[STAGE VI | ULTIMATE REALITY] The Teardrop of Wholeness: Universal Maturation and the Pearl of Great Price

In my dream, a man journeys to an exotic island, dives into the ocean, and retrieves an oyster shell. Upon opening it, he discovers a unique, flat teardrop-shaped pearl inside.

The pearl carries rich associations: purity, innocence, wisdom, and the ‘pearl of great price’—a symbol of inner knowledge and one’s divine essence:

the awakened consciousness that is the treasure, the pearl of great price, the ultimate fruit of this union [between the unseen reality of the highest order and the visible, manifest world as well as our own human organism]. (Baring)

The spiritual journey and the quest for the pearl of inner wisdom are described below and share striking similarities with my dream.

To make spiritual progress, the seeker must step away from the solid shore and chart a course, or path, by boat into the unknown ocean, or truth. The seeker must then leave the relative safety of the boat and dive into the ocean’s depths in search of the pearl, or gnosis. In the end, as Annemarie Schimmel states, the few who find the pearl “understand that they have reached only what was already in themselves.” (Hazen, 2017, p. 165)

The formation of a pearl is a common metaphor for the personal struggle with the unconscious and the spiritual journey toward wholeness. A precious pearl emerges as the oyster’s defence against irritation or intrusion from foreign particles. In the same way, the pearl of great price—inner wisdom—develops through the fulfilment of the individuation journey.

The pearl is the real, complete, balanced, and rounded personality that psychologists believe they are talking about when they are discussing the ego. We must remember that the ego is a structure, or a structured process, whereas the pearl is essence, which means the pearl is an ontological presence. (Almaas, 1998, p. 162)

Finally, I connect the unique flat teardrop pearl from the dream to the teardrop pearls in my embroidered mandala from 2009 (pictured above). The mandala itself is a symbol of wholeness and Self—the culmination of individuation.