The wound is like an iris at the core of the sphere … this theme lies at the core of all the other themes in a person’s life. It is connected to your higher purpose and your dharma. The Gift keynote is your holy grail.
Richard Rudd

This is the third in our series of articles about our Gene Keys Core Wound. The Core Wound is at the centre of our charts, the centre of our beings. And the Core Gene Key and its Lines are at the centre of every other Gene Key in your chart.

The first article is about Finding The Flavour Of The Shadow Of Our Core Wound Gene Key; the second is about Unlocking The Deep Essence of Our Core Wound. (You can click on the links to read them!)

The Story of Meghan’s Core Wound Line

Meghan and I took this idea of looking at our Core Wound Line through the lens of the all the other Line Gift states. Meghan had this glorious idea of asking how each of our Line Gifts would help our Core Wound’s Line Shadow as it seeks solace.

You can click on the Podcast below to listen to Meghan’s glorious take on this, where she introduces the concept of the Six Core Wounds of Humanity, and then talks about the Line 5 she has here … this line has the Shadow keynote of Guilt, and Gift keynote of Forgiveness …

By clicking on the film icon in the podcast player, you can watch Meghan’s video on YouTube.

The Story of Lizzie’s Core Wound Line

I absolutely loved Meghan’s idea of how she could look at her Core Wound Line as a friend who sits down for a coffee with each of the other Lines in her chart. I can always trust Meghan to bring in a bit of playfulness to this inner work. I was so inspired by Meghan that I too wanted to look at this question of how my Core Wound relates to each of our other lines with a dash of her wonderful playful energy.

So, I took this idea to my journal to see what would bubble up from inside me to let me open the iris of my Core Wound line with the Gift frequency of each of the other lines.

My Core Wound line is 6 – Shadow keynote of Separation and Gift keynote of Care and Love.

In the Shadow of Separation, it just doesn’t fit with current reality.

In the Gift of Care and Love, Line 6 must allow themselves to care deeply for their vision, even if it hurts.

But first, a little bit about Line 6 …

For years the 6th line can feel like it's in the wilderness. But with constant care, self-care, it will return. It will find home. And when it comes, it’s like the prodigal son coming home. The celebration is like no other. And the 6th line wound brings great wisdom along with it. These are the people who will understand the wound the best in the long run, but not when they are estranged. When they feel separate they are waiting in the wings of life. Only when their hearts come alive does true understanding flow through them into others. Such people have to go through lengthy periods of feeling separated from others, from real warmth. But in the end it's all for the best. It's all part of the mission they have.
The Venus Sequence

These lines are my family, they’re my clan, they are my cheerleaders when things are going well, and they are my most stalwart and loyal defenders if I find myself in emotional hot water.

So, let me tell you a little bit about this Core Wound line of mine … Line 6 is Separation, and when I first read about it, even when I just read the word, let me tell you, it resonated so deeply with me.

This Line 6 Core Wound of Separation can make you feel that you are separate from life itself. I felt that separation as isolation for my entire life. Even as a very young child, I was “other”. There was no mother-love bond with my mum (but that’s another story for another day!), and this theme of separation, of feeling outside of life, continued through my school years, through college, through the vast majority of my adult life. Even in relationships and friendships, I felt separate, like I didn’t belong anywhere. There were many lonely years.

So, I’m going to take this Shadow Line of Separation to each of my Sister-Lines to see what they can do to help me move into the antidote to this Separation, and start caring for myself instead.

It makes me really happy that the antidote to Separation is not only “care”, it is also “love”. I heal my Separation by caring for myself, by loving myself. And because this is the Core Wound we’re talking about, this is bigger than me, I’m learning to care and love everyone.

Okay, so we’ve got all my Sister-Lines gathered round the campfire, and they’re going to weave the story of how I can heal this wound of Separation.

Line 1 Energy … The Creator/Self and Empowerment

First, of course, are my foundation Gene Keys … my Life’s Work and Evolution Line 1’s, The Creator and Self and Empowerment. These two lines know all about solitude, they are my inner hermit lines.

Having Line 1 Creator in my Life’s Work is how I can show up at my journal day after day, year after year; and how I continue to forge new paths into my inner world. She tells me that it’s okay for me to separate myself sometimes, because it is in the deep solitude of my inner world that all of my creativity is birthed. But she reminds me that I need to breathe, deep slow breaths, to keep myself stable and steady. This is how I care for myself here; I breathe, and as I breathe, so I bring calm to those around me. She reminds me that I am not only creating for myself, I am creating for everyone. Yes, I need this deep alone time, but I must bring the fruits out into the world as my creative expression. I was never meant to create all these words and stories just for myself. They are meant to be shared, when the time is right.

My Evolution Line 1 of Self and Empowerment says yes, yes, you must go within, for that is where all your strength and creativity lie, but she reminds me that I am also here to empower myself. This is not inner work as an excuse to hide from the world and stay separate. This is inner strength-building, so that I might bring my creativity, my words, out into the world to empower others to find that same strength within themselves.

Separation and this deep inward-looking Line 1 in my Evolution could cut themselves off, and the easiest way to prevent that is to care for others. Take that beating heart of love, and open to others.

Don’t be afraid. You have an ocean of inner strength to call on.

Line 3 Energy … Interaction/Movement (Blood) and the Adventurer

Moving round the campfire, we come to the twins of my Radiance and Purpose, both Line 3 firecrackers … Interaction and Movement.

I couldn’t quite believe these were facets of my being. The socially separate hermit felt much more natural to me.

My Line 3 here craves interaction (the clue is in the keynote name!). But the deep roots of this Line 3 lie in a desire to help people, and for that I must embrace the Core Gift theme of Care. I know instinctively what is right for me and for other people, so I am able to move from that spiky energy of separation into the nurturing energy of caring … for myself and for other people.

If you had asked me a couple of years ago if I resonated with this energy of Interaction, you’d have received a quick and absolute NO! But as I have slowly and gently cracked into my Line 6 Separation to find that beating heart of care and love, so I have opened myself up to caring for other people. And in that care that I have poured out, so great swathes of care and love have returned. I am finding that the more I open to and interact with other people, the more I am able to care for myself, and the more I am able to love myself.

(At this point in my contemplation, I imagined this sister chortling and saying, “I knew you were in there somewhere!!”)

The Line 3 in my Purpose sphere wears two personae. In my Activation Sequence, she is all about Movement. She flows like the very blood in her veins; she is so alive and she keeps me moving. She knows that change scares me. She knows I spent decades feeling separate from everything and everyone around me, and that I had built barriers to keep the ever-changing world I didn’t understand outside.

She’s here to remind me that just as movement is vital to keep my physical body healthy; movement of ideas is just as vital to my mental and emotional health. I am a deeply creative woman, but I need inspiration, I need fuel, and that comes through movement. There is no creativity in a stagnant pond.

The other face of this Purpose Line 3 lies in my Venus Sequence, and she is the Adventurer. Now here at last is an interaction energy that my Line 6 Core can get on board with, because this sister’s inner strength is in her ability to laugh at herself!!

Even in the darkest days of feeling that separation and isolation, when I felt so alone, so outside of life, there was always a glimmer of humour. I have always been able to laugh at myself. This ability folded in self-compassion, and it allowed me to stay grounded and not collapse inwards under the weight of my aloneness. Laughter brought light into my darkest days.

The campfire’s flames dance with joy and my Sister-Lines’ eyes sparkle as I remember this.

Hello Line 6! Disappointment/Innocence

Ah, into my Attraction sphere I go and I encounter my first Line 6. I love how these Line 6’s bookend my Venus Stream. Line 6 here is all Innocence, the childlike innocence that holds onto her dreams, even if the world looks bleak. This Line 6 sister is ecstatic in her innocence. She wants to play, to explore, to dance, to climb the highest tree and see the furthest.

And she wants to throw her heart wide open and invite everyone in; she wants to love everyone, even if they ARE separate, even if they don’t want to invite her inside, she keeps the doors and her heart wide open.

She smiles benevolently at my Core Wound Line 6 and says, don’t be afraid. You are safe to care. You are safe to dream. You can have as much alone-time as you need but never forget you are part of everyone and everyone is part of you. Care for yourself and you cannot help but care for everyone!

The Brilliant Mind … My First Line 2

Ah! Here is my first shiny Line 2! Line 2 throughout the Golden Path is all about passion and relationships. Richard Rudd talks about “ease of being”. This is a hard one for my Line 6 Core Wound to come to terms with. She’s had a lifetime of holding herself separate, and in my IQ sphere, where I have this first Line 2, these teenage years this sphere relates to were ALL about separation, isolation. Even those relationships I was able to form were ripped away from me.

So, sitting at this campfire with this Sister-Line makes me uncomfortable. Separate Me fears passion and relationships. But she’s sneaky, this Line 2; she knows that my IQ Gene Key is rather in love with her own uniqueness and wears her separation as a badge of honour.

So, what does Line 2 do? She appeals to that Vanity by reminding me that she is the Brilliant Mind! She fucking shines! She will go far. She is inventive, creative. She is fucking smart. And she knows that Line 6 Me only keeps herself separate because she’s so scared of what other people think, she’s so scared of being misunderstood.

And so, I separate myself. Line 2 sister wraps her warm arm around me and says, you’re safe here. You’re safe to be yourself, you’re safe to let your brilliant mind shine.

Phew!! That’s such a relief and it makes me feel so self-assured to move to the last two Sister-Lines gathered around this fire.

Enter my Line 5’s … Respect/Mentoring (role models with integrity)

Right at the heart of my chart, in my EQ and SQ spheres, live my Line 5’s. Respect and Mentoring. These two sisters may be the youngsters around this campfire, cavorting in the light of the flames, having fun, but they bring me a serious message.

They are here to teach me that when I feel safe enough to venture out into the world, and shuck off my mantle of Separation, I must do so with care. What I do in the world impacts other people, whether I know it or see it or feel it, or not! I send ripples out.

So, I must take care not only of myself, but of the energy I take out into the world. I must respect everyone, whether I like them or not, whether I agree with them or not. I must be gracious and treat everyone with respect. I am not walking their path, I don’t know how or why they got here into my orbit, but I will hold them with respect in my heart.

And I must remember above all else, that no one is responsible for my feelings. When I take deep responsibility for myself, then respect and understanding for others is a natural by-product.

And so to this last sister, the Line 5 of my SQ. Respect runs deep in her too, and it goes hand in hand with integrity.

I am here to do something important in this life.

I am here to share this journey I am on and to encourage others to walk this inner path back home to themselves too. I am here to lead by example.

And I have all these glorious sisters around me to keep me on the right path, so that I might show others that they too can find their own right path home.

This Line 5 sister takes me by the hand and leads me in the right direction … on a journey of love. We’re walking hand in hand, spreading goodwill wherever we go.

We are in the business of showing people that walking the path of love, with your heart wide open, is the most fulfilling journey you will ever make.

And you are not alone.

You are not separate.

We are all in this together.