Category Archives: Path to Self Knowledge and Empowerment

Empower Yourself and Increase Your Connection With the Divine

If what you were taught to believe doesn’t support you being an empowered and active participant in your life, it may be a good time for you to open your mind to a bigger and more expansive way of seeing the world.

The more you empower yourself with self-knowledge, the more you engage in intuitive learning, the more you will increase your connection to the Divine.

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Begin by asking if you have transcended your culture’s racial, sexual, economic and religious limitations? Have you ever wished you were more like someone else? Are you completely truthful with yourself at all times? Do you ever look back on your life and wish it had been different but you were afraid to change? Are you using your gifts and talents?

If you were to trace the origins of your own beliefs and values, you would find that your family indoctrinated you with their particular way of perceiving things. This is necessary because children need to be given a safe container in order to make meaningful connections. If you were raised in a loving, safe environment you may have little reason to question your inherited belief’s and values. If you were raised in an unstable family environment, you may spend your lifetime reconstructing a safe and meaningful worldview. In either case, if what you were told doesn’t fit who you are, you can at any moment, expand your perception where everything is possible.

Increasing Self Knowledge Empowers You
You may think you were born knowing who you are but unfortunately self-knowledge is not inherent to your personality or character. Rather, you must choose to have an ongoing dialogue with yourself to clarify and verify what your culture, family and other people have told you. So, the first step to increasing your connection with the Divine is to begin having an honest dialogue with yourself. “To thine own self be true” (Shakespeare) means “do not decieve yourself.”

This is one of the main reason’s connecting with God is so difficult because without complete honesty, it will be difficult to receive transcendent (universal) knowledge. You need enough self-esteem to want to hear and to act on the intuitive knowledge you receive.

The second reason connecting with God is so difficult is any limiting belief that “God is out there somewhere” and can only be contacted by someone with special power. This simply isn’t true. What IS true is you already have the ability to directly dialogue with God if you have the courage to sincerely engage.

If you are an extrovert, self-reflection may be more challenging for you then if you are an introvert. Extroverts and introverts have very different pathways in their brains for processing and responding to information. Extroverts learn about themselves through the “world out there” and introvert’s learn about themselves through the “world in here”. So even if you prefer spending most of your time fully engaged and interacting with others, you can still connect with the Divine if you are willing to make the time to tune-in.

Tuning-In to a More Expansive Well of Knowledge
Very little is taught using right brain, intuitive processes where you tune-in your own inner voice of guidance and turn off your thinking mind. Contemplative practice, creative arts and exercise can help you focus your attention inward and take you “beyond the veil”. The “veil” is everything that obscures what you intuitively know, value and believe. The veil represents any negative teachings that increase your fear and shame and prevent you from learning. As well as any limiting beliefs that you never questioned because you were told, “This is the way things are”. When you go beyond the veil you enter into a more expansive well of knowledge.

How much extra-sensory information you receive through intuitive learning, seeing (clairvoyant), hearing (clairaudient) or feeling (clairessant) is a result of getting beyond your thinking mind’s need to find a logical answer.

Even now, a part of you already knows God is ever changing and never changing, everything and nothing, full and empty and always a mystery. Intuitive knowledge is wisdom that helps you live a more congruent, joy-filled life.

Wisdom Helps You Align Your Outer and Inner Life
So what is wisdom? Wisdom is a special kind of knowledge that is both transcendent and transpersonal. Wisdom is not widely valued or taught nor is it accessible through left-brain, interactive learning. Without wisdom, you will never fully understand yourself or the world.

To get beyond your thinking mind, you need only to alter your perceptions temporarily, sharpen your inward focus and then allow the answers to unfold within you. This refocusing of your awareness will strengthen your unique way of being in the world and help you make sense of it all. It will also bring about practical solutions and “a-ha” moments to everyday problems.

Whenever you are ready, universal wisdom is inside of you and not somewhere out there. The more you empower yourself with self-knowledge, the more you engage in intuitive learning, the more you will increase your connection to the Divine.

Here are some steps to help you increase your wisdom:
1. Make time to get to know yourself without the good opinions of other people. Start something you always wanted to do. Read two self-help books.
2. Meditate, pray, walk and be with nature (including domestic pets), exercise, dance, sing, act, create art and music.
3. Say this affirmation: “Give me discernment and wisdom so that I may understand myself better and increase my connection with God.”
4. Try inward thinking exercises like this: Watch an apple (or any other seeding plant) fall, and then wait to see it eventually sprout. By narrowing your focus on this one cycle for a few minutes each day, you align your consciousness with the life, death and rebirth process–one of the most complex mysteries of the universe. Further meditate upon the meaning of this process.

A Final Exercise For Increasing Your Connection With the Divine
You have direct access to divine at all times, so you can always ask, “What do I need to know about______(fill in the blank)? And then open your inner seeing, hearing and feeling to receive the answer. You may not always like the answer but know that living in a place that is aligned with your highest truth, will bring more clarity, meaning and joy to your every day life.

Live Everything

I want to beg you, as much as I can,
to be patient toward all that is unresolved
in your heart and to try to love the questions
themselves like locked rooms and like books
that are written in a very foreign tongue.

Do not seek the answers, which cannot
be given you because you would not be able
to live them.

And the point is to live everything.
Live the questions now.
Perhaps you will then gradually,
without noticing it, live along
some distant day into the answer.
–Rainer Maria Rilke

ABOUT THE ARTIST AND AUTHOR PAMELA WELLS
I have been working as an artist, author and consultant specializing in creative work that leads to greater consciousness.In the commercial art field, I authored and illustrated a Collectors Edition guidebook and card set for understanding mystical wisdom titled “Affirmations for the Everyday Goddess Spiritual Guidebook & 22 Wisdom Cards for Contemplation and Prayer”. It is available for retail or wholesale from ArtmagicPublishing.com, New Leaf Distribution, Barnes & Noble, Amazon or DeVorss & Company. It is also available at iTunes as an iPhone app (or through ConsciousnessApps.com).My blog has many articles about feminine spiritual empowerment.

For those who want to know more about their own life purpose and soul’s work, I offer Sacred Contact readings.

For more information about a Sacred Contract reading, visit ArtmagicPublishing.com or email me at Goddessart@att.net. Please join me on my Facebook Fan Page “Goddess Art Creations”.

EDUCATION: Watts Atelier of the Arts, Boston University and George Washington University, Bachelor of Business Degree.

EXPERIENCE: Technical illustrator for advertising, health care and computer companies. Graphics and web designer for holistic businesses. Author, artist and publisher of “Affirmations for the Everyday Goddess”. Sacred Contract consultant and fine artist.

The Search for a Meaningful Life – the Fool Archetype

Affirming the Fool Archetype Within
The beginning of your life is full of questions and doubts. “What will I be when I grow up? Who will I fall in love with? Will I be rich or poor? When will I die?” The purpose of your inner Fool is to humbly ask questions and to cultivate an open mind throughout life.

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If you find yourself asking and then seeking the answer to the question, “What’s my life all about?” -an enormous philosophical question – then you may also be a “Seeker” or a “Mystic” and someone who realizes life and happiness is about more then what you own or how much power you wield in the world.

The Search for a Meaningful Life
It seems almost everyone desires a life filled with joy, freedom and peace. But how do you get there? Where is my personal road map to living a meaningful life?

The truth is a meaningful life is a huge learning experience where your personal road map always redirects you back towards the questions that answer the ultimate truth of your heart and mind’s greatest fulfillment. In other words, learning about yourself and “self-knowledge” is the most empowered path to take.

Of course, it is always your choice whether you live your life consciously or unconsciously. Whether you decide to do so or not is often represented by the curiosity of your inner Fool archetype because it is this aspect of who you are that gives you permission to ask questions and get around the fears and conclusive answers of your know-it-all ego.

Which Path Shall I Take?
Whether your own life is currently full of all the joy the world can offer or full of despair, there is no way to understand the human condition without a personal act of faith and surrender to a bigger answer. It is a matter of your own free choice as to whether or not you want to begin the journey to greater self-knowledge.

The focus of these current times has become the satisfaction of endless desires that results in much outer wealth but very little inner wealth – joy, freedom or peace. As a result most people are living life unconsciously at the mercy of their egos, in a place of confusion, doubt, emptiness and fear.

If you are someone more focused on nurturing self-knowledge, you have realized that inner wealth and joy is the result of turning inward. Having the courage to be a “Fool” on your journey, you begin to understand that you are both a human being and a divine being and that living a life full of meaning is a very precious gift.

Choosing to live your life consciously is hard work, but it will bring you much joy, freedom and peace. At the end of your journey, you will have learned and understood who you really are and your connection to the nature of the universe. And most importantly, you will have experienced great joy, peace and happiness in the process.

If you have not yet begun, here is a handy checklist:

Beginning the Journey
1. First and foremost, in order to begin, you must ask the question, “What do I need to know about myself, other people, and the world?” You may be ridiculed and teased as you ask questions and seek answers. Sometimes the answers may not be part of your religious background, culture or heritage. Even so, you can move forward each time you feel doubt and fear by cultivating faith and love.

2. The second important task is mastering and understanding your individual sense of self by asking “Who am I?”

3. The third task is surrendering yourself completely to a higher Source of inspiration in order to gain wisdom about the human condition and the true nature of the world. The act of surrendering completely to this quest for truth is considered the greatest leap of faith and folly in the world. Here you must be willing to suspend what you think you know for what you long to know and you must have the curiosity and open mind of a child.

4. The final task is the process of living in congruence with a higher and universal code of conduct. To become conscious means sacrificing and growing your intellect to be placed in the service of the Creator. You will know the whole truth once your head and heart are united.

It does not matter in what name or form that the universal truth comes to you. You are simply to follow the path set before you. It will lead you in the best way to suit your particular nature. Whatever way you recognize, loving and taking in Divine truth is the way Source recognizes, loves and takes joy in you. So begin the journey!

Ithaca

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the angry Poseidon–do not fear them:
You will never find such as these on your path,
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
emotion touches your spirit and your body.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the fierce Poseidon you will never encounter,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your soul does not set them up before you.

Pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are many, when,
with such pleasure, with such joy
you will enter ports seen for the first time;
stop at Phoenician markets,
and purchase fine merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensual perfumes of all kinds,
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
visit many Egyptian cities,
to learn and learn from scholars.

Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for many years;
and to anchor at the island when you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would have never set out on the road.
She has nothing more to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become, with so much experience,
you must already have understood what Ithacas mean.
–Constantine P. Cavafy

Contemplation for the Fool archetype within you
1. Do I consider myself a Seeker?
2. Do I want to begin the journey?
3. What is the trial of contemporary times?
4. What was the trial of past times?
5. How do I know when I am living my life consciously?
6. What questions do I have about life?
7. What can I begin to understand and learn in the journey toward self-knowledge?
8. What do I give up in order to gain wisdom and knowledge about the human condition?
9. How does the evolution of my own awareness change the world?
10. What do I need to know about ___________?

Exercise: Write Your Life Story
Write your life story as a simple narrative time line. Start with your childhood and go on to adolescence and your early 20s. If you are older, continue on to midlife, maturity, and old age. Consider the influence of your family, culture, and gender on your self-development. Write about what you want to become and your greatest life purpose, dreams and inspirations.

Ask: “What do I need to know?”

For those who want to know more about their own life purpose and soul’s work, I offer Sacred Contact readings.

For more information about a Sacred Contract reading, visit ArtmagicPublishing.com or email me at Goddessart@att.net. Please join me on my Facebook Fan Page “Goddess Art Creations”.

EDUCATION: Watts Atelier of the Arts, Boston University and George Washington University, Bachelor of Business Degree.

The Journey to Greater Knowledge, Understanding and Awareness – Checklist for Seekers

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” –Teilhard de Chardin

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
–Teilhard de Chardin

The “Affirmations for the Everyday Goddess” deck suggests a general time line for the stages of human psychological growth beginning at the 0 Fool card and ending at the 21 World card. The journey to higher states of awareness and the psychological stages of growth is a never-ending process of self-discovery. Below is a personal growth “Checklist for Seekers”.

The purpose of your life journey is to attain clarity, wisdom and understanding in order to live a joyful life. You can become a joyful person by realizing everyday life is your path to knowing yourself and the Divine. The 17 Star card to the 21 World card are the ultimate goals of psychological growth: wisdom, discernment, freedom and knowing God (Absolute Pure Consciousness).

These cards say that when you live your life with more awareness, everything you do is an opportunity for creative acts or good works in service to others, the world and the heavens. You then become an agent of the world’s evolutionary impulse by filling yourself up with Spirit’s divine, luminous energy in order to joyfully transform yourself and others.

Throughout your life journey, there will be many challenges. It is often through adversity that you can make the greatest progress. What may seem like very difficult situations to you – 13 Death, 15 Devil or 16 Tower – can result in immeasurable wisdom and good fortune (10 Wheel of Fortune – 16 Tower) once you understand the key teachings of these affirmations. When life is difficult, often it helps to remember that the meaning of your birth was for you to create a wonderful life knowing God.

Somewhere along the journey, you may have a direct, personal experience with God (5 High Priest). This experience is a gift and should not be ignored because it is the beginning of the more meaningful aspects of self-knowledge (7 Chariot – 16 Tower).

CHECKLIST FOR SEEKERS – The Journey to Self-Knowledge Encompasses:
-Having a passion to know the answer to life’s most challenging questions and starting the journey
-Liberating yourself from disempowering and limiting beliefs
-A willingness to be ridiculed in order to try on new perceptions
-Observing, studying and becoming more connected with your thoughts and the invisible world
-Recognizing and honoring your connection to the whole cosmos
-Loving yourself enough to be of value to all other beings
-Nourishing your body, mind and spirit while celebrating your own life and the lives of all other beings
-Embodying and expressing joy and love through your body, mind and spirit
-Tirelessly protecting and unconditionally loving all beings
-Integrating many perceptions and beliefs
-Expanding your horizons and awareness by having an open mind
-Developing inner awareness and becoming integrated (internally and externally consistent)
-Moving past your personality and embracing your authentic self
-Studying the sacred texts of your culture, including them and moving beyond them
-Seeking knowledge and truth in order to understand God
-Believing in something greater than yourself
-Creating a sacred space and practicing inner silence
-Exploring unexplainable events with curiosity
-Loving yourself
-Loving another human being unconditionally
-Growing in love to include all of existence
-Surrendering to God
-Forgiving and letting go of the past
-Rewriting your personal history
-Re-creating a timeless, limitless, abundant you
-Integrating and aligning your personal power and your power of choice with the will of God
-Connecting to your dreams and passions and then using this life force energy to serve the higher good
-Discovering your own truths and then being true to yourself
-Taking responsibility for your choices and their consequences
-Suspending judgment while discerning natural hierarchies of truth
-Taking responsibility for manifesting your own personal destiny
-Embracing spiritual spontaneity (the play of consciousness)
-Being truthful to yourself and others
-Seeing through the illusion of events to uncover their ultimate meaning
-Enduring personal sacrifice for spiritual growth
-Releasing your ego’s identification with the material world (matter) and the mind
-Learning spiritual truths and experiencing God through your body and the physical world
-Being able to stand for your own truth
-Finding the eternal in the changing
-Practicing symbolic sight and embracing spiritual truth
-Integrating the duality of opposites
-Paying attention to your inner guidance, whether through visions, inspiration or intuition
-Bringing the “light of conscious awareness” to the hidden, hated parts of your self
-Healing the split between your inauthentic and authentic self
-Enduring the “dark night of the soul”
-Establishing a contemplative practice to remind you that you are loved and never alone
-Removing the irrelevant and unimportant
-Learning how to correctly translate God’s guidance
-Joining ordinary time with the spiritual perception of eternity
-Gaining wisdom through experience
-Turning adversity into blessings
-Awakening to your own responsibility for the empowerment of all of humankind
-The power to remember the past, present and future
-Surrendering illusions in order to receive divine truth
-Being love and energy to co-create the world you desire

Note: An explanation for each of the cards will be posted in future EverydayGoddessArt Blog articles.

ABOUT THE ARTIST AND AUTHOR PAMELA WELLS
I have been working as an artist, author and consultant specializing in creative work that leads to greater consciousness.

In the commercial art field, I authored and illustrated a Collectors Edition guidebook and card set for understanding mystical wisdom titled “Affirmations for the Everyday Goddess Spiritual Guidebook & 22 Wisdom Cards for Contemplation and Prayer”. It is available for retail or wholesale from ArtmagicPublishing.com, New Leaf Distribution, Barnes & Noble, Amazon or DeVorss & Company. It is also available at iTunes as an iPhone app (or through ConsciousnessApps.com).

My blog has many articles about feminine spiritual empowerment. For those who want to know more about their own life purpose and soul’s work, I offer Sacred Contact readings. For more information about a Sacred Contract reading, visit ArtmagicPublishing.com or email me at Goddessart@att.net. Please join me on my Facebook Fan Page “Goddess Art Creations” http://www.facebook.com/GoddessArtCreations.

EDUCATION: Watts Atelier of the Arts, Boston University and George Washington University, Bachelor of Business Degree. EXPERIENCE: Technical illustrator for advertising, health care and computer companies. Graphics and web designer for holistic businesses. Author, artist and publisher of “Affirmations for the Everyday Goddess”. Sacred Contract consultant and fine artist.

Trusting and Receiving Inner Guidance Using Divination Tools

Affirmations for the Everyday Goddess Cards and Book for Contemplation and Prayer

Trusting and Receiving Inner Guidance

“Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up
enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”
–Samuel Ullman

Making the time and effort to have a meaningful conversation with God is really about your desire to actively transform and expand your own awareness and deepen your connection with something more meaningful. Divination tools such as pendulums, numerology, astrology, bones, ruins etc., and have been used for thousands of years to help people understand the meaning of life and the world around them. Divination tools can help you focus your awareness, help you learn more about your self and the world around you, and put you in conscious contact with your own intuitive wisdom and a universal source of intelligence. So, the tarot is just one of the many tools available to increase your understanding and self-knowledge. Although the tarot was originally rooted in occult tradition, interest in tools like the tarot has evolved, changed and expanded in the past few decades to include a wide variety of spiritual and religious perspectives.

Of course, you don’t need to use divination tools (pendulums, numerology, astrology, bones, ruins etc.) to help you to communicate with God. However, these tools can help some people before they take the most powerful step of communicating directly with God.

But what if it is difficult for you to believe in using such tools for inner guidance?
The best thing to do in this situation is to suspend your doubt temporarily in order to give yourself the opportunity to try something new. Continue to focus your mind’s attention on the affirmation imagery and repeat the words. Following your breath can also help you stay focused.

How do you know when you are receiving inner guidance?
You may see visions, or hear or feel something. Sometimes as you go about the day, a new understanding will come to the forefront of your mind, or perhaps you will suddenly realize you know something new or you will have one of those “a-ha” moments.

You can become more aware of inner guidance through diligent and prolonged spiritual practice. There are many options, depending on your spiritual or religious background, such as active ritual, contemplative prayer, intensive meditation, shamanic voyage and many more. Additionally, there are many helpful communication tools, like these affirmation cards, which can be a fun part of your understanding of yourself and God.

The Wisdom Cards and Archetypal Imagery – What is an Archetype?
The illustrated archetypal imagery for the 22 wisdom cards was chosen to illuminate the teachings of each affirmation. Archetypes are powerful because they speak to you through both your body and mind in the form of dreams, visions, stories, art, music, metaphors and myths. Archetypes are the symbolic building blocks of a language understood and shared by people throughout history.

Carl Jung believed human beings were born hardwired with these archetypal patterns of meaning and this made people unique in their ability to reflect upon themselves. He believed archetypal thinking was an evolutionary leap in human development since thinking had developed into more than problem solving for survival. Thinking can actually recreate itself in an endless upward spiral of new understandings, meanings and expanding awareness!

Archetypal images will hopefully inspire and interest you to take a closer look into the invisible realms of energy, light and space. Archetypes teach that what is invisible is much more powerful and mysterious than what is visible.

How Archetypes Work
Archetypal imagery functions in your mind as a bridge between your own awareness and the collective awareness of the global human family. A more metaphorical way of understanding archetypes is to think of them as the roots of a tree. The roots are where all people have a shared meaning, purpose and understanding. The branches are people’s cultural and personal beliefs and values.

Every culture has a unique perspective on what is significantly valuable and meaningful for their societies; however, people around the world all share similarities of meaning and value when given a much larger context in which to describe experiences.

The Importance of Our Shared Archetypal Language
Because of the enormous challenges and conflicts facing contemporary people around the world, we must collectively return to the source of our knowledge, rediscovering the universal archetypal language we all share in order to survive. One of the most important adventures of our lifetime and humanity’s greatest challenge isn’t the exploration of outer space, but rather the exploration of inner space.

You can become more fluent in archetypal communication and become more aware of archetypes and their deeper meanings by interpreting your dreams, stories, music and art, and by creating a sacred space for internal contemplation. Paying attention to and understanding archetypes can give you the opportunity to learn a language which can put you in direct dialogue with God. Seeing and then understanding the bigger picture through archetypal imagery is a good place for you to start creating solutions for yourself and others.

About the Major Arcana Cards of the Tarot
The tarot is one of the many tools available to increase your self-knowledge. The Major Arcana cards of the tarot are the first 22 cards of a traditional 78-card deck. The Major Arcana cards are very special because they contain deep and complex archetypal meaning. Like dreams, visions, stories, music and myths, the Major Arcana cards bring together the visual power of archetypal imagery.

They are given added weight during a traditional tarot reading. In the Affirmations for the Everyday Goddess set, the spiritual guidebook and wisdom cards work together with you to tap into your intuitive wisdom. You bring your personality, personal beliefs and values to the experience.
In this set, each Major Arcana card symbolizes some universal aspect of the human experience as you grow in awareness towards self-knowledge and spiritual development. The 22 cards represent the major archetypal patterns of human psychological growth, whether they occur within one snapshot of your life or your whole lifetime. Since your life may be experienced as life lessons in no particular sequence, each card represents a piece of the puzzle and the possibility of more knowledge and understanding no matter what your path to God is.

ABOUT AUTHOR AND ARTIST PAMELA WELLS
Pamela Wells has been working as an artist for over 20 years and specializes in creative work that leads to greater understanding and awareness. Her goddess art incorporates her interest in the study of transpersonal psychology, integral transformative spiritual practice and the evolution of human consciousness. She cares deeply about both men and women and also about the ecological preservation of the planet which benefits all living things. To order a copy of Pamela’s most recent book and card set, Affirmations for the Everyday Goddess, www.ArtmagicPublishing.com.

The Relational Power of the Goddess Archetype – Power in the Service of Love

If you have ever felt the power of love, then you have experienced the profound power of the Goddess archetype. Love is her highest human expression. How you manage this magnetic archetypal force and internal power will depend on the quality of your relationship to your self.

The Goddess archetype represents your relational essence: your ability to connect to other people, your body and emotions, the earth, and both sentient and non-sentient beings. Intuitively, She knows the mutual interdependence and interconnectedness of all things. If you have ever felt the power of love, then you have experienced the profound power of the Goddess archetype. Love is her highest human expression. How you manage this magnetic archetypal force and internal power will depend on the quality of your relationship to your self.

Because self-knowledge must be earned, it is helpful to understand the differences between external and internal power. It is also useful to understand the power of archetypes because they (including the Goddess archetype) are aspects of power you were born with. How wisely you use your power in the world will determine the quality of your life.

External Power – Survival and Positive Actions

You learn about how to use your external power in the world before you learn about relational, internal power. So in the first half of life you develop an ego strong enough to take on the world and also a sense of personal identity adequate to help you survive in the world. Once your survival needs are met, your external power could be directed toward positive actions that support yourself, those you love and all other beings. Using your power in these ways would empower you. But in these narcissistic times we think we can buy inner mastery and happiness. We mistakenly use our power for the satisfaction of endless desires resulting in outer wealth but inner poverty and unhappiness.

Internal Power – Relational Power in Service to Love

Internal power is the Divine feminine or relational aspect of your power. It is the distinct feeling of giving love, being known, being loved and being of service to whom and what you love. Internal power begins by learning about your self and growing your self-esteem based on the realization of your unique gifts, contributions and conscious actions in the world. Self-knowledge begins the process of guiding you to make wise choices that give you a meaningful inner life. Knowing yourself and loving yourself aligns you with your highest purpose and connects you with the eternal in every created thing. By shifting your power from outside to inside, from your ego to your soul you can begin asking “what and who are you now called to serve?” Being of service is not only self-empowering but also the most meaningful thing you can do for the planet.

How the Goddess Archetype Can Empower You

The cultural spell we are currently under is patriarchy, which is a culture of servitude through fear and “authority over”. Patriarchy animates the Indentured Servant and Victim archetypes in both women and men. The Indentured Servant is bound by conditions of service not of their choosing. This archetype can symbolically block you from becoming empowered because it prevents you from realizing you always have a choice. It also binds you to the Victim archetype through passivity, confusion and blame.

People sometimes make the mistake of thinking they are being of service when they are actually in a patriarchal based fear-state of believing they are under the control of another person. It takes a great deal of effort to break free of these cultural constructs because to do so you must have enough courage and stamina to take full responsibility for your own destiny and follow your own truth.

This is why the archetypal power of the Goddess is so important to understand and integrate. Through Her relational essence, She can free you from “authority over” and guide you toward more “personal authority” and a more holistic definition of yourself and the world. When women and men can define themselves in terms of honoring the unique way in which they experience and view the world, then they learn how powerful they really are.

So, to liberate ourselves from a culture of patriarchal servitude, we must not continue to be captivated by how a culture limits and defines feminine (internal) power as weak, unimportant or unreal. When we honor and integrate the power of the Goddess we break that patriarchal spell and gain access to the relational power of our own intuitive inner guidance system.

Becoming empowered liberates the Indentured Servant archetype and makes you aware of how you can be of the highest service to your self and to others.

Using Archetypes as a Guide to Greater Self-knowledge

An archetype is an aspect of power you were born with. Archetypes are the big picture road map of your life that can guide you to greater self-knowledge and help you discover your natural gifts and talents. Knowing your archetypes gives you the ability to ascend to a higher altitude, to see how your unique life-contract aligns you with your highest aspirations.

We all share the same archetypes (like the Goddess archetype) to a greater or lesser degree. However, the main archetypes in which you most resonate will point you towards your own personal mythology. Your particular combination of archetypes will guide, animate and trigger you to action and certain choices that energize your life. Learning about your own particular archetypes can help you wisely use your personal power and authority in the world. If you want to learn more about your own archetypes read Sacred Contracts, by author Caroline Myss. This is an excellent guide book for creating and understanding your own sacred life contract.

The Goddess Archetype

People who feel a strong connection to other people, living beings, the planet or the cosmos will resonate the most with the Goddess archetype in any one or more of her many primary forms, such as Mother, Lover, Queen or the hundreds of her other named forms such as Loxmi, Aphrodite, White Bison Woman, Pellia, and Shatki to mention just a few. Even if the Goddess archetype isn’t a primary archetype in your particular life contract, she represents the Divine Feminine principle within all men and women. So, in order to break the spell of cultural servitude, you must begin to develop an interior dialogue – a task of the feminine aspects of the self – and learn to act in accordance with those insights. If you deny or fail to integrate the feminine aspects of your power then the outside world will have the power to control the quality of your life.

This is why developing your own interior is so important because self-reflection connects you with what is of meaning and value to both yourself and the human community. The Goddess brings you back in touch with your own body, your own imagery and truth and awakens you to the mystical realm of spiritual truth and to the life your soul has been longing to live.

How to Come Into Your Own Internal Power Through the Goddess

Looking inward is a feminine principle of “learning to see behind your eyes” and an important developmental task for both men and women. The Divine Feminine way to power starts with getting to know yourself through rigorous and honest self-inquiry. If you don’t know who you are how can you make decisions that empower you?

Since no one is born with knowledge of their own power or self-esteem, we must all learn through life experience and a continual process of thoughtful self-inquiry. For most people self-reflection begins only after you develop a strong enough ego to survive in the world and come to realize that your external power is limited and the physical world cannot be controlled. You then must choose whether or not you strengthen your own interior so the outside world can’t destroy you.

The way most people end up in an endless cycle of disempowerment and self-betrayal is that they make their decisions based on their head rather then listening to their heart. This is because in patriarchal cultures we are taught the power of logic, reason, and cause and effect in the visible world. We are not taught about the importance, power, and possibilities of relational intelligence and intuition – the invisible quantum world or the world behind our eyes. So you won’t have access to relational power until you have enough self esteem to listen to your own intuitive inner guidance system.

The way you get to know yourself and build self esteem is by developing stamina and integrity and by becoming congruent in your words and actions to yourself and other people. If there are failures, you take responsibility for them rather then blaming others and becoming a victim. You become aware that every choice you make is an opportunity to empower or disempower yourself. This is why you need to build a strong interior so you don’t betray yourself. Otherwise difficult life decisions will become a power struggle between your head and heart.

Goddess Power is Empowerment (internal power united with external power)

Empowerment represents mastery of your emotions and thoughts in response to the outer world and gives you direct access to your own personal authority. By building a strong interior you shatter the illusion of the outer world having control of your life. A strong interior gives you the authority, stability and stamina to withstand anything that happens to you in your external life no matter how difficult and the wisdom to make choices in service to love that become creative acts of outer power that benefit everyone.

Integrating the archetypal power of the Goddess gives you the ability to stay in the sea of unknowing while knowing you are not lost. She puts you in direct relationship with your own body and other human beings in an intimate and manageable format. Over time your inner vision and awareness grows to include the profound sense of divine essence in all beings and the cosmos.

Tasks to Developing and Integrating Goddess Power

-Learn to see behind your eyes through acquiring self-knowledge. Regularly reflect on your own behaviors and ways of relating to others and your environment

-Be in touch with your own body, imagery and truth through the non-linear intelligence of your intuitive guidance system – the wisdom of your heart

-Learn to see the big picture by putting together the parts to make a whole

-Recognize the mutual interdependence and inter-connectedness of all things for survival, well-being and evolutionary vibrancy

ABOUT AUTHOR AND ARTIST PAMELA WELLS Pamela Wells has been working as a fine artist, commercial illustrator and graphic web designer for over 20 years and specializes in creative work that leads to greater understanding and awareness. Her goddess art incorporates her interest in the study of transpersonal psychology, integral transformative spiritual practice and the evolution of human consciousness. She cares deeply about both men and women and also about the ecological preservation of the planet which benefits all living things. To order a copy of Pamela’s most recent book and card set, Affirmations for the Everyday Goddess, www.ArtmagicPublishing.com

All articles may be republished or printed providing author credit (above) and a a link is provided back to the website http://www.artmagicpublishing.com.

Tap Into Your Highest by Being of Service

It is the invitation of the Universe that you full receive your gifts and then cultivate them in ways that you can offer them in skillful ways of service so that you can be a being that spreads more joy to the planet.

The secret to inner transformation is to orient yourself in unfamiliar ways. If you are always thinking only of yourself, life gets narrow and your energy can get easily get blocked. You may be operating along grooves that don’t serve you in the highest way.

How do you make a change that will propel you to expand your energies and ultimately allow you to feel a deep sense of contentment and even joy? Shift your orientation to how you can be of service to something other than just yourself.

If you feel, however, that you are being compelled to be of service and that the motivation is externally driven, then it can actually drain your energy and diminish you. For example, if you are stuck in a service-related job and you are only doing it for the money and not because of any natural enthusiasm for the nature of the work or the desire to help your customers, you will be looking at the clock the entire time. Time will seem to be going very slowly and at the end of the work day you will feel drained. At the worst if you are forced into service and you resist its call, it could actually humiliate you.

On the other hand, when you shift your attitude and truly dedicate yourself and your efforts to being of service, there is a magical expansion of your energies. Instead of feeling diminished, all parts of you are called into action when your align with your heart’s intention. By changing your vision to a higher intention, the veils of limitation clear and you can harness those deeper resources within you. By tapping into this wellspring of energy in response to the call to service, not only do you have a powerful capacity to help others, but also, you can sustain your energy and not “burn out”.

Take time in your life to pause and reflect on where you can be of most service. Everyone has been gifted with natural talents. It is the invitation of the Universe that you full receive your gifts and then cultivate them in ways that you can offer them in skillful ways of service so that you can be a being that spreads more joy to the planet. It is this pulsation of being receptive of what life has to offer and then giving back that is so simple and profound.

When you orient yourself to nature by giving back through service, you will find that you are no longer depleted and empty. Rather, when you act from your heart in skillful ways, the Universe will fill you up so much that you will feel completely full. When you feel so abundant, then you will feel content and no longer will there be the vibration of desiring something outside of you. This is the paradox of life, the more you give, the more that you will feel complete.

ABOUT AUTHOR AND ARTIST PAMELA WELLS

Pamela Wells has been working as a fine artist, commercial illustrator and graphic web designer for over 20 years and specializes in creative work that leads to greater understanding and awareness. Her goddess art incorporates her interest in the study of transpersonal psychology, integral transformative spiritual practice and the evolution of human consciousness. She cares deeply about both men and women and also about the ecological preservation of the planet which benefits all living things. To order a copy of Pamela’s most recent book and card set, Affirmations for the Everyday Goddess, www.ArtmagicPublishing.com.

All articles may be republished or printed providing author credit (above) and a a link is provided back to the website http://www.artmagicpublishing.com.

Path to Empowerment – The Evolutionary Stages to Spiritual Power

Empowerment is knowledge of how power works in the world merged with self-knowledge and personal authority. You earn inner power through careful self-reflection and a honest evaluation of your thoughts, emotions and actions.

This is a remarkable time in human history when an infinite amount of information and knowledge is converging with the freedom to choose what to learn. Many people now have direct access to this infinite information through the Internet and the available time to pursue and cultivate a path to both outer and inner knowledge. Pursuing both forms of knowledge can lead to empowerment and spiritual power if you are willing to take full responsibility for evolving your own consciousness.

Because the path to empowerment is evolutionary, there is a difference between the external power you attain in the world, the inner power (empowerment) you earn from daily self-reflection and the spiritual power you cultivate from having access to your own personal and spiritual authority.

The Three Stages of Evolutionary Power

External power leads you to what you think you desire. The problem with external power is by the time you get there, you realize you want something else. This can result in a lifetime of chasing what you desire while leaving you bankrupt on the inside. Empowerment (inner power) represents mastery of your emotions and thoughts in response to the outer world and gives you direct access to your own personal authority. It aligns you with what you really want which is a positive state of physical, emotional and mental well-being. Spiritual power brings you clarity of thought, inner peace and awakens you to your own divine essence and the divine light in another.

Stage 1 – Power

You learn about how to use your power in the world before you learn about inner power. This learning process is necessary because the human mind needs to be given a container in which to make meaningful connections to things. So, in the first half of life you must develop a strong enough ego to take on the outer world and an adequate sense of personal identity to help you interact and survive in the world. How well you manage your power will be reflected in the outcome of every decision you make. In the physical world of actions and consequences, you will be held responsible for your choices when you act in your own name. Using your power in your own name is most often focused on the satisfaction of endless desires resulting in external wealth but very little inner wealth or happiness.

Power could be directed toward positive actions that support yourself, those you love and all other beings but in these narcissistic times, external power is a grand illusion marketed by sellers. So often what is sold appears to be the answer to what you seek and because it is visible, it seems more useful than mastery of inner power. But as life progresses, issues in relationships regarding use of power, sex, money and self-esteem start to surface and develop into mental, emotional, physical and spiritual problems. It isn’t until you experience some kind of failure, loss in a relationship or a challenging illness that you realize your personal power is limited and the physical world cannot be controlled. These difficult experiences can actually become blessings because they provide you with the opportunity to learn about your inner world of emotions and thoughts so the choices you make with your inner power become creative acts of outer power that benefit all.

Stage 2 – Empowerment (outer power united with inner power)

Either during a personal crisis or by mid-life, your ego is asked to develop an interior dialogue with your inner self and act in accordance with these insights. Empowerment is knowledge of how power works in the world merged with self-knowledge and personal authority. You earn inner power through careful self-reflection and a honest evaluation of your thoughts, emotions and actions. Over time you gain direct access to personal authority – the source for solving life challenges and for pursuing a life with meaning and purpose.

Inner power cultivated with growing consciousness helps your break free from negative thought patterns and leads you to the realization that your conscious actions in the world reflect your interests and passion in living a life congruent with your highest purpose. Self-knowledge and personal authority reward you with a meaningful inner life and outer life that has value and significance for the human community. Your increased self-awareness moves the planet positively forward for all beings.

The journey to empowerment encompasses some of these tasks:

Liberating yourself from disempowering and limiting beliefs
Integrating many perceptions and beliefs
Moving past your personality and embracing your authentic self
Forgiving and letting go of the past and rejecting victimhood
Rewriting your personal history
Discovering your own truths and then being true to yourself
Taking responsibility for your choices and their consequences
Being able to stand for your own truth and trusting in life
Being emotionally rational by striving for objectivity which gives you the power of choice
Relinquishing sexual power in order to aspire toward personal success and intimate union with other women and men in a way that is not sexual at all
Standing autonomously and not wavering

Buddhist version of EMPOWERMENT the Laws of Life – Nonviolence, truthfulness, integrity, purity and self-referral.

Stage 3 – Spiritual Power (outer power + inner power + global knowledge and cosmic wisdom)

Spiritual power begins with the recognition that you are responsible for your relationship with a higher power (God). The activation of inner power can lead you to realize your own divine nature since you are the source of your own personal authority. In the process of accessing inner knowledge, you become more aware of the guiding spiritual power of intuitive information. Your intuition (your inner guidance system) is the foundation for building a relationship with the divine in an intimate and manageable format that resonates deeply with your own particular personality.

Spiritual power is about choosing to go beyond yourself and seeing the same divine light in another. Expanding on inner guidance through a spiritual practice will help you become expansive enough to integrate and include all that has ever been. Merging the flow of power, inner power, global knowledge and cosmic wisdom will give you direct access to your own spiritual power.

The journey to spiritual power encompasses some of these tasks:

Having a passion to know the answer to life’s most challenging questions
Studying the sacred texts of your culture, including them and moving beyond them · Believing in something greater than yourself
Recognizing and honoring your connection to the whole cosmos
Expanding your horizons and awareness by having an open mind
Creating a sacred space a practicing inner silence
Releasing your ego’s identification with the material world and the mind
Establishing a contemplative practice to remind you that you are loved and never alone
Integrating and aligning your outer and inner power with the will of God · Practicing symbolic sight and embracing spiritual truth
Surrendering illusions in order to receive divine truth
Being love and energy to co-create the world you desire

Buddhist version of SPIRITUAL POWER the Rules of Life – Simplicity, contentment, purification, refinement and surrender.

ABOUT AUTHOR AND ARTIST PAMELA WELLS

All articles may be republished or printed providing author credit (above) and a a link is provided back to http://www.ArtmagicPublishing.com. Please contact Pamela for permission to use artwork.

The Goddess of Willendorf

In Search of the Feminine Divine