Your purpose is in your birth story
“…What shape waits in the seed of you to grow and spread its branches against a future sky?”
– David Whyte
I’ve always been fascinated by birth stories. How one enters this world is the beginning of one’s life’s fairy tale. My fascination has come from my birth and how my mother told me about it many times when I was a kid.
My birth was filled with drama (and trauma), and it’s been an imaginal thread of exploration my entire life, and probably one of the many reasons I’m an astrologer, as the theme of birth is my bread and butter.
But as with any story, it morphs and changes with time. Just recently, while talking to my mother, the topic of my birth came up again, and 50 years on, she gave me a different interpretation of it.
This is the creative magic of stories: they evolve as our consciousness expands, allowing us to perceive more complexities and avoid fundamentalist interpretations.
In a laughing tone, my mother said that my birth showed my independent spirit, one that really was keen to incarnate into this life and didn’t wait around (I was a premature baby.) I had never heard her tell the story with that slant, and something unfurled inside me: another measure of self-acceptance for who I am and perhaps why I’m here.
It sounded less ‘karmic’ and more adventurous to be an ‘independent soul that really wanted to be here.’ It was less about ‘paying my dues’ and more about making something happen while enjoying the ride.
As in David Whyte’s quote, the seed in me wants to spread its branches towards a future sky that is seeded in what I’m doing now. Michael Meade’s work on our personal myth illustrates beautifully how our birth story has the thematic seed of our purpose story.
How something starts tells you a lot about the essence of its being and what story waits and wants to unfurl. That’s the power of an astrology reading because when we look at the birth chart, we see the seeds that await to unfurl.
What is your birth story
“Awakening genius is a necessary step on the way to becoming a genuine individual and an active agent in the reimagining of the world. Consciously seeking to awaken inner genius may provide a refuge from chaos and an antidote for the spread of nihilism and the increasing levels of despair that characterize a world gone wrong.”
– Michael Meade
Why does this matter?
Recently, I watched an interview with British comedian Jimmy Carr. In it, he discusses focusing on one’s ‘genius,’ which in his case is comedy: the world ordered a comedian, and he’s doing just that. I’m simplifying a nuanced answer, but his point reminded me of the Oscar Wilde quote: “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
In his sardonic style, Oscar Wilde summarized the purpose: be more fully yourself. Claim all the spokes of your life’s wheel and be more fully yourself. That doesn’t mean don’t change or stay stuck in your limitations; it means actually doing the work to let your particular ‘inner genius’ show up in the world.
As Michael Meade admonishes in the quote above, in a world that seems too enamored of the ‘machine’ of consumption and the gamification of our lives, it’s vital that we awaken our geniuses.
For some time now, purpose has been a top-billing word. It goes beyond career and ‘making an impact‘ (an expression I abhor; we’re not asteroids to make an ‘impact’ on Earth). While there’s a deep connection between purpose and whatever our work may be, it’s more about letting what is yours be expressed in some way in the world. It may focus on your job/career, creative endeavor, or personal life.
But when you look closer, your purpose infuses everything you touch and do because wherever you go, there you are. For some folks, like myself, weaving purpose with ‘career’ is a deep desire, but for others, their job may be a side ‘project’ to what they feel is their calling.
I’ve worked with clients looking for their purpose but not focused on a career path. Instead, they want to be more self-expressive, harness their voice (creatively or otherwise), and show up more like themselves. That’s why an astrology reading often feels so validating; it’s because we feel ‘seen by the very cosmos that birthed us.’ The chart reflects that we’re not a cosmic fluke but something here to dance and sing our unique song, reaffirmed by the stars.
Giving expression to what is yours to give
“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you,
what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
– The Gospel According to Thomas
One of my family members had the ‘gift’ of sight and could have been quite the medium/psychic if they had chosen to learn, train, and express this talent. However, due to fear and societal beliefs, they clamped it down instead. Their life has been filled with many challenges, and now, in their old age, it’s hard to know if they feel they expressed the fullness of their potential, but the sadness in their eyes makes me think they didn’t.
Many years ago, during my first astrology reading, the astrologer told me to develop my creativity and sensibilities instead of being overwhelmed by them unconsciously. Paraphrasing Jung, what we don’t do consciously comes into our lives as fate.
Witnessing what this family member has gone through, I have always wondered what would have happened if they had answered the call to follow this ability instead of burying it. Much of the drama (and trauma) they’ve gone through might have been experienced differently, perhaps from an empowered position. We may never know.
But I think of their story when I read the quote above: there’s something we’re to bring into the world, and if we don’t, it may just eat us from the inside. A vital archetype of this earthly realm is INCARNATION: the birthing/bringing of a thought/idea into the physicality of this world.
Our desire for ‘ascending’ towards the heavens (or light, consciousness, and whatever other ‘new age’ concept) will only happen when we bring forth what is ours to do so into form.
It’s as if each of us is both the womb and the birth canal for something to incarnate in this world, be it the idea of a cake, a book, a painting, or just the love of the Divine Source towards those around us.
Liminal times need you
“Once we believe that there is a purpose to life and that we have a soul, then what we do with our life matters.”
“… we’re each like grains of sand, so that if we can each make a difference, we can help tilt the direction we’re going in…”
– Jean Shinoda Bolen
Collective liminal times not only bring forth an emergent truth, a breaking through of the boundaries, and a return of what has been repressed, but it is also punctuated by disorientation, confusion, and disorder. As the center can no longer hold, and what was once fringe makes its way towards the center, it’s also a vulnerable and dangerous time of literalism and possession of fear of total destruction and visions of annihilation.
It’s challenging not to get swept away by the rogue waves of fundamentalism, which manifest as a lack of imagination. It’s easy to see ourselves as viruses for this planet, as Agent Smith from the first Matrix movie calls us humans. In a Byronic way, we are bad, mad, and dangerous to know.
To me, this sentiment is about a lack of self-love and purpose. Without self-love, we struggle to see how we matter. Without a sense of purpose, we lose creative agency and the ability to make a change, however small. Remember, we’re not asteroids that make an ‘impact.’ We are catalysts of creativity and transformation, and wherever we are in society, what we do ripples out further afield than we imagine.
As with any birth, our first breath animates our spirit into incarnation. This article starts a series exploring the liminal journey of purpose. My intention is that it serves as Ariadne’s red thread as we go through this labyrinth and animate an idea within you.
Photo Credits:
Main image: Mario Purisic – via Unsplash
Subsequent images: Joshua Earie, Johannes Plenio, and Cristofer Maximilian via Unsplash
