Category: #Beauty

  • Becoming a Goddess – the Goddess Oracle by Alysse Aallyn

    Vine Goddess – Dependency

    To Be Human Is To Be Entangled – Goddesses cannot be entirely free of entanglement, but their ability to “rise above” helps them see when an attachment becomes unhealthy clinging.

    Fear of abandonment is the cause of unhealthy clinging – Goddesses never fear being alone, understanding solitude as a fount of deep thought and dreaming.  In Goddess Oracle, the Clinging Vine reminds us of all of the unpleasant aspects of needing others’ constant support to function. We Americans prefer to live by the fantasy of independence and self-determination. It’s just too threatening to imagine what might happen if the wall we’ve been covertly clinging to, suddenly comes down.

    Goddesses Require Freedom of Action – We are all dependent on society for basic functions. At what point does mutual dependency become constrictive? Clinging vines can’t stand up by themselves; they need an immoveable object to cling to, and soon they become defined by that object as if they, too, were immoveable.  Are you locked into a position of support for someone else?

    Goddesses Define Freedom in Their Relationships – Recognize and resist parasitic and exploitive relationships where the benefits are unbalanced. No need to over-react. Start drawing boundaries. Teaching the clinging vine to stand up for itself is doing it a favor.

    No One Stands Alone – The truth is, we’re all in this together. Billionaires, leaders, CEO’s, all actually need much more support than the “ordinaries”. But they insist on maintaining freedom of action – for good reason. Don’t make destructive deals involving your future. Goddesses need to Become and their futures are always a Mystery.  We are responsive to the fluttering of butterfly wings as well as the shifting of tectonic plates. Divest of pointless, usually “inherited” shame (from the collective unconscious) and acknowledge the truth that humans are, for good and ill, social creatures.

    Life Is a Negotiation – Make an experiment of listing your dependencies – bank, mail system, social security? Vehicle, gas availability, fuel affordability? Grocery stores, restaurants, our own two ambulatory feet? Weather, peace, law enforcement?

    Recognize the Fragility of These Systems. Confronting fear creates ruthlessness but goddess never check their brains at the door. We are strategic, planning, evolving. Our maps will always need an update and a redesign.

    Goddess Challenge – Are we hanging ourselves in loops of dependency? How can we free ourselves? What could we do to claim more psychic and physical independence? While Mormons may require a “year’s worth” of canned goods in the basement, the rest of us recognize the need for an emergency savings account. We are beginning to understand how a threatened supply chain can snap. Begin imagining some future failure scenarios and hash out the possibilities; if the elevator fail, is it possible to take the stairs? Your dream life will reward you with a lessening of existential anxiety.

    Models & Mentors –  “Don’t set yourself on fire to keep other people warm” – Alysse Aallyn

    “Fear is the memory of pain. Addiction is the memory of pleasure. Freedom is beyond both.” – Anonymous

    “Don’t work harder on someone else’s problems than they do” – Ross Rosenberg

    “Enjoy togetherness but allow space. Respect differing beliefs. Accept, don’t try to change each other. Appreciate the other, but always be prepared to survive alone” – Darlene Lancer

    #Haiku: Dis – Ability

    Limitations dissolve

    Hand in hand we

    Surmount

    Mental boundaries

  • Becoming a Goddess – the Goddess Oracle by Alysse Aallyn

    Hummingbird Goddess – The Soul

    When the Goddess’ Soul speaks, She Listens. Everyone is born with a soul.  But it is up to us to immortalize it.  If we merge with the crowd, we rise and fall with the crowd, cut down in our time like grass, unindividuated and Personless. .  According to C.S. Lewis, we are not a Body with a Soul, we are a Soul with a Body. Our body may be very mutable, but our soul can be eternal. 

    Do you dream of past lives? See yourself in historical contexts? Do you have dreams of utter bodilessness in which you are totally free, seeming to travel invisibly through the power of your mind?

    Consider the magic majesty of the hummingbird. Tiny but ubiquitous. And determined.  How about the ‘impossible” flight of the bumblebee? They shouldn’t be able to remain aloft, but there they are.

    What Do Goddesses Represent?  If immortality is an achievement, souls are under threat.  Consider the Sin Against the Holy Spirit mentioned in the Bible as the one sin that cannot be forgiven?  It is any attempt to slaughter the soul, to stifle your inborne, God-given ability to detect the numinous and to access the sphere of eternality. Goddesses therefore fight the greatest of battles, to protect the determinative powers of their own Souls and those of others.

    Accept Your Immortality – Can we destroy our own immortality through abuse and disbelief?  Sadly, yes, and some of us act like we want to!  If “heaven” represents eternal bliss and “hell” eternal pain who would ever choose the latter? Those who find existence such a stacked deck that they turn away sickened from the gamble. That’s soul suicide. This is as tragic as battling against one of our talents (“I’m never going near that guitar.”) Who exactly are you trying to harm? The direction we need to travel is in uncovering who we really are and freeing ourselves. To become a “Self “ worth being.

    Everyone Has Experienced Flow – We have knowledge of eternality in our daily life – actual accessible bliss in which Time and Impossibility vanish while we experience full connectedness with the universe.  We become Goddesses  to master this ability – and to transfer it to others. This skill alone makes merely being ourselves a reliable, eternal pleasure.

    Goddess Challenge – Obviously, our minds change the same way our bodies do. We grow up! Consider the “magic” of maturity: comprehension. Assessment. Pattern detection. Goal-making. Self-control. Think about the differences between you now, and you at say, three years old. Imagine furthering this joyous understanding in which you will eventually “get” what seems now beyond apprehension. If you just accept that possibility, you can enjoy the Now.

    Goddess Danger –  What Christians call “sin”, Buddhists call “clinging”.  We smudge the vision of our souls until they can no longer see, and then we say, “There’s nothing to see! It’s dark in here!” We grab on to any passing thing in fear, to halt the frightening mystery of our flight but of course that worsens matters.  The G forces build up as space revolves around us, meanwhile we are clinging to some crappy object, or some person who is experiencing a different trajectory. Let those things go. Don’t be frightened by your feelings, just study them, turn them into huge iridescent bubbles, and spin them away. Learn to enjoy this flight, no matter how wild it gets.

    Goddess Opportunity – Think about the Biblical parable in which everyone is invited to a glorious feast. These “guests” are so threatened by this invitation, they not only don’t go, they murder the messenger. Watch the glorious film, Groundhog Day. Poor weather forecaster Bill Murray is sentenced to living the same reality over and over and over again, trying everything to escape, including suicide. Finally he decides to learn how to just enjoy the life he has been granted, and to be as nice as possible to the other frightened, enraged, confused souls around him. Only then is he able to move on to the next level which turns out to be the rewarding love of his dreams. That is the Progress of the Soul which we defend.

    Models & Mentors – “the living soul, once conscious of its power, cannot be quelled” – Horace Mann

    “The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind.” – Carolyne Myss

    “Without applied awareness of the soul, happiness can’t arise” – Dada Bhagwan

    “The desire to know your own soul ends all other desires” – Rumi

    #Haiku: Last Minute

    Bone grows

    Mind crashed

    Soul merge

    Skin graft

    Intervention –

    Light shaft

    Angel…?

    Laughed.

  • Becoming a Goddess – the Goddess Oracle by Alysse Aallyn

    Wildflower Goddess – Beauty

    Are Goddesses Shy? – Our elevated plane makes others suspect Goddesses seek exposure and acclaim. Not so the Wildflower Goddess, who thrives in secret, out of the limelight. 

    Goddesses Are Comfortable Alone – Are your dreams so beautiful you regret waking up? Do you imagine possessing great beauty yourself, caressing another’s gorgeous flesh, or having a dream lover turn those diamond eyes on you? Do you dream of beautiful places, caverns, waterfalls, chapels – that are spectacular in their glamor? We are all visual learners, attracted to beauty, hypnotized by color. Our relationship to the universe is naturally worshipful.

    Goddesses Don’t Waste Time Admiring Themselves – We’re here to preserve the beauty of the natural world, and of others. We alert when the planet slips into disharmony, but our love of beauty suggests how it can be restored.

    Beauty Is a Guide to Order and an education in symmetry. Wildflowers’ magnificence is otherworldly. It stands in contrast to the managed world which constantly attempts to freeze & fetishize the ephemeral, even the eternal. Wildflowers’ mysterious evanescence suggests what true beauty is. To become a servant of the seasons is to fill our lives to overflowing with constant pleasure.

    Train Your Goddess Eye – Take joy in your surroundings. Japanese samurai practice flower arranging, for the purpose not only of relaxation, but discernment. As there is “forest bathing”, so there is “flower bathing.” But nature is wide and we are part of it. The Goddess Mandate is vast and all encompassing. Puppies doing anything, kittens doing everything, a dance class of toddlers (all doing the wrong thing), flowers coming up through cement, a piece of brilliant stained glass on a battered utility truck, a book of cave paintings, the swirl in our coffee, old photographs, our beloved’s sleepy morning face – once you start “collecting”,  you realize beauty is all around you.

    Look in the Mirror – That is what beauty is – those lines, those scars, each one a history. That light behind the eyes is a directing soul, in tune with its guardian angel. Accept yourself.  It is necessary for the Goddess to love Self, in order to truly See, much less Love –  others.

    Unclutter Your Soul – Clutter is frustrating for the brain. We all love sharing beautiful pictures, but aggressively, officiously  “beautiful” people have been hogging the space. Be discriminating in the cherished mind-pictures that you gather.  Think of the wildflower. Is endless staging the path to joy or depression?

    Goddess Danger – We find ourselves caught in a frenzy of “likes”. A “like” button can have a plethora of meanings, but if we don’t take care, we will begin to “need” likes the way a drunk needs booze. Otherwise we fear we’re nothing. Specious approval from strangers – or at least attention – can never fill your heart. The quiet joy of certain pleasure inside your own head as you follow your bliss –– that’s lasting pleasure. Relax, refresh, renew.

    Models & Mentors –  “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it” – Confucius

    “Beauty is a light in the heart” – Khalil Gibran

    “Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself” – Coco Chanel

    “Don’t think of all the misery but the beauty that remains” – Anne Frank

    “Beauty is reality seen with the eyes of love” – Rabindranath Tagore

    #Haiku: Hold Still Forever

    Beauty

    Herded toward capture –

    Resist!

    Reserve your right to

    Disappoint

  • Becoming a Goddess – the Goddess Oracle by Alysse Aallyn

     Sunflower Goddess – Spirituality

    Welcome, Sunflower! You are Thirsting for Light and the Light is Thirsting for You. Do you dream of other-worldly events? Parapsychology and out of body experiences? Flying and underwater breathing?  These freedom dreams of otherworldly mastery tell us much about who we are. In Goddess Oracle, the sunflower represents our spirituality – a Sunflower Goddess reaching out for connection with something others might insist is not there. But we feel – very strongly – that it is. Who’s right?

    Sunflowers Turn to The Light and So Do Goddesses – Hundreds of years ago Blaise Pascal argued that we have so much to gain if the supernatural is true, and nothing to gain if it isn’t, so that the calculus is simple. When you act as if the universe was richly designed by a Carer who promotes Goodness and rewards Love, you create the ideal conditions for human flourishing, whereas, as we all know, and has been conclusively proven scientifically, pessimism about outcomes dramatically lowers future benefits. Certainly, one could argue that our communications with each other are fraught with mistake and misapprehension, but that’s an argument for increased effort and insight and hardly a quitter’s mandate.

    Goddesses Cultivate the Sixth Sense – Some people are born color blind – others are tone deaf – so it’s perfectly possible some are unable to access the extra dimensions. But the lucky goddess few – know that there is a universal resource to be tapped into when we can maneuver ourselves to the “right wavelength.”

    Goddesses Follow The Sunflower Path – What is our mandate? Focus on increasing your ability to tell health and growth potential from sickness and disease enhancement. This will help you find the right path and the right people. Goodness never seeks your diminishment and constriction – the ruthless pursuit of human power does that. Test all wavelengths for generosity, balance and liveliness and contemplate what is beneficial in the universe. Bask in the flow of reassurance, resilience and recovery that intense spirituality provides.

    Goddess Challenge – Fully explore your fears with a view to answering Immanuel Kant’s timeless question, “What can we hope?”  Jesus focused his ministry on healing and met virulent rule-focused pushback. He found himself in a frenzy of status-seeking coupled with denigration. His life as well as his words teach us that the “Letter” kills, but the “spirit” gives Life. It is up to us to find and nourish that spirit. Once you can feel the “angels” – i.e. virtues – around you – (I picture them as nosing deer!) your fear subsides.

    Goddesses Never Surrender Their Ability to Scent Danger – No journey can be free of risk. Trust requires us to follow where we cannot see the path, and so sometimes we lose the path. Sometimes we realize our guide looks to capture & constrain, not enhance & liberate. We must maintain our ability and reserve our right to recognize this so that we can  reverse course before the cliff edge,  telling malignant spirits “You no longer represent me” and to seek out a healthier program of progress.

    Goddesses Enhance Opportunity for Everyone – We are never alone.  All around us are pilgrims struggling with the same things we’re struggling with. Sharing and caring knits us together. The American two party political system benefits from stirring up hatreds to protect themselves from change. Don’t accept it. We are not each other’s enemies. The possibilities for friendship and connection are huge, but hatred and anger lead in only one direction.

    Models & Mentors – “The world is full of magic things patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper”- W.B. Yeats

    “You need not work to become spiritual – you are spiritual. You need only to recognize that fact” – Julia Cameron

    “The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and the acceptance of love” – Marianne Williamson

    “Happy people build their inner world – unhappy people blame their outer world” – Dalai Lama

    “The power of God is with you at all times, through the activities of mind, sense, breathing, the emotions , doing all the work, using you as mere instrument”  – Bhagavad Gita

    #Haiku: Hegira

    Fleeing outward

    Questing

    Fresh feathers

    Enabling

    Spirit’s

    Aching wings

  • Becoming a Goddess – the Goddess Oracle by Alysse Aallyn

    Birdsong – Art

    Goddesses Share the Power of Their Vision – to those whose Souls Cry Out for Definition – Birds sing. It’s who they are. Goddesses dream of artistic products – paintings, sculpture, film – and artistic endeavors such as performance and construction. Do you get ideas for fresh pieces and experience exciting nonconformist thinking that seem to evaporate upon waking?

    Art is Our Reason for Being – Art is the judge of our poetic confrontation with the world, the cure and the cause.  It is also our prime avenue for non-verbal healing. Only non-verbal healing can address pain that can’t be quantified.

    Art is a Language – Develop Your Own – Your inner self is signaling to you that it is time for you to explore art expression – mastering its terms, and to start inventing terms of your own. Only art can establish the secure connection with others required to nourish you now.

    Everyone Connects Through Art  – Every single one of us chooses mode and objects of expression, consciously or unconsciously, every single day. We buy one object over another because it gives us pleasure; we arrange our living spaces to express some intangible quality about ourselves – a self-definition that signals to others who we are and where we are on our journey.

    Artists & Goddesses  Are Free – Art demands individuality. We begin by copying but we must move on to expressing our uniqueness or our soul can’t evolve. If we are happy being part of an unthinking mass we are truly “unborn.”  This exploration will grant you a deep peace about being alone with yourself, a strong confidence in who you really are and a feeling of spiritual value.

    Art Offers New Battles to Fight – This journey is awkward at first, and in other people’s eyes it may remain awkward forever. Why wouldn’t you copy what’s popular? Why not mimic the uncontroversially successful? The problem is, while you are doing that the core of your self-hood is dying like an unwatered plant. And if your soul is dying, you are dying. Also, being bullied by the “art enforcers” is not what goddesses can tolerate.

    Sometimes We Bully Ourselves Worse – Perfection is not the answer – it is the enemy. Remember – we flee stagnation. Our soul’s “perfecting never reaches an end – that’s the definition of immortality. Constantly shaming yourself as a no-talent, pretending poseur is horrifyingly destructive to your precious infant specialness struggling for life.

    Goddesses Support Themselves – The fact that a work is unsuccessful, even a horrific mess, doesn’t mean it isn’t an advance for your vision, insight and style. These are the building blocks of creation. Don’t get hung up on approval. You need teachers, not fans. Read The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

    Models & Mentors – “Creativity takes courage” – Henri Matisse

    “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see” – Henry David Thoreau

    “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight without vision” – Helen Keller

    “You were born an original, don’t die a copy” – Jon Mason

    “Life beats down and crushes the art in your soul to remind you that you have one” – Stella Adler

    “There are no rules, only confidence, aplomb, style & joy” – Neil Gaiman

    #Haiku: Disclaimer

    I don’t write haiku

    They write me

    Jaw slack

    Eyes closed

    Ego playing

    Dead

  • Becoming a Goddess – The Goddess Oracle by Alysse Aallyn

    Fruit – Fruition

    Goddess At Peak – A project of yours is nearing completion. Harvest is approaching. Do you dream of fruit, perfectly ripe?  Do you love to cook and entertain? Are you attracted by movies with long family dinner scenes, everyone celebrating outdoors beneath an arbor? Is touring wine country a popular fantasy of yours? You are a person who is propelled forward by imagining smiles on the faces of others as the work of community and you believe that family harmony is to be celebrated and enjoyed. This vision can keep us going through bitter hardships.

    Harvest Comes Because Goddesses Prepare – You became a goddess because you resisted others’ negativity, hopelessness and learned helplessness. Instead you turned your eyes to the inevitable rituals of seed care, the health promotion of living things, and now you are granted a front-row seat at the celebration of flourishing.

    Goddess Challenge – Keeping these visions alive during the training phase is hard, because the growth cycle is long and can be boring and uneventful. That’s why planting occurs in stages, so all your psychic eggs aren’t resting in the same basket. Learn to enjoy all the seasons, without hungering for a single season. This is a good time to contrast group versus individual gratifications and ask ourselves, “What’s that about?”

    Goddess Danger – Even Goddesses can become thirsty for gratification until it takes more and more to satisfy us. “Winning” is a shallow goal if that’s all there is. Goddesses seek harmony, blending community resources to make the whole family stronger. The worst outcome is to be locked in an addiction cycle and spiraling downwards; no longer part of the growth process, benefitting from training and spiritual renewal.

    Goddesses Rest by Dreaming Forward – Sitting around the fire telling stories, modeling “success” as peaceful sharing rather than as an endless party. Luckily sleep and dreams are the best model of fruitful dormancy. We require those periods and we need to look forward to their relief and imaginative nourishment.

    Goddess Opportunity – Every group celebration of the success and nourishment cycle is different. Are there leftover behaviors that no longer serve you? What fresh, exciting new ideas might you add? Is everyone in the family/community being well-served or are there grumpy holdouts? It’s fruitful to listen to the grumpy holdouts occasionally.  How might they do things differently? If all they want is to harsh everyone else’s buzz, maybe they should no longer expect an automatic invitation to the feast.

    Models & Mentors – “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you will get but by the seeds you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

    “In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter, enjoy” – William Blake

    “Every deed sows a seed, though the harvest you may not see”

    – Ella Wheeler Wilcox

    “We are each other’s harvest, we are each other’s business, we are each other’s magnitude and bond” – Gwendolyn Brooks

    #Haiku: Return on Investment

    Summer pledges sweat

    Ecstatic harvest romp

    Inevitable cleanse.

  • Becoming a Goddess – the Goddess Oracle by Alysse Aallyn

    Fish – Ambisextrous

    Goddesses Are Ambisextrous- We Express All Genders.  Goddesses are empaths. Do you identify easily with multiple avatars? Are you happiest with fluid roles in a relationship? Do you dream of the fetish trophies of gender; makeup, wigs, shoes, sports equipment? Do you have frequent “freedom” dreams: flying, swimming? Waking up damp, pulses pounding?

    Love Opens Goddesses – Empathy Ennobles Goddesses – IS there an “opposite” sex? Deep empathy makes us worthy to be our own romantic partners, the subject of our lifelong pursuit.  This is nothing but the honorable, deepest desire to truly know oneself AND others;  to master selfhood and compassion before leaving the planet.  C.S. Lewis says we are not a Body with a Soul, we are Souls with a Body.  We’re incarnated! It’s a thrill!

    Goddess Strategy Requires “Becoming” the Other –  Strengthening our imagination, we see through the barriers raised by the fearful and the pugnacious. What is “winning”? Empaths double – triple – multiply our vision, our power, and therefore our souls.

    Don’t Fear Gender – Goddess who perform the “gender specifics” of rigid roles are limiting themselves. Goddess who look for opportunities to expand their reach encompass the powers, the delights, the ecstasies of all humans. What we absorb, we reflect.

    Incarnated Goddesses Don’t Fear Physicality – We express ourselves with this gloriously gifted, given body, coming through this gloriously gifted, given world.  We expect, even worship, Transformation. Woody Allen says bisexuality doubles your chances to get a date on Saturday night. Anything wrong with that? Goddesses never “force” themselves to “perform” sexually;  (or to “perform sexuality”) that is subjugation.

    Goddesses Move Slowly to Absorb, Interpret, Comprehend – We desire to see, to know, to experience everything. Always move as slowly as you feel comfortable with, keeping all options and emotions alive. The “sexual revolution” was a lot of fun, but it was spoiled for many by a witless prejudice against “reserve.” Revulsion, instinctive distaste and doubt tell us plenty. We are on this earth to hone our “gut” instinct as well as our sensitivities. Gavin de Becker, danger specialist, reminds us that fear is an insight, an intuition, a God-given “gift.” Honor it.

    Goddesses Educate Themselves on Risk – Dangerous “bad sex” stories start with substance abuse, usually undertaken with a nervous desire to get into a more relaxed or even transcendental state; but all it actually does is skip over the “informed consent” that is such an important feature of identity and will. Predators with a need for speed drug their prey! Afterwards the complex feelings of violation and shame can take a lifetime to deal with. These facts mean we must study “trust” BEFORE we study sex. What is trust? Safety? Honor? Let’s work on those issues while we develop a free space to evolve, experiment and grow.

    Goddesses Seize Opportunity – Fresh interpretations of “gender“ make this a glorious time to be alive. I can recall when gender was a prison sentence of compulsion and rigidity! Now it is an invitation to live more fully, to experience oneself and others more richly, to participate in that fruitful, heavenly life for which we all yearn.

    Models & Mentors – “The great gift of human beings is we all have empathy. We can sense a mysterious connection to each other” – Meryl Streep

    “Leadership is about empathy. It is about relating to people for the purpose of inspiring and empowering their lives” – Oprah Winfrey

    “The capacity for empathy leads to a genuine encounter I which heart speaks to heart” – Pope Francis

    “I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization” – Roger Ebert

    “Empathy has no script…there is no right way or wrong way…there is only listening, emotionally connecting, communicating the incredibly healing message ‘You’re not alone” – Brene Brown

    #Haiku: Ambisextrous

    Fresh birthed –

    Splash

    Into you

    Drenched,

    Once

    Halved, now

    Wholed –

    Doubling multiplies

    Us

  • Becoming a Goddess – the Goddess Oracle by Alysse Aallyn

     Firefly – False Love

    Uh Oh. Nothing Derails a Goddess Like False Love – False Love is recognizable because it only benefits the Other, not you. You are a Place-Holder in this event – you goddess status to be absorbed by the Other and your emptied husk to be discarded.

    How Do You Recognize a Firefly? Slowly, after the “Love-bombing” – you begin to feel worse. Joining the World of the Other is an intricate Dance where you are always wrong-footed. The confidence and success that marked your goddess-hood are suddenly things of the past. You’re captive and your light is fading to enhance someone else’s.

    Consult Your Dreams – Do you dream of masked balls? Betrayals? Loved and known faces inexplicably turning demonic? People becoming animals? Mazes and puzzles that melt and change? The Firefly is not the only creature using illusion for the purposes of seduction, and seduction is not the only advantage acquired by False Love.  The Target is virtually disabled by relying on something that isn’t real. The False Lover lives in a shifting Potemkin Village of mirrors.  It’s called “gas-lighting”. Often, we feel in our gut that “something isn’t right.”

    Goddesses Stay Alert – You’ve been catfished. You’ve been gaslit. “All’s fair in love and war” means the goddess must always be on game. Pretenders want to drag you into their web of deception by making it seem alluring.  You’ll get so many benefits if you just step inside! But once inside it turns out they want you to feel complicit; you can’t escape, you can’t let anyone know, it’s too too too humiliating. You are fated, now, only to deceive others in your turn. Reject this. Resistance is never futile.

    Goddesses Know When to Cut Losses – Just as the deceptive catfish forces the lazy cod to keep moving (and improving!) when they would rather lie sluggishly on the bottom, the False Lover actually IMPROVES our game. Time to realize we are part of a complex universe where wings disguise themselves as eyes and flowers are chameleons. Conserve your energy. Others wish to capture your power and use it for their own fuel. Get smart.

    Goddesses Are Careful with Deception – You can’t tell the truth to everybody, all the time.  Conserve your facts, reserve your strategy. You are entitled to privacy and security but be careful with deception. Deceivers restrict everyone’s options.

    Goddesses Battle for the Universe Itself, Not Momentary Gain. Humans are more than energy. Love is more than fuel, it is living water as well as unquenchable fire. It is more than worth your while to hold out for the Real Thing. Real Love stands the test of Time. We are playing this game to get to the next level, and you can’t do that with such a narrow view of existence, where all of Creation is means to an end – the end being You, slick and fat, lying sluggish at the bottom of the Universe. Goddess are commanded to Rise, and so we will.

    Goddesses Seek Ultimate Reality – Expand your inner and outer vision. We are multidimensional beings and our emotions – our very orgasms – can become multidimensional as well when we appreciate the historic, the inter-generational, the cosmic ramifications of everything we do and think and are. The marriage service talks about hanging in there through sickness and poverty, and it is a proven fact that people who have been through terrible experiences have a deeper connection. It becomes a secret language others just don’t “understand”. When you have children, you gain the ability to live through them – this is a multi-player, multi-avatar game! Life itself can be a terrible (as well as wonderful) experience. So buckle up! Those who are not alert will be eaten.

    Models & Mentors – “Remember sometimes not getting what you want can be a wonderful stroke of luck”

    – Dalai Lama

    “Let it hurt. Let it bleed. Let it heal. Let it go.” – Nikita Gill

    “Don’t waste your love on someone who doesn’t value it” – Wm Shakespeare

    “Temporary people teach permanent lessons” – Alysse Aallyn

    “Love dies of wounds, errors and betrayals” – Anais Nin

    “Attitude toward gratitude defines a person” – Eli Wiesel

    #Haiku: Explore vs Exploit

    How long should you stay

    At the casino?

    Until they cheat –

    Or you do

  • Becoming a Goddess – the Goddess Oracle by Alysse Aallyn

     Dawn – Relief

    Goddesses Welcome the Fresh Morning – All suffering comes to an end.  Your depression will lift. The future awaits.

    Goddesses Know “ This too shall pass”  – We serve the future. Every dream is followed by an awakening which is followed by another dream.  In the moment of relief from the fear and the tension that preceded it we are still shaking from the experience we just went through. We are in no condition to make decisions. We are just so grateful that it is over. What is required of us, however, is appreciation of the cycle. We are surfing, whether we like it or not. Another wave will come. Goddesses learn how to ride it.

    Goddess Challenge – To rise above any cycle, take an honest look at it. This is hard to do when we are quivering and feeling victimized but it is necessary. What pattern do you see?  The surfing analogy is a good one because the tides are not rhythmic nor perfectly predictable, and they are CERTAINLY not “personal” plus we know another wave will be coming along soon.

    Goddess Strategy – Sometimes there’s a way out; we can change jobs, switch professions, get a divorce. Figure out where the pressure is coming from. Assess your abilities. What parts are you good at? Where do you suck? Can you enjoy any of this? How can your performance be improved? Most of us take pleasure in things we are good at. Can your enjoyment be deepened?

    We’re Never Helpless –  Learned helplessness is real. People give up, stop trying to game or even understand the system. They lie down under the shocks, no longer even trying to escape, waiting for death. Never believe “Resistance is futile.” Don’t succumb.

    Goddesses Play to Win –This game is bigger than our mortal understanding.  Nevertheless, you can comprehend the majesty of what we are up against and appreciate it as a knife appreciates the whetstone.  We learn through analogy, we remember through stories.

    Goddesses Set Themselves Free – Goddesses can always improve, becoming graceful, competent athletes of this mortal existence until we graduate into the next sphere.

    Goddesses Roll with the Punches – You can change and affect your fate. But you must roll with the punches. When Jesus says, “Resist not evil” he means, allow evil to roll over you and smash itself against your non-resistance. Martial arts increases our knowledge of how to manage, subvert and overcome what seems like Superior Force.

    Buddy Power – Friends, allies, buddies, sensei, even dead or fictional characters can be summoned to your aid. People choose such different characters as St. Francis, Sherlock Holmes, Mother Theresa, Joan of Arc, Mulan, Buddha and Jesus to be their “Dream buddies.” Some are more comfortable with an animal – your personal power creature; the jaguar, wolf, eagle or wolverine.

    Change Dream Buddies based on the problem confronting you. Ask their help before you go to sleep, solicit them to come to you in dreams to shed light upon your difficulty. Then the next morning, start writing and remembering the moment you wake up. Some key dreams take a lifetime to decipher.

    Models & Mentors – “Worry is like a rocking chair – it gives you something to do but you never get anywhere”

    – Erma Bombeck

    “For fast acting relief, try slowing down” – Lily Tomlin

    “Happiness is the relief after extreme tension”

    – F. Scott Fitzgerald

    “Laughter is the tonic, the release, the surcease of pain” – Charlie Chaplin

    #Haiku: Blameless

    What could you accomplish

    If you blamed no one

    Ever – Self included

  • Becoming a Goddess – the Goddess Oracle by Alysse Aallyn

     Night – Balance

    Goddesses Embody Balance –  Like a perfectly baked cake, goddesses are a pinch of this, a dusting of that, a hefty serving of something else. We are making our way blindfolded across a restless lagoon by stepping on the lotus leaves.

    You can tell when something in you is out of whack. Ordinary souls castigate themselves but goddesses calibrate their approach, recognizing that Balance is a key law of nature designed to help us avoid the dreaded stagnancy that is experienced as a living death.   Once our conscious is in harmony with our subconscious, our dreams begin to balance our waking life. Even the worst nightmare can be looked at objectively in the light of day, as a story with potency and significance.

    Goddesses Revere Balance – Unfortunately contemporary life has become a competitive pursuit of “highs”. A good life well-lived provides natural highs – learning a skill, reveling in physical gifts, falling in love, listening to music, sharing with children, enjoying the grandeurs of nature. Our intellect teaches us that every “high” is dramatically enriched just by thinking about it! That’s why we are called “homo sapiens.”

    Balance is a Powerful Law of Nature – The pursuit of competitive highs without the thinking and enshrining stages always leads to excess and grief. Highs for their own sake inevitably disappoint, leading to a pursuit of more and more dangerous highs, which, if we are not thinking about them, sharing them with others and incorporating them into our beings, damages our ability to experience joy. Understanding and managing our “emotional highs” is the key to joy.

    Goddesses Live on All Levels At Once – Goddesses learn to give thanks for and pay tribute to the Past, to enjoy and understand the Present, to anticipate and strategize for the Future and to revel and be comforted by the promise of Eternity.

    Balancing the Levels – Joy that is held in the mind is joy endlessly re-experienced. It will be yours forever, and you will be able to share it with all the people you love for the rest of your life. Each of us briefly experience heaven during our lifetimes; prolonged, immortalized and enriched by experiencing and re-experiencing with each other.

    Goddess Challenge – We need to personally set up our brain’s “reward system” to handle pleasure and suffering or we will be prescribed drugs in an attempt to achieve the same effect chemically. Drugs can be useful as training wheels; ideally we want to teach our systems to achieve the same effect naturally. Calm is the first step to balance, so we must learn to calm ourselves. Meditation, sleep and yoga offer the best methods for reliable self-soothing. First we assert calm over our breath, then our bodies, lastly our thoughts. It’s not that difficult! Reminder: this occurred naturally every night of our lives before we started stressing about it!

    Night Is the Leveler – Our species needs sleep to connect to the Universal Mind, and to the minds of all Dreamers, human and animal. Conscious dreaming (often called lucid dreaming) provides a trusted avenue to filter daily discoveries down to your subconscious level. Always have a joy to think about just as you are going to sleep, and another for when you are waking up. This will sharpen your connection with emotional ecstasy and deepen your life.Once our conscious is in harmony with our subconscious, our dreams will balance our waking life. Even the worst nightmare can be looked at objectively, as a story with potential significance.

    Models & Mentors – “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule but to schedule your priorities” – Stephen Covey

    “Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life” – Dolly Parton

    For everything there is a season,
        a time for every activity under heaven.
    A time to be born and a time to die.
        A time to plant and a time to harvest.
    A time to kill and a time to heal.
        A time to tear down and a time to build up.
    A time to cry and a time to laugh.
        A time to grieve and a time to dance.
    A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
        A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
    A time to search and a time to quit searching.
        A time to keep and a time to throw away.
    A time to tear and a time to mend.
        A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
    A time to love and a time to hate.
        A time for war and a time for peace. –  Ecclesiastes 3

    “Moderation in All Things” – Hesiod

    #Haiku: Stability

    Assert balance;

    Employ wealth of eternity

    Universal mind