The Layer You Can’t Shed Alone
What Inner Work Can’t Do
I have read my share of books on spirituality, psychology, personal development, esotericism, energy healing, etc. Surprisingly, some of the most powerful lessons have come from fiction novels—especially the classics. Moby-Dick knocked me off my feet. Authors such as Fitzgerald, Dostoevsky, and Huxley did the same. And of course, anything by C.S. Lewis.
Today I have a story for you which I adapted from one by C.S. Lewis. It is about a boy named Jack. It involves a dragon, a magical well, and more.
The Story
Jack was not a fun kid to be around. He was a know-it-all who would never stop talking. He would often make fun of those around him in the most uncomfortable ways, and he always talked about how great he was. Worst of all, he was never up for an adventure.
Turns out life had an adventure waiting for him.
One day, he was in the attic at his cousin’s house. He was preaching to his cousins about something and being quite annoying and “unfun” as usual, when all of a sudden, his attention was drawn to a painting. This painting was of a ship sailing the high seas. It was not an ordinary painting—it was magical. It started moving, and Jack began to feel the spray of the ocean on his face. All of a sudden, he was in the ocean, and someone from the ship was throwing a rope out to him.
He spent his first few days on the ship mostly seasick. The people on the ship were confused because they had never seen the seas so calm before. He also kept complaining that he wanted to go home and talked about a place that the people on the ship had never heard of. Eventually, his seasickness subsided, and he filled his days with complaining, whining, and trying to order people around. They were ready to throw him back overboard when they finally caught sight of land.
When they came to shore, all they could see were large mountains and trees. The place had an ominous feel. The captain told everyone to stay close to camp and not to wander. They would stay the night, make necessary repairs to the ship, and set sail the next day.
It was quite an undertaking to prepare the camp and unload the ship, so everyone was given a job. Jack, however, wanted nothing to do with “work” and was so distraught about being away from home that he decided to wander off—which, ironically, was quite adventurous for him.
He was quite naïve in the ways of navigation, and coupled with the mysterious nature of the island, he quickly found himself lost. He ended up in a deep valley surrounded by mountains. The only thing he saw was a cave—and it seemed to be glowing. At the foot of the cave, he saw a gold coin. He picked it up… and then another, and another. It was a trail of gold coins leading deep into the cave. It got brighter and brighter as he moved in. Eventually, he saw piles of gold, jewels, and other treasures. He forgot all about being away from home and was elated by all the wealth in front of him.
Eventually, he was drawn to what appeared to be a golden bracelet. He picked it up and put it on his arm.
That was the last thing he remembered.
He woke up and his arm was hurting—really badly. That’s when he realized something was terribly wrong. He was no longer a boy.
He was a dragon.
And that gold bracelet, which had fit him quite well as a boy, didn’t fit the dragon. It was squeezing his scaly skin. He cried and cried. He just wanted to be a boy again—and he wanted to go home.
He crawled out of the cave and did the only thing he could think of—he flew up into the sky. He circled the island and saw no signs of people or habitation. Then, he spotted the ship moored offshore and the camp. He landed.
At first, everyone ran, thinking the dragon was going to eat them. But he just paced back and forth on the shore—and he appeared to be crying.
He tried to speak, but only dragon sounds came out. He kept making these sad dragon noises, when a little girl stepped forward. She got closer to the dragon and started talking to him. She wasn’t just talking to him—she was responding to what he was saying.
Turns out this little girl came from an ancient race that used to interact with dragons and knew how to communicate with them. She learned his story and told the rest of the people at camp what had happened. They saw that Jack was in pain, and despite his reputation, they felt sorry for him. They also knew they had to set sail the next day—and that a dragon wouldn’t fit on the ship. They didn’t have the provisions to feed one either.
Jack understood this. They did what they could to make him comfortable. In a state of deep despair, Jack fell asleep, with the girl at his side.
At some point, Jack woke up. The moon was bright—brighter than he had ever seen before. In the distance, he saw a lion. It appeared to be flying.
The Lion wanted him to come.
So Jack flew up into the moonlight and began following the Lion. They ended up on the top of a mountain so high it seemed to be in the clouds. All he saw there was the Lion and a magical well. The well was large, round like a small pool, with stone walls that rose a few feet—but it seemed as deep as the mountain itself.
The Lion told Jack that he needed to shed a layer.
Jack was confused at first, but then he thought about how snakes shed their skin. So he used his dragon claws to peel off a layer. It was strange at first, but he started to really enjoy it.
He finished shedding this first layer, and the Lion said, “You need to shed another.”
So he went through the process again. This time it hurt a bit more, but it felt really great when he got it off.
The Lion said, “You need to shed another layer.”
Jack really didn’t want to do it again—but he knew he had to do what the Lion said. So he worked at it, harder this time. It hurt even more—but it came off. And he felt better than ever.
He was confused, though, because he still saw all this dragon skin. He started crying. A part of him thought that by doing this, he would shed the dragon skin and become a boy again.
The Lion walked up to him and said that there was one more layer—and that HE would need to do it.
In a flash, the Lion ripped his claws into him. It hurt more than anything Jack had ever experienced.
The next thing he knew, he was in the magical well—and he was a boy again. He looked down and saw the gold bracelet on his wrist.
The Lion walked up to him, licked his face, and said:
“Now the journey begins.”
If you’ve made it this far, great. I’ll end the story there. If you want to know more, you should read The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis. I adapted this story from one told there. This scene was so powerful to me that I knew I needed to write about it.
This message is for two groups of people:
One: Those people who were leading relatively “normal” lives and have recently experienced a shock of monumental proportions. You had a layer ripped off by the Lion. There is another plan for you, and this was the only way to put you on your path. The work is not done—it’s just starting. This was the case with Jack.
Two: Anyone who has started doing the deeper healing work. There is only so much YOU can do.
You can do all the inner work, the shadow work, the re-parenting, the ancestral work, the parts work, the inner child work.
You can do all the Qigong, energy work, shamanic work, etc.
You can eat right.
You can be thankful for your life.
You can move.
You can dance.
You can give back to the world.
At some point, though, there will be a layer that you can’t peel off.
There is only one thing that can do it:
The Lion.
Feel free to use whatever term resonates with you—God, the Divine, unconditional love, Great Spirit, the Nameless, the Universe, etc.
I’ve had several instances in my life when a layer was shed in this manner, and quite frankly—the process isn’t fun. But it is often necessary. And with it comes a transformation that is beyond any healing program or rational understanding.
It’s important not to become too attached to this transformation and think that you are “done” healing. That is almost never the case. There is always more.
Be grateful for the experience—and move on.
What you need to continue your journey are the right tools—that’s the core of what I teach in my 1:1 Mentorship Program.
Good luck to you on your journey, wherever you are.
Take care,
Steve ~