Salto Mortale - The practice of dying and living - poetry podcast laughing brook
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Salto Mortale

ByPeter Müller

There is a curious thing: When I hold life very tightly, everything becomes a rather tiresome and exhausting affair. When on the other hand I hold things loosely, I may discover that things seem to come to me without me really doing a lot. This doesn’t mean I’m passive.
The way to this direction leads through most unlikely doors of which death is an essential one. The tiny deaths we have to die in our life, and sometimes ugly big ones, allow us to prepare. Facing death brings a most remarkable insight.

Thru That Darkest Door - A colorful beaming cloud over a black ocean
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Thru That Darkest Door

ByPeter Müller

Following my inner calling can lead me down a most adventurous path, and part of that journey is death – not necessarily physical death, but the death of something in my life. J. R. R. Tolkien put those oracle words into the mouth of Gandalf, “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
Such a quest for your inner calling frequently leads to desperate moments in which I question everything and have a sense of being completely lost, in which I feel like a complete failure. This ”dark night of the soul”, as the Christian mystic John of the Cross has put it, seems to be a necessary passageway on this journey to that fertile land of which my longing informs me. Nothing for the faint of heart! But, oh my, how very worth it is the trip, once you’ve arrived, and how so very much worth it do those dark moments feel in hindsight. So, come on, put all your chips on the table and come on board …

New Moon – a dark landscape
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New Moon

ByPeter Müller

What carries me through a personal crisis? Those moments, in which I am loosing familiar faces, places – really, loosing my home in the world. With no idea what’s next and how to move on. Disruptive moments can be scary, gut-wrenching, heart-wrenching.
Yet hidden in them lies, albeit often invisible, already this new life of mine. While everything inside of me wants to cling to my old ways, through a personal crisis life is asking me very unapologetically to come to it differently. As I turn towards this dark that has come upon me, there is a chance to discover something in this gloomy doom, a hidden treasure. Diamonds are made in intense pressure. And this moment of dark will pass, too. After all, new moon is the beginning of a new cycle. This is what transmutation is all about.

Crippled Army poem - A torn poster with a partially visible face
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Crippled Army

ByPeter Müller

There are forces in this world, so utterly destructive, they leave a seemingly endless trail of traumatized victims behind. Yet, there is also a magic that can happen, where the hurtful grain of sand turns into a pearl and we develop into the wounded healers. That’s when dark turns into light and the path of life continues. Surely we’re not leaving the world to darkness, not our own world, not the world at large. We fight for the Light! We’re the Crippled Army!

Sailing the Dark Sea Poem - Image of a ship against a dark sky.
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Sailing the Dark Sea

ByPeter Müller

We all want to meet the bliss of enlightenment. The path to it, though, which we call life, is rarely that simple. Generally, it is not straight, but full of contradictions and what seems to be dead ends and detours. It may lead us through tough places, but it is so worth it to continue on and to not run away from this darkness, for eventually it will lead us to where we so long to be.
The way out, liberation, is, really, to realize that everything has been there all along, to make my peace with it.

Sparkle in the Sand – That refuge of quiet in the storm – image of a stormy sea
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Sparkle in the Sand

ByPeter Müller

There is a mysterious quiet in amongst the turmoil of life that is hard to grasp, hard to explain – and yet, it is there. The eye of the storm, the peace in the hustle and bustle of life. Once I focus in on it, strangely, it makes all other things that are so loud and big seem rather momentarily and passing. Because – maybe that’s just what they are.

Der Weg
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The Way

ByPeter Müller

There is a magic in letting go. Because, really, it means stepping into the unknown and to boldly go where no-one has gone before. At least, where I haven’t gone before. And in this great unknown, trust is a key to create, to open doors that may have seemed unimaginable. Here’s an invitation…