The Mark of the Cliff is a mark of shell shock, of a soul in hiding.
The Mark of the YRUU is a soul that is present, shining from the body and the eyes. You can call it self-love, self-trust, social confidence, spiritual aliveness. A complete respect for one's own body, mind, and experience. This is the Fairy Mark, the mark that we see in other people when we recognize each other, when we know that they are in on the secret: the inherent worth and dignity. It's OK to be yourself.
The Mark of the Cliff is a light that has gone out, been hidden or lost. Sometimes it is masked with an artificial glow, a kind of bravado, or a pleasant conformity. But you can still see it: the faint traces of fear, of shock. The dimness of the energy field.
There is a belief in some cultures that when a person suffers a trauma that is too painful or too incomprehensible to endure, their soul will just flee the scene. Leave the body. Soul loss. The closest Western Scientific word for it is "dissociation." Soul loss causes a loss of vitality and will for living. It can cause a loss of concentration, of memory, of creative or original thought. It can cause clumsiness, bad luck, and compulsive behavior. The person may feel empty, numb, depressed, or just not themselves. The soul has left the body, has withdrawn from its seat inside the body, behind the eyes.
Bridging Trauma. I see it on the faces of the raised-UU young adults that arrive in San Francisco and find their way into the young adult circles there.
If I meet them in the earliest stages, the look is one of confusion, or bewilderment. Like, what is happening to me? Why don't things seem to be the way they used to be? (If the person enters a good UUYAN program at this time or sooner, the Mark of the Cliff will probably be avoided. But good UUYAN programs are still rare.)
If I meet them a little later, the look is one of shell-shock, or maybe pain or horror or fear. That is the Mark of the Cliff: a spiritual injury, visible like a bruise or scar.
Later, as the soul goes further into hiding, the look of pain is covered over by different versions of bravado, conformity or cynicism. Their eyes, behind the social smile, are guarded. The Bridger has fallen. Their link to spiritual community has been broken.
This condition of alienation, of a deep split between the official public self and the spiritual inner self, is pretty common in all people these days, UU and non-UU. The condition is called Soul Loss. The healing solution, according to the shamans, is Soul Retrieval.