When our hearts are closed, we live within a shell. To extend the egg metaphor: the shell needs to be broken open if the life within it is to enter into full life. What we need is a "hatching of the heart” -- the opening of the self to God, the sacred. Marcus J. Borg, The Heart of Christianity ____________________________________________________________   (33) The Pelican and the Egg   Shortly after my father died sixteen years ago, I went with a friend to a beach near San Francisco. I found it especially soothing to watch the pelicans as they glided by, just above the waves. In my quest to understand these images, I talked last week with Stan Marlan, a Jungian analyst who writes about alchemy. He spoke of the pelican as an alchemical symbol of renewal, of the pelican's part in an alchemical stage having to do with breaking open one’s outer shell to reveal the inner person. Additionally, in the times of alchemy, the pelican was portrayed as digging into its own heart to provide nourishment for the young, an act of self-sacrifice for the greater good. Stan also talked about how it was critically important for the alchemist to regulate the temperature of this process, to avoid the intense and potentially damaging heat that may accompany change. Clearly, the pelican in this drawing is being heated by the red buoy; the green behind the pelican is cooling the process off, protecting him. When I made the drawing, I was thinking of how much I liked pelicans. March 18, 2007