Can you love anyway?
Art: "Strong Girl" by Lucy Campbell
by Lian Brook-Tyler
Can you love anyway?
We have just completed the final circle of Liberty Quest, our eight-week shamanic, alchemical journey with the spirit of the Mushroom, and what I learned from this crucible is something that I’ve seen many times before but never more clearly than now.
The nature of this journey and the challenges that it brought were far more intense than would typically be the case in an 8-week journey, some of those challenges were directly related to reactions to Mushroom itself, and some of them were because of the painful depths of what the Mushroom was illuminating.
At some points, the level of challenges arising - projections, reactions, resistance, and running for the exit - was akin to what we’ve experienced with our much longer, deeper crucibles like Medicine.
And no matter what was arising, I was continually guided to give everyone the space to make their own choices about how to and whether to continue in Liberty Quest.
There was no need or pressure to do anything that didn’t feel right for them: They could choose to leave us, they could choose to stay and continue ingesting the mushroom, they could choose to stay and not ingest the mushroom, they could choose to wait and see what felt right further down the line, and they could choose to stay and play with suggested ways of ingesting that might make it feel more manageable for them.
And there was the constant spoken and unspoken assurance that no matter what they chose, they would be supported, understood, accepted, and most of all, loved anyway.
I didn’t do this with any end goal in mind, I didn’t project forward and imagine what would happen, and if I had, I don’t know whether I would have predicted that the people who were talking about leaving would stay or go, I was only doing what I was being guided to do.
Come the end of the eight weeks, every single person had made the choice to stay and was still with us, having experienced more momentous events, courageous choices, and deep healing than you’d believe would be possible in that time.
I don’t know what would have happened had they felt more pressure and judgment to stay the course, maybe they would have stayed then too, but I have a sense that the unfolding would have been quite different, perhaps less treasure would have been discovered, maybe their knowing of their own power and courage would have been diminished.
Liberty Quest has shown me more clearly than ever the power of each of us having the space to make choices, knowing that we are loved anyway.
It’s not usually the case, especially in this modern world, that we have the space to choose what feels right for us… To stay or go, pause or progress, to say Yes or No… without the threat or fear (actual or believed) of losing belonging and love.
So if we want a world in which we are free to do what is uniquely right for us, there is an invitation for all of us, and especially for those of us who are change-workers… to allow others - our clients, students, partners, children, family, friends - and ourselves, the space to consider and make the choices that are presenting themselves, even when they might bring endings, obstacles, and changes, and to love anyway.
And when we don’t feel able to love anyway, to take a long, loving look at what’s in the way of that.
Because perhaps loving anyway is one of the rarest and yet most emboldening, empowering, and liberating things of all.
All my love
Lian
P.S. The next Liberty Quest is coming in the autumn, register your details here. Also, last week's podcast is all about working with teacher plants in the way we do in Liberty Quest.
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