Welcome to #Indigo2022 - are you ready for an adventure of a lifetime, a journey like no other?
Welcome to #Indigo2022 the year to expect the unexpected, a year when the illogical will make more sense than the logical. A year when all cards are up in the air and only destiny will know where they will land. It’s a year when the invisible becomes visible, illusion is replaced with clarity and reality is seen with clear vision.
Archetypes relating to indigo are The Magician, Chaos and Death. Before you run for the hills or plan to go into hibernation until the end of year, hibernation is pretty indigo too so there’s no escape, consider this, all three archetypes are connected with deep transformation from the inside out. From deep transformation comes newness and rebirth.
What was your year like in 2013, 2004, 1995, 1986? Those too were Indigo years.
Death, as am sure you will agree, is quite a transformative experience in whatever shape or form it shows up in our life. Sometimes no matter how much we know we need to let something “die”, be it an unfinished project, a relationship that no longer serves either party, or an old pattern of behaviour that helped us in the past but now is detrimental, we still hang on for dear life. And yet death brings so many rich opportunities.
A question for this year might be “what needs to die?”
Some years ago, a student of mine in Lisbon did her case project about indigo, part of which involved her spending time in a local cemetery looking at the dates of death, age at death and then calculating the colour of the year or age of the person. The recurring colour was, surprise, surprise, indigo! There is an indigenous belief that the more you embrace death the more you live, the more you run from it the less life force you have for living.
One of the many things I love about indigo is its ability to help us step out of time. All colours have the ability to connect us with past and present-day memories. Indigo, however, is the colour that holds the key to unlock the past, the present and the future. It makes visible the invisible threads that keep us either stuck in the past or only focused on the future. Another indigo question might be, "Where do I spend most of time, past, present or future?"
If we were to look through the eyes of indigo this is how we might see the world. A world full of invisible connections, hidden codes and most importanlty we would see light, and lots of it. For although indigo is the one that brings darkness it also the one that brings the most light. It is a colour of paradox, illusion and trickster energy.
Illusion and Trickster energy can be quite challenging to say the least. In children's stories we are often introduced to the trickster energy by the very charming and cunning "Mr Fox". As adults we may find ourselves signing up for or buying things which promise to change our life in a weekend or use a product with the promise of eternal youth. Think of an indigo year metaphorically as the year the little boy who shouts "He's naked, he's got no clothes on!" as in the story of the King's New Clothes, the illusion is broken and that which was hidden and invisible is now clear for all to see. The next indigo question could be along the lines of "where am I not seeing clearly, where am I not trusting my intuition"
Sometimes what inhibits us from being able to see clearly, even though we may want and desire to, are the invisible threads connecting us to our ancestors. Not just parents, grandparents or great-grandparents, but the influence of seven generations past. What goes unresolved in one generation will ripple and thread its way through to the future generations until it finally gets resolved.
Gathering together all the stories of your ancestors and creating a family tree is one way of starting to make visible the repeating patterns that have maybe haunted us for too long.
Try visualising indigo flowing down the roots of your family tree, indigo helps lay to rest that which belongs to the past. One day we too will be ancestors, we are all ancestors in training! What are you sending forward?
I did say at the beginning of this blog that an indigo year is a year where all your cards are thrown up in the air and only destiny knows roughly, more or less, where they will land, and even that is up for discussion and negotiation. If you like control and order you could find the next 12 months a tad stressful, the key word for an indigo year is SURRENDER. It is not about being passive or inactive it is more about being still and listening for and sensing the movement of the Soul. We can only do that if we let go of how we think things should be and turn our gaze inwards. It is the difference between acting impulsively and being spontaneous.
"You must have chaos within you
to give birth to a dancing star"
Friedrich Nietzsche
In the midst of chaos there is always some kind of higher order, when we look back on times of seeming chaos we hopefully eventually see the bigger picture. From the chaos we see a new life emerging, a life which sets us on a new direction or with a deeper understanding of the life we are now living.
When I moved back to the UK from Portugal, I fought it all the way, it was not part of my egoic plan. However, clearly on another level my Soul had a different idea, when I now look back I can see that the signs were there for months before my actual move. Equally when I see how my life in the UK has evolved, I understand that it could not have happened if I had of stayed in Portugal. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
So, we've talked death, illusion and chaos, all of which we seem to encounter more of on an Indigo year, but now let's talk about one of indigo's other precious traits, magic.
"Magic is believing in yourself. If you can do that, you can make anything happen."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Indigo magic is about the bringing together of the right different things, at the right time and in the right order. When we have the know-how and the mastery, we have the potential of finding and creating our own kind of magic. A question you might reflect on is; "What is my magic?"
Your magic is the thing that you can do so easily that you almost do it without thinking, to others you make it seem so easy. It is often referred to as having a "raw talent", it is something so natural and powerful that seems to be fuelled by something deep within. Raw talent by itself can be chaotic and wild, channelled and refined it becomes a mastery.
A magician is never just a magician, the magician is first the apprentice, he learns how to command and focus his magic. It is the learning and understanding of his own type of magic that makes him a true magician.
Joseph Campbell wrote, "Take guidance and instruction from others, but find your own path"
Finding your own path is one thing, following it is something completely different. It takes daringness and courage. Again, as Joseph Campbell wrote, if the path ahead of you is clear then it is not your path. Certainly, my own path with colour was not clear, learning the formula was like reawakening something deep within, but learning how to craft it and use it in a way that is both understandable and transformative has been, and still is, a continually unfolding pathway.
Along the way I have learnt that part of my own colour magic is helping people to discover and become uniquely irreplaceable. Part of being uniquely irreplaceable is uncovering your inherent natural way of being, so much so that it is impossible to be copied or replicated and the light which is hidden within shines so brightly that it inspires others to discover their own magic.
Let this indigo year be your year of metamorphosis. Take time to go deep within and shine light into the dark corners of your psyche to let go of what no longer serves you. Use that same light to break the spell of illusion and inherited old patterns. Discover that which makes your heart sing and that which makes your Soul soar. Be the magic, surrender to chaos, and let the alchemy of the imaginal begin.
"Just when the caterpillar thought it was all over,
It became a butterfly"
Until very soon,
Colourfully yours,
