Immanence
the journal of applied mythology, legend, and folktale
SPRING 2017 VOL. 1 NO. 2
immanencejournal.com
IMAGINING BETTER FUTURES
SPRING 2017
Cover image: Evening Portal. Digital collage by Matthew Conklin. Left: Self. Watercolors and marker. Betty Paz. 2017.
Immanence The Journal of Applied Mythology, Legend, and Folktale 5400 Hollister Avenue Goleta, CA 93111 (925) 876-0198 Immanencejournal.com Mission: The primary mission of Immanence is to encourage a reenchantment of our relations with ourselves, each other, and the living world by publishing appreciative commentary and art on the contemporary relevance of folklore—including myth, legend, folktale, fairytale, and wondertale—as it illuminates the deep structures of personal and collective consciousness. Editorial Board: Craig Chalquist Kelly Lydick Melissa Nazario Lola McCrary Jacqui Dziak Mary Wood Zhiwa Woodbury Hannah Custis Tiana Ellauri
Founding Editor & Editor-in-Chief Associate Editor Production Manager, Webmaster & Contributing Editor Assistant Editor Marketing Manager & Contributing Editor Image Editor & Contributing Editor Columnist & Contributing Editor Blog Manager & Contributing Editor Contributing Editor
Other contributors: Susanna Anderson Jesse Masterson Carole Standish Mora Rebecca Wyse Board of Mentors: Stephen Aizenstat Bonnie Bright Linda Buzzell Keiron Le Grice Stanley Krippner Elisa Markhoff Devdutt Pattanaik Safron Rossi Brian Swimme Richard Tarnas Bob Walters Copyright © 2017 by Worldrede Academy All rights reserved Spring 2017, Vol. 1, No. 2 For reprint permissions please email us at contact@immanencejournal.com. Because submissions are accepted from around the world, common spelling and grammar use from each culture (example: honor vs. honour) appears as written by the author. ISSN number 2473-3865
contents from the founding editor
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features
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6 Envisioning Utopia: A Collaborative Project to Inspire Dreams of Thriving Tiana Ellauri 19 Re-Membering Europa: An Initiatory Journey to Life Beyond the Patriarchy Alessandra Bosco 33 Dreams We Know By Sandra Easter 44 On Talking with the Dead Keith Allen Dennis 56 The Wasteland and the Wound Karen Jaenke
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from the academy 80 Nasty Women: Can the Goddess and the Hero Find a Way Forward? Mary Diggin 96 I Have a Dream Toula Gordillo 108 The Guardians of Renewal Craig Chalquist
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these mythic times 122 Mni Wiconi: Water is Life Zhiwa Woodbury
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fiction 135 Shapeshifting: A Love Story Julie Gabrielli
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mythopoetics 144 Minerva Kelly Lydick 148 Pandora’s Box Raquel Vasquez Gilliland 150 Vaporverse Robert Guyker 155 The Work Anya Silver
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interview 156 Breaking Spells in Life and Fairy Tales Michelle Tocher
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art and image 161 Only Blood Can Change: The Artist as Activist and Alchemist Mary A. Wood 172 Artist Profile Matthew Conklin 174 Artist Profile Betty Paz
readers respond
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From the Founding Editor Craig Chalquist In this second edition of Immanence we look to folklore to help us with our task of “Imagining Better Futures.” As reactionaries grab governments, world climate shifts, and heavy industries consume ever more of our planet, how might we find meaning in the chaos? What stories and variants wait to emerge? Our Featured Articles begin with “Envisioning Utopia,” where Tiana Ellauri applies a Taoist folktale to her work with a Bay Area group dedicated to imagining and planning Earth-honoring and inclusive alternatives to world-damaging industrial societies. Alessandra Bosco’s “Re-Membering Europa” travels reflectively through Greece, Italy, and elsewhere in Europe, considering how men’s violence against women, against international commerce, and against nature itself undergoes transformation in the sense-enlivening presences of Isis, Aphrodite, and Europa. Sandra Easter (author of Jung and the Ancestors) shows in “Dreams We Know By” how conversing with our ancestors rejoins past and present both within ourselves and across generations. Keith Allen Dennis offers an example of this in “On Talking with the Dead,” underlining how it can help us “live in an enchanted world, where the dead are still alive, still able to give strength and nourishment to the living.” Karen Jaenke’s “The Wasteland and the Wound” explores how a vivid dream bearing a folkloric image illuminates contemporary conflicts in embodied ways that suggest fresh understandings and new beginnings. In From the Academy, Mary Diggin’s “Nasty Women” reflects on how dark goddesses in many myths find creative ways to oppose the egotistical and destructive male hero bent on dominating them. In “I Have a Dream,” Toula Gordillo draws inspiration in Martin Luther King’s famous statement for helping her young Australian therapy clients balance past and present, the ancestral and the technological, through storytelling and traditional tales. My contribution “The Guardians of Renewal” explores an archetype I believe appears during times of cultural rupture: the band of protective visionaries who usher in new cultural possibilities. For his column These Mythic Times, ecopsychologist attorney Zhiwa Woodbury discusses with heartfelt frankness what environmentalists and ecopsychologists can
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learn from indigenous activists at Standing Rock, activists strengthened by ancestral tales applied to their continuing struggle for ecological safety and a sovereignty once again under attack by a national government unwilling to keep its promises to them. This edition of Immanence features a new section, Fiction: an obvious inclusion given how powerfully folklore has permeated contemporary forms of storytelling like film, comics, the short story, and the novel. “Shapeshifting: A Love Story” by Julie Gabrielli retells and updates the tale of Apollo’s pursuit of Daphne—this time from her point of view. Mythopoetics contains the poems “Minerva” by Immanence editor Kelly Lydick, “Pandora’s Box” by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland, “Vaporverse” by Robert Guyker, and “The Work” by Anya Silver. “Breaking Spells in Life and Fairytales” features an interview by Hannah Custis of contributor Michelle Tocher, author of How to Ride a Dragon: Women with Breast Cancer Tell their Stories. In this three-part series focusing on how fairy tales show up today, Tocher discusses what a “spell” looks like now and how to wake up from harmful enchantments. In Art and Image appears “Only Blood Can Change: The Artist as Activist and Alchemist” by artist and mythologist Mary Wood, who describes in words and images an embodied artistic and myth-sensitive response to the recent US national election. In this section we also feature the visual art of Matthew Conklin and Betty Paz. Our cover artist, Matthew Conklin, a.k.a. Imperfectionist Design, is a Sacramento-based collage artist, designer, illustrator and musician whose striking and evocative work is inspired by psychedelic art, mysticism and classic album art. Betty Paz, a Canadian artist originally from Venezuela, explores the power of archetypes in her unique and enchanting drawings. Immanence expresses its gratitude to Conklin and Paz for their generous contributions to this edition.
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features
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Envisioning Utopia: A Collaborative Project to Inspire Dreams of Thriving Tiana Ellauri
Mythic Utopias As a student of depth psychology and a Northern California native raised by middle-class hippies, I often hear it said that our thoughts create our reality. Similarly, the theory of linguistic relativity states that the language we speak shapes our thoughts (Whorf). Does that mean that the stories we tell have the power to shape our worldview and how we live? Contemplating our current global crisis, with various socio-political catastrophes and rampant environmental degradation, it would be easy to regard stories of utopia as belonging solely to a fantasy world. But what if it were possible to change our current course and manifest utopia in our world today? What would it take to realize such an idyllic vision? How would a utopian society operate and what values would it cultivate? And more pertinently, what can we learn from myth and fantasy that will guide us in creating a better world? To begin to answer these questions, I will recount an ancient Taoist folktale and show how ideas embedded therein are being applied to a current utopian project in the San Francisco Bay Area. The project, called Envisioning Utopia, is a discussion group that seeks to create a solid theoretical foundation for the transformation of our current society. Taoist master Lieh-tzu recalls how the Yellow Emperor dreamed a utopia into being (Wong). It begins with the Emperor feeling very self-satisfied, pleased by the state of his government and the reverence of his loyal subjects. He is so satisfied that he decides to step away from his duties for a while and focus on pampering himself. For many years he treats himself to the richest foods, the liveliest entertainment, and the luxury of sleeping in late, completely ignoring matters of governance. But after a while he notices that his health is failing. He has become perpetually sluggish, achy, dull-minded, and no longer finds pleasure in his luxurious life.
Image on page 7: The Yellow Emperor transmits medical books to Lei Gong. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. 6 Immanence Journal Vol. 1 No. 2 Spring 2017
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The Yellow Emperor. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
For the next few years he tries the opposite approach, immersing himself in political matters, working relentlessly, and abstaining from the pleasures in which he previously indulged. But this way of life serves him no better than the first. His health grows even worse, and he realizes he will soon work himself to death. He then tries a third approach, embodying a middle way between the previous two extremes. Once again he distances himself from matters of governance, but this time he adopts a more modest method. He takes up residence in a small cottage on the outskirts of the palace, eats simple foods, disciplines his habits, and spends most of his time in deep meditation. One day while enjoying an afternoon nap, the Emperor has a wonderful dream of a faraway utopia where the land is plentiful and the people are content. He describes the inhabitants of this idyllic land as follows: They are open, friendly, and have no inhibitions. They all do their own chores and are helpful to others. There is no fear, no anger, no tension, and no dissatisfaction. No one is superior or inferior to anyone else. Everything is bountiful and everyone enjoys the providence of heaven and earth. (Wong 9) 8 Immanence Journal Vol. 1 No. 2 Spring 2017
Upon waking from his dream, the Emperor feels profoundly enlightened. When recounting his experience to his advisors, he states, “I have spent three months in seclusion trying to find out what is the best way to govern the country and cultivate myself. However, I did not become enlightened by trying to think things out consciously. I got enlightened in a dream” (Wong 9). Many years later, when the Emperor dies, his kingdom has become very similar to the utopian land he visited in his dream. It was the dream that made it possible for him to be the best Emperor he could be and to realize a better society for his people. The Importance of Vision The first clue the story gives us about how to create utopia is the time spent pursuing three different approaches: a life of luxury, a life of politics, then the few months living in seclusion, resulting in the dream that would change everything. We can flood our senses with stimuli and work tirelessly for years on end, but if our activities are not anchored by a righteous vision, we will ultimately get nowhere. Forming a clear vision or dream is essential if we hope to follow the appropriate trajectory. We can observe this trend operating on the physical level as well: when riding a bike or throwing a ball, we automatically steer and aim in the direction our eyes are looking. The same is true when we realize our dreams. We must clarify the vision we want to create before we can proceed in an informed way with confidence and intention. When we consider the destructive visions glorified and perpetuated by contemporary media, it’s no wonder our world seems doomed. War movies thrive at the box office, violent video games dominate the living rooms of children, and stories portraying future dystopian societies (including The Hunger Games, Avatar, The Matrix, and V for Vendetta, to name a few) are extremely popular. The more we channel our creative juices toward imagining the worst-case scenario, the more we will move toward these scenarios in real life. But in trying to envision our world thriving, it often seems our imaginations are stuck. It is for precisely this reason that the Envisioning Utopia project was created. Conducted as a collaborative discussion group among 5-10 graduate students at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), the project’s purpose is to reawaken our innate ability to imagine a thriving world that is regenerative and health-sustaining for all beings. As the initiator of the group, it was my intention to create a safe space for everyone’s ideas to be expressed equally. Like the Emperor’s utopia where “… there were no leaders and no teachers, for no one was wiser than another” (Wong immanencejournal.com 9
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8), our group agreed that shared leadership is fundamental to any healthy society. In addition to motivating everyone to stay engaged and empowered, the benefits of shared leadership include the continual reintroduction of diverse perspectives, and the sharing of responsibility so no individual becomes overburdened. With an even distribution of power among participants, the group explores such questions as: How would living in a utopian world feel in our bodies? How would the systems within a utopian society function? What are the underlying values of our utopian society and how do we incorporate them into our community infrastructures? And, what practical steps are necessary to actualize our visions of an ideal world? Only by clarifying these questions can we hope to proceed efficiently in realizing our dreams. That’s not to say that we must have everything figured out at the onset, or that we cannot alter some of the details along the way. But as long as we’re clear about the general trajectory, we can remain open to the creative process knowing we are still headed in the right direction. The Middle Way As we see in the story, the Emperor discovers, through trial and error, that it is not a life of pure pleasure nor a life of constant exertion that will help him realize the full potential of himself and his kingdom. Rather, he must find the point of balance between the two previous approaches, limiting pragmatic concerns without slipping too far into idealistic inefficiency. Only by following the middle way is he able to receive the inspiration he needs to move forward with true integrity. Comparing the Emperor’s first two approaches to the archetypes of puer (Divine Child) and senex (Elder), we can see how this idea of the middle way is embedded in other myths that describe what Joseph Campbell calls the Hero’s Journey. In Campbell’s monomyth cycle, the young, innocent dreamer (puer) usually encounters an older and more rational teacher (senex) who helps him on his way. For example, young King Arthur has Merlin the Magician, Luke Skywalker has Obi Wan Kenobi, and so on. These two archetypal characters need each other in order to succeed. Without senex, puer will never acquire the discipline to actualize his dreams. Without puer, senex will grind away at the same old routines without any passion or creative inspiration. For the Yellow Emperor, it didn’t work to linger in a pueri state of dreams, wholly unaware of his duties. Nor did it work to labor in a senexian state of rationality, wholly consumed by his duties. Like the Emperor’s third approach of measured retreat, it was the balance of the pueri and senexian energies that ultimately guided him on the right path. 10 Immanence Journal Vol. 1 No. 2 Spring 2017
Merlin presenting the future King Arthur. Emil Johann Lauffer. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Analogously, the Envisioning Utopia project aims to restore the balance that has been thrown off by the overwhelmingly logical and linear worldview that pervades Western culture. We have become an overly senexian society ruled by old men who are good at pursuing rational actions that create mechanical realities. As a society, we often rush into action without considering the methodologies and consequences of our actions. We have forgotten how to dream, how to vision, how to focus on the theory behind our intentions before moving forward to actualize them. Envisioning Utopia intends to fill that gaping hole within our culture, the void that has forgotten how to imagine, that thinks it has no time to daydream. Of course, like the Emperor, we must return to our duties once we’ve clarified our dreams; we must integrate our visions into the actions of our everyday lives. But taking action is something our society has trained us to do since birth. It is our ability to vision that needs cultivation. Redefining Utopia During one of our first Envisioning Utopia meetings, it became apparent that immanencejournal.com 11
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word “utopia” felt problematic for some people and needed redefining. Many fabled utopian places, including Tír na nÓg, Shangri-La, and the land in the Yellow Emperor’s dream, describe utopia as a land of immortality where everything is peaceful and the inhabitants are always happy. Our group felt that it would be impractical to impose these lofty criteria on our world today. Although the Emperor’s version of utopia defines happiness in a Taoist way (lacking both aversion and attraction and thus not controlled by desires), we run the additional risk of spiritual bypass if we aim for equilibrium per se and do not go through the necessary processes of recognizing and respecting our desires. Our group agreed that an unadulterated world, seemingly perfect, without conflict, ugliness or destruction did not seem possible, nor would we want to live in a world that did not include natural death/rebirth cycles, or honor the shadow of our individual and collective psyche. During our ensuing brainstorming we realized that true perfection includes imperfection. It became clear that ignoring or suppressing the shadow side of our psyche would not result in happiness, but instead would yield many unpleasant results. Indeed, it’s precisely this mistreatment of shadow that is the root cause of the troubles our world faces today. Instead of pushing away the shadow, we decided that our vision of utopia would seek to embrace it with love, honor, and understanding. Therefore, when conflict arises within a utopian community, a safe space is provided in which feelings can be expressed and held with compassion until mutual agreement is reached. Destruction is valued within its rightful and necessary place in the natural death/rebirth cycle and thus need not be acted out in ways that do not foster eventual regeneration. Imperfection and irregularity are celebrated for their inherent ability to create diversity and inspire evolution. In our version of utopia, darkness is considered just as sacred as light and “God” is seen in both beauty and ugliness. When we examined the etymology of the word “utopia” we found it to mean “not place” or “nowhere” from the Greek ou, meaning “not,” and topos, meaning “place.” We noticed that many fabled utopian societies seem to exist outside of time and space, untouched by the real world. Since our group seeks to envision a utopia that can actually exist in the real world, we decided to view the etymology more metaphorically than literally: Utopia is not a static place that exists in isolation, unaffected by the cycles of the earth. It is kinetic and dynamic, it evolves, adapts, flows, and it is a reality through which humans can interact. Another possible interpretation is that utopia is an ideal that we always strive for but never quite reach. Like Plato’s forms, described in his Socratic dialogue Phaedo, perhaps this vision of utopia will never be fully actualized. 12 Immanence Journal Vol. 1 No. 2 Spring 2017
But if we move closer to that vision every day, even if we always remain a fraction of a step away, at least our striving will bring us ever closer to the ideal. Perhaps utopia is more of an internal than an external state, not physically measurable at all. For peace cannot exist in the outside world until its participating humans have learned to embody peace of mind within themselves. Embodying Utopia From the story of the Yellow Emperor, we learn that meditation is a useful tool, helping us access a place of inner calm that opens up our consciousness to receive a greater wisdom. Different forms of meditation are utilized in our Envisioning Utopia group, including trance journeying, visual art, creation, dancing, singing, breath work, and yoga. One of the most interesting meditation sessions happened during our first meeting. After clarifying our definitions of utopia, we engaged in a guided meditation adapted from two exercises recommended by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone in their book Active Hope. The first exercise activates the part of our brain capable of fantasizing by immersing our senses in a happy childhood memory, preferably in a natural place, and then recounting that memory to a partner. The second exercise imagines that utopia resides on the other side of a long hedge. Asked to be reporters peeking over the hedge, we recount what we observe on the other side. Our guided meditation combined these two exercises, seeking to awaken our innate ability to imagine while remaining grounded in our feeling bodies. Afterward we shared our discoveries with the group and discussed questions like: What are some feelings that came up for you while in this altered state? How did it feel to witness utopia so close to you, right on the other side of the hedge? And how does it feel to come back to the present moment? Many participants reported that they felt content and safe, like all emotions (happiness, sadness, grief, and everything in between) were okay to feel. They felt a relaxed, spacious presence; a sense of looseness and spontaneity to go with their natural flows (both internal and external) without impeding anyone else’s. There was a harmonious feeling of bliss and trust vibrating throughout the room; a freedom to be humorous and an easeful silence free of impulses to tune out or find distraction. Some reported feeling hopeful, rejuvenated, and enlivened knowing that everyone was doing their best to manifest balance; a faith that everything worked without needing to fully understand how. Finally, one participant, with tears of relief and joy in her eyes, shared that she felt this peaceful state was always accessible to her, she immanencejournal.com 13
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need only turn within to access it. Such a powerful exercise set the perfect tone for our future Envisioning Utopia endeavors. By “perfect” I mean all-inclusive. The range of emotions that arose during the meditation support our idea that a real utopia provides safe space for all feelings and experiences to be witnessed and honored. Such inclusivity is necessary if we are to encourage the sublimation of otherwise suppressed emotions into constructive channels. The exercise also strengthened the notion than a state of inner harmony and acceptance must be attained before moving forward with practical action. Earth Wisdom In the Emperor’s dream he describes the inhabitants of utopia as having supernatural powers as a result of “…letting go of body and mind and merging with the laws of nature” (Wong 7). The inhabitants are described as being deeply connected to the forces and cycles of the earth, understanding how to move with natural flows instead of work against them. Earlier in the book, Lieh-tzu explains that we should aspire to be flexible like a reed. When strong winds blow, a plant that is too rigid will snap in half, where the flexible reed will bend and remain whole. In the Envisioning Utopia discussion group we found it important to keep this lesson in mind. To realize our intentions of equality and collaboration it is necessary to remain open to the natural ebbs and flows of the group’s exploration without getting stuck in any one person’s agenda. Holding the group in this way is a practice of balancing the two extremes of structure and flexibility: a certain amount of structure is needed to provide a workable framework, but it must be permeable and able to sway with the surrounding flow. To evolve the system must remain open, communicating with the internal and external forces that comprise and relate to it. Only then can it fulfill its own needs while remaining harmoniously connected to the surrounding environment. The initial inspiration for creating the Envisioning Utopia group was also based in earth wisdom when I learned of Craig Chalquist’s work with the ancient concept of genius loci, or soul of place. Chalquist’s ecopsychological work involves telling the stories embedded in the earth that are longing to be acknowledged and spoken. I began to wonder: If the earth could speak and act through us, what kind of society would she want us to create? With the mysterious nature of dreams and visions, who’s to say they are not, at least in part, reflections of earth’s deepest wishes for collective thriving? And how would our own utopian striving change if
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[ ] “When we view ourselves as interconnected parts of one gigantic planetary organism, instead of merely a collection of isolated individuals, we begin to understand that ultimate thriving must be thriving for all.�
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we considered not just the thriving of people, but the thriving of all beings, animate and inanimate? In Geneen Marie Haugen’s essay “Imagining Earth,” she posed these questions: “If we approached rivers, mountains, dragonflies, redwoods, and reptiles as if all are alive, intelligent, suffused with soul, imagination, and purpose, what might the world become? Who would we become if we participated intentionally with such an animate Earth?” (159). Indeed, these questions are essential if we are to create a utopian society that supports thriving long-term. As we are learning in our current environmental crisis, if we continually harm the earth, we will ultimately harm ourselves. When we view ourselves as interconnected parts of one gigantic planetary organism, instead of as merely a collection of isolated individuals, we begin to understand that ultimate thriving must be thriving for all. To create a utopia that embodies this for all beings, we can look to sustainable practices such as permaculture. Basic permaculture technique begins by observing the natural cycles that are already present, then developing systems that support them rather than impose upon them. Following this technique, the group decided our utopia would be constructed in cyclical, rather than linear patterns, feeding waste back into and nourishing the systems. Citizens would have to continually reassess the systems to make sure they still flow with the natural cycles, remaining open to making appropriate changes along the way. The multifaceted question then becomes: How do we weave these tenets into all the nested systems within our utopian society? Utopian Models After his enlightening dream, how did the Emperor govern his kingdom to realize his vision of utopia? The story doesn’t say. But during our brainstorming, the group began to see how overarching utopian tenets could be applied to the structuring of societal systems. After identifying as many societal systems as we could (such as justice, economics, and educational systems, etc.) we began to imagine how to structure them as regenerative cycles. In a government system, that might look like a redistribution of wealth; in a food system, composting; in education, elders mentoring children. We realized that systems within a community, as well as neighboring communities themselves, could embody a holon model—a series of concentric circles expanding outward—with the overlapping areas representing communication and shared goals
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between systems and communities respectively. In this model, no holon hoards all the wealth or otherwise dominates the others. All individual holons are autonomous while still remaining open and aware of the greater structure they comprise. To make sure utopian societal systems supported the thriving of all beings, we decided that myriad perspectives must be considered. We noted that, in our world today, these systems commonly operate to serve only the I perspective. For example, a farmer might say, “How can I profit from growing and distributing this food?” without taking into consideration the destruction of land through monocropping or the poisoning of consumers and animals with pesticides. We made it our goal to structure our utopian systems utilizing Ken Wilber’s four main perspectives: I (individual interior, or intentional), it (individual exterior, or behavioral), we (collective interior, or cultural), and its (collective exterior, or social). Considering these four perspectives, the same farmer might ask himself, “What behaviors and methodologies do I need to practice in order for the land, the animals, the plants, the consumers, my community, my family and myself to thrive from the growing and distribution of this food?” Although this farmer might spend more time and energy orienting his work in this way, the long-term thriving of himself and his community would be served. These are only a few of the ideas generating by our Envisioning Utopia discussion group, and though exciting to contemplate, it’s not necessarily the ideas themselves that are so revolutionary. Illustrated by the comparison to the Yellow Emperor myth, many of the ideas discussed in our group have been alive for centuries, embedded just below the surface of our unconscious waiting to be unearthed. Reawakening some of these ancient concepts at this pivotal time, when the future of our world seems more uncertain than ever, is a process I like to think of as internal activism. When we focus on what we want, our energy naturally organizes to support the manifestation of our visions. In an era when fear, shock, anger, and comfort are used as weapons to distract us from our true purpose, Envisioning Utopia provides an opportunity to engage in deep psychological resistance. The synergistic power of this internal revolution lies in our ability to become extremely curious, inspired, and passionate in the pursuit of our collective thriving. The critical shift resides in the realization that our visions of utopia aren’t nearly as farfetched as they originally may have seemed. In fact, if we can shake off the chains of calamity, it becomes clear that all the technological capabilities needed to build our utopias already exist. Now it’s just a matter of nurturing our creative visions and learning to tell new stories. immanencejournal.com 17
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Works Cited Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton UP, 1968. Chalquist, Craig. Terrapsychology: Re-engaging the Soul of Place. Spring Journal, 2007. Haugen, Geneen Marie. “Imagining Earth.” Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth, edited by L. Vaughan-Lee, The Golden Sufi Center, 2013, 159-71. Macy, Joanna, and Chris Johnston. Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in Without Going Crazy. New World Library, 2012. Plato. Five Dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo. 2nd ed., Hackett, 2002. Whorf, Benjamin Lee. “Science and Linguistics.” Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. 3rd ed., edited by John B. Carroll, Wiley, 1956, 207-19. Wilber, Ken. The Marriage of Sense and Soul. Random House, 1998. Wong, Eva. Lieh-tzu: A Taoist Guide to Practical Living. Shambhala, 1995.
Tiana Ellauri, MA is an ecopsychologist practicing in West Marin County, California. She supports people in developing deep and lasting connections with nature. She loves to sing, dance, write, and commune with the beautiful land she calls home. Contact her at tiana.ecopsych@gmail.com
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from the academy
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Nasty Women: Can the Goddess and the Hero Find a Way Forward? Mary Diggin During the final moments of the third and last 2016 US presidential debate, when Donald Trump interrupted his opponent, Hillary Clinton, and muttered “such a nasty woman” into his microphone, he could not have foreseen how “nasty woman” would become a badge of honor for many women, uniting them in the face of perceived misogyny. The comment, as muttered by Trump, was intended to be a put-down of Hillary Clinton in face of a remark she had just made regarding the possibility that he may avoid paying increased Social Security contributions. Rather than being slighted, women began to embrace the phrase as a badge of honor. According to Emma Gray, #NastyWoman immediately began trending on Twitter. Within minutes of Trump’s comment, nastywomengetshitdone.com redirected to Hillary Clinton’s official website. Within an hour, Nasty Woman T-shirts were available for purchase. The phrase, to quote Gray, became “a viral call for solidarity” (Gray). Even with Clinton’s defeat in the election, Nasty Woman remains a rallying cry for women throughout the States. Defined on blogs and on merchandise as a “confident independent woman who gets stuff done,” Nasty Woman has become a call to action in the post-election months (Nasty Woman Definition). In opposition to the Nasty Woman meme, Trump drew on heroic ideals, portraying himself as the hero who would defeat the Nasty Woman and through doing so, “make America great again.” Bloggers like Ron Russell at Right Wing Humor rendered Trump as a modern-day Perseus who would slay America’s Medusa, i.e. Clinton. T-shirts available online showed Trump as Perseus holding aloft a beheaded Clinton-Medusa (“Trump Slays”). Trump supporters also drew on the hero motif in YouTube videos such as “A Hero Will Rise - Vote Trump Pence 2016” by eXZileXV. Paraphernalia such as t-shirts, buttons and mugs proclaimed “Trump is my hero” or depicted him as superman. Trump particularly drew on the mythologies of the warrior-hero who defends his homeland and its borders. His catch phrases of “Make Image on page 81: Photo by Pax Ahimsa Gethen. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. 80 Immanence Journal Vol. 1 No. 2 Spring 2017
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America Great again” and “Americanism not Globalism” speaks to the focus on a homeland in need of defense, a homeland threatened by an enemy other, in need of its homegrown hero who instead of bringing battle out to the world, stands firm at his homeland’s borders and prevents occupation by the enemy. Trump’s rhetoric, characterized by personal attacks and snide comments, can even be viewed as part of the heroic arsenal. Stylized verbal hostility was a common element in mythic encounters, involving boasting, self-aggrandizement and belittling of opponents. Walter Ong noted in his seminal book Orality and Literacy that “bragging about one’s own prowess and/or verbal tongue-lashings of an opponent figure regularly in encounters between characters in narrative: in the Iliad, in Beowulf, throughout medieval European romance, in The Mwindo Epic and countless other African stories . . . , in the Bible, as between David and Goliath” (43). Trump’s tweets and utterances can thus be understood as a manifestation of the heroic impulse, in the same manner as Achilles’ taunts to Hector in the Iliad, or Gilgamesh’s boasts to Enkidu. In many ways, the social imaginary around the election drew on mythologies of the Goddess and the Hero, and particularly the goddess defeated by the hero. The proliferation of the image of Trump as Perseus, holding aloft the severed head of Clinton as Medusa, attests to how deeply embedded this specific mythic trope is in the culture. In general, for this article, I use the term “myth” to refer to traditional tales, prototypical myths, such as we find in Greek, Roman, and Celtic mythologies. I am interested in how myth operates in a cultural setting. As a metaphorical and narrative tool, I suggest that myths provide individuals and society a means by which they articulate about themselves and about the social world in which they exist. Myths can be seen as extended metaphors which allow us to imagine and reimagine what is happening, and to open new possibilities by a creative engagement with images in myth. When a traditional myth, such as the slaying of Medusa, comes so strongly to the fore, and images a particular outcome, we need to heed it as a call from the world, a pointing to a certain energy and imagery that is particularly potent right now. When at the same time Nasty Women are also called forth by the hero-embracing Presidential candidate himself, we can perhaps read it as a cry for assistance, a recognition by the hero energy that it does not want to automatically fall into destruction. Mythology has many nasty women like Medusa with her Gorgon head who turns men to stone, and Tiamat the great goddess serpent of Sumerian myth. These are the dark goddesses, mythic Nasty Women who are opposed and often defeated 82 Immanence Journal Vol. 1 No. 2 Spring 2017
by the male hero, an iconography much drawn on by pro-Trump propaganda. Yet not all myths pose the relationship between hero and goddess as solely destructive. Not all goddesses die at the hands of the hero. There are other mythic possibilities, other ways in which the goddess and the hero can interact that may empower the Nasty Women of today and allow them find their way forward to work successfully with the currently ascendant heroic energy. One of the supposedly nastiest women in mythology is the Irish war goddess, the Morrígan, a name that translates as Great Queen or Phantom Queen (Herbert 148,161). In the Táin Bó Cuailnge (TBC), The Cattle Raid of Cooley, the Irish epic tale, she interacts with Cúchulainn, the hero of Ulster, in the disputes between the Kingdoms of Ulster and Connaught over the ownership of the Brown Bull of Cooley (Kinsella 52236). Unlike Medusa and Tiamat who are killed by their hero opposers, the Morrígan does not die at the hands of the hero. Instead, she offers him help and is rejected. The results are lethal: the death of his son, the death of his best friend, and Cúchulainn’s own death, years later, seeded by his actions in the TBC. The myth may sound in some ways like a simple reversal of the Perseus myth, in that the hero dies rather than the goddess, but Táin Bó Cuailnge is complex in its portrayal of the relationships between the goddess and the hero, and between the hero and the feminine in general. While they are almost always opposed, their relationship swings from potential lovers to battling foes, and from injurer to healer, to name a few. It suggests that outcomes other than death are possible, if other choices are made. The TBC thus wonders about war and its causes, about men and women, about the nature of kingship and of warriorhood, of heroism, of love. The great hero of Ulster, Cúchulainn walks through the story and his interactions with the women of the TBC are core to the story’s unfolding. The most powerful women in Irish lore live in this tale: Emer, Scáthach, Aoife, The Morrígan. Mostly they are initially positive toward the young warrior, offering their encouragement and teachings. Yet at crucial moments in the story, Cúchulainn rejects the advice, offerings, or support of each and every one of them. Cúchulainn tells Emer as she pleads with him not to kill Connla, his son by Aoife: Be quiet wife. It isn’t a woman that I need now to hold me back in face of these feats and shining triumph. I want no woman’s help with my work. Victorious deeds are what we need to fill the eyes of a great king. (Kinsella 44)
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Statue of Cuchulainn by Oliver Sheppard in the window of the GPO, Dublin commemorating the 1916 rising. Photo by Kman99. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. 84
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The rejection of feminine advice is one of the threads that weaves itself toward the conclusion of the tale, where death is supreme. The best and most beautiful of the warriors are gone. Cúchulainn has killed his own child and then his dearest friend by dishonorable means, and the two great bulls, the reason for the battle, lie dead in their fields. Cúchulainn himself is slain sometime later, as a result of his actions in the TBC. This is not a simple story of the wonder of war and warrior-ship, of glorying the great hero, but instead is a story of loss and death, of a bleakness of ending so complete, that one must wonder why and how it started, and what could have been other. Were other choices possible? Could the suffering have been averted? When the Morrígan sits as Badb, the Crow, awaiting the death of the warrior who refused to embrace her, it feels more like tragedy than victory. A complex figure, The Morrígan is a war goddess who does not fight, a shapeshifter who flows between forms, and a raven who drinks the blood of the dead. The Morrígan is a triple goddess of the battlefield and originally the Goddess of the Land (Tymoczko 99). Like many goddesses, she has several functions and is linked to prophecy, fertility, death and destruction (Clark 228). The personas that account for her “triplicity” vary from story to story, with Macha, Badb, Nemain, and Anu all associated with her (226). She brings victory to the warriors with whom she makes love, as she did with the Dagda before the battle of Moytura (229). For those who reject her advances and advice, as Cúchulainn does, the results can be dire. Cúchulainn seems to be in many ways the classic hero. His father is Lugh Lamhfhada1, one of the Tuatha de Danann, who steals away Cúchulainn’s mother Dechtíre on her wedding day. Cúchulainn is called to take his arms young. As a boy, he eagerly sought his weapons on the day Cathbad, the druid, was overheard to prophesy that the one to take arms on this day would be a great warrior, though his life would be short (Kinsella 84). He gains his adult name, Cúchulainn, the Hound of Culann. When arriving late at a feast, he slays the fierce hound guarding the house and promises Culann, the owner of the house and hound, that he would now be his guard dog (84). He becomes expert in the arts of combat through his apprenticeship to the mysterious Scáthach, the Shadowy one, a female martial arts expert who taught only the most promising of warriors (34). He courts the beautiful Emer and wins her hand against many odds, not least of all the requests she makes of him to prove his worthiness (25). He dies, defending Ulster from the armies of Meabh of 1 Lugh of the Long Arm, member of the Tuatha de Danann, Sun god. Feast day is August 1, Lunasa, first day of Fall in the Irish Celtic Calendar (Franklin and Mason, 48-41).
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Connacht. He is a warrior so feared that even in his death throes none will approach him until Badb, in the form of a grey crow, alights on his shoulder and all know he is truly dead (Marsh et al 79). There is both pathos and heroism here. We find ourselves enticed by his story and admiring of his warrior-ship, his inspiration, and his bravery. He is the hero who fights and dies for a greater cause. He faces an enemy many times stronger than he, and for the main part of the story, faces them alone and prevails. He appeals to us modern humans. Elements of his story are used repeatedly to appeal to our young to offer themselves as warriors. This is the myth of the warrior hero, the one who will protect us from the enemy, even if that enemy is more powerful. It is the myth of the hero who dies for a greater cause, protecting his homeland. It is these heroic components that Trump also drew on in his campaign, maybe not quite portraying himself as the nimble warrior, but certainly as the one who stands at the boundaries and protects the ideal America that has been forgotten. The heroic seems to carry within it an automatic rejection and belittling of the feminine. No more than Cúchulainn who mocks the advice of wife, lovers, and goddesses, supporters of the Trump election campaign embraced the opportunity to belittle Hillary Clinton—not as a political opponent, but as a woman. Anti-Clinton paraphernalia included a t-shirt that read, “Life’s a bitch, so don’t vote for one.” The shirt echoed another popular pro-Trump slogan “Trump that Bitch” (Landsbaum). Buttons and other paraphernalia available to pro-Trump supporters declaimed messages such as “Better to grab a P**** than to be one”, and “Finally someone with Balls” demonstrate a general misogyny that pervaded the “heroic” campaign, aimed at women and their bodies. The Warrior hero apparently finds it difficult to genuinely listen to the feminine and instead does all he can to dismiss and belittle what is offered. The TBC suggests that to reject the advice of the feminine is to court disaster. However, it also hints at other possibilities, many of which are dependent on the activities of women. In the TBC, we glimpse some of the complex interaction between warrior and women in the story of Cúchulainn’s first battle. There he is seized by ríastrad, the “warp-spasm,” the battle energy that comes upon him and twists him physically and mentally into other (Kinsella 29). After the spilling of so much blood in defense of his homeland, he is caught in the warp-spasm and attacks everything that moves, unable to distinguish between friend or foe. He is only calmed when the queen and her women walk out naked to meet him and he averts his eyes. Cúchulainn is then
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immersed in three vats of water. The first breaks, splitting at the seams. The second boils, and when he is immersed in the third, his rage subsides. He is then dressed in celebratory clothes and welcomed home (Kinsella 150). The story is a powerful expression of the power of feminine action. The raging warrior is calmed by looking upon the naked feminine, and by being immersed in the feminine element of water. Then and only then can he be dressed in the clothes of celebration and welcomed back into the community. The simplistic focus on honor, glory, bravery, so characteristic of the warrior hero cannot survive the naked feminine. Instead, the heat of battle is taken away and his focus realigns with community and life away from battle. It takes the queen and all her women together to ensure the success of this intervention. This fragment of a tale, thus suggests that our present-day Nasty Women must also be willing to expose themselves, naked and vulnerable, to the warrior’s gaze. In contrast to the singular hero, the story also intimates that women must be willing to work together to ensure their success. It also suggests that only the energy of the feminine, in its full power, can tame the excesses of the warrior. The warrior story is so valued in the Western world that it has become one of the primary themes of society. From the corporate world to the battlefield, from the neighborhood gangs to the school yard, the warrior hero has been embraced. Yet, we have forgotten to insist that the warrior be brought home, transformed, and healed back into our communities by leaving the heat of battle behind. We see this especially in our returning warriors who suffer from PTSD. With so many of our men and women traumatized by war, caught in a warp-spasm that presents itself as Post Traumatic Stress disorder, we must wonder how they can once again look on the face of the naked feminine, be immersed in her element until all the heat of battle has left them and finally be welcomed home. This is possibly one area of action for Nasty Women today, creating ritual and social structures that might allow our warriors to return fully home. All of us, to some extent, carry this battling warrior within us—solitary, alert, ready for battle. Our sorrow is that no one has taught us the transition back home and that we have forgotten how important it is to return to that place of togetherness by leaving battle behind. The warrior hero alone cannot find his way back. To move away from the battle, the power of the feminine, naked and unhidden is necessary. When supporters of the President repeatedly draw on the image of the warrior hero decapitating the goddess, it takes courage to stand vulnerable in the face of such imagery and imagine ways in which battle can be taken from the corporate world, immanencejournal.com 87
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the neighborhood, the family and the individual. I see this as one invitation the myth makes to the Nasty Women of 2017. In Irish myth, the complex relationship between warrior and women is also portrayed in the story of Macha, often understood as an aspect of the Morrígan. The wife of Cruinniuc, a man of Ulster, died and one day shortly thereafter, a beautiful woman came to his home, and takes care of him and his family. Her name was Macha, and she was good and kind to all in the household. Macha loved to run, and showed herself nimble, swift, and faster than deer. In time, she became pregnant. When the nine months were almost up, Cruinniuc went to the great fair of Ulster. There, drinking, talking, and enjoying himself too much, he forgot Macha’s request that he not mention her speed. When the king’s horses won their race, he blurted out that his wife could run faster than those horses. Conchobor Mac Nessa, King of Ulster, a man not renowned for his patience or forgiveness, took insult and told Cruinniuc to bring his wife and prove his statement. When Macha came with him, despite her heavy pregnancy and pleas to the surrounding people, she is forced to run. She dies, giving birth to twins and cursing that in the time of Ulster’s greatest need, the warriors would all be weak as a woman in childbirth (Kinsella 6). The story is tragic because it signals a deep wrong in the heart of the house of Ulster. Under Celtic law, pregnant women were protected and kings promised that no woman would die in childbirth (Condren 33). Warriors were not mere lackeys but were expected to act with honor and protect the weak and infirm (Greenwood 85-90). Kings were also obligated to care for and protect the weakest in their land. 88 Immanence Journal Vol. 1 No. 2 Spring 2017
Setanta Wall by Desmond Kinney, Nassau Street, Dublin, Ireland. Showing images from the Táin Bó Cuailnge: Setanta and the Hound of Culainn, the Bulls, the battle between Ferdia and Cúchulainn, the Death of Cúchulain. Photo credit: William Murphy, and edited by Mary Diggin. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Yet in the home of Conchobar, all is upside down. An arrogant warrior culture is supreme. Pregnant women are not protected. Warriors obey without question, and Conchobar’s own pride sweeps aside any obligation to those under him. No one challenges it except for Macha who, unrelentingly, reminds all present that they were born of woman (Kinsella 7). Macha challenges the arrogant king to show true leadership, and with her dying curse, shows the men of Ulster the peril of ignoring the feminine. Macha’s curse leaves the warriors weak with pangs of childbirth in the time of their greatest need. Years later, during the TBC, only Cúchulainn is exempt from the curse, and he alone can stand against the armies of Meabh of Connacht. The story of Macha is a story critical of a heroic warrior tradition that forgets its duties to women and children, does not regulate its own pride, and follows orders without allegiance to a higher good. Indeed, the rejection of women is one of core themes of the TBC. The warriors no longer have time for the lore, the love, the view of women. Likewise, Cúchulainn rejects and diminishes the offerings of women to him. When the Morrígan comes to him as a beautiful woman, offering herself to him and promising her continued help in battle, he refuses her and earns her enmity. Cúchulainn’s rejection of the Morrígan is similar to Conchobar’s rejection of the pleas of Macha. They are also eerily similar in tone to much of the rhetoric that characterized the election campaign. What good are the offerings of women to a warrior intent on glory, or a president intent on making America great? Why listen to the pleas of mothers when one cleaves to pride?
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With Cúchulainn’s rejection of her, the Morrígan determines to undermine him and attacks him the next day as he fights. She comes as a red-eared heifer, an eel, and a wolf, all manifestations of the Goddess. He breaks the leg of the heifer, tramples the eel, and pokes the eye out of the wolf (Kinsella 133). To get him to heal her, she appears to him the next day in the form of an old woman, limping, half-blind, leading a cow. Cúchulainn is exhausted from battle and gladly accepts her offer of milk. He drinks three times milk from the cow. For each drink he blesses the woman, unwittingly healing her wounds. In the aftermath, he is angry when he discovers who she really is (137). Again, this story offers us a hint at a relationship not solely based on destructive opposition. The warrior and the goddess are able to bless and
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Detail from Setanta Wall by Desmond Kinney, Nassau Street, Dublin, Ireland. Showing images from the Táin Bó Cuailnge: Setanta and the Hound of Culainn, the Bulls, the battle between Ferdia and Cúchulainn, the Death of Cúchulain. Photo credit: William Murphy, and edited by Mary Diggin. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
heal each other. When opposed, each wounds the other with wounds difficult to heal. But when they work together, wittingly or not, they heal each other. Just as the naked feminine heals the excess of battle, the goddess can choose to heal the exhausted warrior through nurturing. She offers him milk, the sustenance a mother gives a child. The warrior, too, can heal the injured feminine from the wounds he has inflicted. But to get him to do so, the Nasty Woman must take an indirect route. The warrior is not willing to heal that which he opposes. He heals that which he sees as an ally. Can Nasty Women today find ways in which to entice healing from the
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Cú Chulainn riding his chariot into battle. Joseph Christian Leyendecker. 1911. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
warrior? Can they find moments when it is appropriate to nurture the hero, knowing he will most likely reject them afterwards? Can they stand in the face of what the myth suggests is almost automatic rejection, as it is part of the heroic, and still do what needs doing? One cannot but wonder what would happen should the Hero willingly make love to the war goddess or listen to the advice of women? Instead of automatic opposition, what if there was embrace and inclusion? Would he find himself touched by the complex feminine and have his view of himself utterly changed? Cúchulainn is the boy who took up arms to achieve glory, the warrior who sought out his enemies for fame, the man who set up his son’s death for “the glory of Ulster”, and killed his best friend by cheating because he could not bear to lose. Could Cúchulainn have 92 Immanence Journal Vol. 1 No. 2 Spring 2017
done all he did in the TBC had he made love to her? Would making love to her have stripped away the illusion of glory that surrounded him, and make him see that war is bloody, deadly, and unforgiving in its finality? Would her embrace have allowed him to make other choices? This goddess is known for her knowledge that war is not just about glory. Variously glossed as a “lamia” or “a scald-crow”, a being fierce and blood thirsty, she is remembered as reveling in the battle, promising to drink the blood of enemies (Herbert 148). She is Badb, the crow on the battle field. She is the washer woman at the ford, washing the blood of those who about to die from their clothes. The Morrígan has no illusions about war. She doesn’t allow those who embrace her to fool themselves into thinking it is about glory and honor alone. For her, it is also about blood, death, broken bodies, and ended lives. We humans forget this too easily. Caught in the story of the glorious warrior, we let go of knowing that war truly is a terrible, unforgiving, shattering event. We find ways to obviate the guilt of this particular type of blood sacrifice, the choice to kill off part of our future, the dying of our young men and women. We glory with Cúchulainn and refuse the embrace of the Morrígan, preferring instead to cover the dead with our illusions of nobility. And when the Morrígan appears washing their clothes, saying they are going to die, too often we turn away like the warriors of Ulster did to Macha, and take comfort in our pride. Yet it seems that once one knows the bloody reality she carries, one must soothe umbrage with tolerance and use weapons with reluctance. With the Morrígan, there is no illusion, no taking refuge in pride, custom or belief—whether our war is on the battlefield or not. Just as Macha challenged the Ulster men to be more than warriors subjugated to an arrogant king who had no sense of true kingship, so the Morrígan issues a similar challenge to Cúchulainn, to be more than the glory-seeking warrior-boy. In both cases, the challenge goes unanswered. The consequences are terrible. The TBC weaves a story of death, destruction and loss from choices such as these. The feminine is not without fault in this ending. In the tale, The Death of Cúchulainn, the hero’s actions in the TBC are at the root of Meabh of Connaught’s call for vengeance (Marsh et al 75). Her pride had been deeply wounded by her failure to own the Brown Bull and so she seeks her revenge on Cúchulainn. Meabh persuades the families of those slain by Cúchulainn to seek revenge for the deaths of their loved ones against the Champion of Ulster. When the Curse of Macha falls once more upon the men of Ulster, the armies of Connaught attack. Cúchulainn is defeated and dies (79). immanencejournal.com 93
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Perhaps this is a warning to Nasty Women not to seek to destroy the hero. It is a warning that seems particularly apt in post-election America where Trump’s supporters are castigated as bigoted and racist, and somehow being lesser than Clinton’s. The goddess and hero hold opposite poles of a polarity. Both are necessary to allow the new to emerge rather than to automatically allow destruction to ensue. In Irish myth, the hero and the goddess engage with each other over and over again in complex interactions: sometimes in direct opposition and with deadly intent, but also in moments of healing and renewal, with suggestions that other choices could allow other outcomes. The Irish myths imply that the new, however it comes, requires an awareness by the feminine of the limits of the hero and an ability to choose whether to stand in naked power or to offer sustenance, or something in-between. In the face of the hero’s rigidity, the goddess needs to take on many forms: beautiful woman, old hag, cow, eel, crow, to name a few of the transmutations she undergoes in the TBC. The implication is that for Nasty Women to succeed in their goals, they need to be flexible, willing to shift as needed, wily in action, and to endure despite broken limbs and eyes, despite rejection and misunderstanding. In a time when the narrative of heroic warrior is so obviously ascendant, it is perhaps a sign of hope that Nasty Women have also been called out and that despite the election results, they are still active. As our culture seems to move even more toward the heroic, with its simplistic jingoisms and understandings, can our Nasty Women show us the complexities we need to embrace? Can they hold the tension of the opposites so what is new can emerge from turmoil and division? Whether to do with war or climate change, refugee crises or Dakota Access Pipe Line, we need our Nasty Women to hold us to the truths some would rather ignore. The Warrior hero has his place but unless he learns how to come home, to have the heat of battle removed and his focus realigned with life, unless he can be embraced and embrace in return the dark truths the goddess offers, the myth suggests he will lead us on a bleak path. Nasty Women, called out as they were in that final presidential debate, are a symbol that we yet may not follow that path. Instead, perhaps the warrior and the goddess can together find a way forward that heals rather than destroys. Works Cited Clark, Rosalind. “Aspects of the Morrígan in Early Irish Literature.” Irish University Review, vol. 17, no. 2, 1987, pp. 223-36. Condren, Mary. The Serpent and the Goddess: Women, Religion, and Power in Celtic Ireland. 1st ed., Harper San Francisco, 1989.
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Franklin, Anna, and Paul Mason. Lammas: Celebrating Fruits of the First Harvest. Llewellyn, 2001. Gray, Emma. “How ‘Nasty Woman’ Became A Viral Call For Solidarity.” Huffington Post, 21 Oct 2016, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nasty-woman-became-a-call-of-solidarity-forwomen-voters_us_5808f6a8e4b02444efa20c92. Accessed Dec, 28, 2016. Greenwood, Eamon M. “Characterization and Narrative Intent in the Book of Leinster Version of the Táin Bó Cuailnge.” Medieval Insular Literature Between the Oral and the Written II: Continuity of Transmission, edited by Hildegard L. C. Tristram, Gunter Narr Verlag, 1997. Herbert, Máire. “Transmutations of an Irish Goddess.” The Concept of the Goddess, edited by Sandra Billington and Miranda Green. Routledge, 2002, pp. 141-51. “A Hero Will Rise - Vote Trump Pence 2016” YouTube, uploaded by eXZileXV, 21 August 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1ovatde-fQ. Accessed Dec 29, 2016. Kinsella, Thomas. The Táin: From the Irish Epic Táin Bó Cuailnge. Oxford UP, 2002. Landsbaum, Claire. “The Most Outrageously Sexist Gear Spotted at Trump Rallies.” The Cut, 12 Dec 2016, http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/10/the-most-misogynistic-things-peoplewore-to-trump-rallies.html. Accessed 30 Dec. 2016. Marsh, Richard, et al. The Legends & Lands of Ireland. Sterling, 2006. Nasty Woman Definition. Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Nasty-Woman-T-Shirts-byBootsTees/dp/B01MEHDUEP. Accessed 29 Dec. 2016. Web. Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy: 30th Anniversary Edition. Routledge, 2013. Russell, Ron. “Is Trump a Modern Day Perseus Who Will Slay America’s Medusa?” Right Wing Humor, 17 Feb. 2016, http://politelypatrician.blogspot.com/2016/02/is-trump-modernday-perseus-who-will.html. Accessed 29 Dec. 2016. “Trump Slays Hillary Clinton Perseus Medusa Triumph All-Over Print Tank Top.” Zazzle, https://2p3 www.zazzle.com/trump_slays_hillary_clinton_perseus_medusa_triumph_all_over_print_tank_ top-256484704799325432. Accessed 30 Dec. 2016. Tymoczko, Maria. The Irish Ulysses. University of California Press, 1997.
Mary Diggin received her PhD in Mythological Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, CA, USA. Born in Ireland, she lives in New Mexico, USA. Her research focuses on how myth functions in cultural settings. She is particularly interested in the intersection between myth, ritual, nature and the deep imagination. She has presented on mythological topics such as the Irish Influence on Vodou, Celtic marriage and Jicarilla Apache healing traditions. Mary is a Deep Imagery trainer with the International Institute for Visualization Research and president of Imagery International. She completed an apprenticeship with Jicarilla Apache medicine man, Felipe Ortega from whom she learnt to lead sweat lodges and about Jicarilla healing traditions. She works with individuals and groups offering a combination of imagery, myth and ritual. Her websites are www.marydiggin.com and www.OtherworldJourneys.com.
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