Anthony Rella

Today, on Substack, I'm writing about the closing out of the flowering phase of manifestation and moving toward fruition. What we create, creates us.

Whether it's a personal change like a new exercise routine, or an ambitious work like a piece of art, literature, or a business, there comes a point when the thing we've worked hard to manifest develops its own kind of autonomy. It begins to speak back to us in subtle and overt ways, pointing out where we could grow.

https://open.substack.com/pub/anthonyrella/p/what-we-create-creates-us

Letting our beloved work face the light takes courage. Fear and doubt take hold when we're in the bud form, waiting for the light. We know that once people can see what we've done, we lose control over it. We have to face whatever their responses will be. It's good to take a moment and really acknowledge the fears, the doubts, the worries. You don't have to let it stop you, but you can just see it for what it is: a moment of uncertainty. The stories that fill into our minds before we take action.

When our work is truly flowering, we get to let ourselves off the hook a bit and relax. But it's hard to do when we're so used to working so hard! Those parts of us that truly earned the success we're beginning to have need to know it's okay to take some time to rest. Pausing to celebrate the gains we've made helps a lot.

Smug superiority is the consolation prize of martyrdom.

When we continually put our needs at the bottom of the list and make sacrifices, over and over again, for moral causes—all the while watching others prioritize their happiness, well-being, or personal goals with hardly a consequence—resentment comes to visit wearing the avatar of smugness.

Smugness feels righteous. It's a form of judgment that feels wholly justified, because "I've done everything right" and thus can freely measure others against the measure of my moral weight. With smugness, we can belittle the values and choices of others as though they are ignorant, selfish fools who dare to enjoy life in spite of the great need that always surrounds us.

Yet that smugness is only consolation for the misery we feel in being unable to escape responsibility. Something in us yearns for the freedom to not be so damn good all the time, to not shine a bright light into every corner of our souls, to let the world at large suffer while we find joy in our little corner of it. This constant denial of our wants and needs is what poisons our souls with resentment.

In truth, our little corner of the world is all we can tend, where we have the most power to create joy and meaning. And in truth, living purely for surface-level pleasure and satisfaction is a small life.

When we're feeling superior to another, we have an opportunity to wonder - does this person have a freedom that I envy?

Today, at Substack, I'm writing about the paradox that we face when we engage in disciplined action: to be exquisitely attentive while caring little for the outcomes.

Caring about our work means being present, invested, and doing what is necessary. Yet that caring excels when it's balanced by a sense of equanimity, that we'll be okay regardless of what the outcomes are. Holding both is quite a challenge!

Read more:

https://anthonyrella.substack.com/publish/post/197554870

What does it mean to be in the flowering phase of the cycle of manifestation? It's when our efforts finally begin to take notice, and our work does the work for us. We don't have to grind for every gain and hustle for every dollar.

Along with that, the flowering of our work meets the world, and the world responds. What response we get is what fertilizes our flower, leading to the fruits of the next phase.

Read more about the Cycle of Manifestation in my book "Slow Magic: Cultivate Lasting Transformation through Spellwork and Self-Growth" available anywhere you get books or audiobooks.

Today, at Substack, I'm talking about failure in the flowering phase of manifestation. It's a heavy way to start our exploration of the flower phase, but it's so common. So much of what we put out into the world fails to bear fruit, or fails to flourish in the way that we hoped. That doesn't mean that "you" are a failure.

https://open.substack.com/pub/anthonyrella/p/when-flowers-fail

What's delicate about the flowering phase is that, after all the heartache and effort we put into making a thing and preparing it to enter the world, now we see how the world receives it.

It starts to have its own kind of agency. What you create can engender all kinds of responses in people—it may excite some and offend others. Indeed, it may be deeply wanted and fulfilling to those who encounter it for years until some circumstance changes and suddenly they look at it with scorn and derision. Or vice versa—it may go unnoticed and dismissed until suddenly people realize they want and need it.

It's interesting that in this moment the social media mind seems to think that a creator has complete agency and control over the consequences of their creation. When you truly make something, however, you learn how little control you have. People take your work into their own hearts and minds and create meaning that you could never have imagined.

For me, that's the most exciting part of making anything. Once I've finished a piece, I don't really care about what I intended, I just want to see what others do with it. But it's also vulnerable, because people tend to hold us responsible for what they experience as a result of our work, for good and ill. That is the nature of having power—you gain influence and vulnerability at the same time.

I'm continuing my deeper reflections on the cycle of manifestation written about in my book "Slow Magic: Cultivate Lasting Transformation through Spellwork and Self-Growth." For the next few weeks, we'll be looking at the gifts and challenges of the flowering phase.

Typically, we'd think of the flowering phase as the moment of manifestation. It's the full moon that represents the culmination of everything that's built since the seed energy of the new moon. And it's true, the flower is usually the pretty thing that we present to the world proudly. It's available to be admired, valued, and fertilized by attention. It's the published book or social media post. It's the business that starts to get buzz. It's the new wardrobe that shows off the you that you want to be.

And, in this view, it's only a phase before we really start getting results, which is the fruit. Once the flower has received what it needs from the world, it turns into something more nourishing that changes our lives. But I'm jumping ahead. First, let's enjoy bringing things to fruition and being with the pride and tender anxiety of waiting to see how our work is received.

This week, we're exploring the closing phase of sprouting in the cycle of manifestation, approaching the point where all of our hard work begins to flower.

The predominant feeling I have at this point in the sprouting phase is intense frustration. Is it familiar to you? After the recent Scorpio Full Moon, I felt it in myself and heard it all around me.

When we're trying to make a big change in life, and manifest something enduring, frustration is inevitable. The process takes the time it takes, and that's rarely faster than the time we expect it to take. We have to learn new things, and unlearn many things, to become people capable of the success we're seeking. The gap between desire and achievement, between trying to learn and actually succeeding, is incredibly frustrating.

Today at Substack I go deeper into frustration, surrender, and the beginning of the shift to flowering: https://open.substack.com/pub/anthonyrella/p/how-long-must-i-struggle-for-success