Paradox and the secret portal between a rock and a hard place

"I once heard that to become a sovereign of Ireland you had to attach a chariot to two wild horses. One would lurch one way, one the other. You revealed your spiritual maturity and general readiness for the task by so harnessing the tension of both that a third way forward revealed itself. The holy strain of both impulses created the royal road to Tara. A road that a culture could process down." Martin Shaw

Linear thinking says that there is good and bad, truth and falsehood, open or closed. We are taught sometimes to see shades of gray between two opposites, something can be half true or a glass half full. What we are not taught to see is the paradox that exists between the two poles. I have come to see paradox as an invitation to find a trap door, a secret portal between two polar opposites, wherein lies the real truth of the matter, the real magic, the real possibility. Simple examples of a paradox trap door are the very real experiences of finding joy in pain, silence in the noise, disappointment in success. The possibility of finding what we were looking for (and then a whole lot more) in exploring its opposite.

In paradox we find what I like to call Truth with a capital T. It is also where we find solutions to impossible problems. The Irish king was tested to see if he could lead his people out of impossible circumstances, to a place of security and abundance in times when by linear logic there was no hope of survival. We often find ourselves in these places "between a rock and a hard place". We may have to choose from two undesirable options OR...if we are open and flexible enough, we just might find through a secret door a change in perspective that can propel us out of the linear and into a place of expanded possibility.

Journeying through paradox literally brings us into the realm of magic, which I've heard defined as a shift in perspective. We have all had the experience of struggling with a problem until a dream or advice from a friend helps us to see our situation in a new way. Exploring with paradox can be like taking a helicopter ride to view your problem from above and all sides. Our human perspective of the earth was never the same after photos were published from the moon landing.

We forget sometimes in this dualistic human experience that in Truth we are all things. This is so eloquently stated in the the "gnostic" text Thunder Perfect Mind: "I am the first and the last", "I am war and I am peace". A valuable exercise can be to try writing your own version of this sacred poem and experience firsthand how freeing it can be to allow yourself to be and experience the wholeness of existence.

The ancient wise ones understood that the way through the impossible eye of the needle is through allowing ourselves to be ALL, not cutting off any part of who we are and who we could be. Finding the secret door between two opposites brings us back to the infinite present where our deepest longings become manifest and whole.