You are the tree. In order the reach higher awareness or consciousnesses, you have to have experienced suffering first. The inner darkness fed by suffering, illusion, fears, painful experiences that you continue to identify with and struggle to acknowledge. These are what have kept you rooted in this illusion and spiraling in karmic cycles of repeated lesson after lesson.

The way in, is the way out. When you begin looking at the character you present to the world. Are you being true to yourself and your higher calling, or are you acting from past versions of yourself - versions you developed to feel safe, gain acceptance, play small and so on. Versions which don't reflect your truth?

The only moment we have is the present. When you live through the memories of the past, you bring them into this moment, giving energy to the old stories and identities you've mistaken for your truth. The longer you perpetuate them, the more they shape your choices and experiences, reinforcing the same patterns in the world around you. It's a cycle that can feel inescapable until it's recognised and the choice is made to choose differently.

As Carl Jung’s metaphor suggests, we have the ability to “grow to heaven” as we recognise and work through our “roots in hell”. It begins with a choice to take responsibility for how we respond in the present. That choice remains solely with us as an individual.

Awakening isn’t a sudden realisation or a kundalini experience through which enlightenment and peace arrive. It isn’t glamorous and it isn’t about escaping the darkness that keeps our minds looping through the identities we’ve attached ourselves to. Awakening is a process that goes deeper still.

It’s about reaching into our illusions and darkness, bringing them to the surface, and looking deeply into it so we can begin to rise beyond them. The deeper we go within, the more we can access and therefore peel back the filters and layers that obscure the truth of our being.

Carl Jung’s quote, “No tree can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell,” captures this beautifully.

What is Awakening Really About?

And that is how we begin to awaken. As we address and make peace with the shadows trapped in darkness, the energy once bound up in those struggles becomes available for growth. Like a tree drawing nourishment through its roots, we allow that energy to rise through the trunk and into the branches, leaves and flowers, opening us to higher states of consciousness.