Be A Goddess: Lesson Three

Merry Meet and Welcome to you magickal souls!!!!

It's time for Lesson Three of Francesca De Grandis' book "Be A Goddess", which had a theme of being human and divine. This is something that I think we are missing in today's society but I'm trying to work towards incorporating more into my own life.

This lesson offered the idea that passion and life shouldn't be mutually exclusive but they are in today's modern society and in many religions around the world in many ways.

It also proposed the concept that God, and the Goddess, aren't necessarily outside or separate to the act of creation. This is because they are in all things, inlcuding me, and I'm not saying this to be big-headed or to brag. Everyone and everything has been granted gifts, talents, desires and our own individual selves - all to show that we are all individually and communally part of the wider universe.

There's an ancient God within Faerie lore called Self-fire. Well, that's the translation of the name anyway. Self-fire is the Ego-Fire, the fire that lives within me, since this is my journey through this course/book although all of this could be attributed to everyone. I think it's important that I properly nurture my ego, provided that I don't go too far and get "too big for my boots" because I've forgotten the importance of Self-Respect.

From a young age, we are told to not be selfish, to view Selfhood as negative when instead it can be fulfilling. A personal example of this is that I entered a short story competition which had a reward of being published in a collection with other winners purely because it was something I wanted to do for myself, but I didn't tell anyone since there was that chance that my entry wouldn't be chosen. However, I received a print draft with a letter from the competition stating I would indeed be published but my legal guardians were asking me when I entered, why I did it without telling them, and all of those sorts of questions which I didn't really know. One thing I did know was that my guardians weren't happy that it wasn't something they had suggested I do, and this irritated them no end.

I entered that competition for myself, to try my hand at something that wasn't suggested or pushed towards me. I didn't do it to please my guardians, so while they were proud of my achievement, I still felt like it wasn't "good enough" for them. I was missing compassion and gentleness from them, which meant I learned not to show either to myself. This is one of the many lessons I have learned since becoming an adult.

The next idea concerned darkness, and how within Christianity, God saw it as a void, something to be filled, and so he created light etc. However, within this, God was separate to everything created. He was (and still is) the "God above" but not within. It's almost like he was too good to be part of nature and the material world which were seen as evil, even before Adam and Eve were created.

Within the Faerie Tradition Francesca presents, the Goddess is the darkness or void, which is seen as a womb where life is created. Instead of being separate to the material world, She is it, loves and embraces it, just as She does me. This particular belief is also known as Immanence, where nature is good and sacred.

Within Celtic shamanism, darkness does not equate to evil. When I thought about it, I realised a few things: seeds and plants grow in darkness with their roots; I am enveloped in darkness when I sleep, both under the covers and when I close my eyes; without the darkness, I can't see the stars.

The universe isn't a balance of light and darkness because it is mainly the latter as atoms are mostly empty space regardless of whether those atoms ultimately form a planet, people or creatures. Typically, reality is dark and empty but not in an evil way, although there is a lack of respect for darkness because it is so ingrained in us that it is evil and something to fear. An example of this is the saying "you can't appreciate the light without the dark" because this sets the precedent that the night sky only has worth through helping us to appreciate the day-time sky, that we should only limit ourselves to consider anything worthy by its relationship to something else.

Reality isn't balanced or just light or just dark because it is a mix of the two, sometimes more light, sometimes more dark. It's like the Sun and the Earth sitting on an angle: there are two points of balance (the Equinoxes), two points when light or dark are at their peak (the Solstices), and every day in between all of these events is a mix of light and dark to varying degrees.

All of this led to the idea that introducing a God isn't something to be feared because it can be healing and experiential when it comes to being supported. The same can be applied when it comes to men accepting the presence of a female deity. Neither God or Goddess are meant to be seen as a dominating and oppressive entity but they also aren't metaphors. As with any relationship, I will need a lot of patience to cultivate a relationship with both of them.

This whole lesson made me think about what being worthy and human means. The title of this lesson was "To be truly human is to be truly divine", which really cements the first two lessons. It's the idea that everything and everyone is sacred and natural - something that I am reminded of by the photo I really want to hang up on a wall somewhere in my home. I keep meaning to do it but I'm no good at putting nails in walls so I do need to save up to make this actually happen because I really do want this hung up. While this is a quote from a series of films, it's a great concept towards Nature, animals, people, and plantlife that I think we as a society forget about far too often because it's not taught to us as children, which is sad, to me.

Being worthy is to be my true and natural human self.

Peace and love to all!!!!