What's hard for us to understand as mortals with a relatively short lifetime of 70-80 years on average is that we are having an experience that takes 1,000,000 years to conclude. And we expect someone to get it right in 1-2 years, especially if we are in love with them. Things are happening right on schedule; it's just we think it's a 70-80 year schedule and it's not. The question is, how do we handle a journey of that duration, a million year journey? Thats the beauty of it, by living in the moment. THe longer the journey, the more essential it is to live in the moment and it's in the moment that the essence of the journey's end is experienced.
yes, all we can do, is all we have to do, live the now.
I´m thinking about all these masculine myths, that giving up is the only way to gain true strength. Like Hercules fighting the Hydra; it was only when he surrendered and managed to get UNDER the hydra and lift it up, that he managed to win.
As well as in the greek myths as in the Marvel universe, it´s a central theme, if not THE central theme; that only by loosing can we win.
Now I wonder: Are there any similiar female myths?
I might be wrong, but I think that we haven´t needed many, because that´s what femininity has been about per se; to be just as good, just as strong as the man, yet giving up some of your strength for balance and fulfillment. So giving up strength has been a natural part of it.
So now, if women choose to walk a more masculine path, they have to learn to identify (I think) with Hercules who fought the Hydra, with all the sad Marvel characters, Odysseus, the failure of Iason etc. Or get lost in their own Super Woman myth, that is not going to show them (I think) where the only gate to heaven is, for man and for women: through surrender.
To make my question really clear: Are there any similar myths for feminine side of the psyche (and for the woman)? There might be, and many of them, they just don´t pop into my mind.
Mattias
Of course myths like Cinderella and the Beautie and the beasts, and many like them, are all about surrender as a way to glory. But in them the girls act in traditional female roles. What about our time, where myths like The girl with the dragon tattoo, Super Woman and the Kill Bill lady - are they going to develop their weak shadow as well? Or is it being expressed already, allthough I miss to see it (I don´t watch many movies neither)?
(I learnt from Cristopher Mac Dougall´s book Natural born heroes that the greek word heroes has it´s root in compassion and that the very central theme in the greek hero myths was about how they manage to turn their weaknesses into strength. Out of compassion - a vulnerable state - they become powerful.)
Mattias
Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast are fairy tales, they are not mythologies. Fairy Tales are moral stories, they have simplistic and moral conclusions. "Do this, be this way, doing this is good, doing this is bad, doing this will make you fulfilled bla bla". They are often childish, insipid and uninspiring. They merely reinforce the status quo, the social agenda that the only surrender possible for a woman is a man or a child, which is simply not true. They discourage women from asking questions because asking questions is dangerous to society, for one may discover that what was sold as truth was merely an illusion.
Myths are amoral, they are concerned with showing us the truth of something. It's a revelation of a certain consciousness. They are not concerned with being palatable or morally right. And they usually inspire... or cause fear and discomfort, I suppose. Probably that's why Goddess Kali is so misunderstood. Foolish men give silly interpretations (like Jordan Peterson, and some other doctorates). Wise men at least keep quiet on what they don't understand.
Personally, I think women have a more complex journey (if they must become their Best Self) because they have to learn and trust their own strength and power and then they have to learn to surrender. Without strength, there can be no true surrender, only actions coming from self-preservation, habit, biology or fear.
Nor is a woman obligated to organize her life around her biological capacities, if that is not the right thing for her. But that is how man has thought of her and continues to do so. And women did probably start off as the innocent moon, reflecting and reacting- they, unfortunately, believed what men have historically philosophized about them, to their own detriment.
And- without strength and willpower, what is someone even surrendering?
I like what Mirra Alfassa (or The Mother, as she is often called) says (paraphrasing)- You need to be able to look at the Divine and say I want what You want. But that doesn't mean anything if you don't have a well-developed Will to offer.