Dreaming the dream on . . . by Kaalii Cargill

I am author, writing fiction and non-fiction. My short stories have been published in various magazines and I have won an international writing prize. When my work was first published, I wanted to write a best-seller and earn enough from my books to retire from my ‘day job’ and write full time. I know the formula: open fast and strong, pick up the reader and carry her along until the last page, action, action, action…

Instead I found myself writing about balance, about land in need of healing and about the people called to defend the balance. My stories are as much about meaning and value as about action, and the same themes cycle though: cooperation vs. domination, defending the Earth, being an integral part of the world around us, cooperation with the rest of Nature.

In Daughters of Time, I follow a line of daughters from ancient Sumer to the present day. Beginning with Mir-ri, a priestess in the last days of Ur, the daughters carry the seeds of balance through time. They live through times we know from history and myth, but mostly they are ordinary women who carry a memory of the Goddess that is passed from mother to daughter for four thousand years. I wanted to convey the passage of time since the days when the Goddess, Nature, and the feminine were valued as life-givers. I wanted to loosen the perceptual bias of enculturation and invite another way of seeing and thinking about Nature, the feminine and the World.

My work is informed by extensive research. My PhD explored a mindbody method of birth control that restores power, control, and choice to women. In history, mythology, and anthropology, I discovered a mosaic of clues pointing to a past where women could manage fertility within their own mindbody systems without using any external devices or measurements. What happened? How did the life-giving power of the feminine become degraded, hidden and almost inaccessible to modern women? I found the answers in herstory, hidden amongst the culturally conditioned stories of our history, mythology, anthropology and psychology. I have been telling that story ever since.

Here are some of the understandings that have emerged for me as I journeyed deeper into the stories behind the stories of our collective heritage:

Excerpt from DAUGHTERS OF TIME:
          Ancient Sumer c2000BCE

“Many are called but few are chosen,” said the High Priestess, beginning the ancient ritual with which she welcomed every initiate.
“Do you bring your feet to walk in Her Ways?”
The girl was silent.
“You must answer, child,” said Nin-lil-la. “Do you bring your feet to walk in Her Ways?”
“I do,” whispered the girl, raising her head, meeting Nin-lil-la’s eyes.
“Do you bring your knees to kneel in Her praise?”
“I do.” She knelt.
“Do you bring your sex to rejoice in Her Life-giving.”
“I do,” said the girl.
“Do you bring your breasts for Her abundance flowing?”
“I do.”
“Do you bring your hands to do Her work?”
“I do.”
“Do you bring your lips to sing Her acclaim?”
“I do.”
“Do you bring your eyes to see Her presence in all?”
“I do.”
“Rise, child. You are called.”

The idea is that we are called and we must also choose to answer the call. “Many are called but few are chosen” suggests a passive process of selection of the fittest, but I have found that it is we who must answer the call, actively participating in the choice to see beyond current consensus reality, to hear the barely discernible voice of the ancient Mother calling from our collective past.

I developed my PhD into a non-fiction book, DON’T TAKE IT LYING DOWN: LIFE ACCORDING TO THE GODDESS. The book explores the collective beliefs, attitudes and practices that bind women to a world view that denies power, choice, and control in many aspects of our lives. It is about the feminine principle and what has been lost.

Excerpt from DON’T TAKE IT LYING DOWN:
“Women who use mindbody birth control

• value choice, control and empowerment in fertility management;
• are ruthless in their determination to have no more children;
• are actively seeking a viable alternative method of birth control;
• assume this is possible outside the existing forms;
• experience a permeability between the conscious and unconscious;
• approach the alternative practice of birth control with concentration and commitment.”

These characteristics emerged from interviews with women practising various forms of birth control, including internal regulation of fertility. I believe that these are also the characteristics of answering the call, in whatever form it comes to us:

• We value choice, control and empowerment (in relation to self, not control or power over others)
• We are ruthless in our determination to live in line with our deepest values
• We are actively seeking a viable alternative to current consensus reality
• We assume this is possible outside existing forms
• We experience permeability between the conscious and unconscious (through creative expression, dreaming, meditation, ritual etc.)
• We approach alternative/honouring ways of thinking, feeling, and living with concentration and commitment.

Mostly what I write about is dreaming the dream on: the dream of cyclical return, of living with the changing seasons, the changing ages. Just as the Goddess dreams a dream of eternally returning, a dream of renewable creative experience, personally and collectively . . .

Blessed Be

Dr Kaalii Cargill is a ‘physician of the soul’, living and working in Melbourne, Australia. In the 1980s she co-developed Soul Centred Psychotherapy, a therapeutic modality based on a profound respect for the feminine principle. www.kairoscentre.com  Kaalii writes fiction and non-fiction that asks, “What if . . .?” The themes of her writing emerge from the Goddess movement and political activism, with a focus on dismantling and resisting structures of power and domination and actively honouring and defending the Earth and the feminine principle. Her short stories have been published in international magazines, and she has 5 books available on Amazon. http://kaalii.wix.com/soulstory