Mina Pauses, hand-made tile of the Wise Crone who symbolizes connection, compassion, change, and co-habitation with all the species of the earth, not just humans. by Tammy Vitale, Tam’s Originals
Below: Talking Stick. On the side it says: Mina Pauses, doesn’t yield.
This is my 2nd post of the day (and it’s only 7:43 a.m!) Actually 3rd, if you count that I also posted over on myspace. I have assiduously avoided (lived in denial) TV and print media over the past months in order to keep my head in a happy place. I cannot do that if I pay attention to what the Bush Administration is up to. But the internet blogs are abuzz with what’s going on up on capitol hill with reference to Net Neutrality, so in order to clear my thinking for where I was planning to go this morning, I dumped my own thoughts here and at myspace. The same thoughts. No point in wasting a good rant.
The rant is actually not a bad lead in to talking about the Wylde Woman, an archetype of the Wise Crone, who is all about taking back our power as women who have stepped fully into our own life and space.
"Crone" has become a derogatory term. It means old, unattractive, even ugly. Because our society worships the look of youth (but not youth itself or more money would be used to give kids what they need in schools instead of building war machines) and pays inordinate amount of sums to sculpt naturally aging bodies into some symblance of that youth, anything that isn’t youth is other and shunned.
But that’s only a story our society tells. We as individual women do not have to accept that story. We have the ability to write our own story. Believe me, if you inhabit your own story of being a powerful older woman who is comfortable in her own skin, you will attract other women who are searching for the approval to write their own stories like moths to a flame. They will feel your heat. Together you can write a bigger story. Eventually, your story can contain the other, untrue story that sells cosmetic surgery and makes little girls starve or vomit themselves to unhealthy and unsustainable thinness.
Judith Duerk, in her book Circle of Stones. asks: "How might your life have been different if there had been a place for you? A place for you to go…a place of women, to help you learn the ways of woman…a place where you were nurtured from an ancient flow sustaining you and steadying you as you sought to become yourself. A place of women to help you find and trust the ancient flow already there within yourself…waiting to be released…A place of women…How might your life be different?"
What if we take back that power that was lost to us by way of fear-mongering, witch hunts (witches: medicine women and healers; single, propertied or out-spoken women), and promises of safety and security – ie, let me take care of you (of course, if someone is taking care of you they can choose not to take care of you later on…then what?). How can we ever be safe and secure if we do not know our own power, if we do not accept our own self, if we do not reach out to others who are longing/looking and form networks of power with as a model against power over.
If you think one person can’t make a difference, go into a dark room with no windows and light a birthday candle. Not a table candle, a birthday candle. Look at what you can see.
Margaret Meade said: Never doubt that a small group of people can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.
Who are your friends. What are you doing? How might your life be different if you sit in a circle of women?
Thought for the day: "Light the lamp. We have fumbled too long in the dark." from a poem by Tammy Vitale.
Since I’ve already ranted, suffice it to say: voting is important. Who you elect controls more facets of your life than you might think (but hey, this administration is sure giving us and the rest of the world a good taste of just how important your vote is in deciding who gets to rule the world – oops! of course I mean the United States….um, did I say rule? of course I meant govern….).
