Picking Up The Golden Thread

Picking Up The Golden Thread

Mar 29, 2023

There is a golden thread that can be traced right back to the moment of our soul’s inception and which runs continuously throughout childhood and into our adult lives. It can never be irreparably broken, damaged or lost for ever. For as long as we’re alive this thread exists.

The process of becoming who we truly are, what Keats called “soul-making”, requires that time and time again we have to keep finding and picking up our golden thread. We let go of this thread many times in our life; usually at times of crisis and tragedy, but also in the course of our busy daily lives, where we repeatedly and carelessly abandon ourselves by putting our thread away in the back of a drawer where it sits gathering dust, rather than let it continually run through our fingers like water sustaining and nourishing us.

Symptoms and signs that we no longer have access to our golden thread are what Shamans would call Soul Loss: Lethargy, depression, anxiety, feeling lacklustre, a general lack of enthusiasm, isolation, feelings of powerlessness, hopelessness, helplessness and general ennui are just some of the clues that can lead us to identifying this loss. Such a loss of power and connection to our truest-self leaves us running on very low fuel as we have little access to the vibrant life-force energy which is innately ours, but which is left quietly smouldering somewhere in the depths of our unconscious.

However, the good news is that it seems that no matter how often we drop it, neglect it or lose it, our golden thread can never be permanently damaged or completely lost. No matter how much dust it gathers or for how many years we have lost sight of it, it remains ever present and ever glittering in all its magnificence, simply waiting for us to pick it up and dust it off once more.

In his classic book ‘Iron John’, Robert Bly says: “William Stafford describes that as taking in our fingers the end of the golden thread.” There are many ways to pick up the golden thread, a few ways of doing this Bly says is: “We notice the turns of thought, or language, that pleases us. What were the delights we felt in childhood before we gave our life over to pleasing other people, being nurses to them, or doing what they wanted done? Mythologically, catching hold of the end of the golden thread is described as picking up a single feather from the burning breast of the Firebird.”

The Firebird as an image symbolically holds and displays the power of fire and beauty within our soul. Can we ever truly imagine becoming as magnificent as such a bird? Can we ever, in our confusing and contradictory culture, imagine authentically displaying our sumptuous colourful feathers in all their full glory? Sadly, most of us cannot. And like our golden thread, our Firebird usually remains behind closed doors; out of sight and rarely if ever on display.

There are many associations with gold throughout myths, fairy tales, alchemy and religions. Often associated with the sun and solar power and energy, gold is a universal and archetypal element which affects the psyche in a myriad of ways. I’ve had dreams at crucial times of healing and impending change which involve gold. For example, a magnificent, huge warm glowing golden sun; a golden king rising out of a lake; golden slippers and socks; blonde or golden hair of a young child or woman, and mesmerising gold fish swimming in a pond.

Again, in Iron John, Bly talks about ‘the golden ball’ which is another frequent motif in fairy tales he says: “The golden ball reminds us of that unity of personality we had as children—a kind of radiance, or wholeness, before we split into male and female, rich and poor, bad and good. The ball is golden, as the sun is, and round. Like the sun, it gives off a radiant energy from the inside”.

Note also here the symbolism of the ball and being round like the sun. Jung described the circle as representing wholeness and totality based on his researches into alchemy; the circle being a complete image of the Self.

Gold of course also reminds us of the element of fire, as with the Firebird. We need the energy and the power of fire in our soul, and again, for many of us this remains dormant for much of our lives as we adapt to parental and societal wishes for us growing up. However, in midlife none of this holds meaning for us any longer and so we find ourselves looking around aimlessly for something which we know we once held so dearly as a child, and yet, we can’t somehow quite place now.

And so we find ourselves embarking on a soul-searching journey to recover our golden thread and workout where and when we last had it and how it made us feel so utterly alive, so that we can pick it up once more.

Then, our task is to begin following our golden thread and letting it lead us to the places and things that fire up our heart and soul. Along the way we learn to drop other unnecessary, burdensome things which take up our time and energy but which no longer feed the soul. It’s necessary to do this so that we have enough time and energy to keep hold of our thread and to cherish its role in our life.

We find that it takes us back to that which we really loved doing and what we cherished the most when we were very young. Before we were asked to put away our golden thread because it shone too brightly for those around us and probably also painfully reminded them of their own soul losses.

We might decide to pick up a hobby that we once loved doing; we might take up again something which uses our innate gifts and talents, or reconnect to a long lost passion.

Then begins the long journey of integrating these things into our daily lives. And here we have to be especially careful as these are times when it is very common to drop the thread once more, but now at least we have relocated it again and we have consciously reconnected to it.

Some considerations that can help us re-find our Golden Thread might be:

·       What makes me the most happy?

·       What feels great?

·       What are the subjects that always grab our attention?

·       What are the topics that we always feel drawn to, no matter how many years pass, and which when we come across them again, we let out a passionate “oooh”, and are drawn to it freshly each time; these are the subjects that we never tire of exploring.

·       We can ask ourselves what are the common threads in our life going right back to early childhood? What were the occupations, environments and creative things that we did then which still now hold such meaning for us?

·       What am I passionate about?

·       What do I love doing? What are my innate qualities, gifts and talents?

·       How do I most love spending my time?

·       What are the things which brings me a sense of inner peace, calm and connection to my deepest self?

·       What do I love reading about, researching or watching programmes on?

·       How do other people perceive me? Ask good friends or colleagues what they think of first when they think of you.

·       If money were no object, what would I ideally spend my time, energy and money on?

·       We might try to imagine what the rest of our life and our future seems to be calling us towards?

·       Ultimately, we might ponder this quote from Frederick Buechner: “The place where God calls you to, is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” And then ask yourself honestly and truly where your golden thread really wishes to take you to.

Of course, living with the golden thread permanently in our hands is in itself a mighty accomplishment and not everyone can manage this; if the original wounding in childhood was severe for example. Yet, even when this is the case, and it certainly is for me, then take heart and know that each and every time you go back to your true self is a moment to cherish and hold onto. It’s the necessary healing balm to all your suffering and pain.

I will finish with one more clue that can also help us. And that is to look to the people, artists and creative people whom you admire the most and whose work draws you in at the soul level and take inspiration from them, for they and you are the weavers that this world needs; they are the brave people who have taken up their golden thread and who are now weaving it into the world in a way which is uniquely and utterly their own.

©Angela Dunning

Images used in order from the top:

1) The Red Weaver by Remedios Varo, via Wikioo.org
2) Wassily Kandinsky, via Wikioo.org
3) Tango by Frantisek Kupka, via Wikioo.org

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