Advance Confidently in the Direction of Your Dreams!
The Alchemy of the Restless Soul: Turning Psychological Static into Divine Understanding
Understanding Love In Psyche. Let Spirit rise Calls the Sacred Heart
~Thomas C. Maples
The Restless Soul: Psyche at Play
Beyond Knowledge: The Shadow-Work of Insight
Understanding. How many people truly have it? No, not knowledge—not facts or data—but true insight into that which we experience. It is the “knowing” that lies in the shadows behind the words or pictures. This is the calling of the restless soul, the psyche at play.
Pathologizing the Stirring of Soul: ADHD vs. The Interior Garden
Have you ever felt restless? As far back as I can remember, a restlessness stirred within me. It called my attention away from the “ever-important” lessons of the classroom toward the world of my dreams. Perhaps that is why the doctor labeled me with ADHD and wanted to medicate me. Thank God my family and I refused.
When we turn to the Saints, we find that their lessons actually assume a state of internal agitation; they see it as the necessary preface to the heart opening to sacred mysteries. While the modern world treats this listlessness as a symptom to be medicated, the spiritual tradition views the “interior garden” differently.
The soul is like a garden… the Lord himself plants the flowers and the soul’s job is to water them so they do not wither. But when the soul is restless, it is often because it is trying to find a way to let the Water of Life flow in.
~ St. Teresa of Avila
I doubt any growth can take place without this restless undercurrent. Psyche grows in its flight of spirit, which redirects us toward our personal and collective heart.
The Classroom of the Saints: Testing Our Wings
In the classroom of the modern world, we are taught to sit still. But in the classroom of the Saints, we are taught to listen to the stirring. My “restlessness” wasn’t a lack of attention; it was an abundance of it—an attention directed toward a horizon the textbooks hadn’t yet described. When the Psyche is at play, it is testing its wings. It is only in the Sacred Heart that this movement finds its rhythm, turning the static of anxiety into the symphony of Understanding.
When Spirit Rises
The Resurrection of Affect
There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls.
One of my favorite motivational sayings is from Jim Rohn: “You can’t hire someone else to do your push-ups for you.”Why? Because they would benefit twice, and you would benefit none. They receive the physical strength of the exercise and the reward for the work completed.
Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials,
for you know that the testing* of your faith produces perseverance.
And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
The same is true for spiritual understanding. A motivational speaker may stir your emotions, but they cannot do the “heavy lifting” of the soul work required for transformation. Perhaps that is why the modern world is so alluring—it offers us the Puer Aeternus (the Eternal Youth), a promise of pure spirit and high energy without the gravity of discipline needed to forge an internally disciplined spirit.
In the spiritual life, we waste nothing. Even our suppressed “affect”—those feelings we’ve pushed into the basement—can serve as fuel for the Spirit to rise. These yearnings and deep-seated fears are not just “symptoms”; they are a calling. They “gnaw” at us to ignite a divine frequency. When we tune into that frequency, our natural afflictions become the very source of our exponential growth.
We must not be disturbed by the restlessness of the mind… for even the most beautiful garden has its weeds. The struggle to sit still in prayer is the very work that prepares the soil for the Spirit.
~St. Teresa of Avila
Agape, Understanding, and the Sacred Heart of Spirit
Understanding Love
In Psyche. Let Spirit rise
Calls the Sacred Heart
~Thomas C. Maples
The Alchemical Chamber: Turning Lead into Gold
The restless psyche leads me—but to where? That is the key. The psyche stirs the spirit to act, but to what end? If the psyche is the fuel and the discipline of the spirit is the “soul’s push-up” that ignites the fire, then Agape (the highest form of love) is the gold that emerges from the Alchemical Chamber of the Sacred Heart’s burning crucible. This Alchemy of Spirit unites our human understanding of painful memories and raw experiences, transforming them into a divine storyline that ignites a spiritual flame for others to follow.
The Trinity of Time: Past, Present, and Future
The modern classroom teaches that “Understanding” is merely a cognitive achievement. However, in spiritual terms, it represents a profound integration of three opposing forces: the Past, the Present, and their relationship with our Future. While the future is only foreseeable, it is only sensed as deeply as the past and present allow themselves to act in service to this unknown factor. This creates an intimate understanding—an Agape—for the path we ultimately create.
From Dissonant Static to the Divine Symphony
Understanding is a gift the Sacred Heart bestows. It takes that which is dissonant and creates the order necessary for a divine frequency to be heard. When we meet the Sacred Heart with that “gnawing” restlessness, we sense a shift. We move from the self-centered “static” of our own suffering to the expansive symphony of love found in the “one-verse”—the Universe.
Out of Many, One: The Unity of Love
E Pluribus Unum—Out of many, one. I wonder: what can our psyche do with a form of unity like that? What opposing force could possibly divide the solace found in such a unifying force? It is the ability we all possess to love our neighbor as Jesus has loved us.
Thank you for visiting. May the Heart of Christ find you on your journey, helping you identify and dance to the rhythm that advances you confidently in the direction of your dreams.
References
Catholic Church. Catechism of the Catholic Church. 2nd ed. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997.
Jung, C. G. Contributions to Analytical Psychology. Translated by H. G. Baynes and Cary F. Baynes. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1928.
Rohn, Jim. The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle. Southlake, TX: Jim Rohn International, 1991.
Teresa of Ávila, Saint. The Life of Saint Teresa of Ávila by Herself. Translated by J.M. Cohen. London: Penguin Classics, 1957.
Teresa of Ávila, Saint. The Interior Castle. Translated by E. Allison Peers. New York: Image Books, 1972.
Von Franz, Marie-Louise. The Problem of the Puer Aeternus. 3rd ed. Toronto: Inner City Books, 2000.
