Martha Beck: Where Were You When The Spiritual Revolution Happened?

I have a favourite quote by the Swiss psychoanalyst, Carl Jung: “Beneath the threshold of consciousness, everything was seething with life.”

This notion – that there is life beyond what we know in the physical world of systems and money and society and iPhones – is reflected in a drawing called Three Worlds by M.C. Escher. It depicts a lake with fallen leaves floating on it. Beneath the water you can see a beautiful carp swimming, and reflected on the surface of the water are the now leafless trees.

What these two works, from Jung and Escher, toy with is the idea that at any one time, we are not simply inhabiting one world, but there are others that exist right alongside it. Indeed, with practice we can even tune in to other ways realities, by seeing past the superficial distractions up here on the surface of the water, and adjusting our own perspectives to recognise what lies above it or beneath it.

In Polynesia there are fisherman who know the ocean so well they can navigate their canoes for thousand of miles across open sea just by watching the behaviour of the water - even if they are far, far from land. This is not something that they doing knowingly, logically, but instead they tap into their intuition, their skill and their experience – their innate knowledge – and let it guide them to their destination.

Author and life coach Martha Beck calls this “wayfinding”, and it is something that all of us can do, if we can open our minds and our hearts, get quiet and listen to what our intuition is telling us. It might simply be about noticing what we notice, the things that our non-conscious minds pick out of the constant cacophony of noise that we are bombarded with from dawn until dusk. Or it might a deeper exploration beyond the limitations of words that connects us to worlds that exist outside of space and time – the sorts of places that indigenous Australians might have called the ‘Everywhen’ – a state of eternal presence that takes us past the physical boundaries of what we know, into a unified space where we can connect to everything that was, is or will be.

Wayfinders find their way by listening to their inner compass. They find their own true north by stepping out of the confines of this man-made world of language and rules and processes, and by connecting to a wordless relationship with themselves, their environment, and the universe.

I spoke with Martha about some of the ideas in her book “Finding Your Way in a Wild New World” and explored the notion that maybe, just maybe, there is a spiritual revolution quietly taking place right now.

I hope you enjoy this conversation.

Useful links:

Martha’s website: www.marthabeck.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/themarthabeck