BRIGID: The Goddess of the Eternal Flame; I am an eternal flame. And each day, my light grows brighter.
There’s that moment when you’re making your way through the dark and suddenly, after what feels like days, or months, or even years, a ray of light comes through to you. A lightening happens. Each step isn’t quite as hard to make as the one before. And you feel a great shift begin, as if now you’re headed toward something new. Something even brighter. Brigid is the essence of that first flame, that first ray of light. Brigid reminds us that the darkness never lasts.
Brigid’s eternal flame represents the truth that the light never leaves us and can never be extinguished. It simply gets obscured or blocked from us. She reminds us that every day is actually filled with light; there are many days and times in our lives, when we endure thick cloud cover. When that flame that exists within us is blocked by pain or confusion.
Brigid is the sweet sound that reaches us in the dark and reminds us that we have never been on this journey alone. Brigid is our sign that the dawn is here because we have made it through the dark winter. We can lift our head. The healing has happened. And now each day is bound to be brighter.
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ARIADNE: Mistress of the Labyrinth; My soul knows the way. And the only way out is through.
Ariadne is a symbol of the hope, the divine assistance, and the step-by-step process we can take to move through a difficult time or to confront an injustice in our life. She helps Theseus because he’s daring to end a pattern of madness; he’s willing to do whatever needs to be done to stop the injustice. She gives him the tools to create his desired outcome. He is successful because of her, and she assists him because he acts with courage.
Her message is that our courage is always in some way rewarded. She rewarded Theseus with the tools he needed to defeat the Minotaur in the maze so no more victims would be sacrificed. When we seek to end an unnecessary pattern or routine that is no longer serving us (even though we initially created it in the effort to keep us safe), it can feel as insurmountable as facing a horned part man, part beast that lives in a dark maze inside us. Pure terror. But the soul always wants our freedom. The divine is what liberates, not confines.
It might feel like we can’t find our way out of this situation, this maze, but we can. We can trust the soul know the way through. And that spiritual support is a given. Ariadne wants us to be brave so that she can fall in love with our actions. She is both a goddess and a human; she gets our fear, but she also knows just how much power we hold as well.
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MACHIG LABDRON: The Diamond-Hearted Dakini: I see the light in my own darkness. I face my ego beliefs to feel free.
From Machig’s perspective as an enlightened female, she knew that the difference between a god and a demon had to do with our reaction to them. Those who cause us pain, she explained, also teach us patience, whereas those who bring gifts can distract us from our spiritual paths. No one and no single situation has the power to derail us, that is unless we let it. The power rests within us.
The spiritual path for Machig was to become intimate with her inner demons: those thoughts or beliefs that kept her from experiencing joy, bliss, and pure love.
The darkness within us isn’t actually dark. It often feels threatening because some aspect of our intuition knows that when we face it, we will reclaim a lost part of our soul. We will heal. We will become more whole, and that ironically can be terrifying.
We get so used to functioning with only one wing. We wonder, How can I now fly with two? I’ll go too far, too high. Who will I become now that I am free? And who will I love in the elevation of my soul?
Machig is here to support us in seeing what’s ready to come to consciousness. She’s here with her diamond heart to hold us as we feed one of our demons not with fear, but with the knowledge that bringing it to life, and into the light will help set us free.
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