Rebirth within Life

Rebirth is a natural part of the cosmos, meaning it is a natural process.

A scientific process, as well as a physical and spiritual one too.

I briefly mentioned the death-rebirth cycle in my previous post, how the two are always interconnected. So here I will dive deeper into this with the intention of it bringing clarity to many parts of your life.

Are you familiar with the concept of the macrocosm and the microcosm? How the same process happens on a grand and minute scale, and everywhere in between.

A good example of this is how we are the vessels of change - when we shift our frequency - we also shift the frequency of our planet.

The Earth shifts and we shift.

The Earth is the macrocosm and we are the microcosm going through the same process.

The macrocosm is the whole. The microcosm is the part.

It is the link to the axiom "as above, so below".

Back to the death-rebirth cycle:

The natural world shows us the many ways that cyclical rhythm is present -

the seasons, a day, a year, the sun, the moon - all have phases.

We see this around us everywhere in nature, and how the whole is made up of the parts of the cycle, and how each part of the cycle has its process that contributes to the whole.

This cycle is present within us too:

In our cells: Billions of cells die every day (through apoptosis, the body’s natural process of programmed cell death), while new cells are born to replace them. Skin, blood, and gut lining cells especially regenerate at a rapid rate.

Digestion: The food we take in is broken down - a kind of “death” of its form - so its nutrients can be assimilated and reborn as part of our own body.

Breath: Each inhalation is a birth of new life-force (carried in the oxygen we inhale), and each exhalation is a death/release (carbon dioxide). Breath itself is a living cycle of creation and dissolution.

The Nervous & Immune Systems: Constantly renewing, repairing, and recalibrating - old connections are pruned while new ones are made.

Reproductive Cycles: In women, the menstrual cycle is an obvious monthly death–rebirth rhythm; in men, sperm production cycles similarly renew.

This natural law of the cosmos is everywhere.

Are you still with me?

Now try to apply this to your life.

When you become a parent for example. You are no longer a single person, you are now a guardian of another precious life.

When you get married, the single version of you is now different because you also have to be a part of a union - a whole.

Every change in our lives is some kind of death-rebirth process.

Some are micro and some are macro versions.

A tree can drop its leaves, return its energy to its roots, rest in its 'death' phase then begin its 'rebirth' in the spring.

Our lives are way more complex than that.

What isn't always clear is how this process will play out. There is absolutely no rule book, guidebook or internet course that can teach you the way.

On the human level, you are pretty much on your own, figuring out one of the greatest cosmic mysteries.

But figuring out through the experience is what becomes our wisdom.

We can support one another - I find guidance when I listen to the stories of others who have walked similar journeys. I get lost between the words, I see the synapses joining their story to mine. I absorb their experience like reading a book, or being given a key to a locked door.

By turning inwards, to nature, the earth and the cosmos - you find support.

Life is filled with metaphor, symbolism, reflection, synchronicity and pattern.

To navigate each part of the death-rebirth process you simply need to pay attention to what is around you and to what your body is telling you.

What you need, what you don't need.

This is where a new world comes alive. The old world, the higher world. It's all one - all part of the cosmic process of evolution.

I believe that we walk a spiral path, each return to the same spot comes slightly higher than the last time. Like walking up a spiral staircase and pausing at each landing.

The death-rebirth process is essential to support us in dropping away what we no longer need to carry because shedding old weight is what allows us to move up the staircase to the higher - lighter spiral round.

Recognising the natural & cosmic phases of each part of the process is how we begin to integrate this wisdom from our lives.

It begins by recognising your pattern, your loop.

When we are looping rather than spiralling that means we are simply missing the opening point for the shift.

Unfortunately when we open the portal from loop to spiral we must go through the messy process of death - liminal space - rebirth.

Yes I added in another phase there. I'm sorry.

But, this is the phase that you may recognise the most.

Its the phase where you will be asking yourself questions such as; What is wrong with me? Why am I stagnating? Why am I losing friends? etc. Sound familiar?

Think of it like the caterpillar inside its chrysalis, eating itself, becoming unrecognisable goo.

What comes after that phase for the caterpillar?

Can you see how bringing consciousness - intention and attention - to this process makes you wiser to the ways of the cosmos?

Lets now break the phases down.

The death phase:

Old ways need to shift

Something or things in your life, or about you, are changing naturally.

The world may taste, smell and feel different (to your inner senses of course).

You may recognise it, or you may be in a state of resistance.

This is why watching your loop is helpful - you recognise where you are staying stuck. This leads to finding the opening to the new.

Resistance is your messenger, its telling you there is something to push against. What is one thing us humans fear the most? Change.

Change = outside of comfort zones. Of course we are going to resist.

But open that portal into change, into receptivity of what is new - that is how this phase ends.

The rebirth phase:

You are literally like a full size, newborn.

The world feels strange and familiar.

We return to the energy of the child, curious and inquisitive, we may feel alive with creativity.

But we need to be all parts of ourselves here - it isn't stepping completely out of the old and into something bright, shiny and new - it is integrating a new part into what is left of the old.

The tree grows each year as it goes through its seasonal phases. We do too.

The priests and priestesses of Egypt who were the architects of the temples, worked with another cosmic principle. One that Thoth and his consort Seshat governed - the concept of the seed stone.

A seed stone was a small brick of a previous temple that was placed into the foundations of a new temple being built.

The concept honoured all that the previous temple has held, and done. Yet even temples needed to be rebuilt. To house the newer created energy.

We are living temples. We shift and change, every moment of our lives.

Our own death-rebirth process is how we honour what was as our seed stone, taking all of our wisdom gained forward whilst shedding what is no longer needed.

The liminal phase:

Quite frankly this is the part where you feel like you have no idea what is happening.

It may appear as your car breaking down, your alarm not going off, becoming unwell, and one of your friends falling out with you all at once.

It is the return to the void space - the cosmic womb - the place of all answers and questions.

It is the chaos phase, the tower moment, and it can feel as though it lasts for a long time.

It can even be the dark night of the Soul.

You may have many endings and beginnings to figure out all at once or over-lapping in a way that feels never ending.

You are in the thick of the process.

You are becoming a version of yourself that you dreamed to be.

You have to flow with the natural process happening within you.

The mastery gained from moving through the death-rebirth process is phenomenal.

This is living life as sacred.

The old which you sacrifice is the nourishment for the new you.

The word sacrifice means to "make sacred".

Can you imagine moving through a process such as this with awareness? Quite frankly I am unsure it will be possible, but I know in my body that it is something to honour.

The stories and myths of Ancient Egypt speak of death for rebirth.

Osiris was killed by his brother Set, not once, but twice. His body was torn into 14 pieces and scattered all over Khemet. Isis, Nephthys and Anubis found all but one parts of Osiris.

Isis used magic to vitalise Osiris' Ka - his light body - to conceive the young Horus.

From death came new life.

Osiris, who as king, had been the provider of wheat, nourishment, prosperity and peace, lived on in the duat - the under/inner world.

He brought light to the darker places.

In my next blog I will share how I have moved through a death-rebirth process within my body.

How I have listened to the wisdom of my grief, experience and followed the guides placed before me to discover the ways to honour the process of dying and regenerating anew.

Thank you for reading, I would love to hear from you in the comments below. How does this resonate for you? Can you relate to anything I have shared?

With love,

Gemma x