Yet another piece of the cards

The Maiden

The Maiden is a developmental archetype.  She is the symbol of the power in potential creativity and sexuality. The power of the Maiden can be seen in her icon in the modern world, Barbie.  The power and attraction of Barbie is purely the maidens power of creativity and sexuality. That’s why she was instantly popular and persists to this day.  All the protesting that goes on about her body and the image it creates in a young girl's mind is useless.  She has the highly identifiable mark of the maiden, a honking huge set of boobs.  Young girls are transfixed at the sight.

  In most girls, their real creative powers begin to show about the time of menarche. Just as their bodies are blooming in the possibilities of being able to create a child, their minds and hearts are blooming with all kinds of other creative possibilities.  They begin to learn to make, they begin to write and draw and make music.  If all goes well with this early bloom time the maiden continues to use her creative impulse to prepare herself for adult life, and a time when her body is ready for the task of motherhood. 

Part of the difficulty of being a maiden or helping one is that the full flush of that sexual power is so strong (and it generally is her first experience with any kind of power at all) that she has no steering wheel and no brakes. She can be entirely unguided and can find herself facing life affecting consequences for her out of control behavior.

Maiden time ends with a pregnancy.  She may become a mother or she may become pregnant with a calling or a creative task. In any case her creative powers are harnessed to something outside herself.

In healthy women the movement from maiden to mother is a natural maturing process that happens over time.  

 The shadowy side to the  Maiden  is the misuse of the maiden's power.  Should the maiden refuse to mature she can linger in her maiden state enamored with her sexuality until time runs out and her attractions fade with age.  If she happens to have children she moves into the role of the Abandoning mother, causing untold misery and setting her children up for a very painful and unhappy life.

 Tired of Husks and Swine

In the story of the prodigal son there comes a point of truth.  He is in a far country living with the pigs he is herding and eating their leftovers, when it finally occurs to him that even the least of his father’s herdsmen are better off than this.

He decides to go back and take a job with his father. He chose to face the humiliation of admitting that he messed up big time rather than enduring starvation, hunger and shame.

We all have moments of truth where we have a profound weariness with our circumstances and want to make a spiritual U turn.  Alcoholics call it kissing concrete or hitting bottom.

“It takes some folks a weary long time to tire of the husks and the swine”

Knitting again.

My parents often wondered why I could lay aside a promising project for months and sometimes years.  Then at a later date I would dig it up and finish it with a flourish.  It took me a long time to understand it myself.  Sometimes I lack the strength and maturity and insight to complete a particular project.  Sometimes it needs time to marinate in my creative brain.  These things take time.  Other times I get bored with the process and need a recess to freshen my perspective.  I am freshening my perspective on the socks that I am temporarily not knitting in favor of test knitting my Hoodlet pattern. 

I can't discard the socks for long, I need to finish them by Sunday. At the same time I am finding that Disraeli was right.  A change of problem and perspective is as good a break as I need.  Besides. The hat is another gift.