Spiritual Awakening in Crete: Overcoming Adversity, Divine Union, and the Ascent of Mount Ida

In this deeply personal and soul-stirring episode of the Bridger of Worlds podcast, the host reflects on a transformative six-and-a-half-month journey in Crete — a sacred period of spiritual growth, healing, and mythic remembrance. Immersed in the island’s ancient energies, he discovers how the physical landscape mirrors the inner terrain of awakening and the timeless dance between struggle and surrender.

• The Pilgrimage Up Mount Ida (Psiloritis): Through a physically and mentally demanding ascent of the mountain said to be the upbringing of Zeus, he explores how the climb becomes a living metaphor for the spiritual journey of endurance, humility, and self-realization.
• Esoteric Christianity & Hindu Tantrism: Drawing from both traditions, he reveals the union of light and shadow, the dual nature of existence, and the tantric truth that adversity itself is a portal to divine union.
• Healing & Self-Worth: The months in Crete unfold as a process of deep heart restoration, forgiveness, and the reclamation of inner value, offering a mirror for anyone walking their own path of transformation.
• The Universal Journey of Ascension: Life’s challenges are reframed as sacred initiations — opportunities to ignite one’s divine fire and awaken true spiritual power.

You’ll Gain Insight Into:

• The spiritual symbolism of Mount Ida and its link to mythic rebirth
• How adversity and surrender shape genuine awakening
• The intersection of Christian mysticism and Tantric philosophy
• Practices for transmuting struggle into spiritual strength
• The alchemy of love, forgiveness, and self-worth on the path of embodiment
• How to view challenges as sacred initiations into deeper divine union

This episode is a reflection on how the human spirit evolves through the tension between love and struggle, and how embracing both leads to a direct experience of God-realization and unity with the Divine.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Greetings
• 0:15 Reflecting on Six Months in Crete
• 1:01 The Spiritual Journey and Personal Growth
• 3:36 The Spiritual Significance of Climbing a Mountain
• 8:23 Overcoming Obstacles and Inner Struggles
• 11:22 Embracing Duality and Spiritual Oneness
• 16:22 The Power of Love and Worthiness
• 23:18 Conclusion and Farewell

Transcript

 

Introduction and Greetings

Hi everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Bridger of Worlds podcast. I'm your host, Ioannis Kokkinos. Thank you so much for joining me. If you're on YouTube watching, thank you for tuning in and if you're on one of the podcast platforms, thank you for tuning in as well.

Reflecting on Six Months in Crete

So today's a special day, a special episode. I mean, all my episodes are special, but it's a special day because it's my last full day in Crete. If you have been following me for quite some time, you do know that I'm in Crete for the season. I've been in Crete for about six and a half months, so not a very short period of time.

You know, half a year is not a very short amount of time. So it's been very rich and deep and cathartic and enlightening and healing, right? I'm in a process right now, like looking back on these last six and a half months and just reflecting on my journey, what it's meant for my spirituality, for my healing, for my growth, for my evolution.

The Spiritual Journey and Personal Growth

So I'm flying out very early in the AM tomorrow, but I did wanna hop on here in front of the mic, in front of the camera and just make an episode around like my self-reflections and what's alive in me. It's probably gonna be a lot more personal than the last few episodes, which has been very much about just teaching and giving knowledge and information. The whole series of esoteric Christianity and sacred sexuality. It was a blast recording, but it was a lot of just information, divulging information. Whereas today it's gonna be more raw, more personal. I don't really know what's going to come through. I might just ramble for 15 to 20 minutes, but I did want to come on here because it's also my, my, my, my thanks and my giving, my giving back, or, just like my offering as far as these last six and a half months are concerned. Because it was a time, I mean, I worked right, like most of my days were working and the days I was not working, I was traveling around the island, like wherever I was called to go, whether it was gorgeous lakes, beaches, mountain ranges, I went and I really communed with the island. I communed with the water, with the forests, with the mountains, with the gorges. Crete is steeped, absolutely steeped in mythology , as far as like the Minoan civilization is concerned, that energy is still very much alive on the island. If you're energy sensitive, you can pick up on that if you, know how to open up and really feel the energy of where you're at, The Minoan civilization is still very much alive, energetically speaking, as is the energy of Zeus. So Zeus was like the god of the Greek, ancient Greek pantheon. Zeus was born in Crete. He was raised in Crete where he was hidden from his father, and it was from Crete, where he went to Central Greece to Thessaly, to Mount Olympus where he reigned over the Greek Pantheon.

Um. So, you know, you open up to the, to the land, wherever you are, you can pick up on energies and work with these energies. And that's what I did. That's what I was doing for six and a half months. 

The Spiritual Significance of Climbing a Mountain

So, yeah, I guess I wanna share about really where I'm at, what I've learned and what I want to share is what it means to feel on top of the world. And what I mean by that is a few things. So being on top of the world means you've climbed a certain height, you've reached a certain height through certain struggle and strife and effort.

So when we think of spirituality, we obviously, our minds will okay, maybe not everybody, but I think most people will think about being zenned out, having a quiet space, being in surrender, meditating, right? Putting on some nice music, lighting a candle, right? Which, yeah, of course. That definitely serves and is very much a part of the spiritual journey, but so is struggle and strife and effort.

And why I am mentioning this is because a few days ago I hiked Mount Ida. The highest peak in Crete, this is the second mountain range of the three from east to west or west to east. Crete has three mountain ranges with three peaks, the White mountains, Psiloritis and Dikti, Mount Dikti. So all three mountain ranges are filled with mythology and energy and metaphorically speaking, to reach the highest peak of anywhere you are at can be a very powerful and a very symbolic, closure slash opening as far as healing and spirituality are concerned. So it's still pretty fresh. 'cause I did this a few days ago. And it was grueling. It was difficult. It was challenging. Like I'm not gonna put any sprinkles on it, but I knew and not knew what I was getting myself into. I was very well prepared. Um, you know, you can't really fuck around when it comes to hiking and being on a mountain and but I did prepare with food and clothing and the right gear and all that, and really found out as much as I could about the trail that does lead you to the peak. It is very well organized.

I do highly recommend hiking in Crete as much as you can. You don't necessarily have to hike Mount Ida. But Crete is filled, filled, filled with hiking trails and gorges and forests and mountains. So there's plenty, plenty, plenty to do and see on the island. But you know, the high peak, the highest peak of Psiloritis, Mount Ida in Crete for me signified a certain on top of the world feeling.

And here I also want to bring in Shiva because Shiva's the world dancer. So I've talked about Shiva in quite a few episodes from Hindu Tantrism. To reach Shiva to reach, um, the absolute consciousness or God source energy consciousness is to raise the serpent in the body. So this journey of ascension, right, like the journey of climbing a mountain is the same journey that we can move through as far as like raising our Kundalini energy is concerned, which is Kundalini Shakti.

So it's a journey of ascension. So every single human being, no matter what, our religion and culture is here to achieve a certain ascension because that feeling of being on top of the world is feeling connected to God, and it's not about being on top of the world and like looking down on everybody. You are on the mountain peak.

Yeah, you're obviously enjoying the views and you have like the bird's eye view or in Crete's sake or from Crete's perspective, the eagle's eye view, because Crete is the only place slash island in Greece where there are eagles and eagle is a very, very prominent spiritual symbol. It's connected to source energy, right? The eagle is the king of the sky. And to be on top of a mountain without flying there, but using our legs is putting in a grueling amount of effort, which is a part of the spiritual journey.

Overcoming Obstacles and Inner Struggles

So among all of the grueling effort, this is where a lot of the thoughts, the negative or the low vibrational thoughts will come in. Like when we start to feel tired, when we start to feel exhausted, when we start to feel doubt, when we start to feel confused, when we start to feel lethargic, it is very, very easy to start getting into a head space of I can't do it. I'm not good enough. I'm not enough. Like, who am I to do this thing? Right? So these are a lot of the thoughts that come in to basically instill obstacles within us. But these obstacles come from within ourselves, right? Like we can face an obstacle outside of us of course, but it's how we react to the obstacle. That is actually the real obstacle.

Because we can have a literal obstacle in front of us, but that doesn't mean it can stop us, right? It's how we react to the obstacles. So. If we're like hiking a mountain, right? And we're like just, we keep looking up and we're like, oh my God, this is so hard. Or I'm never gonna get there. That mountain is never gonna change.

That mountain is never gonna move. It's not gonna do anything for you except still be a mountain. So it's interesting because I was in a head space at one point of exhaustion and it felt like it was never gonna finish. And, but I obviously knew, I'm like, there's no turning back.

I'm not gonna turn back. Right. So then my head space started to change because I started to really detach from these thoughts of confusion and hesitation and doubt. And this is very much what we have to do in life, right? When obstacles come into our life, doesn't mean it has to be like a full-blown mountain, but obstacles are daily. They can be big obstacles. They can be small obstacles. How do we react to the, the thing in front of us is what will make or break our journey. And if we will in fact actually surpass the obstacle, because we do want to surpass the obstacle because by surpassing the obstacle, we grow, we learn and we get stronger. So reaching the peak of the mountain and you know connecting to that energy of source, knowing what it took to get there can be a very powerful experience and we can apply this to our daily life, right? If we're moving through any form of struggle and we work with the struggle, instead of trying to resist it or trying to numb it or trying to escape it, we can reach spirit, we can reach source consciousness and God consciousness by not averting or denying the struggle or the obstacle by, but by actually working with it. 

Embracing Duality and Spiritual Oneness

And this is where duality comes into play, right? So I've been talking about duality for quite a few episodes, especially in the esoteric Christianity episodes.

So the dual nature of things. A lot of people wonder why there is struggle. Why are, why is there pain? Why is there evil? Why is there adversity? And it's like, yeah, it sucks, and it can be, sometimes it can be very, very hard to move something that is painful and sometimes we feel maybe we can't ever heal from it or we can't ever get over something.

But it is when we learn to work with the adversity. When we learn to work with the difficulty or the challenge or the opposing force within the dual nature of things, that is where we realize oneness. That is where we realize God consciousness, because Shiva, who's the world dancer and I'm saying  world dancer because he's united with Shakti, which is the dance, right?

Divine union between masculine and feminine. The feminine is the shift, is the changes, the cycles, the fluctuating emotions, the up and down, the expansion and the contraction, and Shiva's, just the space. Shiva's, the space that is offered, offers the space for all of it to happen, for all of it to be. So there's no, that's good, that's bad. That we're denying that we're gonna allow that. Like Shiva as a, as a consciousness or as a, you know, archetype allows everything to be as it needs to be. And once we start to practice that mindset, which we can all do, right? The witness to witness without judgment, which is I've, which I've talked about in quite a few episodes, Shakti, the feminine principle of up and down expansion and contraction.

Opening and closing, right? The cycles. Think of the seasons, right? The seasons of nature. That is the feminine, that is Shakti and Shiva is the space that holds it all without judgment. This witness or this energy of Shiva is not saying winter's bad because it's cold. Summer's good because it's warm, right? A lot of us prefer summer. Not everybody, but a lot of people prefer summer over winter. But that does not mean that winter is bad or that it's not necessary because without winter there's no summer. So once we start to marry the dual nature of things that like yes our minds will paint something as bad and something as good, and this is what we're here to experience, is to decide left or right. We're always in a state of making a, a decision of going that way or that way. But when it comes to spirituality, everything, everything, everything actually serves the source. And climbing a mountain metaphorically speaking, or literally speaking, can evoke all sorts of very difficult, challenging emotions and feelings, but as when we learn to work with those difficult, challenging feelings, right? We have the dual nature of things. We're not at odds. I mean, it starts to be, it's, it begins with being at odds with the opposing force, but eventually by working with the opposing force, we realize there is no duality and that's how we reach God consciousness.

That is how we reach source or Shiva, the world dancer. To be on top of the world is to have this peak experience. And really living, living in a state of ecstasy, ecstasis, which the ancient Greek equivalent is Dionysus, right? So I made a whole episode around comparing Shiva from Hindu Tantrism and Dionysus from ancient Greece, and how both archetypes depict this energy of going beyond the self. That's what ecstasy is, is to go beyond the stationary. To dance. I mean, dancing is very much a part of this experience, but like life is a dance, right? Obviously we can literally dance and have that feeling of being out of our body, having out of body experiences just by dancing.

But life is a dance. And when we offer that no judgment, when we offer that witness, when we offer the safe space, we can, we can feel that dance, we can feel that rhythm of life. And, sorry, I'm getting a little, uh, I'm getting a, a little emotional here. 

The Power of Love and Worthiness

Because it's things that like I had no idea about, right?

Like I reached these states and these conclusions throughout this journey, and obviously the last six and a half months being in Crete, things have just gotten louder and more obvious. But like love is everywhere and it can be very easy to forget that. I know it can. It can be very easy because of all the bullshit that's going on around the world. The corruption, right? All the crime. I know how easy it can be to forget love. Obviously we have our families, we have our friends, we have our, our partners, our loved ones.

But sometimes the noise gets so loud, right? Of like we turn on the news, we read the newspaper, we read an article online. We watch something on YouTube, it can get really hard to remember that actually the foundational ingredient. The, the, the, the alpha and the Omega is love. And you know, a part of the human experience is to move through adversity, is to move through duality.

Is to have that challenge, is to have a mountain in front of you and be like, how the fuck am I gonna do this? Right? Like, we've all been there. Not lit. Not maybe a literal mountain, but we've had a challenge. We've had a very difficult ordeal in our life, and that's the mountain. That's the mountain we all have within us.

And maybe it's one. Maybe it's one huge ass mountain. Maybe it's addiction. Maybe your mountain is addiction. Maybe your mountain is a very hard grueling breakup with someone you loved. Maybe your mountain is divorce. Maybe your mountain is wanting to lose a lot of weight and you're not able to.

So every single human being has a mountain in front of them. I think we're all born with a mountain that we all have to overcome within ourselves, and we have to hike that mountain. And by hiking and climbing that mountain, we will have thoughts of doubt, of confusion, of fear, of feeling like non worthy, non non unacceptable and we learn to not identify with those thoughts because once we no longer identify with these thoughts. We realize what's left? And it's still us. It's still us, but these thoughts are not controlling us, right? These thoughts are not us really.

So we get in a much calmer head space. We can get into literally a meditative state, even when we're hiking a fucking mountain and that's how intentional I went into this. That's how consciously I went into this. I knew it was gonna challenge me. You know, I'm, I'm fairly fit, I train four times a week.

But I don't hike like weekly or monthly. But I do love being outdoors. I do love nature, and nature can kick our asses sometimes, right? Like we go into nature to heal. We go into nature for therapy, we go into nature to commune with the elements, the elementals, but nature can kick our asses.

We can get caught in a storm. We can hurt ourselves. Right? Like just one wrong move and we're injured. And that's nature. That's nature. And nature's from God, nature's from the universal love force of creation because everything is love. Everything happening in the wilderness is love, even death, even decay, even certain animals being prey for other animals because that is nature and it's a tough pill to swallow sometimes.

And I think that's why a lot of people are suffering because they're still so stuck in this space of duality, but not knowing how to work with the dual nature of things because we are here to experience the dual nature of things as part of the human condition. That's what we all signed up for.

So we have signed up for challenge. We have signed up for Struggle. We have signed up for pain and suffering and adversity. We have signed up for all of that, but by signing up for all those things, we've also signed up for all of the amazing stuff as well. But sometimes it takes effort. Sometimes it takes strife, sometimes it takes struggle, and that too is very much a part of the spiritual journey, very much like climbing a mountain.

The whole esoteric Christianity series where especially I talked about the episode of the difference between the Christ, Jesus Christ and Lucifer. What is, what was the difference was that Jesus Christ, okay. He didn't climb a mountain, but him carrying the cross and getting nailed to the cross was his mountain, right?

It's very symbolic because that thing that challenges us the most or that hurts us the most has all the potential to push us to go past ourselves. And by going past ourselves, we become closer to God. We become closer to our spiritual nature. We become closer to our own source, which is that we are capable. We are able, we are worthy of love. We are worthy of our dreams. We are worthy of anything we want and desire in life.

 At the end of this season, right? Like my last day in Crete, what keeps coming up is I lived, I lived such a fucking big lie of the lie of I'm not enough, or the lie of I'm not good enough. And I think about that and I, I know so many doubt themselves. I know so many doubt the wor their worthiness or if they're worthy of their dreams, worthy of what they want to do. And it's mind boggling when we realize that what a load of bullshit that is.

Because every single one of us is worthy, no matter what we've been through, no matter where we're at, no matter what. Every single human being is worthy. Every single human being is able and capable, and we can only really come to these revelations and realizations by working with the mountain within us, working with the mountain that is in front of us.

Conclusion and Farewell

So I'll leave it here. I hope you enjoyed this episode. The next episode you'll get, you'll have a totally different background. I'm actually moving back to the same space that was in, in Rhodes, so I am looking forward to that space. It was a great space.

I'm looking forward to coming back to Rhodes. You will be seeing this episode in a few weeks time. So by the time you see this episode, I'll already be in Rhodes. Um, yeah. So , if you're on YouTube watching, please hit that like subscribe button.

I so greatly appreciate it. If you're on one of the podcast platforms, you can send me a message. You can leave a comment down below on YouTube. Anybody feels like somebody needs to hear this episode, please share it in any way you feel called. I will be back next week, of course, with a brand new episode and the same familiar space of Rodos, so stay tuned for that.

As always, every Thursday here on Bridger of Worlds. I'm also on socials, I'm on Threads, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram. I'd love to see you over there as well. Please send me a message.

And in closing, as always, please remember that you are the medicine and I'm just the messenger. Thank you very much.