Being Received

We are the receivers of whatever gifts the Universe is handing out.

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Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

The Teacher/Judgment divination for this week has had me thinking a lot about the process of giving and receiving information. It reminded me of a text I got a few months back from one of my super-magical friends. This friend is a dance instructor and one of her classes is an amazing weaving of dance and magic into a sacred practice. After the class’s final ritual performance down by our local river, she sent me this picture. In it, she had captured a stunning, watery reflection of the Goddess peeking through the trees:

Here’s the image. Still gives me chills!

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This is what her accompanying text said:

“We Danced our Magick in the bosque this evening in honor of the full moon. Look who joined us and RECEIVED our offering!”

It was so beautiful! I was especially struck by her choice to use the word “received.” It stayed with me for a long time. I kept thinking about the word and all the feelings that go with it. 

For me, I tend to think about receiving most often in terms of being the receiv-ER. I am receiving information or nourishment or guidance or wisdom. I am the receiver of whatever gifts the Universe is handing out. Likewise, others are the receive-ERS of whatever it is I am giving. These are all wonderful experiences for sure.

But being the object of receiving—being the thing that is received—has a whole other depth of beauty to it. 

I looked up the etymology (you knew it was coming) and it comes from PIE *kap which means ‘to grasp’ and the prefix re-, meaning ‘again;back.”

With that, I saw an image of a piece of myself going out from me, into the void. Anything could happen to it. Or nothing could happen to it. That piece of me could be lost for eternity in nothingness. BUT THEN! The loving hands of its intended come out from the void and grasp it up again. The piece of me I’d sent was received.

Being received is the feeling of being heard and seen that we all long for. It is an affirmation that whatever we’ve put out there matters. That our efforts matter and our selves matter. 

Another thing that comes to mind when I think about being received is in the area of hospitality. Reception desks and receptionists greet visitors. Guests are received in hotels and in people’s homes. And then there’s the always-fun receiving line at weddings, the whole purpose of which is for the bride and groom to let every one who attended know that their presence matters and is appreciated.

But how often do we consciously notice being received in our everyday experiences? If you’re like me, there’s a tendency to more often notice when we’re NOT received. It’s that uncomfortable—or even painful—situation when we’ve put our work, or ourselves, out there and it’s not grasped up again in the loving hands of its intended.

What happens when our sense of worth is all entangled in that piece of ourselves that we sent out and now it’s just floating in the abyss, not mattering to anyone? Is it still ours to call back? Does it belong now to the intended whether they received it or not? Is our only to choice to learn to live with the unreceived hole of it in our lives?

For quite a while, I came to the unsatisfying conclusion that it might just be a risk we take here in this realm of relationship. Something we have to learn to live with. But then I had a magical experience with water that changed my mind.

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Strawberry Hot Springs, photo by my sister

A couple months ago, I was on a family vacation in Steamboat Springs, Colorado and we decided to spend a day at the Strawberry Hot Springs park. In the pool where I was soaking, I noticed a man teaching a couple of people something about the water and he was using tuning forks.

Curious, I joined in and listened. The man said that the water was sad, and he wanted to prove this with the tuning forks. He hit one fork against the other and it rang out in a beautiful tone. Then he put that fork into the water and the sound turned tinny, fading away quickly. The man explained that if the water was happy, the tone would have been clear and resonated longer.

I’m not sure what came over me—because I am not normally one to speak up in these situations—but I was utterly compelled. I asked, “Did you try talking to the water?”

He looked at me and asked me to explain. I said, “Water is a living being, and all living beings long for connection. We could try telling the water that we love it. Maybe that would make it happier.”

With a completely open heart and mind, the man handed me the tuning forks and said, “Teach me.”

I repeated what he had done with the forks and, again the tone was not clear and faded quickly. Then I looked down at the water and said aloud, “Thank you so much for holding and nourishing us all. Thank you for warming us and soothing us and connecting us. I am so grateful to you. I love you.”

Then I hit the tuning forks together again and placed one in the water. The change in tone was incredible. It was a crystal clear, bell-like sound that reverberated for several moments.

In that moment, I knew what it meant to be received…by the man with the tuning forks and the other humans around, and, even more significantly, by the water itself.

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After that experience, I began wondering if we could look for opportunities to be received—if this might be a spiritual practice of sorts. When we step out our doors, could we take a moment to notice that we’re being received by the world at large? When we enter our favorite places in nature, can we make a habit of thanking them for receiving us? When we put our work into the world (for example, uploading a post to Substack), can we remember to bow our heads in gratitude for the work being received? These were the sorts of questions I asked myself.

An amazing thing happened. Once I started paying attention, I realized that we are actually being RECEIVED all of the time, far more often than not. There are countless opportunities where we are being received by life itself if we take the time to notice.

For myself, I also want to try to remember to always be a good receiver; to know how much it means to someone that they are received; to grasp up their expressions and hold them in the container of my own heart. 

May we all have the experience of being caught and held–RECEIVED–by the intended.

I’d love to hear all about your experiences with being received! Please share in the comments below.