What is the ecstasy of love? How does it feel? How can we connect to it?
Might sound like a fun sensual thing to explore, but it’s much more than that. I believe the degree to which we can actually enjoy life is directly dependent on our willingness, skill and ability to sink into and handle the joy, pleasure and ecstasy of our mere existence. And I am not the first one to think so. Timothy Leary and Antero Alli also see Ecstasy as one of the objective truths of the Universe that is essential for a healthy psyche to integrate, together with the truths of Uncertainty, Indivisibility and Impermanence:
“Ecstasy expresses our most natural state of being when unburdened by the anxiety, over-thinking, and guilt complexes resulting from unsolved survival circuit problems.” Antero Alli, “The Eight Circuit Brain”
Shortly after reading this quote, I was approached by a friend of mine who was interested in doing a shamanic journey together. I’ve been doing shamanic work for years on my own and it’s been by far the most powerful space of altered consciousness, suspended judgement, creativity, wisdom and spiritual growth for me. As I keep telling stories of what I experience there to friends, they keep asking how they can do it themselves and I keep recommending the practice that helped me get started on my own. This friend, however, wanted to go in together. And not only that – he wanted to do it with the intention of ‘connecting to the ecstasy of love’. It was one of those moments where things clicked right into place with a ‘hell yeah, let’s do it’.
What you will find in the video above is a recounting of what arose in the ping-pong of visions we weaved together with my friend, in the form of a short meditation you can experience in your own time. It was a profound experience that triggered a lot of shifts for both of us that I will remember for the rest of my life and has given me amazing inspiration to keep venturing in that space with others (more on that coming soon!).
I am also sharing below a transcript of the meditation, in case you want to use it in some other way. Enjoy the journey!
“We are sitting next to each other in a circle around a fire, under the open night sky. We repeat our intention of connecting to the ecstasy of love and remain calm, enjoying the looking at the fire. At some point, a beam of light starts spiralling up from your heart, moving through your body and out towards the sky, moving up faster and faster until it reaches the clouds. As soon as it does, the clouds illuminate and the light starts spreading through the sky. We are ready to go, so you give me a tight hug and take me with you, flying up towards the illuminated clouds. As soon as we reach them, we see the beam continuing out into space and keep spiralling in open space.
Shortly, we approach a star shining brightly in front of us. You let me go and we start circling around the star like independent electrons, having fun and buzzing faster and faster around. At some point, the star starts pulling us in with its gravity – very slowly and very powerfully. We stop moving and surrender to that pull, sinking closer and closer to the star. As we do, we start experiencing the molten golden chocolate substance the star is made of, feeling its heat spreading through our own bodies, liquifying them until we become that substance ourselves. We are part of the star now and spend some time melting into the pleasure of feeling that hot liquid in our bodies.
Then suddenly, we burst out of the star as two strands of golden chocolate DNA spiralling around each other through the universe, moving at great speed between and around stars and galaxies. We go on like this for a while until we reach the end of the Universe. It’s actually a transparent membrane and we become aware that the whole Universe is like a bubble, beyond which there is even more of that golden chocolate substance. We look playfully at each other – we are both thinking the same. Let’s pop the bubble! Here we go… 3… 2…1… We pop it together! The liquid comes rushing, sweeping us with amazing force, consuming our bodies. It spills over the entire Universe, everything is now full of golden chocolate substance. It feels amazing, we are back to our liquid blissful state, while also swimming in the vast expanse made of it.
We decide to have a pillow fight and start chasing each other in it, laughing like children, in a state of absolute joy and playfulness. After some time, we get tired and sink into a hug, holding each other close and just sinking deeper and deeper into the bliss of ecstasy. Eventually, we head back to Earth – back to the edge of the universe, back to the golden chocolate star, through the clouds, down to the circle of fire.”
Welcome back into an entirely new Universe! You can take this awareness with you and go out and explore how everything looks like now that we’ve popped the bubble.
If you are interested in doing this yourself, check out the shamanic drum journey article that outlines everything you need to get started on your own in 20 minutes. If you feel like journeying together with me (online or offline if you are in Ubud), reach out to me.
Love,
Zori
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