No, our shadow and mud women don’t go away because we ignore them, much less because we despise them or project them onto others. They just keep being there. Because I quoted Song of Solomon in today’s blog post, I read about three chapters of it today. I noticed that the progression of the first three chapters parallels the monomyth proposed by Joseph Campbell. The Shulamite (some say she is Lilith, the original counterpart to Eve, a Kali-esque figure) is “dark but lovely.” What an interesting meeting with the Shadow archetype.

So, we can run, but we can’t hide. And if we do try to hide, we’ll merely have Shadow here and Shadow there, always outside us, always persecuting and driving us crazy, always giving us problems until we finally get alone and contain ourselves, answer the “call” and move along our own unique path of individuation. Then maybe we’ll “have faces,” as C. S. Lewis wrote.

David, we do have gender equality whenever a human being experiences the Divine Marriage within him- or herself. That’s the theory, anyway. And evidently we don’t have a lot of that, or else we’d be manifesting it in our cultures. And we don’t. So . . . we’d better get cracking.

Deb, your wish to meet me in real life is one of the nicest things someone has said to me lately, because you’ve wished it after reading my blog. I put stuff here that I don’t say in everyday life to people outside the household, so this encourages me to keep going and growing.

I’ve been thinking the past week or so about my friendships with other women, which I’m thinking about writing about when I have some clarity on it. Your comment couldn’t have come at a better time, as I’ve felt some self-loathing lately. Thanks. Funny how you never know what a few words will do for (or against) someone.

So Olivia’s death woke you up to your true waspish self.

I was once at a lecture where the speaker encouraged us to envision what our personal elemental would look like — essentially the projected manifestation of our physical self. I was so disappointed when what I envisioned was a lumpish, brown creature. Where were my wings of light, my radiant true self? Oh no, just a mud woman lurking there. So, I wonder about these rejected parts, these negative images. They don’t go away just because we ignore them, do they?