The subject I’m most gripped by today is the way that when it comes to living things, downward-inward motion inevitably forces upward-outward motion, and how when we are stuck in “healing” phases (aka inward-downward) and seeing no actual “results” from all of that healing, something is stopping that natural progression. If it’s not an immovable fact of life that’s inhibiting your mobility, it’s likely fear.
When you are growing a plant, roots like to travel downward first. Therapy, unpacking the past, shadow work, inner child work, psychic excavation, “healing” in general — these things make up that inward phase of growth. It’s the act of planting yourself underground like a seed, and stretching roots to rappel down as you explore your underworld.
Once we’ve traveled down below to our own personal “underworld” — the internal world — we still have to break the husk (sometimes it feels like a small act of violence, like birth) and let our lives grow upward-outward too. This means taking uncomfortable action.
If you have been going inward-downward for a long time but not seeing changes in your life, you have to take action now. You have to withstand the discomfort of breaking the shell. Even the mooniest crab sheds its shell. Even the softest newborn infant comes out screaming. The little seed pushes roots down and leaves upward.
If you feel like you are stuck in an endless “healing” phase, like you are compulsively seeking another tunnel inward, another answer to an undefinable question, another layer of psychological skin to peel back, another guide, another whatever, you probably need to stop digging and seeking some undefinable perfect state. That is a trap. You need to take action, and you will most likely have to be unsure when you do it.
A lot of people come to astrologers, coaches, energy healers, and people in related fields for advice on this and many, many answers come through these channels. I have an entire offering called The Root — it’s literally designed around this process. But you have to know when you’ve done enough inner work and it’s time to do some outer work. And you have to know this for yourself. That’s the whole point here.
All of life cannot go inward. The seed sprouts roots and those roots travel downward, but at some point, the actual plant has to shoot upward and into the open air too. You need to take action. You need to move forward. You need to add outer work to the inner work. I talked about this in my piece on the 2nd house as the gate out of Hades too.
You’re stuck in refining the product design (perhaps even literally, lmao) without ever having tested it out. Testing it out probably involves feeling like an idiot in public or in relationships, not quite knowing what you’re doing yet, stumbling around like a wobbly baby deer as you try to find your footing and figure out how to walk in this new internal world you’ve created through all the work you’ve done. That’s okay. You’re human. That’s what’s supposed to happen.
Love this! I have been taking Divine Harmony's Astrology and your Shadow course and so much of this comes up. There would be so many moments where I would be doing shadow work and then the call to do the action or face the shadow in the outworld would come up, I feel like a deer in headlights trying to do my inward practice out, but I had been doing to tools and you got to go for it. Messy and all! It's a constant wave to ride of in and out. Of course these past few weeks were the most intense for all this inward downward, upward- outward! Thanks for sharing this!
Okay, now I’m crying. 🥹 thank you for writing exactly what I needed as I’m feeling stuck in an endless loop of digging deep. I need to get out of my rut and keep go do something with all this new growth I’ve given myself. 🧡