Hello friends and welcome to the second installment of Wizardly Words (on Wednesdays), where Meghan and I are playing with a vocabulary exercise to utilise the incredible words Richard magicked together to create the Gene Keys written transmission.

We’re starting off this first month bringing the four words that are the bedrock of the Gene Keys approach into this space … Inquiry, Gentleness, Contemplation and Patience.

Richard describes Gentleness thus …

Nurturing a kind and gracious approach towards self and others. Encouraging a spirit of unwinding and unlearning, versus striving and fixing.

Gentleness has been a key learning for me through my Gene Keys journey of the last two and a half years. In the past, I’ve been a hard task-master. I have always pushed myself in every area of my life and this arena of the inner work was no exception … “Why am I still feeling shit, when I’ve done all this work? Why haven’t I fixed this/that/everything about my life? Why do I make the same mistakes over and over?”

Gentleness says, it’s okay that you haven’t figured everything out.

Gentleness says, you‘ve done so much, you’re doing so well.

Gentleness says, it’s natural to repeat old patterns until you find the right new pattern to gently overlay it.

Gentleness says, I’m just a normal human being, with normal human fears. But my fears do not define me. Just because I fear being inadequate, doesn’t mean that I actually am.

And gentleness allows me to bring myself back to the place of self-belief and self-compassion, THEN there is space for the joy to return.

I love this from the 59^th Gene Key, which I have in my Creativity sphere in the Star Pearl … “Breathe, be gentle, be compassionate and patient with yourself. See your tendency to project your own trauma as blame. And honestly own it. We’re allowed to make mistakes. Forgive yourself. Then stand up and move on.”

I am working with my SQ Gene Key of 55.5. Richard says of the 55 Gift of Freedom, that we have ensnared ourselves, and that we are the only thing standing in the way of us and experiencing our freedom.

And that right there, the understanding that I have ensnared myself with my harshness, opened up the most wonderful contemplation on gentleness.

Because of course I am the only thing standing in my own way. I am the only thing blocking my own path to freedom.

And how doing this?

By believing it needs to look a certain way.

By believing I need others to tell me I’m getting it right.

By believing that I need that external validation.

By believing that anything external can ever heal me or fix me. 

And definitely by being harsh with myself, even in this, the inner work.

What might it look like to truly bring gentleness to this path of the inner work?

What might it feel like to allow this path to gently unfold before me, instead of harshly pushing myself forward?

It would feel like the most gentle sigh of relief, as I sit back and relax; as I pause; as I drop my shoulders and straighten my spine.

As I just breathe.

This path of the Gene Keys truly is a gentle path. There is no rush here.

And when I go gently, slowly, I realise that there is even more to see and discover and relish with every step.

Working with Hayley on this SQ Sphere, she talked about how my mum had hardened through her suffering, whereas I had been the beautiful flower growing out of the rocky ground. Wow! That was such a glorious vision to hold gently in my heart. My mum was hard; she was angry, and spiky. There was no softness there.

And I subconsciously learned from her that the world is a hard place and everything will go wrong and that I have to hold everything at a distance to stay safe … and yet I still got hurt. There was the Shadow of Victimisation.

But the other glorious thing my guide, Hayley allowed me to see is that there are only fragments of that victimisation left in me.

I must now allow myself to be the mother to my own inner child. And to do that I need to soften and be more gentle with myself; I need gentle self-compassion.

So, that’s my take on Gentleness, when I look at through the lens of my SQ Gene Key, which is where I’m at right now in my journey; but I thought that I would use Roget’s Thesaurus (one of my all-time favourite books), so that I could find new definitions, that I can turn into statements for me to relish with every step of the journey to come …

Gentleness is compassionate, benevolent and soft.

Gentleness is forgiving.

Gentleness allows me to melt into myself and into my own truth.

Gentleness is moderation and mildness; it is innocence; it is muted.

Gentleness speaks sotto voce with whispered words that graze my ears.

Gentleness is leniency and mildness and temperance.

Gentleness, like a knight of old, is courteous, gallant and gracious.

Gentleness wraps me in kindness and humility.

Gentleness, like my best friend, Meghan, is amiable, considerate and pure of heart.

Gentleness is a state of grace, and it is impeccable. What does Gentleness feel like to you, and how can you bring that feeling into your daily practice?