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HAN MARIE STIEKEMA

 


 

BURN-OUT
The Gate toward Renewal

 

In these most critical of times the Ultimate has granted me an All-inclusive Vision! How to turn the global crisis into the greatest chance mankind ever had. It is nothing less but a leap in evolution

In the beginning...there was only the All-Embracing Cosmic Mother. People experienced Her as Darkness, Night, Emptiness, a Cosmic Womb, giving birth to the Light and the entire universe, with everything continuously returning to Her*

* Actually, the universe is originating from a Cosmic Vacuum....

Men also experienced the dominance of the Mother as self-evident. The former spontaneously considered the Cosmic Mother as Supreme Dimension, while participating in i.e. supporting Her worship

With the coming of possession and wealth - brought about by women! - the original World View started falling apart. Special interests arised. And with it losing of the Unity

The Mother lost Her All-Embracing power and became fragmented in various Goddesses (and later also Gods). Men (Gilgamesh) became increasingly unwilling to sacrifice themselves to the Goddess, like they had done before

In their new function as protectors and owners of wealth the power of men grew. The discovery of their role in procreation and the invention of written language ("the word" with which laws could be written) only added to it. The outcome: a.o. violence, war and conquest

In order to strengthen their ego's and to establish man's rule, the Original Mother was finally destroyed (Tiamat by Marduk) and with it the experience of continuous regeneration through death and rebirth

Fear of death entered the culture. Which only could be "overcome" by killing. An exception were the Hellenistic Mystery Religions who sought spiritual renewal by death of the old self

It was a continuation of the Mother Religion in which men ("Vegetation Gods") died every year in order to guarantee the next harvest. It was the tradition of Tammuz, Osiris, Baal, Attis, Dionysos and....Jesus

Christianity - as successor of the Old Religion - did everything to abolish the memory of the past. It destroyed Women Traditions, God-Realization (Gnostics, Mystics, Philosophers...."Heretics"), the relationship with nature and the earth ("Pagans") and their corresponding communities 

After centuries of persecution, terror, torture and executions ("inquisition") people gave up and fell back on the only resort that was left to them: that of their ego's. It was the beginning of individualism and materialism (origin of capitalism in 14th century North Italian city states)

The trend of "being thrown upon themselves" ("Renaissance") was later followed by the "Enlightenment", which has nothing to do with Enlightenment, but everything with rationalization, i.e. the even more narrowing of "mind-alone"

The result: uprootedness (with a.o. Mysticism, Romanticism as "protest movements") i.e. loss of contact with the "rest" of reality: Heaven, earth, the body, femininity, love and sex, nature and fellow human beings. An isolated self (ego) is synonymus with existential fear. Don't people increasingly say: "We are facing nothingness?"

Cut off from your roots the latter cannot nurture you anymore. Hence, the culture entered a irreversible stage of decay. Science, technology and capitalism are (at best) attempts to avoid the crash by choosing the flight forward, which - as everybody can see - only accelerates the process. Instead of restoring contact with reality, an artificial "virtual" world is completely replacing our natural environment

Fear of Nothingness expresses itself in obsessively "looking forward", "progress", "growth" and "development". In the company, a quarter with no growth is a cause of great panic. In order not to face emptiness, life has to be relentlessly stuffed with "content": ambition, greed, money, power, status , sex and distraction

Through ignorance, Emptiness - the omnipotent Ground of Existence - is like "being taken back" by the forces of darkness. It reminds people (men) of the "chaos" of the dark womb. And indeed, fear of Darkness, Nothingness, the (Cosmic) Womb, the Mother is the selfsame archaic fear. It is the reason why the mother (Mother) has to be "overcome" in order for the ego to become "independent" (C.G.Jung)

Killing the Mother in order to "become somebody" is an old theme in Western culture. Jocaste killed herself after she discovered that she had married her son, Oedipus. Relapse into the mother world is a most frightening thing for the patriarchal ego. The myth confirms the alienation of the ego, the latter destroying its maternal Origin (and through that eventually itself)

Nowadays, many women equally despise their maternal background. However, their attempt to adjust to patriarchy proves to be a disaster. Even when the husband is helpful. mothers fail in combining their responsibilities and get burn-out. When mothers are neglecting their children - as is the case nowadays - then something is deeply wrong, indeed*

* See also our project: "Mother for Mothers"

Our culture faces an ego-collapse. It is another word for "burn-out". Both women and men face the consequences of the merciless "rat race". It is a spiral of fear and obsessive activity as two sides of the same coin

Having as the inability of Being....cristallized into a system that is getting mad through greed, pressure, stress, performance, hyperactivity, addiction.....eventually leading to fatigue, depression, illness and collapse

It resembles the mechanism of food-intolerance i.e. allergy. In the first stage you receive an energy boost from overstimulation of your immune-system. You "thrive" on products that are incompatible with your physiology. Until a critical limit is reached. "Overnight" the same food causes indigestion, fatigue, sleeplessness, depression and exhaustion. It is a sign that the immune-system had been overburdened for too long   

Its deepest cause is fear of Nothingness, which is the same as fear of the Cosmic Womb. The latter is the birthground of both the Light and the universe, though. However, without confronting your existential fear, no renewal!

Through unprejudiced observation more and more people recognize the disastrous impact the existing socio-economic system has on personal health, happiness, relationships, families, our youth, work-satisfaction, community life, social welfare, including the wellbeing of entire peoples and nature. Therefore, to "treat" burn-out with the aim of sending people back to the "killing fields" is immoral

Even "spirituality" is used to get people back to work.  While nice words are used like "stress-management", "balance", "flexibility", "harmony" and "inner peace" its true aim is to make people even more useful, effective and competitive. Spirituality as a means to boost profits i.e. the rat race is ultimately evil

The good news: a couple of weeks in a "re-integration center" doesn't seem to "pay off": After a few weeks back to work most clients experience their first set-backs, once again. Fatigue, sleeplessness, tinnitus, depression, hypertension and "burn-out". The reason: a burn-out ego cannot renew itself: you cannot pull yourself by your own hair out of the morass

The true cause is an ego that has lost contact with its roots. Instead of restoring Wholeness, it identified itself with all kinds of surrogate behavior. Having replaced Being. More and more having cannot quill the thirst for Being, though. Accumulations of all kinds have reached a critical limit. The ego succumbs under its own ambitions. That's why nowadays the ego is withering away with frightening speed

The solution: to cooperate with the facts i.e. die to the old. Consider the "death of the ego" as chance instead of a curse. Return to the Origin in order to become renewed. Abandon those "values" which are driving you to further suicide. A complete re-orientation is needed. Again, the ego cannot do this all by itself. Instead, it has to give itself up, going back exactly to that Realm that caused him/her the greatest fear: Nothingness

The irony is, that you try to escape from the inevitable. The existential mechanism to fear of Nothingness is ego-formation. As long as the ego is relatively embedded in the social fabric, this fear is contained. Nowadays, society has become fragmented with no support systems left. The ego is exposed to Nothingness and starts panicking

It seeks its "refuge" in unbridled activity, to such an extent, that it becomes exhausted. This ego-collapse is called "burn-out". All defense systems are broken down. You are "at the bottom". This "bottom" - the condition where you have nothing to cling to anymore - proves the be That for Which you had the greatest fear. Your choice: trying to escape again by "repairing your ego" or facing darkness

Your true rescue - once you have decided to descend to the Underworld, turning you into an inner Hero - is coming from the understanding about the True Nature of Darkness i.e. Emptiness. The latter proves to be a "Loving Cosmic Mother" taking the (ego)burden from you, while giving birth to a new inner identity: your True Self. That what caused the greatest fear proves to be your liberation! This most crucial aspect is called "Cosmic Regeneration"*

See: "Mother for Mothers"

This inner Renewal is the greatest joy in life possible. Before you thought you were burnt-out. Now you understand, that is was only your ego, that experienced the anguish. Your True Self, on the other hand, cannot become "burnt-out". It is eternal. The secret: your True Self was born because you let your ego die....It explains why all efforts to "save your ego" were in vain

In daily life there are many situations where you may experience the "ego-death" as a positive phenomenon. F.i. you walk in the forest and suddenly a sun ray appears through the trees. At the same moment "everything dropped off", i.e. you dissolved into the joy of Nothingness, experiencing the "nakedness of life"

Like other existential moments, like "falling (not "rising") in love"; "I am at the bottom" while discovering the liberation of it rather than the expected angst. Equally, like a patient of mine, diagnosed with cancer said: after a deep crisis and much tears "I lost everything, that's why I had nothing to loose anymore". He touched the "Ground of Existence" while experiencing "Eternal Peace". Conclusion: liberation comes from the things we fear most     

"Ego-death" means several things. First of all, the ego isn't the center of personality. All trouble originated through the illusion that the ego is autonomous. It is not. Instead, it has its home in the True Self, like having has its home in Being. Ultimately, balance and wholeness are restored, only, when your whole body-mind becomes part of the Whole, once again

"Trying to repair the ego" is thus based on ignorance.  Rather, the new ego - accepting his humble role - has to find its proper place in your system. It is situated at your periphery, not at your center. Once it has gone through the "death experience" - getting rid of all its illusions, addictions and deceptions - only then it can take up its true mission: that of a servant     

As stated above, "death" of the ego and birth of the True Self are two sides of the same coin. Only when the New Self firmly re-establishes itself, you may seek to become part of the Whole - Heaven, earth and the (new) community" - once again. It is the moment in which you have a chance to become a Shining Light to others. Thus, the Road Within eventually leads to the Road Without

Gender roles might become a reflection of new Cosmic insights. Men are a manifestation of "death and rebirth", their role is serving the Whole; while women embody Mother's Web of Life, the interconnectedness of All and Everything. The crucial question for the future is: "are you complying with this the Law of the Universe" and will thus be "saved" or won't you? 

Last but not least, the issue of resuming activities is crucial for leading a meaningful and sustainable future life. It has to comply with your newly found insights and priorities. The most important thing is to at all costs avoid re-entering the rat race of the dominant system. This can be very tricky, indeed

F.i. a well-known manager shifted to the "soft sector" hoping for a "new life". However, in order to establish his idealistic re-integration center he had to borrow, invest, pay debts in such a way, that very soon he faced the same work pressure and stress like he had before. He collapsed again and with him his valuable initiative

It once again stresses my point that the whole of society faces a burn-out. Unbridled and large scale profitmaking, commercialization and corruption has undermined the social body. Proper governance, community life, education, health care, the environment....you name it, all suffer from degradation and decay

It is better to chose a life centered around a new (simple) lifestyle. Getting inspiration from new ideas and visions, those which try to bypass the tricks of the financial system to once again incorporate you. Work based on cooperation rather than competition. This can be artistic i.e. creative work, or working together with others serving the Whole....When you support Life, then Life is supporting you...

Of course, once you realized your True Self and decided to become part of the Whole once again, all kinds of additional support i.e. therapies are welcomed. You have to stabilize your New Self through (daily) meditations.* Parts of your old self that were rejected in the past become re-integrated. Through a healthy lifestyle your body-mind has to become strong again. F.i. obstacles like electro-stress have to be removed from your home   

* See our Retreat: "The Universal Way" 

I have gone through it all, therefore, I am taking the lead here. I experienced all ups and downs, from the highest to the deepest. I myself don't have to travel the road myself, anymore. Thanks to the Cosmic Mother, I am able to guide you to your Origin, just like it happened to me - of course everything in your own unique way - the former granting you renewal for life

No rebirth without death.... 

Only New People can create a New World

"Cosmic Regeneration and Re-integration" 
An approach with Teaching, Healing, Consultation, Meditation, Retreat, Training....and more

INFO & CONTACT

Personal Appointments:
info(at)healingtheplanet.info
+31.30.6590178
(Near Utrecht)

About additional therapies:
"Stress, Burn-Out and Regeneration"
(Already written in 1988)

 

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Last revising: 08/09/12