After reading the Soil poem, my editor and most trusted confidant sent me two words: Nigredo, and Jung. I looked them up briefly and found this.
In alchemy, nigredo, or blackness, means putrefaction or decomposition. Many alchemists believed that as a first step in the pathway to the philosopher’s stone, all alchemical ingredients had to be cleansed and cooked extensively to a uniform black matter.[1] in analytical psychology, the term became a metaphor for ‘the dark night of the soul, when an individual confronts the shadow within’.[2]– wikipedia
I now have no doubts about my experience at the Zen Center. It was exactly what I needed, at the exact time, in order to pull me from my slumber, into the light of day. The world works in mysterious ways, and I will never leave zen, or my belief in magic. The world is much larger for me tonight, and in that I’ve found new hope.
The Reluctant Blogger 