You have a special genius. It will either make you or break you.
There’s a passage from the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas I’ve been rolling around in my mind a bit lately.
I can’t remember who put me on to it now. I do read pretty widely so it could be anybody. But you know, it’s not like I’ve got a copy of the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas on the bedside table or anything.
Anyway, the saying goes:
“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you.
If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
What do we mean by ‘it’ here?
If we asked Thommo (we’re on first name terms) he’d probably say something like ‘grace’ or ‘unique soul’ or ‘divine will’ or something like that.
But I’d be tempted to go with something like ‘unique talents’, or ‘special genius’ or ‘true self’.
(And some people would probably say that they’re the same thing anyway.)
There is a unique drive coming out of each of us. There is something special that only we can bring into the world. There is a note, and expression, that is ours and ours alone.
And it lives ‘within’ us. Not ‘within’ in a spatial sense. (Can you feel that lump, 2cm above your spleen? That’s your ‘unique gift’.)
But within as opposed to without. It is something we are born with. A destiny. A birth right.
It is not something that we acquire as we go along in life. It is with us all along. Life simply helps it mature and refine.
So it is a special genius that is yours and yours alone, and it wants to be brought into the world.
I can’t tell you what it is. Only you can know that.
Maybe it’s a talent for bringing people together. Maybe it’s a passion for painting. Maybe it’s a special sensitivity to the elements. It could be anything. The universe is endlessly creative.
But it’s there. It’s within you.
If you tap this special talent, and give it space to move into the world, it will have a profound impact on your life.
You will move with clarity and power, and the universe will conspire to support you at every turn.
Happy days.
But if you don’t ‘bring it forth’. If you smother it and bottle it up, if you deny it and kept it hidden and undeveloped, then it will destroy you.
Probably not literally. We’re probably talking about living a frustrated life, where your passion never really lands, and nothing ever works out the way you want it to.
But also maybe literally. We know a lot of diseases have psycho-somatic causes. Denying your true self and smothering your talents does have an impact on your physical health.
So if you offer your talents and your genius to the world, it will save you. You will live in alignment with a higher flow, and amazing things will happen.
But if you deny it, you risk living a frustrated and broken life.
Sadly, we live in a world where we don’t make this a focus.
We focus on developing marketable skills – skills that will make us employable.
But I really believe that the key to a satisfying life is to bring your special genius into the world.
Whatever it may be.
DB.