Jean Shinoda Bolen: Soul Work
“You have the need and the right to spend part of your life caring for your soul. It is not easy. You have to resist the demands of the work-oriented, often defensive, element in your psyche that measures life only in terms of output—how much you produce—not in terms of the quality of your life experiences. To be a soulful person means to go against all the pervasive, prove-yourself values of our culture and instead treasure what is unique and internal and valuable in yourself and your own personal evolution.”—Jean Shinoda Bolen.
We can learn much about ourselves and our souls from psychiatrist Jean Shinoda Bolen. Her book, Goddesses in Everywoman, teaches us about the Artemis, the Athena, the Hestia, the Hera, the Demeter, the Persephone, and the Aphrodite in our own psyches, and how each relates to and cares for our soul both positively and negatively.
Bolen’s writings bring us considerable wisdom for this journey. She empowers us to stay the heroine during troublesome situations, knowing and believing that answers will come and things will change. She warns against regressing and embodying the victim—a scenario where we use all our energy defensively as we view our challenging situations as brought on by others. When we identify ourselves as the victim, our souls cannot breathe.
I love the story of Psyche’s journey to reunite with her husband, Eros, the masculine part of her personality. One of her demanding tasks is to sort many different seeds. The sorting is accomplished by an out-of-the-box, unusual group of insects or ants that appear to solve her dilemma. These ants may represent our intuitive function, something beyond cognitive ability that represents a potential inside of us. This natural intuition will help us in confusing situations if we stay grounded as the heroine.
Other tasks that enable women to connect to their masculine side include allowing the feminine to gain power but remain compassionate, learning to see the big picture, and developing the ability to say no. These stories of perplexing situations where we learn about ourselves are some of the many ways we can nurture our souls. Finally, we allow the spirit within to take deep breaths, so that we can wake up from a deep sleep.
This is soul work.
Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/