Baba Yaga P.S. - Integrating Your Wild Woman

Dearest Goddesses,

In order to end Baba Yaga as powerfully as she is, I’d like to add a post script creative activity for her.

P.S.

Brainstorm what your wild woman would contribute to yourself…

**courage, daring, self-esteem, self-expression, fun, dancing, art, unbridled passion, sexuality, sensuality, freedom**

Draw a self-portrait (or scan a picture of yourself into the computer and print it out).

Creatively incorporate those aspects – that wild woman – into yourself. That could simply be writing the words within the picture/self-portrait, or adding images in a collage that represent those aspects – or they could be incorporated as a specific facial expression or hair color, body shape, position.

Bring your wild woman into yourself and incorporate all of the parts of yourself.

Love to you,

Patty

Reminders

Dearest Goddesses,

So today rated fairly high on the suck-o-meter and I was speaking with a dear friend who happened to remind me of a goddess post she read yesterday saying how we really shouldn't be impatient and don't forget - life is a journey, it's not about getting there. Thank you Priscilla for being a reminder to me when I was in the middle of it!

This is key I think - the reminders. We all get stuck in our worlds - it's inevitable. So it's important to set up our worlds with reminders so that when we do get stuck, it's just for a moment and doesn't throw our train completely off the track.

So I was thinking of what good reminders might be - obviously Priscilla was an integral one today - so enrolling the people in your life and giving them permission to be that reminder for you. I also think that rituals and routine are really helpful - a meditation or yoga practice, setting up "altars" where you spend the most time. These don't have to be like what you see at church (and I bet if you look around, you have naturally created mini altars in your space already) this can be a big or a small space where you have special photographs, maybe a place to burn some incense, items to represent the elements, maybe place some affirmations, or visual representations of what you want to create. Or carry around some index cards with your affirmations on it.

I think the key isn't to make our world work out of willpower, but instead taking the steps to set up our lives and our communities to best support what it is (or who it is) we're committed to being.

Patty's Challenge: Choose one reminder to put into your life.

Love to you,
Patty

Slowing Down for the Journey

Dearest Goddesses,

"Life is a journey, not a destination." I heard that on the radio the other day and for some reason it struck me. One of those things that you hear said all the time - and have probably said it to someone at one point or another. Of course it's not a destination, that would get boring after awhile! But as clear as it was to me that of course life isn't just a destination - of course it's all about the journey, I couldn't help but see how so much of my life is living impatiently inside of the journey, waiting (impatiently) until I get there, until I'm rich, smart enough, have enough experience, good enough, have published a book, and on and on and on. My ability to define my "impatience" was solidified by a horoscope that I subscribe to from www.dailyom.com:

Memorable Moments
Cancer Daily Horoscope

You may feel hyper and impatient today as you look about yourself and bemoan your apparent lack of progress. Whether your goals are personal or professional, you are likely focused on all you hope to achieve rather than on the steps you need to take to make your goals a reality. You may be devaluing your efforts in the present, however, by concentrating wholly on the future. This can be a wonderful time to stop and look around at your world as it exists right now. Your excitement about what is to come may be blinding you to the wonder of what already is. Endeavoring to live in the moment today will likely allow you to once again enjoy the many emotions and tasks associated with the present.

Impatience is easily quelled when we learn to appreciate how significant and special the individual moments of our lives can be. Often, we live for tomorrow, looking upon today as merely a tedious means to a more exciting end. This mode of thinking, however, robs us of the joy that can be found in life’s simple pleasures as well as in a well-performed task. When we endeavor to focus on the positive aspects of the immediate present, we begin to recognize the multifaceted benefits of living life at a slower pace. Though we may still look forward to the future with delight, we are more apt to make the most of the circumstances we find ourselves in at any given moment. You’ll value your dreams of the future much more today when you take pleasure in the present.

Regardless of where you are on the roller coaster of life - if you are at a high, or have just hit the bottom, or are somewhere in the middle - it's important to be able to take some time to smell the roses - depending on your stop on the roller coaster, the roses might look different (being able to enjoy a meal out in your neighborhood vs. enjoying a meal let's say on a fabulous vacation to France; being grateful for finding an extra $5 in your wallet just when you need it vs. your company stock just splitting.) Neither is better than the other, certainly I'd rather be in France than going out to the neighborhood Tico joint for some rice and beans, but if I'm ALWAYS focusing on what I'm not getting, then I'm all about the destination - and as we've all probably experienced in our lives - no destination is perfect after awhile.

Patty's Challenge: Take a break from trying to get there or impatiently wondering why you aren't there already, or if only I was there and honor where you're at - regardless of how messy, dirty, "no place like home", it just might be. Take a deep breath and let yourself be...

Love to you,
Patty

Succulent Wild Woman

Dearest Goddesses,

Oh – Baba Yaga is sooo juicy! She’s one of my favorites – probably because I feel such a kinship to my wild woman, but feel like I only let her out to play every once in awhile! It seems like whenever she shows up in my life, she gives me permission to cut lose a bit. I think her message, however, is not to cut lose only a bit, to only let your wild woman out every once in awhile – but to incorporate her into daily life. And for my goddess men – just there is a wild woman inside of you as well! I think women have more of a freedom these days to connect to their masculine energy, but there is such a stigma if a man connects to his feminine side. Fear not men! Baba Yaga is the gal for you! (We’re not talking Aphrodite, the goddess of love after all – this is WILD WOMAN!)

In honor of Baba Yaga, I took out one of my favorite books – Succulent Wild Woman, by Sark and randomly picked a page…

“Perfect peaches, lilting street musicians, a butterfly landing on your shoulder, happy dogs on the beach, people praying together outside, children, wearing pajamas in the daytime, old women on benches, laughing.

These are all signs of adventure.

We must be open to adventure – seek it out, ask questions, dare to talk to strangers.

Women are oppressed by fears in this society. It’s true. It’s not safe. Neither is staying home, hiding from an adventurous life.

Take self-defense, use your intuition and caution, walk in pairs and groups, but please, come out of your houses, apartments and cars.

Your adventures await you.”

I would add that our adventures await us outside of our limiting definitions of ourselves as well. You know the things that keep us from being able to connect to our inner wild woman. The “secrets” we need to keep to uphold an image of ourselves that we think the world wants to see.

I’ll never forget being in my women’s group in NYC and sitting on the couch sifting through a bunch of papers and my friend Tara said something to the effect of how organized and together I was – and in reality, I was just moving papers around. I had to tell on myself, because I was being totally ridiculous and ultimately using this sifting as avoidance for what we were doing in the group. There was a certain feeing of relief though that people hadn’t seen through my sifting and that I came across looking somewhat together!

I mean, we’re conditioned early to act a certain way and not to get out of hand. And I remember in 5^th grade, in particular, that if you acted outside of the accepted norm, your friends could turn on you! I remember this one instance in particular when I think I must have laughed at something a boy said next to me and my best friend at the time thought I was laughing at her. At recess, I was ostracized – I wasn’t “allowed” to play box ball! When weren’t you allowed to play??

Patty’s Challenge: We looked once before at our comfort zones, which keep us confined inside of a box of our own creation. What can you do to step outside of that comfort zone and let your wild woman free? **Bonus points if you don’t need to add alcohol to get there!

Love to you,
Patty

Baba Yaga - Wild Woman

The following is excerpted exactly from The Goddess Oracle by Amy Sophia Marashinsky and the illustrations are by Hrana Janto. For more information on their work, please visit the following websites:

Amy Sophia Marashinsky: http://www.amysophia.com/
You can download the meditations included in the ritual suggestions at http://deepspiritualnourishment.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2

Hrana Janto: http://www.hranajanto.com/

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I walk in the forest

and speak intimately with the animals

I dance barefoot in the rain

without any clothes

I travel on pathways

that I make myself

and in ways that suit me

my instincts are alive and razor sharp

my intuition and sense of smell are keen

I freely express my vitality

my sheer exuberant joyfulness

to please myself

because it is natural

It is what needs to be

I am the wild joyous life force

Come and meet me.

Mythology

Baba Yaga (pronounced bah’bye’yegg-ah), Slavic bireth-death wild Goddess, rode about on a mortar – an extremely hard bowl used with a pestle to grind grain, nuts, et cetera. Her ways were fierce and wild, dep and penetrating, and could be interpreted as grinding away that which was extraneous. Baba Yaga’s house stood on chicken legs and danced about. Her time of death was autumn, for she was the life force present in the harvested grain. In Russia, this Goddess was transformed into a witch who lived in the forest and ate children.

Meaning of the Card

Baba Yaga flies into your life in her mortar to help you nurture wholeness by getting in touch with your wild woman. It is time to reconnect with the natural, the primal, the instinctual. It is time to shake out your hair, your body, and shake up your life. Have you banished your wild woman to the dungeon? Have you chained her, muzzled her, caged her, lest people find out you are not nice, neat and clean? Free her! You need her. That wild woman is part of your joy, part of your vitality, part of your creativity. She is you and you need every part of yourself in order to dance wholeness. Baba Yaga says it is most important for you to learn to integrate your wild woman because an unintegrated wild woman creates self-destructive behaviour. The wildness is there and needs to be expressed. It is your choice whether to express it creatively or destructively.

Ritual Suggestion: Retrieving Your Wild Woman

Click the link below to download the meditation for Baba Yaga for $1.25

http://deepspiritualnourishment.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=33

Find a time and a place when and where you will not be disturbed. Sit or lie comfortably with your spine straight and close your eyes. Take a deep breath and release it with a sound. Take another deep breath and release it with a hum. See, sense, or feel the image of a tree. It can be any tree, one you have seen before or one that exists in your imagination. Take a third deep breath and, as you release it, stand before that tree. Walk around the tree. On the other side of the tree you see a huge opening in the trunk. Step into that opening. Once inside the tree, feel yourself sinking. Down, down, down you go, travelling inside the root of the tree. It feels safe and comfortable and you surrender to the sensation of floating down, down, down. As you reach the end of the root, you find yourself on a slide that takes you right into the Underworld, where you land on a soft cushion.

It is time to call your wild woman. You can whistle or howl, chant or sing, dance or play music to call her. When your wild woman arrives, thank her for showing up. Ask her for what you need. You may not know what you need, but she will and she will give it to you. In return, she’ll ask you for a gift. Giv her what she asks for with an open heart. Now ask her if she is willing to come back with you and be part of your life. She says yes and you hug her, and as you do, you feel yourself and the wild woman merging, becoming one. You feel a sense of being augmented, strengthened, expanded. You feel a surge of vitality and joy.

Now it is time to come back. Return to the tree root. Sense yourself floating up, up, up, feeling refreshed, energized, renewed revitalized. Up, up, up until you reach the inside of the trunk of the tree. You step out and take a deep breath, and as you release it return to your body. When you feel ready, open your eyes. Welcome Back!