wisdom within, ink

For redefinition, I was thrown back to myself, to my inner knowing… Marilyn Sewell, Cries of the Spirit

The Authentic Voice Project: Week 24 (New Moon)

W is Wisdom

How appropriate this word would fall on a holy day: Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which also the auspicious 12/12/12. It is also the last new moon – and so also the darkest night – of this year.

I am not Catholic and wouldn’t have known about this feast day if it hadn’t been in a posting on Facebook relating it’s significance to 12/12/12. And I wouldn’t have thought too much beyond that if it hadn’t been for some other happenings this week.

While in a recent conversation with a client the importance of the Catholic saints suddenly took on new meaning for me. They are like the mythical gods and goddesses who represented different facets of human behavior and psychology. Praying to them is like a conversation with Self (or Jung’s “God Within.”) And then a friend IM’d me to wish me a happy Lady of Guadalupe day not knowing I was about to write this post. She told me was in Mexico on this day ten years ago and watched them celebrate The Virgin, whom they consider a goddess.

In my studies I have also come to realize that the Catholics’ adoration of Mary – and her associated feminine aspects – allows for a spiritual (mystery) dimension to their faith that feminine-void dogmas may not foster. Wisdom is traditionally considered feminine. Think Sophia, which means wisdom. Snakes, bees, owls, the moon… all symbols of wisdom and associated with various goddesses.

All these thoughts come on the heels of a women’s circle I attended over the weekend called ‘Gathering the Grandmothers,’ which was a celebration of the wise “elders” in our community. As part of the session the oldest woman in the group was asked to share one piece of wisdom she had learned (fyi: it is to LAUGH!). This gave me an idea for a project  which I will introduce that in a moment.

So let me break down why this day for me is a day symbolizing Wisdom, specifically the feminine wisdom we ALL hold in our bodies and that which can be heard when we LISTEN to ourselves, whether through writing, meditation, or prayer to the (inner)saint/goddess of our choice.

• ‘W is for Wisdom’ was previously scheduled for this day’s post
• The wise moon is temporarily hiding her face, a symbol of a time to look inward; a time of renewal before re-birth/re-creation
• The Virgin (original meaning: “a women unto herself,” i.e. a woman who knows her own heart/wisdom) is celebrated today as a people’s goddess whose act of creation bought hope to the world
• 12/12/12 in numerology is a very important date which means creation – which for me is our ultimate act of wisdom – and completion. (Further explanation of this below.*)
• I began my menstrual cycle today and pricked my finger: blood is traditionally a symbol of woman’s wisdom.

So, on this day of wisdom, I announce the start of a new project for the new year: WISE WOMEN SPEAK

When we listen and really hear the wise words of our elders we strengthen their voices and their Selves as well as ourselves – and ultimately our society. When we listen to each other we also begin to see each other. We raise our voices to raise the selves of all women.

Every two weeks, according to the phases of the moon I will post words of learned wisdom from elder women. I will be accepting submissions from Wonderfully Wise Crones (you can submit them here). I thank you in advance for your participation in this project (and I thank T.K. for the inspiration).

P.S. As soon as I pressed Publish on this post I clicked on Facebook and there was this post at the top of my Timeline:

“She represents the creating, subversive power within and the creative subversions of post-colonial peoples. She is the invitation to speak, to narrate, to tell, to talk back.”

And it was referring to none other by Our Lady of Guadalupe! Wow.

(From http://peterboullata.com/2012/12/12/guadalupe-mother-of-my-cross-bred-soul/)

~

*Significance of 12/12/12: Firstly, you can plainly see that the number 12 is prominent within these dates. 12 is a number of universal import and you see its repeating patterns in your culture; 12 hours of the day, 12 months of the year, 12 in a dozen, 12 zodiac signs, 12 apostles, and 12 days of Christmas, for example.

These relationships are not a coincidence, nor are they about convenience.
Within the 12 you find the number 3; the sacred trinity, third chakra, and number of creation. It is universal that when you put two things, ideas, or what have you, together, a third is naturally created.

In these December dates, you have three threes. This equals 9. Thus the creational value is tripled and the result is the completion of a cycle, which is a meaning inherent in the number 9. From this we can plainly see the vibrations at play of creation and completion, in the cycle of development. (From facebook.com/theGODDESStemple)

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For redefinition, I was thrown back to myself, to my inner knowing… Marilyn Sewell, Cries of the Spirit

The Authentic Voice Project: Week 19 (Full Moon)

S is for Sin

Next to Evil, I think Sin has to be my least favorite word.

Sin… Born black with it. The inherent human state of it. Living in it. Redeemed from it.

It’s just another word shouted, whispered, preyed upon us in an attempt to keep us in line. To keep us in a state of fear. Afraid of ourselves. And our wicked ways. But look at a baby. A child has to be taught not to love. Love is the natural state.

I ask you, how can a person ever grow, foster their own strengths, move towards their inherent creativity if they believe every step in this “sinful” world could bring wrathful judgement upon their head? The answer is, they can’t. Fear is a stop sign. It is a shut door. And belief in a “natural” sinful nature is a stagnant pool with no life vest.

Yes, all humans have the potential to do some very awful things, but it is not inevitable and more than not choose to do the loving thing. It isn’t faith in a god that prevents the majority of us from slowing down to avoid hitting a dog walking across the road or prompts us to help out an elderly neighbor who needs her driveway shoveled. And (except in very rare cases) no one chooses to live a certain way because they enjoy being hated and rejected.

True “sin” to me is an action, not a state of being. Sin is killing this earth in the name of money. Sin is denying others basic human rights. Sin is living in fear of “sinful” people and blindly following external authorities who proclaim they have The Truth or The Answer. Sin is denying one’s own abilities – the natural creativity with which we were born – and instead choosing to live in an inauthentic and joyless, thankless life.

If Sin is denying the Divine, then OK, I agree. We are all divine, all points of light in this web of life on Mother Earth. Denying this divinity in ourselves separates us from the earth, nature and each other, and when there is no connection, there is death. Death of Soul. Death of Spirit. Death of Love.

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For redefinition, I was thrown back to myself, to my inner knowing… Marilyn Sewell, Cries of the Spirit

The Authentic Voice Project: Week 12 + 13 (Full Moon)

L is for Life and M is for Matter

What is the purpose of life? What does it mean to be alive? What does it matter?

I was taught in my church-going childhood that this life was just a waiting room for the next life, the more important life, the one with God. At the time I was too young to realize that this concept made a mockery of this life – now. How could I be grateful for all I had now if it was just a trial, a test? For what? A time when I would no longer be with my family, my dog, my beloved house? Needless to say, that wasn’t very appealing to me as a child. I didn’t want my Mummy and Daddy to disappear and leave me, alone. Everything and everyone was suspect because they could cause me to do or say or even think something that would anger God enough that when I reached that Judgment seat, He would say, “Sorry! Next!” and I’d be out; flung out beyond the walls of the Kingdom along with those who wept and gnashed their teeth. I was taught that The World was a scary place; the next world seemed even scarier.

But now I have a new understanding of Life. Someone said somewhere,

Life is made up of moments.

I read this at some point in my twenties and I remember it was a light bulb moment. Waiting for your life to start means every moment you stand around waiting for the starting gun is a wasted moment, therefore you are wasting the life you have right now. This my life NOW. I no longer believe there is anything after. If there turns out to be, I don’t want to be the one who is asked, “And what did you do with the life you were given?” and having no good answer. And I certainly wouldn’t want to be the one who had to say that s/he spent every moment hating on someone/thing “other.” I want to take the life, the gifts, the talents, the passions I was born with and cultivate them and sow them. Life for me means constantly looking for my potential so I can grow and change and give and love with the personal and universal knowledge I am gaining.

Why does it Matter?

Matter is earth. Matter is body. Matter is “mater,” mother. And it matters because we all come from Mother Earth. We are all made from the same stuff as the earth and the plants and the trees and the animals: air, water, carbon, and energy. We are all vibrating with the same source of energy.

I was taught the body is a thing at the least to ignore, at the most, of which to be ashamed. My intellect was what mattered (“mind over matter”). I learned to live in my head, to dismiss the emotions and the needs of the body. But body would not be silenced. Its energy runs through my throat, my neck, my shoulders and reminds my head (sometimes painfully, particularly by way of the sinuses) that it is still there and that, although “just” matter, it does indeed matter. We experience Life through our whole body, through our matter, because Life’s energy, Earth’s energy is connected with the body’s energy. They cannot be disconnected no “matter” how hard we might try to deny we are of this earth. So plug in!

Life matters Now because we are Matter now. We are all matter. And because we are connected to all other matter we have a responsibility to our fellow and sister earth-dwellers to seek our highest vibration. To be alive means to have energy flowing through your veins. Your purpose is to live with a passion that causes this energy to pulse in life-giving waves through and around you. Energy builds energy. Pass it on so all may benefit (you have, I’m sure, experienced a lightened mood just by being in the vicinity of a authentically happy or passionate person – this is mutually raised energy). Raise the universal energy for this life, in this life, where the suffering is now and needs to end now. Because Life Matters.

Photo credit: earl53 from morguefile.com

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via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descartes

For redefinition, I was thrown back to myself, to my inner knowing… Marilyn Sewell, Cries of the Spirit

The Authentic Voice Project: Week 11 (Full Moon)

J is for Judgment and K is for Know

Ugh, judgment. Other-judgment, self-judgment. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

OK, so now you know how I feel about judgment.

Coming into this post I have some self-judgment going on and that is the worst judgment of all. You’ll notice this is a double letter post. I kinda didn’t ever get to write this J post two weeks ago. And now I’m a day late on K as well. And I’ve been judging myself all over the place for that. I do have two great excuses: grad school and children. But in reality I have had enough moments where I could have sat down and gotten this post written. I just didn’t. I resisted it. Why? I can’t quite say. OK, yes I can. The whole concept of Judgment is just too icky. (I’m not talking about Eternal Judgment here. I’m soooo over that!)

I saw a video recently of a talk by Amanda Gore (can’t recall which one, I watched a whole bunch – she’s great!) where she said essentially:

Quit worrying about what others are thinking about you; they’re too busy worrying about what you are thinking about them to be thinking about you!

Self-judgment under the guise of Other-judgment is probably our worst enemy. We project all over each other all the time, seeing ourselves mirrored in another and then despising them for it. It is so true that what we dislike in another is – guaranteed – something we dislike in ourselves, and of which (most of the time) we are simply unaware is our own truth.

Which brings me to K is for Know.

In the coffee shop where I am writing this, there is a blackboard on which the owner has chalked a quote by Descartes (you know, that “I think, therefore I am” guy):

I will converse with myself and scrutinize myself more deeply; and in this way I will attempt to achieve little by little, a more intimate knowledge of myself.

Although I think “I feel, therefore I am” might be a more accurate description of the human condition, Monsieur Descartes makes a great point. We have to “converse” with ourselves through writing, singing, painting, or any other form of self-expression/-reflection in order to really know who we are. By discovering this we are less likely to project our shadowed (unknown) issues onto others which causes us to judge them. When we recognize and accept our own foibles and weaknesses and biases, we become more compassionate to ourselves. This in turn allows us to become more understanding of others’ character flaws.

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