Note From Kendra

Dear Friends,

To be in a place in life when you experience a moment that feels so uncertain and yet so exciting simultaneously is somewhat of a daunting and yet mystical experience. I have not had just one moment but many moments like that within the past week. It feels frightening, and yet when in the exact moment of the awareness, if I breathe life into it – actually take a breath and connect with that very moment, I can feel it turn to excitement. It's a weird phenomenon.
 
Fritz Perls, MD, the psychiatrist and founder of Gestalt therapy, said, “Fear is excitement without the breath.” I don't know if I am fully on board with that for each and every experience, but I do believe that we can learn to transform fear into excitement by taking a breath and naming the fear to begin with.  In our Health section this month we share how to ground yourself so you can begin that process of naming your fear.
 
So image how much – how big – how amazing – how filled with light you really are, and then act as if you really are embodying it – and in that moment of imagining, pretending, acting as if – why not believe with all your heart and soul that it is so.  Why not?

Because the truth is – you are AMAZING.

And so it is.

With Love,

Archetype

Exorcist
(Shaman) 

The ability to confront evil in the form or possession by destructive or antisocial impulses in oneself and others is as valuable today as it was in the time of Jesus, the master Exorcist.  Just as modern biblical scholars suggest that the demons that Jesus cast out may have been forms of psychological illness, so we can see our own inner demons as arising from forces that we feel are beyond our control.  Shamans, for example, conduct rituals for the release of negative spirits from a person’s soul. To include this among your family of archetypes, however, you would have to find a lifelong pattern of exorcising the negative spirits of others or of social groups or society.
 
The shadow Exorcist attacks the evil in others without having the courage to face his own demons.
 
Films: Jason Miller in The Exorcist; Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense.
 
Religion/Myth: Shoki (Shinto god of the afterlife and exorcism); Zhong-kui (Taoist god of the afterlife and exorcism).

Myss, Caroline.  Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential.  New York: Three Rivers Press, 2002, 2003. 366. Print.

Symbology

Elephant
Contributed by Anne Barton

The symbolism of Elephant feels especially relevant now as female energy and the power of women emerges in a new and significant way in our country…
 
ELEPHANT/Family Love, Age Brings Wisdom, Altruism
 
Key Concepts when Elephant is Present:

• Age brings wisdom
• Put your attention on the unconditional love that only your family gives, unreservedly
• In times of trouble, have you turned away from your family, even your Mother?
• Elephant counsels that the time has come to access your family’s love
• Learn from the wisdom accrued over a lifetime
• You gain from the love and wisdom that is passed from one generation to the next

This excerpt from Susie Green’s book Animal Wisdom provides a visual example of the power and strength of the female elephant and what we can learn from this gentle giant.
 
Elephant is the embodiment of sentience, heartfelt emotion, altruism and maternal love, which may endure for fifty years. Her calves find shelter from the blazing Sun when she pushes them beneath her great stomach and with her strong trunk lifts them to safety from raging flood waters, even at the risk of being swept away herself.  When drought strikes, to keep her calf cool she sprays it with water regurgitated from her own stomach. With her trunk, so little different from a human hand, she holds on to her tiny calf’s tail and when older, her calf will clasp hers as they amble together from place to place.
 
A matriarch, whose experience and wisdom is respected, leads Elephant’s close-knit family group, sometimes for many decades. It is she who decides when it is time to cease foraging, to rest for the night, to visit the dark caves where mineral-rich salts lie and she who in times of danger gives the command for group defense, retreat, or open attack. Should she be shot, her family, rather than desert her, surround her sadly and frantically, risking their own lives. If she has fallen injured they lift her to her feet and walk her to safety, supporting her bulk on their trunks.
 
When Elephant appears in your life, her message is to remember the unconditional love of your family. Where do you need this reminder in your life right now?


Works Cited & Resources
Green, Susie.  Animal Wisdom:  Harness the Power of Animals to Liberate Your Spirit. 
     London: Cico Books Ltd., 2005.  Print.