The idea of ‘wholeness’ is at the heart and core of any healing journey, found in many practices and traditions across the world. It is a symbol that holds the restorative energies of completion and integration. It depicts a state where everything is included and in relation to one another, both within and without.
And while absolute wholeness can never be fully attained, journeying towards it is an essential part of our growing and maturing in life. We gather its gifts and treasures while on the path of developing ourselves and every now and then, in the midst of our inner work, we catch reflections of its purity and essence. It’s in the spaces where conscious and unconscious meet and recognize each other. In the edges where our light encounters our shadow. In our hidden depths where our adult-self witnesses and reaches out to our inner-child. It is in the re-membering of deep recognitions and self-knowings long lost and rediscovered.
For Carl Jung this is the path of ‘individuation’, the ultimate developmental goal in life. We individuate when we unfold to our utmost potential and stretch our fabric of being into its fullness. We have to meet ourselves deeply and intimately if we are to walk our path of true potential. We have to forge connections between our consciousness and our wild and vast unconscious, both personal and collective. We have to trace and piece together our recent and ancient Self into who we know ourselves to be. We have to widen the vessel of consciousness that carries our existence.
Systemic theory also sees wholeness as the source of health or dis-ease. Here the focus is on the relationships between parts of a system. A system is any group that has shared rules, values and boundaries of belonging, like our family, culture, religion and any other such framework. Systemic consciousness is acutely aware of any exclusions or missing pieces of the system. Its movements are driven by the intrinsic value of completeness and it will engage future generations to fill the missing spaces in order to complete this goal. Systemic wholeness is essential for health and balance. And once again, we come to face the inexorable fact that we are ancient, existing and influenced beyond the limits of our egoic self.
The work of the soul is integration work. It rests on healing our inner and outer splits and on weaving ourselves into unity, as individuals, societies and ecosystems. When we turn within to do our inner work we gain access to our core, a web of interconnectedness and guidance. We encounter our past, we ground in our present and we open up into our future. We weave stories of who we are, where we have come from and listen to the whispers of the path ahead.
Maria will be running Family Constellations workshops on 17th June, 15th July, 16th Sept, 7th Oct, 18th Nov, 16th Dec from 2pm – 6pm. For more info see the Workshop page hereor contact her to book at: maria@towardswholeness.co.uk.