Each year on March 8, it’s International Woman’s Day. The theme of 2017 is: Be BOLD for change. And unfortunately, even after so many decades of action, the female principle is still underestimated…
International Woman’s Day: Be Bold for Change
It is not easy to be bold, whether you are born into the male or within the female gender. Everybody wants to be loved and accepted. I have been in tears several times when people criticise things I write on Mindfunda.
Yes, I know that is weak. But it is also a sign for me that I put my heart and soul into these blogs. This is my life’s work so far. My digital footprint that I will leave behind on this earth.
Cartoon: Speedbump.com
So how do you do that? Be bold for change? My suggestion: embrace the feminine aspects in your self. In this blog you can read about this journey in more detail.
International Woman’s Day: Embrace the Heroine
In 1990, 27 years ago (!!!), Maureen Murdock re-wrote the journey of the hero from Joseph Campbell into the journey of the heroine.
You see the first (devastating) step: to separate from the feminine. Every woman will remember that awkward moment when others told her that girls are stupid, or incapable of being good athletes, or inferior in any other way.
“Don’t throw like a girl” my father said and he demonstrated a very clumsy way of throwing a ball.
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I felt embarrassed. I certainly wanted to proof I was better than that. And that embarrassment about being born into the “wrong” gender is still roaming around. After all those years…
International Woman’s Day: No Role Models
Understanding why so little has changed in thirty years is not easy at all. But look at this film from Rebel Girl.
Click to see the film
As you can see, books do not provide really good role models for girls to take faith into their own hands, and Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls makes an effort to change this.
But as we book lovers found out, people read fewer books. YouTube has taken over the world. (I can recommend my channel: you will learn a lot from all the nice interviews I have uploaded there).
In this visual oriented world, what is a woman to do?
International Woman’s Day: Wear Red
Another Be Bold Initiative is “A Day Without A Woman“. You don’t know what you got till you lose it! If women do not show up for (unpaid) work, their economic power and significance will be highlighted.
If you dress today, wear the colour red. Red is a color that is associated with revolutionary love and sacrifice.
Let’s honour our inner feminine side, men and women everywhere. Let’s make each other stronger and support the qualities we can give the world.
In the end, it is up to us to make the world an enjoyable place.
THIS CONTENT IS CREATED BY SUSANNE VAN DOORN, AUTHOR AND OWNER OF MINDFUNDA; MAKING THE FUNDAMENTALS OF PSYCHOLOGY, MYTHOLOGY AND SPIRITUALITY EASY TO USE IN YOUR PERSONAL LIFE!
What is Mindfunda about?
My name is Susanne van Doorn, I am a Dutch psychologist, blogger and author. I have been working with psychology, dreams and mythology ever since I finished my study in psychology at Tilburg University. I made this independant site to share insights, and recent scientific articles about the brain, dreams, and mythology for use in your personal life.
This posting is categorised as Spirifunda: psychology for everyday with a spiritual layer of meaning, searching for the soul. Our brains are wired for believe in magic. In a world filled with rationality, you sometimes need a little magic, a little “I wonder why”. Synchronicity, the insights of Carl Jung, the mythology used by Freud, the archetypical layers in the Tarot, the wisdom of the I Tjing, Shamanism, the oldest religion of humanity, all that information gets published in the Spirifunda section of Mindfunda.
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Do you consider yourself a Goddess? You should. The Goddess is the earth. We are all part of the earth. But the Goddess is more. She is also that spiritual vessel that brings love in new unexpected ways. She is connected with the moon. This week’s Mindfunda is about dreaming with the goddess, incubating dreams that align with the phase of the moon. Find out how you can dream the Goddess into your live!
Mindfunda explores the Goddess in 4 blogs
You are a heroine. Each women, Each men who embraces his feminine side.
The Goddess was hot in the seventies of last century. Marija Gimbutas put the Goddess back on the map. She inspired a lot of scientists, anthropologists and mythologists up to this day. But the attention for the Goddess seems to have faded away. Mindfunda want to invite you to reconnect with the Goddess. During the month of November Mindfunda will share 5 blogs:
In her book Stover sketches a process of five steps that compose the heroine’s journey. I will tell you about the five steps in a minute. First, let’s recapture what the hero’s journey is and why there is an explicit need for a heroine’s journey.
The need for the Journey of the Heroine
Joseph Campbell analyzed myths and constructed a concept known as “the hero’s journey”. There is a problem in the world, a problem that affects everyone.
Artwork by storyboardthat.com
The hero gets a call to adventure: you are the chosen one!. The hero refuses. A mentor arrives and after several failures the hero changes the bad into good and returns to the ordinary world. Campbell tells about this story in his excellent book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”
The hero with a thousand faces
Maureen Murdock, a student of Campbell felt a void in this journey. It was a journey aimed at men. Aimed at their initiations and the integration of their inner female part. When she discussed this with Campbell he said: “Women don’t need to make the journey, they are the place that everyone is trying to get to.” His response shocked me. It is true that in the mythological tradition, the feminine is the place people may be aspiring to integrate, but what I was aware of was that most of the women I knew and worked with were disconnected from our feminine nature. Our task was to reclaim the feminine for ourselves. (quoted from the site of Maureen Murdock).
The hero’s journey model did not address the deep wounding of the feminine part for both men and women.
OK, let’s roll up the sleeves. Let’s pack our suitcases. We are ready to journey. What are the steps?
Steps in the journey of the heroine
Sara Avant Stover gives five steps that comprise the journey of the heroine:
Prepare for the pilgrimage.
Descent into the underworld.
Bonfire of our initiation.
Ascent.
Homecoming.
Sara, inspired by Maureen Murdock, explains the idea behind the steps: “The more gender-specific map of the heroine’s journey better helps us to understand the unique twists and turns that our initiation into empowered womanhood entails. It ensures that we arrive at our desired destination – living in full alignment with our deepest, truest feminine nature”
Journey of the heroine: Prepare for the Pilgrimage
the 13 stages of the journey of the heroine
Many women are their fathers’ daughters… I know I was. I always wanted to be like him: smart, witty, a bit Einstein professor-ish. We could laugh, we could talk, we could argue (I have never met any other human being that was capable of thinking so fast as my father). And to me it was a game. Others thought we were fighting but it was more like a cub fights a big lion. I know he was preparing me for the world and that in this thought-driven world you would need to have my argumentative skills sharp like a knife.
My father with hair like Einstein
We, as women, are taught to live our life according to the patriarchal definition of success. Getting good grades, a well-paying job, a nice husband, a couple of kids. And to be successful in doing all of those tasks while being attractive, smiling and graceful. I was told to not “throw like a girl” but in the only right way: the way a man does. He meant well. He was a child of his times.
Healing the mother wound
Most of us have experienced, at one time or another, the pain of our mother abandoning us in our time of need. This does not mean it was a conscious abandonment… I know my mother was raised in a time when you were supposed to leave a child crying “otherwise you would spoil it”. My mother and my aunt both said it to me when I had children of my own: “whenever they cry, don’t fetch them. or you will spoil them”. Luckily I decided to do just the opposite and most of the time wore my kids close to my heart when they were little.
I know we all remember that guidance that our parents gave us. But there comes a point in your life when you have to decide that you are not happy living according to rules that are not yours to begin with. That intuitive feeling in your gut is the moment that you are called to leave your normal life.
When you have reconciled that inner masculine and female energy that you inherited from your parents you are balanced enough to consider entering the spiritual marriage.
Journey of the Heroine: Descent into the Underworld
“No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.”
Carl Gustav Jung
Once you have left your home, you are on a path to discover your shadow. It is a step that is as essential as it is painful. But in the realization and the acceptance of your own faults, flaws and difficulties there is also the inner peace.
Black Madonna
Knowing that you do not have to be perfect. That it is alright to be angry, stubborn and perky. To embrace the power in those qualities. To admit that sometimes you cause trouble. Not others. You.
Ok that is do-able, but do I have to like it? Do I have to embrace my stubbornness? Do I have to blurt out everything I am thinking, even though it is true? I have learned that it is a quality that can cause much harm. Sara Avant Stover suggests we do our shadow work daily, in private. She offers some powerful questions like: “What do you fear is the worst that could happen if you allow the world to see who you “really” are?“
Sara shares a wonderful chapter on PMS and your hormone cycle: comparing the moon with the womb. I remember when I used to suffer through my periods and how that changed once I started eating natural food. Stover compares the seasons with female hormones. She offers encouragement to accept that you are not the same everyday and to allow yourself a period of recovery. Look at PMS as a message from your dark side. Notice signs and synchronicities. Say no. Dive into your anger: write down the reasons for your irritations, embrace the power of your aggression even have a conscious temper tantrum. Turn on music real loud and get it out!
Journey of the Heroine: the Initiation
“The feminine journey is about going down deep into soul, healing and reclaiming, while the masculine journey is up and out, to spirit.”
Maureen Murdock
Ever since I dreamed -with a couple of friends of mine- my way trough the Red Book I have been contemplating my own initiations. This culture has not got many… Going to school for me was such a pleasure, I felt real grown up and intelligent. My next initiation was getting my period for the first time. It was not celebrated. My sisters told me that I had to suffer this until I was about fifty. That did not seem like fun. Next initiation was my first kiss. I liked that a lot better than my former initiation. Looking back, I regret that our society has stopped initiating children.
Sara Stover writes about meeting the Dark Goddess, talking with her and asking permission to return to the light: “..Slowly walk toward the Dark Goddess. Ask her if she got anything she needs to tell you before you leave her domain“. This part of the book illustrates that the journey of the heroine is the opposite of the journey of the hero. The hero needs to balance his male and female sides so the journey goes down and up again. The journey of the heroine is a spiral: she goes round in circles and circles, but in each return she has changed. If you look at the story
Emma Swan and her son
of Emma Swan in the series “Once Upon a Time” you see a lady who has to believe in magic, learns to believe in herself, and finally descends to become the Dark One. All the time, like any modern-day Goddess, being the mother of a single son.
Journey of the Heroine: Ascent
Almost every woman I know, including myself knows that she must hide her sexuality. But sexuality is one of the core elements of the goddess. She is fertility. She is seduction. So how do we get that sparkle in our eyes back?
Sara gives a few tips, most of them are very obvious: sleep naked, dance, take care of your appearance. Dress like a goddess.
Journey of the heroine: homecoming
You went on a journey, visited the dark places, enlightened the flame, and now you must return. Same old place, same old rules, new you. You are no longer a girl. You are a Heroine. “We live forever together -mothers, grandmothers, sisters and daughters. We believe in you”.
I hope you have enjoyed the journey…
Do you consider yourself a Goddess? You should. The Goddess is the earth. We are all part of the earth. But the Goddess is more. She is also that spiritual vessel that brings love in new unexpected ways. She is connected with the moon. And she is in our time represented as Eve, as mother Mary. In Mindfunda's new blog series about the Goddess I will be joined by two guest bloggers.
Mindfunda explores the Goddess in 4 blogs
The Goddess was hot in the seventies of last century. Marija Gimbutas put the Goddess back on the map. She inspired a lot of scientists, anthropologists and mythologists up to this day. But the attention for the Goddess seems to have faded away. Mindfunda want to invite you to reconnect with the Goddess. During the month of November Mindfunda will share 5 blogs:
Susan Scott author and blogger on Garden of Eden will write about the Goddess as we know her today, in the persona of Eve.
Susan Scott Photo Dulcie Horn
Trista Hendren, author and blogger of The Girl God will share her view on the Goddess and the earth.
I will share a blog about a project I did in my group of psi-dreamers, a group of remarkable dreamers who gather twice a month online to engage in a dream project. Mutual dreaming, lucid dreaming, precognitive dreaming. About a year ago I proposed a series of dream incubations centred around the moon. The New Moon devoted to the Maiden, an incubation devoted to Shakti and an incubation devoted to the Crone.
In the last blog in this series I will review The Book of she written by Sara Avant Stover.
The book of She
Your heroine’s journey into the heart of feminine power. This book is the female version of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. Sara, inspired by Maureen Murdock who wrote the Heroine’s Journey in 1990 has written a practical book filled with exercises to connect with the Goddess principle.
The Goddess in history
In the Stone age, the Sumerian people developed writing. So since then we are able to recapture their beliefs and their insights, their mythologies and their knowledge. Before that time, as early as 22 thousand years before Christ there were pictures and statues of woman goddesses. So how do we know this was not just the girl next door? The common features. The big breasts, the vulva, it all indicates fertility. In the Paleolithic time, the early stone age, the Goddess was associated with animals like the deer, the horse and the bear. The bear is probably the oldest sacred animal of all, known from the carefully arranged skulls in the mountain caves used by the Neanderthal race before the last Ice age about 75 thousand years BC.
In the Neolithic time when agriculture started to develop, the
Venus of Brassempoury Picture: klimtlover.wordpress.com
Goddess was associated with the harvest and the horn of prosperity (the horn that also symbolises the crescent moon). The Moon is connected with the Goddess: the 4 phases of the moon: new moon, first quarter, new moon. The dark period when the moon disappears is associated with the Dark Goddess, the one who takes and withdraws. Ancient people used to be up all night and sing and dance to let the moon know they loved her so she would come back. The dance of the moon in the sky is like a serpent and the paintings on caves found in this period are serpent-like, the animal associated with rebirth. (Anne Baring and Jules Cashford in The myth of the Goddess).
Reconnect with the Goddess
In the seventies, Marija Gimbutas put the Goddess back on the map. She proposed a theory of matriarchal societies, thrown over by patriarchy. Her ideas stroke a cord with many people. And even though the theory has never been proven, her ideas intrigued lots of interesting books and researches. Ralph Metzner, author of The Well of Remembrance, is one example of how her ideas changed the world.
The Goddess seemed to have disappeared, with only a few people connecting with the Goddess principle in their lives, in their bodies, in the things they eat and in the things that they belief in. We crave to find that vessel of spirituality again, now lost in a world of rational beliefs. Come and join me on a path of discovery.
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Please sign up for my YouTube channel to enjoy all the beautiful Mindfunda interviews with inspiring people. People like Jean Benedict Raffa, Anne Baring, Connie Kaplan, Ralph Metzner, Stanley Krippner and P.M.H. Atwater, Catherine Wikholm about her book the Buddha Pill and Justina Lasley about her book Wake Up to Your Dreams: Transform Your Relationships, Career, and Health While You Sleep! Evan Thompson about his book Waking Sleeping Being.
I will interview Wanda Burch abot her book She who dreams in November so sign up and don’t miss it.
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THIS CONTENT IS CREATED BY SUSANNE VAN DOORN, AUTHOR AND OWNER OF MINDFUNDA; MAKING THE FUNDAMENTALS OF PSYCHOLOGY, MYTHOLOGY AND SPIRITUALITY EASY TO USE IN YOUR PERSONAL LIFE!
What is Mindfunda about?
My name is Susanne van Doorn, I am a Dutch psychologist, blogger and author. I have been working with psychology, dreams and mythology ever since I finished my study in psychology at Tilburg University. I made this independant site to share insights, and recent scientific articles about the brain, dreams, and mythology for use in your personal life.
This posting is categorised as Mythofunda:
“Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths” Joseph Campbell used to say. This part of Mindfunda shows you how your personal mythology can create peace in your life.
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