ILLUMINATION: Out of the Storm (originally from 8.29.2012)

“When you come out of the storm, you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about.”

~ Haruki Murakami

When I first saw this picture, it affected me on many levels.

Strong symbolism suggests powerful forces at work between earth and sky…with the ocean or sea representing the great unconscious mind radiantly illuminated by cross-currents of electricity passing between the higher cosmos and the land surface (the super-conscious and the conscious mind).

It evokes multiple mental images and even stirs some emotions of fear and awe, of danger and yet witnessing Great Mystery’s jaw-dropping brilliance in super-kinetic motion. Anyone who has ever been through an electrical storm with minimal personal protection from it, knows the excitement and uncertainty of where the next lightning strike may land…near you or not, …always unsure if you will soon become the lightning rod to charge the air molecules around you in one huge burst of unbridled energy or just a smoldering cinder left in its wake.

To me, this picture is a symbol for ENLIGHTENMENT—where the earth-based vehicle (that’s you and me) is suddenly “illuminated” with total consciousness—with total awareness—and super-saturated with Divine Light and energy.

Total awareness and total destruction are both possible aspects of being “struck by lightning” through our direct contact with the Divine. It can be that unbelievably beautiful and that personally devastating at the same time.

So, as Haruki Murakami says, after undergoing such a storm, you will not be the same person that you were prior to it. Because you will have been illuminated,….enlightened beyond your immediate comprehension. You will not see the same or be the same, or think the same, or feel the same,…because enlightenment is direct connection with something so powerful that our small earth vessels cannot contain it—it blows our circuits—it fuses us like copper wire melting during an electrical-current overload.

It forces us to rewire internally: how we think, how we see our lives in relation to others and to the world around us, how we act and react to the daily dramas, to facing down our fears and examining our aspirations under a different context than we had used previously.

When you go through any major storm in life, you come out the other side with a different attitude and shift in perspective on “life storms” in general, and it forces reexamination of yourself on how well you may have handled the situation—what you learned in the process—how perhaps you could have handled it better; or it may give a deeper appreciation for simply having survived the devastation. Major life storms can make you re-evaluate yourself on many levels.

No doubt about it, big storms in life can change you; and yes, as Haruki Murakami states: that IS what they are meant to do.

But with actual illumination and enlightenment, you won’t just be “changed” from the person that you once were, ….you will be recreated completely.  Completely re-worked, completely re-wired. You will see with different eyes, and hear in different ways. You will know that which you never knew before, and with a certainty—an assuredness—that did not previously exist. TRUTH is ever present, wherever you go, whatever you do, whomever you encounter. You will know TRUTH, like you’ve never felt it before the storm.

And you will immediately recognize that you are NOT the same person walking out of it, as the one who had walked in. You’ve evolved.