The Clan of the Dreaming Bear met on Monday night.

Huh?

Simple enough to explain really. We’re a group of humans who gather every other week to open the door to expanded consciousness via Ecstatic Wisdom Postures.

The name Clan of the Dreaming Bear came to us in ecstatic trance in early December. We’ve been meeting regularly for not yet a year but already we’re “tight.” The practice nurtures the safety of community while spurring excitement for edge-walking. This past Monday though, we never even got to holding a posture because our talking circle lasted for three hours, spiraling deep and wide. We amazed ourselves.

Jeff ( explore his website )  ignited a fire when he suggested that we humans are meant to cultivate mystery. Unfortunately, we live in a culture that avoids mystery like the plague.

Yet, seeking certainty is doomed. What a waste of effort!

Jeff went on to describe three levels of mystery. We got positively giddy swimming in his pool. Plunge in with me:

MYSTERY – THESE ARE THE HOLY SHIT MYSTERIES. THE ONES THAT TEAR EXULTATION FROM YOUR THROAT…AURORA BOREALIS, CYCLONES, MOONS AND MILKY WAYS, BIRTHING, DEATHING, SEXING. YOU KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT…THE MAJESTIC MYSTERIES THAT EVEN GOVERNMENTS CAN’T DENY.

mystery – These are the everyday inexplicables and magical moments that happen to most of us – synchronistic phone calls, chance meetings, prophetic dreams, intuitive hits – the events that spice up life by contributing unanswerable questions. Yet these mysteries are debunked and quickly denied, suppressed, or explained away as coincidence.

Mystery – These are the x- factors, the unknowns, unexpecteds and uncontrollables that we’re taught to fear rather than embrace.

For thirty years, I’ve championed fear’s usefulness. There may be no more important topic than a healthy discussion of why we avoid fear at all costs, including the cost of suffocating our lives. Can we not redefine the nature of fear and our relationship to it? Fear is a barometer of aliveness, showing us that we’re no longer stuck in a rut, we’re stepping onto the ledge of our known world, choosing risk, standing in our truth, moving toward loving engagement with our own life’s mystery. Relating to fear as an ally elicits courage, empowers trust, reveals the potency of surrender and in most cases serves to enhance our living.

In one form or another mystery takes our breath away, but there is a huge, though oddly subtle, difference between gasping with wonder and holding our breath in fear of fear.

In your life
today
how will you cultivate mystery?