Half 1 was posted yesterday, you possibly can learn it right here.
Stage 9 – Reward (Seizing the Sword) – Therapeutic the Mom/Daughter Cut up
Some up to date variations of the Heroine’s Journey have the heroine or hero seizing the sword fairly dramatically. She takes possession of the treasure ‘sword’ as data, expertise, or higher understanding. My reward was extra refined however deeply profound. It took Her awhile to assist me perceive however ultimately I finished combating and leaned into Mom Mountain. Once I was calmer, once I turned nonetheless, stopped making an attempt so exhausting … once I lastly surrendered I used to be capable of ask Her why.
Why Mom Mountain? Why COVID? Why now?
Her response was as clear as if She was talking in my ear:
“It was the one method we might meet one another. Each step you have got taken thus far has led you to this sacred second.”
I wept.
Then I wrote:
The Mountain Mom, Mount Idi (PsiloritIs Mountain vary) watched over our little group of Covid quarantined pilgrims underneath an unlimited avocado tree at Resort Idi in Zaros Crete whereas the opposite fifteen pilgrims travelled to sacred Goddess websites across the island.
We have been initially known as the Covid Sisters, then the Corona Goddesses (pun supposed) however we most popular to be known as the Avocado Sisterhood. We met every day underneath the tree for yoga, test in’s, check outcomes, well being modifications, assist for the waves of emotional turbulence, sharing tales from our “different lives” outdoors this liminal time, and designing a ceremony for Autumnal Equinox.
I see you. Thanks expensive Doreen to your wacky spontaneous humor (humor that belies deep knowledge) … I laughed loud from the stomach between my crying jags. Thanks oh so revered Faye for unabashedly sharing a lifetime of Goddess data (and chocolate). Thanks Eva for giving us permission to say “That was impolite.”
Thanks expensive smart outdated soul – 30 yr outdated Summer time – who mentioned in the future: “The opposite pilgrims are travelling broadly round Crete, however we’re travelling deeply. I imagine John O’Donohue talked about travelling deeply if you keep in a single place. That’s how I really feel. I’m usually such a busy individual, it was straightforward to think about myself travelling throughout Crete, doing as a lot as doable. It could have been unattainable for me to image the expertise of stillness, slowness, and relaxation that we’ve had right here.”
Oh, to be that smart at 30! Oh to listen to once more Summer time’s hauntingly lovely singing as soon as once more!
I examined optimistic for Covid on Saturday, September sixteenth, the primary official day of my Goddess Pilgrimage on Crete and went into quarantine in Zaros, within the PsiloritIs Mountains. I might not check unfavorable till 11 days in a while Wednesday, September twenty seventh, when the opposite pilgrims have been simply returning to Heraklion for his or her last few days of wind down earlier than heading dwelling.
I found that some pilgrimages have an itinerary, a information e-book that require you to journey far and large, from one vacation spot to a different. Different pilgrimages ask you to journey deep … then deeper … and but ever deeper by staying “… in a single place.”
This expertise crushed me, introduced me to my knees, distilled me all the way down to my very essence. The itinerary was gone, there was no journey information, the route, erased. The depths of myself the place I used to be taken couldn’t have been mapped out every other method. There was no agenda besides self care on this second …. after which on this second …. now on this subsequent one. John O’Donohue references self-exile in his writings, and the Celtic paradox of discovering the sunshine of that means in our darkest hours. In one in all her items, Maureen Murdock explains “The female journey is about taking place deep into soul therapeutic and reclaiming, whereas the masculine journey is up and out, to spirit.”
Once I was emptied, there She was.
I discovered Goddess inside …
My Avocado Sisters … I thanks for witnessing that this actually occurred. At some factors throughout these weeks, I assumed, “Certainly I’ve died and that is my subsequent life” or “Ahhhhh … I get it! This can be a dream and I’m going to get up any second now.” However we noticed one another.
Thanks for accepting that I needed to step away sometimes. You didn’t choose me for doing so. I wished to apologize for caring for myself, however you wouldn’t let me. You invited me again in to the circle each time I used to be prepared. You meant it. I used to be accepted. I belonged.
Thanks a lot for having my again when it was time to “re-surface” from liminal time to so-called “regular” life, after I lastly examined unfavorable for Covid. You left forward of me, ready the best way. I’ll always remember that welcoming once I returned. I really like you. I’ll always remember you.
Blessed be.Terry, September 2023, Crete, Greece
BIO: Theresa (Terry) People, MA, RCC, CCC is a Spiritually Built-in Psychotherapist, educator and creator. She serves girls in her personal apply, SpiritFirst Counselling, in Comox on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. She facilitates Sophia Girls’s Knowledge teams, and leads workshops for empowering girls. She provides self remedy methods and religious practices on her web site and her Creator FB web page as a result of she believes her life’s mission is to assist girls empower themselves. She is the creator of Counselling Approaches to Religious Points, a Masters Degree Curriculum for MA candidates inquisitive about infusing religious assets in remedy. Terry can be the creator of One other Spring: A Yr of Self Remedy & Religious Therapeutic Practices. She awaits a writer who acknowledges the worth of empowering girls together with her e-book. You may entry her presents, meditations, and methods at https://www.fb.com/TerryFolksSpiritFirst/ and right here at https://spiritfirstcounselling.ca/weblog/
