The Devil Is In The Detail, Decluttering For Success

“Alchemy is the process of changing lead into gold. Inner alchemy (personal transformation) occurs when we clear our clutter—internal and external—and let go of things that no longer serve us well. This creates balance and space, a place that nurtures contentment, which I believe is true success.”
― Laurie Buchanan, PhD

My thoughts recently have been about decluttering.

Maybe it’s because I have been decorating at home and freshening everything up but I now feel compelled to get rid of stuff such as clothes I don’t wear, pictures that are faded and old, kitchenware that is broken, anything in fact that no longer serves a purpose in any capacity has to go!

This is big…very big as I don’t like to let go.

I have come to understand that we humans are not very good at letting go. I think that a lot of difficult situations that perpetuate themselves are as a result of not letting go. Hey Presto, a cycle is born! Life experiences that become cycles are perhaps the most difficult to eradicate from our repertoire; the classic case of being moulded by significant people in our formative years, parents, teachers, peers. Very often we go off in search of relationships and experiences that mirror our upbringing not necessarily in a physical sense but certainly in an emotive one. This then plays itself out in a drama that echoes early emotions and learned behaviour. Our sub-conscious has done its job well and holds on to this stuff; it becomes the glue of our spirit and can be the hardest thing to gain freedom from. These spectres can haunt us, possibly for evermore.

The ego has a knack of relating to everything so we make attachments.

This gives us the illusion of belonging and owning which also creates a false sense of autonomy. We don’t seem to realise that we don’t have to accumulate stuff in order to be. It’s not just physical things I am talking about but also our inner world requires us to pay attention and release toxic emotions from the past, a mindset that has been outworn and values that aren’t current, the list is endless.

As I was considering the importance and relevance of dispensing with the jumble in the cupboards and the junk in the soul, our dear friend the Devil came to mind and what an icon of entanglement he can be!

The Devil in many ways could be a positive ally.

He is the one that challenges you to get past him, to untie the bondage and be free. The ultimate opponent, Devil will draw you into your shadow and instead of becoming illuminated by the experience of shadow we become chained to the vices and excuses and denial that block us from loving our spirit and reaching out for love. Life is love and light, when we become separated from our ability to love, when we become disconnected from the light of consciousness, we are open to fear and despair which creates addiction, destruction, abandon and excesses. One can only hope that in the long run these dances with the Devil will be a golden opportunity for learning and positive growth.

The Devil is often misunderstood.

An inevitable feature of the human psyche, his presence can represent a radicalisation, a transformation of our much too human tendencies.

In Temperance we saw the refining of the spirit, the turning water into wine, moving from our base, primordial self into the elevated and wise being. Devil asks us are we game enough to take the process on.

Decluttering the soul is not a buzzword for the new age.

Decluttering the soul is paramount to our ability to adapt and adjust to the ebb and flow of life. When in the Devil’s clutches we become alienated from other aspects of self, we become self-absorbed, entombed in a mental prison of materialism and trite observations that barely pass for emotions. Woven into that is the Devil at his darkest where the need for power and control twists and sculpts the very life force within.

It is not the dead I am afraid of but the living.

It is not attachments from another realm that I fear but it is the demon in the abuser, the drug addict, the torturers, the oppressor and the profane. We come across them all the time. We live in a society that does not require us to love ourselves. From that we cultivate all that which is dark and apocalyptic. If we are to love ourselves then we owe it to the self to do that declutter, to be ever mindful of the flotsam and jetsam that we accumulate which provide hiding places for negativity to reside.

The Devil is a powerful card.

He calls upon us to reach into our deepest interior and to connect to a more spiritualised version of the whole. Self-mastery means facing our demons but it is the only way forward. It is worth remembering that the work on self is never in vain as the effect ripples out in our environment. These encounters with our demons imply a psychic luminosity which brings spiritual harmony, the integration of the esoteric with the exoteric.

Decluttering with the Devil.

The need to explore the deeper reaches of the heart which will require total honesty. Let go of that which binds you to something which doesn’t really exist.

We must expand our limited belief system into something that is vast and brilliant because that is what we are.

Decluttering enhances a creative form of expression which empowers and leads us to transformation…our wardrobe awaits!!

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