Joy
in the
Healing Process
Interview by Kris Steinnes
At 81, Marion Woodman is currently deal- ing with health issues and she spoke to me about her process of how she is accepting where she is in life, and accepting death in a way she hasn’t had to before. In this process she is dealing with some pretty sharp fears, and sharp pain at the thought of leaving her beloved family and friends.
The day I spoke with her she had just re- turned from a long walk with her husband and she realized the possibility of death has moved her into life in a profound way. She spoke of this paradox as she found the beauty as she went outside – the cherry blossom tree in front of her house and the apple blossoms in her back yard were in full bloom, filled her with tears at the beauty and awe at the cycle they’re going through, eventually bearing fruit.
“Such a harmonic to live in, this all has its own particular rhythm, and we have our own particular rhythm and to bring those together, and take the time to see these trees in blossom. Knowing this isn’t going to go on forever, and the sheer miracle fills me with delight and awe.”
I asked her when one is going through the pain, such as she just experienced, how can you find joy in the healing process?
“I think for me I had to turn in, become deeply introverted, recognize where I
16
Woman of Wisdom: An Interview with
Marion Woodman
am, and at the same time recognize how dearly I love my friends and family, so there’s a terrific wrench between staying and leaving.”
Marion, a Jungian psychologist, views life through her Jungian material, and she knows every situation brings through the opposites. She realizes the way she has loved nature, friends and family has given her a foothold that allows her to look at that beauty, knowing that it’s not going to be there always, so she can move into the positive side, as well as the negative side, both together. She says you have to embrace the negative too. You have to be able to recognize the truth and recognize whether you really do believe you’re mov- ing onto a new dimension of life.
I inquired what that looked like to her. She described this can be a dark hole, the end of everything, or will her faith be strong enough to know that the actual situation of this life will be replaced by a different life. Does she really believe that she’s going into that other dimension? For her that’s where faith comes in.
“For me I believe there is another dimen- sion and I just won’t be in a dark casket in a dark hole, and it’s that sense that there is another life on the other side. I have a feeling that I have come from another life into this life, and now will be moving on into another dimension.”
When Marion first realized how ill she was, she felt defeated, frightened, and sad beyond words, because she could not quite locate herself in the positive side. She hadn’t gotten a hold of the possibility yet that she really believed in eternal life. As the weeks went on she had a strong sense that yes, there is another life on the other side.
And that’s the mystery.
In Marion’s life she has had many experi- ences through music, nature – the sheer glory of nature – and through people that
June/July 2010
she profoundly loved and they have loved her, where there is that mystery that el- evates the life. That two beautiful cherry trees in bloom, would be outside her window when she and I talked is a mystery. She feels that she is part of that mystery. That cherry tree will go into a different phase tomorrow, change to deep red leaves and eventually there’ll be cherries on that tree, and that is such a privilege to watch and participate in.
I responded how that’s like a child being in wonder at seeing things for the first time. She feels we all have that. The beauty, glory and excite- ment, the mystery – children get it. Then the shades come down at some point and that sheer excite- ment of that spiritual dimension is lost. It’s possible to re-experi- ence it with our children and grandchildren, if we listen and walk with them. Marion has experienced that through working with many adults, that they have a knowing there is another dimension at work and will go on working after the breathing of this life stops.
How can she be so sure? Her answer sim- ply is – “there is an eternal presence that floods our life, while we are on this earth if we give it a chance to speak to us. Most of us are running around trying to make this life work and we don’t take the time to feel in our body. Our culture has become a heady culture; it doesn’t have time for the body to just tremble with the glorious beholding.” The body is speaking to us and she feels it is extremely important to keep quiet and let it speak.
She states to just allow the experience to come into your body, so that you feel a shiver of a divine dimension. There is a shimmer that accompanies this – if you are in harmony with that cherry tree, or a person that you really like and your souls
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