Honoring Sacred Rage With an Open Heart

How are you, dear community?  I hope you are finding ways to be gentle with yourselves, while still staying aware and awake to this wild and tender time of being alive. 

There is a lot to be angry about nowadays. An it is my belief that if you are angry, if you are heartbroken, if you are afraid, that means you are paying attention. 

AND I believe that we are in the middle of a deep turning in the collective and I have a lot of hope that we will come out of this time with something better. It will take some work and we may go through soe dark shit, but what if we thought of this time as an inoculation. 

Part of what is going to move us through is honoring our rage with an open heart

^{(My dear friend and colleague Evan Honerkamp painted the above image and gave me permission to use it for this newsletter. Check out his art at http://evanvision.wordpress.com)}

Rage is not inherently destructive. Like fire, it has the power to burn down or to illuminate. Sacred rage is the kind that rises from the soul’s knowing that something is deeply out of alignment—whether it’s in a personal relationship, a cultural system, or the way we treat the Earth. It’s the energy that says, “No more.” Not from a place of hate, but from a place of truth.

Sacred rage is not about vengeance or volatility. It’s not reactive; it’s responsive. It arises when we are in contact with our deepest values—when our love for justice, dignity, safety, or belonging is violated. In this way, sacred rage is a protector, a guardian of what matters most. Our rage right now is ancestral. It is a longtime coming AND I encourage you to have an open heart right alongside it. 

When we allow this rage to move through our bodies with intention and awareness, it can be a sacred practice. A declaration that something holy within us refuses to be silenced.

When rage is ignored, suppressed, or misdirected, it festers. It turns inward, manifesting as anxiety, depression, or even chronic illness. We certainly see misguided rage in the larger collective.  When it’s weaponized or unleashed without accountability, it creates cycles of harm. But when rage is honored—when it’s given room to breathe and be seen—it becomes fuel for aligned action.

This is where the open heart comes in.

What It Means to Keep an Open Heart

Keeping an open heart doesn’t mean tolerating abuse, bypassing anger, or excusing harm. It means remaining connected to our humanity and the humanity of others—even when we set firm boundaries or speak fierce truths.

An open heart says, “I see the harm. I feel the pain. I’m not shutting down. I will not let this make me bitter or small.” It’s the willingness to grieve, to feel, to stay present in the messiness of transformation. It’s the courage to not harden.

This kind of heart isn’t passive. It’s fiercely compassionate. It doesn’t shrink from conflict but meets it with discernment and depth.

How We Practice Both

Practicing sacred rage and open-heartedness at once is an embodied practice. Here are a few ways to begin:

• Let rage speak, not scream. Give your rage language. Write, speak, cry, or move it. Let it tell you what it’s here to protect.
  
  
• Stay in your body. Rage that’s grounded in the body is more trustworthy than rage that spins in the mind. Breathe. Shake.  Dance it out.
  
  
• Create containers, not explosions. Sacred rage thrives in ritual, in sacred circles, in art, in movement. Uncontained rage often seeks destruction; sacred rage seeks change.
  
  
• Remember love. Rage can walk hand-in-hand with love. In fact, sacred rage is often born of deep love—for ourselves, others, and the world.
  
  
• Discern right action. Not every surge of rage needs an outward reaction. Sometimes the work is internal: integration, reflection, reclaiming your power.
  
  

A Collective Healing

In a time of global upheaval, sacred rage is rising in many hearts. We are remembering that anger is not the enemy. It is a signal, a summons, a teacher. When we meet it with presence and integrate it through an open heart, we become more whole—not less.

Let us be people who can burn and bless. Who can say, “NO!” with fierce love. Who can protect what matters without losing our softness.

Sacred rage is a doorway. The open heart is the path.