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February 18 - November 8, 2023
Untransformed rage can become a constant mantra about how oppressed, hurt, and tortured we were.
In mythos, a mountain is sometimes understood as a symbol describing the levels of mastery one must attain before one can ascend to the next level.
to see into the patterns of events, people, and things; and eventually to learn not to take the first impression so deadly seriously, but to look behind and beyond.
While the woman was on the mountain, learning, everything was magic. Now that she is off the mountain, the so-called magical hair has been burned in the fire that destroys illusion, and now it is time for “after Zen.” Life is supposed to become mundane again. Yet she has the bounty of her experience on the mountain. She has knowing. The energy that was bound up in rage can be used for other things.
You’ll handle it better and better each time because you’ll know when it is time to call in the healer again, to climb the mountain, to release yourself from the illusions that the present is an exact and calculated replay of the past.
It is a mistake for others to think that just because a woman is silent, it always means she approves of life as is.
It is a teaching about not unleashing anger indiscriminately, but at the right time.
But regardless of the source of the rage, something has to happen to recognize it, bless it, contain it, and release it.
most part released. I encourage you to make descansos, to sit down with a time-line of your life and say “Where are the crosses? Where are the places that must be remembered, must be blessed?” In all are meanings that you’ve brought forward into your life today. They must be remembered, but they must be forgotten at the same time. It takes time. And patience. Remember
When a woman has trouble letting go of anger or rage, it’s often because she’s using rage to empower herself.
Many people have trouble with forgiveness because they have been taught that it is a singular act to be completed in one sitting.
You are not bad if you do not forgive easily. You are not a saint if you do. Each to her own, and all in due time.
Four Stages of Forgiveness to forego—to leave it alone to forebear—to abstain from punishing to forget—to aver from memory, to refuse to dwell to forgive—to abandon the debt
The families of the dead women in “Bluebeard” do not come seeking their daughters either. Culturally, this needs no interpretation. Sadly, we all know what it means, and many women, too many, understand that lack of inquiry firsthand.
There may be extensive scarring as the result of naive choices, from being entrapped, as well as from right but difficult choices. There are as many shapes of scars as there are types of psychic woundings.
Whatever the secret is, we understand that it is now part of our work for life. Redemption heals a once-open wound. But there will be a scar nevertheless. With changes of weather the scar can and will ache again. That is the nature of a true grief.
If a story is seed, then we are its soil.
“participation mystique”—a
Once upon a time a few days ago,
her loss of innocence is treated as a rite of passage.4 That she can now see more clearly is applauded.
“Of the one comes two, and of the two, three. And from the three come ten thousand.”
Her tears are a germination of that which preserves her, that which purifies the wound she has received.
All through history, tears have done three works: called the spirits to one’s side, repelled those who would muffle and bind the simple soul, and healed the injuries of poor bargains made by humans.
The hands are beings in their own right.
How does one live in the topside world and the underworld at the same time and on a day-to-day basis? What does one have to do to come down into the underworld on one’s own? What circumstances in life help women with the descent? Do we have a choice about going or staying? What spontaneous help have you received from the instinctive nature during such a time?
In all dying there is uselessness that becomes useful as we pick our way through it all.
In lesser-known stories about her, she endures various torments such as hanging for three days upon the World Tree in order to redeem the souls who have not enough suffering of their own to deepen their spirits.
enantiodromia, the psychic state in which all that was once held valuable is now not so valuable
Not only when people are hungry and deprived does the Devil show up but also sometimes where there has been an event of great beauty, in this case the birth of the beautiful new baby. Again, the predator is always attracted to light, and what is more light than new life?
In this psychoanalytic milieu, resolution is brought about by remembering base thoughts and urges, bringing them to consciousness, describing, naming, and cataloging them, in order to leach their potency.
Putting a veil over something increases its action or feeling. This is known among women far and wide. There was a phrase my grandmother used, “veiling the bowl.” It meant to put a white cloth over a bowl of kneaded dough to cause the bread to rise. The veil for the bread and the veil for the psyche serve the same purpose. There is a potent leavening in the souls of women in descent. There is a powerful fermenting going on. To be behind the veil increases one’s mystical insight. From behind the veil, all humans look like mist beings, all events, all objects, are colored as though in a dawn, or
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The wild feminine is not only sustainable in all worlds; it sustains all worlds.
She must shake out her pelt, strut the old pathways, assert her instinctual knowledge. We can all assert membership in the ancient scar clan, proudly bear the battle scars of our time, write our secrets on walls, refuse to be ashamed, lead the way through and out. Let us not overspend on anger. Instead let us be empowered by it. Most of all let us be cunning and use our feminine wits.
Forgive as much as you can, forget a little, and create a lot.
General Wolf Rules for Life Eat Rest Rove in between Render loyalty Love the children Cavil in moonlight Tune your ears Attend to the bones Make love Howl often
