Birth is always preceded by a Strait.
What is a Strait? I'm not talking about someone's sexual orientation. I'm not talking about the opposite of "crooked." I'm not talking about Jesus in the Bible, per se. I'm not talking about Maritime Law (although it's interesting to note that a lot of birth lingo centers around it due to the "vessel" of the human body being "born" on "the waters").
I'm talking about a narrow passage -- some tight physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual space that is meant to be traversed, passed through or over, in order to get to the other side.
Nature is invariable with this law. Birth is and must always be preceded by a Strait. A human child must pass through the birth canal. Mammal animals must do the same. Birds must force their way through a small crack in their egg -- they must literally work only to shatter their own walls of protection. Plants are much the same; forced to come out of their shell or remain a dormant seed indefinitely.
But, the beauty: however impossibly small the hole or crack -- Nature gives way to the birth. The birth is inevitable. In its time, the birth must come.
Let's talk in tangent about a Seed. Maybe you've thought about it before, but just what does one little Seed hold? Sure, it holds the plant that will emerge from it, but then, that plant holds any number of seeds which will hold the same. Follow this through, and you'll soon conclude that one Seed may hold an entire field or forest. And all of those future fields and forests, in time, could spread across a Nation, multiple time zones, an entire Continent -- and possibly be carried beyond to new, unfathomed but fertile lands.
Just so you don't think I'm fluffed in the head, let me tell you about one of these little plants that did just that. Ironically, its fluffy. You've probably seen it cropping up in the Spring. It's almost in every temperate zone on the Earth. It's called the Dan-de-Lion, the Lion's Tooth. It's not native to the Americas, but sailed here in the hands of the European Settlers. Look at how many seeds ONE FLOWER can produce! And if you've ever cared to maintain your yard, you will know that if that one flower gets half a chance at producing its own seeds, you will have many more happy yellow faces smiling at you next Spring.
All because one little plant, one little Soul inside of one little Seed, decided to break through its Strait and explore the potential of what it might find on the other side.
A Straight represents something more than a narrow physical space. It represents a dilemma of Being. To pass through it, is to submit to its pressures, its risks, its vital dangers. As intelligent Beings, the journey through a Strait assaults all three levels of our existence:
It assaults one's body, requiring a certain amount of health and function -- and often alteration -- in order to pass through.
It assaults one's spirit or energy, testing our reserves of endurance to make it through without stalling somewhere in the middle and succumbing to swift energies of greater force.
Often, these energies -- wind, water, heat, cold, pressure, breath, life, death -- are what formed the Strait in the first place, and they linger there, guarding it and tinging the space with its own flair and fervor.
It assaults our very soul, our will and reason to even pass through it at all.
Why pass through a Strait? What birth do we seek, if any at all? Nature will answer that question for you as you begin to walk in Her footsteps. Your Vigil will show you the way. One possible reason may be that perhaps you are possessed of that timeless force called "Mystery." You don't know exactly what, but something lies on the other side of such a narrow situation, and you've simply got to find out what it is. The water may rage and crash on the rocks, but you -- your Soul -- it wills to know.
It has to KNOW.
Others might tell you what they've found on the other side. That's well enough if they are well intentioned. But even good intentions and friendly invitations won't replace or substitute your Soul's healthy sense of Mystery and longing to Know. Others may help you get through any fear you will face as you pass through your Strait on your way to a new birth, but the nature of a real Strait is that it lets very little through besides yourself -- your Body, your Spirit, and your Soul.
My wife just returned from a small women's retreat called "The Art of Living Wild." One of the activities in which they had engaged was a hike through the forest that led them to a rare frozen waterfall. It just so happened that a massive cold front came through the very night before this hike, and the high temperature that day was something like -20 degrees Fahrenheit.
Straits can take on a heat-form. In this case it was physical, but you might encounter extreme changes in emotional, psychological, or spiritual temperatures as well. Nature likes to create synchronicity when we seek her through our Vigil.
Wild woman that Robin is, she recounted to me that she was not about to duck out of this opportunity, this synchronicity. She had bundled up with all she had, and went out to discover that waterfall. The promise of mystery and magic warmed her.
Along the way, she had a guide: an absolutely massive white dog that took a special liking to her. I believe it stood taller than her when on its hind legs, and knocked her over out of friendly exuberance once or twice. It led on down the frozen trail, as if to show her the way, as if it knew what Mystery she might be seeking, but more importantly, that she simply needed to seek it.
Just before they made it to that waterfall frozen in the Magic of Nature, the beautiful culmination of what they had just put themselves through, they had to pass over a very narrow neck of land -- a Strait -- a natural bridge covered in snow and ice. To slip would mean to fall, and to fall on either the right or the left would mean a serious tumble down to injury. It was too narrow to walk side-by-side with any guide -- human or animal -- and Nature designed it that way.
Moments like this can give you...pause. Adrenaline. Fear. Excitement. Courage. They elicit and evoke your sense of freedom and capability. That's really what a Strait does. Or at least, it should. The problem is, so many people immediately squelch that sense of freedom with mental chatter. The Soul's instinct is to smile at the romance of such a crazy-narrow path, to dance across it with the omnipotence of its own grace. To bleed energy, effort, and life-essence in the name of Mystery and adventure is essentially what we, as Souls, come here to do. Any pause we may feel, is simply the pause before the Knowing.
It's that quiet chaos in which we stand just before the contractions start. Just before the birth is come. It is within this Silence when Nature whispers: Every birth is preceded by a Strait Passage.
Be vigilant. Awake to your circumstance. Follow the scent of synchronicity.
Enter your Strait, however narrow, however ominous. Push towards your Birth. Wait for your Birth. Nature will give way to Birth.
And then...then you will Know the Mystery.