I watched the recent Dune movie and although it seemed technically flawless, I also wasn’t too moved or captured by it. (Although I will certainly watch part two when it comes out.)
I was reminded of the fascination with saviors we collectively have, some more than others. And, in this case, a predestined and prophesized savior.
WHY ARE WE FASCINATED BY THE SAVIOR?
Why are we fascinated with saviors and the savior archetype?
One answer is obvious. We may feel we need to be saved, sometimes and in some areas of life. Life seems too difficult. We may experience a lack of direction or meaning. We may want someone else, or life, to save us instead of doing it ourselves.
Another answer is that outer saviors mirror ourselves. We have that savior in ourselves. And a fascination with saviors in the world, stories, or in the past or future, is an invitation to find that savior in ourselves. A fascination with saviors “out there” is, in the best case, a stepping stone for shifting into saving ourselves. We are the predestined savior of ourselves and this may or may not come to fruition here and now.
BEING OUR OWN SAVIOR
How do we save ourselves?
We can save ourselves in the way we wish to be saved by someone else. If I had a magic wand and could be saved by someone else in exactly the way I wish and long for, how would it look? And how would it be for me to give that to myself?
Here are some possibilities I find for myself when I explore this:
I can give myself advice as I would a good friend. I can ask for help when I need it. I can notice and follow my inner guidance, the small inner voice. I can learn to befriend myself through the kind of self-talk a good parent or friend would give me. I can learn to meet my experiences with allowing, kindness, and curiosity. I can be a good steward of my life. I can find healing for how I relate to my world – whether I call it myself, my experiences, others, situations, or life in general. I can give myself the chance to do what I have always wanted to do, or have a calling to do. And so on.
FINDING WHAT WE MORE FUNDAMENTALLY ARE
And we can save ourselves by finding what we more fundamentally are in our own first-person experience.
In the world, I am this human self. And if that’s all I am aware of, it will feel incomplete since it is. It will feel like something is off because it is. I haven’t noticed most of what I am.
More fundamentally, I am something else in my own immediate experience. I find I am capacity for the world as it appears to me. And I am what the world, to me, happens within and as. I find myself as the oneness the world, to me, happens within and as.
And here, I find that I am – in a sense – already and always saved. Oneness doesn’t need to be saved. Anything related to being saved or not happens within and as oneness. To me, the world is already saved since it happens within and as oneness. (And that’s just one part of the picture since there is always saving to be done in a more conventional sense.)
I find the wholeness that my apparently broken self happens within and as. I find the inherent health that my illnesses happen within and as. I find the wholeness our apparently broken world happens within and as. And so on. And that doesn’t mean I won’t seek healing for my broken self, or treatment for my illness, or – as mentioned – seek healing for our society and ecosystems.
EXPLORING THE SAVIOR DYNAMIC
So I may notice our collective fascination with the savior archetype, even if it happens in a story like in Dune.
I can find this fascination in myself. I find examples of when and how I wish to be saved. When I dream of a savior to come and rescue me. (In periods of distress, I certainly notice it.)
I can identify more specifically how I wish to be saved, in specific situations when this comes up.
I can find ways to give it to myself.
I can find my more fundamental nature and where the ideas of saved or not don’t apply.
And I can still engage in support and metaphorical saving in a more conventional sense, as needed.
This is not about “doing it all myself”. This is more about finding my savior in myself, and sometimes that savior will ask others to help me.
THE BEFRIEND & AWAKEN PROCESS
These days, I find myself drawn to what I call the befriend & awaken process.
I notice a contraction in me. Contractions are uncomfortable, so these parts inherently wish to be saved and some other parts of me wish to save them.
I notice the physical contraction and where it is in my body. I rest with it. I notice it’s already allowed.
I notice it’s here to protect me. Thank you for protecting me. Thank you for your love for me.
I find what the contraction wishes for, what it more deeply wants. I may try out a few possibilities, give each one to it, and see how it responds. For instance, love, a sense of safety, support, being seen, and so on.
I notice my nature, and that the nature of the contraction is the same. It happens within and as what I am. In another language, I see it as a flavor of the divine.
I invite the contraction to notice its own nature and rest in and as that noticing.
I take time with each of these explorations. I rest with it. I notice how the contraction responds and how it relaxes and unwinds when I find something that resonates with it.
This is one way to deeply “save” the parts of us that may feel they need saving.
Note: There will always be parts of me that don’t want to save these other parts of me, and they themselves are contractions that can be explored in this way.
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