Shelter From The Storm

I wrote the following poem in 2009 during a retrograde transit of Venus.  And its a strange piece of synchronicity that we are now in another Venus Retrograde period.

The astrologer Melanie Reinhardt in one of her lectures said that this is a time to keep one’s heart open as a lot of wounds in relationships can become conscious.  And the love we are looking for can be in short supply.  In any case we will be challenged to understand what our deepest values are. In the mythologies of more ancient cultures Venus was not always a Goddess of love, she was also a Goddess of war. At times we may need to go to war in a discriminating way in order to stand true to our deeper values.

Venus retrograde periods may bring these kind of challenges and during them we may experience necessary separations or difficulties in relationships as we begin to wield the sword in a metaphoric way to cut away from what no longer serves our emerging values and growth. (Hope I haven’t confused that with the current transiting square to my natal Venus from Saturn, though as that has a similar theme and the Venus Retrograde deepens those other transits and the need to dig down deep to explore what we want and need in relationship, in an adult way.)

I’m not really sure how this relates to this poem which could have been a presentient piece about the ending of my then relationship.  It does contain themes of deep loneliness I have suffered in experiences of significant abandonment and betrayal or misunderstandings in relationships due to a lack of mirroring and empathy.

However in those really painful times I began to sense a deeper source or energy of affirmation and love that spoke to me and was holding me or willing to give me comfort.  That voice was reminding me to seek for the source of affirmation and support deep within myself and to recognise that all of these experiences were part of the path of growth.  Some of it may be a bit grandiose but the words just flowed out of me.

So here it is:

When everyone is gone

And the space is so empty

Become full in me

I will be your comfort

Your shelter from the storm

No matter where you are

In the so called “real world”

There is a hollow emptiness

At the heart of it

But if you have the courage

To dive down so deep

To enter that deep lonely place

The loneliest of lonely

You will find at the heart

A vast cavern of love

My arms are there to hold you

My fingers will dry your tears

I will be the hollow vessel

To receive all of your pain

When every human being deserts you

As they inevitably will

I will be your comfort

Your shelter from the storm

For a time will come

When winds and storms

Fire, flood and tempest

Will rattle and shake

And tear the earth about

And having found the deep place

You will go there in retreat

Keep your heart open

And trust

As the storms around you rage

Tearing everything

And everyone apart

Know and feel the truth

That your essence

Can never die

And only the superfluous will end

Many will argue and panic

And scramble to fix

The gaping wound

Hollow at the centre

That cannot be fixed

But must be entered

In tender openness

Naked courage

And complete surrender

Suffered through to resolution

And completion

There I will meet you

There will I comfort you

In the midst of the fire and the flood

Those who I call

Who do not find the courage

To fully enter this space

May survive outwardly

But inwardly they will perish

Their souls as hollow and barren

As the empty idols they pursue

Will not be renewed

In the tempering fires

That you have known and suffered

You know this place

So very well

It is home to you now

Though at times it has been

A hell of agony and torment

In it and through it

You have been torn wide open

To embrace the polarity

That ends

With two opposites reconciled

In indivisible totality

Masculine and feminine

Venus and Mars

Become complete

As they shift and oscillate

And coalesceInto a new unity

Through this process

You are refashioned, remade

So the world can be refashioned, remade

Through you

Mercury unites the twin poles

Along the caduceus

As your being is pierced by Mars

As the Sun breaks through the clouds

In in the depths of your heart

You find Oneness

Truth

Wisdom

Love

The flowering of new consciousness

Bursting forth

There is an inescapable truth

Through having the courage

To feel and face and integrate your pain

You are purified and burned clean

Your soul released and healed

But who wants to hear

And embrace the truth of this message?

Its painful

But so real

And yet when you speak of it

Scared souls turn away

Buffeted by confusion

Don’t worry

Let the truth sound out

Don’t silence yourself any longer

Don’t allow the truth to be pushed back inside

Have the courage to walk way

From those who will not hear you

Even though you leave

With the heaviest of hearts

In time the burden will heal

Nothing lasts for ever

All things pass away

And in time that pain

That once seemed so heavy

Becomes lighter

And easier to bear

As you find the strength

And the courage

To release

What no longer serves your growth

Know you will be freed

Trust

I am there

Deep in the silence

And my arms

Long to bring you

Comfort from the storm

I will dry your tears

Without asking for explanations

Knowing there is no need for words

When there is love and understanding

And the truth is only found in silence

Where two souls resonate as one

And in the tearing

Of the entire being

In the fiery crucible

Of love’s vast benediction

There you will awaken

As I give you shelter from the Storm