Flourish – Singularity – Do you dream of feeling alone in a crowd? Are you always walking in a different direction? Do you feel ganged up on, bullied? “Flourish” represents all that Uniqueness out there that is needing its own space, and because there are so many of us, there is a lot of singularity! If you doubt it, consider the humble snowflake.
Be Proud of Your Specialness – Humans are civilized into groups, but society advances on its singletons, so even if you never do anything about it, honor the ways in which you are different. List them in your Dream Journal. Respect your own uniqueness and don’t allow others to shame you for it. The world needs you.
Challenge – We spend a lot of time accommodating other people and trying to figure out how to get along with them. How about figuring out your own extraordinariness and imaging ways and how to accommodate that?
Danger – Narcissism is a real danger in our society. People are encouraged to perform, push themselves forward and try to harvest as many “likes” from absolute strangers as their outrageousness possibly can. Honoring your uniqueness begins in absolute privacy as you contemplate your real self and the last time you expressed it. Could be quite long ago!
Opportunity – It’s never too late to change direction, especially when you find out you’ve been traveling the wrong way. What would it mean if you did things your way, for once?
Models & Mentors – “What sets you apart can feel like a burden, but it’s what makes you great” – Emma Stone
“If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be” – Maya Angelou
“Always remember you are absolutely unique, just like everyone else” – Margaret Mead
“Be yourself – everyone else is already taken” – Oscar Wilde
Mantra – “I flourish”
Meditation –
#Haiku: Singularity
There’s only one of me; I’m the one That got away – Blink: You missed me.
Beauty – Are your dreams so beautiful you regret waking up? Do you dream of possessing great beauty yourself, caressing gorgeous flesh, or having a gorgeous lover turn diamond eyes upon 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.
You Don’t Know How Beautiful You Are – We never do. People who think they are beautiful are trapped into fetishizing the ephemeral, which everyone knows is mysterious and evanescent, just like wildflowers. But there is a beauty that lasts forever and training oneself to recognize it fills our lives to overflowing with constant pleasure. 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 utility truck, a book of cave paintings, the swirl in our coffee, old photographs, our beloved’s sleepy morning face – once you start collecting a list you realize beauty is all around you. Open your Dream Journal and lose yourself in the pleasures of making a list.
Challenge – Take joy in your surroundings. Cultivate your own pleasure in the beautiful. Marie Kondo became famous for having few possessions and arranging them like jewels. Clutter is frustrating for the brain. We love sharing beautiful pictures, but momentarily “beautiful” people have taken to hogging the space. The more difficult it is to take a seemingly “perfect” picture with filters and Photoshop, the more they treasure it. Be discriminating. Think of the wildflower. Is all this fakery the path of joy or depression?
Danger – We soon find ourselves in a frenzy of “likes”. A “like” button can have a plethora of meanings, but we don’t care, we need likes the way a drunk needs booze. Otherwise we’re nothing. Possible approval from strangers – or at least momentary attention – how needy can you get? The quiet joy of certain pleasure inside your own head as you follow your bliss – “I restore old cars” and share them with loved ones – “This is what I’m working on” – is lasting pleasure.
Opportunity – Artists teach us to appreciate new beauty. Incredible as it may seem, the magical paintings of the Impressionists were first seen as offensively ugly. Lady Gaga, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, all are educators of our eye. We can become appreciative not just “ahead of the wave” but of the past – African masks, Egyptian art, illuminated manuscripts all possess a special beauty. Not only are we learning to love our past and hope for our future, we are beginning to see the natural beauty in ourselves – learning to appreciate the splendid gifts we have each been given.
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
Art – Do you dream of artistic products – paintings, sculpture, film – or artistic endeavors such as performance and construction? Do you get ideas for fresh pieces and experience nonconformist thinking that seem to evaporate upon waking? Art is our poetic confrontation with the world, it is also our prime avenue for non-verbal healing. Only non-verbal healing can address pain we can’t even quantify. Your inner self is signaling to you that it is time for you to access another language – art – become expert in its terms, and start inventing some of your own. Only art can establish the connection with others required to nourish you now.
You Are An Artist – 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.
Challenge – 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.
Danger – This exploration 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 the only danger here because we bully ourselves worse than they could ever do. Constantly shaming yourself as a no-talent, pretending poseur is horrifyingly destructive to our precious infant specialness struggling for life. Make a resolution to start supporting yourself. 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.
Opportunity – Open your Dream Journal. If you familiarize yourself with the lives of artists you will instantly see MESS EVERYWHERE. For the purposes of confidence building, the disastrous misfires among artists you admire the more helps you respect your own efforts and forgive your failures. Astonishing talent does exist – we learn less from these natural geniuses, much as we admire them, and more from artists who seem more in tune with our own two steps forward, four steps back methods of composition. We are trying to build the confidence to experiment. You don’t have to call yourself “an artist” if that’s too intimidating (most of us have day jobs) – you can say you’re “communing with yourself on a psychic level, and learning the language to interact with others more deeply. Because you are. It enormously enhances our pleasure in day to day existence!
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
Mantra – “I create”
Meditation –
Haiku: In the Art Monastery
Silence blooms; bold Heart plunges Deep; Dares blood; Mind annexes Sun Births Moons
Ambisextrous – Do you dream of being the “opposite” sex? IS there an opposite sex? Are these threatening dreams or pleasurable ones? Do you dream of the fetish trophies of gender; makeup, wigs, shoes, sports equipment? Do you have frequent “freedom” dreams: flying, swimming? Wake up damp, pulses pounding? Sometimes we want to be our own romantic partner, the subject of a lifelong pursuit. This is nothing but the honorable, deep desire to truly know oneself, to master our selfhood before we leave the planet. C.S. Lewis says we are not a body with a soul, we are a Soul with a body.
Remember – In the Dream, you are everyone. In dreams we confront ourselves, we challenge ourselves, we evolve ourselves. Write in your Dream Journal what it would be like to be your own opposite, your own Desire.
Challenge – Woody Allen says bisexuality doubles your chances to get a date on Saturday night. Anything wrong with that? Nobody should force themselves to perform sexually; it is important at all times to move as slowly as you feel comfortable with. The sexual revolution was a lot of fun, but it was spoiled for many people by a witless prejudice against “hang-ups.” Revulsion 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 a “gift.” Honor it.
Danger – Most “bad sex” stories when one sex disappoints or violates the other, start with substance abuse, undertaken with a nervous desire to get into a more relaxed or even transcendental state. All it actually does is skip over the “informed consent” part 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 an shame take a life time to deal with. These facts mean we need to 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.
Opportunity – Fresh interpretations of gender make this a glorious time to be alive. I can recall when gender was a prison sentence! Now it is an invitation to live more fully, to experience oneself and others more richly, to participate in that fruitful life of which we all dream.
Mantra – “I become”
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
Meditation –
#Haiku – Ambisextrous
Ambisexuality: Joyously roused; By beauty Everywhere
The Firefly – False Love – Do you dream of masked balls? Betrayals? Loved and known faces turning demonic? People becoming animals? Mazes and puzzles that melt and change?
Learn to understand these terms: Narcissism, Narcissistic Personality Disorder – Covert and Overt; Love Bombing, Traumatic Bonding, Gaslighting, Projections, DARVO, Emotional Abuse and Emotional Empathy. Write these down in your Dream Journal. They are important.
You Will Be Offered False Love at some point in your life (for some people, it’s at birth.) Something in you will recognize this, but your conscious self desperately resists this knowledge. Dreams, however, are The Great Revealer. Narcissists Lack Empathy. They may be sadistic as a result of their own trauma bonding experiences, but that makes them no less dangerous. They long to kill your innocence and joy to compensate for their lack of these treasured emotions.
The Firefly is not the only creature using illusion for the purposes of seduction. Seduction is Love-Bombing. They hop to addict you so that you will stay throughout the coming Bad Times, arguing, bargaining, placating and Trying to Figure Out What Went Wrong. This is emotional abuse.
False Lovers lives in a shifting Potemkin Village of mirrors. This is gaslighting. Narcissists are uninterested in the truth, they are only interested in manipulation; what they can make you do. The main thing they hope to achieve is shifting responsibility for their hopes and needs entirely onto you.
They, on the other hand, are not responsible for any damage done to you (and if they have their Way, much will be.) This is entirely “your own fault.”
Projection is the narcissistic claim that others are seeking to destroy them. Guess who’s REALLY seeking to destroy whom? Projection enables DARVO.
DARVO – Deny: Lies and fabrications follow any confronting. Attack: They claim it’s you who is at fault. Brings up something from the past as well to try and show you evidence that you are to blame for their abuse towards you. Reverse Victim and Offender: Says that they have been victimized by you, YOU are the abuser, YOU are the narcissist.
Challenge – Don’t feel sorry for yourself. God put us on this earth to harden Love Warriors for Heaven. You need to know what evil lurks in human hearts, how to recognize, confront and destroy. 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 improves our game.
We realize we are part of a very complex universe where wings disguise themselves as eyes and flowers are chameleons. Stay alert. Realize you are energy. Realize others wish to capture your energy and use it for their own fuel. Get smart.
Danger – Don’t become a False Lover yourself. Their options are far too restricted. Humans are more than energy. Real Empathy allow us to live multiple lives – to become Immortal like God Herself. Love is more than fuel, it is living water as well as unquenchable fire. It is more than worthwhile 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 of You, slick and fat, lying sluggish at the bottom of the Universe. We are commanded to Rise, and so we will.
Opportunity – 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
Mantra – “I rise”
Meditation –
Haiku: The Firefly – False Love
Glitter is Hypnotic: Brain freezes Heartbeat slows Wallet Disappears
Creator GoddessesAre Surrounded by Magical Possibilities. Are you dreaming of eternal bliss? Floating in connectedness? In Creation the boundaries of the other disappear in growth perfection. Obeying the call to flourish is the only commandment. Goddesses merge fearlessly, knowing you will be able to get yourself back any time, soothed, improved, and healed.
Creation Goddesses Love – Love is the spirit that animates the empty spaces between humans. Once charged, these spaces become a powerful force for human enhancement – uncharged they are so much dead air. This is the space that goddesses protect. Love is the longing to be truly alive and to share life with the Blissed, Blessed Others.
Our Yearning Defines and Connects Us – As children we thought we knew the meaning of life but it seems we have forgotten. As goddesses we fight for our ancestral memories of trust and closeness. How we long to be reminded of the ecstasy of selflessness, to re-experience the borderlessness between creatures that makes the dead universe come alive.
Love Is The Creator’s Armor – It’s a spiral, our labyrinth, remember? We can’t go back, we can only go forward. We practice techniques and invent others as we design and redesign purposeful maps in a threatening and uncertain world. We have the collective confidence of all the brilliance of the goddess who came before us. Someone loved us once, eternalizing the golden moment, now we can re-create and perpetuate that magic.
Goddess Danger – Danger lies in narrowing, exclusionary definitions. Answering the mandate of Creation, Love must ever open outwards. As soon as we turn Love into a zero-sum game with a shut-off valve focused on our own gratification, Love dies.
Goddess Opportunity – The possibilities of a goddess are endless because we have chosen, in our flexibility and understanding, to be endless. Close your eyes and assume yoga’s starfish pose. We are open to what the universe longs to teach and once we commit to pass it on, we form an unbreakable chain, free at last from the bonds of selfishness. Clasp the hand (or paw) that generously, trustingly takes hold of yours. Let’s venture forth together.
Models & Mentors – ‘to love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides”
– David Viscott
“Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get, only what you are expecting to give, which is everything” – Katherine Hepburn
“Love gives you a piece of your soul you never knew was missing” – Torquato Tasso
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 Youand 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
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
Goddesses Generate Mystery – Do you dream of apocalypses? Religious iconography? Are you a mystery fan but irritated and underwhelmed by most “solutions”? You may have the makings of a Goddess!
Goddesses Tolerate Uncertainty – Do you have faith that there IS a solution? What is your tolerance for the mysterious? Goddesses always crank it up a notch. How much uncertainty can you tolerate? Are you afraid of the dark? Chronically underslept? Fear being alone? Perhaps you need to explore the meaning of faith in your life.
The Faithful Seek Ultimate Reward – Untrusting people are untrusted. George Bernard Shaw said it best: liars can’t believe anybody. In spite of this simple fact, we rush to trust where it isn’t warranted, guaranteeing a cycle of disappointment, yearning and dashed hope that drives our mood still lower. Who do Goddesses rely on? How can we find them?
“People Don’t Remember What You Said, They Remember How You Made Them Feel.” Recall your childhood – the people you loved and trusted and the people you were scared of and nervous about. You were developing a “gut instinct.” Who were the friends that stayed with you in the face of adversity and who were the ones who dropped away?
Love Always Makes the Difference. It is the magic salve that soothes and heals life’s inevitable bumps and scrapes. People who offer real love you can have faith in, people who offer something else – status, belonging, self-serving rationales – disappoint us. Faith gets stronger the more it is proved. We may hope for a good day, but we have faith that the sun will come up.
Goddesses Trust in the Worthy -– Sometimes the mysteries of life are deliberate confusions to keep us confused. Why can’t our politicians ever inaugurate the policies that are the reason we elected them in the first place? They try to convince us that “secret cabals” and “unknown enemies” are at fault. They want us angry and befuddled so we won’t place the blame where it belongs and demand accountability. Secrecy serves the purposes of darkness. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.
Goddesses Demand Transparency & Accountability. You are worthy! Outline your beliefs and begin to act on them. Some mystery is endemic to existence but when people sharply change direction we can still track their path. Less smoke and mirrors and more step by step upgrades are something we can all agree on.
Goddesses Grow in the Level of Mystery we can Absorb. Algebra has logical answers, quantum theory does not. We solve the puzzles that mystified us as children and keep solving until we come to the puzzles no one can solve. But we keep trying! The limits and un-limits of physics and space are constantly being mapped. We are not content with the label “here be dragons” placed across the unknown. We no longer believe the universe resents and punishes exploration, science and development. A vaccine was developed against a mystery illness in just one year.
No Hope Without Faith – Insoluble mysteries often concern motivation – the spring-work of the soul. Why do we make ourselves miserable? Artists teach us that these questions can be “solved” by posing them differently. Depth psychologists tell us that the shallow reasoning of our surface mind is far less important than deep memories and drives we can uncover through emotional and analytic spelunking. Goddess love mysteries. Develop faith. Never give up.
Models & Mentors – “Faith is taking the first step when you don’t see the whole staircase” – Martin Luther King Jr.
“Stay awake, stand firm in your faith, be brave, be strong.” – 1 Corinthians 16:13
“Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there till some light returns” – Anne LaMott
“If we fight with faith, we are twice armed” – Plato
Goddesses access Inner Wisdom through the Third Eye. We may physically live in the Now, but it is goddesses’ greatest good fortune that we can enrich our present with powerful visions of past and future. In our dreams, we can expand this to universal pasts and futures. “Now” serves as the lens through which our Body stays focused. To be absent from the Now is to miss the key to ecstasy that is our birthright.
Patience Multiplies Wealth – Wealth can be psychic, emotional, spiritual as well as physical, financial and actual. Eating unripe fruit robs us of our harvest. Therefore, we learn to settle into the Now, line up our Past, Present, Future with our Conscious, Subconscious, & Unconscious levels. It’s a discipline mastered through the practice of meditation, which opens the Third Eye.
The first step is Emptying. Push your thoughts, memories, worries away. Concentrate solely upon your breath. If this is too hard, choose a mantra (such as “Thank You” or “Namaste”) or a piece of music without lyrics (Marconi Union’s Weightless is fabulous for this.) Just celebrate the emptiness, the Nothingness. As thoughts come to you, release them like balloons. Celebrate You.
In the Control of Your Own Mind Lies all Freedom. Without it you are a slave, whatever the world may think. Buddhists call your mind a “wild horse” that must be tamed. Learn to greet the Now as a dear old friend who knits everything that is “you” – all the scattered psychic pieces – back together. You can FEEL the healing.
Goddesses Risk – In our new digital world it’s very difficult to claim Time for yourself. Can you turn off all the flashing lights, the alerts, the signals, the seductions, the threats? You absolutely must learn to do that, you must feel “important” enough to do it. It’s a lifelong job that soon becomes a respite you greet as an old friend. Turns out, feeling entitled is the most difficult part of the task. Tell others, “This is my recharge time. It’s absolutely critical.” Twenty silent minutes per day. Alone. You. Finding Eternity – and the Eternal You – through the Now. It doesn’t come easily. It comes through your infinite willingness, your scrupulous patience, your holy dedication. Don’t give up on You.
Give Up Your Competitiveness. – Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Surrender your expectations. Push away the sadness, the depression, the loss, the anxiety, the rage, the worry. All can be released into the universe, floating away from you to pop harmlessly in the stratosphere. You are alone now with the infinite. Slowly you begin to feel the pleasure, an indescribable ecstasy in which your ordinary human body becomes incandescent. Suddenly you want better things for yourself. More sleep. Better dreams. Healthier food. A world of love and joyous possibility. Dip your toe in that completeness, twenty minutes per day. (Or more, if you can.) Now you have a glimpse of Heaven.
Goddesses Tune In to their Energy Source – Goddess learn to treasure their peaceful daily meditations as a source of strength. If you allow the pool of your mind to settle, you will be able to see deeply. I personally prefer eyes-closed meditation. Concentrate on your slow deep belly breaths. If a thought jumbles past, think the word, “Clear”. Keep breathing. Keep clearing. You will feel rooted to the soil, grounded on the earth. The energy will start to bubble through you.
Goddesses Stay Focused – Split focus – sometimes called “multi-tasking” – is the current work modality for a reason, and the reason is that it diminishes your psychic power. If you focus your full attention on anything or anyone, you will begin to feel the power flow between you and this object/idea/person. This is scary at first, but you will get used to it. Living beings (plants included) flourish under this attention and the connections that are made last forever.
Goddesses are Mindful – Understanding the power of the Now is your goddess strength. You are entirely here, entirely present in this moment. You have completely accepted your current incarnation. There will be time, alone with your Goddess Journal, to savor the past and call upon the future, but for this moment you know how to be entirely present in the Now. It is unbelievably powerful. It feels like Love.
Models & Mentors – “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