Recently I attended a weekend with the Baltimore/D.C. branch of Awesome Women Hub, a national organization founded by Robin Rice to bring women together to vision “what’s next.” That was about the sum total of the explanation for the weekend, and it was a brilliant strategy to bring together women who are edge walkers/risk takers/intuitives/creatives. I felt very at home.
For Robin, the focus was creativing a video from the weekend where each participant voiced what being fearless meant to her within the confines of several words and an 8×11 piece of paper. We broke into groups to do that. Florida leader/facilitator, and Shaman Woman, Carla Goddard led a small ceremony after each group filmed. In my group, she asked if we would like to hear any messages she got as she led our closing ritual.
I said yes and she spoke of knee and feet problems to come if I did not heal my root chakra.
Let me tell you that I had not spoken of my hurting knees and achey feet to anyone. And when I looked up the root chakra at home, I discovered it has to do with foundations and safety/survival, our body and our identity as individuals – things that have been very shakey for me during my recent deep darks.
Many people claim intuition – that’s one thing: the claim. And I’ll admit to always being a bit skeptical. But when it sneaks up and demonstrates itself to me, skepticism goes out the window.
I went to listen, and I got the message. Along with a few more I could do without but am ready to deal with thanks to those deep darks that I sat through by being willing to be in the question without an answer.
There has been a shift, and a change in my question for the year. I am ready to move out of the question and into potential.
This is what I have come to understand: I am a warrior – it is my very Aries nature. But that nature has too (too!) long been deflected to the shadow side of the Warrior: the rebel with authority issues. I can almost hear the universal “yep! On the nose!” I read this as action or reaction with too much fire power – loosing all the energy when a soft breath out would do. I recognize that has to do with safety. And if it has to do with safety, it has to do with fear of not having safety. Fear. And I went to a weekend talking about fearlessness.
Nothing – NOTHING – is by accident.
Another group, Andrea hylen’s Heal My Voice/DC and Baltimore, has grown out of the weekend. It’s purpose is a nine-month exercise that will end in a book, loosely based on an instance/experience where we recognized fearlessness. The first month (which we are getting ready to finish) is more listening. And in that listening building community. We gathered together in small groups when we met last week, and spoke of what stood in the way of being fearless. The warrior spirit came to my mind and so I spoke of that and received feedback on the amount of energy behind just the word when I spoke it.
So I brought that home, mixed in some body work and came to this: fearless is more than being a warrior attacking. Fearless is being a warrior standing in her own power serenely. I don’t need to be on the defensive. I can stand in potential and use my energy as required from a place of serene power. Fearless is right action – that is, a matching energetic response to environmental events. It requires discernment, wisdom and lots of compassion for myself and all others things I encounter (Here’s an interesting article on the warrior/leader based in Angeles Arrien’s Four-fold way). It requires that I pay attention to what I let into my spirit self’s circle. For instance if I want to be knowledgeable about policies that affect my life, I find and interact with trusted sources. I research things that feel wrong. I respond to them with action that is appropriate for my level of response. I do not sit and yell at the tv. Lack of clear communication, or any communication at all, uncenters me and throws me back into the shadow of the warrior power: power over and power against rather than power with.
It is clear to me that “power with” frees us from having to protect our boundaries because of mutual respect as well as attending to and being responsible for our own business.
With that understanding came the shift of living in the question (and, wow – be careful what you claim because I have truely been living in “I don’t know!” land), came a word that will guide me now until it doesn’t: potential. When I stand in my power, acting with discernment, wisdom and compassion, I am pure potential. How’s that for being an edge walker! And now I understand my attraction last year to the buffalo in Yellowstone park. If they aren’t power as pure potential, I don’t know what is! Funny how things start linking together when you pay attention to them!
What do you think of when you think of your inner warrior, or, more appropriately named for this blog, your inner Wylde Woman, and how does she manifest in your life?
Wylde Women’s Wisdom
Among many indigenous cultures, trees are regarded at the medicine people of the plant kingdom. Like trees, the Warrior’s way is to become rooted and contained – flexible and bending the wind, yet stable. In many cultures trees symbolize the process of transformation. The roots of the trees are associated with the past and how we honor our heritage and ancestors. The trunk symbolizes the present life and reveals where the life force and creative spirit are either engaged or not. The branches symbolize desired future goals, or if it is a flowering or fruit tree, the attainment of those goals. The Warrior, like a tree, honors the past, present, and future from season to season. Angeles Arrien
7 Comments
When our potential meets with intensional action, our Wylde women have the power to change the world.
Indeed. In may be the only hope the world has!
I am also an Aries and I have resisted identifying with my own sign for as long as I can remember. I must have been afraid to embrace my inner firedancer… afraid of the electric potential of my warrior self.
Now, though, an inner shift has fractured my fears and cracked open my soul. The wildfire spills out untamed, charring my resistance and burning with a heat that stings my eyes and makes my skin tingle.
Who is my warriorwyldewoman? Who is she NOT? She is everything and nothing. She is me and you and the air we breathe. She is free. She is cavalcading down the mountain like molten white hot blood.
When our potential meets with intensional action, our Wylde women have the power to change the world.
Stacey – I didn’t know that about buffalo. I just love all that contained power. And I love that the cows are in charge during mating season. The bulls follow them around bawling. Hubby said: they’re saying “mine, mine.” I corrected him. They’re saying “please. please.” What beautiful creatures!
Jana – you always make me laugh with delight! Being an Aries brings its own special “gifts.”
Anne – sister Warrior Woman – say it loud!
When we rest in our authority (which can also be power), we cannot be moved or made afraid. It is like the warrior stance in Yoga – looks fragile and easy to knock over, but it isn’t. We know what is authentic within ourselves. Claim it, rest with it, and most of all – commit to action with it.
WOWWWWW The video was amazing!!!! My favorite quotes were “I will lead like a girl – I will ask for help!” and “Just being me”. Thanks for sharing that with us.
There is more to being an Aries than the rebellion and authority issues? Hmmm… I must ponder this.
To me, when I think of my inner Wylde Woman, I picture a completely free woman, standing on the top of a mountain, ROARING with all of her strength for the whole world to hear.
At the moment, this is being manifested in quiet meows here and there.
Wow, wow, wow! It feels like a huge privilege and honor to be reading about the moment when your “questions for the year” turned into a powerful intention.
I also love that the image of the buffalo resonates for you. You’ve probably heard this but I love the “Be the Buffalo” lesson which issues from the fact that buffaloes will run straight into a storm, whereas domesticated cattle will run away from it. The buffalo gets through the storm faster, while the cattle prolong their suffering.
Thanks so much for sharing your new word. I look forward to reading how it unfolds and informs your life.