“Once there was, and once there was not…” This paradoxical phrase is meant to alert the soul of the listener that this story takes place in the world between worlds where nothing is as it seems.
(Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run with the Wolves
Morpheus: I imagine that right now, you’re feeling a bit like Alice. Hmm? Tumbling down the rabbit hole?
Neo: You could say that.
Morpheus: I see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, that’s not far from the truth. Do you believe in fate, Neo?
Neo: No.
Morpheus: Why not?
Neo: Because I don’t like the idea that I’m not in control of my life.
Morpheus: I know exactly what you mean. Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I’m talking about?
Morpheus: This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.
The Matrix is one of my all-time favorite movies. I love the action. I love the adventure. And I love that there is this permeable veil between two worlds. It feels familiar to me.
And not.
I have such a tendency to evaluate my life through objective data, through raw facts, through my five senses. What if, instead, I relied upon the subjective, mystery, and a sixth sense? What if I allowed for another entire story to be playing out around, in, and through me all the time? And what if I was able to, at least from time to time, experience myself in that tale – in a world between worlds? What if I could pierce the veil?
Thousands of years ago people did not separate the physical from the spiritual, the soul from the mind, the body from the spirit. All was as one. The veil was nonexistent. It was just as “normal” to experience a burning bush or miraculous healing as it was a day at work or the meal one had just eaten. Conscious reasoning worked differently then. There was an allowance for and acceptance of the unknown. There was no demand for everything to make sense. In fact, everything did make sense because the same questions were not being asked.
Something in me misses this. It’s as though there is an aspect of my sub-conscious or pre-me memory that spills into my consciousness. I somehow remembers and recognize this world between worlds.
I want to go there more often.
What miracle might I embrace that I now either totally miss or intentionally disregard? What mystery might I hold and embrace that I now feel the need to explain away or completely categorize in my brain? What of God? What of prayer? What of grace? What of faith?
A world between worlds…
…where nothing is as it seems.
- Fear about money is opportunity to know providence and beneficence beyond explanation.
- Stuck-ness in writing is a mystery that beckons yet un-thought thoughts to dance across my screen.
- Frustration in parenting is the miracle of imperfect love and the embodiment of the holy.
- Questions in relationship are gifts of hearing the other’s truest emotions.
- Doubt about God is the vast and glorious space in which God most profoundly exists.
- Anxiety over the future is the gift of grace and faith.
- Depression and sadness are deep wells of passion and one’s heart expressed.
Piercing the veil means that I live with the unknown, the unresolved, the unexplainable – without demand. It means that I walk through my days with hands, mind, and heart wide open. It means that I expect the miraculous and amazing to occur. It means that the sacred is around me all of the time. It means my story, my reality, my very existence is far larger, more significant, and interconnected than I had ever dreamed. It means I can risk, explore, wonder, dream, and hope in wild and nearly-crazy ways. It means that I can pray – and know that I am heard. It means that I anticipate encounter with God. And it means that I don’t have to make sense of any of this. Or, that everything that happens does make sense – but I don’t have to explain it.
The world between worlds. It’s so close.
I want to pierce the veil. I want to take the red pill (or at least look absolutely fabulous in the black latex and leather).
The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
(Oscar Wilde)
Without mysteries, life would be very dull indeed. What would be left to strive for if everything were known?
(Charles de Lint)
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
One of the hardest things for me to say is… “I don’t know.” But seriously? What do I know?
You make me smile, Rebecca; whether you mean to or not. What do any of us know? And more importantly, why are we so damned determined to have to know? Maybe if we didn’t seek so hard after knowing, we’d actually be able to rest more, allow more, breathe more, live… But what do I know?
I love that I make smile… on purpose or not. Why do we need to know? Control, baby… we are all desparately trying to stay in control. But ya know what? We cannot control squat! It is all an illusion… Knowing, control… all of of our frantic striving to figure it out and get it right… It is freakin’ exhausting. I love what my favorite “fictional” psychiatrist Sidney Freedman once said.. “Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice. Pull down your pants and slide on the ice.” Loosen up baby, let it go… Breathe.
Ronna,
This is a wonderful post. Reminding ourselves of mystery makes life magical. I see that mystery through my kids eyes. I see it in nature. I hear it in conversations with others.
Mystery surrounds everything – is fluid – is a whisper – is a dream.
Not knowing it all is the adventure.
Love your words, Jesse; especially “Mystery…is fluid – is a whisper – is a dream.” So beautiful, magical, and perfect. Thanks for naming it and inviting even more of the same!
Love this post Ronna!
“It means my story, my reality, my very existence is far larger, more significant, and interconnected than I had ever dreamed.” – to KNOW that we’re significant and important and ONE with each other. I see glimpses of that world between worlds more and more often!
Love the mystery too…the chance for something out there, whatever that may be!
Shawna Cevraini´s last [type] ..Some Truths
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