I talk a lot about sacred time. The educational initiative that I have founded from which this work derives is called Kairos Education and kairos is a Greek word meaning, one translation of which might be 'sacred time'. Kairos is essentially another word for time, but it provides a radically alternative understanding of time from that which we are more familiar with, the time of Chronos, Saturn or Old Father Time. There is a crucial distinction . While Chronos represents linear, chronological time, Kairos is immanent, present, time. It is the time that happens NOW and only NOW. It is of the moment. It holds reverence, joy, passion. It is eternal. While we tend to get stuck, and burdened by chronic time, we are freed, liberated, impassioned and empowered by Kaironic time. So Kairos is sacred time. It is the moment, of indeterminate length, in which the eternal breaks into the temporal, shatters it and transform it from that which is conditional, probable or predictable into that which is unconditional, improbable and unpredictable. It opens us to the possibility of who we really are.
So while we are setting aside conventionally understood chronos time for the rituals and practices associated with this course, in doing so we are opening the possibility that kairos time (the experience of sacred time) may break through into the temporal and wake us up to the power of now, the power of who we are in our authentic being. The more we engage with such rituals, the more possibility we create for these authentic moments to break through. The experience of kairos may be entered through ritual practice. Indeed it is sometimes called ritual time.
So my strong recommendation on this coaching programme is that participants engage with their daily practices, not as another thing to fit in to the day, another thing to do, not another example of time being traded for something productive, useful or marketable, but rather as the setting aside of sacred time just for being. With our modern, fast-paced lifestyles most of us have forgotten the value of 'sacred time'. I've been thinking a lot recently about the relationship between sacred time sacred place. I was talking to my mentor from my MA course a few weeks ago about this - he has defined the sacred (in relation to a sacred place) as something which is 'not for sale'. Sacred place, in his definition, is (or should be) immune to commodification. So, I am saying, should sacred time. Look at your life and look at how much of it has been commodified up - you work so many hours in the day in exchange for so much money. Time is valued in terms of how directly productive it is. If we work so hard, then we will produce so much yield. This way of thinking is so ingrained in our conditioning that we may not even question it. We're so used to selling our time, in the same way we are used to selling everything else - land, objects, services etc. We may not even be selling our time for money - but maybe we're still 'selling' our time for good will, or so that we will be appreciated, loved, or whatever and often we agree to do more 'things' than is really feasible for us in order to prove our worth.
So how about creating the space for some sacred time? How about giving yourself the permission to take time that is just for you? How about creating a space in which something unpredictable might show up? Sacred time is not useful, productive or efficient in the conventional sense, but it can facilitate magic, it can allow inspiration to enter your life, it can and will open the wonder of synchronicity, where you can begin to see meaningful signs all around you that seem to be calling you in a particular direction. Then your job is to simply to follow the path that opens before you. Your job is to hold the vision and celebrate yourself realising the vision. Let the universe do the rest. It's not your job to work out how the universe is going to deliver your gifts. Its your job to open the channel to receive them. Relax around your doing. You have more time than you think - infinitely more!
Love John x
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