Matrignosis

A BLOG ABOUT INNER WISDOM

The Game of Hide and Seek, or How to Build a Shadow

One day Miss Berry, my first grade teacher, announced that we were to have blood tests. In a few days we would go to the school nurse who would prick our fingers, squeeze out a drop of blood, apply it to a glass slide, and then we would go back to our rooms. It wouldn’t really hurt very much she said. Just a momentary pinprick. We must take these permission slips home, have them signed by our parents, then bring them back.

Twenty-five Benefits of Inner Work

Despite the rapid growth of psychological awareness in the West, many people don’t really get what inner work is or why anyone would want to do it. If you’re one of them, this post is for you. If you’re not, but struggle with some of the issues below, or know someone who does, it’s for you too.

Excavating A Wounded Child with a Mother Complex

Every child experiences anxiety when it becomes aware of its individuality and vulnerability, and mothers vary in their ability to assuage this, our earliest wound. Very good mothers are naturally gentle, patient, good-natured, reassuring and loving. They make their children feel confident, safe and secure.

Shadow or Self: Who's in Charge?

“What should I do?” I asked my husband. “I feel like this is a test about choosing between courage and cowardice. Or is it between my noble self and my selfish self?” We were talking about a relationship issue that had been brought to my attention by a timely and bizarre synchronicity.

Signs at the Crossroads

The thing that makes dividing my time between these two different paths work well for me is that I’m listening to how I really want to spend my time and looking for meaning regardless of where I am.

Muse, Anima, or Soul?

Recently a reader asked this question: “If a woman performs the function of being an artist’s ‘muse’ and if the artist believes (to paraphrase Joseph

Seeing Through the Mist

I spent the first half of my life in a mist, blind to all that is truly sacred. A spiritual seeker from the age of 17, I had plenty of ideas about what was sacred, but they came from other people.

Artemis and Demeter's Legacy

For a while we entertained the idea of building a tree house for the kids in a stand of giant hemlocks at the top of the mountain. That idea was squashed when the hemlocks were infested with the wooly adelgid parasite. As the dead trees fell we found other uses for them.

Meeting the Mistress of the Forest

Once I read about a horse that lived in the same pasture for over 30 years, eating the same old tired grass, trying to find shade in the noonday heat under the same scrawny tree.

Dream Symbols of the Beloved

The Self is our Beloved, the core energy in every psyche that compels us to grow into loveable, empowered, authentic, enlightened beings. Our egos often reject the Self’s guidance but it never gives up on us. In its aspect as Dream Mother it reveals itself in symbols and actions based on six basic attributes:

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