Tag: Crone
About Face IV
“For by his face straight, shall you know his heart.”
Shakespeare, Richard III
“The face is the soul of the body.”
~ Wittgenstein
As I continue the exploration of Face, Beauty, and Soul, I thought I’d zero in on how much is really happening, phenomenally, in our one and only Face.
I don’t spend a LOT of time in front of the mirror,
(really, truly)
but when I am ill, I tend to be looking more (or maybe noticing more)
For?
Signs, symptoms, health, wellness…
The eyes are my barometer, measuring degrees of such.
Let’s re~visit James Hillman on the Force of the Face.
“Not because of cosmetics and surgery is the face an aesthetic phenomenon, but because it is biologically so.
Besides the muscles needed functionally to chew, kiss, sniff, blow, squint, blink, and twitch away a fly, most of the forty-five facial muscles serve only emotional expression.”
Marilyn Monroe said: “I can make my face do anything I want.”
That is Mastery.
Hillman, continued: “The face reveals character, the mirror does not lie.
My face announces my presence, reports my nature, and above all, by facing outward, bears a message for others. Angels blow trumpets. They call for awakening. So does the face; it demands response.”
So, dear reader, I would posit this: What message does your/my face bear for others?
What awakening is being called for in that face of yours/mine?
What response is being asked for, demanded?
Hamlet to Gertrude: “You go not, till I set up a glass–
where you may see the inmost part of you.
Vox Anima, SDM
Art Credit: Tumblr & Pinterest
Lydia, Oh Lydia!
“The Paradox of life and death
returns in a new form at each new spiral of growth.
If we accept this,
we are not torn apart by the opposites.” ~ Marion Woodman
Lydia came to us with her name.
She was on her way to becoming a junk yard dog, when we learned about her.
Her retriever buoyancy and passion for children was too much for the first family.
Lydia joined ours, and became the youngest sib to two other dogs.
She brought a balance to the ruff and tuff one, and a job for the eldest, which needed a maternal herding outlet. A fine little trio. And, a LOT of energy.
Her diagnosis of untreatable cancer came suddenly this week.
I recalled Marion Woodman’s (MW) story about her own dogs, as soul animals.
And Neil Russack’s book on Animal Guides, where he writes about the capacity for deep healing intimacy between humans and animals:
“…so my own little dog kept me linked to life when my vitality was fading. When I took him with me into the country, we would take a long walk during the day, then spend the evening by the fire. Sometimes, we walked at dead of night in the dark woods, and the white tip of his tail would lead me home in the starlight. He was the one who, by helping me find my way, showed me who I was.”
Both Woodman and Russack remark on the timing, the co~incidence of the dog’s death, as a punctuation in their own individuation journeys.
Perhaps, as I just crossed the threshold of 60 years, Lydia has been with me for the empty nest Demeter depression, and the entrance of The Crone?
Animal behavior experts warn against anthropomorphizing, or projecting human sentiments and characteristics onto our animals.
Fine then. Projection removed.
But I say, what about Soul?
“Soul hears with eternal ears,
sees with eternal eyes,
smells with eternal nose.” ~MW
And I would add, Soul’s Body wags with eternal tail.
Vox Anima, SDM
Mirror Mirror
“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest one of all?”
“Not you dear. Not anymore.”
http://www.maskwoman.com
We, and I mean the Royal “We” celebrated our birthday recently.
(More about that later.)
It is estimated that over 40 million baby boomers are over the age of 50; 51% female.
That statistic comes from MetLife, alas, as the http://www.census.gov is shut down.
Simple math tells us, dear readers that are at least 20 million women
on their way to being Crones!
Lord have mercy.
Some time ago, I developed a workshop series titled “The Witch and the Queen”
(based on the witchy work of Kate Amatruda & Lauren Cunningham).
In these workshops, we pondered the idea
that we channel, so to speak,
the archetypes of Witch & Queen on our way to the Crone.
Rather than limiting ourselves to the notion to the 3 stages of woman,
could it be there is more to it?
I think so.
Our recent birthday celebration had us re-visiting the fairy tale of Snow White.
In the story, Snow White naively becomes victim to the envious Evil Queen.
The Queen in disguise, offers our heroine the apple which puts her into a deep sleep…
The Maid, is no more, or so it seems.
We all know the rest of the story.
But, it is important to recognize it is the encounter with the Witch Queen, that transforms dear Snow White into the mature adult woman she was meant to be.
I think we can draw from this as we Crone–
which is now a Verb in my vocabulary.
I aspire most days to The Queen, and in particular,
The Virgin Queen, who is “one unto herself”.
http://www.maskwoman.com
And then, horror of horrors, there are the other days…
Illustration by Ian Beck
Vox Anima, SDM
Susan Davis Martin, M.A., M.F.T. & StillDancing... 