Growing Yourself in Darkness

“The woman who takes the time to grow herself in darkness becomes familiar — perhaps for the first time — with the real source and containment of her psychic strength. No longer is her strength dissipated in obeying an idealized father figure, in pleasing a lover, in trying to satisfy a perpetually unsatisfied mother figure, in accommodating to a patriarchal organization or culture, in appeasing the inner witch who tells her she is worthless. No longer is her strength lost to obeying compulsions, drives, and obsessions that can slip in during the dark night of the soul and substitute for the real thing.

“And what is the real thing, the thing for which she longs? The love affair with her own spirit, the inner marriage that commits her to her destiny, the rituals of soul that feed her deepest hunger, and the sense of being pregnant with her Self, her creative essence.”

~Jill Mellick

Mothers

Mother and Child by Frances Hodgkins

There are mothers.

There are birth mothers.

And there are stepmothers.

There are adoptive mothers

and there are soul mothers.

There are real life mothers

and there are heavenly mothers.

There are deceased mothers and mothers alive.

There are mothers of darkness and mothers of light.

And there are mothers of Heavens and of Earth.

There are mother goddesses and the holy womb.

There are angelic mothers of saints and The mother of God.

There are always mothers.

Mothers upon mothers upon mothers.

Earthly mothers.

Holy mothers.

I am told they are all in me.

It takes a while to see,

But in a luminous moment, I do.

~Mette Welhaven Naess

Be That One

One tree can start a forest,

One bird can herald spring,

One smile can begin a friendship,

One hand can lift a soul,

One star can guide a ship at sea,

One word can frame the goal,

One sunbeam can light a room,

One candle can wipe out darkness,

One laugh can conquer gloom,

One hope can raise our spirits,

One touch can show you care,

One voice can wake up everybody,

One life can make the difference.

Be that one.

-Author Unknown

Image: Old Ponderosa by Nancy L

Birthing True Self

If you want to give birth to your true self, you are going to have to dig deep down into that body of yours and let your soul howl. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and trust that if you turn off your head, your feet will take you where you need to go.

~Gabrielle Roth, Wild Woman 

True Love

“I don’t know if I’ve learned anything yet! I did learn how to have a happy home, but I consider myself fortunate in that regard because I could’ve rolled right by it. Everybody has a superficial side and a deep side, but this culture doesn’t place much value on depth — we don’t have shamans or soothsayers, and depth isn’t encouraged or understood. Surrounded by this shallow, glossy society we develop a shallow side, too, and we become attracted to fluff. That’s reflected in the fact that this culture sets up an addiction to romance based on insecurity — the uncertainty of whether or not you’re truly united with the object of your obsession is the rush people get hooked on. I’ve seen this pattern so much in myself and my friends and some people never get off that line.

But along with developing my superficial side, I always nurtured a deeper longing, so even when I was falling into the trap of that other kind of love, I was hip to what I was doing. I recently read an article in Esquire magazine called ‘The End of Sex,’ that said something that struck me as very true. It said: “If you want endless repetition, see a lot of different people. If you want infinite variety, stay with one.” What happens when you date is you run all your best moves and tell all your best stories — and in a way, that routine is a method for falling in love with yourself over and over.

You can’t do that with a longtime mate because he knows all that old material. With a long relationship, things die then are rekindled, and that shared process of rebirth deepens the love. It’s hard work, though, and a lot of people run at the first sign of trouble. You’re with this person, and suddenly you look like an asshole to them or they look like an asshole to you — it’s unpleasant, but if you can get through it you get closer and you learn a way of loving that’s different from the neurotic love enshrined in movies. It’s warmer and has more padding to it.”

~Joni Mitchell

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#WiseWoman
#Love
#Union