Self-Limiting Beliefs ~ Self-Fulfilling Prophecy...?

I had an "*Aha* Moment" last night ...

Recently, I've gotten in touch with some of the women I knew in high school (gotta love FaceBook for that!) -- we were all in the "advanced" singing group together.

Lots of talent. Great fun. But, I carried a secret ...

It's fascinating to see how their lives have unfolded - one of them now performs & cuts records, another is teaching voice lessons to folks in the commercial industry (as in making commercials, and theatre stars), and another is in the music biz.

They were all "A's" ... but I was always a "B" (I mean quality of voice - not grades -- don't get me started on grades ... though I'll be blogging on how we corrupt creativity with external/extrinsic rewards, but I digress).

Here's my secret: I always believed that they were naturally talented, and had earned/deserved to be in the group -- on the other hand, I had dishonestly snuck my way in there -- I was there, vicariously. I rode in on their talent. I was only pretending to belong ... I felt like an impostor, even a hypocrite, and I was afraid (no, terrified!) that I would be caught, exposed, and catapulted out of there. If they knew ..! So I spent inordinate energy trying to keep them from seeing the "real me" (the me I feared I was), and projected a more acceptable me, instead.

(& I have the profound hunch that I'm not alone here ... that many of you, perhaps even most, or all of you, can relate to this feeling ...)

Yeah, I could sing, and I even did some solos, and I took voice lessons for a few years ... LOVED musical theatre ... but I always felt second-rate, talent-wise. Singing-wise. I was good, but not *really* good. I was always the friend of the girl who was *really* good...

Like I was faking ... like I had to fool folks. Had to distract and dazzle 'em. Like my voice was not reliable ... at times, I could surprise myself and others with what came out of me, but at other times, it would be so ... well, second-rate.

I've always had voice-envy. (My mother is profoundly talented in singing -- my father is untrained and has less-accurate pitch -- I am the combo.) It's like I've had good-voice days, and bad-voice days ... and I'm never quite sure what will come out. It's always a risk, a gamble.

Once, singing for a wedding, we were performing, "All I Ask of You" from "Phantom of the Opera" ... the guy was FABulous (an old friend), and he asked me to join him (it was for his sister's wedding -- so I felt honored -- but again, I had to fool folks). The range was higher than I'm comfy with (I'm a first alto - this was more mezzo soprano).

I had a couple of drinks, to relax, and then cut loose, in that more uninhibited state -- what came out of me was astounding ... maybe I need to just lose the fear ... but I confess that the fear/limitation is still there ...

I felt it again last night, after finding these women on FaceBook, and reading about their lives ... and felt a profound sense of sadness ... & I even got angry, that I have allowed a *belief/thought/feeling* of being feeling "second-best" to create a second-best experience. That I have robbed myself.

If I'm seeing this, I wonder what's about to unfold ...?

Of course, I'm aware, and perhaps you are too, of the wider application of this awareness. I'm confident that each of you reading this is aware of an aspect of your *own* life, wherein you've labeled yourself "second best" or "less than", and have thus CREATED that limitation-reality in your own life.

We have created this for ourselves -- we have chosen this. We're creating, either consciously, or unconsciously ... why NOT do it consciously...?

Shalom, Dena

Life 101 ~ More Thoughts ...

What if you found out that your thoughts have a life of their own..? That they are "alive"... and active. What if thoughts become things...? ("As a wo/man thinks in her/his own heart, so is s/he.")

What if you're meant to find that out?

I know this sounds a bit woo-woo to some folks, but have you ever talked yourself into, or out of, being sick? And have you noticed that negative thinking seems to lead to negative circumstances, or relationships? Why not try it the other way?

What if this is happening all the time, only we just don't know it?

What if we're creating things regularly, unconsciously? How much better to do so consciously? And, how much more responsible would that be?

We, created in the very image and likeness of God, are creators (fish beget fish, dogs beget dogs, cats beget cats, oak trees beget oak trees, God begets ...). Most of us just haven't realized it yet ... but, if we look at the current chaos (which has arisen out of our own chaotic thoughts), perhaps it's time, if not beyond time, to come to this realization, to get responsible for our thinking ("take every thought captive"), to create for good, rather than for harm.

We've had 6,000 years of harm -- methinks we've nearly perfected it. Let's try another option now, yes?

Here's another Life 101 tidbit: Life (which includes God, consciousness, energy, ourselves) is eternal. I notice that my awareness is independent of my body ... (this is realized every time I go to sleep and dream). I believe that life existed prior to when I got my body, and life will go on after my body reaches its expiration date. I am not my body - I have a body. I'm a spiritual being having a physical/human experience.

And another: There is only Love/God. As I look at this realm of reality, everything I see around me and beyond, it seems so very uber-obvious that it's all about love. If God didn't love, why bother with this? Why create physicality and consciousness, if it's not for the purpose of love? And what is all of creation watching us to see, to learn, but that love wins over the ego...(& that it was never even a contest, LOL!).

And that leads to: Everything is precisely as it "ought" to be -- right here, right now. (I can hear some of you objecting ... some of you, loudly.)

Granted, to "get" this, one has to go higher/deeper than what is appearing. Judge not by appearances. From God's perspective, which includes all the infinite possibilities for growing into unfathomable realms, growing and learning from everything that happens, and yet remaining One/connected with God throughout it all, nothing was left to "chance". It all matters -- it all serves a purpose, if "only" to show us the insanity of our (or another's) thinking. There's no room for mistakes with God, because God took everything into consideration, way before this life-adventure began. All of our choices lead to our learning, growing, developing, enlightening. It's blessedly inevitable. There are an infinite number of roads to God, but all roads lead to God -- for there is nowhere where God is *not* ("where can I go from Your presence -- if I go to the abode of the dead, You are there..." ... "nothing can separate us from the Love of God").

It just seems to us that bad things happen, for we haven't yet seen the fuller/bigger/deeper picture. Remember, we are not our bodies, and we are not even our thoughts ... we are Spirit ... and what can harm Spirit?

As Mike Dooly says, in his book, "Infinite Possibilities," ~

Taking into account that we are pure God, pure energy, eternal, living in an adventure-dreamworld of our own creation, and that no matter what happens in this adventure we all return to our celestial source, wiser, whole, enriched and all powerful. The only conclusion that exists is that it's truly all good."

A few thoughts about these "Life 101's":

~ These truths exist and operate, even if we don't believe in them. Just like gravity.

~ We awaken in order to be set free from self-imposed limitations.

~ We are limitless in every way we can fathom, unLESS we *believe* otherwise -- and then, suddenly, we will experience limits, rules, restrictions, conditions.

~ Our thoughts create things ... and our thoughts are sponsored and governed by our *beliefs*. Anyone else besides me aware that we can believe lies (especially those told to us by "external authorities"...? And they will *seem* like truth?

~ Beliefs are like lenses ... they color how we view the world, ourselves, each other, God. And if we "try on" another set of lenses, everything can/will look different. What if we're each and all wearing different lenses? (and we are) Each of us is seeing uniquely, and each of us firmly believes that what we see, through the lenses, is "reality". Think about it ... does what each of us thinks we're seeing, through our lenses, truly affect reality, or just our *perception* of reality? I find it fascinating that I can always spot another person's lenses, long before I realize that I'm wearing a pair, too..! (Deal with the log in your own eye, before you go trying to fix the speck in the eye of the other.)

~ Beliefs create our own personal "matrix"...

~ Beliefs don't define the world -- beliefs define our thoughts and perceptions of our world ... and then, those thoughts create *more of the same* (so that we can't even SEE anything that doesn't match our beliefs).

~ Here's an example: if I believe that we are all separate from God, that God is outside of us, and far away, and that God judges and punishes humans, then every time I see "misfortune" I will see that as conclusive proof that my view of God is true. I would unthinkingly filter all my experiences through this belief about God, not even considering that there could be any other alternatives. I would thus judge myself, and judge all others, believing that I was *right* to do so (because of my belief that God is this way). And then I would live with a fear that I wasn't measuring up, and deserved to be punished. Further, every time I'd encounter contrary evidence that actually refutes my belief, I would then dismiss it as ridiculous (or wrong, or evil, or demonic, or new age...), and then shrug and say, "*Sigh* ... God moves in mysterious ways" ... never mind that I sometimes would notice that I'd feel more compassionate than my own God, but I couldn't "go there" as it wouldn't mesh with my belief about how God IS. (Yeah, I know, a wholly *wild* concept that would never occur to anyone, right? How hyperbolic could I be?!?)

~ No matter what our upbringing, our background, our past experiences, we are NOT stuck with our thinking. Our present, and our future, are dependent upon the thoughts we choose for ourselves *today*.

~ What if our beliefs aren't formed by our reality, so much as our reality is formed by our beliefs...?!?

~ The world merely mirrors back to us our thoughts, beliefs, and expectations. We can *learn* from whatever is presented to us.

~ We can/must pay attention to our thoughts, words and actions .. they will show us what's really going on inside. If we have limits, they will appear in what we think, say and do.

~ Don't focus on what you're currently seeing in your life -- dwell/focus on what you *want* to see in your life...!

~ We are not passive in this life - we are powerfully participatory ... we are creators of our own reality. We need to take responsibility, and enjoy this gift/life we've been given, to the fullest...! (Accepting responsibility gives us back the power we've given away ...)

~ God gives us the desires of our hearts -- this means we get what we most believe we desire... AND, God *puts* the desires *in* our heart. So, get in touch with what you most desire! It is automatically aligned with what God desires (for you are One). It's the egoic thinking that gets in the way, but that's not the real you -- that's the impostor. The real you longs to do that which blesses everyone -- for we're all one. It's win/win, rather than win/lose. You achieving your dreams dos *not* detract from someone else ... there is no shortage of dream-fulfillment in the kingdom of God. So, g'head, dare to visualize what you MOST want ... and leave the "how's" and "when's" to God ... that part is not our business, being above our current pay-grade...! ;)

~ Question everything that doesn't make sense, 'til it *does* make sense, because it will -- we are meant to understand. Ask, seek and knock... and KNOW that the door will be opened..!

Shalom, Dena

Life 101 ~ We Are One

One of those dash in-and-out-the-door days ... dragging Mark with me, so it'll be fun (we smooch in the aisles of stores!).

BUT - this is something I've been wanting to blog on ... so I want to delve into it a wee bit, before the dashing commences (got 3 minutes - use them wisely!).

Here's a bit of What I'm Coming to Believe About Life, or "Life 101" -- take what resonates, let go of the rest:

~ We are all One. This is perhaps ground zero for me ... that which all else has been leading/drawing/wooing me to see. It seems so stinkin' obvious to me now ... where've I been?!? Ok, so "one of WHAT?" Fill in your own blank: God, Source, the Divine, the Universe. God works for me (though God is All that Is for me, rather than a Male Sky God - up there, somewhere, watching us from a distance ... nice song, lousy theology).

How could I be anything BUT God...? How could any of us? And, rather than being arrogance to see/proclaim it so, saying that I'm "NOT God" or "apart from God", as if I'm something ELSE from God -- well, that smacks of supreme arrogance to me.

I see God as all that is, all that has ever been all that will be ... all that is seen, all unseen, all realized and all yet to discover -- is God. Unlimited Love. Unfathomable Light. Unconditional Acceptance. Un-missable Inevitability! God IS. Not limited to what I can see, but included IN all I can see ... God IN everything, yet not limited/contained-by/defined-by what I can see. No limit at all.

It's just our exclusive reliance upon our physical five senses that tells us that we are separate, that we are alone, that we are doomed, that we are rejected, that we are not "good enough". We see everything in the duality of right/wrong, good/bad, black/white ... but this is not our normal state of being ... this is the overlay, the lens if you will, of the ego.

Think of the sun -- it is *always* shining. Always. However, our experience is that the clouds appear, and block our awareness of the sun ... it *seems* as if the sun is gone, far away ... and yet, the clouds are transient ... they shall pass, they are ephemeral, ethereal ... vapor. So, too, with what we see as "reality" ... it's an illusion. Your dreams seem real while you're dreaming ... and so too is this life we're living a dream of sorts ... just as illusional -- yet *purposeful* -- it matters, it has great meaning -- or else we wouldn't be having it.

As nature teaches us, nothing is wasted. Nothing. Transformation of matter occurs, but nothing is "lost".

Let's not allow our dualistic thinking fool us into thinking that God has an "opposite". There cannot be an opposite to All in All. Think on that.

Imagine that you see islands appearing above the water line ... the water line demonstrates the level of conscious awareness ... you are aware, above the line, that the islands are separate. But this is only an illusion ... for, in reality, below the water-line/consciousness-line, the islands are all *connected* in the foundational reality of the sea-floor, which is the Whole Planet. They are One. So too, is it with us ... we think we are isolated little islands ... disconnected from each other and the Whole. But -- we are one.

The knowing of this, which would lead to the living of this, would change everything.

But, only everything.

Shalom, Dena

A Recent Conversation ...

Thought I'd share a recent conversation I had with an old friend ... we go way back, and he "knew me when". Like many of my old friends, he's quite concerned about my shiftings ... the direction in which I've grown. And, like most Christians, he seems to have a desire/need/obligation(?) to set me straight ... to bring me back to that which I was led out of (ignore that-thar dangling preposition ... 'tis not the root of all evil!).

I know where he's coming from, as I was once there ... and there exists here in the wild world of the Internet, pu-LENTY of proof that I was once as traditionally-fundamental in my thinking, and as doctrinally-bent on getting others to see the errors of their ways...! (just for fits and giggles, check out my posts on Psycho-Babble Faith, where I got banned for over a year, due to how I was pushing Jesus, in an unkind/exclusive way! Check the archives for fun!)

Back to the conversation ... this was in response to one of the many things I send out "for consideration" ~

Friend: Sorry Dena. I love ya, and have many fond memories of the short
time we spent together, but philosophically, we could not be further apart.

Me: 'Tis ok. I'm quite in a different place from where I once was. If the me of even 6 years ago met the me of today ... I'd have to disfellowship myself...!

Friend: And I believe that what you are teaching is completely wrong and quite dangerous.

Me: Yes - I understand. Was a time I would've agreed -- and did -- and argued passionately against folks like me (got the website posts to prove it, too).

Friend: For me personally, it came down to 2 views being true. Either the God of the Bible was truth, or that evolution (in some form) and humanism were the only truth, and that there is nothing out there.

Me: Interesting ... I don't see that there are only two black and white options. I see all manner of paradoxes operating within God -- certainly a biblical concept.

Friend: You live, you die, you cease to exist.
If that's the case, then I would pursue hedonism with every fibre in my body, which actually would be the MUCH easier choice for me personally.

Me: Interesting ... so, only the sense of fear of punishment is keeping you close to God? I guess you've not yet discovered the incredible power of love. Love is *the* most powerful force in the universe. I don't want a "god" I'm forced to be with out of fear ... I want a God who loves me so utterly and completely that I can't help but respond back with complete devotion and love in return. Fear doesn't inspire love, either for God, or for other humans ... and makes a terrible way to live.

Friend: As difficult as it is to believe in the Biblical teachings at times, when compared to Hinduism or Buddhism or some of the other religions out there, it seems quite tame and completely believable. I absolutely could not buy into most of the ideas in the other religions. I felt you had to be a borderline idiot to buy into many of them.

Me: Oh, I don't follow/believe in any religions. They're all manmade, including Christianity. Though, I find that there is plenty of truth to be found in all places ... I see God *in* all things ... and I'm no longer afraid to use the truth that I find, wherever it happens to be, however it happens to be packaged.

Friend: In the end, I decided to put my faith in the God of the Bible. Though I don't pretend to understand it all, or have all of the answers, it has made more and more sense to me as I have studied it.

Me: I certainly see God in the Bible ... though I also see much of man's ego, attempting to understand/define God (and often projecting onto God). God created man in His own image, and we've been returning the favor ever since. I had to fire the "god" of man's creation, so that the real God could reveal Himself to me. I've learned that I've got to go with the God I'm experiencing, rather than the god that man has told me about.

Friend: Please don't take this in the wrong way, but you remind me of something my grandfather used to say. "Some people are so open-minded that they have become flat-headed!"

Me: LOL - I've also heard "so open minded that their brains fall out" ... both good ones!

So far, got my brains ... and my head remains round. Oh -- and God remains close. Closer than I've ever known, actually. Kinda defies the explanations of man, but then God never did stick to what man thinks, anyway, LOL!

Blessings to you ... may you come to know how utterly you are loved, and may it transform everything for you!

Much love -

Shalom, Dena

How I've Come to Understand the Bible ...

A few things that have helped me to understand the scriptures ...

- Much of it was written from the perspective of the ego (carnal flesh -- human mind) ... which is limited. Inspired by God, yes, of course ... but aren't we humans also inspired (God-breathed)? Since when does inspired mean inerrant...?

(I notice that the Bible nowhere calls itself "inerrant" or "infallible" -- humans, who egoically want to control others, say that -- and if we hear a thing often enough, by enough people, we assume it to be true -- that's how propaganda works.)

- Scripture was written by man, added to by man, translated by man, interpretted by man, and put on a pedestal by man. It was never meant to be a member of the "Godhead". It's not meant to be our authority ... it's meant to give us a glimpse of God ... the Spirit within us is our authority. How much easier it is to rely on static rules, and to live vicariously through the lives of others in the past, than to take the personal responsibility to tune in to the ever-leading spirit, and to live out a relationship with the One who says "I Am"! (God is *not* the "I Was", nor the "I Will Be.")

- In places where Paul *seems* to contradict himself (i.e., "women be silent" and yet "when women prophesy ..." -- as IF that means women must prophesy in sign language!), we have to keep in mind that Paul was quite often *quoting* what others had previously written him. These were written as *letters* - not "books of the Bible". There was no punctuation ... the translators imposed their own (egoic and often harshly patriarchal) views upon the text. There are places where Paul quotes those who had written to him, and then says the Greek equivalent of "B.S!" -- refuting what he'd just quoted! As in "we have no such laws in the church". He had to quote them, for the sake of clarity -- we do the same thing in emails we've just received-- how much more did he have to do so, when months would go by between letters...?!?

- Many (OK, all) of the verses about destruction/judgment were about the soon-pending events that THEY (in the first century) had to face, but which WE (now) do not face. Jesus warned them that the events of the "end of the age" (the old covenant age, not the "world") were to come upon them during THAT generation -- while some of THEM were still alive ... and so it happened, just as Jesus had warned them, when Jerusalem was sieged by Rome in 67 AD, and then utterly destroyed in 70 AD (interestingly after 42 months, or 3.5 years of horrendous torture), destroying the city, the Temple, and the old covenant.

We are in (& have been in) the new heaven and new earth (synonymous of the new covenant, New Jerusalem, Kingdom of God/Heaven) for a very long time now ... but most of Christianity has clung to the old covenant, complete with the sin-focus, and all the rules ... the very things Jesus came against, the very things which the prophets of the OT said would "pass away" with the old covenant (as in sin and iniquity would be no more -- for sin was *always* about infractions against the legalities of the old covenant Law).

We can let go now. We can live in the Kingdom now (which is at hand, in our midst, within us -- here and NOW, but spiritually, not physically, discerned -- for the spiritual reality *always* trumps the perceived physical realm).

Christianity/Church was a first-century-only phenomenon ... meant to help THAT generation transition from the old into the new covenant. We don't need it ... in fact, it squelches our awareness of the Kingdom-at-hand ... it ties us to the old/obsolete/GONE old covenant, nullifying all that Jesus taught.

Nothing is hanging over our heads (except the results of our own skewy/insane thinking -- as a man/society thinks in his own heart, so IS he). BUT - we get to question our thinking, and question our beliefs ... we get to ask, "is it true?" and trust the Spirit within to lead us into all truth. We do *not* have to heed the traditions of man. We *can* (& must!) trust the One who is in/as our hearts.

There is no more judgement ... just choices, and consequences which are meant to *teach* us about how to "choose again". It's all about learning, not shaming ... it's all about healing, not punishing.

We're *all* saved (& the only thing we ever had to be saved from was our wrong thinking - we need to have our minds renewed).

It's *all* fulfilled.

We're *all *One.

We need to wake up ~ and then be "agents of contagion", helping others to wake up, too.

THIS is my passion.

Shalom, Dena

Gleanings from "Dance of the Dissident Daughter" (Part II)

I'm discovering that just because I've understood something in my mind/intellect, that doesn't necessarily mean that I've realized it in my soul. And, there are also (many!) times when I grasp something deep in my soul, which my mind has not yet processed.

In exploring the evolution of patriarchy and God's image as male, I discovered, as did Steve Taylor (in "The Fall"), that the original concept of the Divine was feminine. Now, I'm not tempted, or even desiring, to worship the ancient, neolithic images of goddesses ... I'm intrigued by the consciousness of the people who made them. What *they* saw and experienced about life. My goal is not to suggest that we go backwards, "back to the Garden" or beyond ... back to the era of matriarchal consciousness. But we can learn from them ... while they weren't Utopian (and utopias are always exaggerated myths), they *were* egalitarian and non-violent (with no one in "charge", there was no one to fight against). Neither do I desire to throw out all the evolutionary progress we've made during this time of seeing God as male. My desire, and what I believe we need, is to combine the best of the masculine images *with* the lost feminine images ... and yet transcend them, allowing a fuller *new* consciousness to emerge. I'm looking for the Wholeness of Divinity ... nothing missing, nothing broken, nothing left out. All-Inclusiveness.

Back to those gleanings:

~ El Shaddai, an OT term for God, is feminine ... it means "Many-Breasted One." (& really, when you think about it, how better is the phrase, "this is My Body, given for you" manifested, than in a pregnant and nursing mother...?).

~ The root concept for compassion is the womb... suggesting that the God of compassion/Mercy, (rechem in Hebrew) is the womblike God.

~ Jesus likens Himself to a Mother Hen.

~ (There's a ton of female imagery in the biblical text, which has been obscured by translation -- the vast majority of translators have been male.) Deut. 32:18, in Hebrew, reads, "You forgot the God who gave you birth."

~ The term for the Holy Spirit (God's Spirit) is feminine. Ruah in Hebrew, and Pneuma in Greek, are both feminine nouns.

~ Wisdom is not just a concept, but is personified as a female ... Sophia, or Hokhmah. Sophia is describes as she who was preexistent, with God, who participated in creating the world ... she permeates all things ... a teacher, one with all things ... She guides and reveals God's will ... She is also referred to as a tree of life. Further, according to John (in his gospel), Sophia became the Christ. But why did the translators switch the term Sophia for the male term Logos..? Interesting.

~ Many early Christians understood God as "dyad" - a being consisting of both masculine and feminine elements ... God was both divine Father and divine Mother ... and the Secret Book of John (declared as "non-inspired" by the patriarchs), John writes, "a unity in three forms came to me ... it said, "I am the One who is with you always: I am the Father; I am the Mother; I am the Son."

~ If a religion speaks of God as warrior, using militaristic language ("crushing enemies", "soldier of God"), then we become a culture that values military and aggression.

~ If a religion speaks of God as a male king, we become a culture that values and enthrones men and masculinity.

~ Feminine love reunites us ... connects us to all that is. With God, with each other, with the whole of creation. We come from the same Womb -- the "body parable" of pregnancy shows us this interconnectedness. During pregnancy, the distinction of me and not-me becomes divinely blurry. Perhaps women can grasp this more easily than men, once we carry and deliver "another."

~ Love-making is another divine parable: anyone who has experienced a tender orgasm has experienced something of the Divine ... a connecting with another in a way that is beyond words, even beyond images.

~ I found this quote of Kidd's to be profoundly powerful:

"In Christianity God came in a male body. Within the history and traditions of patriarchy, women's bodies did not belong to themselves, but to husbands. We learned to hate our bodies if they didn't conform to an ideal, to despise the cycles of menstruation - "the curse," it was called. Our experience of our body has been immersed in shame.

"Waking to the sacredness of the female body will cause a woman to 'enter into' her body in a new way, be at home in it, honor it, nurture it, listen to it, delight in its sensual music. She will experience her female flesh as beautiful and holy, as a vessel of the sacred. She will live from her gut and feet and hands and instincts and not entirely in her head. Such a woman conveys a formidable presence because power resides in her body."

~ This is the divine dance ... and part of the dance is to forgive what we can, as we can. There is no healing without forgiveness; there is no forgiveness without love ... Love is EVERYthing.

~ Each woman (& indeed each man), must do what their heart tells them.

~ When we see patriarchy for what it is, and realize that it is killing who we really are, then our only option is deviance. We can choose to be loving dissidents.

~ What we need is a living, forceful power that is also compassionate -- a force that enables others to transform as well.

~ A mystic is one who has had an inward experience of the divine, one who finds ultimate authority within that experience, rather than in a source outside of themself. Prophets are ones who speak this energy out into the world. Conscious women are BOTH.

~ When women truly speak, we speak subversively ... we refuse to be uninvited ... we find surprising ways to invite ourselves. We heed the unheard cry of the one within, rather than the slamming door of the ego on the outside.

~ What does the true soul do? It loves, and it creates.

~ We must ask ourself: What is my deepest passion? What moves me profoundly? What am I here to be, and thus to do? What can I not *help* but do?

~ Notice what arises to keep us from beginning, and keeps us from following through ... that must be faced, questioned, understood, and absorbed by Truth.

~ Do not make the mistake of mistaking recycle patriarchal power for authentic female strength and authenticity.

~ Realize that status quo will resist ... it will call you a "bad mother" ... it will try to put you back into the box from which you have escaped. When this happens (and it will), keep in mind a line from the (female) Indian poet Mirabai, "I have felt the swaying of the elephant's shoulders and now you want me to climb on a jackass? Try to be serious!"

~ When we find our own inner authority, he who *thinks* he is your authority will rise up in protest. Remember: a life lived in fear is a life only half-lived. Refuse the fear (it's optional, you know). Dance your dance!

~ Consider these words of Walt Whitman's:

"Re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book, and dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem, and have the richest fluency, not only in words, but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes, and in every motion and joint of your body."

~ We *are* the change the world is waiting for.

Again, if anyone wishes to join a book-study/discussion about this rather remarkable book, email me, brehmites @ aol . com (remove those spaces first), and I'll be happy to send you the invitation to join the list wherein it's happening).

Next ... exploring "A New Revelation" ... just for consideration...!

Shalom, Dena

Gleanings From "The Dance of the Dissident Daughter" (Part I)

In my (rarely humble, but why should it be?) opinion, I do believe that this book is a must-read for all women, as well as for the men who are ready for it. And I am honored and wildly excited to know SO many men who are indeed, ready for it. You know who you are -- and you are called to such a time as this.

I would like to wrap up my synopsis of it, however, as I've read 2 other books since this one, and I'd like to TRY to get *current* in what I'm seeing, as it unfolds ... though it often feels like keeping up with a whirlwind, LOL! It's hard for me to get all fired-up and enthused about something I just read/realized/remembered, and then have to waaaaaaaait 'til I get caught up in blogging what I read a few weeks back! (where IS my clone, and how do I get a few of 'em?)

So, I'm going to hit the highlights of how this book enriched me, and trust that those who would benefit from reading it, will be led to do so. And so, in no particular order (that I'm aware of), I'll share the gleanings:

~ In the traditional rendering of the Genesis/creation story, woman is blamed for bringing sin into the world ... because of her association with the serpent. Her punishment, tradition says, is that she would now suffer in childbirth, and be subservient to man. HowEVER - in ancient times, the serpent was not seen as evil, but as good ... in fact it symbolized feminine wisdom, power and regeneration. The serpent was the main symbol of sacred feminine energy. How did the serpent, out of all the creatures, come to symbolize the epitome of evil, in Judaism and Christianity? Why was the snake selected to portray the "devil/satan"? Is it possible that the patriarchs in control sought to intentionally downplay this former symbol of the feminine divine? Was the point to put "enmity" between woman and the source of her innate wisdom? What has it done to women, to have separated her from her source...?

~ Women have long been forbidden to express anger. "Be nice." Even if it kills us. And it does kill us ... anger turned inward is depression... the bitterness of depression is the root of many diseases. If the emotions are not expressed, the body will take them on. And since we never deal with the *root* of the diseases, merely managing the symptoms that physically appear, we keep ourselves entrenched in the diseases ... imagining them to be "real". We need to face the injustices, and even get angry about them. We need to honor the awareness of the damage done. And THEN, we need to use that anger-energy to do something constructive. Anger doesn't have to manifest as either depression or destruction ... we needn't either deny it, or lash out in it. We can use anger to challenge and question patriarchy. We can use it as a means of finding compassion ... to move from exclusion to all-inclusion ... to move from fear to love.

~ The Bible is not our ultimate authority. Do not allow anyone to enslave you to this unbiblical notion...! Contrary to the traditions of man, our ultimate authority is our Self... our Higher Self ... that union of God-and-Us -- the Divine Voice within our own heart. And nothing else. The Kingdom of God is within -- THAT is our authority. Settle for nothing less. (& don't expect Christianity to back this up -- it knows that once you know your True Authority, it has lost all control over you ... in fact, it becomes superfluous, unnecessary ... which has always been the truth -- we don't need training wheels -- we only THINK we need them.)

~ The female soul resides in the *gut* (intuition), not the head (logic).

~ We must be true to our own spiritual unfolding ... and trust that our example will one day help others (including our own children) be true to theirs. We each have an internal guiding Spiritual wisdom ... we must each hear it, heed it, and trust it.

~ We have sole responsibility for our spiritual lives. There is NO one, and NOthing, between us, and our Divine Source. Don't allow anyone, or anything, to be an idol.

~ As women, we have to come to understand ourselves as central, not peripheral. We have to depend on ourselves/Selves (keep in mind our always-real connection to Source/God/dess). But this cannot be done *against* men ... this is collaborative, NOT competitive.. Women must find their way with or without men ... but never *against* men.

~ Why do we prefer the security of cages, rather than the challenges of freedom...?

~ When we cannot go forward, and we cannot go backwards, and we can no longer stay where we are without killing off a real and vital part of ourselves, then we are on the edge of CREATION...! Joseph Campbell says, "The familiar life horizon has been outgrown; the old concepts ideals and emotional patterns no longer fit; the time for the passing of a threshold is at hand."

~ Sue Monk Kidd writes, "In some ways, spiritual development for women, perhaps unlike that for men, is not about surrendering self, so much as coming to self." Perhaps, because of men's propensity to a stronger ego, men have to "die to self" ... whereas women, who have long suppressed self, must re-discover self..? Something to ponder ... it rings true for me.

~ When we're in a significant juncture of transition, the outer events, circumstances, meetings, conversations, dreams ... are often overflowing with meanings that need to be heeded. Listen. Pay attention.

~ We come to an unimpeachable knowing: Who we are, what we are experiencing, is Okay. Good. True. Real.

~ Pay attention to "sensory intuition" ... when the body quickens with a knowing truth ... tingling, vibration, waves, goosebumps, warmth, or your own variation of sensation, may indicate that the soul and body are realizing (or remembering!) something that the mind has not yet grasped ...!

~ Awakening precipitates awakenings ... we are agents of contagion. Live it, be it ... it spreads like a beautiful virus!

~ Patriarchy wounds men too ... and men must make their own spiritual journey for healing ... for freedom ... to discover Who They Really Are. It's delightful to make this distinct-yet-connected journey *together*.

~ Read what Naomi Wolf says about men's healing choices:

"The world of men is dividing into egalitarians and patriarchalists - those men who are trying to learn the language and customs of the newly emerging world, and those who are determined to keep that new order from taking root. The former group welcomes these changes, seeing that though they are painful in the short term, over the long term they provide the only route to intimacy and peace. But the latter group sees only loss ... The patriarchalists' world view, shared by women as well as men, is battling the emerging egalitarian world view, which is also shared by people of both sexes."

(I see this resistance to change in *every* discussion forum I participate in ... and it's institutionalized in religion, which must retain patriarchal status quo in order to survive ...)

~ Any marriage, or relationship, is meant to be created, and then endlessly re-created. As we change (& we must, or die), so too do our relationships change ... they are living, not taxidermied monuments to what was. All good marriages are re-marriages...! ;)

~ Growth-fostering relationships share five characteristics:

1. Each person feels a greater sense of vitality/energy.
2. Each person feels more able to act, and does act.
3. Each person has a more accurate image of themself, and the other person.
4. Each person feels a greater sense of worth.
5. Each person feels more connected to the other person, and a greater motivation for connections with others beyond those in the relationship.

~ Synchronicities: Those times when an outer event resonates mysteriously and powerfully with what's happening on the inside. Synchronicities are more prevalent while we're mid-shift ... we can let them show us what they symbolize, and what they reveal. They will illumine the way for us.

~ Labyrinths are fascinating! Originally, they were a symbol of the Divine Womb, and they were walked in a ritual of rebirth, transformation. As the initiates moved to the sacred center, they were surrendering to a symbolic death, shedding old, unfitting, non-working thoughts and beliefs, and mindsets. IN the center, they became centered ... they intuitively received/realized/remembered truth. As they walked out, they manifested rebirth. (Here's the fascinating part for me ... long before I read this book, I woke up one night with a clear image of a spiral ... the background was a blazing riot of vivid colors ... superimposed over it was a black and white "path" ... I saw this image clearly, and even told Mark about it ... I knew I had to paint it. And I painted it onto two stools. Then I read this book ... and then, yesterday, at an art show, I had the two stools with me ... and people were drawn to them -- 3 different women exclaimed, "Look! A labyrinth!" I looked, and all the dots immediately connected in my mind -- I almost choked on the pear I was eating! I had received the vision of the labyrinth before I'd read about them, before I'd painted them ... and I saw that the black and white represents the superimposed mindset of rules/religion/regulations that I thought represented God ... and I walked that path to the center ... then, I walked out, on the colors that had been there all the time, but I was blind to them..! BTW - both of those stools sold yesterday ... and I *shall* be painting more!)

~ This shedding process happens continuously, over and over - rarely (if ever) is it a one-time-and-it's-over deal. And it happens both outwardly and inwardly ... externally, we confront patriarchal patterns in our marriage, religion, career, culture ... internally we must confront the patriarchal patterns and voices we've internalized. The voices that censor, silence, devalue and criticize, demanding perfectionism and unrealistic ideals that were never our intended identity. Etty Hillesum wrote (while in a Nazi concentration camp!): "Each of us must turn inward and destroy in himself all that he thinks he ought to destroy in others." What we see is our mirror ... and the destruction is more like absorption ... Light absorbs darkness ... Love absorbs fear.

~ Sue Monk Kidd writes about how she dreamt of a "bishop" who forced her to eat when she wasn't hungry ... she needed to vomit, but he wouldn't let her ... she was trapped in the bishop's house. She writes, "I woke up nauseated, depressed. I came to realize that my urgent necessity to vomit symbolized my need to expel the whole patriarchal ideology that I'd swallowed and that was now making me sick." This struck me "in the gut" ... all the years that I was bulimic ... two decades of it ... after years of being force-fed patriarchal rules and restrictions ... being told I was less than, and I needed to accept it and "be nice" (get in line). I have to wonder ... was my body manifesting my need to purge myself of all that sickened me? Was I trying to rid myself of that which was denying/choking the life out of me? Did I misunderstand the body's message for so very long...?

~ In freeing ourselves, we free the world...!

~ Entelechy: the scientific name for a goal-directing energy we each have ... that which seeks to bring the "seed" of our being into fruition ... that which pulsates and vibrates within us, seeking to complete who we are uniquely meant to be. It will not be denied ... it is inevitable. Most of us ignore it, or thwart it ... and we pay for it ... our entire culture is testimony for HOW we're collectively paying for it.

~ We can find our inner-wisdom again ... we can be still, and remember Who We Really Are (it's there, under the noises of distraction) ... we can listen again to our heart, to our inner wisdom ... we can give ourselves permission to follow it ... and if that's too hard right now, then we can find someone who will *give* us permission to do so, until we find our own permission again. We each need at least one "permission-giver" in our lives ... and then we can become a permission-giver for others! (Great fun!)

~ In this awakening journey, we can feel like a *shocked observer* at times, when we question what the HECK we're doing/thinking/believing...! We can hear the voice of our father/mother/pastor/teacher/other, wondering how in the "name of good sense" we got HERE! But the deeper/knowing part of us will know that we've been led here by All that's Good, and that there's no going back to numbed-out blindness.

~ We must BE who we are discovering ourselves to BE! We cannot act in ways to please others, to sell something, to get success, or fame, or money, or anyTHING else of the ego ...! We must simply and purely express what is true for us, AS it unfolds. We must write out of our Self. The Deep and True place. Just do it! (Fascinating how Nike chose the Goddess of Victory as their inspiration!)

~ Those of us who choose this route (& really, it feels more like a shove off the cliff, than a "choosing"!), must prepare to be called "dangerous women". And those who spew the words, do not intend them as a compliment (even though they've come to sound sweetly powerful to me!). It's real to me that the world will one day owe its very survival/thrival to subversive and dangerous women, who have all found their voice, and will no longer shut up ...! ;). Until women have discovered their sacred divinity, they cannot be whole, and the world cannot be whole. Yeah, it's *that* important.

~ God is she, he and neither. Why this insistence that God is male...? Do we really think that God has a penis...?

~ As humans, we cannot conceive of the formless ... in this state, we need forms and images. This is our current reality. And YET - we have allowed these forms and images to become idols to be worshipped...! When only one image for God is allowed, THAT image becomes idolatrous ... it comes to be viewed not as a symbol, but AS God. No longer a mere helpful description, it becomes a god to be defended. That which is transcended (as "God" is), always transcends all the symbols used to describe it ... including the term "God". That which said, "I am that I am" is neither male nor female exclusively, and yet is both in a way that transcends the physicality of either gender ... in order to comprehend God more fully, we must no longer assign only male attributes to God, but must *also* embrace the Divine Feminine. As long as the feminine is missing in the Divine, men will continue to imagine themselves as deserving entitlement, and women will continue to be prone to self-doubt, and dismepowerment. And we, as a people, will continue to suffer from paraplegia (paralysis of half the body).

~ If we are BOTH made in the image and likeness of God, then shouldn't God be referred to in BOTH male and female ways...? Is it not so plainly obvious?

~ Have you ever heard this one? "God isn't male or female. He is Spirit!" Sigh ...

~ So where does this leave me? Perhaps you? I find myself going through the gateway of "beginner's mind" ... approaching everything with a mind that's receptive and free ... ready for anything to unfold, open to everything, trusting in the leading of the Divine. No more mandates (from without or within), saying, "don't touch, don't think, don't explore" ... no more heeding the "Danger-Danger-Danger" clamoring of the ego. Approaching all of creation, of all of reality, with wide-opened eyes ... permission to go wherever I am led.

And y'know, it's taken me in some pretty wild places so far ... I can barely fathom what else I'll discover ...! :)

Shalom, Dena