The Road Back Home, part 1 by Terry Folks

Review: In my first four posts sharing my recent Goddess Pilgrimage to Crete, I combined Joseph Campbell’s mono-myth with Maureen Murdock’s feminist version.

In this post and the final one to come, we complete the journey home. In Murdock’s feminist adaptation, I am now poised to Integrate the Feminine and Masculine within. My hybrid combines Campbell’s Reward (Seizing of the Sword), the Road Back, Death and Resurrection, and my Return with the Elixir.

Briefly: Having tested positive for COVID on the first day of the pilgrimage, I was required to quarantine at Hotel Idi near the village of Zaros near the Psiloritis foothills in the bosom of Mother Mountain Ida. Four other sisters eventually joined me and we formed the Avocado Sisterhood, meeting daily for support and encouragement. However, I spent much of my time alone, moved inward, became very still, and underwent a personal spiritual transformation during this liminal time. My sisters left before I did as I still had not tested negative.

Stage Ten – The Road Back – Integration of the Feminine and Masculine

At this stage, hostile forces come after the heroine, and she has to decide whether or not she will return to the ordinary world. Would I be able to sustain this level of self care upon my return? I had learned how I had internalized the voices of the patriarchy, how I had become the self-hater in subtle but definitive ways. I had not been treating myself well, allowing myself to rest, be alone, be still. Over the preceding five years, I had attempted to retain rigid self control in the face of the random, horrific trauma experienced by my loved ones. I had become the master of servants by denying my own needs and desires to serve others. I had censored myself and I built others up in obedience to what was expected of me to get through another day.

This is when my final mentor appeared. Lithuanian-American Archaeologist Marija Gimbutas had been on my personal Vision Board the last 14 years. When she transitioned in 1994 at the age of 73, I wasn’t able to grieve one of our planet’s great losses. I was able to argue in favour of her meticulous research skills when she presented to the world her incredibly well researched theory that the culture of Old Europe (including Crete) was indeed matriarchal, peace loving, earth centred, and woman honouring. That is … until the Kurgan invasions 3500 years ago.

Her work was controversial because she was a woman, so she of course, she had to double up on the intensity of her scholarship. She was finally vindicated in 2017 – 23 years after her death – when her archaeological findings were confirmed … by a male. Maureen Murdock writes about Marija’s early personal life in Lithuania, and how childhood experiences affected her future archaeological work: “Each day she saw people kiss the earth in the morning and say prayers in the evening. She experienced the sacredness of wells, streams, water animals, and trees, all of which were considered to have healing power. Hers was an embodied spirituality from her earliest memory.”

It was Gimbutas who influenced my decision to teach eco-feminism using eco-psychological principles, and embodied spirituality. How we treat women is how we treat the planet; how we treat the planet is how we treat women. Life givers … both must be revered. How did we get so twisted around?

Our symbols changed dramatically around 3500 years ago. Woman honoring systems declined. Change symbols, change reality.

And yet … our symbols become so because they resonate with our lived experience. When this phenomenological reality becomes part of the collective, it is possible that our collective consciousness can shift. There is hope! The labrys was, for me, now the ultimate symbol of deeply reverent feminine divinity within where my soul would always and forever find sanctuary. Mount Ida became the grounded solid ever present immovable trustworthy giver of love, life, stability, and surety no matter what was going on around me.

Stage Eleven – Death and Resurrection – Marriage to Self

In the mono-myth, this is when the Heroine experiences her last ordeal, another life and death moment. It can be a physical death or the death of the old self. Sometimes the Heroine needs to be ‘purified’ before she can be let back into the world she left.

My avocado sisters left Hotel Idi and Mother Mountain Ida before me as I was still testing positive. During my remaining time alone, I meditated on the visage of Mount Ida. I realized that I had indeed been purified, my purpose made clearer, my need to practice stillness and self care upon my return emphasized.

The irony is that I teach this very concept to the women I serve every day. I was invited to bury my super heroine cape, to die to that old image of myself. Integrating my desire to help with my need to practice better self care became my version of Maureen Murdock’s integration of masculine and feminine, my marriage to self.

Two weeks after arriving in Greece, I finally tested negative two days in a row. Hotel owner Evi gave me a very special gift which I returned home with. But more on that shortly.

My return to the city of Heraklion was uneventful, but I was nervous upon arrival. The city was teeming with people, polluted, noisy, and busy. It was challenging to my system. I was invited to participate in the closing circle of the formal Goddess Pilgrimage and choose another Goddess card to bring back home.

I was given Dana, the High Priestess, She who has divine knowledge and can help others through her spiritual teaching.

To be continued tomorrow . . .

BIO: Theresa (Terry) Folks, MA, RCC, CCC is a Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapist, educator and author. She serves women in her private practice, SpiritFirst Counselling, in Comox on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. She facilitates Sophia Women’s Wisdom groups, and leads workshops for empowering women. She offers self therapy strategies and spiritual practices on her website and her Author FB page because she believes her life’s mission is to help women empower themselves. She is the author of Counselling Approaches to Spiritual Issues, a Masters Level Curriculum for MA candidates interested in infusing spiritual resources in therapy. Terry is also the author of Another Spring: A Year of Self Therapy & Spiritual Healing Practices. She awaits a publisher who recognizes the value of empowering women with her book. You can access her gifts, meditations, and strategies at https://www.facebook.com/TerryFolksSpiritFirst/ and here https://spiritfirstcounselling.ca/blog/
www.spiritfirstcounselling.ca