There's no right path way, or blanket truths for every step. There is only what holds the most meaning and growth for you now, and every now my call for something different.
Intro
You're listening to falling into soul. I'm your host McCall Erickson. As a lifelong student, writer, and guide of inner healing and transformation, I bring forth context for the deeper, more nuanced and more confusing processes of soul awakening, that aren't always reflected for us in mainstream culture. Having the right context for the processes you're going through, that the world gives you no context for, can help you feel less crazy, less alone, and more able to work with them as they're happening. It's an honor to be in this space with you sharing my experience, my strength, by perspective, as well as songs I've written along the way. All music in this podcast is written and recorded by me.
Ep 16
Thank you for tuning in. This is Episode 16. Spiritual Margaritaville.
After the last episode when I talked about how creating healing and manifesting doesn't always work in the ways we consciously want, in the ways we consciously set out for them to work because of the wild, unpredictable factor of the soul. I had a dear listener message me and ask if I ever go back to Spiritual Margaritaville, which is the spiritual awakening base camp of love and light and unity. Where manifesting, creating and healing is made to feel so easy. I thought it was such a great question.
Do I ever go back to Spiritual Margaritaville after falling so hard core from it and being called on to the higher more rigorous operations of alchemy by the pull of my own soul? I started ruminating on this and decided to make an episode in response to this listener's question.
So let's explore what is Spiritual Margaritaville? What place does it have in the alchemical journey of the soul? Is all that love and light stuff just a bunch of woo woo since it doesn't always play out so easily for most of us in actual, everyday human life? Or is some of it real and useful? And how can we discern the difference between that?
First of all, what is Spiritual Margaritaville?
Some of you may be familiar with this term if you've read my book, The Second Half of the Mountain. It's a term I coined with my spiritual and shamanic partner Heather years ago when we found ourselves growing beyond the initial stages of spiritual awakening and being a little bit annoyed with all the love and light approaches to healing that seemed to gloss over the harder, more complex parts of inner healing and transformation. There's a lot of bypassing spiritual bypassing that happens at Spiritual Margaritaville, but not all of it is bypassing or misaligned.
Spiritual Margaritaville is an important milestone in the awakening journey. It's what I call the base camp of spiritual awakening. If we look at the journey to the Philosopher's Stone, or that permanent alignment with our innermost selves, as a journey up a mountain, Spiritual Margaritaville is the base camp halfway up the mountain. It's not the summit. It's not that alignment with our full selves yet. Alchemically speaking, it coincides with the state, the stage of conjunction, that's where spiritual Margaritaville happens and that big initial spiritual awakening conjunction, which is the first time the soul and the spirit unite in our hearts as one. A lot of hard alchemy comes before this stage. Before we even hit our initial conjunction and arrive at Spiritual Margaritaville, we go through a lot of hard alchemy, so it really feels like you have arrived when you hit conjunction.
When you enter Spiritual Margaritaville, it can feel so amazing, because you've already been through a certain kind of hell to get there. There's a lot of love and light to welcome you. There's a lot of synchronicity and flow, a lot of unity. "We're all one" messages abound there. Creating the life you want and realizing your dreams never felt more possible than when you're in that conjunction of soul and spirit, in Margaritaville. Manifesting can indeed happen very easily and effortlessly here. It's an amazing place to be, to catch your breath to get in touch with your spiritual nature, to feel uplifted by universal love and community to explore the awakening of your creative energy in your Kundalini energy. It's a place of expansion and exploration, synchronicity, healing and realizing you are not just your physical body, you are more than your physical incarnation, you realize there's so much more than just the material world.
But, but but but but. There's always a "but" with me, because there's more. There's more, there's more, there's more. There's always more.
This conjunction, this spiritual Margaritaville, the spiritual awakening, it's only a resting place for many of us who are slated to go through the higher operations of alchemy that take us from the formation of the lesser stone, which is that conjunction to the greater stone.
What's the difference between the lesser version of the philosopher's stone and the greater stone?
The difference is that the lesser stone is the first marriage between soul and spirit that inevitably breaks down because there's still more unalchemized ego, unresolved trauma and uncleared karma in the way of a permanent alignment. So it's that first alignment, the lesser stone conjunction, spiritual awakening spiritual Margaritaville, that first conjunction will inevitably break down to give away to the alchemy that leads to the greater stone. The greater stone is a permanent alignment of your soul and spirit within that does not break down.
So if we find ourselves as spiritual, Margaritaville and we are to go further, we have to go through the dark nights of the soul, dark nights of the Spirit, and distillation, we will find ourselves moving on from the base camp of spiritual Margaritaville light and love. We find a lot of the healing modalities and spiritual practices that we awaken to there, they don't always work for us anymore, or, at best, they leave something to be desired. We fall from that way of being and we may even become disillusioned by most of it.
Becoming Spiritually Disillusioned and Falling from Spiritual Margaritaville
That's why I often say my work is for the spiritually disillusioned because there's a lot for the spiritually awakened. There's already a lot, there's so much to welcome you. So many methods, so many modalities, so many ways, so many practices, to welcome you at spiritual Margaritaville. What happens when you fall from that? When you become disillusioned from that?
And listen, you don't have to make yourself fall or go on if you are fine in spiritual Margaritaville. I have a feeling I spent a few lifetimes myself chilling and blissing the fuck out there. You go on only if you have to. If there is something deeper in your soul that longs for you that longs to pull you forward and heal or live in a deeper way. It will take you there life will take you there. You don't have to make it happen. But while we're here, let's talk about some of the pitfalls of spiritual Margaritaville. And why it can be confusing when you're there or moving on from there.
Pitfalls of Spiritual Margaritaville
One of the pitfalls of spiritual Margaritaville is thinking this is all there is, that you have arrived. That because you've awakened to the truth about the world and the truth about incarnation, and you known your true essence that there couldn't possibly be anything better than this. It gives us a sense of invincibility. But what we know by the time we reach the greater stone is that there's always more. There's always more ways to fall. Nothing is the be all end all.
Another pitfall of Margaritaville: disconnecting with the shadow aspects of our being. Over-identifying with love and light, taking the love and light bypass the spiritual bypass. Over identifying with spiritual truths and spiritual power, spiritual gifts and disconnecting from the realities and gravity of being human. We can fall into the thinking that this is all an illusion and pain isn't real. Suffering isn't real. We shouldn't suffer. We bypass our human suffering. And it reminds me, I think it was Albert Einstein who said "reality may be an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
So while we may feel very invincible, seeing through the human materialistic bullshit, we will always be brought down into our own souls by the reality and persistent illusion of life.
Another pitfall of Margaritaville is taking the spiritual practices and healing modalities there as absolute truths, thinking they are one size fits all, thinking that there are guaranteed results to healing, thinking you have found the way and found the answer. Or if you feel like you haven't found it, that you feel like it's there and should be there, that there's somehow some kind of way to heal and awaken enough to guarantee the kind of life and healing we want. The healing you want. There's a lot of wishful thinking, magical thinking that can go on in spiritual Margaritaville. It's what Carl Jung called salvation fantasy, thinking there is something true that will eventually save us, that spiritual truth can save us from the harsh realities of life.
But the harsh reality is, there is no amount of enlightenment or spiritual awakening that can keep us safe from life. Life is not meant to keep us safe. It's meant to keep us open.
Another allure of Margaritaville is we want to stay there basking in the love and light and bliss without going forward to do the rest of the alchemy necessary The Shadow Work the shamanic work necessary to align with the soul. So there's a lot of spiritual identification in spiritual Margaritaville, right? It's a place of spirit energy, this spirit energy is very high there.
But the energy of the soul can often be by bypassed there. And if we are to form that greater Philosopher's Stone within and come into permanent alignment with our soul and spirit, we have to work beyond spiritual Margaritaville.
You know, a lot of my work centers around freeing the soul from spiritual conditioning. Spirituality is not sold. A lot of spiritual healing past practices, etc, can be focused on transcending and ascending without going down, without growing down into the heart into the yuck, to the actual place where soul heals, those lower vertical realms. So I'm constantly working on helping people work through the spiritual conditioning that keeps us disconnected from the soul.
You don't have to identify as spiritual at all to be living your soul. It's not the same thing. Remember, soul is a direct experience with life. We probably all know people who just are so simple and beautiful and aligned and just live their lives. They don't have spiritual practices that they hang their hat on. They don't even seem like so called religious or spiritual people at all. They're just living their soul, because they're showing up to what life is asking them them. And having that direct experience.
When we first enter spiritual awakening, our or we find ourselves in spiritual Margaritaville, we are still so new and tender. We're so newly opened, newly awakened and tender, our dreams are so tender. Because of this, we can be easily susceptible to the promises that come from healers, and workers and spiritual Margaritaville.
On the bottom of page 33 of The Second Half of The Mountain, I have a section called surviving spiritual Margaritaville. I'm going to read from there.
Along the way, there are many spiritual leaders, healers, psychics, gurus, organizations, and the like that will gladly take your energy time, money and attention for their own benefit at the expense of you having your own direct experience with your life and soul. Sometimes it's easier to allow someone else to tell you what is right and true than to trust your own subjective reality. Especially if everyone else around you seems to be blindly buying into what the crappiest person in the room is selling. But forming the stone within is all about coming face to face with your own life, reality, soul and way. In order to do this, you must be willing to lean further and further into your own subtle perceptions about people, places and things that may or may not be aligned with your deepest intent. To thine own subtle perceptions be true.
It can be so hard to do this be Because when we are at this newly awakened place, and we, we still want our dreams to happen in the way we want them to happen, and we see the way certain people made their dreams come true. And we are sold, that we can do that too.
Pyramid Scheme Spirituality
In some ways, spiritual Margaritaville can become like a pyramid scheme, where the select few rise to the top and we are sold the idea that we can do that too. But the reality is, not every great writer is going to become a best selling author, not every healer is going to have a thriving healing practice with clients. We are not all meant to monetize our gifts. Not every great musician is going to take to the stage, we are not all meant for the same things.
And the thing of the soul. Here's the trick of the soul work: It's all about finding what way you are called to bring your gifts into form to bring your life energy into form. And it usually takes a different form than we could have dreamed or imagined. For many of us, it takes a different form than Margaritaville, and culture spiritual trendy culture and culture at large, sells to us. Culture is very slim and unimaginative when it comes to the forms your gifts and creativity can take in the world. This is a point for a lot of us where we can get hung up. And that's why we have to go through the rigors of alchemy, the dark nights of the spirit, soul and spirit and distillation. That's why we have to go through those to distill our essence down to bring it into whatever form it wants to come through in this life.
I cannot express enough the importance of going through the dark night of the Spirit. That is where we go through the processes of detaching the ego from spiritual practices, spiritual truths, spiritual ways. We become nothing, our ego becomes unattached to those things, we become nothing so that we can then enter life from a new place, a place where our ego isn't running the show. And our unhealed wounds underneath that ego aren't directing the ego, we have to heal that first to understand how our life force even wants to move through us.
After we go through that stripping on the spiritual ego, and the stripping of soul ego, the stripping of identification with our purpose to validate our worth in life. And we really get down to that core alignment with our worth being solely dependent on our existence. And we become nothing in the process. Then we can reenter life from a new perspective from a new place. And we can go back to spiritual Margaritaville, revisit practices and healing modalities as needed. Or some of us may even set up shop there to help other people. It's all dependent on what works for you and what's written on your soul.
But here are some things I learned after falling from spiritual Margaritaville and going through this subsequent stages of the dark nights of the soul dark nights of the spirit and distillation that helped me keep a perspective on spirituality, trendy spirituality and spiritual practices and paths in general.
First, everything is true, but not in every context. I'm always saying that healing is about finding the right thing for the thing. Maybe yoga and exercise will help with this thing but bed rest is needed for another thing. Maybe plant medicine is what you need for this healing. But another healing requires stitches and setting a bone at the hospital. Sometimes a digital detox is what you need. And sometimes Netflix and chill is the exact healing remedy to get you through a certain time. Everything is true, just not all at the same time. Not in every context. So we're continually discerning. What's the right thing for now? What's the right thing for the thing? what's going to help me now what do I need now?
And how can you tell if a healing remedy or modality or way of being is working or is the thing for you? In alchemy, it's because it works. You can know if it's the thing for you if it works. alchemists are interested in what works, in real results. Not in what should work, not in what's true for someone else, not in what works for someone else, but in what works for you right now for the thing you're going through. There's no way to put blanket truths or statements on that.
Another thing I learned through spiritual Margaritaville and going through it is, just because I could doesn't mean I should, just because I can, doesn't mean I will be allowed to. Just because I could make a living as a musician, doesn't mean I should doesn't mean that's the right thing for my soul. Just because I could see through someone's psychic energy fields and tell them what I see and help them heal doesn't mean I shouldn't, doesn't mean I will be allowed to. There are so many things we honor so many energetic boundaries and fields, we honor as healers that we have to tune into and hone into honoring other people's souls and journeys, honoring factors we can't control. Which brings me to another point.
One way to quickly discern if you are looking for a healer in Margaritaville or anywhere, really, and you want to discern the good shit from the bullshit, you can quickly discern by asking, does this person does this healer, does this helper, does this guide, does this teacher take into consideration the uncontrollable, unpredictable factor of the soul? What is this healer's relationship with the mystery, with the factors that they can't control? If they're over promising results, over-promising the light, then that's a red flag. Or do they admit that there are factors they can't control, that they're in relationship with you and the mystery as they help you and guide you? If they are guaranteeing results, if they don't have a healthy grasp on the uncontrollable on the mystery in the nature of the souls role in healing, they're probably trying to sell you something.
And finally, not subscribing to any truth or way other than the poll of your own soul is perhaps the most thrilling, terrifying and important thing in the world.
Outro
Thank you for listening and supporting the podcast and means so much to know you're out there, you're listening, and you care. I'm deeply touched and honored that this is finding a place in so many of your hearts. You can find more ways to support the podcast at McCallErickson.com also by leaving a rating and review on Apple podcasts, or by sharing this podcast with a friend.
Until next time, be well in mystery and soul