Playing in the sandpit

So for a while, we play happily along,

until

we are initiated by life

and her seemingly cruel experiences

one day we realise that we are at the mercy

of some unfair and unjust fate

and that we are paying a heavy price for our

habitual ways of thinking and reacting

at this stage we may not have a name for this archetype yet,

but we become aware of an inner opponent :

one who demands a sacrifice of our peace of mind

and happiness

one who prescribes to all kinds of rules and regulations

one that is often called the 'ego'

if are aware, we will become conscious of

a 'second self', the twin-self or the witness

who will become our biggest ally in unmasking the many selves

As human beings we are both mortal and immortal. We are all living the mythical tale of The Hero and The Goddess. Every day we are challenged by the duality of the Hero and the Goddess. We experience the extreme tension of our dual nature of being both human and divine and we are in reality walking between two worlds. We are torn between the fear of our mortal self and the courage of our immortal soul.

our greatest and most powerful characteristic and attitude in this

epic battle will be our courageous self

First of all, find the courage to find the hero within yourself – it takes great courage to start the journey of self-realization and self-understanding. Arm yourself with a good sword and a great horse, in other words, arm yourself with knowledge and information and become your own Hero.

Make your spiritual journey and your journey of healing your own sacred quest. Remind yourself often that this is indeed a sacred quest that you are embarking upon and that its rewards are your whole complete Self!!! You will need to remind yourself often!

This quest has however an internal focus as opposed to the external focus of the world.

This quest appears to ask the complete opposite of what the world has taught you : it is a giving up of the doing and the hero has to learn to be. Being is not a luxury; it is a discipline. The hero has to undertake to listen carefully to his inner voice. Being takes courage and demands sacrifice.

This sacred quest also demands from you to say ‘yes!”. “Yes to the challenge, yes to the adventure and yes to change. Saying yes might not be all that easy.

I am off on a personal quest for the next two weeks (I will be travelling abroad), but will be back with more on the Goddess and her relationship with the Hero Within.

Till then,

blessings

The journey continues ...

The Hero and the Goddess

I invite you to play along, in your own time.

Collect a few old magazines, cut images out that speak to you,

and put together your own SoulCollage®

of your own mythical selves

and understand your story!

You will be amazed at the power of insight

and how it can radically change habitual thinking and reacting.

The Magical Child is the one who believes that there is good in everyone if you look long enough.  A wonderful trait up to a point.  The magical child can endure way beyond anyone else's idea of what should be endured.   This child's trick is to live in a bubble and to really create his or her own world and so be safe from that which they cannot deal with. The magical child is quick to believe in 'magic', so much so that he or she tend to believe that everything will come right magically, or that an angel or fairy godmother will appear and everything will be 'fixed'.  And then sit back and not 'rock the boat' or make any progress on the journey inward.

The greatest fear of the magical child is that 'evil' is more powerful than good and he or she may therefore choose not to set out on the journey and battle the minotaur within, but rather just stay where he or she is, blissfully undisturbed.

Then there is the Divine Child.

The Divine Child has an unshakeable faith and trust and seems to radiate an aura of purity and inner calm.  The Divine Child cannot defend him or herself against the idea of evil or negativity and the journey will lead him or her to uncover the Power of the Presence Within and his and her real strength.

There are many other children that live within us.  You may have identified your own, the Nature Child, the eternal child who resists growing up and so on. The inner child is a composite and a kaleidoscope of all the inner children and the more you become aware of which one is speaking, the clearer you can see what it is that the inner child fears.

Fear is based on personal perception and perspective. What is fearful for one, is not always fearful for another. That is why it is called an illusion or maya.

As soon as the child becomes aware of those around him, he will be disappointed.  Parents, caretakers, grand parents, teachers and other members of the community all have their own inner children.  And although they appear to be grown-ups they do not always act from an emotionally mature place within themselves.

And so their childhood wounds are carried over onto the children in their care.

It is obvious that the child will erect defenses and thorns to protect herself against feeling the pain.

And like Sleeping Beauty, the feeling self (the Soul) goes to sleep behind a thick thorn bush and she will only wake up by Love's first kiss.

The first part of the journey starts when one wakes up to the fact that a part of yourself act against you.  You may become aware that you seem to sabotage your own best efforts;  that, at times, you hurt those that you

love and it seems that you do so on purpose!!  You may become physically ill and realise that in order to heal, you will have to change certain attitudes and reactions.

This is a powerful event in the Hero's Journey.

This is when he becomes aware of the Shadow Self, the opponent in the battle that lies ahead.

blessings

Making dreams come true ...

Just this morning I heard this powerful quote of 

Margaret Mead's words again :

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.

Every day we are offered the opportunity to make small changes

and to make the world a better place, both for ourselves and for others.

I have been following  Rebecca of

Recuerda mi Corazon

for many moons now.  To me, her blog personifies the words of Margaret Mead.

Once again, Rebecca has joined hands with others

to help change the world of a village.

She offers us the opportunity to help make the dreams

of the women of las rancheritas come true!!

And she offers a beautiful gift as a 'reward' to the

first lucky ticket drawn.

The act of giving and sharing in the realization of another's hopes and

dreams are such a bountiful reward in itself!!

But there is more!

Please go to http://corazon.typepad.com/recuerda_mi_corazon/2012/06/for-the-women-of-las-rancheritas.html and read all the details about how

you can buy a ticket for the small amount of $10 and

play a part in making this dream come true.

(and you can participate from anywhere in the world!)

Please grab the button in my sidebar and share on your blog, so that

many others may find their way there and be a part of this

event.

blessings

Come, all the little children!

When you look at life and your own story in metaphorical terms, you become aware of the importance of 
the inner child.  Then, it also starts making sense why Jesus in the Bible so often refer to children and the power of child-like faith.


Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

In your story, which children were you?

As, in many stories and fairy tales, you have both an

inner brother and an inner sister, like Hansel and Gretel.  You may even have recall

of dreaming of a non-existent brother or sister or you

may have had dreams where you are your own twin.

The one would be stronger than the other and would often

be taking care of the other.

The inner child eventually becomes the Hero of this quest!

The best known child archetype is the Orphan. You do not have to have been a true orphan.  Orphan archetypes often feel as though they were born into the wrong family.

The Orphan Child will experience any kind of separation as abandonment and any kind of disapproval as the result of being a misfit. The Orphan Child often finds himself or herself having to go it alone, without the support of family and friends. Independence is a theme for the Orphan and becoming self-reliant is one of the many lessons associated with the Orphan. The Orphan is typically strong, able to bear tremendous burdens alone and they are models of endurance and resilience. The Orphan finds great comfort in his or her own abilities and would prefer to rely only on oneself for it seems others are always letting the Orphan Child down. 

The Orphan child often dream of finding a soul mate and of being rescued by another.

The Positive Orphan Child exhibits natural leadership skills, a strong work ethic and a sense of purpose for their lives. They are typically strong, stoic and dedicated to causes they may find themselves associated with. 

Then there is the Wounded child archetype.

No matter how perfect the childhood or kind and loving the parents, a Wounded Child will feel wounded, by either a bully at school, a sibling that mistreats him/her, a deep loss at an early age such as the loss of a parent, grandparent or even a childhood illness or disease. These experiences will be perceived as abuse/trauma. Wounded Children are exceptionally forgiving until they become overly identified with their own wounds.

On the other side, the Wounded Child is a deeply loving, tender and compassionate person most notably at a young age. He or she may exhibit extreme sensitivity to others’ pain or perhaps cry at others' suffering. This awareness of pain develops a highly tuned perception of what is hidden beneath the surface. The Wounded Child will be confronted with issues of forgiveness and will find this need arising repeatedly throughout his or her life. Forgiveness is an essential part of the Wounded Child archetype and it often becomes the catalyst for a calling in life, such as alternative/allopathic medicine, psychiatry, counseling, therapeutic massage, life coaching or even the clergy. 

Next we will look at the Magical Child, the Eternal Child and the Divine Child archetypes.

blessings

The Hero's Journey - the power of myth

Deep within our souls we are aware of a greater purpose, a greater meaning to our existence and our relationships, a greater sense of acceptance, sharing, love and freedom

Myth work is soul work.

Yeats once wrote that he had a coat made for himself to wear in the storms of our time. He said that this coat was a patchwork of mythologies. By this he meant that he had unravelled the myths of time and sewed them together again in a new individual way that made sense to him and brought him insight into his own personal myth.

Myths are not only those stories about the lives of the gods and goddesses. Each one of us are living our own unique personal myth. In other words, we are here to experience a life of mythical proportions.

Your story has its own Holy Grail.

By understanding one's personal myth, you are closer to understanding yourself.

Deep within our souls we are aware of a greater purpose, a greater meaning to our existence and our relationships, a greater sense of acceptance, sharing, love and freedom. This is the Goddess imprisoned within ourselves, locked up behind a fortress of defences, drawbridges against invaders and thorn bushes against any form of intimacy. But how to free this beauty – where to find the magical key. This is the task of The Hero. This is his sacred quest.

The hero is masculine creative nature that creates in the physical world. He is the vehicle through which The Goddess, the Sacred Feminine expresses herself.

The Goddess is a metaphor for our our all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful, all-loving Self – She is all Life, and represents our feminine divine self. She is also the one who demands that the hero set out on a journey of discovery and peril!

She is that part of us that can love unconditionally; that can accept oneself and all others and allow them to be who they are and allow them to make their own mistakes and find their own magic! It is that part of us that knows that we are bigger than our greatest fears and insecurities. 

She is also the innocent free trusting and giving child who has implicit faith in the goodness of all life. The golden magical child who does not expect to be disappointed, who does not understand the meaning of conditionality and who readily forgives.

Once the Goddess, our Soul has been freed, the journey continues.

The Sacred Marriage, or Hieros Gamos, gives birth to the third principle.  But more about that later.

For now, back to our quest.

blessings

The Hero/ine's Journey - The Orphan

So here you are!  The wonderful Innocent Self, setting off on this amazing adventure called Life.

You are so happy and full of the awe of everything that is new and wonderful.

You rush into the world expecting nothing other than beauty and goodness!

You are blissfully unaware of any dangerous cliffs or any harm that may befall you.

But it is the duty of the Innocent Self, to fall.  There is saying that innocence cannot survive

in this world. In order to become the master and the victorious Hero/ine of your own

story, you have to face the trials and tribulations of your life

in order to uncover your hidden talents, your amazing gifts, your inner strength,

your infinite ability to love and to forgive

and your

true Heart!!

But still!

Great is the shock when you do realize that there are some real monsters

lurking in the dark! 

And when you discover that you need protection and that it is not

always there.

And when you discover that your god-like parents are only too

human.

And what does one do when you feel scared, hurt, afraid, sad and traumatised?

You need to protect yourself.  And there are various ways of

doing so although, now, today, as an adult,

it does not really make any sense.

But put yourself back into the mind of that Innocent Self

and feel what you felt then.

Did you feel like an orphan, (and maybe you were an orphan), abandoned, your needs not 

met

and maybe this was just the way it was in your family

or

maybe

you were a girl-child

when a boy was desired

and maybe you took refuge

in the great outdoors,

or in the comfort and closeness of someone else,

maybe a sibling,

or your own company

I invite you to play along,

ponder on this journey as we travel together;

wonder about your own quest;

recognize yourself in these characters

and please return to uncover the next chapter!

blessings

The Innocent One and the Hero's Journey

The Sacred Call

As you answer the sacred Call, your Soul welcomes you and embraces you as step into the Mystery.

The English word religion comes from the Latin religio, which means to unite or tie back together that which has gotten torn apart or fragmented.  It is also the root for the word ligament.  Religion is thus related to a 'holiness' that is a true 'wholeness' which can bring a healing connectedness, completeness and peace to the conflicts of the psyche and Soul.

If you read religion as a metaphor for your own magical journey to wholeness, it all makes so much sense.  That does not mean that you have to look at religious tales and characters and decide that they never existed and that they are only metaphorical. The story can be both personal and universal.  

When we understand religion to be an incredibly powerful mythical image and metaphor for our soul's journey, then we give the archetypal forces of our personality a symbolic and therefore also a conscious expression.  We can then start to see the purpose and teachings of certain events in our lives and we can tap into compassion for others and forgiveness for ourselves.

Sacred Space

When we create a space and declare it sacred and then re-enact the mythical tale in rite and ritual, we make it conscious as an objective presence, thus setting it free from ego-inflation, self-centredness and also from that very limiting and restrictive compulsion of seeking sensation in order to create a self-identity.

But alas, our modern lives and lifestyles have diminished and in most cases, faith in these symbolic rituals have been banned or suppressed or lost in the noise of entertainment.  So now we are left without the mystical and without the immanent symbols of the Divine and our own highest potential.  And we are left with an 'unholy' fragmented self, incapable of sewing the selves back together, and the complete self is now the forbidden self.

The time has arrived.  Let our tale begin.

Once upon a time, long long ago, the Innocent One,
the Magical Golden Child,
You
were born.

Every child contains the heart of innocence

Only a child has absolute childlike confidence with regard to the spontaneous wisdom of the heart, and the Innocent One,
the Golden Child
has the spontaneous childlike wisdom which uses the language of the heart

As you continue on your journey, you will recognize the voice of the Golden Child
within you, as

intuition,
that amazing ability that comes straight from the heart and
bypasses the mind.


What does your Golden Child look like?
Can you find him/her within yourself?
Do you know what that small little voice sounds like?

blessings

You are the Hero of your own Story

Saint Meerabai and Saraswati, Hindu Goddess of Poetry

Do you ever dream of being a hero?  Do you ever imagine what it would feel like to be recognized for everything that you intrinsically are?  Are you often surprised when others comment with admiration for something that you do naturally?  When we view our life as a metaphor for a great inner quest, then we realize that we are indeed the hero of our own adventure.  And not only that ...... our stories include our own personal map, with hidden treasures and magical helpers and guides with amazing abilities.

On this journey you will be called to enter into the mystery, to step out of your comfort zone and to risk walking into the unknown.  You will be asked to open your eyes and your ears, to listen to the voices in the wind and the whispers of your heart, and you will face many challenges and trials as well as triumphs and  celebrations. 

 And you will be guided into finding your treasure and bringing it back to share with others!  

Sounds magical and exciting?

Then please join me in this journey of uncovering.  

I will be your Vision Keeper and the Scribe of your story.

By using the images from magazines and any other pictures that you collect,  we will create The Hero's Journey in SoulCollage(R) images.  As you take the time to ponder the questions, gather the images and then put them together, you will gain insight into your own story.   You will see the red thread that you left for yourself, similar to Ariadne and the labyrinth, and you will see that you have always steadfastly followed the way home, back to your heart.  You will see the same red thread that moves through your life, creating an exquisite unique tapestry.  And slowly but surely, the bigger picture will be revealed.

So, will you answer the Call?

Can you remember when you heard the Call?  

What prompted you to say 'this is enough' or 'no more' or were you not given a choice in the matter?

Get ready to enter through the sacred doorway.

The Call

with blessings