Aedamar Kirrane is a writer, philosopher and spiritual teacher who specialises in the philosophy of Love. In 2015, during the final semester of her BA in Philosophy and English in University College Dublin, Aedamar began to meditate. Within a matter of weeks, she experienced the preliminary stages of what transpired to be a profound Awakening to Love. For the next two years, Aedamar had daily mystical experiences during meditation through which she came into a life-changing understanding of God as Love.
Aedamar has now redirected the course of her life in order to place her gifts in the service of contributing to, and supporting, the worldwide spiritual awakening that is unfolding at this time. Aedamar now runs the School of Living Love, which places an emphasis on helping students to discover how it feels to be a being of love.
We are delighted to share this beautiful article she wrote on the deeper meaning behind the New Year, and how we can use the concept of New Year Resolutions to support our spiritual growth and understanding.
A NEW YEAR, A NEW YOU
by Aedamar Kirrane
New Year is a powerful time bringing in the energy of the new and stirring up an exciting sense of possibility for the year that lies ahead. When we stand on this symbolic threshold, between the old year and the new, between the past and the future, we often feel in our bones that something new and maybe even profound could unfold in our lives.
John O’ Donohue, our late and great poet-philosopher, did a fascinating interview with Krista Tippet for On Being. In it he highlighted that in Greek the word for threshold has the same root as the word for a calling. This suggests that when we stand on a threshold in life, such as stepping into a new year, that we can also interpret this threshold-experience as us being called into something new.
Since ancient times people have marked the crossing over into the New Year with sacred rituals, and what is going on in these rituals is an acknowledgement that this is a sacred time: a time full of hope and promise for midwifing our dreams into reality. The tradition of making New Year’s Resolutions is borne of exactly this blessing – the chance to start again. It is definitely a good time to try something new or to re-commit to an old project that might have stalled. There is a new energy in the air that I believe consciously wants to support our plans.
This more philosophical look at our perennial desire for something new reveals, as John O’ Donohue so rightly suggests, that our desires and dreams may in fact be calling to us, and that behind our New Year Resolutions is actually a silent promise to ourselves that we will answer the call to live the life we truly want to live.
Something similar that I have come to understand very deeply through my own philosophical and spiritual studies, is that when we find ourselves longing for something new or for something different to happen in life, when we wish for change even though we don’t know what that change might be – that this is in fact Life-itself calling us to move into the next phase of our life. It is the life-force of Life inviting us to enter a new, richer and deeper experience of life, one that will bring us into a fuller and richer expression of who we really are.
In an interview that Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat Pray Love) gave when Big Magic came out, she explored a very similar idea to this in the context of creative inspiration. Her view is that creative ideas are floating around, consciously looking for a human partner to make them manifest. She says the ideas will knock on our door a few times but if we don’t cooperate, they move on to someone else who may be willing to write that book or paint the picture or discover quantum energy or whatever creative inspiration is being offered.
I had quite a dramatic experience of exactly this several years ago. I wrote a memoir of my experience of giving birth and early mothering. I called it The Afterbirth but I did nothing to try to get it published. A few years later, I read a rave review in the Sunday Times Book Review Section of a book called The Afterbirth by Eliza Albert, an American author, on exactly the same topic with uncannily similar experiences to my own! That kind of thing has happened to me a few times, but that was the most dramatic example. It was very chastening for me and I tend to take inspiration much more seriously now.
So I really believe that making New Year Resolutions is more meaningful than we might think. It’s not that we are seeking change for the sake of doing something different, but that Life itself is prompting us into a new and richer phase of our existence. Life is calling us to become more fulfilled in ourselves, and to become more authentic and more true to who we really are. Looked at from this wider perspective, it becomes easier to commit to our New Year Resolutions and to bring in the changes we want to see in our lives.
Our deepest fulfilment lies in our living a life that richly satisfies us and resonates with our heart’s true interests. So, as we make a list of resolutions for the year that lies ahead, let’s listen to the deeper call and prompting that lies beneath our surface plans. Listen for the call of Life itself guiding us into a new, richer, and more meaningful phase of life, and let’s take these prompts seriously. Believe that your future self depends upon you following through on these resolutions to guide you into the life you really want to live.
January is the time to engage in deep self-reflection about what we really want, not just for the year ahead, but for our whole life. This January, consider that the energy that lies behind your New Year Resolutions is the energy of Life itself calling you to live your best life. Take it seriously, commit to your best and most fulfilled future, harness the energy needed to follow through on your dreams and deeply appreciate and enjoy all that will unfold. In this way you will ensure you have not only a very happy new year but a very happy new life.
Happy New Year to all!
To learn more about Aedamar and her work, go to aedamarkirrane.com or visit her Facebook and Instagram pages below.
facebook.com/AedamarKirranePhilosopher
