourful sightseeing stops along the way. In this way he would have experienced a feeling of vacation already at the onset of driving, as well as discovered a new source of fulfillment: sightseeing.
Sightseeing would soon have made him realize that “discovering the world” is his meaning, that it charges his batteries and gives wings to his spirit. Thus had he followed his feelings, he would have connected to his meaning way back then instead of 30+ years later, now spending his retirement years in incessant traveling, discovering and videotaping the world. And had he given this even further thought or exploration, he would have recognized that it is learning and discovery in general that fulfills him – no matter which form it takes. It would have opened so many avenues for meaningful activity throughout his duty-heavy life, and a more potent way of manifesting wealth.
For example, as a medical doctor specialized in anaesthesiology, Tata had an opportunity to join a clinic that offered eastern healing practices, in particular acupuncture, at a time when acupuncture was just beginning to rise in the western world. The opportunity to discover new practices initially gave him great excitement, but he soon rejected the offer on the grounds of judging it scientifically unsound. Yet Spirit gave him the desire for discovery as guidance to empowerment: to be at the forefront of innovation and become independent and potent in his healing and manifesting powers vs. remaining firmly rooted in conventional anaesthesia and thus only a supporting function to other doctors. While he could not, back then, know that acupuncture is one day going to be a respected and widespread practice across all western medical institutions, Spirit did know. All Tata had to do was to reign in doubt and fear, trust his feelings of excitement and desire for discovery, and support them against his need for safety.
The power to give wings to Spirit, or grow in potential as opposed to just matter, is represented by the three lower turquoises in the form of Spirit’s legs. The power to forgo forcing solutions against desire lies in self-worth (3rd chakra). The ability to mobilize resources in the service of fulfillment lies with potency (2nd chakra). And the execution of it all and manifestation of abundance lies in body (1st chakra).
The path is thus straightforward: Spirit delivers guidance to its fulfillment via feelings and desire, and we receive and follow it, manifesting abundance and experiencing self as powerful, potent and distinct.
And experiencing self as powerful, potent and distinct is what all humanity is actually after as it pursues stand-in symbols money, sex and prominence. But real abundance and power is achieved only by reaching potential, not by consuming sensual stimuli or matter. This royal quality of Spirit is captured in the symbol of the Lion, the ruler of Sun and earthly power, and in the mosaic as the large lapis lazuli head embedded in the Lion’s mane of blue feathers.
The other lapis lazuli that sits in her lap, symbolising our 6th chakra of Wisdom, represents the key to capturing potential: valuing desire and feelings as guidance to power and not undermining or ignoring them; seeking to understand and heed the message they deliver; and preventing their overpowering by the will of the lesser mind that fears and needs, and forces the pursuit of money, sex and prominence with disregard to Spirit.