Dear Reader,

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We're all familiar with the idiomatic expression "Sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees," which to me means we're too close to, or immersed in a subject to see the bigger picture, to get an outside view.

In my lateral thinking, the next thing that pops up is the opening of Dante's "Divine Comedy", (written over 800 years ago, and yet still so relevant to our modern experience): "In the middle of the journey of life, I came to myself, in a dark wood, where the direct way was lost."

To me this speaks of a confusion and disorientation, both within and around, or more precisely, how I perceive what's around me. In the Dante quote, there is also an opening in the phrase "I came to myself." When we're busy with life and work, it's much harder to come to ourselves and so the hidden blessing of 'being in a dark wood, where the direct way was lost' is that we come to ourselves. Perhaps come to our senses? To be invited to reflect on ourselves.

I don't know about you, but 2024 has been off to an interesting start, challenging, but also inviting us to come to ourselves, or at least for me to come to myself. And now it's late February already and we're two months into the new year. As the pollen, at least of juniper and probably other plants since it's been surprisingly warm here, fills the air and tickles our sinuses, and the new growth is germinating, both underground and in the tips of the branches. That growth comes from an unseen place, the void that is at the source of all manifestation, the realm of the Dark Goddess.

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If you want to read more of the above, please visit my substack.

Yes, Cathy and I have started substacks. Hers is here.

Substack, to us, as of now, is an interesting way of building a community of shared ideas through reading.

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I think there's an urgent need for a community where we can safely explore our uncertainties, as I begin to discuss in the excerpt above. I have heard from quite a few therapists and similar professionals over the past few weeks and months, who have been very interested in psychedelic therapy, but also have frustrations and anxieties around this and how it's being delivered. As I explore in my latest substack post, psychedelic therapy is unconsciously replicating the hidden dynamics in society, around expectations of healing or being helped. So one of my intentions for this year is to create a community, a safe space for those of us who are called to be in healing roles, where we can explore the anxieties that come up, the uncertainties and the Shadow aspects where we are unconsciously reenacting existing patterns. I think it would be great to have a community where we meet regularly, over an extended period of time. Watch this space for more details.

I also want to create a safe space for those who are curious about psychedelic therapies and have a lot of questions and uncertainties. I realize my efforts to combine aromas with psychedelic therapy were in part motivated by my own uncertainties. Besides aromas what is needed is really a holistic model of the psyche. What is needed, some of which I can already name, some of which is still hiding in the Shadow, is "before and beyond psychedelics" and can guide us every day, especially without psychedelics. 'Without psychedelics' to me means that while they can be important steps, we must not be seduced into thinking we 'need' psychedelics to grow or that they can allow us to spiritually bypass, and that we grow by facing the hard truths lurking in our Shadow and integrating that awareness every day. I think making the unconscious conscious is more important now than ever, when unconscious forces are having a seeming vice-grip on politics, world events and the environmental catastrophe. I hope that together, we can create a safe space where we can each practice response-ability.

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Florian

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