Alysse Aallyn

Tag: #Mysteries

  • Becoming a Goddess – the Goddess Oracle by Alysse Aallyn

    Justice Goddess – Law –

    Goddess’s Desire for Justice is Hardwired – It’s common to feel unjustly punished, to rage or even envy those who have “gotten away with something”. Goddesses have a different agenda.  “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled,” is an immortal promise made by one who should know what he is talking about. 

    For Goddesses, the Mere Concept of Complete Justice seems “heaven” enough. We seek not reward, but to make ourselves worthy. If humans were created in the image of God, it would be insulting to avoid living up to expectations.

    For Goddesses, the Concept of Law is Hardwired -Remember, lawbreakers break themselves.

    Goddess Armor – What laws resonate with you? Do you believe in karma? How would you define it? What laws make you angry? Which laws would you modify? What is your attitude towards the police – protectors of order or agents of mayhem? Dick Nixon was famous for talking endlessly about “restoring law and order” until he was forced to resign because of his multiple crimes. Many Trump followers insist everything Trump has done is “justified because Democrats are worse.” Is this a race to the bottom? Where’s the off-ramp?

    Goddess Danger – “Judge not lest ye be judged” is a scary proposition. How would we come off if our standards were used against us? Come to think of it, what are our standards? Are they fluid? Flexible? Jesus also said the “letter” i.e. “written rule” KILLS. That it’s the “spirit that gives life.”

    Law Is Our Armor – Goddesses dream of a “spirit-filled” Law. Maybe you wanted to go to Law School but life intervened. But’s never too late to study – contribute to, even remake – any subject that’s close to our heart. We become goddesses because we wish for heroes; I think that’s the sole reason for the wild popularity of the Marvel movie series.

    Do You Admire Heroes Because They Break the Rules, or because they uphold them? We acknowledge the need for rules, but how can we make sure they’re “spirit-filled”?  Growth-centered?  Life enhancing? In what areas of your life are you too rigid? In which are you too flexible? Imagine yourself speaking in court, making a case for yourself. What arguments would you give? Ask your dreams to start imagining a Justice World. How would it look?

    Models & Mentors – “Law is not law if it violates the principles of eternal justice” – Lydia Maria Child

    “The only stable state is one where all are equal before the law” – Aristotle

    “Law is the public conscience” – Thomas Hobbes

    ‘Able in argument, accurate in analysis, strict in study, candid with clients and honest with adversaries, today I shall not, to win a point, lose my soul” – St. Thomas More

    “If we desire respect for the law, we must make law respectable” – Louis D. Brandeis

    #Haiku: Karma

    Come round –

    Go round.

    Love reaps love

    Law reaps

    Justice

    Violence reaps

    Whirlwind.

  • Becoming a Goddess – the Goddess Oracle by Alysse Aallyn

     Chain Goddess – Conquering Addiction –

    Uh oh. You’ve become too attached. Remember, Goddesses Rise Above – Investigate. To … what is the addition exactly?  Take it slow.  How is your attachment harming your principles? Values? Relationships? Carefully map it out.

    The Goddess’s Fiercest Battle – Do you dream of imprisonment? Blank walls? Chains? Our neurocircuitry mandates habit-making behavior, but our intelligence recognizes entrapment, and our dreams send out distress signals. If you’re human, there is no way to avoid addiction. Welcome to the Club!

    We Are Wired for Addiction – If there’s no escaping it – that means you will have to fight this battle. But the good news is, this is exactly how you become a Goddess, and Goddesses are Free. Anyone who hasn’t done investigated and broken the chains is still a slave to “factory settings” – hormones, instincts, patterning – just as animals are. Here’s the very challenge you became a Goddess for – your best chance to develop a free will and a free soul.

    Study Your Opponent – Turns out we have tremendous choice over what we become addicted to. Some addictions are less corrupting than others. Visit an AA meeting and the consumption of sugar and tobacco is outright alarming. Are you addicted to gambling? Do you work in sales? Were you raised in a ritualistic faith? We easily become dependent on praise, on safety, on gratification, and our brains (and our general health) show our dependency. These very brains threaten and panic when the “treat” is withdrawn.

    Goddess Challenge – This parasite doesn’t care if it kills the host. If you fear you are approaching a cliff-edge, you probably are. One test is to go on a “retreat” where your customary gratifications are not available, and attempt to form new, healthier gratifications, like sleep, prayer, meditation, the arts, cooking, sports, friendship. See what happens! Is your personality threatening to disintegrate?  Good! Let’s build a new one!  High time to ask yourself: who am I really? This is such a good idea, we should build it into our lives, periodically. Just to keep us recognizing that recurring cliff-edge where Soul and Self are lost.

    Goddess Danger – Free Goddesses live with the possibility that we will lose our autonomy. Most people want to evolve, know they SHOULD change, but fear they CAN’T.  There’s no shame in needing outside help. As we pointed out under “Cooperation” and “Alliances”, Goddesses need teams. This is the purpose of interventions, to demonstrate to our eyes and ears that we are harming ourselves and our relationships. Denial is a powerful defense mechanism, especially when we think we’ve finally found a substance/process that “magically” allows us to live on our particular cliff-edge – a dangerous job, risky sexual behaviors, risky recreational behaviors.

    Worst-Case Scenario – is that an addiction becomes our identity. We always have the choice of refusing to change – giving up focus, goals, principles and relationships to keep up our self-abuse. Some hardened wretches will tell anyone who listens that life itself isn’t worth it without their life-threatening self-abuse. They are choosing to die as slaves.

    Goddess Opportunity – You not only CAN free yourself, you MUST to deserve and preserve your Goddess Status. It is your spiritual obligation to live this territorial existence as an enlightenment opportunity. Familiar with the saying, “Live simply so that others may simply live” ? That mandates sharing. That means ALWAYS studying your consumption, NEVER allowing yourself to turn into a greedy pig and scheduling time to be alone with the universe and with God.  To check on the hardiness of your Soul.

    Models & Mentors – “You can’t defeat the darkness by keeping it caged inside you” – Seth Adam Smith

    “All addictions are ways to not feel our feelings”

    – Ellen Burstyn

    “Sometimes you can only find heaven by backing slowly away from hell”

    – Carrie Fisher

    “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out”. – Robert Collier

    “The most common way people give up their power is thinking they don’t have any” – Alice Walker

    #Haiku: The Columbine – Addiction

    Brain cells beggared;

    Lovelorn

    Oxytocin receptors misfire:

    “Feed me!”

  • Becoming a Goddess – the Goddess Oracle by Alysse Aallyn

    Pond Goddess – Judgment –

    Goddesses Choose to Be Unhaunted – We are armed by our disciplined practice in harmony with the laws of growth and the demands of nature.  But Goddesses sense threats; we all live in the shadow of wrongdoing and injustice.

    The Tears of the Goddess –  What are your fears? Are you dreaming of police? Prison? Are you haunted by religious fears of hell and condemnation? Are you confused about innocence in general and the worth of your virtues in particular? Some people say we can’t break God’s laws, we can only break ourselves against them. That’s certainly true of the laws of Science!

    Who Judges the Goddess?

    We know other people are looking. We know we are always being assessed, ranked, possibly dismissed. We defensively assess, dismiss and gossip about each other. All of us wish to be judged by our intent, by the content of our hearts, rather than by results, which owe so much to fate.

    Goddesses Cultivate Discernment – We are familiar with the experience of disliking some experience until a friend teaches us “how” to like it. We treasure the interesting adventure of seeing the world through another’s eyes , feeling with their hands, tasting with their tongue and remembering through their memory. An out of body experience for sure, as well as a bonding exercise. Seeing ourselves through another’s eyes can be very uncomfortable. How about history’s eyes? What will be said about us? How will we be remembered?

    Goddess Challenge – Youth produces Bad Experiences and Bad Experiences develop Sophisticated – i.e. “Good” Judgment. Seriously, you need to be able to see some of these Bad Experiences coming because in our competitively capitalistic society these can be “extinction” events.  How many decades of your life do you have to devote to unethical corporations, scammy multi-level marketing schemes, bad marriages, unreliable friends and “secret” investments? Our time, youth, energy and assets are limited. Know your limits.

    Goddess Danger – Fear and Regret are potent forces. Sometimes it is possible to be too cautious. But can you just “dip a toe?” The principle of “dollar cost averaging” suggests that you must keep “paying yourself back” for investments that seem to be paying off big, so if they suddenly plunge, you will never have actually lost money. In other words, mapping!  Study your progress as you go. This requires that we not get swept up in the experience with your mind unbalanced by inebriating substances. Ask yourself honestly, is it possible for me to stand outside the crowd when the crowd becomes a mob?

    Goddess Opportunity – Goddesses take the time to develop themselves outside “the group.” Do you have a group of goddesses or is such a thing an oxymoron? How often do you do things because “the group” is doing them? How smart is your group? Who controls it? How close to the cliff ARE you? Think about the nature of leadership. Of models. Goddesses who evince compelling discernment are challenged and respected. Sometimes you lose your taste for the group, or you find a new group that suits you better. Goddesses evolve.

    Fearlessly.

    Models & Mentors – “Good judgment comes from bad experience” – Will Rogers

    “At the end of the day, you need someone who listens to you without judgment” – Payal Rohatgi

    “A rush to judgment makes a fair trial hard to get”

    – John Grisham

    “When you judge another you define yourself” – Wayne Dyer

    ‘It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but hard to dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities” – Josiah Stamp

    #Haiku: Dear Jane Austen

    Formalized play

    Mines nature’s

    Riot;

    Edit

    Emote:

    Judge

    Love

    Rewrite

  • Becoming a Goddess – the Goddess Oracle by Alysse Aallyn

    Tulip Goddess – Illusion –

    The Tulip Goddess Masters Magic – the Art of Illusion. Much illusion is the art of Misdirection – allowing the credulous to deceive themselves. The Goddess of Magic has noticed that the development of  Maturity is NOT popular with everybody, because it prevents the Narcissistic Acting-Out so gratifying to the determinedly undeveloped. Unfortunately those who pursue power, instead of self-development, often achieve their goal.  The Goddess is always being governed by her inferiors. We aren’t in heaven yet.

    The Road to Enlightenment – is long and painful and currently has a bad press. The Tulip goddess understands the human desires behind wishing and subjugation – handing your soul over to a “collector” for “processing” feels like a relief.  A magic dissolution of “the rules”.  But the Goddess recognizes that mirages – especially those we close our eyes to believe in – are illusions. Falsehoods. Clinging to obvious fantasies triggers willing surrender of our ability to discern fact from fiction.

    Illusions are Powerful – The seventeenth century Dutch needed a desirable luxury exchange item the privileged could trade back and forth for status reasons. Yes, that was the tulip bulb. It was a bubble – of course– the bottom fell out – of course – and left a whole lot of previously comfortable people bankrupt. We don’t have anything like that, these days, do we? Or do we? People are rushing to invest in crypto because of its complete lack of regulation. But without any rules, it’s laughably easy to steal people’s money.

    Some Illusions Are Life Strengthening – Others are Life-Depleting. The Goddess knows the difference. Goddesses avoid fantasy thinking. Goddesses traffic in absolute reality. We create worthwhile magic, the kind that protects and enhances – so we can’t be deceived by the “magic” that punishes and stigmatizes. Your map must represent actual ground, not pie in the sky, or you won’t be able to maneuver across it. We understand the attraction of The Mirage. The problem with mirages – especially those we long to believe in – is that they evolve into illusions which create delusions.

    Illusions Become Delusions – The Buddhists say life itself is an illusion. But they mean that metaphorically, to keep you from become “attached” to the “ephemeral.”  The physics, gravity, chemistry and hydraulics of everyday life are hardly illusive.  Above all, we should avoid clinging to fake food and pushing away nutrition. When goddess end up battling FOR falsity – it’s the worst of all possible situations.

    Goddess Challenge – Face facts. Learn to recognize the difference between believable experts and carnival barkers.  Learn to enjoy reality as a bracing polar dip. Are you trapped by an illusion that you used to need but now is killing you? You can identify this by increasing suffering throughout an increasingly problematic life and your diminishing pleasure over things that once were reliable joys. Is it a relationship? An activity? A belief? Look at the problem honestly. Find others going through the same experience and generate honest discussion.

    Flying Monkeys Abound – When group members rush in defensively to shame and discourage you, to convince you you’re not feeling or understanding what you KNOW you ARE feeling and understanding then realize you’re being gaslighted.  What you’re trying to exit is a “cult” that is NOT devoted to the health of its members but to their diminishment. Stop communicating with those flying monkeys and find somebody who supports the truth of your actual experience AND your desire to feel better.

    Goddess Danger – The path to re-making yourself is fraught with danger and you will require all sorts of help. Don’t be discouraged if your feelings are volatile and transitory and you are confused about their reality. Move slowly, consulting Models & Mentors – kind others who respect your autonomy, individuality and with whom you feel safe.

    Goddess Opportunity –  Relax! Goddesses become adept at shifting vision from night vision to day vision, forward and backwards through time, manifesting others’ auras until we can all see possibility and love.

    We Transform Illusion Through Skill – The impossible takes longer, because language is not as flexible as reality. You are embarked on an exciting growth challenge where you leave a constricting carapace behind. Sometimes the “shell” was protective and served for a time to keep you safe while you matured. You don’t need to disparage the old you, or the old relationship; it served its purpose. Often people who have been through a trauma say afterwards they wouldn’t change the past, because they treasure and embrace the person they’ve become.

    Models & Mentors – “Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they’re yours” – Richard Bach

    “The world is an illusion we must take seriously.”

    – Aldous Huxley

    “The light at the end of the tunnel is not an illusion – the tunnel’s the illusion” – Alysse Aallyn

    “Separation from each other is an optical illusion of reality” – Albert Einstein

    ‘Limit, like fear, is often an illusion” – Michael Jordan

    #Haiku: Coach Don’t Play

    When you learn the game

    Rise above the game;

    Insight

    Renders you

    Magic

  • Becoming a Goddess – the Goddess Oracle by Alysse Aallyn

    Diamond Goddess – Success –

    Goddesses Upgrade their Definition of Success – A surprising number of remarkably successful people aren’t “happy”. I put happiness in quotes because happiness wasn’t their goal, they were just hoping it would be a gratification of widely acknowledged success. But here’s the shocker; it isn’t. And that shouldn’t surprise anyone because the conditions of success – the eternal busyness, the ruthless ranking, the endless competition – crowd out both peace and bliss. So – do you give up on Success? Or do you give up on Bliss?

    Goddesses Redefine – they don’t allow others to tell them what to think. A pat on the back is nice, but goddesses are removed from the crowd. It’s awkward telling a wild orchid “you’re doing a great job.”

    Goddesses Dream of Bliss – Do you dream of adulation? Applause?  The Diamond’s checkered history reminds us that the journey, not the arrival matters, because goddesses say the “successful life” is one long journey to eternal perfection. The tired and footsore goddess needs heartwarming visions to sustain her joy for the voyage.

    Success Is a Worse Hazard for Goddesses Than Failure – If the journey, not the arrival matters, battle-hardened goddesses may collapse on reaching Road’s End.  Nothing pulls a goddess out of her cloud like subservience to other’s opinions.  Future plans are inevitably torpedoed in pursuit of a momentary “approval” fix.  If “success” is static and stasis is stagnation, then surely the process of improvement – the Goddess’ Mantra – is what we really want.  Success itself is a mirage.

    We’re Competing With Ourselves – Abraham Lincoln famously said people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. If we define “success” as adulation and approval by others, haven’t we given away the ultimate power over our lives? Most people define success in purely material ways – it’s the only way to explain the salaries CEO’s pay themselves, while they freely admit nobody “deserves” that much money. They don’t seem to be using it very responsibly either, so I would judge them as “unsuccessful.” If the most important standards are your own personal ones then the only person to please is yourself and those you love.  Let’s rephrase this challenge:  are you content?

    Goddess Challenge – When success is “arrival”, a “finish line” is implied. Do you really want to be finished? As we desire constant progress, then reaching the goal is death. But the opposite  – endless striving – is just  a treadmill. A “rat race”, in point of fact. So the ultimate success must be “contentment”. To be content we must assess our lives and come to terms with our missteps. Sometimes we discovered something even more wonderful that we didn’t even know we were searching for.

    Goddess Danger – Success is a drug: be careful. Don’t get addicted. Our society views everything as a competition, and the fundamental danger is you comparing your INSIDES (i.e., how you feel) with everyone else’s “outsides” (i.e., how they LOOK.) You know that’s nonsensical.  We don’t visualize each other’s sadness and pain, only display and showmanship.

    Goddess Opportunity – is to feel compassion for another’s hurt and struggle. Feel compassion (and forgiveness) for your own hurt and struggle. Assess your place on life’s path. Maybe you’re still on the edge of some great discovery, if so, keep going! Maybe it’s time to take stock of how far you’ve come and have a look at the big map. I like resting, thinking, reading and writing.  Retired, I do exactly what I want to most days, surrounded by love. Feels like success to me.

    Models & Mentors – “without continual growth & progress, such words as improvement, achievement and success have no meaning” – Benjamin Franklin

    “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can” – Arthur Ashe

    “Rules for success: 1. Believe in your ideas 2. Pick good people  3. Earn Respect 4. Always be a student 5. Enjoy what you do 6. Ask for advice 7. Learn to say No 8. Create the best products 9. Don’t take things personally 10. Create the future”

    – Bill Gates

    #Haiku: The Future Is Now

    Quotidian

    Maps built

    From shreds of

    Daily goals –

    Invisible glue

  • Becoming a Goddess – the Goddess Oracle by Alysse Aallyn

    The Light Goddess – Enlightenment –

    Goddesses Seek the Light – We are all born in a condition of yearning. As children, we try desperately to understand the world we find ourselves in. Life is a quest for ultimate understanding that will make sense of all the confusion. We know there is a message out there for us, we know we have the capacity to understand it, but we are waiting for the lightning strike of “enlightenment” to put it all together.

    Enlightenment is Nothing to Be Feared – Forces of darkness are heavily invested in keeping us dependent and confused. They attempt to imply that “waking up” to reality will separate you forever from everything you loved about your past. This is nonsense. To be enlightened is to be far-seeking and far-seeing while comforted by the Ultimate Love that is the promise of the universe. It is to break the shell of ordinariness with its suspicions and superstitions and see the breathtaking grand plan in which we all have a part to play.

    Goddesses Must Constantly Rise – You are coming closer. You are on the cusp of a major discovery that will explain much. Are you dreaming of books, reading, classes, school? Do you often feel you are on a pursuit and the prey is within view?

    The Truth Is Simple – Jesus said we have to become children again to enter the kingdom of heaven. This certainly implies that “enlightenment” is more a state of mind than any received, calcified wisdom. The light that pierces darkness is Goddess Oracle’s symbol of the mystical understanding and lightning universal comprehension we call “enlightenment.”

    Goddess Challenge – Enlightenment literature recommends two things: a good teacher and time alone. Every night when we go to sleep we enter the alone-time of our own mind. We go to sleep in one world and wake in another. We can prep ourselves in advance with some “good teaching”;  Socrates, Plato, Montaigne, Eckhart Tolle, Pema Chodron, Deepak Chopra, Stephen Batchelor, the Dalai Lama – savor these models until you get a sense which one speaks especially to you. Then set aside twenty-minutes or a half an hour for reading (or listening) right before sleep.

    Goddess Danger – Zen teachers say that if anyone represents themselves as a Zen teacher they aren’t. Gnostic gospels say prophets asking for money are false prophets. Search for a guru is fraught with landmines. This is why I mention specific names of teachers available at any library who will not be trying to gain any ascendance or dominance over you personally.

    Be Wary of Giving Your Spirit into Another’s Care. If they have demanded submission they will be cruel. The sin against the Holy Ghost is the only sin that cannot be forgiven, and it is the sin of running roughshod over our spiritual receptors. Once trust and faith are destroyed, it is difficult to “become a child again” because of the terrible things we have known and seen.

    Goddess Opportunity – Broken places let in the light and healing is always available. Even when scarred by false prophets we feel there is a magic of universal love and resilience available to us. A variety of healing ceremonials – my favorite is the “miracle bath” and the “laying on of hands” –  will reconnect you to the possibilities of joy, love and the insight leading to enlightenment.

    Models & Mentors -. “Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.” – Lao Tzu

    “Enlightenment is your felt state of Oneness with Being” – Eckhart Tolle

    “The road to enlightenment is long and difficult and you should not forget snacks and magazines” – Anne LaMott

    “Suffering is temporary, enlightenment is forever” – Buddha

    “Enlightenment does not come from the mind, it comes from just being. You are already enlightened. You have to realize it to allow it into your experience”-

    Anita Moorjani

    #Haiku: Enlightenment

    Dissolution reassembles;

    Enlightened wave knows

    It’s

    Ocean

  • Becoming a Goddess – the Goddess Oracle by Alysse Aallyn

    Rose Goddess – Vulnerability –

    Goddesses Are Vulnerable Because of Heightened Perceptions –  You wake up trembling. Are you helpless in your dreams? Do you dream of children, of your own childhood? In Goddess Oracle, the rose represents the soft evanescence of youth when the merest thumbprint of emphasis can leave eternal impressions. As the emblem of beauty, the Rose warns us that this quivering, temporary vulnerability may be the very definition of loveliness.

    Goddesses Are Temporal Because Life is Evanescent – We are human, and while we live revel in our humanity. As goddesses we defend and define youth, beauty, and humanity, in order to deserve all three.

    We Remember Where We Came From – 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 only we consume – we are the only ones it harms. Value Your Training – good and bad – as you value your humanity.

    Roses Have Thorns – Celebrate Yours – Everyone sees the thorn-stripped rose the florist sells, forgetting that roses were born with protections, just like the rest of us. Contemplate your Goddess Superpowers. Of these, long-distance perspective, serenity and mindfulness will serve you best. Comparative History explains many situations.

    Goddess Protections – Our Training, our Mental Agility, our Commitments, our Alliances – and most especially our long multiverse worldview. Others may surrender and fade away, but as we are designed for eternal power, we relish the bliss of Sight, Feeling and Thought. It is the essence of life to struggle, to mentally picture a goal and to design and redesign a gorgeous, life-changing, vision-enhancing map for all who follow.

    Goddess Challenge – Can we turn the building blocks of our own past into a constructive, hopeful framework for the future? Can you mentally accept and explore the powers of a hardening maturity?

    Goddesses Preserve & Build  – We do not destroy. The philosophy of “annihilation” is a psychic snare. Ultimate obliteration is up to God alone. Terrible things happen to ordinary people and they are changed forever.  We may wish those things hadn’t happened but regret prevents us from focusing on reality. We need to understand the world we’re in and map it for those who follow after. History and literature explore the coping mechanisms around disaster and the strong people it produces.

    Goddess Opportunity – Resilience is the art we cultivate.  We soon realize resilience has its own beauty; this 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

    #Haiku: On the Vulnerability of Poets

    Dis –

    Composing

    To re-see;

    Melting to

    Re-form;

    Masking to un –

    Mask.

  • Becoming a Goddess – the Goddess Oracle by Alysse Aallyn

    Foxglove Goddess – Medicine –

    Goddesses Are In Synch With Their Physical Well-being. We know perfectly well when we’re doing something to threaten health and we strategize how to quit.

    But Sometimes a Doctor Visit is Necessary – Do you dream of hospitals? Doctors? Shamen? Magic pills? One of society’s proudest boasts is our seemingly mysterious ability to cure illness, or at least palliate its effects. Your dreams say you yearn for healing, and something in you recognizes you need help.

    Do You Trust Your Doctor? Establishing trust is key. Sometimes it’s spiritual healing that’s required. Try a naturopath, acupuncture, massage therapy – searching for that instinctively helpful healer. Revisit advice on managing gurus – they must not be greedy and must demonstrate they have your best interests at heart. Goddesses never become someone else’s sex toy or enabler or support another’s extravagant lifestyle. Seek references from friends. Anyone attempting to isolate you and wall you off from information is not your friend.

    The Goddess Path Can Be Exhausting.  There is resistance on every front to women who prioritize their own well-being. But you have to get the oxygen mask firmly on your own face before you can help anyone else. Goddesses also need constant support. No shame – it’s part of the calling.

    What Makes a Goddess’s Heart Race? – Anyone developing their own map gets lost frequently. How can we find the right path?  How can we develop the confidence to choose the “right diagnosis” for what ails us? When should we request a “second” or “third” opinion?  How can we stay on the “right” course, or even assess the “rightness” of any course, considering all our past mistakes?

    Goddesses Too Need “Heart Strengthening.” “Foxglove” the source of digitalis, (a powerful heart medication) tells us: Listen to your heart. Get out your Goddess Journal and start making notes. What questions do we wish to ask? Who do we want to be? Where are we trying to go?

    Goddess Danger – Can we tell the difference between a “fortifying” or a “harming” path? TV pharmaceutical ads list grisly side effects for pills tackling the vaguest malaise. Who can overlook these threats? Perhaps the ultimate “danger” lies in ignoring the warnings our “dis-ease” gives. What does “I want to be young again” really mean? We are all mortal. We have just so much time left to plan. To “become”.

    Goddess Opportunity – Some people are more confident following an “experts recommend” course, others adapt and customize as they go. Joy is the moment when planets and moments all click into alignment and we feel we accepted as a beloved child of the universe. Let’s unclog our ears, remove the plank from our vision and simplify our world to recapture the moments of joy experienced in childhood. If a loving, guiding force rescued us over and over again, we can summon the confidence to find several human healers to guide us through the healthcare system.

    Models & Mentors –  “Hugging is good medicine”

    – Karen Salmansohn

    “Medicine is the art of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease” – Voltaire

    “Medicines cure diseases, but only doctors can cure patients” – C.J. Jung

    “Medicine cures doubt as well as disease” – Karl Marx

    “The arts are as essential to everyone’s lives as clean food and fresh air”

    – Renee Phillips

    #Haiku: Overcoming Narcissistic Disappointment

    Cuts hurt

    Scars heal

    Skin becomes

    Distinctive; you

    Become interesting.

  • 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.