Carol Christ’s Legacy honored by Laura Shannon, and the Ariadne Institute
Once I educate the Heroine’s Journey in my Sophia Girls’s Knowledge Group, I draw on Joseph Campbell’s concept of the mono-myth, an archetypal story that resonates with each human throughout time: The Hero’s Journey. I mix Campbell’s concepts with items of feminist Maureen Murdock’s heroine’s journey to acknowledge the distinctive pathway of the female. I name this my hybrid heroic journey. If you’re not acquainted with Maureen Murdock’s work, I invite you to see how she introduced her feminist eye to Campbell’s iconic Hero’s Journey in her ebook The Heroine’s Journey: Lady’s Quest for Wholeness. After her dialog with Joseph Campbell six years previous to his transition, Murdock felt he missed “that the main target of feminine religious growth was to heal the interior cut up between girl and her female nature” (p. 2). In my hybrid heroic journey, that cut up within the early phases is internalized destructive masculinity. The rejection of our female nature could seem in another way in every girl’s life however it’s typically characterised by treating ourselves how we think about males understand us.
My current Pilgrimage to Crete was astonishing; my epiphany, gradual. As I share my journey, think about phases of your individual heroine’s journey wherever you’re in that cycle. I hope that by sharing this collection, you’ll expertise an actual life instance of Dion Fortune’s definition of magic: ‘The artwork of adjusting consciousness at will’. Starhawk, Fact or Dare, 1988.
I’ve intentionally mixed Maureen Murdock’s lesser recognized phases of the heroine’s journey with Joseph Campbell’s well-known phases of the hero’s journey.
Heroine’s Journey – The Journey Begins
Stage One – Bizarre World – Separation from the Female, Identification with the Masculine, Gathering of Allies
Mono-myths commit time describing the heroine’s extraordinary world so it may be contrasted with the ‘particular world’ she’ll quickly enter. In my extraordinary world right here in Comox, on lovely Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada it’s possible you’ll image me serving ladies day-after-day in my follow, together with the coinciding duties of energetic work to every girl, scheduling, following up, and charting. That will be the floor. Beneath you’ll see me positioned on the centre supporting members of the family experiencing unimaginable trauma.
My extraordinary world illustrates Murdock’s separation from the female and identification with the masculine which I outline as internalized destructive masculinity. Sue Monk Kidd summarizes Starhawk’s 5 faces of internalized destructive masculinity:
“Starhawk says the voices from the patriarchy, which assault our inherent price, turn into internalized because the self-hater. It’s the previous king, she says, with 5 faces: the Conqueror, who treats the self and people round us as enemies to be feared and destroyed; the Orderer, who inflicts inflexible management; the Grasp of Servants, who calls for that we deny our personal wants and needs to serve others’ ends; the Censor, who retains us silent; and the Choose, who provides to revive worth to us in change for obedience”. (from Fact or Dare by Starhawk, p. 66, as summarized by Sue Monk Kidd in The Dance of the Dissident Daughter).
Discover Starhawk intersecting with Murdock. I internalized these voices and faces as if the mirror of patriarchy was dealing with me together with a microphone. I used to be not treating myself properly; I used to be denying my very own must serve others; I didn’t discuss my wants. I used to be additionally biking on the blame loop, one other function of internalized destructive masculinity. Everybody else was demanding an excessive amount of; I advised myself I used to be not selecting.
Stage Two – Name to Journey – Highway of Trials, Assembly Ogres and Dragons
My name to journey was an invite to journey alone. At first I refused the decision. I used to be feeling fairly sorry for myself since for plenty of causes I felt I ‘had’ to go on the pilgrimage alone. Going alone was not the unique plan. Truthfully? I used to be each resentful and terrified. I hadn’t travelled alone for years, and I lacked confidence since I grew to become enmeshed with my associate throughout COVID. My internal ogres and dragons have been my fears of travelling alone. Now new symbols and representations of the Goddess grew to become a theme in my journey. I met with Autumn Skye as I used to be dealing with my fears. Autumn gave me permission to share the cardboard I drew from her gorgeous deck together with the phrases ‘ADVENTURE – embrace the unknown; follow unattachment; change is imminent; take a leap of religion; say sure’.
Stage Three – Refusal of the Name
Regardless of this encouraging oracle card, sensible points, household crises, packing stressors, guilt, resentment, and irritability solely added to the manifestations of internalized destructive masculinity to maintain me caught within the blame loop for a number of weeks. There was a parade of 1 emotional impediment after one other. Laura Shannon, the brave girl who picked up Carol Christ’s baton, known as these unusual pre-departure private challenges because the “internal pilgrimage” and invited us to contemplate carrying their which means into the pilgrimage itself. In mono-myths, the refusal of the decision is often in regards to the concern of leaving what’s acquainted and secure.
On one other extra essential degree, from 2018 by means of three years of COVID, I grew to become the attention within the centre of traumatic household crises. Horrific will not be an overstatement. I exerted myself on each degree to help my family members. My unconsciousness of the impact this had on my psyche was a really actual a part of my refusal of the decision. May I actually go away?
A month previous to my departure I advised the reality of my resistance to myself and to secure allies. Fact telling moved me from blame to pleasure about my solo journey. I grew to become obsessive about the problem of limiting myself to a keep it up and a again pack as I ready for archaeological digs, ruins, caves, hikes, oceans, mountain villages, shrines, and sacred centres on Crete.
To be continued tomorrow . . .
BIO: Theresa (Terry) Of us, MA, RCC, CCC is a Spiritually Built-in Psychotherapist, educator and creator. She serves ladies in her non-public follow, SpiritFirst Counselling, in Comox on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. She facilitates Sophia Girls’s Knowledge teams, and leads workshops for empowering ladies. She provides self remedy methods and religious practices on her web site and her Writer FB web page as a result of she believes her life’s mission is to assist ladies empower themselves. She is the creator of Counselling Approaches to Non secular Points, a Masters Stage Curriculum for MA candidates all in favour of infusing religious sources in remedy. Terry can be the creator of One other Spring: A Yr of Self Remedy & Non secular Therapeutic Practices. She awaits a writer who acknowledges the worth of empowering ladies together with her ebook. You’ll be able to entry her items, meditations, and methods at https://www.fb.com/TerryFolksSpiritFirstCounselling and right here at https://spiritfirstcounselling.ca/weblog/
