CHANNELING ATHENA

First introduced to the Greek goddess Athena back in college reading Homer's "The Odyssey", I may have been a bit dismissive of Odysseus's need to call on the goddess in times of great peril. Pallas Athene would be there for him. As she guided him through his difficulties, she was merely a bit player in the epic poem as I was engaged at that time. She was just a mythological goddess after all and not "God".

In recent years as I think about the experience of getting involved with that work, I find myself more interested in that Muse weaving her way through the story. Pallas Athene was always present during the high drama and now I think of her more prominently as an extraordinary feature conceived in that epoch, but maybe more realized today.

Growing up Catholic, the Virgin Mary was the muse taught to me. Nurturing perfection, the Mother of Jesus, she represented all knowing kindness and maternal strength and a power to call on for guidance and safety. Its such an interesting concept that all cultures develop mythologies and deities as images of inspiration and aspiration. Many or most are very similar and yet world cultures often fight to the death their slightly different takes on these stories and conceptions that get passed through the generations. Often we find cultures wanting to claim for their own the origin of a particular entity as in the case of Athena's origins actually being connected to the less well know Egyptian goddess Neith whose birthplace was thought to be near Libya's Triton River. Imagine a goddess with a birthplace? Did they live and die and then live on in perfection and grace with the powers attributed to them by the living? It is interesting this diety/mythology thing in that we as humans continue to conceive of and imagine a better world through these icons, yet have failed thus far in achieving a more peaceful and sustained planet.

We've had the goods for a long time, yet seem still to fight an ancient battle. Classical thought and knowledge is insightful and empowering, yet we keep reinventing it as the world gets more crowded and cling to ideas rather than action on liberating ourselves from the defeat of Hades. Maybe its individual cultural ownership of the discoveries about our higher selves rather than an understanding of the collective human contribution that divides us. If we could forget about ownership and discuss the energies and powers that our gods and goddesses are endowed with, we may see a better and larger reflection of the human struggle and cease the need for direct ownership.

So sorry to the Greeks, Egyptians and Libyans, but I am going to claim Athena for my own and call on her along with Mary. I need both and the other deities as well. Why limit myself when I have a smorgasbord of brilliance to choose from. Athena, I want to walk with you starting today. I will make of you in my mind the strong daughter of the nurturing Mary, but a modern girl expressing herself with the previously masculine action trait taking a starring role with the power of turning events in the direction I desire. You, Athena the goddess of so many positive traits: strong, courageous counselor in battle, protector of the great wisdom and philosophy, arbiter of the true course in conflict have made your mother Mary proud. There I did it. I made up my own myth and this could possibly be found by some future historian and they may spend time studying its origins and connections. Or maybe the future beings will have recognized the greater importance of the realization of the myth and will have found a better way to grace the struggle. In the meantime I will call on my Athena as she guides and inspires.

Athena is making her presence more ardent. The female energy is being freed from her cloak of idealism. Strong, intelligent and assertive women are stepping into power along with their masculine counterparts of the same quality. They need us. As Athena knows there are battles that need to be won and are worth fighting for, but Athena knows the way to win is by standing firm on convictions and asking for constant guidance from all the eternal wisdom she has access to. She knows about the smorgasbord and her time has come. She is stepping out of the shadows to join Odysseus in the struggle. Athena is here in the physical as she continues to protect the great wisdom. I will work to be worthy of her and Mary lovingly approves.