Embracing Challenge

Dearest Goddesses,

Wow. I must have been channeling something when I picked these cards months ago - every single one seems to speak to exactly where I am at the moment (or what I don't want to deal with!) This week is the Sphinx representing challenge and boy can I relate! First of all, I am dealing with the challenge of sharing a computer with John – who likes to be in command - as well as facing my procrastination - and so I’m sorry my emails have been a bit sporadic lately!

The first thing I thought of after reading this week’s goddess was a story I heard years ago about a man who found an emperor moth cocoon and brought it into his house to watch the moth emerge. The man watched as the moth began to inch out of it’s cocoon – it seemed to be struggling so much that the man decided to help it by cutting open the cocoon and allowing the moth to emerge easily. The moth did emerge easily, but it’s body was swollen and the wings were shriveled and after a few hours, the moth died. The man did not realize, that the struggle that the Emperor moth goes through to get out of it’s cocoon actually gives the moth the ability to fly – the struggle pushes the fluids out of its body and provides the necessary nutrients for the wings to become strong so that when it does emerge – it is ready to fly. By “helping” the moth in its struggle, the man actually took away the moth’s ability to fly.

I like to look at challenge this way. Of course, that is only after I’ve gained some perspective from going through it and facing the challenges head on. When I’m in the struggle – when I’m fighting the challenge – then I just want it to be over with and am usually dying for someone to come and cut my cocoon! The key to challenge is to keep in mind all of the other struggles that we have gone through in the past – and all we have learned from them. I think of times in my past when I remember things seemed completely insurmountable – and today they are barely a blip on my radar. Time always helps with that perspective – but it is important that we do not face challenge with blindfolds on – with our eyes shut tight just waiting until the storm passes. I came across a quote the other day that I know I’ve shared with you in the past – “Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace within it.”

The challenges will pass eventually – you have seen the ups and downs of life to know that – and there will be more challenges in your future. It’s up to you whether these challenges will beat you down – whether they will become evidence for how sucky your life is – or if they will simply be homework in the giant school called life. As the Sphinx says - "every challenge is there to serve you - or not. It's your choice."

Patty’s Challenge: A couple months ago, I started a list called “Benefits to the delays in our funding.” I was able to come up with about 20 or 30 items for that list which provided me with some perspective for the situation. It didn’t change the situation – the challenge is still one that we are in – but it helped me face it head on – it helped me come up with other business ideas – I began to think outside the box.

Start your list with a challenge that you are experiencing right now – Benefits to and fill in the blank. Keep the list with you – add to it without editing. See what you come up with.

Love to you,

Patty

Sphinx: Challenge

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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If I ask the question that provokes

will you stretch to find the answer

Will you take up the gauntlet flung boldly

and defiantly answer the call

Will you meet my challenge

with tingling in your blood

with your hair blowing electric in the wind

with all your being

knowing that every challenge

is an opportunity

every challenge

presents a gift

every challenge

is there to serve you

or not

It’s your choice.

Mythology

The Sphinx appears in Greek mythology as the monster – a woman’s head and breasts, dog’s body, lion’s paws, wings of an eagle and the tail of a serpent – who questioned Oedipus. To the ancient Egyptians, she symbolically represented the Nile and its seasons. She was also a manifestation of Hathor, Goddess of birth and death. The Sphinx of Egypt was built as guardian of the horizons, the rising and setting sun. It held the keys to the wisdom gates. In the path to deep knowing, initiates had to confront the challenges that the Sphinx posed.

Meaning of the Card

The Sphinx will not let you pass until you respond to her challenge. She asks: “How can you meet a challenge and prosper in all the aspects of your being?” You can let yourself get torn down by challenge, or kicked or pounded or defeated, but how can you take the challenge and use its energy to nurture yourself? Have you been running from challenges all your life and now find you haven’t developed the energy or power to face them? Perhaps it’s easier to ignore challenge and go on with self-limiting behaviour. Or maybe you feel that life is all messed up. Whatever way you have been dancing with challenge in the past has to change. The greatest challenge in living is how you respond to challenges. The Sphinx says the only way to wholeness on your path is to meet your challenges face-to-face.

Ritual Suggestion: Meeting Challenge Face to Face
You can download this meditation at the following site for $2.00
http://deepspiritualnourishment.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=64&zenid=c636244961ac59cbabec57082d290766

Find a time and a place when and where you will not be disturbed. Sit or lie comfortably with your back straight and close your eyes. Take a deep breath and release it slowly. Take another deep breath and release it with a sigh. Take another deep breath and release it, putting all your stress and tension into a hum. Take a final deep breath and envision, sense or feel the steep incline of a hill before you. It could be one you have encountered before or one you imagine. There is a path on the incline and you begin walking up it. At first it rises gently, then gives way to flat land. Then it rises again, this time sharply, so you must climb, hand over hand and foo9t over foot till you reach a small cottage. You are out of breath and thirsty and decide to knock on the door of the cottage.

An old, very handsome Wise Woman opens the door. “I have been expecting you,” she tells you. You ask for a drink of water and the Wise Woman takes you to the back of the cottage, hands you a mug, points to a sacred spring, and tells you to refresh yourself with its water. You dip your mug in the sacred spring and drink. The water quen hes your thirst and leaves you feeling calm and refre3shed.

Now the Wise Woman takes you by the hand and leads you into her cottage. The cottage is filled with wondrous and magical things, beautiful and delightful things. “>I have something you need.” She explains as she puts a large package in your hands. It is heavy. “Open the package when you arrive on the Plain of Vision. Now it is time for you to go.” She escorts you to the door and hugs you. You thank her and leave.

The path takes you onto an enormous plateau. It is the Plain of Vision, where the winds blow cool, clean and clear. Where you can see al that you need to see. Take a deep breath and inhale the clarity of the Plain of Vision.

You put the package on the ground and squat down to open it. Inside is a suit of chain mail and a sword. You put on the suit of mail. It fits perfectly. You grasp the sword, slashing the air. It feels good in your hand, the right weight and balance.

Something lands at your feet. You bend down to pick it up. It is a glove of mail, a gauntlet. A voice says,” Are you prepared to meet me=” You pick up the gauntlet and stand to face your challenge, who is masked before you. You toss back the gauntlet which is then put on by your challenge. Your swords cross and you begin the fight. Your challenge tries to trip you up, but you manage to breathe deeply and stay on your feet. Your challenge tries to divert your attention, but you manage to breathe deeply and stay focused. Your challenge is strong and persistent and tries to wear you out, but you stay centered and strong by breathing deeply, drawing up limitless energy from the earth into your body.

Finally your challenge tells you it will stop this fight if you will embrace it. You sheathe your sword and hold out your arms, and your challenge moves into them. As you both embrace, your suits of mail dissolve and your swords vanish. You hold each other with love and acceptance. Your challenge is transformed into light which is then absorbed into your body and becomes a part of you. You feel strengthened and revitalized.

You leave the Plain of Vision, gong down the path. The cottage of the old Wise Woman is no longer there. You continue down the path feeling refreshed and whole, feeling energized and emancipated, feeling centered and steadied. When you reach the bottom of the incline, you take a deep breath and release it slowly, coming back fully into your body. Take another deep breath and release it slowly. When you feel ready, open your eyes. Welcome Back!

The "Right" Path

Dearest Goddesses,

I think sometimes when things aren’t going the way we thought they should, we get into the space of “I never should have - and then fill in the blank. Moved, quit my job, gone back to school,married that person… While I quickly learned that to have “regrets” was a waste of energy – there’s always that – “well if I knew then what I know now, I would have made different choices…” But what led you to “know now” was actually the situation you would have avoided!

I love the goddess this week – Hecate – Crossroads. She always seems to come up when I need her the most and she is like a loving grandmother telling us to just take a deep breath – there’s no such thing as a bad choice – only life experience. And there is power in choice – in moving your life forward – and so what if looking back on that choice that you made that life would’ve, could’ve been easier if you had simply stayed put!

What I also love about Hecate is that no matter how crummy the path is that you are on currently is – there is another crossroad just up ahead. A chance to make another choice. And have the confidence that whatever path you take will be the right one, the perfect one for you at the perfect time,with the perfect people to help you along the way.

Make sure you read Hecate and if you are stuck at a crossroads and are unsure which path to take – make sure you journey with her in the meditation.

Love to you,

Patty

P.S. I’m having some difficulty with my scanner,so I will need to forward the Goddess Oracle image a little later.

Hecate - Crossroads

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 sit in the blackness of the dark moon night

with my hounds

at the crossroads

where three roads converge

at the crossroads

the place of choice

All paths lead to the crossroads

and all are desireable

but only one can you travel

only one can you choose

choice creates endings

and all beginnings come from endings

at the crossroads

Which one will you choose?

which way will you go?

which?

Though the choice is yours

here’s a secret I’ll share

The way to choose is to enter the void

the way to choose is to let die

the way to choose is to fly free

Mythology:

Hecate (pronounced he-ka’tay) is considered by some to be a Thracian moon Goddess and by others to be an ancient pre-Greek Goddess of midwives, birth, fertility, the dark of the moon, magic, wealth, education, ceremonies and the Underworld. Worshipped at the places where three roads crossed, she would walk abroad on nights when the moon was dark, attended by a pack of hounds. People honoured her by leaving offerings at the crossroads. As crone, she also formed a triad with Persephone (maiden) and Demeter (mother).

Meaning of the Card:

Hecate meets you at the crossroads when you must make a choice. Times of choice are not easy times. The challenges presented by choice necessitate a leap of faith from the person doing the choosing. Hecate says to let go of the idea that there are wrong or right choices: there is just choice. Have you been putting off making a choice because it seems to be too overwhelming or a “no win” situation? Does the choice bring up fear of the unknown? Does it seem better and/or easier to remain with what you know?

Sometimes a choice must be made, yet you are not ready. In such cases, the way to nurture wholeness is to acknowledge where you are and let it go. Trust that you will be able to make a choice when the time is right. Give yourself time and space. Don’t press, berate, or blame yourself. You need nourishment here. When you let go, suddenly clarity comes to show you what you need. Hecate urges you to embrace the unknown. Know that whatever you choose will bring you something valuable that you can use on your path to wholeness.

Ritual Suggestion: Hecate’s Journey of Perspective
You can download this meditation at the following site for $2.50
http://deepspiritualnourishment.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=45&zenid=c636244961ac59cbabec57082d290766

Find a time and place when and where you will not be disturbed. Sit or lie comfortably with your spine straight. When you feel ready, close your eyes. Take a deep breath and release it slowly. Take another deep breath and, as you release it, let your body fall as if you were removing a suit of silk clothes, letting it lie in a pool at your feet. Take another deep breath and see, sense, or feel Hecate, the ancient one, the crone Goddess, standing in front of you. She holds out her hand and you take it.

A path appears before you and you both step onto it. The path is of black stone, large chunks of obsidian, and it leads you in a spiral descent. You go down, down, down, deeper and deeper and deeper, spiralling on the obsidian path until you reach a crossroads. There the path of black stone is met by a path of pearl (or white stone) and a path of coral (or red stone).

All the paths reach out to you. Which one will you travel? They are all enticing and all promise something you need. Ask Hecate for help in choosing.

At the place where the three paths intersect, Hecate sits down and motions for you to sit next to her. As you sit, you are aware of the power of the intersecting paths vibrating beneath you. You take a deep breath and feel the vibrations in your body. The vibrations increase so that they are like gusts of wind sweeping through you. They wash you clean of everything. They engulf you, surround you, hold you. The vibrating gusts of wind help you to let go of everything, thoughts, feelings, doings. Hecate is with you should you need assistance.

The winds envelope you and you begin to fly with them. They take you swinging from side to side, and then up and down. Hecate flies with you. As the winds take you up, up, up, Hecate suggests you notice the three paths below you. They no longer entice or dazzle. They seem small and insignificant. Just three paths, three possibilities.

The winds die down and you gently float to the ground. It is time to return. You take Hecate’s hand and she leads you up, up, up, the spiral path, the path of obsidian. Up, up, up you spiral feeling energized and deeply relaxed, feeling calm and centered until you reach the end of the path. Hecate embraces you and you thank her for the journey, the gift of perspective and clarity. She asks you for something and you give it to her with gratitude. Hecate vanishes and you take a dep breath. As you exhale you return to your body. Take another deep breath and when ready, open your eyes. Welcome back!

Comfort Zone

Dear Goddesses,

Monday evening, I went to a Soul Yoga class with my dear friend Dana. Although the class was mainly in Spanish – and unfortunately my Spanish skills are, well, not where they need to be – it was clear what the intention of the class was and so although I understood little of the words, I was clear with the intention. I decided to take a look at my relationship to abundance and my ability (or inability) to attract at this moment. And while we were doing the yoga movements, I noticed how incredibly stiff my body was, as if I was stretching from being in one position for too long. I looked at my body’s reaction to the movements and what it was that I wanted to transform, and I saw just how rigid my life has become – and so has my body. I saw how I was living in the box – of my own design. Another thing I recognized as we went into a pose resembling a frog, I was really struggling and I looked around and it seemed that with that particular pose everyone seemed at ease. I looked at their feet and I felt like I was doing the exact same thing, but then I happened to look down at my feet and while my right foot was solid on the ground, my left foot was totally crooked and my stance was completely narrow, where everyone else had this wide balanced stance. I couldn't help but see how this also connected to abundance - that I am not allowing myself the foundation, the ease in which to open and attract - again, I put myself into this very tight pose, expecting the same ease that everyone else was experiencing.

I thought it fit perfectly with the theme of justice – and how sometimes we set our lives in such a rigid way that we end up rebelling, or finding that according to our rigidness, we can’t “win” or experience success because we’re living by these harsh rules.

I was reading a little of Jack Canfield’s The Success Principles yesterday and chapter 10 is about releasing the brake. He used the analogy of driving with your parking brake on and when you realize that it is on, you don’t put your foot harder on the gas to go faster, you simply release the brake. And most of us are driving with a psychological emergency brake on and wondering how come we’re not getting to our destination fast enough. He related – my rigid box analogy as our safety zone.

I want to share with you a little blurb…

“Think of your comfort zone as a prison you live in – a largely self-created prison. It consists of the collection of can’ts, musts, must nots, and other unfounded beliefs formed from all the negative thoughts and decisions you hgave accumulated and reinforced during your lifetime…

A baby elephant is trained at birth to be confined to a very small space. Its trainer will tie its leg with a rope to a wooden post planted deep in the ground. This confines the baby elephant to an area determined by the length of the rope – the elephant’s comfort zone. Though the baby elephant will initially try to break the rope, the rope is too strong, and so the baby elephant learns that it can’t break the rope. It learns that it has to stay in the area defined by the length of the rope.

When the elephant grows up into a 5 ton colossus that could easily break the same rope, it doesn’t even try because it learned as a baby that it couldn’t break the rope. In this way, the largest elephant can be confined by the puniest little rope.

Perhaps this also describes you – still trapped in a comfort zone by something as puny and weak as the small rope and stake that controls the elephant, except your rope is made up of the limiting beliefs and images that you received and took on when you were young. If this describes you, the good news is that you can change your comfort zone. How? There are three different ways:

1. You can use affirmations and positive self-talk to affirm already having what you want, doing what you want, and being the way that you want.
2. You can create powerful and compelling new internal images of having, doing, and being what you want.
3. You can simply change your behavior.

All three of these approaches will shift you out of your old comfort zone.”

The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.”

Albert Einstein

I’ll leave you with this blurb today – there’s another related one that I will share tomorrow.

Patty’s Challenge: What is your comfort zone and how is it imprisoning you? What is one thing that you can do TODAY to begin to expand your comfort zone? (you’ll know you are heading to the edges of your comfort zone when you begin to feel uncomfortable!) Your comfort zone dictates where you eat, where you shop, where you live, where you travel…If you see a store or restaurant that you would normally never shop at, never eat at because you think it would be too expensive, too trendy – take a step inside. Have a cup of coffee and a pastry at the restaurant perhaps, or buy something small at a gourmet food store. Start breaking the rigid box we have placed ourselves in…

Love to you,
Patty

To Justice with Love

Dearest Goddesses,

I read Maat’s message today – about Justice – and it reminded me of something I heard in Denise Linn’s Soul Coaching Program – that where you are in life is sometimes less important than the judgments we have about where we are. Inner peace can be reached only by allowing yourself to be where you are in the moment.

I’m sure in your world, there are experiences that you have where you were in fact treated unfairly or unjustly and need Maat’s help to find justice – or to find peace – but if you’re anything like me, it’s how we treat ourselves that can be considered the most unjust!

Sometimes ranting and raving into the computer helps me process something that I’m going through – most times I just delete them, sometimes I save them but I happened to leave it up on the computer and John read it and he couldn’t believe the amount of suffering I went through in certain situations, about where my head went from one topic to another. He told me he couldn’t believe how I torture myself!

“Maat says that the way to wholeness for you lies in accepting the loving nature of justice which seeks to right all wrongs by administering the lessons needed.”

Perhaps it’s that Catholic guilt in my subconscious, or the cancer in me that wants to take care of everyone else, perhaps I’ve watched too much Law & Order…I guess I never considered the “loving nature” of justice and see more of the punishment aspect! I think we all need to cut ourselves some slack – whatya think?

Where do you need to accept where you are in your life and let go of the judgments you have about where you are? Spend some extra time today and throughout the week sending warm, loving thoughts to that aspect of yourself. Give up your judgments of others, and especially those judgments of yourself.

Love to you,

Patty

Maat: Justice

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 am the law of truth

the path of integrity

preserver of the code

and in my heart justice lives

I weigh all deeds against

My feather of truth

I weigh all deeds

And should they prove the heavier

Then I give the lessons

I create the opportunities

I open the pathways

I graciously bestow

that which needs to be learned

to right all wrongs.

Mythology

Maat (pronounced maht) was an ancient Egyptian Goddess of law, order, truth, and justice. With her feather of truth she weighed the souls of all who came to her subterranean Hall of Judgment. She would place her plume on her scales opposite the heart of the deceased. If the scales balanced, the deceased could feast with deities and spirits of the dead; if the heart was heavy, the deceased was turned over the Ahemait (Underworld Goddess who is pant hippopotamus, part lion, part crocodile) to be devoured.

Meaning of the Card

Maat has come with her feather of truth to assist you in bringing justice into your life. Are you in a situation that seems unfair, unjust, unreasonable? Have you used integrity, yet another or others have not, and now you are wounded and seek justice? Have you not been honest in your words, your deeds, your actions? Are you being unjust to others? To yourself? Perhaps your standards are so rigid that you find them impossible to meet and continually need to rebel? Do you have an inner judge who condemns you for any infractions in his/her rule? Now is the time to look at your life and invite justice in. Now is the time to repay all debts, to strike a fair and reasonable balance in all your dealings. Maat says that the way to wholeness for you lies in accepting the loving nature of justice which seeks to right all wrongs by administering the lessons needed.

Ritual Suggestion: Handing Over to Maat for Justice

Find a time and a place where and when you will not be disturbed. You may want to wear clothing that is different from your everyday apparel. You may want to light some incense and/or candles. Do what is most comfortable for you.

Cast your circle by calling in or becoming the elements earth, air, fire, water (if you need help with this, please contact me for more information, PK) Call in whatever you need or want to call in – power animal(s), the Goddess and the God, the Great Mystery, Grandmother Moon. Once you have cast the circle and called in what/whoever you cvhoose you are ready to call in Maat. You may want to put the card representing Maat in the center of the circle or include something that represents Maat to you. It is best when you are calling in a Goddess to use your own words and speak directly from your heart. It is not the words you use that matter, it is the intent, coming sincerely and directly from the heart. Close your eyes and call her in with drumming, chanting, dancing, singing, with words spoken out loud or in silence. Open to her and sense, see, or feel her presence. Now hand over to her what requires justice in your life. Feel the situation being lifted off your shoulders. Really sense, see, or feel that Maat is going to take care of it. It is out of your life, off your back, removed from your mind. Thank Maat for coming and release her with gratitude. Now release what you have called in. Allow yourself to feel, sense or see the circle you have cast disappearing into the air. Welcome back!