The Nature of Goddess Mythology
From the subtle to the gross plains of being, this Self calls to be witnessed.
Welcome back, I want to welcome you here and invite you to acknowledge your desires at this moment. All that is possibly swaying your awareness away from the present to the past or imagining ideals that may or may not really truly resonate with you. Can you Notice at the base of all of these desires there is actually one thing? Liberation.
Now that the feel and depth of Goddess lore has been established with my previous pieces, there is an expansive aspect that calls for our awareness - wielding the power of story. When we somewhat unknowingly go out in a rain shower with no protection of any kind we will get drenched. But what if we know it's raining? What if there was space to put on all the gear we know is best before we head out. We would get a little rain on us, sure, though it would be considerably less and it might feel more like play than the weather betraying us. This is all to say the power of story can overtake us. We can allow it to define us, soak all the way to the bone. Until we forget why we decided to venture outside in the first place.
Emily Oliveira The vessel and the blood boiling into air between us, Kissing we were breathing, And dying from the temporary ecstasies, we let go, Into the depths of one another, Go, We went, We sang, And God, Was a feeling we gave to ourselves, 2020
Cotton and Rayon Jacquard weaving, hand dyed cotton, cotton batting. 47 x 108 in.
It is clear that story is not innately cruel; attempting to render us defenseless. There is the magic invitation Goddess stories point out - your say & your way are welcome. If anything is innate within a story’s form, it's the compassionate seat of awareness that waits for and values your perspective - your essence. The Self that is wholly you - the differentiated rain drop of the timeless, formless, stillness that all weather stirs from. From the subtle to the gross plains of being, this Self calls to be witnessed. We, in our truest (most refined) sense, are called on. Our presence matters in the pouring rain storms and the moments before we take a bite of a warm meal.
Liberation comes in a myriad of forms. Like the countless micro revolutions we are constantly enacting as we learn and then choose better - do better. Notice and, with compassion, correct ourselves. Upon reviewing the stories or memories that may have morphed into beliefs and fuel our acts, we have an opportunity on a very subtle, but accessible, level to make that precious choice - is it me or is it not me, will it never be me?
When it comes down to it, we shape how we show up. We express what is in us. That the making of meaning is ours to wield and that will never change so long as this relative reality is the home base. We find the Goddess stories as a template in that regard. Where those nuanced announcements of this breast plate being given up or that set of arrows no longer at the ready are ready to be identified with our personal meanings.
Yes, the dominant culture attempts to invalidate us out of this process in numerous ways that I will never be as well versed in as these brilliant individuals. I invite you to invest in their work and invest in yourself - for this growth to have roots deep and wide it has got to be considerate and uplifting for both yourself and the community of all in existence but especially marginalized communities.
If we learn through story, find attachment to both beneficial and harmful narratives that propel us on a journey, wouldn’t we want that to center our authentic, undiluted liberation? On a personal and collective level as one is never truly in full bloom without the other.
Rithika Merchant, Halcyon Days, 2021
The liberation that underlies the desires, boundaries, and the greater service Nature is asking of us, is all up to us, to meet it, as it always meets us wherever we are. The choices we make that bring us closer to the ever present quality of us, that allow more of that innate luminosity to shine through our skin, that honour the knowing that our distinct radiance has always and will always be guiding us, that it is intact wholly and completely so we end up organizing our lives around this fact and we find Ourselves free.
The flux playing out as the great drama and the great liberation in personal and collective choice making are unified, but where our individual identification - that firmly woven cord tethered to our sense of self - finds its emphasis, is telling. We have options and opportunities to remember the steady (but maybe soft) voice of our inner guidance.
All the aspects of Goddess stories innately make us pay attention because we can sense the grandness they are invoking. Yet they are timeless at their core. They are all just hereness, silence, stillness, forever freedom embedded at the subtlest level - some may call that divinity. Together we will explore how with this grasp, our journey can be wildly different than what the collective is being ‘inclined’ towards. Noticing, unpacking, and applying our liberation inclined choices to the powerful container of story is such a way to directly contact the divine, radiant, objective truth of the matter.
Freedom is where we came from and that unified field is unchanging, timeless, and truly wordless. The beauty of it is, it's also us. We know because that is the only objective truth we can be certain of, from one wave to another; you are the ocean and so am I. That beingness within us that says ‘my mind’ is not of the mind. It observes the mind and is ‘in’ it when it's deemed relevant. However there is never separateness between the wave and the ocean, it is simply differentiable enough to recognize the great love it is. We are of the unified field that is free and we are in the world choosing liberation. I’m so honoured to be here along with you.
