Image credit: Alex Malikov/shutterstock.com

This morning you will awake. Still covered in the folds of your un-making you may be blinded at first. The chrysalis must be shaken off, and the world seen afresh. You are reborn.

In the hours preceding this moment you were broken down completely, every sinew and fibre of your self, your soul, destroyed in the holy fire of the nigredo. It was painful, illuminating, terrible. A divine, dark force to destroy all that came before, a necessary interlude, a payment to the ferryman.

We gave you pain, we gave you persecution, we gave you trauma. And to this end alone, to be reborn, to be new.

Mark this day as you tremble and open your eyes. Mark this day as the ending of all that went before and the beginning of all that must be. See yourself, see yourself as new.

And remember, if you feel ugly now, misshapen, not what you should be, this is transition only. You must and will adjust. For how ugly must the butterfly be to the caterpillar, and yet to us, to us, so resplendent as it flies!

You will fly, our brave, broken new creature. This is truly your new year’s day.

(c) Helen M Valentina 2016