Resting is a new beginning

Becoming permeable to life and the world outside

Greetings dear soul.

Reflecting back on the January topic of my Patreon Core Text this month, I am coming here to explore the deeper nature of writing and creative work as an oracle and how it ties back into resting and new beginnings.

But first a small housekeeping note: For those following me here, fear not, Substack will remain an important part of my presence online and I will continue to use it to delve much deeper into the creativity behind things, and how my nature-based practice inspires the written word. You can follow me on both and honour both aspects of my work, or you can choose one. Patreon is a spot where presence matters more than words and we practice being, while here on Substack words will bring in debate and discussion, thought and consideration around writing, literature, philosophy but very much mind-centered. Both have their spots.

Now back to the main thought topic that has my mind occupied at the moment: I have noticed a lot of chatter over the last few weeks around the new year, around new resolutions and changes on one hand, and (mainly witches) creators accentuating the fact that we are in winter and should not start anything new. (It is unfortunate that we continue to hear the old ‘… ancient celts…’ or ’… the old beliefs…’ trope on the internet on this too.)

I think both ideas are half-wrong and half-right and both have lost the meaning of what it means to begin anything anew.

We have lost the meaning behind new beginnings. It can be a simple as that. If you ask anybody that crosses your path today what for them means ‘new beginning’ they will list all the things they wish to change within the new year: about their life, about their job, about their habits, about the world. And inevitably they will list things they wish to do. But doing things, actionable things, gestures and acts of creation are not beginnings. If we look closer to the creative act and our own human history, new beginnings start with something entirely different.

The beginning with rest. Intentional restfulness. Conscious slowing down and empty spaces.

Incidentally, or more importantly, this is also where creation begins. Any creator, any artist will tell you the same thing: inspiration comes quiet spaces. Whenever the world gets too crowded inspiration becomes quiet.

But this is not the image we are use to. How many movies and books have be seen and read that suggest that the creative genius is one haunted by constant inspiration and that it takes courage or madness to follow it. And while it may be at certain times, or even for certain rare individuals that inspiration and creation flows out in a constant stream of doing, this flow state is not the start of anything. It is the middle of the chaos of action. Yes, flow states, these famed states made super popular in self-help sections of current bookshelves, are chaos states, but this is not our topic for the moment.

I wish to step back for a moment. Into the stillness.

Looking at natural rhythms and until the ordinary work week of the modern worker in mills and factories and eventually offices, did not start with a Monday, but with a restful Sunday. And for many generations this little fact has informed our human creativity on all levels.

Imagine for a minute where the true difference lies: start with action or start with rest.

For how many among us, starting something new is stressful because we want to make sure we know all the steps, for how many Mondays are depressing because we need to change gears.

What would change in your life right now, if you started your week on Sundays? If your Sunday reset was in fact your first step in a new cycle of the week no matter if you work in an office, in the shops, as an artist, online or offline?

Keep that thought for a moment and feel into it: can you tell how much the transitions become softer. How the block of ‘work week’ suddenly changes?

What if your Monday morning were not a moment to step into the grind, but could start with a journal, your mind and a cup of tea? Or a knitting project for the latest sweater you wish to create? Or a sketch book and a few verses of Rilke?

Oh, how this would change our world in an instant.

I am afraid that this is not an idea that can be applied to the world anymore. We are too far gone into the organisation of our work that does not even account for breaks anymore, where all shops are open every day, where Sunday is no longer a rest day that is legally protected by worker rights and where some countries allow bosses to consider their workers to be available for 24h for them and any possible problem that may arise.

But for a moment, let us dream. Dream of a time where our winters are moments of recollection. Of resting into the possibility of our next steps. Where we begin with silence.

If you are here with me and have ever spent a reasonable amount of time in my circles, you will know that I am forever inspired by a small little statue that stands in two version in my office and on my ancestor altar. It is a small statue of a woman, lying on her side while she sleeps. Nothing fancy, hm?
But if I tell you that this statue was found in the inner sanctum, the Hypogeum, of the Temples of Malta in Hal Saflieni and that some 5000 years ago, she reminded the priestesses of everything I just told you above. This is not a statue of power, or one of the famous fertility goddesses of pre-patriarchal societies. This priestess, this goddess, this woman, is sleeping. And she reminds us that doing nothing is doing a lot. That rest is sacred. That dreaming is oracle work. And that for us women, this is sacred work.

But, how come?

I will skip past the question you are holding right now (how can doing nothing be considered work?) and keep it for another article, to move towards the more important part here: rest is oracular work.

The transactional nature of all exchanges within the current mindset

Rest today is seen as a consequence of the effort spent before resting time occurs. Today we can it recuperation, re-filling our cup, relaxation after effort and too many times, current standards lead us to consider it as a recompense or a trophy, only to be had once we have earned it.

This, to me then, is the most important part I personally mean when I say, the modern world has all disconnected us from our bodies.

Considering restful silence, or creative empty spaces as the sugary treat you get when you have done so much all week, is trying to create form a constantly empty well. It also emphasises the forcefully introduced of our being, our presence, our creation as a transaction with the world. It is the core of patriarchal conditioning at play.

These fully and openly activated bad habits of transactions rather than creation, are pushing the boundaries of our personal creation so far that anything we do needs to be for something. But I do not knit to sell it, I knit because it keeps my hands occupied and my brain less noisy. That I get a nice sweater out of it, is not the main thing. (Another thing I can leave for a live session… LOL).

And the same thing can be observed in our spiritual practices. How often are me looking for a ritual, or a new thing to fill the creative silence? How often do we look for action when inaction would be asked? How often to you go to Yoga for gymnastics and skip or shorten the final corpse-pose for which all asanas were created?

We just stepped through one of the most important oracular portals of the year: the time between the years. We call them wild nights, or rough nights (Rauhnächte) in the alps. And while only a few years ago, there were only few informations for the mainstream (most information was passed in families) on practices, my feeds were full this year with books, incense and rituals.
But this night, as I have practiced it for many years since I was a youngster, is a time of becoming permeable to the world and whatever messages the Otherworldly may wish to send my way. That is the practice. That’s all. But who would want to buy anything that sells so little and asks so much?

Oracle work

Oracle work, creative work even down to something so simple as pulling a card from your tarot deck, or doodling are moments of permeability. Moments where you allow the world beyond our physical limits to touch you. Moments where whatever you hold inside you and whatever exists in your field beyond the physical, meet and in doing so create a spark of inspiration. This should be what fuels your days into action. In an ideal world, this would be your birthright as a woman, as a mother, as a partner and a future ancestor. As a home and house holder.

Unfortunately, most lives cannot function this way. Too many demands, too much chatter, and too much expectation often lead us to reach for the simple solution of a prayer, an intention, a ritual. Something to do. Something to fill the void we are dreading instead of creating it within ourselves over and over again in order to create oracular and personal power.

I feel that we would be faced with a very different world, could we just find more power to create these spaces in our own ways. Spaces to rest, spaces to be together in silence, allowing for flow beyond the uneasiness of stillness and the need to create.

Maybe one day, my dear.

It all starts with rest. And a new beginning.

If you’re new to the Oracle Musings from the Well, welcome! Many blessings on your path today. I am Bettina Yseult, writer & thinker. At the well, I share reflections from a life lived between books, rituals, and the raw terrain of the soul while sitting among the mountain tops of the Alps in Southern Switzerland. These writings are an invitation to pause, breathe, listen for the deeper story and lessons unfolding underneath. Subscribe to support my writing work here, or consider joining my upcoming Patreon ‘The Quiet Grove’ to learn with me to listen deeper.