Chiron shows us the wound through which our healing power is born; Vesta brings through the light so that we can transmit our gifts into the world as divine service and not unconscious sacrifice.
I don’t feel this piece is a feminist’s polemic against Christianity. Rather it is a lamentation over modern culture’s demotion of the goddess in Her role of Creatrix and Mother; Her mysteries forgotten and subsumed into a religion in which She has been forced into a subordinate position.
And there it is. Women who are perceived to be witches and who are/have been persecuted accordingly, are not spectral, disembodied figures from ancient pantheons or religious hegemony, they are real life flesh and blood women navigating- and to some degree achieving- autonomy and power within structures and authorities that were never designed for them. They are women who are perceived as dangerous to the self-invested architects of those structures.
Thinking about the Sirens from this perspective one wonders if the archetype really is the dark destructive feminine, or else the feminine who has dived to the depths and brought back uncomfortable truths.
The placement of Sirene in the natal chart may be a gift and a curse: the place of our destruction should we succumb without reason of the conscious mind and rationalism of the structured social world. And yet, if we can withstand the ethereal power of the song and somehow resist the almost impossible urge, we may be blessed with the gifts of the gods.
There comes a time when we must wise up. Not to become treacherous and join the ranks of deceivers and manipulators, but to read the room and act accordingly, engaging foresight and insight (gained from the school of hard knocks), intuition (from learning to trust our inner knowing), humility (see school of hard knocks), and cunning (remembering our magic). We create our own laws born from the truth of our soul and a desire to become who we are meant to be.
What if the so-called menopausal “brain fog” is more akin to the dissolved state of the pupa and metamorphosis and not a sign of lack of capacity. What if after or even during the menopause transition women awaken to their deep feminine sexual nature. And what if menopause is not only the closing of a chapter but the beginning of a new, full bodied, self-possessed erotic delight in self-awakening?
There are so many styles of relationships now and a whole new mind-boggling lexicon to describe them. The field is open. Are we brave enough to say what we really desire?
Clearly Cecile did not think the world was ending either. We sat face-to-face, fresh out of the lake, the warmth of the sun penetrating our skin, our breathing slow, rhythmic, and synchronised. Eyes closed, and feeling my own hand reassuringly on my womb, she began-
“On the full moon give an offering to Mama Quilla…”
A trip to the Beverage Park in Kirkcaldy (Balwearie) to walk among the old trees and revisit a place that I’d spent a lot
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