Museletter #1
June 25, 2017 (original date)
Happy Summer! Summer is a special time here in Baja, because it has something in common with winter. Not weather-wise, of course, summer here is hot, humid, buggy & rife with threatening storms. And long, lasting from July-October. We live off the grid, with no air-conditioning, but just enough solar power for a fan (which is something we did not have for the first few years living here). What feels like winter in Baja Summer is that it tends to be a time away from the outdoors, and from the social realm. It is a time of inner-reflection and of storing-up. Whatever money, projects or connections that were made in the winter season, need to be stored up during the summer, when tourism and activity comes to a hault. It’s a time of slowing down, of returning to the senses, of life being dictated by the weather.
Living in nature for the past 8 years of my life (after 35 years of living in cities) I have discovered the importance of honoring seasons and cycles. The more I am aware of the context of living within a certain season, the more compassionate I am towards moods (mine and others), the pace of productivity and self-care. Seasonal thinking gives us an understanding of how nature affects us, both within and without, and that we must learn to honor the limitations or structures that nature creates.
Today, in my 15 minute daily writing practice, which I committed for this month of June, as a way to write myself back into my book, I asked the question:
What is your art rebellion?
This is what came next:
My art rebellion is my commitment to two things:
revealing process & siding with no one part of Self.
And then a whole poem emerged.
Sometimes, just the right question opens us up to deeper layers of truth in our writing. Which brings me to the book I am reading now: Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, PhD. As with all remarkable & transformative books, I am reading this book slowly. Savoring each sentence. Underlining often. Not wanting to move forward until I have fully digested each idea. I see how this book might be the feminist companion to The Hero With a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell’s brilliant and poetic synthesis that reveals how all myth and story are human medicine. I’ve only just started Women Who Run With the Wolves, so I dare not say too much, but I will share this: Estés' premise is that women and girls need to relate to the wild woman archetype, for the survival of our souls, for the purpose of wholeness. Through relating to the wild woman archetype, we nurture and allow our instinctive & creative nature to live. This I believe wholeheartedly. Estés has offered us a gift with her multifaceted map of the female psyche, and with it, I suddenly have a name and landing place for my symbolic artwork and a new understanding of my my compulsion to reveal shadow and my insistence on creating rock-and-roll. I have been given a new perspective in the form of poetry & stories to help me navigate my journey, which will helps me write my book, which, in turn, will inspire others to heal and transform through the telling of their stories. The cycle of human evolution is hopefully a spiral that moves us forward a little bit each time, even as it also takes us back into our history. The story is the vehicle of evolution.
In her chapter on how to confront the inner intruder of the psyche, as expressed in the tale of Bluebeard (symbolized by a murderous husband), Estés shows us that the key to challenging the self-saboteur, the part of us that is threatened by the emergence of the true self, with its wild instincts intact, is: asking questions. Asking the question that awakens the shadow truth within. It is not only about asking the question, but also the courage to face and hold what one discovers.
What questions do you need to ask in order to for you to get closer to your own wild nature?
For me, writing has always been a form of inquiry, and of making space for truth. It has been a space to allow my own wildness as well as mystery. If you want to start writing, or return to writing, if you want to get closer to your truth, I recommend writing everyday for 15 minutes with out holding back. Write freely, with no editing or even adherence to traditional grammar. It is here, between the cracks of correctness that we find our instincts. Try it, and let me know how it goes.
Love & Creativity,
Zoë
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
““Asking the proper question is the central action of transformation—in fairy tales, in analysis, and in individuation… questions are the keys that cause the secret doors of the psyche to swing open… The ability to stand what one sees enables a woman to return to her deep nature, there to be sustained in all thoughts, feelings, and actions.””