The Acorn Principle (part Two Of what Is The Law Of Emergence?)
Weve been born into a belief that our fate is determined by external conditions
, that the things we need are out there, and that we must get them by just about any means necessary. This has led to a way of living that is the reverse of how life really works causing us to constantly struggle against the natural order of the universe. Is it just me, or have you felt many times like you were peddling uphill with the brakes on? Well, youre not crazy, lazy, or broken, you just werent given the correct or complete operating instructions for this thing called life.
The basic false belief goes something like this:
We are born blank slates, empty shells, and must make something of ourselves internally and externally. The knowledge, resources, and support systems we need to achieve this are outside of us, in other people and other places that are hard to get to, requiring us to conform to cultural, parental, or societal norms to get them, often demanding that we work really hard at something we dont love for the first 65 years of our life, so we can save up enough money to finally start living the life we were born forfor a few years until we die!
Sound familiar? How about insane? Whether or not you consciously buy into that b.s (belief system), on some level youre probably living it because its part of the collective consciousness of the Western world and is rapidly being adopted by the rest of the planet in a mad rush toward social stability and economic free dom. Meeting the expanding needs of a country (or family, business, or any organization) is a necessary and noble goal, but if the underlying beliefs and value systems guiding it are in opposition to the fundamental harmony of the universe, it will ultimately result in more suffering and limitation. The acorn principle is something altogether different and, by understanding this aspect of Mother Nature, you will discover a powerful clue to your human nature and how you were actually designed to grow.
The acorn already contains the idea and intelligence to become an oak. Its not an empty shell that has to figure out how life works, gather a bunch of information to fill itself with then, finally, decide what it wants to be when it grows up. No matter what the good opinion of other trees in the forest is, the acorn will never become anything except whats inside of it an oak. Even if its parent oaks really want it to grow up to be a pine tree, it aint gonna happen! It might fail to thrive or reach its potential if the right conditions arent created (which well talk about later), but the acorns destiny is to become an oak, just as the apple seeds destiny is to become an apple tree (or apple pie, depending on your perspective). The Big Questions of life, such as Who am I? and For what purpose was I born? were already answered before the seed was planted in the ground.
Whatever is true anywhere is true everywhere. As the Hermetic Law of Correspondence states: As above so below; as below so above; as within so without; as without so within. Ralph Waldo Emerson, through his exploration of the inner and outer world, discovered that the same processes which occurred in nature and their underlying principles could be found in every other area of life. For every natural law there was a parallel moral, scientific, and even spiritual law. A true principle discovered in, for instance, electricity, could be found in psychology, biology, and every other ology. In fact, some believe if you could fully comprehend the laws that govern the universe, you could know the Mind of God.
From this understanding, we can deduce that the basic laws governing the acorn or any seed apply to the seed of our own being, which already contains the blueprint and mechanics for its perfect unfoldment. Just as the acorn doesnt have to go out and create an oak or make something of itself, neither do you. (This doesnt mean you dont have to do anything, but that your actions, when they arise out of a realization of your true Self, rather than a limited self-concept, will always bear fruit richly.) Just as the oak is already planted in the acorn before the acorn is planted in the ground, the gift you came here to give the greatness you are destined to reveal was already placed in you before you were placed in your mothers womb.
James Hillman, in his excellent book, The Souls Code, introduced the idea of the acorn as a metaphor of how we grow, although the concept of a calling, destiny, or governing image being in our soul before we are born has been articulated throughout the ages in the Kabbalah, Buddhism, Hinduism, many indigenous cultures, including Native Americans, and in Platos Myth of Er. Hillman called it the acorn theory and, by his own admission, believed it was more of a myth than theory; myth in the sense that, while it may not actually be true, by reflecting on our life through this conceptual lens, we can have deeper insights into who we are and why were here.
I will take it a step further and suggest that this is a Truth, not merely a myth. And its more than an interesting theory, its a powerful principle, provable through the law of correspondence, as stated above. Whats more, locked up in the seed of your soul is not just an image, calling, or the pattern for an oak it is the Mighty Oak Itself, fully formed in the invisible dimension of your being. And, while it may use the raw materials of your life to take shape, it is not dependent on anything out there for its existence. In fact, it has the power and substance to manifest whatever it needs, seemingly out of thin air if necessary.
As Hillman points out, you can see signs of this acorn in children who, without any external conditioning or despite it become interested in things that dont reflect their parents, siblings, or cultural influences. Theres something unique unfolding that seems to come from within them. Why is it that two children growing up in the same home with largely the same experiences become things as different as a priest and a plumber, or a cop and a crook? Can the nurture argument really explain that? Can it explain a Da Vinci, whose parents had nothing to do with the arts, or a Mozart who became a master pianist and violinist at age 4 and created his first symphony at age 5?
Hillman even suggests, and I agree, that many seemingly aberrant behaviors of children (and some adults) are actually an inner conflict between the seed of their calling and their undeveloped conscious mind. On some level they sense this great destiny within themselves but dont have the psychological or emotional facility to deal with it and it comes out as problem behaviors. For example, the scared little boy who always clings to his mothers apron strings, only to become a world-class bullfighter, was actually sensing the great danger he would one day face and reacting to that. Or the shy girl who doesnt want to talk to people, only to become a speaker addressing the multitudes, was feeling the weight of her public persona and protecting her sense of privacy.
Traditional psychology has often tried to heal children (and adults) of these behavior problems, not recognizing that it was their destiny speaking and an underdeveloped psyche trying to comprehend it. How many geniuses have we anesthetized into normalcy in our Ritalin-crazy world? How many masterpieces, inventions, and innovations are we repressing with our societal pressure to be good boys and girls? Maybe you were one of those problem children, and you developed guilt or shame around your unique thoughts, feelings, and actions. Maybe you even repressed them out of fear, confusion, or a need to fit in, be loved and accepted, or not rock the boat. The signs of your true Self (or acorn) were there from the beginning. Look at the things you were, or still are, interested in, the things you fantasized about, the activities that made you lose track of time, your favorite movies, books, magazines, or people you admired or idolized and youll see your purpose trying to burst forth.
As a kid, I had a strong desire to create, whether it was pinging out songs on the piano, making up stories (sometimes to get out of trouble), shooting super-8 movies, or filling a sketch pad with Utopian worlds. From a purely linear, time-bound perspective, one might have described me as a hyperactive child (which they did), or a dreamer with my head in the clouds (which they did), and attributed no other significance to those activities (which they didnt) yet I grew up to be a professional musician, write screenplays, act in movies, and work to create a better world.
My interior life also showed clues of what I was to become. In my teens, I developed a strong desire to learn about my friends religions, whether they were Christians, Jews, Hindus, or otherwise. My friends thought I was weird, as did I. After all, what practical need did an average teenager have for such mystical musings? I also had a strong urge to see the good in people, which one friend referred to as the love bomb, because I would spontaneously compliment him for no reason. Unfortunately, he didnt mean it as a compliment, and I often wondered if I might be an alien! But I couldnt help myself; something was trying to emerge. And I grew up to teach an inclusive spirituality that sees the divinity in everyone, honors all religions, and seeks to create bridges between us instead of walls.
Some might say that my religious wanderings were the desire of a latchkey kid seeking a sense of order and security in the world, or that my compulsion to see the good in people was a neurotic need to believe people were better and the world was safer than my chaotic childhood home reflected. That explanation fits comfortably into the paradigm of an outside-in world, where we are victims of circumstances, balls of reactions to our environment, and nothing more than the sum total of our coping-mechanisms. But viewing it from the inside-out model of the natural world of which we are intimately a part that would be like saying that the oak tree is nothing but the random result of the acorns struggle to survive and feel good about itself!
Isnt it equally possible that the unstable environment I grew up in was meant to be a catalyst to push my roots deeper? Or that, like the seeds which require a forest fire to germinate, those early childhood conditions sparked a fire within me that cracked open the seed of my potential and allowed it to grow? What I can now see clearly is that all of these powerful promptings were my acorn (or true Self) guiding and directing me, creating opportunities for me to cultivate the inner and outer conditions necessary for its unfoldment.
From a purely materialistic paradigm, we think our desires are indicating something we dont have something we need to get or become but those sincere yearnings of the heart are the seed of your soul speaking to you, the Thing Itself seeking to unfold through and as you. You were not born a blank slate or an empty shell. There is a Divine Pattern within you even more, a Fully Realized Being. And, like the acorn, when the right conditions are created, it will naturally, even effortlessly, emerge.
Stay tuned for the next part, Indigenous vs. Endogenous
And feel free to send these articles to people you think will find them interesting.
In the meantime, Stay Inspired!
Derek.
"For more information on Derek Rydall, go to www.DerekRydall.com, and to get your free Law of Emergence ecourse, go to www.LawOfEmergence.com."
by: Derek Rydall
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