I have made a mindfulness practice of pulling a card every day, after my morning opening ritual to greet the day and prepare myself. Yesterday I pulled “The Shield”. It surprised me because I don’t consider that I’m a particularly shielded person. Why it came up emerged as the day progressed, and it kept rendering interesting ramifications.
I’m currently working on Book Two of the Seed Song Series. I’ve finished Book One: New Moons, and now this para-normal, sci-fi, hero’s journey story continues. The significance of “the shield” ricocheted within the unfolding plot within the chapter I’m writing. The protagonists are living within the protective border of a camp as new colonists on the planet, Tiga. They are under threat and very vulnerable due to the violation of that protective border. So this was the first recognition I had about the role of shielding during the day.
Then, in the early evening, I took a dear friend out for an after-work birthday Margarita (her drink, not mine). While we were in the restaurant, she was notified that her store’s alarm had been triggered. She left briefly to check on everything and found nothing amiss and shut it off. It wasn’t until later that I registered that this also qualified as a shield event. Interesting.
Finally, shortly before retiring, I recognized a more profound level of significance regarding shielding. I don’t understand or claim to believe in past-life scenarios but even so I had a strong impression that seemed sourced from some other time frame before my current lifetime. It was triggered by the movie, Manchester by the Sea, which was a very compassionate look at a man’s life that carried tragedy involving his family. What it called up in me, however, was an impression that there was shielding in my psyche that had been carried forward from tragedy, public persecution and suffering from several previous lives. Who knows how time works, and if consciousness can travel through different lives? Perhaps as an empath I am simply gleaning impressions that are stored in energetic space and they’re not past-lives but simply ambient in the collective unconscious. Whatever the context, my interior emotional landscape seemed to recognize that some significant shielding has been going on and that at this time – due to adequate available energy, social support, emotional resilience, a triggering exposure (and possibly soul-memory) it is time to lay down that shield and allow the feelings of loss and pain to wash through me now.
This relinquishment of control is a profound relaxation that carries great healing potential. I started thinking about memory and forgetfulness. There are new therapies being used to address PTSD that involve forgetfulness thereby enabling someone to function without constant traumatic triggers linked to memories. Shielding is not wrong by any means. There are times when it is absolutely vital, but there are also times when the shield needs to be acknowledged and times when it gets in the way. It feels like what is being asked of me in the moment is to realize this shielding has been operating and to dismantle it for it is no longer necessary and the energy it takes to keep it in place could be used for creativity and healing and fresh expression.
