“There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”
Leonard Cohen, Anthem (1992)
The Storm’s Insight
Many years ago, a car I owned had a filament short out on the rear window. It created a small crack in the glass where it burned out. I noticed the crack but didn’t think much of it.
Months later, I walked outside one morning and the entire back window had shattered. If I had tended to the crack when I first saw it, I probably could have saved the window—and spared myself the annoyance of replacing it.
The psyche behaves the same way.
The call often comes as a shattering. It breaks the illusions you’ve held, the inauthenticities you’ve clung to, the performances you’ve been putting on to earn the acceptance you didn’t know you were chasing.
It’s in the shattering that the light begins to illuminate the dark places you’ve been avoiding—the shadows you haven’t been willing to face.
It’s the moment the mask can no longer hold its shape.
The moment truth forces its way in.
Most people run from this moment. But if you stay—if you face what’s breaking—you meet your first liberation. This is the beginning of discernment, the first inner alchemy.
The Forge’s Reflection
The storm shatters the mask, not to destroy you, but to reveal you. Sovereignty begins when the mask cracks.
The Sovereign’s Task
Identify one mask you wear today.
Name it.
What purpose does wearing this mask serve?
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