SELF LOVE: THE HEART OF THE TRUTH
If there is one issue, one vexing, niggling, worrisome item deep in our psyches that affects all other aspects of our lives, self-love would be it. Simple to understand in philosophical terms but so hard to implement in everyday life, self-love rules our thoughts, our emotions, our words and actions. Full of self-love, we stride forward to greet the world and all its myriad faults and foibles. We are ready to embrace life in all its messy grandeur. Without self-love, our foray into the world isn’t quite so jocular. We are unsure, questioning, and anxious. We enter new situations with trepidation, waiting for the belly-punch, ready to duck and weave in an effort to avoid being pummeled. In fact, we expect the pummeling and sometimes even search it out. We begin to believe that we deserve the pummeling. After all, we’ve been pummeled before; it must be our lot in life. We shrug, accept, and trudge through like a stalwart soldier, but we’re not having any fun.
By now you might be wondering how self-love can be the miracle cure to fix your life. (And you should be wondering, because if we could all love ourselves, we’d all be a heck of a lot happier and a lot less inclined to drag others down into the dark abyss with us.) Let’s look at self-love rationally. Self-love indicates a love for the self, for the body that is right now sitting down on the sofa, the commuter train, or the outside lawn furniture and reading this book. That, by itself, is huge! You are taking time to do something special for yourself, an activity that means something to you. Reading this book! Bravo! You have taken one small step toward accessing and re-affirming your self-love.
Now imagine if you loved yourself enough to make yourself happy, all the time. You would make choices and base decisions according to your life preferences. Not on the interests of your mother or best friend. Not on old insults thrown at you by angry high school girls or boys. Not on your significant other’s concepts of a good time. On your ideas, your inclination, your intuition. You would live life for yourself. Now some people might see this way of life as extremely self-centered but I would say that it is actually exactly the opposite. When you make decisions based on self-love, you free yourself from the baggage of jealousy, tension, and guilt. You give to others not because you are forced to, out of necessity, but because you want to, out of an overwhelming extension of grace.
Taking the example of a harried, stay-at-home mother, we can see the concept of self-love in action. Mother of twin toddler boys with a husband who works sixty hours a week, this woman, we’ll call her Janet, spends her time watching Sesame Street, cleaning up toys and dirty clothes, doing laundry, playing Hi Ho! Cherry-O, refereeing arguments, smashing trucks into blocks, going grocery shopping, playing on the playground, and cooking, cooking, cooking. Her every activity revolves around her children and her home life. She is on auto-pilot, doing what needs to be done in order to provide security and comfort to her children and her significant other. And she is bored. Her adult interaction is limited to a few polite words at the check-out counter of the grocery or toy store. She is alone with her children for a large portion of the day.
After a few months or years (the threshold is different for everyone), Janet begins to feel resentful of her situation. She starts yelling at the twins on a regular basis. When her husband comes home, she is cranky and irritable. Communication ends. Their sex life suffers. Janet feels more and more alone. Her resentment grows until it becomes the only feeling inside her. Things look bleak. Now is the time for Janet to really take a long, hard look at herself and decide what is missing in her life. She needs to find out what will make her happy. She needs to honor herself and her interests just as she honors the interests and preferences of her family. (You know those pepperoni slices and arcade marathons aren’t for her.) The first step in Janet’s recovery is to decide what she can rationally implement in her life that will help her say, “Yes! Life rocks!” Perhaps Janet gets a part-time job at her favorite store. Maybe she signs up for yoga at a local gym that provides babysitting. It doesn’t matter what Janet decides to do, as long as it is for herself. Within a few weeks, Janet’s resentment fades. She once again enjoys spending time with her children. She is relaxed and happy when her significant other returns from work. She no longer feels forced into a role that is binding and restricting. Instead, she embraces it as only one aspect of her glorious, lovely self.
Now, what kind of changes could Janet make if she expanded her self-love even further? Perhaps she tackles a project she’s been meaning to take on—a shed in the backyard, a new faucet in the kitchen, a fancy dinner of quail. And she succeeds. Her success further builds her love of self and she chooses to pursue her life-long dream of running a catering business or creating a you-can-fix-it school for women and girls. Maybe she develops a brand-new approach to education, based upon hands-on techniques that work for her. And this system evolves into a local alternative school that gets press coverage and, eventually, lands on the desk of the state education director who finds the courage to implement it in several schools. Could Janet, in truth, craft a revolutionary method of education? Absolutely. Could she have done it without self-love? Absolutely not!
Without self-love, we refuse to see the beauty and wonder of our innate selves. We give up on ourselves, blocking our truths, gifts, and skills. We feel we have little to offer to the world. In fact, we believe the truth we are telling ourselves: we are not worthy. In order to change our lives, to truly enjoy life, we need to stop the self-deprecating mantras that repeat over and over inside our heads. And we need to act. You can carry a rose quartz and state positive affirmations until your face is blue, but if you don’t act on your newfound self-love, you really haven’t found anything. Action and movement are at the core of self-love.
Self-love begins in the womb. Children emerge from the womb completely comfortable with themselves. Babies look in the mirror and, recognizing themselves for the first time, gurgle and smile with glee. I imagine them thinking, “How cool! That’s me!” But over time, the influence of others strips away our initial love of self. We don’t have the right bodies, sneakers, hair styles, clothes. We look different, think different, talk different, worship different. And, so, we change ourselves in order to “fit in” and blend with the crowd. How ridiculous!
Self-love stems from recognizing that you are perfect just the way you are and that you have unique gifts that only you can offer to the world. As adults, we need to slough off all the old influences that taught us to think badly of ourselves. We need to return to the beautiful innocence of youth, when we were so excited and awed by the image of ourselves in the mirror. We can talk and lecture about self-love, but the truth is that it will not change our lives for the better until we take steps to implement it. Only through action can we see the positive effect of one small change in our lives. Like Janet, our mythical harried housewife, her choice to leave the house and do something for herself, no matter how small, led to a huge shift in attitude. These attitude adjustments then created space for achievement and confidence. She was no longer focusing her attention on the negative—what she didn’t have: choosing instead to work with the positive—what she could have. This subtle change in outlook affected her family life, but also extended her reach into the outside world. Suddenly Janet was creating her own opportunities, because she believed she could do it. She always had the ability; she just needed to believe in herself. She just needed to love herself. If we all truly expressed self-love on a daily basis, we could affect positive change on a huge scale. And we’d all feel good while doing it.
ENERGY RETURN
The one down-side to bolstering self-love is becoming enmeshed in the trap of egoism. When accessing your love of self for the first time in years, it can become easy to adopt a my-way-or-the-highway attitude. You begin to pay attention to your own needs, sometimes at the expense of others. The essence of self-love is the spreading of love to others, not the winnowing away of their possibilities to make room for the blossoming of your own. Self-love is not selfish love. In fact, it is the very opposite. As your dreams come to fruition, you work to help others achieve self-love and success. You are so comfortable within your own self that you want to perpetuate this wonderful feeling by helping others achieve it.
If you find that you are ripping and tearing others down so you can attain your life vision, take a moment to assess the situation. You may find that you haven’t really found self-love yet. You may be combating old influences that you haven’t fully released. At this point, stop outward movement to manifest self-love and instead revert to inward movement. Instead of working to achieve a goal or dream in your life, focus on yourself only. In other words, what small thing can you change in your life to make you happier? Maybe it’s getting TiVo so you won’t miss your favorite shows or perhaps it’s switching to an organic diet. Maybe you decide you’ll indulge in your favorite tea once a day or in meditation once a week. These activities have no purpose other than to make you happy. A shocking statement, I know, but the truth, nonetheless. This is where your rediscovery of self-love should begin—with the self. Leave the goals and desires and dreams alone for the moment and focus on the wonderful, engaging, beautiful being that is you.
MANTRA
I am here.
See me.
The Venus of Willendorf statuette was found by archeologist Josef Szombathyin in 1908 in Willendorf, Austria, approximately 30 feet above the Danube River. Unearthed with several other finds from the site, at about 4½ inches tall, she is probably the most recognizable female figure from the Upper Paleolithic period. The Upper Paleolithic period is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age and spans about 39,000 years, from 50,000 bp to 11,000 bp. (bp indicates “Before Present,” taking the present at 1950 when radio carbon dating began.) Such huge swaths of time are hard to comprehend. After all, the United States as a country has been in existence for less than 250 years, a mere drop in the bucket when compared to the Upper Paleolithic. Due to the length of time, the vastness of the planet Earth, and the differing climates around the planet, it is difficult to make generalizations about this time period and the people who lived during it. Therefore, it is important to see the Venus of Willendorf as a specific example of art, possibly sacred art, created in a specific place for a specific purpose.
The Venus of Willendorf was found in Austria but may have been made someplace else. She is crafted from fine porous oolitic limestone, a form of limestone that is usually formed in warm, shallow seas. It is not found in the region around Willendorf and thus it has been surmised that the Venus figurine was carved someplace else and transported to Austria. This is not surprising since at the time the Venus figurine was carved, around 22,000 bp, the northern reaches of Europe were gripped in a huge glacial mass that extended down to present-day Germany and Poland.
Although Austria was not entrenched in ice, the region was experiencing cold temperatures and a steppe-tundra vegetation. In a steppe-tundra climate zone, vegetation grows at 50 percent of what is seen in modern-day tundra environments. Only found during the Upper Paleolithic period, the region would have been characterized by sparse low-lying vegetation, few shrubs and trees, and soil with a low organic content. In this environment, there would be few opportunities for a rock to be formed in a low, shallow sea. However, Morocco experienced a warm, rainy, temperate climate, called the Mousterian Pluvial, from 50,000 bp to 30,000 bp. Since limestone caves and deposits have been found in Morocco, a country that is but a short leap away from Spain and Europe, there is a possibility that the oolitic limestone came from there. As recently as 2007, small, oval, Nassarius Mollusk shells were found at a limestone cave at Taforalt in Eastern Morocco.[1] Probably used for ornamentation as beads, they are especially important for the Venus of Willendorf because they were colored with red ochre, a pigment also found in trace amounts on her statuette.
The Venus of Willendorf figurine is most noted for its corpulence. Let’s face it, she’s fat. She has large, pendulous breasts, a wide, flat bottom, a rotund stomach, and thick thighs. The main portion of her bulk is focused on the torso, as her legs taper into small stumps and her arms are thin and spidery in appearance. Because of her thin arms, some modern goddess-lovers have labeled her as pregnant rather than fat. This concept, I feel, has more to do with our own current cultural mindset than the actuality of the statue. The Venus of Willendorf is round and—when compared with Neolithic pregnant, Earth Mother goddess figurines—has different aspects of her body emphasized. Her hands rest on her breasts, not on her stomach, as pregnant statues often show. Her breasts and buttocks are exaggerated, whereas the pregnant statues display only exaggerated stomachs. As noted archeologist Marija Gimbutas explains, “Even the famous ‘Venuses’ of Willendorf and Lespugue are probably not pregnant. Their breasts and buttocks are the focus of attention, not their bellies.”[2]
If the Venus of Willendorf is not pregnant, then her association with fertility becomes tenuous. The Earth Mother goddess figurines, with their oversized stomachs, represent the Earth and its ability to grow seeds into food to eat. They are the soil that is nurtured by the rain and gives forth a bounty. Before the Neolithic era, there was no farming among early man. Instead, during the Paleolithic period, the time when the Venus of Willendorf was created, humans hunted and gathered their food. They did not plant seeds and harvest crops. Therefore, a fertile Earth Mother goddess would be of little use to the men and women of an Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherer society. They would have no reason to honor the Earth as bountiful because, in a steppe-tundra environment and a hunter-gatherer society, she would give them little nourishment.
So, if the Venus of Willendorf is not a fertility goddess connected to the Earth and agriculture, what is she and what was her purpose? One theory suggests that she was a wealthy woman who paid to have her likeness preserved on a piece of stone.[3] Although possible, I find this theory to be improbable due to the number of Venus figurines with large breasts and buttocks that were crafted around the same time as the Venus of Willendorf. Found in the Czech Republic, France, and Italy, they display very similar body shapes yet were found across Europe. Could one artist have trudged through the cold, by himself, to visit these disparate but same-shaped rich people and craft the figurines? Possible, but it is highly improbable that they were the creation of one individual with a fat patroness. Another theory concerning the Venus of Willendorf indicates that she may have been linked to menstrual cycles, due to the tracings of red ochre on her statue and the prominent display of her vulva.[4] Since the Venus of Laussel, a limestone carved drawing, painted with red ochre and possessing a similar body shape, is also sometimes seen in connection with the menstrual cycle, it is a tantalizing theory. However, I wonder how important a woman’s menstrual cycle would have been to a Paleolithic spiritual artisan in the middle of a glacial period.
One of the most difficult aspects of studying pre-history is that people left lots of items and carvings, but no instructions on how to interpret them. We are left with fascinating deposits of tools and baskets and weapons but no instruction manuals. It is up to us to determine their function and importance, based on knowledge and conjecture. We can never really know what the lives of our Paleolithic brethren were like. We can only make educated guesses. With that in mind, let’s take a moment to try to rationalize the priorities of our Paleolithic ancestors.
Living in a glacial period, life would have been cold. Although they probably possessed fire, they didn’t have the tools or the skills to create warm, toasty, insulated houses. Our ancestors would have spent a lot of time outside, in chilly weather, without the comfort of returning to a warm home. According to the Quaternary Environments Network, the average temperature in August would have been 42 degrees Fahrenheit, dipping down to 13 degrees Fahrenheit in February.[5] Chilly. I think we can pretty convincingly state that warmth would have been one of their priorities, even if they were accustomed to the frigid weather. After all, frostbite is frostbite. The second and perhaps the most important priority for our Paleolithic ancestors would have been food. Living in a steppe-tundra is not an easy existence. Generally categorized as arid, sparse, and mostly treeless, the most common form of vegetation was in the Artemisia family.[6] These hardy plants produce volatile oils and grow well in dry or semi-dry areas. The most common herbs in the Artemisia family are wormwood, mugwort, sagebrush, and tarragon. Bitter in taste, these plants would have been edible, if not especially tasty, for Paleolithic humans. Luckily, our ancestors would have supplemented these herbs with fresh meat, typically bison, horse, and mammoth.
If our assumptions are correct and ancient Paleolithic man concentrated a majority of his energy on keeping warm and well-fed, it only stands to reason that a well-dispersed female goddess figurine would have something to do with these priorities. And the Venus of Willendorf is fat. Abundantly fat. Luxuriously fat. When viewed through the mindset and life priorities of our Paleolithic ancestors, she is the epitome of all their wants and desires. She obviously gets enough to eat and, thanks to that occurrence, is well insulated from the cold of the steppe-tundra. Bonus! It’s a win-win situation. Also, her large breasts and large thighs and large buttocks are reminiscent of a staple food in Paleolithic times—the mammoth. The mammoth was the largest mammal in Europe at that time and it has numerous evolutionary features to protect it from the cold. Its skin is surrounded by a layer of blubber and secretes an oily fat in order to coat the hair and seal in warmth. The teeth of the mammoth were “composed of a set of compressed enamel plates that are held together with cementum” in order to withstand the wear and tear of eating coarse vegetation, like grass.[7] These teeth layers look surprisingly like the hair-do or cap resting on the top of the Venus of Willendorf’s head. Could she be connected to the mammoths, due to their importance as food and warmth to early man? We will probably never know but it is fun to speculate.
In any event, whether a goddess of the mammoths or of the hunt or of the realization of all early human’s desires, the Venus of Willendorf is a wonderful, abundant goddess. Obese, covered in body fat, the Venus of Willendorf is unashamed by her appearance. After all, she is the symbol for all her people’s wishes and desires. It is she they call on to make their lives better. The Venus of Willendorf looks the way she does because she is the carrier of all Paleolithic people’s hopes and dreams. Only a truly large woman would be able to give so much back to her community. Only a very large woman would be able to provide heat and food for all.
A larger-than-life goddess, the Venus of Willendorf connects us to our ancient past and reminds us that we can achieve all our wishes. Imagine the surprise of our Paleolithic ancestors upon entering a grocery store or feeling the intrinsic warmth of an electrically heated home. We live their dreams every day; we no longer have the daily and hourly worries of warmth and food. Perhaps it’s time for us to show gratitude for these wonderful realities in our lives. Perhaps it’s time to thank and honor the Venus of Willendorf, who heeded her children’s cries. Perhaps it’s time to put away our dismay over our own bodies, our shame over not fitting a culturally specific model of beauty. The Venus of Willendorf is beautiful exactly as she is created, just as each one of us is beautiful exactly as we are.
Pathway to Venus of Willendorf
Venus of Willendorf luxuriates in her existence, serving as a reminder to her people of a better life, free of worries. For many of us in the modern era, we labor under different but no less debilitating worries than our Paleolithic ancestors. But, like them, we can find solace in the ample arms of the Venus of Willendorf.
On our quest for self-love, one of the first things we need to remove is our shame—shame over our bodies, shame over our past choices, shame over past actions. Sometimes our shame stems from ourselves and sometimes it stems from the words and actions of other people. No matter where it begins, the feeling of shame can end with each one of us. We do not need to carry around that excess baggage, those stories that are no longer our true selves and our true visions. People try to tell us who we are all the time but you—and only you—can know your true self and live your authentic life.
So, in beginning the process of removing shame (and yes, this may take awhile), we will make a True You Mirror. First, assemble the following items, which can usually be found at your local craft store: a mirror with a wooden frame around it; four small pictures of the Venus of Willendorf; school glue or decoupage glue; magazines, pictures, and stickers; scissors; and any other crafty items such as glitter, ribbon, or googly eyes.
Once you’ve gathered your items, glue the Venus of Willendorf pictures on each of the four corners of your mirror. These will remind you that beauty is always in the eye of the beholder. Hold yourself as beautiful. After gluing the goddess images, look through her eyes at the magazines and cut out pictures of things that appear beautiful to you. Be sure to include things that remind you of your own accomplishments and achievements. Don’t be afraid to find old pictures of yourself as a child, as well as current pictures of you and your family and friends. Lay out all these pictures, along with the decorative items, on your mirror and glue them into place. This is your individual mirror of accomplishment and beauty. Look what you have done! Look what you can do! Look at who you are! You are bountiful and wondrous!
Every day look into your wonderful True You Mirror and smile at yourself. Glance at the Venus of Willendorf in each of the corners and know that beauty exists inside, as well as outside. You are a gorgeous individual, rife with an infinite number of possibilities. Tell yourself that all those shameful thoughts are old stories, no longer helping you become your most vibrant self. Refuse to believe in those old stories. Refuse to even hear them. Replace them with new stories, written by yourself, with the aid of the Venus of Willendorf and your True You Mirror.
MANTRA
Rainbow Woman,
Running deep,
Follow your feet to the moon.
Hina is a Polynesian goddess, which means that her stories can be found on many of the islands of the South Seas. Legends of Hina abound on Tahiti, Hawaii, and New Zealand, as well as on lesser known Polynesian islands such as Mangaia, Tuamotu, Samoa, the Hervey Islands, Tonga, and the Paumotan Islands.[8] Each Hina story lends itself to the culture from which it originates, leading to a multifaceted goddess. Hina is connected to corals and spiny creatures found therein, the making of tapa (traditional cloth created from tree bark), the moon, the sunrise and sunset, chanting, hula, surfing, fishing and fishermen, seaweed, and on and on. The list is practically endless. There is even an aspect of Hina that is seen as a mermaid! Indeed, each of these facets of Hina is differentiated from the others through the adjectives attached to her name. So Hina of the corals is Hina ‘opu hala ko’ a (literally, Hina stomach passing coral) and Hina of the fishermen is Hina puku i’ a (Hina gathering seafood).[9] These differentiated Hinas are often said to be sisters or daughters of the goddess simply named Hina. However, these “sisters and daughters are often to be understood as manifestations of the same deity in several forms, each of which has its own distinct place in myth and ceremon[y].”[10]
Due to the breadth of information on the goddess Hina, I have opted to focus on her well-known Hawaiian stories. In Hawaii, Hina is the grandchild of Kai-uli and Kai-kea (Dark Sea and Light Sea) and seems to have been born from herself (or, at least, a Hina with a different adjective) and her younger brother, Ku-kea-pua.[11] Her most important lineage stems from her, as she is the mother of the Hawaiian demi-god Maui, who is a trickster and hero in the mythology. There is no one man to whom she is connected romantically. Akalana is sometimes said to be Maui’s father, as is the god Kanaloa.[12] A completely separate and unique story ties Hina to the warrior and storyteller Aikanaka.[13] (Remember, these are simply the Hawaiian men and gods to whom she is connected; numerous other Polynesian myths have Hina as wife and lover to other mystical creatures and men.) Hina, as a goddess, appears to be complete unto herself, having no solid tie to any one divine male entity. In a quest for self-love, this is important, for Hina listens to her own needs and chooses her companions as she wishes. There is a sense of freedom and a measure of self-care built into the very core of the Hina myths. She is as flexible and fluid as the tides of the ocean or the phases of the moon.
Indeed, one of Hina’s symbols is the moon, and the moon plays an important role in her most well-known story, “The Woman in the Moon.” In this story, Hina has already birthed Maui and is married to a man known as Aikanaka, a fierce warrior but not a particularly helpful husband. When he is away, Hina spends her days taking care of herself, with daily visits from her son Maui to lighten the workload, And the work is considerable! She must gather water in her calabash (or gourd), start and tend the cook fire, pound poi, make tapa, and (on important days) tend the fire of the earth oven or imu. She is busy, but Hina does not despair because she enjoys island living and is heartened by her son.
When Hina’s husband returns, however, he brings with him a dark cloud and fretful personality. Always complaining, Aikanaka wants to direct his wife’s work without ever pitching in to help. He spends his days telling stories while Hina must mend his clothes, get him water, and prepare his meals. He never helps with gathering water or firewood and is always cross. Finally, the day arrives when Hina is thoroughly sick of her home situation and can endure no longer. Aikanaka tells Hina that he wants shrimp for dinner and orders her to use his nets to catch some. When she reaches the water’s edge, Hina sees a lovely rainbow forming before her. In that instant, she decides to leave behind her life on Earth and she begins to climb the rainbow.
Being a goddess, Hina has no difficulty walking up the rainbow, but as she nears the sun, the heat and intensity become too great for her to bear. (The sun in Hawaiian mythology is often depicted as being greater than the gods who walk the Earth, such as Maui and Hina.) Hina falls down to the Earth and lies on the ground, completely exhausted, covered in blisters and boils and burning with fever. She stays there for the rest of the day, unable to move, unable to do anything but rest and recover. At moonrise, Hina feels her strength returning, and picking up the shrimp nets, starts for home. On her way, she meets Aikanaka on his way back from filling the calabash at the spring. He is angry because he had to go fill his own calabash and he is complaining about the slothful nature of his wife. Without a word of excuse to her husband, Hina grabs the calabash and drains its entire contents. With a roar of rage, Aikanaka raises his hand to strike Hina. As she steps back to avoid the blow, Hina sees a moon rainbow forming. And, suddenly, she knows what she has to do.
Still without speaking, Hina steps around her husband and retrieves her favorite calabash and tapa board and beater from their cave. Then, with sure and steady steps, she approaches the moon rainbow and begins to walk up it. Enraged, Aikanaka lunges for Hina but the rainbow will not support his weight. Still, he is able to grab her ankle in an effort to hold her to him. Hina, however, kicks out and escapes, badly twisting her ankle. (Some versions say her leg was broken.) Limping, the goddess travels up into the sky where she lives forevermore among the stars and the moon and the clouds. On full moon nights, if you look up at the moon over Hawaii, you can just make out her form on the moon, with her calabash, tapa board, and beater resting right next to her.
This story of Hina has obvious overtones of domestic abuse, awful living conditions, and disrespectful individuals who do not honor a person’s Goddess-given worth. It would be easy to slap Hina into the category of disenfranchised women and be done with her. However, Hina is a varied goddess, a goddess of action who works to help herself and her people. Movement is a key factor in understanding Hina’s personality. She does not sit by and allow things to happen; she works to create her own reality in a life that she aspires to and will enjoy. Words are another key factor to understanding Hina. She often uses her voice to craft her ideal life and to change her situation. Another version of the story “The Woman in the Moon” tells of Hina chanting incantations after her ankle is twisted (or broken), in order to be accepted by the night and the stars and the moon. Naturally, she is made welcome and aided by these powers of nature, eventually creating her home on the moon.
A further story that illustrates Hina’s affinity for words and action is entitled “The Monster Mo-o,” or “Hina and the Wailuku River.” In this story, Hina lives by herself behind Rainbow Falls, beside the River Wailuku on the Big Island of Hawaii, near Hilo. You can actually visit the location of this story if you walk along the Wailuku River in Hawaii. Here we see Hina living behind the rainbow mist of the falls (again with the rainbow!) and creating tapa, content in her life. Her son Maui lives nearby but is often off on adventures. Such is the case when this story begins. Above the Rainbow Falls, farther up the river, lives a large lizard-like dragon named Kuna, who is attracted to Hina. In the story, Hina spurns his advances until finally his love turns to hatred and he begins to pester her and seek to hurt her. He throws dirt, logs, and stones into the river so they must pass by Hina’s home and either harm her or block up the river and flood her home. Hina remains unscathed until one night, Kuna throws a massive boulder into the river’s gorge below Hina’s home. The water has no place to go and begins to rise, eventually flooding the home of the goddess.
At this point in the story, Hina does one of two things. In one version, Hina uses her voice and calls for her son, Maui. “Again and again her voice went out from the cave. It pierced through the storms and clouds which attended Kuna’s attack upon her. It swept along the side of the great mountain. It crossed the channel between the islands of Hawaii and Maui.”[14] Hina’s voice becomes larger than life, traveling across oceans and many miles to reach the ears of her son. It is only through the opening of her mouth, through the use of her voice, that Hina is saved. She utilizes her power of speech to call for help and save herself. Due to Hina’s ability to trust her voice and the power contained therein, Maui does hear her. He arrives at her home, smashes the rock that is creating the flood, chases the dragon, and, eventually destroys it. (Not bad for a day’s work!)
The second version of the story describes Hina taking charge of the situation by acting to save herself. After printing designs on a piece of tapa cloth and bringing it to her cave to dry, Hina discovers the flood waters in her home. Grabbing a tapa cloth that she uses as a sleeping cover, Hina rushes outside, only to be confronted by the terrible lizard-dragon. She tries to run but slips along the muddy banks of the river. Kuna inches closer to her. There seems to be no place to escape! Just then, the goddess looks down and notices the tapa cloth she is carrying. Tying a stone around one end of the cloth, she throws it to the other side of the river, causing it to stretch with her goddess power. Then, as the mist and the damp causes the colors to run and form a beautiful cloth rainbow, Hina swings across the river and into the topmost branches of a large tree. She escapes Kuna! Maui, having been warned of the danger at home by a little cloud that serves him, returns to Rainbow Falls and, as in the other story, smashes the rock, chases the dragon, and destroys it.
Stories of Hina, goddess of Hawaii and Polynesia, explode with action and energy. Like the islands of the South Seas, she is an active, assertive goddess. At the same time, she holds great love for her family, her lovers, and her people on Earth. Stories tell of her offering herself (her actual body that can never be destroyed) to provide food for her people. Her enjoyment of her son is obvious, as the two stories related here indicate. After all, he visits her every day and lives right next door. Both of them feel a deep commitment and love for each other. (How many people can say they visit their relatives every day?) Hina also displays great passion and care for her lovers in the other Polynesian stories.
Hina is really as diverse as the rainbow that plays such an important role in her legends and in her cultural environment. Like the rainbow, Hina is about balance—individuality and connection, freedom and commitment, softness and strength, action and words. Unable to be categorized or pigeonholed, Hina is all women, everywhere, creator of herself, first woman, defined in her own right. The Hawaiian word for woman is wahine, derived from Hina’s name. Acknowledging and accepting Hina’s power is to realize our own innate rainbow power and ability, if only we make the choice to use our voices and take action, to take action and feel love, to feel love first for ourselves and then for those around us. The life of our dreams hangs before us, just over the rainbow. It is time to walk forward and claim it.
Pathway to Hina
There’s nothing like visiting the cultural roots of a particular goddess to understand and welcome her entrance in your life. The very environment of Hawaii explains the relationship of Hina to the land and to us, her people who live upon the land. Without the foliage, the surrounding ocean waves, the humidity, the daily sun and rains of the islands of Hawaii, it is more difficult to grasp the diversity and complexity of this wonderful Polynesian goddess. So, I recommend travelling to Hawaii! Unfortunately, not everyone can drop everything and travel over to Hawaii to experience Hina’s wonderful energy and the beautiful Hawaiian Islands. So, we’ll have to do the next best thing: bring the Hawaiian Islands to us.
We won’t create a Hawaii with the tacky plastic leis and paper tiki decorations found at your local party store, but with a traditional activity of the islands—hula. That’s right, hula dancing! And don’t tell me you can’t do it, because you can! On the mainland, hula is often associated with Middle Eastern dance or bellydance. While both dance styles place an emphasis on the hips, hula is less sensuous and flowing than Middle Eastern dance. Bellydancing is often depicted as sexy, with sweeping circular hip motions, torso undulations, and soft, floating arms. Hula, on the other hand, often sways the hips from side to side and has surprising elements that “pop” the dancer out of fluid motion. In short, like the goddess Hina, hula balances soft and sharp, graceful and strong dance movements. It celebrates the many sides of womanhood.
You can probably find a hula dance school (or halau hula) near you, as they are located in just about every state.[15] However, I personally like the many hula dance videos available, mostly because they are filmed on location in Hawaii and showcase the lovely Hawaiian landscape and weather. There are several on the market, so you have quite a variety from which to choose. I have had good luck with the “Island Girl” series, hosted by the lovely Kili. These are only thirty minutes in length; the steps are fairly easy to follow and lead you to performing a hula dance at the completion of the workout. There are even child-friendly hula videos (such as “Be a Hula Girl”) that will allow you to incorporate your new Hawaiian obsession into your family life.
And don’t be surprised if it does turn into an obsession! There is something about Hawaii that is beautiful and raw and brilliant and pure. You can check out the molten lava of an active volcano, explore rainforests, visit comet craters, relax on black sand beaches, dive into turbulent ocean surf, and gaze up at the stars on a lonely, isolated beach. It’s a mystical land and it is the home of the goddess Hina.
If you absolutely feel that hula is not for you, you can still experience the wonders of Hawaii with a different form of exercise. There are many videos that are filmed on location in Hawaii. Usually, these are yoga- or pilates-based but, if you look around and do your research, I’m sure you’ll be able to find a kickboxing or aerobics workout featuring Hawaii. I have tried and enjoyed Sara Ivanhoe’s twenty-minute yoga series, which was filmed on location in Hawaii. You can start there or delve into your own favorite exercise style.
Not into exercise? No problem. Explore another side of Hawaii with the romantic coming-of-age film Blue Crush. While not Oscar-worthy film-making, it is a movie that captures the essence of modern day Hawaii and the surf culture prevalent there. My jaw dropped when I saw this movie in the theaters. Having just come home from Hawaii (Oahu and the Big Island), I was surprised at the movie’s authenticity. (My husband said the exact same thing to me as soon as the movie was over, so you know it wasn’t just a freaky coincidence.) Also, check out the surfing documentaries Stepping into Liquid and Billabong Odyssey. Although filmed around the world, they have amazing footage of big waves off the coast of Oahu and Maui. Let the images of the waves and sun wash over you, just as the self-love of Hina washes over us all.
MANTRA
Flying free,
I’m happy to be me!
Cessair (KAH-seer) is a goddess of manifestation and action, which doesn’t, on the surface, seem to have much to do with the concept of self-love. However, when looking at her story, it is obvious that she has a great amount of self-esteem and self-love, which frees her from the shackles of other people’s pre-supposed ideas about her. She is truly, wondrously, boundlessly herself and, as such, is able to move beyond traditional cultural roles, even beyond the gates of her homeland, in search for something better. Her story is so astonishing that it could have been accomplished only through belief and love of the self. Her growth and progress begins within. Once love of self is achieved, Cessair is able to truly grow into a goddess, free and liberated.
Cessair’s story begins in the East, several years before the biblical flood that changed the world. Cessair is the daughter of Bith and the granddaughter of Noe or Noah, who built the ark according to Yahweh’s commands in order to preserve life after the flood waters receded. Unfortunately for Cessair and Bith, they were not allowed aboard Noah’s ark. In the text, as collected in The Book of Leinster (a collection of poems and narratives compiled by an anonymous scholar around 1160 ce), Noah gives no reason for excluding his son and granddaughter. But he does give them an idea of how to live through the flood. “Rise, said he [and go] to the western edge of the world; perchance the Flood may not reach it.”[16] The Lebor Gabala Erenn, a section within The Book of Leinster, states that Cessair took her grandfather’s advice and led three ships to Ireland, but only one survived. The other two wrecked on the rocky shores of Erin.[17]
In the account of Ireland’s founding as told by Geoffrey Keating in his book The History of Ireland, completed around 1634, Noah still gives no reasoning for excluding his family from the ark, and now he offers no viable alternative either. In short, he leaves Bith and Cessair to the fate of the waves. Bith, Fintan (a mystical poet, known as the “White Ancient” who lives for thousands of years after the flood), and Cessair take counsel together and Cessair tells them that if they listen to her, she will save them. The men agree and Cessair tells of her plan to turn away from Noah’s God by creating an idol and worshipping another deity. Bith and Fintan perform this task and the idol tells them to build a ship and “put to sea”[18] but, unfortunately, this other God[19] does not know the exact timing of the flood, so the Cessairans spend the next seven years and three months living on the ship before reaching Ireland.
Both accounts agree that fifty women and three men survive the voyage from the East and land on Ireland’s shores, at Dun na mbarc (or Dun na mRarc) which is now known as Donemark, on Bantry Bay in County Cork. Keating goes on to elaborate their settling at Bun Suaimhne, at the junction of the Suir, Nore, and Barrow rivers.[20] These three rivers exist in Ireland today, in the southeast section of the country, covering massive distances and draining sections of five counties. They enter the sea near Waterford City and Hook Head. Together, they are known as the Three Sisters.
As the Lebor Gabala Erenn and The History of Ireland relate the arrival of Cessair and her people from the East, it is important to note the many feminine attributes in the story. First, the people are led by a woman, a woman who is shut out of the religion of the patriarchal God of the Israelites and destined to die. Unlike the quiet and reserved women who worshipped Yahweh in the East, Cessair does not merely accept her fate and agree to drown in an ocean of regretful tears. Instead she wrests the situation from the hands of two very capable men, and casting about for inspiration, suggests a plausible if unorthodox plan—leaving the religion of Yahweh for another deity. To the men of Yahweh, creating and eventually turning to an idol for help was in direct violation of God’s edicts, as written in biblical commandments three, four, and five. The Bible is full of admonishments against idol-worship, which proves that such worship still existed. (Otherwise, the writers of the Bible would have forbidden something else!) Numerous ancient idols have been found throughout the Middle East, and one of the most prominent kinds have been ascribed to the goddess Asherah, named Ashtaroth in the Bible.
Asherah was the “Great Mother Goddess” of the Caananites. Small house shrines were often dedicated to her, and communities would celebrate her fertility by erecting large phallic poles or trees. The sacred groves and hill shrines were called “aserah,” after her, and it is these locations that were condemned by many of the biblical prophets.[21] Like all mothers, the “Great Mother Goddess” Asherah had diverse interests and skills and her people called on her for a variety of needs. As a mother of seventy children, she was honored for her fertility. Yet, as a deity of a seafaring people, she was also turned to for good travel and calm seas. One of her many titles is “Lady Asherah of the Sea” and her full title, as found in the ancient Syrian city of Ugarit, is Rabat Athiratu Yami, meaning “Great Lady She Who Treads on the Sea.” In Phoenicia and Carthage, under the name of Tanith, she is often shown with dolphins or fish.[22] As a mother goddess known to the Israelites, connected to idols and shrines and well-known for her association with the sea, it is not inconceivable to suggest that the idol Cessair crafted was a representation of the goddess Asherah.
No matter what idol was crafted, a strong feminine energy surges through the story of Cessair and her people. Not only are they led by a strong, independent woman, but their company consists mainly of women and they land at a place known as The Three Sisters. The number 3 is often seen as an especially sacred number to the Irish Celts, who divided their world into “sea, land, and sky,” and whose deities, such as Brigid and Morrigan, are presented in a triple nature. In fact, the rivers known as The Three Sisters could be aspects of the goddesses of the very land of Ireland—Eriu, Banba, and Fotla—who were, indeed, sisters in the mythology. All of the female aspects of the story relate back to the inescapable fact that without Cessair, there would have been no story to tell. Cessair is the heart of the tale of the First Invasion of Ireland. She spearheads the voyage, taking on roles and learning skills that are antithetical to her culture and her former self. The voyage of Cessair from the East to the West is as much a story about personal growth as it is a story of survival. And, when you think of it, survival and growth are intrinsically entwined. As humans, we grow in order to survive in order to live. Cessair just did it in a splashier way!
After Cessair’s people settled themselves at Bun Suaimhne, the difficult task of creating a community began. Fintan, Bith, and a resourceful pilot named Ladra were the only men in Cessair’s company and “for peace and for reason,”[23] the women broke up into three household groups, containing one man and either seventeen or sixteen women. The extra woman (perhaps Cessair herself, as she is a member of his household) was given to Fintan, presumably because he was neither “war-like,”[24] like Bith, nor “bold,”[25] like Ladra. Unfortunately for the Cessairians, they arrived on Ireland’s shores only forty days before the Flood swept from the East, engulfing the West, including Ireland. All the members of Cessair’s party die, except for the resourceful and magical Fintan, who lives for thousands of years more in various shapes and forms. Ladra is the first man to be buried in Ireland and Ard Ladrand is named after him. Sliab Betha is named for Cessair’s father, Bith, who died in the mountains, trying to climb higher than the encroaching sea. Cessair, on the other hand, fled to a nook, called Cul Cessrach, where she and her fifty maidens died. Her burial site is often said to be to one of the cairns on Knockmaa Hill in Connacht.
Despite the unfortunate conclusion of Cessair’s attempt to escape the flood, her story resonates with power and passion. In order to save her life and the lives of her loved ones, Cessair risks everything. She ignores the edicts of her grandfather’s God and creates an idol. She wrests the position of leader from her father and an accomplished magician, in a society where men held authority over women. She leads her people across the globe on what probably felt like an endless search for safe land, leaving her own country and her own customs behind. In the face of adversity, Cessair reshapes her sense of self. She becomes greater than she ever thought possible. Cessair teaches us that only by giving up what we think is necessary can we expand our horizons and grow toward the wisdom and mystery of the Great Goddess. In the end, Cessair, surrounded by her fifty maidens, is welcomed into the loving embrace of the Goddess as a complete woman, fully aware of her innate abilities, skills, and characteristics. She has found her true self.[26]
Pathway to Cessair
Like Cessair, it is time for you to build your boat of self-love and sail it westward, toward wisdom and truth and feeling, toward adventure and risk, toward your wholesome, true self. Don’t delay! It’s time to step into your destiny! The only things you’ll need for this project are one pound of modeling clay in your color of choice, a pin or toothpick, and a flat surface to work on. You might consider using sturdy cardboard to protect the flat surface if you are using your prized dining room table or the newly refurbished wood floors. The cardboard will also serve as a base for your boat of self-love and allow you to carry it to your location of choice. Make sure that you use modeling clay, not air-drying clay—you want your boat to stay fresh throughout its lifetime. Also, you might want to create numerous boats of self-love through the years. Using modeling clay will allow you to recycle the same clay over and over again. (Gotta save that environment!)
Begin by pinpointing some aspects of your life that could use a dose of self-love. Perhaps you are chronically tense and could use a regular massage. Maybe you rarely watch your favorite television programs, opting to give the kids or your significant other their choice of shows. Maybe your self-esteem is shot and you feel worthless. Maybe you don’t even respect yourself, never mind your work, and feel you have no skills or abilities. We all have self-doubts and days where our self-confidence flags. Don’t beat yourself up when you start assessing your life. Now that you’re looking at the situation constructively and objectively, you can do something about it.
After finding four or five life aspects that could use some self-love, think about them one at a time and finish this phrase: I deserve _____________________. At the end of the exercise, you will have four or five I deserve phrases, each one corresponding to a particular part of your life that needs self-love. For example, if you are considering your feelings of worthlessness, you might finish your I deserve phrase with the words “to go back to school to learn new skills” or “to go to a therapist to find out the root cause of my self-worth issues.” Allow yourself some liberty during this part of the activity and write down what first comes to mind. Trust that you know yourself best.
With your four or five I deserve phrases in hand, it is time for you to build your boat of self-love. Concentrate on the first thing you feel you deserve, take a hunk of clay (¼ pound works well) and shape it into a long, tubular line. Between 5 and 12 inches long is a good size. It will look like a long, round snake or worm. With your toothpick or pin, write your first I deserve phrase on the tubular clay, then mold it into the shape of a boat. (The shape is roughly an oval with points on the skinny ends.) This is the first layer, the bottom rung, of your self-love boat. You will be building your boat up, log-cabin style, by creating round, tubular lines for each I deserve phrase and placing them on top of each other. By the time you are finished, you should have a boat with four or five layers, all inscribed with a phrase that serves as a goal for you. These goals are gifts of self-love that you are offering to yourself without prejudice or judgment. Now it is time for you to work toward bringing these gifts into your life, using your self-love boat as a physical reminder of your commitment to yourself. Once you have received the gifts inscribed within your self-love boat, you can dismantle her and store the modeling clay, or craft another self-love boat. The possibilities are endless!
Optional: If you would like to insert a touch of whimsy to your self-love journey while adding energy and positive vibrations, consider performing this additional activity. After your self-love boat is created, anoint each tier of your vessel with oil (any oil, even olive oil from your kitchen, will work). As you touch your finger to each layer, state the I deserve phrase out loud, rubbing the oil onto the clay. Just a small amount of oil will be fine. Once all layers are anointed, carry your self-love boat to your computer and go to the homepage for YouTube (www.youtube.com). Now comes the silly part. Search You Tube for the theme song of the television program, The Love Boat, the popular hour-long show that ran on ABC from 1977 to 1986. Once you’ve found it (and there are many versions to choose from), hold your self-love boat between your hands, click the play button on the YouTube video, and sing along to the crooning of Jack Jones. This is truly a step back in time and a way to remind yourself that life is fun and you do deserve each and every one of those things on your personal self-love boat. After all, love, especially self-love, is “exciting and new” and one of “life’s sweetest rewards.” You deserve it! Happy sailing, captain!
RITUAL FOR SELF-LOVE:
AWAKENING YOUR RAINBOW BODY
Suggested Ritual Days
February 14: Valentine’s Day
Your birthday: your personal day of power and love, when your mother brought you into the world
May 1: Global Love Day, as proclaimed by The Love Foundation, whose motto is “Love Begins With Me”
Items needed
lavender essential oil
cleansing or purifying room spray, such as sage or the “Water” elemental vibrational essence myst from Garden of One[27]
CD of your favorite relaxing music
chart or diagram of the chakras
scarf or bandana to cover your eyes
two pieces of rose quartz
Begin by finding a day when you are completely alone. Relax and enjoy doing your favorite activities. Reading, gardening, painting your toenails, skeet shooting . . . it doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you enjoy it. Before the day is too far gone, give yourself the luxury of taking a bath. Pour a teaspoon of lavender oil in your bathwater and relax in the warm, soothing water. Imagine all your anxieties and worries melting away into the water and running down the drain. When you are finished with your bath, you should be calm and focused, able to concentrate on yourself and your needs.
Go into your bedroom and gather all of the other items needed for the ritual. Place them on your bed, being sure to spray the cleansing room spray all over your room and on the sheets and coverlets of your bed. The scent should be noticeable but not overpowering. (It is always best to do a “test spray” a few days before you plan to complete the ritual. Nothing breaks your concentration like an sneezing attack!) After spraying your room, turn on your relaxation music, sit (or lie) on your bed, and look at your chakra chart or diagram. Take some time to really notice the colors and attributes of each chakra. Chakras are energetic centers of the body that help to balance the body, physically, emotionally, and mentally. When they are open and functioning well, they spin in a clockwise direction. When they are blocked, they spin backward or not at all. In Eastern philosophies, any problems we experience can be traced back to our chakras and their movement (or lack thereof). As you study the chart, notice that the chakras form a rainbow up the body. Try to locate where each chakra would be placed on your own body. Get to know your body in relation to the Eastern concept of the chakras.
When you feel like you know the color pattern and general location of each chakra, put aside the chart and cover your eyes with your bandana or scarf. It is time to go on a guided meditation. You may want to record this meditation for yourself or have a friend or family member read it aloud. It can be done from memory, but people often prefer to hear the guided meditation as they are performing it.
Take a deep breath. In through the nose and out through the mouth. Take another deep breath, filling your stomach, your diaphragm, and, finally, your lungs. Hold this breath for five seconds . . . 1-2-3-4-5 . . . and exhale, allowing the breath to exit your lungs first, then your diaphragm, and finally your stomach. One more deep breath and as you breathe in, feel the energy of the graceful rainbow, guiding and supporting your fingers, your toes, your legs and shoulders, even the top of your head. Hold the breath for seven seconds . . . 1-2-3-4-5-6-7. As you exhale, feel all tension leave your fingers, your toes, your legs and shoulders, even the top of your head. Continue breathing deeply, in through the nose, out through the mouth. Feel the warm sun, the gentle mist, warming and condensing on the exposed parts of your body. Your head. Your face. Your hands. The air is charged with the cleansing power of rain, the soothing touch of the sun. Both are necessary to create a rainbow—water and fire, light and shade. You feel the soothing rays of the sun massaging your weary muscles, removing any tension, any stress, any worry. You sigh and the massage moves inward to your soul and your spirit. You breathe deeply and have never felt so relaxed, so secure, so calm.
You are walking along a shoreline on a warm, tropical island. The sand is soft under your feet and the waves lap gently against your toes. The island is small and covered in coconut and palm trees. They are thick on the island and crowd the tiny beach on which you walk. Although the trees and forest vegetation huddle very close to you, you are not afraid, for they seem like old friends, welcoming you home. Take a moment to acknowledge their presence. Turn away from the sea and face the forest. Pay your respects in whatever way feels right to you. If you feel drawn to a specific plant, tree, or animal, approach it and speak to it. Listen to see if it has a special message for you concerning your quest for self-love.
After honoring the spirits of this island land, you turn, once again, back to the sea and behold a wondrous sight. A glorious rainbow arches full and bright directly in front of your eyes. It is only a hand’s breadth away; you can feel its powerful energy tingling all up and down your body. You reach out a hand (pause) and feel a warmth you have only known once in your life. It is like the comfort of a soft, cuddly blanket or the security of your mother’s womb. You still your movements for a moment and slow your breathing to listen. Do you hear it? The soft, rhythmic thump-bump, thump-bump of your heart? (pause) And there, right below the sound of your own heartbeat, a deeper tone, rich and all-pervasive. It is difficult to distinguish from the eddying waves and the soughing wind and the gentle beat of your own life blood. (pause) But there it is, part of and yet separate from all of those things. Thump-bump. Thump-bump. The heartbeat of the Great Mother—your mother, my mother, all mothers everywhere, gifting life to their little ones.
You bathe in the sound of the heartbeat of the Great Mother, breathing slowly in and out, in and out. As you relax even more, you feel a gentle pushing at your back. It is the wind playing, urging you forward, closer to the rainbow. You obey and find yourself at the foot of a pulsing, brilliant arch of light. Take a moment now to see the colors of the rainbow in all their splendor. Red. Orange. Yellow. Green. Blue. Indigo. Violet. These colors present themselves to you in their most pure form. They are completely, totally their color. Which color are you most attracted to right now? (pause) Remember this information—it will help you in accessing and re-activating your love of self.
When you feel ready, take a step onto the rainbow. This will be the first of seven steps that will take you to the very height of the rainbow. Each step resonates with a different color and thus with a different chakra in your body. The first step is for the color red. Feel the deep, rich, grounding presence of the color red in your body, especially around your base chakra, near your tailbone. It swirls around you and through you, vibrant and full. Lush and intense, you are red and red is you.
Take another step and feel the rush of orange engulf you. Warm and juicy, yet refreshing, orange tantalizes you with its tangy scent and saucy texture. It is a luscious orange, a pearlescent peach scarf trailing over your body, a deep, warm carnelian stone in the palm of your hand. Alive and vibrant, orange enters through the very pores of your skin and centers around your lower belly or sacral chakra. Perhaps it forms a flower inside your belly, unfolding to welcome the world.
A third step brings you face to face with the brilliance of yellow. Warm, shining with energy, the color yellow surrounds you, lighting your arms, your face, your legs. Your entire body is drenched in enlivening yellow, fully alive and invigorated. The color settles around your third chakra, at the top of your rib cage, in the middle of your breastbone, and you feel it warming your body, radiating outward in ever-widening circles of warmth.
You take a deep breath and step into green. Cool, moist, refreshing green. Deep green like the densest forest glade, and spring green like the sweetest dappled meadow. The color green swirls around you, smelling of promise and fulfillment, of possibilities not yet realized. You breath it in and feel it settle in your heart chakra, right near your physical heart. There, the color pulses with each heartbeat, growing more and more brilliant with each passing second.
You step again, and enter the freedom and grace of the color blue. Light, ethereal, fresh and clean, blue billows around you in playful eddies and spirals. Clouds of sky blue brush your face and linger in your hair and eyelashes. They tickle your skin. You have a compulsion to laugh and sing, to dance and jump. You open your mouth to breathe it in and the blue plunges into you, resting comfortably in your throat chakra, nestled at the bottom of your throat.
With a skip and a hop, you leave blue and enter the depth of indigo. Soft and velvety, indigo lingers around you, cloaking you in wisdom and understanding. Thick and heavy, the cloak does not weigh you down. Rather it opens you up to the reality of all-that-is. You look at the cloak and see millions of tiny stars twinkling back at you. Indigo is more than meets the eye. You rest in the shade of the lovely color of indigo and feel it enter your body, settling in your forehead, at your third eye chakra.
With deliberation and wisdom, you take the last step, the seventh step, into the color violet. The violet light envelops you, more bright, more luminous then anything you have ever imaged. The color is less a color than a shocking radiance. It is white and pure with tinges of violet along the edges, as if the violet was greater than its color on Earth. It takes your breath away, and, for the moment, your reason disintegrates. You are bathed in pure light. The violet-tinged color rises above your head to settle in your crown chakra.
You are now a being of light, a vision of color. Rising above the seven steps of color, you stand in your own power, feeling the energy of the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet flow through you. (pause) Make note of how you are feeling. This feeling of balance, power, serenity, joy, and grace can be yours all the time. This is your true self, shining and free. This is who you are—beautiful, loving energy. Hug yourself right now, as you stand bathed in color at the top of the rainbow. Love yourself. You deserve love, for you are a wondrous creation of the Great Mother. Allow yourself the time to bask in your greatness and remember your love of self. (pause)
When you feel ready, begin the seven steps back to the beach on the little island covered in coconut and palm trees. At each step, you briefly re-live the colors but you do not lose any of your own colorful brilliance. This is yours. This is who you are! The universal rainbow has enough color for every single being on the planet, so there is no need to give anything back. Step down through brilliant violet. Down through soothing indigo. Down through playful blue. One more step down leads you to luscious green. Down through warming yellow. Down through vibrant orange. Down through the depth of red.
You take one more step and you are once again on the sandy beach. The sun is setting and the trade winds ruffle the palm fronds of the trees nearby. You breathe deeply as the rainbow slowly fades away before you, disappearing from view. (pause) It is gone for right now but it is always available to you. All you need to do is ask for its presence and it will appear, refreshing your innate color power centers, reminding you of your wondrous self. With a smile, you walk back down the beach, heading home.
Now, take a deep breath. In through the nose and out through the mouth. Take another deep breath, filling your stomach, your diaphragm, and, finally, your lungs. Hold this breath for five seconds . . . 1-2-3-4-5 . . . and exhale, allowing the breath to exit your lungs first, then your diaphragm, and finally your stomach. Breathe deeply once more and as you breathe in, feel the energy and the wonder of the world around you in your fingers, your toes, your legs and shoulders, even the top of your head. As you exhale, wiggle your fingers and your toes. Shake your legs and move your shoulders up and down. Take another deep breath and, as you exhale, move your head from side to side. Feel the ground under your body, touching every nerve ending and muscle. Hear the rustlings of the world around you. Notice the movements outside. Continue breathing. Stretch your arms out above your head. You are returning to the present, to the here and now. Continue stretching. Continue breathing. When you are ready, open your eyes, blink and focus, and sit up.
[1]. Oxford, “Discovery of Oldest Human Decorations.”
[2]. Gimbutas, The Language of the Goddess, 141.
[3]. Witcombe, “Venus of Willendorf.”
[4]. Ibid.
[5]. Adams and Faure, “Europe east to 40 degrees E (the Urals), and including Asia Minor.”
[6]. Ibid.
[7]. Illinois State Museum, “Mammoths.”
[8]. Westervelt, Legends of Maui, chapter 15, “Hina, The Woman in the Moon.”
[9] . Springs, “Hawaiian Goddess Hina.”
[10]. Beckwith, Hawaiian Mythology, 223.
[11]. Westervelt, Legends of Maui, chapter 15.
[12]. Ibid., chapter 1.
[13]. Thompson, Hawaiian Myths of Earth, Sea, and Sky, 76.
[14]. Westervelt, Legends of Maui, chapter 13, “Hina and the Wailuku River.”
[15]. Try http://www.mele.com/resources/hula.html for a comprehensive listing.
[16]. Best, Bergin, and O’Brien, “Lebor Gabala Erenn,” verse 27.
[17]. Ibid., verse 28.
[18]. Keating, History of Ireland, 143.
[19]. Keating uses the pronoun he.
[20]. Keating, History of Ireland, 145.
[21]. Jordan, “Aserah,” Encyclopedia of Gods, 27.
[22]. Lilinah, Qadash Kinahnu, “Asherah.”
[23]. Best, Bergin, and O’Brien, “Lebor Gabala Erren,” verse 29.
[24]. Ibid., verse 36.
[25]. Ibid., verse 29.
[26]. Much of the story of Cessair first appeared in Goddess Afoot!, 128–133. For more information and intimate workings with Cessair, Irish Goddess of Self-Esteem, including a guided meditation and ritual, please see chapter 7 of Goddess Afoot!
[27]. You can find Garden of One products on-line at www.gardenofone.com. There are numerous books on the market that include chakra illustrations. For a less expensive alternative, you can purchase Chart #5 Rainbow Chakra Centers from InnerLightResources.com.