‘Inner and Outer Seasons’ an extract from Rebecca Campbell’s new book ‘Your Life Had a Dream, Your Life Is It’

 

‘Look deep into nature, and then you’ll understand everything better.’ Albert Einstein

Nature is a mystery school for the soul and the seasons are our greatest teacher. They hold within them the codes to cyclic living, and they show us how to embrace change and transformation. Over and over again, they show us how to be reborn, how to die while still fully living. When we embrace the changing seasons, we say yes to transformation and rebirth. If we see ourselves as an interconnected part of nature, then as the seasons change, we know that it’s possible for us to change too. The most transformative work I’ve ever done, and it didn’t occur until my third decade, was developing a relationship with the seasons. Prior to that I was often out of sync with the pulse of life and my feminine power. Decades spent attempting to be in full bloom all year round, just as society had taught me to, and making it in a man’s world had led to burn out, chronic illness, and a way of living that didn’t fit my soul. However, right in front of my eyes were the secrets of the authentic life that my soul so craved. During my first Kundalini Shakti awakening in 2012, I began to see the codes and the Spirit of life within nature. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed them before. Everything became so much more alive, and I could see how interconnected everything is. I’d walk in nature and write while communing with the plants, trees, and flowers. This daily practice was the foundation where I really started to receive the medicine of the seasons and began connecting with the consciousness of plants. As the trees gathered the courage to loosen their grip on their leaves in the fall, I was inspired to loosen my grip on my need to bend life to my individualistic will. In spring, as the daffodils courageously burst through the frosty soil, hope and determination were stoked within me. In summer, as the roses softened and released the very thing that attracted others to them for the chance of a second bloom, I was reminded of the necessity to create space for something new to be born. And as the honeysuckle called in the bee with its scent, I was reminded to slow down and savour the sweetness. I also studied the traditions of my ancestry, including the Celtic Wheel of the Year; however, it wasn’t until I moved to Glastonbury in 2018 that honouring the seasons became an inherent part of my everyday life. I started gathering with others to celebrate these seasonal shifts and introduced ritual and ceremony into my days. I hadn’t realised how hungry for it I was. This simple change wasn’t a spiritual practice that I needed to do; it was a rhythmic way of living that enabled me to enter a sacred relationship with the Spirit of Life. The more deeply I followed the Wheel of the Year, the more connected I became to the wisdom of my ancestry and the more I felt held, supported, and as if I truly belonged.     The medicine of the inner and outer seasons I noticed that as cyclic beings who are part of the land around us and move through the seasons of spring, summer, fall, winter each year, we also experience inner seasons – the phases that we cycle through internally throughout our lives. I reflected on how my dark nights of the soul phase felt like the depths of winter. When everything’s cut back, barren, and seemingly frozen, it seems as if nothing will ever grow again. However, deep beneath the hard soil, there’s activity. And if we allow ourselves to be cloaked by the darkness of the long winter nights, we’ll discover that soon, soon, soon, the buds of spring will return. And after that, so will the flower and the fruit. I recalled going through another ‘inner winter’ between 2010 and 2012, when my life crumbled. It was in the darkness of that time that I finally answered the deepest call of my soul and started sharing my writing in a way that was much more public than before. I went on to quit my corporate career to focus on my writing full-time and six months after that, I received my first publishing contract. It was through embracing both the inner and outer winter of this period of my life that I was able to fully enter my inner spring and then summer. During my last month in my job, I met Craig, and a year later we got engaged. My first book was published as I entered my inner summer. After getting married in Australia, I returned to the UK and began deepening my work into the feminine mysteries. This was my inner autumn, and the fires of my feminine power began to be stoked. The more deeply we understand the characteristics of the outer seasons and the changes they require of nature (remembering that we are nature and that the seasons are inviting these changes within us too), the more easily we can navigate the inner season we’re currently in and what it’s asking of us. If you develop a relationship with the seasons, you’ll never be without anything to guide you, for you’ll find a wise teacher waiting for you there. As we move through the inner seasons of our lives, it may not look as if much is happening, but inside us, deep transformation is taking place. In both my personal life and my work, I’ve come to understand how helpful it is to know and acknowledge which inner season we’re in because just like the outer seasons, each inner season bears its own gifts and challenges. The inner seasons of spring and summer have a more ‘masculine’ energy that allows us to manifest, to go out into the world and achieve. It’s the energy that we see in the natural world in the outer seasons of spring and summer, with life-force shooting up from the ground and sap rising in the trees. When we’re in an inner spring or summer, this is the energy that’s moving through us – new life, new ideas, the ability to initiate things, asserting our will, and showing up in the world in full force. The energy of inner spring and summer can be wonderfully productive, and we can find great fulfilment in sharing our gifts. However, those of us who have been raised in a toxic capitalist world in which there’s so much focus on this kind of energy, often forget the importance of the other inner seasons we move through. The inner seasons of autumn and winter bring a more interior energy, which is also much more feminine. Just as we retreat into the warmth and safety of our homes during the outer seasons of autumn and winter, so these inner seasons invite us to retreat further into ourselves. To take a journey into our own consciousness and be more private as we navigate our ever-changing inner landscape. If you’re aware that you’re in an inner winter, you’ll know not to push – patience, tenderness, and stillness are required more than anything else. You move from trying to assert ‘my will’ to being open to and accepting of ‘thy will,’ allowing things to unfold in their own way, with their own divine timing. Below is an overview of the qualities of both the inner and outer seasons.     The medicine of spring Feminine archetype: Maiden. The medicine: new beginnings, planting seeds, getting ready to bloom, tending your dreams, upward energy, excitement, hope, potential, inspiration. Feels: exciting, full of promise. Journaling prompts: What lights you up? What’s your soul calling you to do? What’s your heart’s deepest prayer? If you knew you’d be supported, what would you do? What’s your secret dream? What do you want to experience next? How can you truly live?   The medicine of summer Feminine archetype: Mother or Goddess. The medicine: blooming, opening to life, saying yes, pleasure, joy, tasting the sweetness of life, rapture, ecstasy, adventure, energy, solar, warmth, enjoyment, social, play, fun, creativity. Feels: full of life, energy, and adventure. Journaling prompts: What’s rising in you? What are you being called to create? If you were feeling abundant, what would you do? How can you say yes to life? What do you long to do just for fun? What’s blooming within you? What brings you pleasure? What are you being called to embrace?   The medicine of autumn (fall) Feminine archetype: Wild Woman or Dark Feminine. The medicine: letting go, wildness, realignment, courage, falling away, loosening your grip, harnessing your inner power, frustration, sacred rage, alchemy, taking your place, reaping what you’ve sown. Feels: powerful and perhaps daunting. Journaling prompts: What’s falling away? What are you clinging on to for fear of nothing coming to take its place? If you weren’t afraid of your power, what would you do? How are you being called to transmute your sacred rage into something productive?   The medicine of winter Feminine archetype: Grandmother or Elder. The medicine: initiation, rebirth, renewal, rest, going underground, the fertile void, surrender, mystery, unknowing, death, the end is also the beginning, union. Feels: like nothing will ever grow again; a yearning for rest and quiet. Journaling prompts: How are you being called to slow down? What new seeds are you being called to nurture? How are you being called to rest? What does the wise part of you want you to know?   This piece is an extract from Rebecca Campbell's new book Your Soul Had a Dream, Your Life Is It. Purchase our Summer issue where we got to speak to Rebecca more about her work and journey into the world of spiritual journeys, and Stone Connections.