Sacred Day, September 11th

Molly Hall About.com
Sacred Day, September 11th
Saturday September 11, 2010


This is a somber day, and like many, I'm having flashbacks of the great loss and shock to America that rippled out to the world. My memories are very vivid, living downtown with a view of the towers from my kitchen window. I hadn't been in New York that long, and when this happened, I realized why I was there. I heard so many stories, as a volunteer case worker for the Salvation Army, helping downtown workers pay the bills and rent. I was shocked and they were shocked, and that time feels unreal in many ways.

The phrase Never Forget is so fascinating. My memories that day and of the months after are of a huge noisy city turning into a silent, reverent one. Stunned. No honking. Long lines of people waiting hours to give blood. People begging to volunteer, bring food to rescuers or families, do anything to ease the pain. Shrines with candles and heart outpours to the "missing" in every park. All the church doors were open, and I'm not a churchgoer, but I went in one time.

I've been through so many changes in how I perceive that day, many of them very painful and frightening to my idea of reality. I had some ptsd with nightmares of being under the rubble. My friend reminds me of how angry I got in those early years when she cast doubt on the official story. There's been a lot of healing, though, and moving through denial and learning about what you could call the "shadow side" of our world.

The writer Daniel Pinchbeck of Reality Sandwich has talked about 9/11 as an initiation, and that's exactly what it was, and is for me. The path of understanding has been full of false bottoms, and I'm both humbled and stimulated by my own shifts of consciousness. The truthseeking path is a spiritual one, and coming to a new awareness about what happened has changed me forever. I've written about this journey here and here in relation to astrology.

But this year, I want to stay in the vibe of miracles and the otherworldly feeling of oneness I experienced that day and the months afterwards. This year ahead toward the 10th Year Anniversary, I want to explore that moment -- that exists in the expanse of time -- where the world heart opened in an unprecedented show of our common humanity. With a Scorpio Moon today, making a sweet conjunction to Venus, we can walk through the darkness together, and fear no evil. The shadows and shadow events on this scale become holy events that alter us, unlock seeds of personal and collective power, and deepen our understanding of the mystery.

I think that people remember that day in many different ways. I live in Australia and even though this puts physical distance between me and what actually happened, I still feel it deeply. Things did change that day for all of us. The world became a much different place.

'the world heart opened in an unprecedented show of our common humanity'

And this is a great positive and a good way to honour those who lost their lives. It showed we care. It showed that humanity is not dead or completely brainwashed. We came together, not just as one nation but as a global community - to mourn and to comfort and to move forward and regain hope in the face of tragedy. If we can do that in response to a crisis, then we can do that for the betterment of all, can't we? Isn't it proof that it is possible to work together?

Proof indeed it is Goth.