Once you've had your initial insights, go deeper.
Fuji, Mount of Hidden Powers
I hope that the photograph alone brought both inspiration and direction to your life. You may even have recognized the mountain as Fuji, the most sacred of all the peaks in Japan. In the summer, four thousand people a day begin the climb to the summit. Though the volcano hasn't erupted since 1707, the mountain is honoured and revered because of the power and might of Fuchi, the fire goddess who sent rivers of molten lava cascading for many miles often causing great devastation and the deaths of thousands of people.
What then can we learn from this holy mountain? What overpowering forces are there in your life that need to be acknowledges and revered?
What deep fluid forces well within each of us that we can identify and accept?
When your dark side erupts does it go unchecked like the lava that is so destructive to others? Or are there ways that you can direct your powerful energies without causing others harm?
Sometimes we can sense an eruption before it happens, and allow the built-up energy to dissipate in other ways. But the first step is to identify, to know ourselves thoroughly and to acquaint ourselves with both the light and shadow sides of our inner landscapes. Only then can we deal with our destructive impulse in a tangible and pragmatic way. Sometimes it's alright to erupt as long as we have some control over the time, and place of the blast.
You may be curious about the circle around the mountain. I was photographing dew drops on a spider web at dawn and playing with one droplet, observing it at varying degrees of focus in my viewfinder. With Fuji emerging across the lake behind me, I suddenly got the impulse to do a double exposure of the dew drops with the mountain. For me the circular shape surrounding the mountain gives it a feminine or yin feeling of Fuji as gracious and majestic. But female power, like Fuchi's wrath, manifest as a huge unconstrained energy that transforms her external beauty into hissing rivers of fire. Do not be deceived by external looks and honour your own serpentine energies that lurk within.
If you see the rounded shape as a crystal ball, containing a sacred mountain, what fortune do you see for yourself? What powers can you tap to transform your effect on your surroundings. And how long have your transformative powers been lying dormant?
