I�ve had a book called Finding Your Inner Goddess for about a year now. It�s a guided journal intended to help you recognize and connect with the various aspects of Goddess within yourself. I�ve decided to finally start working through it, and figured here was as good a place as any to do that.
Amaterasu
Origin: Shinto/Japan
Symbol: The Sun
Qualities: radiance, warmth, abundance, healing, joy, benevolenceWhen Amaterasu became angry with her brother, she hid away in her cave, leaving heaven and earth in darkness. The goddesses and gods staged a bawdy revel at the mouth of her cave to draw her out. Once Amaterasu caught sight of her own dazzling reflection, whe joyfully restored her light to the universe.
Are you hiding your light in a dusty cave? List three of your favorite interests or activities.
Do I �hide my light�? Perhaps. I tend to be naturally inclined toward introversion. Therefore, there is a lot about me that I simply don�t share with the world at large. I�m friendly with most people, and I develop friendly acquaintances easily. But I don�t let a lot of people in and there are few people in the world who really know me well or who I consider good friends.
I found it odd when one of my new co-workers remarked to me that he thought I�d do really well in this job because I am �open� and �put myself out there.� I thought to myself, who are you talking about? I�ve never considered myself particularly �open.� But perhaps he�s right, to an extent, at least. What I do share of myself with others, I share abundantly. The parts of me that I do open up, I open up fully, holding almost nothing back. There�s more, though, much more, that I don�t put out there for most people. So maybe, from my perspective, knowing everything that goes on in my heart and head, and how little of that I share with others, it seems to me that I am closed off and introverted; but, to others, who only see how fully I do share those parts of me that I share, I appear much more �open� and �out there.�
Now, three favorite interests or activities � reading and writing would be at the top of any such list. There are a lot of things that I enjoy doing, but that I don�t make much time to do � ballroom and latin dancing, yoga, belly dancing, cooking and baking, easy hiking, watching movies, even working out when I�m in the habit of doing it. And there are even more things that I�m interested in and would like to do, but haven�t yet � beading and jewelry making, drumming, embroidery, photography. More than anything, I�m a learner. I like to learn new things. No, that�s wrong. I have to learn new things. This is probably why reading and writing are at the tope of my list. But I�m also not satisfied until I�ve mastered whatever it is I�m learning about. It�s a compulsive way to go about hobbies, I know.
Now name three ways in which you can share your gifts with others.
I can share what I learn and my love for learning. I guess I�ll be doing that, in a way, with a new Pagan Online Book Club that some folks from the Soup are starting later this month. I can also open myself up to be taught by others. For example, Gloria, one of the part-time secretaries at work, makes beautiful jewelry and she�s offered to teach me some of the basics. I�m going to take her up on it. Ok, that�s only two ways. But it�s late and that�s all I can come up with for now.
Amaterasu�s Mantra: �I delight in my self; I shine and inspire.�
Listening To: late night t.v.
Reading: a trashy romance novel
Feeling: tired...time for bed