The Right Now of Heaven and Hell
We Live What We Create
The horror of everyday life lies in its simplicity. It’s loaded with choices. Horrifying! In the words of the Brooklyn poet Walt Whitman, in Song of Myself, “. . .. Nor any more heaven or hell than there is right now.” To retreat from or advance into states of mind and being in the world is a choice. It lies before each moment of every day. Heaven and hell.
The challenge to move past the hellish fear that can lock you up takes strong, translated, sensitive psychic muscles. Sometimes, you feel weak, the sense of yielding, collapsing into lethargy. There’s tiredness and a lack of desire to plug into life. We feel like hell, we say. And there’s no denying the reality of that state of mind and being in the world. We’ve created it, and we live it.
Gaze Heavenward
Girding yourself and mustering the sensitivity and strength to do what you need to do, to live up to your positive potential in each situation or relationship, is what Taoist philosophy calls gazing heavenward. And it is key to a generative state of mind and being in the world. But, as with all things in life, getting there can be hell. And that’s okay if we’re getting there and don’t stay in a rut-and-stuck mentality. That’s hell!
The old medicine woman in The Unholy states, “The young one must accept her calling on her own. Only then can she battle the forces of evil. Should she retreat into fear, she will die.” What strong words! And the words are true. There’s nothing quite like living in fear and letting it dominate your mind, thoughts, and actions. It holds you down so badly that you’ve unwittingly colluded with evil. It’s a dark force that erodes goodness and well-being and seeing the simplicity of choices.
In depth psychotherapy, I help individuals find their way out of a life of fear and move into accepting what life brings their way and dealing with it. “Deal with it,” we say. And dealing with it as forthrightly as possible makes you a more sensitive and stronger human. You have to side-step anxiety and fear and embrace your potential to advance into life—to deal with your fear, learn from the past, and move on with your life! Heavenward gazing beats the heck out of its hellish alternative.
Live a More Soulful Life
Readers have told me that reading The Unholy felt dark and scary, but then something happened, and decisions came into play. Decisions come into play in the story that is your life. Decisions form your life story and shape your soul. Choices that take you away from your sense of self and life are unholy. They leave you out of sorts, irritable, and sometimes downright mean. But sensitive and true choices usher you out of the hands of the demon god of irritability, pain, and death and into a more sensitive and soulful life.
A while back, I finished a Stephen King short story that dramatized the demon god of pain. I like that designation of the dark deity that feeds on pain. It’s an image that captures the pernicious energy attaching itself to an injured person vulnerable to self-pity. The more they feel sorry for themselves, the more the demon god can feed. And the more the demon god gorges, the worse the pain. It’s hell! The pain becomes chronic, and the person becomes more self-pitying, fueling a vicious cycle.
I’ve seen this phenomenon at work with people addicted to misery. They crave it. Given the choice—and there is always a choice—they choose what’s harmful. And then things spiral downward. Misery begets misery. Pain, juiced by self-pitying, worsens pain. With King and the demon god pain and in The Unholy, the pain is physical and psychic. An exorcism is required, and its form is dramatic and unique to each story.
Reading metaphysical horror helps you exorcise the fear, underlying anxiety, and pain that is unique to you and your life. It ushers in a more soulful life, unique for each person and intimately tied to choices. Deciding to read daily is a simple choice to live deeply and exorcise angst through stories. It’s a choice to look heavenward once you’ve gazed into the abyss and seen it’s not for you! We read, get into the flow of the dramatic tension of metaphysical thrillers, go through twists and turns, and release anxiety, fear, and the hell that has lived within and has been manifest without. Then, movement is made toward the living of a more soulful life.
Read daily and deeply
So, reading daily helps you move toward living a more soulful life by dealing with life’s fears, horrors, and demons! It helps you dig out of hellish attitudes and ways of being. It adds oomph to your attitude, clears your head, and boosts energy. Reading as exorcism! What a thought!
Reading horror helps you deal with things and unlock locked-up places of mind. It opens your mind to the heaven and hell of right now and moves your gaze heavenward. You get through a story and exorcise closeted fears and open the psychic atmosphere to new spirits and life-giving states of mind.
In essence, your life is a work of creative fiction. It’s you living your life story according to your choices. Whatever your decision, remember that heaven and hell are right now, and it’s you doing your life as you choose, including nourishing your ability to dig out of hellish states of mind and gaze heavenward by reading daily and deeply.
