The Well of Feminine Power
In European and Chinese thought, the feminine principle is associated with passivity and the masculine with action. In Hinduism, however, the feminine is associated with
In European and Chinese thought, the feminine principle is associated with passivity and the masculine with action. In Hinduism, however, the feminine is associated with
Note: The following post was first published in November, 2013. My book, Healing the Sacred Divide had been published in the previous year and many
Last night I had a dream. I feel the need to share it with you today because it illustrates the main point I’ve been trying
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10 Responses
Jeanie, this is such a delight to read more of your Jungian dreamwork and inner journeying. The unpacking of dreams, especially when shared in a clear, practical way, can be so helpful for those who’ve just begun this (life-long I feel) practice. And from the baptism of your blog to the instinctive naming of your books and beyond, our psyches seem set on offering us all much wisdom and healing … if only we would listen and work closer with those archetypes who inhabit our soul space.
For me, I started recording my dreams (only) 12 years ago and the books I record them in remain my most precious of possessions. Other notebooks have come and gone but never the dream books! Over the course of those years of collecting I’ve turned several of them into poems, a process which I feel is similar to active imagination at times. Such joy!
Oh, I love it when you start writing about “The Crone” and this well timed as we approach Samhain (Oct 31st) and the thinning of the veil. Inspired by your post on the Cartiyids and a conversation about Hekate and your Lady of the Torches (Statue of Liberty), yesterday I found by magick, the Great Mother herself, stepping into my new “October” poem. Warm autumnal blessings, Deborah.
Thank you, Deborah. I have all my dream journals too. The first 15 years are in paper notebooks, and the rest are digital. One of these days when I’m old and bored, I’ll decide what to do with them. They are such a precious treasure to me. Maybe I’ll try to reread them all and turn them into a final memoir? Maybe I’ll let them rest. Maybe I’ll save them for my children. Maybe I’ll toss them out. I don’t know. Right now I can’t bear to part with these outpourings of my soul.
I’ve just read your wonderful new poem and am totally captivated! As I wrote in my comment to you, “You are a seasoned sorceress with great power to mystify and delight.” I urge all my readers who love poetry to check it out here: http://theliberatedsheep.com/october/?unapproved=2377&moderation-hash=3ca45733c749481fc6f56d9937b55fc6#comment-2377
With love and blessings,
Jeanie
Wow! Thank you Jeanie for including a link to my new “October” poem and for the gift of your wonderful, kind-heated words! Hmm, dream diaries and what to do with them? I haven’t got a clue either! I only know how precious they are to me. xx
Reblogged this on lampmagician.
Thank you Jeannie for this wonderful post of your rich dreams and associations with them. I know that my dreams enrich my life immeasurably, and I too have zillions of notebooks with my recorded dreams some of which really became clear after much time had passed.
I believe that the wisdom of the feminine IS beginning to felt and embraced, though it’s been an arduous journey indeed. We need to give up ways of conditioned thinking and feeling – but the rewards are great when we learn to trust our inner voice, and can share it. Thank you again!
Hi Susan,
Thank you for writing. I’ve just returned from a wonderful long weekend at a Jungian conference at which I was mostly off the social media grid, which accounts for my late response.
The conference triggered some interesting and affirming dream images last night which I’m still pondering. I used to want so badly to understand the meaning of every dream image, so hungry I was for self-knowledge. So worried I was about my shadow. But today I’m not sure it matters if I understand them or not. Because my feeling response to them upon awakening this morning was peace, wonder, and gratitude. If that’s all I get from them, it’s enough! This feels like another step away from my head toward my heart. For me, that’s a huge reward for trusting my inner voice! 🙂
Dear dear Jean, Your entry this week gives powerful evidence of the beauty of synchronicity. I am facilitating an exploration of my book “The Living Spirit of the Crone, Turning Aging Inside Out,” with a group of very bright women at our church and your dream of the Crone could not have been more timely. Sharing it with the group led to some fruitful discussion and an impetus to revisit our Myers Briggs typologies. Many thanks for your leadership and wisdom. Sally
Oh, Sally. Thank you so much for writing and sharing this with me. Your validation about this post and my dream came at a very good time for me too. I am prone to self-doubt and self-criticism and this shadow bully of mine has been at it again lately! Luckily, I am able to see it now. Also luckily, I have dear friends like you who are very good at shooing it away!
Congratulations on your book and important work with it. Our aging society needs to know there are ways to turn the negative associations we have long had about aging inside out!! Jeanie
I’m so glad I returned to this piece. It’s beautiful, dear Jeanie. I attended a Robert Bosnak dream workshop this fall–the first one I’d been to for many years because of hearing, but I decided to test the limits of the cochlear implant and knew the workshop would be 3 days in a quiet space with people speaking slowly and carefully as they do in embodied dream work. The group incubated dreams for a problem in their life. I chose vertigo and ended up returning to a dream I had before the workshop: “A woman is giving a lecture. I enter the lecture hall from a high area in the back and it’s full of noisy young men. I won’t be able to hear her with all this noise, so I walk down, down, down wide steps toward the lowered stage. She stands alone, strong and rooted. She’s dark skinned, thick legged, and has no head. She says to me, “Do you know what happens after Death?” I say, “No, but I have a strong belief system.” In the dream work, it became clear that she is Earth Mother and her Knowing is fathoms deeper and larger than my belief systems. Her knowing roots me, so is an antidote to vertigo. I painted her after the workshop as an old tree with a thick trunk and deep roots. I wrote about the experience, but it’s not ready to share. I’m still digging into Her message and seeking that deep knowing in me, far below the jangling noise of my animus and my fragile auditory system. So this is my Crone Goddess and the Dream Mother. I’ll work with this dream for years, just as you work with yours and let them guide your life. Thank you for sharing your path.
I love your knowing Earth Mother, Crone Goddess dream! What a gift to know she lives in you and is watching, guiding, asking thoughtful questions, and centering you. And I especially love that you paint so many of your dreams. That’s such a powerful way of embodying the dream and keeping its meaning close. Thank you for sharing this. I’ll look forward to hearing more about her message when the time is right for you to share it.