Goddesses in older women

Let me ask you some questions. Do you have a growing discomfort with your own environment? Do you wonder whether you should move or change things around? Maybe quit your job, which no longer makes you happy. Maybe dump your husband or wife, who also no longer makes you happy.

Do you wake up feeling low and tired every morning, no matter how much you have slept? Are you depressed, exhausted, a little of both but it’s hard to tell precisely which? Do you feel lonely sometimes? Are you anxious that your loneliness will never end? I sometimes feel loneliness but it always comes to an end.

Do you have a feeling that something in your life has changed and that, although you may not be certain what the future holds, you definitely cannot turn back and live as you had before? Do you suffer endless boredom and a loss of appetite for everything that once brought you satisfaction and contentment? Do you have a growing dissatisfaction with institutional religion or a growing need for deeper spirituality? Do you have a growing curiosity over your personal needs and a passion to discover what they are? Do you need to talk to someone who understands what you are experiencing?

Are you discovering new skills? Seeing reality differently? Are you discovering new ambitions, desiring to define an entirely new lifestyle? Do you feel occasional bursts of liberation, as if someone has removed invisible chains from you? 

If you answered yes to just one of these questions and you are 50 or older, then write down on your calendar: Nov. 10, Goddesses in Older Women Seminar. Attend it. You will really enjoy yourself. I guarantee you.

First, a few disclaimers. I am getting a bit tired of being accused of owning things. I do not own The Noli Center. My mother is a just a patient there. So you cannot ask me all sorts of questions about it. Second, I do not own the Jung seminars either. But I have fallen in love with them and enjoy them immensely, so I write about them.

I think that if you answered "Yes!" to any of the questions I asked, it means that your drive for self-discovery has begun. Jung might be one of the answers. It definitely is for me. I find his seminars worth the investment.

Goddesses in Older Women does not promote the worship of goddesses. It is not a pagan religion. The names of Greek goddesses are used to identify archetypes – energies or personality types – that are in each of us in varying degrees, some more active than others. Goddesses in Every Woman and Gods in Every Man are the titles of two early books written by Jean Shinoda Bolen, a Jungian therapist based in San Francisco. Her earlier two books were written about young men and women, probably in their 30s and 40s. She wrote them at their age. Now even Jean Shinoda Bolen has grown older. So one of her later books is Goddesses in Older Women.

You will not believe this but my strongest personality type is Hestia, in Greek or Vesta in Roman. Think of the stories you have heard about Vestal virgins. Those are the women who take care of her temple. She is a virgin goddess who has no face but she is the fire in the center of the Greek home. Every time they moved to a new home, the fire entered first brought by their mother. That fire is Hestia, the hearth – or heart – of every home. She is my dominant archetype and I live her daily, quietly, happily.

I live alone. That is a Hestia thing. I am generally quiet though you cannot tell that when I am with friends or other people. I enjoy knitting in front of the TV set, quietly, deliberately and well. I enjoy teaching a few people how to knit. When I opened my knitting classes and got besieged by 12 students, I thought I would go mad. Four students are fine. Nice and quiet and intimate class.

But how does Hestia age? What archetypes must I work on to revive, to give me a happier old age? I will find out at the next Jung seminar. If you are curious yourself, do come. At the very least you will make new friends with a number of people. I have grown my friends from the Jung seminars. There is an intimacy and magic that bind us. You become a sharing group of friends who can talk about anything. 

Here’s another caveat. If you are one of those who write to me and ask me not to mention your name, don’t come because I might just shake you up and ask, Why write at all? You don’t want to be mentioned, don’t write. Don’t come to the Jung seminar either. You won’t enjoy it. If, on the other hand, you believe that life should be lived with spirit and laughter, openness and warmth and a bit of enchantment, then come. You are sure to get all that. For more information, do not text or call me. Call 898-3826 during office hours, or 0916-3023763. They will give you instructions on how to reserve. 

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Please send your comments to lilypad@skyinet.net or secondwind.barbara@gmail.com or text 0917-8155570.