Tip o' Day 1-16-10

Quick, easy way to flush your mental cooties -- write them in an email and address it to thedevil@hell.com or neverneverland@lettinggo.net, then close your eyes and press send, listening to that delicious "whoosh" sound (you have to have a Mac to hear it), but if you're on PC, just make the whooshing sound yourself.

"Avatar" and the Male Dominator Archetype

The movie Avatar. It has been working deep inside me like dreams do. I have been living with it, allowing it to affect me, to move me. I was depressed by the white male stereotype of murder for profit. This archtype is deeply ingrained in our culture. History shows it hasn't changed much.. We are still using the preditor archtype to kill the preditor archtype to create peace.

I just read the Plato quote, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” I think the power of this movie is to think of it like a dream, as all the parts are parts of our psyches. As we would say in our dream group, “If this were my dream…”

And if this were my dream, I see the Colonel as my inner predator; the part of my psyche that thinks the only way to deal with fear is to kill off that which I am afraid of. For instance my vulnerable feelings, my empathy, my grief, my sensitivity, my hurt feelings, my powerlessness, and my ignorance, even my anger. Anything that doesn’t fit the status quo, doesn’t fit what my parents, the culture says is ok.

And yet this is where the healing is, to own and integrate these feelings, to honor them. How can we feel empathy if we are cut off from our own feelings? We can’t.

We can’t feel ourselves, we can’t feel others, even our loved ones, and we can’t feel the earth and all the life she supports.

Socrates also said, “Know thyself”. I think he meant to bring all of who we think we are to consciousness so we can see who we truly are. So that we can “know” our authentic nature. Like they say in the movie, “I see you”. To truly “see” ourselves.

We must first bring forth all of who we aren’t. By this I mean the mistaken beliefs that our inner predator tells us. Like “we are stupid”, “useless”, unworthy” or simply, “never good enough”, etc. This list could go on and on.

The importance of unveiling the inner predator’s voice is to recognize the deeper voice, which is one of fear. Fear that we won’t survive if we do not live within the status quo. And to understand that this voice is a wounded voice. Wounded because it is the part of us that was told, “not to cry”, have a “stiff upper lip”, “you’re too emotional”, “hide your feelings” etc..

We must learn to be kind to ourselves and to others, as we are all on this mythic journey towards healing. In order to heal we must integrate our feelings, our many voices, because this also is a mistaken belief, that we are anything other than ONE.

There is no part that needs to be killed or gotten rid of, just understood and loved.

I recognize myself in the Marine Boss. The part of me that is cut off from the earth, from the Mother. I am he when I am afraid there won’t be enough money, or just enough of anything, I am he when I hate myself because I am vulnerable or have made a mistake or have eaten foods that aren’t that healthy and in turn I am he when I don’t take care of myself and tell myself it doesn’t matter, that I don’t matter. I am he when I feel angry that I can’t control my world, my kids or the President of the US.

I am he when I drive my car, walk on cement, or get take-out in plastic. I am he because I too am “fighting a hard battle”. The battle to “know thyself”, the battle to “feel”, the battle to grieve and the battle to forgive and the battle to heal.

This Marine that I am is above all frightened that the great mother, the divine, won’t be there for him, won’t love him, won’t nurture him and that he will always be cut off from love, love of self and love of other. He is angry because of this mistaken belief. This belief of separateness.

He must “morph “ into an Avatar. My inner Marine needs my wise feminine to be patient with me and teach me to listen, to feel, to understand and even to fight the true battle. The battle towards wholeness and the willingness to be drawn into the mystery, the mystery of the feminine.

When I was up on the mountain last summer questing. I felt Her, I knew Her, the message was loud and clear, “I am with you, have always been with you, and will always be with you, for you are me and I am you”. And that was the beauty and power of the movie Avatar. This message was clear and inspiring.

We must learn to walk on the earth and “see” her light up with our presence. Learn to draw in those parts of ourselves that we want to reject. Learn to “feel” nature, the oneness that we are. After all, we are all Avatars.