Kintsugi For the Soul
A Shogun had a treasured chawan. Having noticed cracks, he sent it back to China for a replacement. Though they tried to replace its beauty, he received the very same bowl repaired with metal staples, as they could find nothing that would meet its match.
This was by no means the end of the story and kintsugi continues to evolve hundreds of years later.
Perfectly Imperfect
The art of healing has never been better explained than through the Japanese art of Kintsugi.
Kintsugi (meaning "golden joinery") is the centuries-old Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending fractures with lacquer mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum.
Some of the guiding philosophies of Kintsugi were Wabi-Sabi, the embracing of the beauty of things that are imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete and Mottainai, the feeling of regret over waste, encouraging the repair and second life of everyday objects.
In like manner, a good soul healer wastes nothing, recalls all that is lost to time and alchemises the unbearable, to gold.
Broken Pieces
You are small. Wild and untamed. Running around a table in the living room. You bang the table. The vase comes crashing down. Your parent comes running in. Afraid you’ve hurt yourself and angry about the expense of the vase.
As you are berated, “clumsy and stupid” inside yourself you start to crumble. You cut that part of yourself away. The ‘clumsy, careless’ child. You make them an orphan to your psyche. They become a fragment on the floor you try to leave behind. Like the memory of the vase. Left broken on the floor. Crushed and alone, that orphaned fragment of self becomes very, very angry.
You are forever changed. More careful. More frightened of messing up. You now have a new voice in your head calling you clumsy. Whenever something is said in your life that leaves you feeling clumsy and stupid, that little fragment possesses you and you become a furious great big 3-year-old.
You can imagine the levels of soul damage that can occur over a lifetime. Abuse, bullying, regrets and the effects of walking around as a soul damaged adult, responding to the world from your wounding.
Shamanism and Soul Retrieval
A healer practising these modalities, can help you gather these pieces of self, without damaging the ego.
We release and recall power. Memories are collated and healed with the Great Love and Enlightenment that holds our world together. All pieces of you, even those you thought scattered to the five winds, gather to be returned to source for healing.
Your healer will provide the staples, the mesh, the gold, the resin and the clay to enable you to call those pieces of self, back together. They empower you to be able to heal places in yourself that have been previously lost to time. Places you gave up on ever being healed.
Personally speaking, it is rare that I hear a client speak directly of their losses and regrets. I work quietly, my guides speak through me cryptically so my client can understand and I don’t have to. In this way, privacy is maintained for the clients most vulnerable moments. Healing can take place. The ego can take a backseat.
Love is Pure Gold
So what’s the payoff of all this inner work?
Empowerment, protection, wholeness, joy and most importantly, harmony within and without.
Inner work is empowerment, and its so rare that it is quantified in this way but within that inner struggle is the ability to create unshakeable foundations to build whatever castle you can dream up in life.
From a place of wholeness we are naturally protected within and without.
Youth
When you remove core aspects of self, you cut off the fun, your joyfulness, your carefree attitude. Once you update the files as an adult, you remember all the fabulous memories of childhood. The fun stuff. You get your mojo back. Your youth.
Its not all hard work, no pay off. It’s an absolute reclamation of your lost happiness.
Updating The Files
You can recognise with the eyes of a responsible adult, just how much responsibility was yours as a child. This is huge and key factor to self-forgiveness and inner freedom.
You still have responsibilities, but you can clearly see what’s yours and what occurred through the failing of other broken adults.
You can evaluate as an adult how to deal with your feelings about your caregivers from a whole place with all the information, in conscious awareness.
Decreased Reactivity
When our discarded selves are recollected and healed, we are not possessed by broken aspects of self. Responding with fury, depression or pain. We can also use the moments of weakness as moments to examine and put in the healing.
In The Workplace
When a boss or coworker reacts critically, we can now calmly assess whether the input is, in any part, helpful or if they are a destructive person who likes to bully and we should start calmly making other plans.
In Our Relationships
When our partner or friend group is showing lack of interest, we can see clearly, whether they are disrespectful and destructive or just having a bad day and processing. Our critical faculties are amplified in a very healthy way.
In Times of Opposition
We now have patience, an ability to plan in rhythm with the universe, to overcome obstacles without exploding, bending or breaking.
Because of the inner work, you can take even current traumas in your stride and heal them as you go, making you indomitable in moments of conflict. Every scratch, chip and crack becomes more golden because you have reconnected to the true gold that you are. That we are all a part of.
Kintsugi World
From this place of golden wholeness, we can make choices that enable the golden wholeness of the world around us. We appreciate the fractures and vulnerabilities of those around us and act accordingly with compassion for self and others. We generate respect. From true self-respect comes respect for everyone and everything else.
This kind of healed response creates healing environments, treating everywhere, from the break room to the bus stop as a sacred space where we can be the golden loving powerful kintsugi bonds that brighten the world.
As your own glittering work of art, your healing path creates the reflection of our whole universe. A perfectly imperfect work of kintsugi.
References
If you would like to try Soul Retrieval or Shamanic Healing, we provide more information on our website at Angelic Sounds Holistic.We look forward to supporting your journey.
Unfortunately I can’t find all the creators of the gorgeous kintsugi decorating this blog but if they are yours please let me know and I can update the blog and mark them, correctly tagging your page to give you the exposure you deserve.
Tezumi provided me with wonderful insights into the origins and creation of kintsugi and they also sell new creations and vintage classics.
https://www.tezumi.com/blogs/tezumi-insights/kintsugi-history-and-introduction
If you’ve fallen in love with Kintsugi and you’d like to see more, there are some wonderful sellers of modern and traditional kintsugi on Etsy.
Here are some gorgeous examples of classic and more modern kintsugi:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/KinboruDesigns?ref=shop_profile&listing_id=1567856426