Finding Our Mythic Voices

Coming Waves ~ ©2018 ML Monroe

Myths are bigger-than-life stories filled with beautiful symbols and strong characters. They provide lessons about life, creation, and existence along with a sense of community, belonging and wonder.

Myths are also beautiful, subtle lies. They create magical auras of superiority and difference. As much as we may deny it, we are culturally, and some would say biologically, programmed to accept and believe this too. We want to be important, significant, recognized, acknowledged.

The false side of some of our most precious myths still flash with diamond-sharp light. The Crusades were a result of believing one group was Chosen and another was Heretic. The Holocaust. The Islamic State. The Armenian Genocide. We understand those big ones. Most of us do not subscribe to them.

Some myths are more subtle. Black males as inherently violent. Women created to be subservient. Racial/ethnic/cultural purity as important. Poor people as lazy. Rich people as arrogant. They may even be individual or family myths. Even though these myths may have some flash and sheen to them, they are significantly cutting, damaging and maybe even dangerous. The subtlety of these myths sweeps over us like an ocean wave. We feel its presence and even some of its power. Until it builds to the point of knocking us over, we often don't recognize the full force of impact.

The upside is that we have agency. We have the ability to change the stories, to rewrite the myths. The #MeToo movement is doing that. As is the #NeverAgain movement. And #BlackLivesMatter. We have the opportunity to reach within ourselves and rediscover the truth. Both our personal truth as well as the cultural and communal truth.

In the arena of personal myths, many have been passed to us by the community around us. We believe we are important or unimportant because that's what has been imparted to us. We believe we have control over others ~ often a myth inadvertently passed to the eldest child. We believe we are only popular if we are the captain of the football team or the mathletes. We believe we will not amount to anything or we have the right  us because of where we were born. Individual mythologies are numerous.

We have agency over these too. When we discover them and name them, we own them. They no longer own us. It takes focus and work after that to use our own mythic voices, those inner whispers that pointed out the fallacies in the myths, to rework and rewrite them. Doing so gives us a renewed strength with the bonus that it also bolsters our creative, mythic voice.

How do you know what myths have influence over your life? What personal myth have you believed that no longer serves you? What communal myth have you believed that no longer serves you? What steps will you take to change those myths? How loud ~ or quiet ~ is your mythic voice?

Discovering Truth in Mythic Voices

When it comes to mythology, we have diverse views concerning what it is, how to interpret it, who gets to define it, and why many of the myths echo each other. We also have differing ways of comparing our personal myths with ancient/traditional ones.

It is generally accepted that myths provide us with stories and symbols which shape our beliefs about ourselves, our community, our world, and our humanity.

Over time these stories and symbols grow into myths. Once that happens, we no longer question them. They structure the meaning and direction our minds use to define the way things are or are meant to be. As with so many things, myths are at their most powerful in our lives when they are so deeply ingrained, we don't name them. We believe we don't have to define them because they simply are. At that point, we generally have little awareness of their power over us.

We see this everywhere around us. Every day. All of our most noxious isms grow out of one or more of these unquestioned, deeply ingrained myths. And yet....many of our most cherished myths are also about change. Siddhartha Gautama sat under the bodhi tree until he reached enlightenment. Jesus preached about and shared all he had as an example of change. Kwan Yin choose to stay on the Earth plane to continue to be a compassionate source. Boudica, as queen of the British Celtic Iseni tribe, went to war to free her people from Roman rule, uncommon for a woman. Hercules. Mulan. Moana. Even Disney retells our myths. Sherlock Holmes. Lyra Silvertongue. Tom Sawyer. We find mythic characters everywhere. We listen to their mythic voices.

We have choice. We have agency. We determine which myths we will believe. Which we will follow. Which we will question.

Which stories live within your life? How do you determine what is myth? Are there beliefs you have about yourself that grow out of those stories or myths? What symbols are significant in your life? Where did you learn about those symbols? Why are they important?

Teabag Tarot: Light and Dark

I take my tea seriously. Well, maybe not my tea as much as the Teabag Tarot which accompanies it. This one was especially poignant since I've recently gone through a rather dark moment.

Dark moments happen. Our reflection seems a bit dingy. Our minds quietly turn toward melancholy. Our hearts feel too heavy for breath. These moments last however long they last ~ days or weeks or years. We may tumble in for an extended period or cycle in and out as the moments capture us.

When we're in the midst of them, we struggle to believe in, much less see and feel, the light. No matter. The light is there. Feeding us. Supporting us. Reaching toward us. As we emerge from our dark moment, we recognize that. We may rage against the light, howling about its desertion of us. Again, no matter. The light moves toward us, surrounds us, nurtures us. We breathe it in and move on.

Details of my dark moment stacked one upon another, consisting mostly of watching friends going through painful transitions that ranged from an unwanted move to significant health issues to the beginnings of dementia. As I slid from one to another of my friends' issues, rest eluded me. I slipped into an anxiety of my own, compounded by juggling connections and too much busyness. Little things that normally would glissade past, now crowded onto the stack. I watched sleep pass further out of reach. Sound familiar?

The four charges in this Teabag Tarot resonate like proverbs in my ear. We hear them, maybe even say them, with increasing frequency. Live light. Keep your life as simple as possible. Open yourself to the beauty around you. Travel light. Don't take or take on more than you can carry. Be ready to give up whatever doesn't serve you. Lighten your own load. Spread the light. Share the beauty within you. Listen to others. Give of yourself. Be the light. Live with self-understanding. Be an example of vulnerability and courage for others. When I remember these charges, when I actively practice them, they don't make the dark moments go away. They simply remind me of the balance of light and darkness in my life, our lives and our world.

What dark moments have you gone through? How did you get through them? Where are you now in the movement from light to dark? What practices help you find balance? What practices do you want to increase? diminish? maintain?

Hiatus Return

My four month hiatus from this blog was a remarkable adventure. No travel or significant life changes. Simply the allowance of what is to be.

This quote, from the unlikely source of Mel Gibson, struck home. I chuckled aloud at my Starbucks table, then looked up to find people glancing over at me. Some grinning, others curious, one perhaps perturbed. It didn't matter. Finding this quote was a continuation of the adventure.

Mid-November, I stopped writing in this blog. I don't know why. I simply couldn't focus, couldn't motivate myself to put fingers to keyboard and type. No prominent reason to explain it. Was it entropy? Was it inertia? Was it depression? As far as I can tell, it was none of these. Life itself stepped in front of me and we began a slightly different dance.

Every person I know is on an artistic journey. Every. Single. Person. It's part of our human nature to create, to nurture, to nourish. All of those are art. Our definition of "art" can be as narrow or as broad as we want. We can define it with characteristics, such as it has to look like Gauguin painted it or sound like Etta James sang it or move like Bob Fosse or Adele Astaire danced it. The fact that we know these names, that they conjure up images, is a tribute to their individual talents ~~~ which each of us has.

In my search for an aptly descriptive word, I came across cynosure ~ defined as: 1) something that strongly attracts attention by its brilliance, interest, etc.; 2) something serving for guidance or direction. Perfect. The reason for my hiatus was to reconnect with my personal cynosure. Whatever it is in my soul that calls me to write. To do any kind of art.

From what have you recently taken a hiatus? Conversely, what in your life would benefit from taking a hiatus? What is the cynosure in your artistic journey? What do you do to nourish it? to keep it alive? How does it nurture you?

Scorpio New Moon 2017

Another New Moon ~~ this month, in Scorpio, the sign of hidden truths. We are in the traditional falling aspect of the Moon since the Sun is going deeper into darkness before it resurrects in December. Scorpio is represented by four diverse Beings: the Scorpion, the Snake, the Eagle and the Phoenix ~ all creatures of transmutation. Since Scorpio rules transformation and metamorphosis, we are in a time of edginess and a sort of uncertainty.

Let's turn our focus to the positive aspects of Scorpio ~ passion, resourcefulness, deep perception, focus. We have time to work on our own skills of self-reflection and self-mastery. Probe our own depths for moments when we feel out of control. Work on freeing ourselves of those burdensome emotions and tendecies toward self-inflicted woundings.

The Scorpio New Moon provides the environment for us to delve our deepest self and the mysteries of our world, to compassionately feel into others' motivations, to dedicate ourselves to one particular undertaking. Its watery sign has place us in the best current for doing our healing work, particularly in the arena of the emotions if we are willing to dive below the surface to reach them. The deeper we dive, the stronger our abilities to heal others. We have a tremendous opportunity to surface psychological and spiritual insights over the next month as well ~ if we are willing to be vulnerable and take a risk to show our personal power. If we allow it, Scorpio will help us eliminate whatever has held us back so we can heal the past and begin anew.

With its hidden power, the Scorpio New Moon illuminates our connection to the Dark Feminine Divine. Use it to release fear of others taking power over us. Use it to dive deeper into the purifying fires of Pele, the rattling skulls of Kali, the fertile seeds of Persephone, and the intimate sensuality of Lilith. The Dark Feminine Divine does not discriminate against any gender, but empowers each of us in Her Own way.

We are called to bring all that we are to our lives, every aspect and every facet of ourselves. The challenge is to embrace it fully ~ roses with soft petals, enticing scents, thorns and all. Are you ready?

How do you incorporate Scorpio's positive traits into your life? What are you willing to bring to the surface? What healing will you allow into your life? How deep are you willing to dive? What fear/s are you willing to release? What undertaking are you ready to take to a deeper level? What practice will you embrace to keep yourself grounded?

A Great Pilgrimage

When this quote slipped across my screen, I paused. I have a particular love for the term pilgrimage. Its etymology and definition can be summed up as a journey to a distant place for spiritual knowledge and/or edification.

I felt in need of a great pilgrimage, so I sat still for three days, and God came to me.
~Kabir

 Over the years, I've been fortunate enough to go on many pilgrimages. Several of them echoed Kabir's words. Which is likely why I was so drawn to them.

Pilgrimage = journey to a distant place. St. Thérèse of Lisieux is the patron saint of pilgrimages though she never left her home town of Lisieux. Why?

Thérèse exemplified Kabir's words. Repeatedly in her writings and in the stories of her life are instances of her visitations from the Divine, even as she sat quietly in prayer. Often, she was berated for falling asleep during her prayers. Her response was that she was alseep in the arms of God. So deep in conversation that to those around her, she was not awake nor aware. She was far away.

No matter what we choose to call the Divine, we have repeated opportunities to do as Thérèse did. Our focus on the Divine can be so intense that we appear to others to be asleep. We know we are not. We know the dream world through which we are moving is the realm of the Divine.

Sometimes we have the chance to travel in this world as well. To go on pilgrimage. To walk and move in the holy places, wherever they may be. After my first trip to the Holy Land, a friend asked me to describe how the place felt. Was it different from home? My response came in the form of a smile and an enigmatic statement, That's why they call it the Holy Land. When many people's hearts, minds and prayers focus on a particular place, all that graced energy makes the place itself holy. It enshrines the energetics of the land itself and dedicates it to the Divine.

Pilgrimage can take place anywhere. We bring the holy with us as we move through the world. As long as we continue to move with prayerful, holy intent, we carry that energy with us. The pilgrimage blesses both us and the place of our focus along with all those we encounter along the way.

When was the last time you went on a pilgrimage? Where did you go? Did the Divine come to you wherever you were? Why did you consider it a pilgrimage? How were you called to it? How did it bless you? What blessing did you bring to it? What difference did it create in you when you returned?

Taurus Full Moon 2017

©2017 ML Monroe

November's Full Moon in Taurus follows on the heels of the New Moon in Libra calling us to find balance, to take time for ourselves, to open our eyes to the challenges. Jupiter and the Sun aligned to encourage our expansive and extensive wishes and seed-planting.

So here comes the powerhouse of the Full Moon in Taurus in the 11th month. A Numerology aside: 11 is a Master Number, with double digits. Not only that, it's a special Master Number because at its core is the ability to reach spiritual enlightenment as well as the duality of the Divine Masculine number 1 AND the Divine Feminine number 2. Balance.

Enough of that. Dipping a toe into numerology is enough for this particular Moon. The sacred energy of the number 11 coupled with the Taurus Full Moon equates to multiple opportunities for positive advancement in business, relationships and home. In every way, this Full Moon is supportive. Time to work on organizing, breaking free of old patterns, and beginning new chapters in life. In a nutshell, transformation. An action that is a challenge to many of us, yet truly necessary if we are to grow more fully into our beingness. Both the Master Number 11 and the Taurus Full Moon are providing the energy ~ if only we take the first step.

Part of that first step includes accepting and relying on our intuition. The Taurus Full Moon accentuates both its strength and accuracy. It also creates a protective space for meditation, lucid dreaming and other spiritual activities. All our dreams, both sleeping and waking, will be more creative and more vivid.

Draw on the energy of this Full Moon to release any fears holding you back from stepping into the life you are called to live. Break through barriers and move forward with strength. Be grounded and allow space for the grief that comes as we let go of what was and what never could be in order to step fully into what is.

If we rely on facts and science, we know that naming our emotions, recognizing and acknowledging them, stops the amygdala from slipping into that fear ~ or fight-or-flight ~ place. That allows our pre-frontal cortex time to breathe and recognize that we've been through this before.

Let's use the power of this Taurus Full Moon as the unique focal point it is. We continue to be called into the deeper and truer parts of ourselves and to develop ways to express those facets of who we are to the world at large. It's part of the duality of the gifts we are given and the gifts we have to offer to the world.

What do you need to let go of in order to grow? What do you stand for? Where do you find solid ground on which to stand? How do your values support you when your emotions get the best of you? What dream calls itself into reality through you right now? How do you express your trust in your own kindness?