Half 1 was posted yesterday.
Stage 4 – Mentor Seems
Joseph Campbell spoke of ‘mentors’ showing to assist the sojourner, and what Maureen Murdock known as the gathering of allies. In my hybrid of those two archetypal journeys, there could also be a number of mentors – human, energy animals, divine guides or a mix. She could possibly be a sensible elder who helps the heroine put together for the journey or offers her a present for later use. In my case the sensible elder was my 93 12 months outdated mother who turned one among my mentors. Once I expressed my pleasure and fears, she mentioned what she all the time says once I – one among her seven youngsters – am going through a problem: “Go get’em Tiger!” She additionally supplied monetary help so I might take time away from my psychotherapy follow.
Two different mentors confirmed up in what Carl Jung known as my ‘lively creativeness’: Carol Christ and Marija Gimbutas. Each have transitioned so my lively creativeness conjured their help as divine intervention. I reread Carol’s reflections and teachings on the pilgrimage, and watched the movies she made as inspiration. I felt her invitation. I used to be prepared to vary.
Stage 5 – Crossing the First Threshold – Discovering the Boon of Success
I intentionally and with intention modified my consciousness at will. I made magic. I dedicated to leaving “the identified” and the acquainted, separating myself from my neighborhood and household, and venturing into the unknown and unfamiliar – alone. There was magic as I crossed the primary threshold. I started to embrace my imminent immersion into Minoan tradition.
I hoped my publicity to Minoan tradition on Crete would echo Sue Monk Kidd’s analysis discoveries in The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: “Till then I’d identified virtually nothing about Minoan Crete. That day I found it was a extremely developed tradition that existed in Greece up till round 1450 B.C.E., a tradition during which the supreme deity was feminine and girls and female values loved excessive cultural valuing. Scholar Riane Eisler suggests Minoan Crete was the final surviving instance of a pre-patriarchal society.” Kidd is referencing Eisler’s guide The Chalice and the Blade.
I used to be excited and hopeful. Think about a world the place girls are honored as start givers. Many ‘woman-honoring males’ proudly name themselves feminists, and work alongside girls to create a extra egalitarian world however right here was an actual historic instance.
We will’t return to an actual duplicate of the Goddess cultures of Previous Europe previous to the Kurgan invasions round 3500 years in the past. However one other world is feasible for us now as a result of we’ve got historic proof that woman-honoring cultures have been peaceable, creative, agrarian, round, cooperative, and loving. We’ve an historic instance, a precedent. It is vital that we share this historic actuality with our kids and others, as a result of a lot of it isn’t formally taught. If you happen to don’t know what’s potential, how will you aspire to it?
Stage Six – Assessments, Allies and Enemies – Awakening to Emotions of Non secular Aridity: Demise
I left my house on Vancouver Island, Canada on Tuesday, September twelfth. I flew to Vancouver, then Toronto, then Athens, then landed within the metropolis of Heraklion, Crete on Friday, the fifteenth. A ridiculously lengthy journey with my choice to in a single day in Toronto and Athens.
I believed I used to be merely navigating growing jet lag once I began feeling peaked on Thursday and Friday, however I donned a masks as a precaution for the remaining flights to Athens and on to Heraklion, Crete.
I used to be nonetheless feeling in poor health on Saturday, so with the loving help of pilgrimage leaders Laura, Joan and Angelique, I examined for Covid on that first official day of the Pilgrimage. Positive sufficient – I examined constructive. I used to be devastated. How might this be? No, this was not taking place.
Instantly after testing constructive, on the first formal circle of the pilgrims on the rooftop of the Olympic Lodge in Heraklion, I used to be given a Goddess card, my pilgrimage information:Yemanya. She is the goddess who invitations novices to stroll by means of a door and embrace a golden alternative. What might this presumably imply if I used to be sick and needed to sequester myself?
Fairly in poor health, I quarantined that night within the metropolis. Form Laura and pricey Kostantis equipped electrolytes, lozenges, tissue, and extra exams. To finish my convalescence and isolation till I examined unfavorable, I used to be pushed from Heraklion to rural Lodge Idi close to the tiny village of Zaros beneath Mount Ida within the Psiloritis Mountains of Crete.
Despite my despair and sickness, magic continued once I met Evi, the proprietor/supervisor of Lodge Idi. She had identified Carol Christ (‘Karolina’) and had hosted many pilgrims over time as Zaros was the primary cease on the pilgrimage. When Evi gave me a typical key to my wee cottage/room, the important thing was within the form of a labrys! It was heavy and strong and gorgeous. I knew that despite a few of the ridiculous misinterpretations of symbolic meanings of the labrys, it’s really one of many age outdated symbols of the Goddess motion, and represents for a lot of, our reminiscence of pre-patriarchal woman-honoring cultures. The labrys was not a weapon till it was perceived as one by invading patriarchal attackers. I knew that the labrys carried religious and/or sensible relevance in Minoan day by day life. At that first encounter, I supplied to compensate Evi if she might conduct a seek for a labrys key and not using a quantity embossed on it. She was comfortable to oblige.
She had no thought what her promise meant to me.
Word: Terry will write about her continued journey in future posts.
BIO: Theresa (Terry) People, MA, RCC, CCC is a Spiritually Built-in Psychotherapist, educator and writer. She serves girls in her non-public follow, SpiritFirst Counselling, in Comox on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. She facilitates Sophia Ladies’s Knowledge teams, and leads workshops for empowering girls. 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 girls empower themselves. She is the writer of Counselling Approaches to Non secular Points, a Masters Degree Curriculum for MA candidates occupied with infusing religious assets in remedy. Terry can also be the writer of One other Spring: A 12 months of Self Remedy & Non secular Therapeutic Practices. She awaits a writer who acknowledges the worth of empowering girls along with her guide. You possibly can entry her items, meditations, and techniques at https://www.fb.com/TerryFolksSpiritFirstCounselling and right here at https://spiritfirstcounselling.ca/weblog/
