The Shield of the South

The Shield of the South

by Linda Heron Wind, Ph.D.

A lot of people are having a difficult time these days feeling safe on Earth. If you look at some of the chaos that is reigning around the world as well as in our own personal lives, it is no wonder that we get a bit jittery. Yet if we can really ground the spiritual perspective into our third dimensional lives, concern about safety disappears. I believe that we are being asked to do exactly that - live from a spiritual perspective.

There are many ways that we learn from childhood on to keep ourselves feeling safe. It is like we develop shields that protect the inner self. There are different kinds of shield that we develop through different experiences. For example, the shield of the East is a masculine shield of assertiveness. It represents our ability to say what works for us and what doesn't. We can think of it as the setting of clear boundaries. In its extreme form, the East shield can turn into aggressiveness. The shield of the West, on the other hand, is the feminine shield of inclusion. Using this shield we stay safe by including others and creating harmony. Here boundaries become flexible and, in its extreme form, you become invisible by focusing totally on meeting others needs. We refer to these as masculine and feminine because in our culture, men are more socialized to develop assertiveness and women are taught to be inclusive.

We can also stay safe by using the South, or child's shield. Here safety is maintained by trusting whatever is. The innocence of the child does not question whether something should or shouldn't be happening, it simply accepts that this is the way it is. The North shield, or elder's shield, develops after we have mastered the other three shields. It represents the ability to discern or consciously choose which of the other three shields are appropriate for a given situation and it also allows us to integrate the other shields into one. The integrated shield of the North allows us to set clear boundaries around what works for us and what doesn't while staying connected and including the others with love and compassion. At the same time we implicitly trust that the current experience is designed to hone our mastery and evolution of consciousness.

Most people on a spiritual path have already developed some level of mastery around the East and West shields as they have been balancing the inner masculine and feminine and all the other opposites that entails. The South shield still remains challenging, however, as we apply it in our daily lives. While we probably used this shield as a child, our descent into matter during later childhood usually calls it into question, as the physical world becomes more real than the spiritual world. Most of us did not have support as children for holding our connection with spirit and integrating it into daily life. So we let that shield of trust go, in favor of either the East or West shield.

Now we are being called to put this South shield of trust back into its rightful place. We can only truly feel safe when it becomes active again. Trusting what is requires us to choose on a conscious level to place our faith in what is unseen rather than what is seen; to align with our heart knowing rather than thought; to surrender to the journey without knowing what is next or why the present is the way it is. It has been said that to enter heaven we must become as a child. Perhaps heaven is here, now, and to enter we must trust like a child. When we have mastered the South shield of trust, we can live and die and live again, feeling safe within ourselves.

Trust experience
Teacher of the moment
Wisdom of the day

If you have comments on these articles or ideas for future topics, call Linda Heron Wind at (585) 924-5620 or send e-mail to LHWind@aol.com.

Page last modified July 15, 2005 by RMC