Smoky Path from PDPhoto
Smoky Path from PDPhoto

“What a long time it can take to become the person one has always been. How often in the process we mask ourselves in faces that are not our own?

How much dissolving and shaking of ego we must endure before we discover our deep identity—the true self within every human being that is the seed of authentic vocation?

We arrive in this world with birthright gifts—then we spend the first half of our lives abandoning them or letting others disabuse us of them…

Then—if we are awake, aware, and able to admit our loss—we spend the second half trying to recover and reclaim the gift we once possessed.”

~ Parker Palmer, Now I Become Myself

This is one of the most frequently asked questions, whether directed to mentors, counselors, coaches, astrologers, psychics, our “believing mirrors,” and, in prayer, to the Divine: What is my purpose? Why am I here? What’s my work in the world — my reason for being here?

Bernard of Clairvaux (detail), North Aisle Stained Glass Window, St. Louis Church, Buffalo.
Bernard of Clairvaux (detail), North Aisle Stained Glass Window, St. Louis Church, Buffalo.

If it makes you (or me) feel any better, it’s said that the monk, mystic, and Cistercian Abbot, Bernard of Clairvaux — who would seem to have already figured out this question of vocation — would wake up each morning and, as he rose from his pallet, would ask, “Bernard, Bernard, why have you come here?”

This is such a great question, and one that shows the power of transformative inquiry in evoking and inviting insight and inspiration.

An array of other evocative questions that I’ve grown to appreciate, and ask regularly, includes one drawn from Frederick Buechner and Angeles Arrien:

What has heart, joy, and meaning for me; and where does this meet the world’s need?”

And another comes from Carl Jung:

“What did you do as a child that made the hours pass like minutes? Herein lies the key to your earthly pursuits.”

The name of Parker Palmer’s article (quoted above), Now I Become Myself, draws from a May Sarton poem that I’ve featured here in Sophia’s Children: Now I Become Myself.

The poem — and my Sophia’s Children musing —  is about “wearing other people’s faces” because our own awareness of our authentic gifts and vocation have been hidden away or “educated out of us.”

As Palmer notes and we’ve likely figured out, too, we must set about on a quest to reclaim it, which is often proves quite the creative adventure and Hero and Heroine’s Journey.

Sister Joan Chittester, OSB, in “A Time to Choose a Direction,” writes this about the journey we take to reclaim our vocation and sense of purpose (and making the effort to discern just what that might be):

Rain and a golden reflection on a forest waterway. Public domain photo from Larissa Koshkina via PDpictures.net.
Rain and a golden reflection on a forest waterway. Public domain photo from Larissa Koshkina via PDpictures.net.

“The Chinese say, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.”

But the aimlessness, the confusion, the anomie that go with it, wear us down, wear us out. …

Everyone needs to carry light into the darkness of the world around them so that others, too, may follow and find the way.

There are great things to be done by each of us and each of them takes great effort, requires great struggle, will face great resistance. But the way to the empty tomb goes through the mount of the cross.”

In keeping with the musingin which I explored the Virgo Magic and Mysteries — something that anyone with strong Virgo placements in their chart would experience as areas of ongoing inquiry — we delve more deeply into to these very Virgoan words: discernment and vocation.

Bacchante, c. 1892, by Frederic, Lord Leighton.
Bacchante, c. 1892, by Frederic, Lord Leighton.

**** Discerning Your Unique ‘Identity Essence’ – Questions that get right to the core of it (this audio program and eWorkbook are included in the Feminine Mojo Mystery School collection).

**** Proceed as Way Opens (Sophia’s Children post, quoting/mentioning Parker Palmer)

**** Our Deepest Calling (Ivy Sea Wake-Up Juice edition)

**** What Makes You Come Alive? (Ivy Sea Wake-Up Juice edition with Howard Thurman quote)

**** Following Your Bliss (and the Hero’s Journey) – Ivy Sea Wake-Up Juice edition)

**** If It’s Difficult, Is It The Wrong Path? (Sophia’s Children archives)

While we reclaim and discern these questions of our vocation, purpose, and path, it’s important to gather Believing Mirrors (and be our own), as well as discern and prune or minimize the Diminishing Mirrors and other psychic and energetic vampires and dream-crushers in our midst.

For more personalized purpose-clues, consider a Sophiastrology reading/consultation or Golden Thread Coaching consultation — or a combo/hybrid.

You’ll find current Reader & Client Appreciation specials here … click.

In the meanwhile, breathe deeply and be well.

Big Love,

Jamie

The Fair Face of Woman, by Sophia Gengembre Anderson (1823-1903)
The Fair Face of Woman, by Sophia Gengembre Anderson (1823-1903)

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Many thanks, and lots of love,

Jamie