To Every Season: Return, Return, Return

I hear it, Oh yay, I hear it! Finally, the familiar, chatty, sing-songy, raspberry-capped, purple finch has returned to the birch outside my office window! Oh, that sound of pure joy and spirited happiness! Every Spring, without fail, no matter where on Earth I have found myself, this bright little bird has returned to grace my ears with its ample music. Its cheery, soft purple coloring is a balm for my eyes after a long winter of whites and blues, browns and slushy grays. 

I am always struck by how abundantly those tiny little lungs create such an enormous sound! How they freely belt out that bouncy song for all to enjoy - singing to woo their mate, to announce their territory, and also, I believe, to express with elation simply for the sake of creating beauty!

The purple finch, and all bird-folk who undertake these lengthy migrations, often fly thousands of miles during their annual cycles of leaving, returning, leaving, returning. Or is it really leaving? Perhaps a fresh way to feel into this avian phenomenon is to view it as centered around always just returning, returning, returning. 

It is well known that our bird kin utilize navigational cues from the position of the stars and sun in the sky, and from the electromagnetic field of the Earth to make their extraordinary journeys. All of these explanations, yes, and also, the greater mystery still remains – how do they actually find their way? What else are they perceiving, and will this ever be knowable to us? To me, it feels part of a grand, expansive, quantum field experience, in which birds are extraordinarily sensitive to highly subtle sources of information that they can harness and utilize with their innate and remarkable inner compass orientations. Sounds a bit like homeopathy, doesn’t it? Nature forces, lifeforms, plants, minerals, animals, vibrational fields, sensitivity, similarities, resonance - powerful allies, and freely available healing kindness.

And so, in the background of all this mystery, I continually wonder – how do we find our way, ourselves? What guides us, really? What do we sense? What do we perceive, discern, recognize, interpret, embody, grasp, behold, when deciding which way to go? And what do we find ourselves returning back to, again and again, and why are we attracted to those particular things, people, places, activities, or events? Is our inner way-finder just as sensitive, just as sensational (sensation-all?), just as perceptive? 

I can confidently say that the realm homeopathic medicine inhabits has a way, a gentle, powerful, subtle way, of softly pulling you toward it, of wrapping you up in its magnetic, attracting, healing force, and lovingly planting seeds within you of its profound capacity to be of assistance and offer companionship to all beings. It is gorgeous in its simplicity. It is extraordinary in its unconditional love for us – that there are lifeforms in Nature who carry the mirror to our suffering, and who grace our healing processes with such generous witnessing and care. Your own purple finch, whoever it may be and whatever form in which it may appear, continues its returning, returning, returning back to you, with an infallible persistence, commitment, and dedication to facilitate the continual and ever-expanding discovery of your own power and grace.

As I am so fortunate to be a part of the Prometheus Homeopathic Institute’s extraordinary training program, I see that the migratory, cyclical way of the purple finch is also a central part of our homeopathic learning process here at PHI. Spiral learning, as we call it, is central to students’ education, with the regular returning, journeying, circling back to concepts and content, over and over again. This spiral way of integrating homeopathic knowledge and understanding is a powerful, Nature-based, ecologically-centered learning cycle that flows deep and wide into one’s psyche, spirit, and soma, where it is firmly incorporated into one’s whole Being. This allows each student to develop their own internal ecosystem where homeopathy lives and thrives, establishing deeply-rooted terrain from which successful practices can then grow and flourish, and the reach of homeopathy can continue to expand on our planet.

What do you find yourself returning back to, again and again and again? What continues to call to you, whether quiet and subtle, or boisterous, spicy, and loud? Of course we can be pulled to many things, as our hearts desire to explore and expand in all directions. This is a loving reminder that you can return, return, return to the guidance originating from directly within you; an invitation to remember what you already know, with your own personal, ever-present, raspberry-capped purple-finch song-helper who is perched at your own heart-window. 

Beth Bundy, CCH, BSN

PHI Student Support Specialist and Classical Homeopath