Changing Woman

Navajo Sand Painting - Mother Earth - Artist,  Marie Akee

Following up on my last post Creative Restoration leads me today to share what I've been reading, studying and writing about this past month or so that is causing a big shift in my life. I have been re-reading and studying this book everyday because it is one of those books that profoundly speaks to the very core of me,  and I can't stop writing, reading or talking about it!

The Heroine's Journey was given to me by an artist friend last year. I had read Maureen Murdock's book Father's Daughters years ago. But I remember nothing about it for some reason. It wasn't due to the book itself or how it was written, but I think perhaps because I wasn't ready to absorb the topic of the book. I was trying to sort through all the issues surrounding my own Father/Daughter relationship in light of having an absentee father.

There are so many poignant statements made in The Heroine's Journey that it's difficult for me to decide which one has struck me the most.


Here are a few that I find so insightful about the creative feminine.

• "The soul of a culture cannot evolve if the body is not reclaimed and honoured.Many men and women are dreaming about the Goddess; she is a projection of the feminine principle that needs restoration in our culture. She takes many forms often embodied in the rich symbols of a person's heritage."

• " In Navajo mythology, Changing Woman is the creatix. She is earth and sky, the Lady of the Plants, and of the Sea. She goes beyond the bearer aspect of the mother; she is the feminine creator. Her cosmic cyclic movements-aging each Winter and becoming a young beautiful maiden each Spring-make Her the essence of death and rebirth signature of the continual restoration and rejuvenation of Life. It is said "where masculine creativity tends to move away forward, feminine creativity tends to turn round on itself," not circularly so much as spirally. It's constantly changing."

• " This ability to move with the creative impulse without trying to force it is an aspect of the feminine. There is a quality of the feminine that allows things to happen in the natural cycle of things. People who work at deep levels of the unconscious in therapy and in the creative process know that there are phases of both quietude and renewal, and these must be respected, protected and given time. One can't force birth. Trusting the mystery of manifestation is one of the deep teachings of the feminine journey.

• "The heroic quest is not about power over, about conquest and domination; it is a quest to bring balance into our lives through the marriage of both feminine and masculine aspects of our nature. The modern-day heroine has to confront her fear about reclaiming her feminine nature, her personal power, her ability to feel, heal, create, change social structures and shape her future. She brings us wisdom about the interconnectedness of all species; she teaches us how to live together in this global vessel and helps us to reclaim the feminine in our lives."

Eyland's Acre -  Water Colour - Artist www.judithjosephstudio.com