Alysse Aallyn

Category: #GirlTalk

  • Butterfly Language for Caterpillars – Soulmate Seeking with Alysse Aallyn

    Firefly = FALSE LOVE “Bed & Breakfast”

    “Liars”

    The Firefly lights our dark with his luciferous magic. In some species it’s only the male, but in others both genders use this cool heat to signal to each other and we are all beneficiaries of their romantic opera.

    And it’s a complete drama with every plot twist you can think of; some fireflies impersonate desire only to attract and then kill the hopeful lover. Other fireflies deliberately use a poor impersonation to warn away competing lovers and decimate the field.

    If attacked, fireflies use “reflex bleeding” to literally poison predators with their blood. This last fact generates warnings never to feed fireflies to your hungry pet reptile! What are we to make of this mix of beauty, falsity and carnivorous intent? Fireflies may be beautiful impostors, but they are never to be envied. They exist only to mate, lay eggs and die. Some fireflies live lives without nourishment. They never even get the chance to dine.

    We are all attracted by fantasy. We each have or think we have – a list of “musts” and “deal-breakers.” Danger waits when we meet someone who actually matches all our specifications! Probably they are lying. Maybe you are, too. Possibly you didn’t even realize it until this moment.

    Maybe you want one thing on the page and another In Real Life. Maybe you want one thing in the dark and another in the light. Maybe you don’t know yourself very well! Lust hardens, love softens; how solve that essential inner/outer conflict? We need to melt – together – into a glorious plasticity that allows us to undertake the “experiment” of entering the life, desires, viewpoint of another.

    But this is only “safe” when goodwill and honorable attentions are present. If someone’s looking for a hostage, a slave, a mimic or even worse – prey – they will falsely claim anything to entice us. How can we tell the difference?

    Sometimes their presentation is TOO “good”. A “pediatric oncologist” who “volunteers at an animal shelter?” Really? Is the attraction a “problem-free” relationship without any of that scary sandpaper of conflict that molds our rough edges to fit together more harmoniously? Or is this attraction just “high-status” and “bragging rights”?

    As your grandmother warned, any salesman trying to hustle you into an instant decision is up to no good. Predators try to convince the young that by taking time to choose and trust we are ruining the experience! Don’t buy it! You’re getting smarter, and stronger by the minute! You’re within your rights –you owe it to yourself – to demand that deeds match words, and that intentions line up with performance.

    Allow yourself time to discover, evolve and revel. Live!

    BED & BREAKFAST

    “That wing of course is closed”
    said Magda whose venomous green eyeshadow
    matched her voice;
    “I’d have that lanced if I were you”
    thinks Reni
    Who never says exactly what she thinks.
    “Wrong word:  wing”
    Thinks Andreas
    “to use about a house tethered toad-like to the lawn”.
    But Andreas never says what he thinks either.
    It’s too late now.
    At dinner, they quarrel about Ezra Pound;
    Pretending to agree.
    Squeaky bedsprings bastardize this sad romance;
    Hopeless beds mandate sex is standing up.
    ( This butler may be deaf and dumb,
    But knew the best way out:
    He was in for the tip of a lifetime.)
    At breakfast the debate about Plath
    Turns violent; the biggest danger
    Of murdering yourself with a kitchen appliance is:
    They’re everywhere.
    Refreshing holiday, says Reni.
    We should do it more often says Andreas.
    Truth never spoken once.
    Mission accomplished.

  • The Language of Butterflies – Walking the Path of Attachment with Alysse Aallyn

    Creativity : “Harness your Uniqueness”

      When searching for your soulmate this is no time to “blend with the crowd.” You need to discover exactly who you are so you can seek your complementary and missing elements. If you are uncertain or mistaken about your essential self, you won’t even recognize The One. You will be guaranteed to choose a partner based on false considerations of status or appearance. This requires you stop hiding your true self and allow it to emerge. Easier said than done! Turns out we all have been babying the shyly unique aspects of ourselves that don’t win instant recognition from the crowd. Well, we are going to have to experiment with taking Baby out for daily strolls and develop a bit of muscle. Don’t worry if the “likes” fall away – you are not trying to appeal to everyone. The creativity card means you will need to become imaginative in how you present yourself. You want someone accepting? Be accepting. You want someone brave? Be brave. You want someone who looks deeper? Look deeper.

      Fire In the Dust

      In photographs
      The ladies scream or laugh
      It’s hard to tell
      Heads back they bare their
      Grief or joy or
      Agonized relief
      It’s hard to tell.
      All that remains of them
      Tattered icons growing ever dim.

      The fountains of our fear
      Leap high at first, like dancers
      Frozen at first burst
      Of freedom
      Paralyzed abreast
      The arc
      We cannot see
      What tortuous sign these fossils
      Meant to be.

      In that first winter
      We thought the earth was dead
      Statues mated
      Trees erupted dragonflies
      The angry lonely
      Sang and cried.
      Somewhere some fetus twists and jerks
      Convergence of dynastic quirks

      So drop the toxic cloak of bitter spite that
      Melts the flesh and terrorizes night –
      Waiting out a cycle’s sum
      Spinning down to kingdom come.
      For nothing vain, came nothing plain
      This world was born
      To live again.

    1. #DreamTherapy – DreamJournaling with Alysse Aallyn

      The Rose – Vulnerability – Do you have frequent nightmares? Do you feel helpless in your dreams? Do you dream of children, of your own childhood? In DreamTherapy, the rose represents the soft evanescence of youth when the merest thumbprint of emphasis leaves an eternal impression. As the emblem of beauty, the Rose warns us that this quivering, temporary vulnerability may be the very definition of value as of loveliness.

      We Remember – You well recollect how you were molded. Is it a pleasant nostalgic vision or a horror story? Do you resent all the other actors in this drama? Remember, resentment is a poison we consume – we are the only ones it harms.

      Challenge – Can you turn the building blocks of your own past into a constructive, hopeful framework for the future? Can you mentally accept and explore the beauty of maturity? Let’s open Dream Journal and sketch out the ways.

      Danger – The philosophy that we are “ruinable” is a psychic snare. Terrible things do happen to ordinary people and we can be changed forever; but that is growth. You don’t want to return to a previous incarnation. We may wish specific things hadn’t happened but must keep in mind that regret prevents us from focusing on future reality. We need to understand the world we’re in NOW and map it for those who follow after. Often we can offer our pattern to help others avoid the traps we fell into. In the meantime, we can access history and literature to explore coping mechanisms around disaster and the strong people it produces.

      Opportunity – Resilience is the art we cultivate. We soon realize resilience has its own beauty; one rose may be cut down but the plant is hardly dead, in fact it offers an outpouring of constant roses. That is true beauty.

      Models & Mentors – “Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity”

      • Brene Brown

      “Being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure”
      – Bob Marley

      “Sometimes you have to drop your guard so your heart can breathe”

      – Emma Xu

      “The strongest love is the love that can demonstrate its fragility” – Paulo Coelho

      Mantra – “I transplant”

      Meditation –

      #Haiku: Vulnerability

      Hardening’s spontaneous
      & painful;
      Softening’s practiced;
      & free.

    2. #DreamTherapy – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

      Solitude – Self-sufficiency –

        Dreaming of time alone? Fearing it, perhaps?  We are born into a cacophony of voices. It is vital that we carve out time to reflect on all that is happening to us and the part we play and want to play. Our dreams alone could fill a shelf of books – plus we need time to cultivate, curate and care for a daytime self. Sometimes we have other people to care for and relationships to manage. We need to learn how to be our own best friend.

        Your Mind Is Your Most Important Tool – Your mind determines your experience which controls your mind which develops your experience in a perfect feedback loop. In a culture based on “likes” from strangers we are all too ready to hand the reins of our brain over to God know who. Advertisers,influencers and partisans do NOT have your best interests at heart. We must learn how to develop that feedback loop into an upward trending spiral.

        Challenge – We are determined to develop self-confidence. We need to trust, not fear, our ownreactions. This takes practice – “reps” in the words of the physical trainers. There is no need for two weeks alone on the Appalachian Trail (nice as that would be) because we are already alone inside our heads. Open your Dream Journal and consider: Check your voices: what are you saying to yourself?“Good effort” or “Idiot”? It matters! Many of us treat ourselves worse than we would treat any otherhuman (or animal.) That changes today.

        Danger – We are not proposing a life without feedback or a divorce from reality. If you really were yourown best friend, you would protect, not exalt yourself. You would strategize towards health and sharing,not secrecy and isolation.

        Opportunity – find a voice you respect and admire to model your internal voice. Strategize with Dream Buddies. Can you check with this person that you are on the right path? We all need a life coach or acheerleader in our corner. 

        Learn to enjoy time alone by building in rewards – indulging in nourishinghobbies as simple as walking and reading. You don’t need rocket science, you need a healthful day today peaceful retreat inside your own head.

        Models & Mentors – “Loneliness is the poverty of self – Solitude is the richness of self.” – May Sarton

        “The happiest of all lives is a busy solitude”  – Voltaire

        “Solitude is necessary for creativity” – Picasso

        “The best thinking is done in solitude” – Thomas Edison

        Mantra: “I am enough”

        Meditation –

        #Haiku: Solitude – Self-Sufficiency

        Plaited rhyme of

        Past and future voices

        Advise, protect

        Entertain

      1. Dream Group – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

        REGRET – Many anxiety dreams are about regret.  When we try to impartially study our dream content, the moods flood in, rocking our precarious stability.  Why are people so afraid of lookinginside? Because of Regret, that’s why. The things we’ve already done that we can never change. Seemingly hopeless sorrow builds – now we are helpless, we hate ourselves and we can’t fix anything. We are in for a bad, cold, frigid winter of discontent.

          YOU CAN LIGHTEN YOUR OWN LOAD – No one can do it but you. When you serve as prosecutorin your own life – guess what? – that’s not fair. Fundamental Attribution Error is people blamingindividuals for actions that were the result of systems; mass decisions or circumstances over which theyhad no actual control. Look into it, if you want to. (Sometimes we need to.) Or you can just forgive yourself and move on. After all, we’ve got the future to think of.

          CHALLENGE – Let’s get out our Dream Journal. What would you change NOW? How doyou WANT to change? Forgive yourself. You were held hostage by fortune (we all were)and you went full-on Stockholm Syndrome and identified with your attackers and tried toplease them. (We all did. It’s called Society.) Now you’re madder at yourself than you areat them. Forgive yourself. We’re starting a new life. One where it’s US who’s in charge.

          DANGER – You’re in another part of the forest. Surprise! This wasn’t the plan but here you are. TheDanger is always that you’ll give up. Surrender. Don’t. You can easily see from every fairy tale andhero’s journey you’ve ever studied that now we’re getting to the Good Part. By testing your muscle, youGROW your muscle. If your muscle is never tested, it withers. So let’s go!

          OPPORTUNITY – We don’t know everything. Even Jesus demonstrated surprise about the way thingsturned out. Be gentle as a dove, he advised, but wily as a serpent. Serpents can get out of anything. (Aska herpetologist.) And so can you. It’s just a bigger world than we knew – both inner and outer – so getmapping. I guarantee you – IT GETS BETTER.

          Models & Mentors –  “I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than the things I haven’t done.”

          – Lucille Ball

          “There are no regrets in life, only lessons.” – Jennifer Aniston

          “We have only one life, and the second life begins the moment we realize that fact” – Confucius

          “I was designed by my Creator to not only feel pain and love but to become whole inside it. I am a Warrior” –Glennon Doyle

          “Autumn, the year’s last, loveliest smile” – William Cullen Bryant

          MEDITATION –

          #Haiku: Regret

          Coulda

          Woulda

          Shoulda

          Didn’t. Now you

          Wish

          Things

          Different.

          Clean slate.

          Write.

        1. Dream Group – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

          DREAM CONTENT – RELAX – Take a deep breath as you face the content of your dreams.  

            YOU HAVE INNER RESOURCES – FOCUS your power by closing your eyes and – relaxing. Are youafraid you might fall asleep? So much the better – we need these dreams to be our map and guide.Dreaming of hot summers, beach, umbrellas, ocean, sand? You are longing for a “getaway” and the verybest and most refreshing vacation is to disappear inside yourself. Let’s learn to “see” with that Third Eye– the Wisdom Eye. Like every effort, it takes not just concentration but practice.

            DREAMS OF REAL EVENTS –  Is your brain flipping through its memories, disguising them, trying to make sense of them or imagining horrific detours? These are anxiety dreams. You fear that the causality of existence is basically nonsensical and cruel. The cure? Develop a “human flourishing” worldview. Use your models and mentors to investigate the requirements of life enhancement. What about love? When your dreams fear it doesn’t exist, you need to develop loving relationships in your daytime life.

            DREAMS OF FICTIONAL EVENTS – Are you trying to process fiction read about and seen (often dystopian). Your shy heart is shocked to its core and your inexperienced brain is trying to make sense of it. But we know much online fiction is a race to the bottom, trying again and again to go over the top.

            PRACTICE SELF-CARE – Prioritize your well-being. If you spend four hours a day watching or playing nonsensical vitriolic junk, you should spend equal time on your improvement and self-soothing regimens. Think of it. EQUAL TIME. Obviously you need to start developing self-care regimens that are way more pleasurable than passive viewing.

            CHALLENGE – Check your immortal soul. Don’t think you have one? No wonder you’re scared, if you reduce yourself to chaff like yesterday’s lawn clippings!  You are certainly aware that all of human history has been devoted to exploring whether we have souls, where they come from and what happens to them. Probably you like – everyone –  is turned off by the idea that in order to have a soul you need to follow some religion’s requirements, laid down for you by its boss.

            But seriously, think about it. If part of yourself is immortal, with supernatural capabilities, doesn’t it, by definition, exist OUTSIDE all that stuff? Who put them in charge? If your immortal soul is the freest part of you, set it free indeed.  Use your imagination to imagine THOSE possibilities, instead of scaring yourself almost to death. And then – relax. 

            Inside yourself is you find everyone you have ever known, everyone you have ever loved, is there. Ifthat’s a tough one – and I know it’s making you gulp – here’s one tougher – everyone you ever WILLknow is in there too. You can learn to reach forwards as well as back. No, it doesn’t come immediately. But the exciting news is – you have all the time in the world.

            DANGER – You fear you will lose yourself. The worst fear is that you have no self to lose. You areyoung at this, and fresh, naïve and simple. A beginner. Accept that power. It is a wonderful thing whenthe baby begins to see. But what about Evil?  Isn’t that a thing? If I have Everything inside, then don’t Ihave Evil, too. And the mystic answer is Yes. But it can’t hurt you if you don the armor. The armor isLove, and I recommend you begin to study the subject. It isn’t strong enough yet, but you can strengthenit by Will. You must educate your will.

            OPPORTUNITY – You realize now that our dreams are forcing a choice – it really comes down to thatone thing – you must choose between Evil or Love. Evil promises it will “get the job done”, it will offer“special” unique opportunities, single you out for goodies, bring you hostages and slaves. But here’s theFact about Evil – it breaks all its promises because IT BREAKS YOU. Love promises Eternity and Joy,and it takes effort. It takes discernment, knowledge, commitment and growth. Love asks you to enter aprocess. Evil says you can just “take”, or even lie inert and be showered with benefits. One choice makes you beautiful, an athlete of the Soul, the other makes you hideously ugly, a blot that sucks in lightand depresses all who look at it.  Will you make mistakes? Inevitably. But we have been assured by the greatest minds of all time that we cannot lose. So, relax. 

            Models & Mentors: “Everything you want is on the other side of fear” – Jack Canfield

            “What you think, you become. What you feel, you attract. What you imagine, you become” – Buddha

            “You can’t stop the waves but you can learn how to surf” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

            “It takes courage to say yes to rest and play in a world where exhaustion is a status symbol” – Brene Brown

            ‘You are the silent watcher of your thoughts. You are the stillness beneath the mental noise. You are the joy beneath the love and pain” – Eckhart Tolle

          1. Becoming a Goddess – the Goddess Oracle by Alysse Aallyn

            Crystal Goddess – Prophecy –

            The future weighs on The Crystal Goddess, and she will not be found wanting – 

            The Number One question people have about dreams is, Are they prophetic? And the answer is of course YES. The Crystal Goddess knows the “truth’.  She knows many truths. Others may fear the truth.  People don’t want to face the truth. The continuing “losses” of age present as accretions that are hard to see. 

            But The Crystal Goddess Sees. She is an Artist, and art – especially good art – is as mysterious, meaningful and forceful as any living thing. It is predictive and presumptive. It changes as you change, and it changes depending on who is looking and how they look.

            Goddesses Understand Truth, Goddesses Accept Revelation – Visions tell us when to be afraid, Dreams warn when something is missing, Reverie uncovers all the secrets we keep from ourselves, Meditation forges pathways, Imagination rockets us heavenwards.  If the first obligation is that the truth is a predisposition of freedom,  the second, equally terrifying, is that truth is the lens of history. Goddesses spurn the hiding, lying, misrepresentation, that substitutes for truth.

            Goddess Can Handle Truth – We are human, we are imperfect, and we need each other. Humans require governance and law to regulate our natural blindness and selfishness (which some would call original sin) into peaceful, productive accord. The truth is also that humans who lust only for power will eternally angle to get themselves into positions of control, exclusion and punishment. These impulses must be identified and weeded out and it is courageous, difficult, and really unwelcome work, because we creative, loving, generous goddesses also have our own lives to live.

            Goddess Danger – Intuition notifies us when one of these lethal persons is in our midst. Maps & models offer a variety of plans for confrontation and escape, and a recipe for courage. At the time of writing, Lethal Persons are banding together and hoarding weapons to give themselves even more guarantees for power and more opportunities to enjoy our despair.

            Goddess Promise – Jesus said evil will not win. The challenge is to explore what ELSE he said, indeed, what is the message of all the great teachers? People who tell you to hate one another and seek reasons for war are agents of evil. The first challenge is to create peace in our own hearts, peace in our own lives, peace in our own homes, and then start developing compassion for those who are not so lucky.

            When Brutal Tactics and Empty Promises are Exposed as family destroyers, peace destroyers and community destroyers, we see clearly that efforts to spread and share despair come from a desire to surmount despair, also that it has never worked and is not working.  It allows the torturer the briefest respite. Only when the goal of increasing world suffering is given up can we welcome penitents back into the community of Sharing.

            Models & Mentors – “We write the future moment to moment” – Pema Chodron

            “The best prophets lead you up to the curtain and leave you to peer through for yourself” – Frank Herbert

            “The greatest thing a human soul can accomplish in this world is to see that poetry, prophecy & religion all are one”

            – John Ruskin

            “The best way to predict the future is to create it”

            – Abraham Lincoln

            “Yesterday has gone, tomorrow has not come, let us begin” – Mother Teresa

            #Haiku:  Prophecy

            Inward

            Resonates outward;

            Goddesses

            Blossom

            Inevitably

          2. Becoming a Goddess – the Goddess Oracle by Alysse Aallyn

            Labyrinth Goddess – Complexity –

            This Goddess Surfs Multi-Worlds – Is anyone’s brain’s labyrinth powerful enough to solve the universe’s complexity? Each of us experiences slow-growing difficulties just heaving from infancy into psychic awareness. How are we going to figure out the space-time continuum? To tackle these vast problems we have to get some sense of their dimensions.

            Goddesses Dream of the Impossible – Last night I dreamed of being at a resort where people were able to run across the top of the ocean playing a curling game – but they had to move fast. I couldn’t figure out what kept their feet above the waves. Later it was my job to provide lunch but the food at the little store was appalling. Very little bread, all stale – some weird canned vegetables, no protein other than some very suspect cheese. Impossible food! I was so relieved to wake up!

            Don’t Try This Alone – Life is very complex. We are bombarded with daily reminders that many of its problems are too big for our tiny brains to tackle alone. We need help deconstructing and deciphering the maze – we require the assistance of legions of engineers, mathematicians, philosophers and artists – living and dead. Our mythic history is nothing but re-runs of: Tiny Human Confronts Huge Universe.

            Is Your God Too Small? – We have a regrettable tendency to try to solve problems by reducing them to the size of our individual brains. Don’t. There’s no shame in admitting the problem is of awe-inspiring size; there’s no shame in requesting help. But the concept of God must be of something mightier than ourselves, our problems, even bigger than space and time.

            Goddesses Are Puzzle Solvers – There is a way out of this labyrinth. You can follow string, leave breadcrumbs, mark walls, climb higher to get a birds’ eye view. You can call in a favor, study history, learn a skill, consult experts, request advice, find out what’s worked in the past. My favorite cartoon shows a goat calmly eating his way through maze walls. The key, problem solvers tell you, is not to panic. Whole years of primary education are devoted to getting you to sit down, breathe calmly and focus on the problem. Remember what you have been taught. Recall your goals.

            Goddess Challenge – It is not necessary to solve the entire problem to solve a problem. Even a blind rat can get through a maze one step at a time. Algebra came into being to manipulate unknowns. Guessing at the existence of x using the behavior of surrounding particles allows us to see without eyes. Many “hacks” are clever, and certain innovators have a gift for adaptation and reconfiguration. We can always use help. We can always form teams. Repeat after me: “All my problems have some solution.” Often the solution is viewing the “problem” differently. Maybe it isn’t a problem. Maybe it’s an opportunity.

            Goddess Danger – Primary dangers are panic (inability to think) and defeatist thinking (lack of imagination). The lovely movie The Martian shows a scientist literally conquering the impossible. If you ”give up”, you never get there, but retreat, reconstitution, changing training regimens and getting help are NOT giving up.  Promoting your physical health and “Sleeping on it” are always good advice, as is viewing the difficulty from some other angle or changing the definitions of the entities considered.

            Goddess Opportunity – Key to success is fostering excitement about challenges. Our high school used to dump couples in the countryside at night and give a prize to the first couple who found their way home! (Following roads and train tracks always a good idea.) Scavenger hunts and orienteering cover much the same territory. The fact that a problem is difficult only makes it more fun. Ask chess players.

            Models & Mentors – “The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity”

            – Douglas Horton

            “The labyrinth combines walking and thinking to open your power of imaginative perception” – Lauren Artress

            “Willingness to be puzzled is a valuable trait to cultivate” – Noam Chomsky

            “In a maze, find the center, in a labyrinth, find yourself” – Alysse Aallyn

            “Life is a puzzle, missing pieces guaranteed and you can’t cheat and look at the box” – Anonymous

            #Haiku: Every Book is a Zen Book

            Puzzle

            Words –

            Assume

            Solution  –

            Labyrinths

            Demand

            Escape;

            Look

            Up

          3. Becoming a Goddess – the Goddess Oracle by Alysse Aallyn

            Wandering Goddess – Dispossession –

            Are You the Goddess Who Can’t Settle Down? – Some goddesses never settle on a place, an identity, or even an idea. They roam restlessly, but not in a peaceful way. We would say they are goddesses of War, except that not even battle – not even decisive wins, can settle them.

            You’re Boiling Inside. – You’re so mad you can’t think straight. You had something and now it’s gone – now you have less you ARE less. Some thief is waging subtle war against you. The fact that you stole the thing originally and you’re a thief too isn’t making you any happier. You were supposed to get this thing, you were in line for it, and now all bets are off.

            Wandering Goddesses Are Escaping the Past – Take your time. You have all of eternity to figure this out. The only reason to put an end to your restless raging is to cease your suffering.

            Are You Suffering? – Make up your mind. Maybe you’re just blowing off steam. Maybe you’re a traveler, you love to wander, and you just needed an excuse. What needs to stop is feeling “not right” in your soul. Because it’s a perquisite of Goddess-hood to be in tune with the universe.

            Broken Dreams – Probably you need to forgive yourself, because forgiving others is just too difficult. Consider the past as Boot Camp. Now you are a goddess. Maybe relaxation doesn’t sound fun to you, but on the other hand, you should never disparage yourself. We all not only make mistakes, we require mistakes to be the foundation of our Mature Selves.

            If Property Is Theft, then We’re all Thieves – What exactly is this lost paradise? A Goddess doesn’t really need “things”, adulation, or even other people. Look out further, to the real paradise, the one you’re earning my understanding the universe. You’ve been through a fire – congratulations. It made you a Goddess.

            Only Goddesses Are Truly Free – Naked without even the clothes we stand up in we are bathed in the love of the universe. Allow yourself to feel it, fill you, enlighten you. Do you hear it? When you slow down, you can finally hear the music of the spheres. 

            Goddesses own nothing. We are not interested in acquiring burdens but in freeing the human psyche of its burdens. To do that, we must first free ourselves.

            Don’t Chain Yourself to a Nightmare– There is much talk nowadays that “the American Dream” is no longer possible. Very relevant to our study of Goddess Oracle! Dreams are our specialty!  But what was that “dream”, exactly? It was a mystical concept of “wholeness” – family, life, work, rewards – that always shifted according to who you are and from where you are looking.

            Once You are Part of a “Team” – even if just a team of two – the look can change dramatically. Is that a loss or a gain? Depends on what you see as value, and what as “hoarding”? We know if we eat more than our cells can burn we get fat, and that if we eat too much too fast we will choke. How can we slip psychically through this physically demanding life, light as feathers, bright as sunlight, strong as fire, without acquiring accretions – barnacles – that slow us and defeat us?

            By Becoming Goddess, That’s How! We no longer fill our tombs with the junk of real life for use in the Great Beyond, “terra cotta servants” who will “wake” to wait on us hand and foot. We are always required to satisfy ourselves with strictly “mental” pictures. Is the detachment of elder-hood a triumph of success or a long wail of departure?

            You Can’t Take It with You and You Don’t Want To – Not if you expect to fly! The “de-cluttering” movement did us all an enormous favor. Marie Kondo asked us to rid ourselves of every object that does not “spark joy”. That’s a high standard! We soon discover that daily life stirs up a lot of “necessary” detritus that sparks joy in literally no one but is a misery to live without. Probably the best way to free ourselves is to challenge the entitlement mystique with sharing.

            Goddess Danger – The whole principle of capitalism is to benefit from the work of others. It doesn’t take much imagination to see the grievances THAT can stir up. And yet “state” ownership churns up grievances of its own. Ownership itself is fraught with exclusion, hostility, and danger. The nature of the Goddess is to “Be” rather than to “own”. Can we still enjoy the world if it doesn’t belong to us and we don’t belong to it? Goddesses say Yes!

            Goddess Challenge – Do we possess objects when we are not physically present? Can we ever possess people? Do we WANT to take responsibility for another’s entire existence?  How do our dreams of freedom comport with our dreams of possession? Who – or what – is held captive? Goddesses deliberately free ourselves – mentally and spiritually – but this is a commitment that must be refreshed daily due to the temporal demands of our physical existence. That means goddesses forgive ourselves daily. Just to keep in practice!

            Being a Goddess Means Acknowledging Wounds are a condition of life.  Goddess come to terms with their wounds, evaluating them, celebrating them (often giving thanks for them), creating conceptual at projects about them and strategizing around them.

            Many Wounds come from happenstance, birth order, parental crises, national dilemmas, international catastrophes. We’re all pushed out of the nest before we’re ready.

            Models & Mentors –  “The more stuff I donated the more I was able to breathe, the more trash I threw away, the more weight I felt was lifted, the more I was able to see a new life, the more joy I found” – Zina Harrington

            “Clutter is postponed decisions” – Barbara Hemphill

            “Life is your masterpiece. Edit frequently and ruthlessly” – Nathan W. Morris

            “To the spoils belong the victor” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

            “Freedom is the oxygen of the soul” – Moshe Dayan

            #Haiku: The Thief

            If

            Property’s theft:

            My greed’s your crime

            I consume –

            Disperse –

            Your evidence.

          4. Becoming a Goddess – the Goddess Oracle by Alysse Aallyn

            Lotus Goddess – Healing Rituals –

            The Goddess’s Greatest Gifts – Do you dream of restoration, of nostalgia, of lost youth? Magic? Let the healing begin.

            Goddesses Believe in Magic Because They Have Seen It – It’s a magical world, where flowers push upwards through cement, the wounded rise and entanglement theory alchemizes quantum computation. Bravely, we put ourselves in the way of harm, and harm is done to us. But we believe in the magic of perfecting through transformation. These scars, these wounds, these experiences make us smarter, harder, brighter and as beautiful as the universe itself.

            Understand the Meaning of Your Scars – These are life’s tattoos, which have ennobled you. It is your honor to embody the story of the universe with your blood and your bone. But It is the Goddess’s Brain that brings us closest to God. The mystery of suffering is that it educates us into the greatest mystery of all –that God is willing to suffer with us because Love means holding each other through pain and infusing our strength into another’s sadness.

            Bow To Each Other – Show Respect –  We are each other’s masters, we are each other’s pupils, we are each other’s lovers, siblings and rescuers. Drinking healing ginger tea from a  translucent porcelain chalice, we lift our cups to one another. We bathe together in steaming pools. I release you as you release me. When darkness falls, we touch one another’s hands before departing. To fulfill our yearning, we may blend bodies.

            Goddesses Recognize That We Cannot Diagnose Ourselves – We offer ourselves for the universe’s good and so it takes a world to cure us. Healing and diagnosis alike will come from the welcome lips of another. It has been scientifically proven that even plants respond to kind words. We yearn for the laying on of hands, for the gentle rituals that pass us from one stage of life to another.

            Goddess Challenge – Paradoxically, no “medicine” can succeed unless we “accept” our healing spiritually. We must feel “worthy” of restoration, deserving of transformation.  What truth do we embody?  Think deeply. We are not self-punishing but state as clearly as we can that life is valuable in all its forms. If you are only as “young” as you feel, are we only as “healthy” as we allow ourselves to be? Forgive yourself. Accept change. Contrary to our fears, it is change that keeps us young.

            Goddess Danger – Healing cannot occur in an atmosphere of self-hatred and self-blame, but many of us are STILL “blaming” ourselves (and others!) for twists of fate, for unlucky genetic, social and medical outcomes. “Fundamental attribution error” consists of blaming individuals for group effects. We are all caught up in the machinery of temporality. Never forget that we are souls who happen to have bodies, not bodies who happen to have souls.

            Goddess Opportunity – “Restoration” is such a glorious promise that early Christians found themselves ensnared in decades of argument about PHYSICAL resurrection. How would it work in cases of burning and dismemberment, exactly? It is easy to laugh at these painfully ridiculous theological conflicts.  One is reminded of St. Joan of Arc’s response to interrogators at her trial who asked if angels appeared to her naked – “Do you think God cannot afford to clothe his angels?” Accept the power accorded to you by the universe. Accept the strength of your own mind, the control given by your chosen attitude. Healing is not just possible, it is a life-force in which we can all participate. Jesus came as a healer.

            Models & Mentors – “Healing yourself is connected with healing others”

            – Yoko Ono

            “What happens when people open their hearts?  They get better.”

            – Haruki Murakami

            Your body cannot heal without play. Your mind cannot heal without laughter. Your soul cannot heal without joy.”~ Catherine Rippinger Fenwick

            “We are healed of suffering only if we experience it to the full – Marcel Proust

            “Maybe the dragons in our lives are princesses”

            – Rainer Maria Rilke

            #Haiku: I Don’t Know

            Admit ignorance

            No shame –

            It’s healthy –

            Empty glass

            Asks for water