Victimhood and the Empowered Heart
Yin Fire Rabbit is the totem for this year’s second month of spring. As new life is blossoming and bursting forth, this time embodies the flourishing qi of childhood and the freshness of youth. The ancient pictograph for the rabbit sign is 卯, showing doors opening to spring. When innocence is awakened, trust and openness follows.
Yin Fire represents inner strength coming from the heart and is symbolized by a candle flame. Inner strength is built through the themes of annihilation and revival. Yin Fire is both a small flame that can easily be extinguished as well as the new spark of regeneration. Even in times of powerlessness, renewal follows the darkness of night. Yin Fire reminds us that the human heart is stronger than adversity.
Innocence is the natural genius of who you are, interacting with the spontaneous creativity of the Dao. Innocence is pure, unadulterated power that sleeps within your very being. Through unhealthy family patterning, cultural conditioning and traumatic experiences we adopt a dysfunctional self-image. We become less and less in touch with the innate source of who we are, falling into the shadow side of innocence: victimhood.
When our inner victim has authority over us, we cannot take full authorship of our lives. Living in duality, the victim by definition is aligned with being morally righteous, which assumes there is always another party to blame. The wounded heart sees the world through a system of reward and punishment, needing a logical explanation for all painful experiences. Victimhood is being trapped in a childlike relationship to the world, living in fear and loving conditionally.
Victimhood can be addicting because it brings help and support from others. We are naturally dependent on others as a species and it is critical to our survival. However, unhealthy dependency is bred through an inability to trust oneself. This is natural for children because they can’t rely on themselves to survive. In order to have a functioning adulthood, we must learn self reliance. This means taking radical responsibility for yourself and what happens in your life.
Escaping into victimhood is a form of self-abandonment. It is abdicating your power so that you can be rescued, taken care of and pitied. It is demanding retaliation and seeking affirmation from external sources. What lies beneath is a deep disconnect from one’ s innocent, authentic and innate power. Self-reliance on the other hand is learning to not abandon yourself, with others or through others.
How to work with this month’s animal and element:
Civilization is evolving from a culture of individuality to one of social consciousness, moving from self-empowerment to an empowered heart. In the chakra system, this is going from the 3rd chakra of self esteem to the 4th chakra, relating from the heart. In Yijing divination, we are moving from the lower trigram to upper trigram, from self interest to social awareness. This step is a huge consciousness leap and thus requires a spiritual awakening. The journey out of victim consciousness can only be done through learning the lesson of the child: that the process of continually discovering and loving ourselves lies not outside but within.
Innocence in its true form is awakening to your empowered heart. When we stop seeking reprisal from the outside world, we can open ourselves to forgiveness. When we move beyond the victim paradigm, we find there is actually nothing left to forgive. We realize that everybody is a victim: all victims are victims of victims. Therefore, the binary paradigm of innocence and blame does not actually exist.
In Daoist medicine, the heart organ is the home of your 神, or spirit. When your heart is not empowered, meaning you have adopted a belief system that redemption is dependent on others, then you have given your spirit away. If you find yourself in a negative victim loop, then you must call your spirit back. You can do this ritualistically, through writing, breathing and visioning exercises, alone or witnessed by others. The key is to reunite with what the Buddhists call the drala principle, or your virginal, genuine and innocent perception of reality.
With all the fresh, delicate new life blossoming in spring, we are reminded of the preciousness of existence. Rabbit arouses in us an instinct to protect, nurture and provide welfare. Yin Fire turns this desire inwards, so that we can identify the source of spring within ourselves. This month we are awakening to our innate power and prosperity, capable of surviving times of depletion and regenerating in times of abundance.