Wisdom
To the disciples who were always asking for words of wisdom, the Master said, "Wisdom is not expressed in words. It reveals itself in action." But when he saw them plunge headlong into activity, he laughed and said, "That isn't action. That's motion." Anthony de Mello, Synthesis Today Quote, August 19, 2018.wwwsynthesispub.com.
Manet Fainting Couch
There is a Greek myth about Psyche and Eros that many people doing Jungian work use to describe the conscious development of women. The story is the basis for She by Robert Johnson and Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. In order for Psyche to reunite with her lover, Eros, she is given several tasks. At the beginning of each task, Psyche collapses and weeps as she sees the task so insurmountable.
My image is Psyche lying on one of those old-fashioned fainting couches that every woman of means possessed with her hand turned palm up on our forehead, her eyes closed, and her head leaning backwards on or off the couch. It is the feminine body language of surrender and stillness. Instead of plowing directly into a difficult task she has been given, the feminine waits, rests. In the waiting, answers come that are completely out of the box. They are truly answers to prayer. Some would say the answers come from the Spirit of God within her. Help comes from places she never imagined.
This is wisdom, the action of waiting, stillness, especially before we are asked to do something we do not think we are capable of doing.
I remember waiting in an outer office before a difficult meeting with other physicians. At first I was upset that I, this important person, had to wait! Slowly I realized the waiting was a gift, wisdom from a mysterious source, a time to quiet myself, to surrender to the moment, and to be still before taking on a meeting that might be difficult. When I was able to do this, I often took into the meeting the feminine energy of staying in relationship that could make all the difference in what happened.
Joanna joannaseibert.com