Do You Feel Free? I mean really, truly FREE?
Try these 3 rebel rules to give you unshakable creative freedom.
Or don’t. 
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I am kind-of a rebel. For as long as I can remember, I have questioned authority and squirmed from the grasp of limiting “realities” to find my own way. Yesterday, one of my soul sisters reminded me: “Shakti, you are a dreamer.
I used to take offense to statements like that. I grew up believing that to be a “dreamer” was a bad thing. That to get things done (and stay out of trouble) I had to be grounded like 💯. 
…but, then again, I am kind-of a rebel. After much experimentation (think hallucinogens, hitch-hiking, and homeless world travel…) I have learned to keep one foot solidly placed on the soils of the human experience, while the other foot hovers in infinite potential. I’m smiling as I realize that this image is the stance of Shiva’s dance.  

​That is one reason I dig this image so much: It epitomizes the crossroads between manifesting and liberating power. It reminds me that creativity and freedom go together like, well, like Shiva/Shakti. 
I’m still learning how to freely express all the things that my heart is constantly creating; but these days I feel more balanced than ever: hovering in the grace of effort and surrender. 
To shake off limitation, I observe 3 rebel rules on the daily. Here they are for you, just in case you need them. If not, no big deal.  

1. Set your expectation dial to 100%, your attachment dial to 0%. 
THIS IS KEY. Every day, when you wake up, expect that the day will greet you with unlimited blessings…that the entire universe is conspiring for your greatest good…that you will be propelled forward by abundant gratitude and absolute joy…and you will make all your dreams come true. 
Also, have 0 attachment to this. 
So that when shit happens (and it will, because it’s another day on planet Earth) you will remain completely open to the next amazing miracle. 
Attachment to outcomes is not sustainable. To stay in your full power, you must show up fully (every moment) just to let go completely (every moment). This is the dance of true freedom. 

2. Repeat after me: “I care, but I don’t mind.” 
It has taken me a long time to recognize the difference between caring for others and running myself into the ground trying to make everyone else happy. Here’s the truth: creative power is realized when you focus on service. Once you identify the people who benefit from your gifts, it sets the whole creative exchange in motion. HOWEVER! While I deeply desire to connect with all my fellow Earthlings, I really don’t mind when I don't. This is just another way of saying “I am not attached to the outcomes,” but it directly aims at the limiting story of “seeking approval.” Shake that right off. 
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3. Let go ‘the baggage. 
We are all carrying unnecessary limitations like: 
“You are your ideas.” 
“You only get one shot, so don’t mess it up!” 
“Stay in your lane.” 
and the overall warning: “You can’t do that.” 
The most liberating rebel rule is to GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION. Don’t wait for other people to give it to you (because they can’t give you what they don’t have.) 
Give yourself permission to 

• experiment, 
• get messy, 
• try on someone else’s idea, 
• then do it differently, 
• then change your mind,
• all while making beautiful, informative; and therefore, powerful mistakes. 

…Oh! and while you’re at it, give everyone else permission to be creative rebels too! Just in case they need that (and if not, no big deal.) 

 Alchemy. Solstice. Tantra.
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This weekend’s Solstice eclipse marks a powerful moment of sacred marriage, or the reunification of all opposites. 

The sun and moon will appear as one.

I am not an astrologer...
But as a Contemplative Mythologist, Psychologist, and Yogini, I celebrate the rich symbolism of this weekend’s stellar events as an invitation to honor the Father archetype. 
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This weekend, we celebrate the Summer Solstice as the fullest expression of the sun. I’m also thinking about the Solar principles that have been associated with the Father archetype–that penetrating power that plants new seeds. That piercing wisdom that leads to clear vision and decisive action…and a keen balance of discipline and freedom. With all the God/dess talk in our spiritual communities, it is more important than ever to celebrate the value of the FATHER in this equation of one + one = ONE.

During the annular eclipse the sun will appear (in some places) like a vibrant ring around the new moon. I will be contemplating this cosmic artwork as a poetic representation of the Father’s radiant embrace. Our culture needs conscious fathers as much as we need powerful mothers. We need the Father to exemplify awakened consciousness. We need him to be a beacon of strength and flexibility...a role model of the courage found in true compassion; and the balanced expression of humility and dignity. 

solstice. tantra. archetypes.
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Crumpled in a hospital chair, I'm looking at my mother in the strange soft light of a heart monitor. She is fast asleep as fluids drip, drip from plastic bag to tube and a respirator keeps time, ironically slow as I ponder how fast it all goes. I am recalling old times: childhood, holidays, summer at the lake. I am also thinking about recent conversations. This day has brought a pandemonium of talking faces—nurses, doctors, family, strangers—uttering a muddled cacophony of prayers, consultations and advice. Now quiet settles around us, just me and my mom. Here, in the dim stillness, I realize what has been missing all along. 
​ The Mother. 
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At times like this, when insecurity, confusion, and tender emotions chase my inner child like ghosts, I always pick up the telephone and call my mom. When life bears down with the heart-breaking weight of human mortality, I yearn for her nurturing touch.
The greatest calm, the best relief, arrives out of her fierce grace and unconditional love—her support and sanity. She rocks me gently with her wisdom and sings lullabies of truth. Who do I call now? Who is the Mother when mother is ill: silent and tangled in tubes? 
    
Mother is an archetype. Mother energy extends far beyond any one persona. She is a vital pulsation that gestures through Nature, from the subtlest phenomenon to the grandest expressions of life. She is the matrix from which all things manifest. The health and integrity of psyche, both individual and collective, is dependent upon its relationship to the Mother principle.  

A long-standing patriarchal hierarchy has deprecated the value of nature. Social mythology overtook nature-oriented mythology until the soul of Mother became condemned. She has been blamed extensively, by both religion and society. The feminine principle has been viewed as the source of sin and shame since the fall of man. Whatever the mar on society–the syndrome or pathology–it may be traced back to the wicked blunder of Eve.
    
The hospital coffee shop is a liminal space between the inside and outside energies. There I sit, warming my bones with a cup of soup. At the next table sits an elderly gentleman, stooped and wrinkled. He is probably someone’s great grand-father. He gives a crooked, toothless smile. “I like your dress,” he says after a moment. His comment snaps me into a long-forgotten self awareness as I quickly gaze down to recall what I am wearing. It is a modest sundress, the skirt’s hem grazing the tops of my feet. “Thank you” I manage back, feebly. 
    
“Girls these days,” he continues, “in their short, short skirts...It’s no wonder there is so much sexual violence when they insist on dressing like that.” I am stunned, speechless, as our eyes hold for a moment. He just smiles his approval of my modesty, as if what he has insinuated is the most obvious, natural truth. This Mother-blaming, feminine debasing story is his truth, his myth—an old, wrinkled, decrepit man of a myth. His attitude toward the feminine reflects a cultural manner of speaking about Nature that denies her of intelligence. Her wisdom cannot be seen for the blinding seduction of her commodity. Her accessibility is interpreted as an invitation to possess her assets. This story cannot serve society anymore. Nor can it serve nature, as she is slowly raped and depleted of her resources, simply because it is possible to do so.

Returning to Mother means reunion of masculine and feminine energy—within our individual psyches, our social communities and our relationship to the Earth. Returning to Mother means honoring the sacredness in Nature. It is a psycho-spiritual journey toward wholeness as together we seek to live in alignment with the planet's rhythms. The Mother presents healing for the rift that can still be seen in our modern culture between men and women, earth and spirit, psyche and nature. She is recognized as God/dess: the essence of God in all things.
             
My grandmother enters the hospital room with a look of serene inner knowing. My mother’s face lights up, then crumples into a sob. Hers is the familiar face that laughed at my childish antics, the same that sternly scolded my stubborn will. Now this face looks vulnerable and tired. My mom reaches for her mother. She needs, just as I need. No matter how much time passes, babies are always babies and mommies are always mommies. The two women, fleshy and grey, invite me into their generous embrace. It smells like home. Four generations rock gently as I slide my hand to my round abdomen. Here my unborn daughter rests nestled in the womb. Mother energy passes now from my mother’s wounded, weary body to my own fertile one.  
        
The Mother is an archetype that crosses gender and expands boundaries. She is too abounding to fit inside one personality and too dynamic to be measured. The Mother remains steadfast in her nurturance and unconditional love.  And she is so much more. As nature, she is in constant evolution, expansion, and cyclical generation. She changes as the moon changes, pulsing with the rhythms of the tides. And because she is energetic, dynamic and transformational, she remains accessible to every member of humanity, as we continue to evolve in our equality, expanding our awareness. The Mother beckons us to remember her. 

Everyone needs the Mother.
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