Bridger of Worlds
The Bridger of Worlds podcast is an in-depth walkthrough between the world of matter and world of spirit. I struggled with porn addiction for close to fifteen years, and all of this led me to discovering some very crucial and beautiful things about not only the physicality of my existence, but the spirituality of it as well. Since then, I‘ve been building bridges that have served me in feeling more whole and well-integrated. I’ve now made it my mission to share with you whatever it is I’ve learned.
Themes, topics and healing modalities such as spiritual embodiment, psychosomatic practices, Shadow Work, Masculine/Feminine energetics, conscious sexuality and archetypal meanings are brought to the forefront in order to raise awareness around what is out of sight because it is only from there that new life can ever emerge.
The greatest paradox of the human condition is to live amongst duality as we seek unity. This is a podcast honoring both and in doing so, creating the loving connections and honest-to-raw conversations we so desire in our lifetimes.
Bridger of Worlds
Channeling Inspiration: Poetry, Mythos and Meditation
In this special Spring Equinox episode of the Bridger of Worlds Podcast, host Ioannis Kokkinos marks the arrival of spring and the season of renewal in the northern hemisphere by delving into the powerful practices of ancestral healing and meditation. Kokkinos begins by celebrating the transformative energy of this time of year, which symbolizes growth and rebirth.
As part of the episode, Ioannis shares a deeply moving poem he wrote, titled "Lower World (Soul Retrieval)," using rich symbolism and mythological elements to explore themes of personal transformation. He connects the poem to his own journey of ancestral healing, offering insights into how these powerful symbols can guide us toward emotional and spiritual growth.
The episode expands into a broader discussion about the role of meditation in accessing higher planes of consciousness, such as the Akasha, where powerful symbols, guides, and messages reside. Kokkinos addresses thought-provoking questions like, “What does it mean to meet a guide?” and “Why and how do we receive spiritual messages?” He emphasizes the importance of balancing analytical and intuitive abilities and explores how mythological archetypes reflect internal human potentials, offering a roadmap for navigating transformative spiritual journeys.
Listeners will gain valuable insights into how meditation and ancestral healing can help them tap into higher realms of consciousness and better understand the deeper meanings behind their personal growth and spiritual transformation.
Hi everybody, welcome to another episode of the Bridger of Worlds podcast. I am your host Ioannis Kokkinos. Thank you so much for joining me.
If you're watching on YouTube, thank you for tuning in. If you're on one of the hosting platforms, thank you for tuning in as well.
Significance of the Spring Equinox
So today's a very special day for those of you who are aware. For those of you who are not aware, it is the spring equinox, which marks the return of the sun into the sign of Aries here in the northern hemisphere.
This signifies the beginning of spring. So this is where we start to see life starting to bloom from the soil, from the trees, where we will start to have a more fragrant breeze now I know in some parts of the world. It's a lot more obvious.
I did grow up in Montreal And I do know that mid March sometimes was some of the coldest and snowiest time of winter. But it is officially spring, the energy says so.
So have faith, we will get there.
Ancestral Healing and Meditation
So today I want to do something a little bit different. I do want to further talk about ancestral healing, but I also want to talk about What can happen and why things happen during meditation why we see certain symbols why we get certain messages and to help me do this.
I actually want to read you a poem that I wrote last year. So I used to write a lot. I started writing about 15, 16 years old. I was writing poetry throughout high school, a little bit throughout college.
Or Sijep, as we say in Montreal. I stopped. Then my knee injury happened and that's when I kind of started picking it up again. I've not published anything. All these poems are in my archives. But last year I did get a very strong Urge to write a poem in honor of ancestral healing and kind of speaking to my inner journey paralleling my outer journey here in Greece So there's a lot of symbolism in this poem.
That's what poetry is Poetry is basically a form of communicating metaphor, a form of communicating symbols and allegories and archetypes. So you will notice a lot of archetypes and symbols here in this poem. And why I want to connect this to meditation or You know, when we're meditating, we're going beyond this realm and we're going into the realm of the Akasha or the astral or the ether.
This is actually where all the symbols, the downloads, the metaphors and the archetypes exist. So I'm going to talk a little bit about channeling. I'm going to talk a little bit about inspiration, right? Like when we feel inspired to do something, especially to create something. I mean, just take a look at the word inspiration.
We can literally dissect it to say in. Spirit, right? Inspiration in spirit. So that is coming from somewhere. So I want to get into all of that today, but I do want to read you my poem because I want to celebrate the spring equinox. I want to celebrate my ancestors. I want to celebrate my journey.
I want to celebrate this podcast. And what better way than to self express and to show you a little bit more of who I am and why it is I do what I do and say what I say.
Reading of 'Lower World, Soul Retrieval'
Okay, so here we go. It's titled Lower World, Soul Retrieval.
It's been well over 2, 000 years, but I can still hear them. Oh, how I've missed them, even though they course throughout my body. How can you yearn for something like love when it stares right back at you? Long for something you already are and possess. It's like a hand that you have, but it's always trying to reach for something.
Like the soles of my feet digging and planting inside the earth, roots stretching, interconnecting with the ash tree of Eden. But where is the other tree? This can't be it. The lower world that so many before me have told stories of? The ones that spoke of the fall of the soul's eminence and the climb to its demise?
I've already been there, though. Every moment, terror knocked on my door. Each time, fear, anxiety, and addiction took me in as one of their own. I've descended into hell many times before. But I found it to be quite full of substance, the essence of all I had never realized and came to understand, my self actualization.
They must have not known that where the flames scorch hot, eagles soared right above.
I couldn't fathom this either, but when I walked through the fires and wings grew, then came a twinkle in my mind's eye that led me to penetrate deeper into the mysteries. There, I saw Persephone on her throne, but Pluto was with her. What heinous crime. Abduction. All I witnessed was a beautiful pillar erect at the threshold of a temple.
All I smelled was the sweet, succulent, fragrant nectar flowing to where I stood. All I felt was their Eros permeating, seedlings and sweet nothings draping the bedrock. They told me of the streams of stars that glow against the flicker of the arcane night, a slumber only I could stir by way of hallowed breath.
I just had to keep venturing on, for they were not the culmination, not for this rite of passage anyway. So further I wandered, lower I trekked, and that is when everything changed. I had started to cough up blood as I began excreting dread in all of its hoarding. I sensed that I was moving closer as I could no longer walk.
It had to be a crawl. Burying butterfly kisses into the mud, and my cheek caressing against the compost. Tears trickling sustenance, the pain was beyond anything I ever could have imagined. But this was my heart's calling as I listened to its da'uli beating louder and louder. I could hear chanting, echoes of archaic song of the forest, seas, and mountains, vibrations from inside my atoms where the chrysalis of my inner wilderness was setting me ablaze once more.
The Holy Ghost had now arisen from within, and as all of the lights had come on, I could at last beam upon all of their faces. Thousands beyond thousands of beloveds urging me to roar so that they could roar. Beckoning for me to scream and to rage for all of the untouched life potential.
What was denied, never having had the chance to bloom for the coming generations. Oh, the grief. The outpouring of loss I could no longer bear to carry on my own. My wild soul unlocked from within my chest, my ancestors gifting me the key. Their love and anguish, my suffering and compassion, metamorphosing into the most harmonious of choirs, singing, dancing, all in one full circle for the coming of spring.
Discussion on the Poem's Symbolism
So that's my ancestral healing in a nutshell.
Um, so I'm not going to obviously unpack every single sentence. There's a lot here. We have elements from the Christian faith. We have elements from Greek mythology. We have winter turning into spring.
Like what would winter look and feel like? Right. Like underneath the ground as everything prepares for spring. And then, of course, the ancestors showing up in the lower world, so lower world is actually what the shamans call the place of descending. In modern day religion, it's known as hell, but the shamanic perspective, it's different. It's not a place of like evil or endless suffering or anything like that. Uh, the lower world is actually where ancestors reside. This is where the shaman can journey
to retrieve a part of the soul, , hence why I named this poem, Lower World Soul Retrieval. It is about descending into the mysteries. It is about descending into the depths. It is about going into the trauma,
but, you know, as soon as we feel what we need to feel, as soon as we witness what we need to witness. We actually get to transform the winters of our life into the springs and eventually summers of our life, the changing of the seasons, being out in nature, right? We see this throughout the year, what happens in the autumn and the winter and the spring and in the summer, these are very powerful symbols.
There are also archetypes that we can work with. We can work with their energies
in order to tap into those energies within ourselves. So sometimes we're going through a winter phase in our life. Sometimes we're going through an autumn phase. Sometimes we're going through a spring phase. And sometimes we're going through a summer phase.
Understanding Metaphors and Archetypes
Now, going back to meditation, how does this connect to all the symbolism here?
So before I get into that, I just want to talk a little bit about metaphor and our intuitive capability to understand and create metaphor.
So as I mentioned in the previous episode, we have our left brain, which is analytical and our right brain, which is intuitive.
So there are people that are more prone to logic, people that are more prone to intuition, but we can, of course, learn how to
develop each one and learn how to harmonize intellect and intuitive capacity within ourselves.
, in my case, growing up, we can definitely conclude that I was, um, more right brained than I was left brained. And, you know, writing poetry, painting, creating art, the arts in general, um, Being a bit more internal, being a bit more, esoteric are indications that people are more right brained.
But that doesn't mean I don't love logic. That doesn't mean I don't love reason either and that I don't even apply it to my life. So writing for me, you know, writing poetry especially, , has helped me develop and harmonize both, energies within myself. .
So to have intuitive capacity is to be able to understand metaphor more, to create metaphor, as I said. And when we're meditating, we're actually connecting to the metaphor of the universe. And metaphor of the universe is basically archetypes. It's what the ancients Channeled to create our mythologies.
The mythologies we get to read in our day to day today is actually channeled metaphor of the universe. So Joseph Campbell says that myth is actually untouched life within us.
The archetypes, which are the deities of mythology and cosmologies, are actually untouched human potentials of human psychology, right? So Carl Jung did a lot of work with the archetypes. Joseph Campbell mentions the archetypes.
This is how we can see and receive messages during meditation.
Meditation and the Astral Plane
So when we're meditating, right, the idea is to be in a space of quiet, in a space of silence, in a space of surrender and receptivity. It is incredibly important to be in a receptive state. And to quiet the mind, right? Like basically when we go to a meditation class or when we hear and read about meditating, it's always about quieting the mind.
We want to stop the chatter. We want to be able to observe and witness our thoughts. Because when we start to enter more of the space of the witness, we can also enter a space of. receptivity. And in that space is where we actually be able to connect in the higher planes
That's actually where we're able to connect in the plane of the Akasha. So Akasha is the Sanskrit word for ether. Depending on the school of thought, we can say the etheric zone. We can say the astral plane. So if you've read about like astral travel, , this is like where we go energetically to basically meet guides, to meet messengers, to meet spirits, to meet consciousness, to meet ancestors.
And all of these symbols, all of these images come through metaphorically, when we're in a meditative state, and maybe we meet a guide, and maybe we get a answer to a question that we may have, it can or or cannot be transparent, right? Like this is a very, personal experience for everybody. And there's no one formula to say what is correct and what is incorrect,
But when we're up in our 📍 third chakra, which is the chakra that is to see, so if we have an open, balanced third eye chakra, when we're meditating, we can actually see guides and see symbols and archetypes with a lot of clarity and with a lot of ease. But then it is also very important to have an open and balanced crown chakra, which is at the top of our head to actually see.
know what is going on. Like the crown chakra is about knowing. And again, it's not about knowing logically. It's about knowing intuitively. And the third eye chakra is about seeing, but obviously not seeing with our visible eye. It's about seeing in the astral. It's about seeing in the etheric.
It's about seeing in the Akasha. So. So, really, how we can understand that all this is possible or that it exists is really to come to the understanding that energy does not die. So humanity has been around for millions of years, the ancients, right, like our mythologies are over 2, 000 years old. And because the ancients made up these stories, these cosmologies, these ways of expressing inner human life, we have access to them because they exist in the Akasha.
They exist in the ether. Now, the more, Western translation to all of this would be the collective unconscious, which is what Carl Jung talked about the collective unconscious is a Jungian school of thought, but it's actually the exact same thing as the astral plane.
It's the realm, it's the area of the deities, of the archetypes, of the ancestors, of all of the energies that were once here in body, speaking now to the ancestors, that are no longer here, but still exist as energy. The gods and the goddesses, they weren't actually here, but because they were created from human life and was projected outward.
Into the human experience, we have access to them. We actually have access to them as guides. We have access to them as messengers.
So I'm going to use an example from my poem, the myth, , the Greek myth of Pluto and Persephone. this myth actually speaks to the changing of seasons. It was said that Persephone would descend for six months out of the year to go underground, which signified autumn and winter.
And then she'd come back to the surface for six months out of the year, signifying spring and summer. So it doesn't necessarily mean that Persephone was actually here descending on their ground and coming back above ground every single year.
Right? Logically, that's impossible. Metaphorically, it is very possible because in the realm of metaphor, we have much more breathing room. It's not so black and white. It's not so cut and dry. So metaphorically speaking, when Persephone is descending for six months out of the year, which signifies fall and winter, that actually talks about The feminine energy , that descends six months out of the year and rises six months out of the year.
And this is the expression of the feminine. The expression of the feminine is the change, is the shift, is the transformation of life, which I talked about in the previous episodes. Now, Pluto. Pluto is the container. He is who holds space for the feminine to do this. In this case, Pluto is the deity, is the lord of the underworld.
Pluto actually translates to wealth. How do we see all of the above ground wealth come to fruition, come to blossom? It's with whatever happens underground. It's with whatever happens unconsciously. It's whatever happens within the mysteries. Which, again, translates to, or is a metaphor, is a symbol for our own unconscious.
So, when let's say we do the work, and we're inner seeking, and we're going into our trauma, we're going where our shadow is, that means that Persephone, no matter what gender we are, Persephone is descending into the lower world is descending into the underworld to go through a period of autumn, to go through a period of winter, to go through a period of basically gestation, a period of incubation, to prepare for spring and summer.
So when Persephone rises, This, this signifies that feminine energy and the feminine energy within us is coming to the surface, elevated emotion, joy, celebration, harvest, blooming, right, culmination. It's a myth. It talks about deities. It talks about a goddess. It talks about a God. But. Ultimately, it just taps into and speaks to the inner potentials of human life.
So let's say you're going through a difficult period in life and you need to become more introverted. You need to spend more time with yourself. You need to do more inner seeking.
You want to meditate more. You want to be with yourself more. That's basically Persephone descending and then that moment comes where you feel like you've healed enough Or you feel like you've learned a lesson or you feel like you've gotten a breakthrough a download a revelation You feel ready to meet the world again.
That's Persephone rising. And this is just one myth Right. And this is Greek mythology. There's how many cultures, how many myths, how many mythologies, how many creation stories, right? Every single deity that's been created, every single archetype, every single symbol, God, goddess is an access point that we have available that we can.
attuned to energetically.
So this is what happens when we're meditating And when I first started meditating, I was not seeing anything. I wasn't hearing anything But the more I meditated the more spiritually open I became the more spiritually aware I became I definitely started to see deities.
I definitely started to see symbols. I definitely started to connect to threads of consciousness, which can show up as men, as women, as messengers, as animals, as plants, as mythical figures, mythical creatures, right? It does not mean that they were here in the flesh, but because they were created from human life, that creation has a source of vibration, has a source of energy, and we can tap into that.
When we're meditating. That's the astral. That's the etheric zone. That's the akasha So I wanted to bring my poem onto the table, right because there's so many symbols here And I mean, it's not like I was sitting down and meditating as I was writing this but it is a form of channeling You are somewhat in a meditative state when you're creating something, when you're like in the zone, right?
When we're talking about being in the zone and this could even be like playing a sport, right? Athletes get in the zone, creators, creatives, artists get in the zone when you're cooking a meal and you're in the zone that is channeling, that is inspiration, that is being in spirit. And when we say in spirit, we mean that something higher than us is working. So we don't necessarily have to sit down, close our eyes, right? Obviously that helps, but when we're in the zone, we can definitely be here in the physical plane, but also be channeling and, you know, getting inspired to say, do write something. So writing this poem, I do consider that as channeling.
And as I talked about in the previous episode, singing and dancing are channeling, right? Like when I used to Greek dance or when I Greek dance now,
that is a form of channeling because. The astral plane, are just energy. And even though we have a body, even though, , we're made of matter, even though we're, very solid, matter is energy. Quantum physics tells us this.
We split the atom apart, that empty space. has energy, right? Like separation is almost illusion like that does not mean , to negate its existence. Cause obviously as human beings, we require separation, but let's say when we go into a meditative state,
we're dissolving into energy and we're moving less and less away from the physical material experience.
One more thing I also want to mention about meditating is we have two portions of our imagination that are needed and required. We have active imagination and we have receptive imagination. Now the active imagination is basically setting up our perception of the world Imaginary state, right?
Like for anybody who's done guided meditations through facilitators, through teachers, through guides, right? Like normally, a lot of these spaces and these imaginary containers we set up are about finding a beautiful, serene, space. We're normally guided to go to a specific place that is very beautiful, that is very tranquil because.
We need that safety. We need that spiritual, energetic, and emotional safety because once we set that space up, which again speaks to the masculine, we can enter a state of receptivity. We can receive the downloads, we can receive the messages, we can receive the images and the symbols, which speaks to the feminine.
So whether or not we are implementing both these expressions of imagination, the most important thing is to just set up and feel safe while meditating because just like we can access benevolent and life giving. energies, we can also access the other stuff, but always know the most important thing about meditating and accessing these planes is how you show up with intention. What intention are you showing up with? Because at the end of the day, you are the boss. You're the boss of your body. You're the boss of your energy. It's your house. You got the keys to your house, you have the doors, you have the windows. You get to decide what comes in.
You get to decide what you want to channel. So it is very crucial to be very mindful and intentional when we start a meditation practice. Because when we open up to that realm, to that plane, everything is there.
Closing Thoughts and Farewell
So I think that's enough food for thought today. I will leave it here. I will be back next week. I want to wish you a blessed, amazing spring equinox. That means summer is around the corner, but let's enjoy spring first and foremost. If you're on YouTube watching, please hit that like subscribe button.
Please share the content if you so feel called. If you're on one of the podcast platforms, thank you for tuning in as well. So I will be back next week. And as always, please remember that you are the medicine and I am just the messenger. Thank you very much.