The Armoured Heart

To put on armour is to protect ourselves from the assailment of the weapons of the world.

We place the armour about our body to keep us from harm, a harm that we, in some way, have come to expect!

Over the years of our lives, we are beset by the attacks of others that our fragile ego cannot always endure. It learns to protect itself from similar attacks in the future. It creates a shield over the heart when it is vulnerable to repeated breaking; builds ramparts and defence on the shoulders that are subjected time again to inappropriate responsibility; hides the eyes with a visor to blot out the injustices and pains we are confronted with. Piece by piece the heart creates and puts on armour, creating that impenetrable barrier to keep the world from hurting it further. 

Over time our hearts somatise this armour into its soul as if it were a ‘true’ part of itself. This armour becomes layered with additional pieces, each piece more impenetrable, heavier than the piece below it. Eventually the armour sinks into and beneath the very physical fabric of the heart, spirit, and body and in a very real sense becomes the fabric of a traumatised soul. 

The armour becomes rusty with age, useless with forgetfulness, fused with stagnation. At this point physical ailments manifest in response to the repressive hold of the armour, emotions become caged by the armour and psychologically the mind loses itself in the self-imposed prison. 

The armour prevents us from being close to others, engaging with the possibilities and potential of creation around us; in keeping others out it traps us within. Like an intrusion the armour controls and manipulates our life and suppresses our destined journey. The armour becomes the ghost that haunts us.

As with all ghosts, truth is hidden, reality is masked, dreams disappear, the soul gets lost on a forlorn journey of forgetfulness.

The Armoured Heart Retreat, will be an intrepid adventure of heroes and heroines, seeking out the ghosts of armouring, and the armour of love and choice, and finding the path back to the spirit of our heart’s true nature.

“Hidden deep inside the heart of everyone and thing is the passionate fire of creation. This fire sings the song of life, of wonder, of union with all the flames of all the songs. The flames of this fire dance in response to all the song, inviting others to sing and dance. Such is the passionate heart. It is the armour of fear that oppresses this passionate flame.”