#healing from woundedness

[a-h-mad-hish]

“The beauty that emerges from woundedness is a beauty infused with feeling; a beauty different from the beauty of landscape and the cold perfect form. This is a beauty that has suffered its way through the ache of desolation until the words or music emerged to equal the hunger and desperation at its heart. It must also be said that not all woundedness succeeds in finding its way through to beauty of form. Most woundedness remains hidden, lost inside forgotten silence. Indeed, in every life there is some wound that continues to weep secretly, even after years of attempted healing. Where woundedness can be refined into beauty a wonderful transfiguration takes place.”

[primordialsoundmeditation]

The only reason to do anything is to create a more beautiful world. We were born to create the good, the true and the sacred: that’s is our soul’s mission, and when we’re not performing it we grow uncomfortable. Most people don’t know the origin of their soul’s discomfort only because the modern world is constantly tempting us to forget the mission.

Our greatest power in any situation is to remember who we are and why we came here. Without that, we’re stumbling in the dark of randomness and meaninglessness with no light to guide us. That applies not only to an individual but to a collective as well. A nation as well as an individual represents a ray of light from a great philosophical sun. A nation’s ray refers to the larger mission of that country, the greater vision that guides it. “Where there is no vision the people perish. “

If the purpose of our lives is to expand the meaning and purpose not only of our individual existence but also that of our nation, people, religion, and species, then we need to rise to meet the challenges of that purpose. Enough with the woundedness, the perverse comfort zone of personal limitation, the pathologizing of every little thing, the victimization, the obsession with trauma - all of which can begin with genuine desire for understanding but then spin out of control with a personal attachment to dark drama. Anything that involves only our individual self at a certain point becomes a darkened glass through which we cannot see.

One of the ways we heal ourselves is by showing up in whatever way we can to help heal others. We can live our lives in service to a larger goal than just our own. We can participate in a great creative drama involved in asking not only “How do I heal and where do I go next?” but also “How do we heal and where do we go next?” We are incomplete in any moment that we stay confined to consideration only of the individual self. The meaning of this moment is expansion beyond that. That’s when we find comfort. And that’s when we’ll find peace.

(@AHummingbirds)

Marianne Williamson

[bitesize-astrology]

Feel Ready

Wednesday - January 17, 2024

Mother Life gives you time to heal from your wounds. Often times she likes to remind you that wound is healed, even as you look at the still present scar. She does this to remind you to focus on your readiness, not on any woundedness. Being "ready" is the end result of being "healed."

Today the Moon conjuncts the North Node @ 19° Aries; the only time this conjunction is occurring at 19° Aries. And this particular degree underwent a LOT of healing during 2023 as Chiron sat there for 97-days, healing that wound to a level that allows function and mobility, regardless if that wound was emotional, mental, physical or spiritual.

As the Moon kisses this 19° point, it's much like Mama kissing your wound, letting you know you're okay and good to go. And when Mama kisses it and says "now it's all better," who's going to argue with Mama!

Feel ready for the continuation of your journey today ... because you are. Feel ready for new opportunities ... because you are. Feel ready to fly ... because if you look down, you will see that you ALREADY ARE!

[ms-m-astrologer]

2023 Cancer New Moon

Monday, July 17, 18:32 UT, 24°56’ Cancer Chart erected for Washington, DC

The key phrase for the New Moon phase is “set a new intention for the month.” Doesn’t have to be some drastic overhaul of your entire existence - I like to think of them as opportunities to build one new, healthy habit, which can be established in a few weeks’ time with ease.

This chart shows the New Moon sextile Uranus/Taurus, trine Neptune Rx/Pisces, opposite Pluto Rx/Capricorn, square Eris/Aries, and square the Nodes, newly across Aries/Libra. There is also a sextile to asteroid Lilith/Virgo; the whole setup gives us 5/6 of a chart pattern called a “Grand Sextile.” But there’s also a Cardinal grand cross with all those late Cardinal placements: Pluto Rx in Capricorn, Eris and the North Node in Aries, the Sun and Moon in Cancer, and the South Node in Libra.

It has been a very long time since we’ve had a New Moon with such close major aspects to Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and the Nodes - a quick skim through an ephemeris shows that we’ve had nothing like it in over 20 years.

And how weird to see zero involvement from the seven traditional planets and the Lady Asteroids. Chiron is somewhat involved, as is Nessus, affecting parts of those planetary alignments, but not either whole thing.

All kinds of stuff happening out there in the Wider World: Hollywood strikes, horrendous weather, climate catastrophe, the list goes on and on. And we “common rabble” are beginning to catch on, as the capitalist consumer corporate patriarchs are getting more and more open about their plans. (AI instead of pesky common rabble, basically, regardless of what the job is - the better to keep the fleet of luxury yachts operating.)

All of it affects us in our individual private lives. How do we cope with it all? Where do we find a safe, protected place? Those are the primal Cancer concerns. It’s like one big nesting instinct.

This is a great time to get in touch with your feelings. Your gut - Cancer rules the stomach (as well as the bosoms and the womb). Ideally we want gut, head, and heart to work together. We can use this New Moon for the gut, the Leo New Moon for the heart, and the Virgo New Moon for the head.

The house in your birth chart that holds 24°56’ Cancer shows where to look. In the 4th House it might mean your actual physical home, &/or the members of your family (bio or found); in the 9th House, cross-cultural experiences or “higher thought” (philosophy, religion) can be the path.

A few more comments on the non-planetary players:

Lilith/Virgo reminds us to stand up for our intrinsic worth as human individuals. All over the Christian Bible, in the Testaments Old and New, we read that “the worker is worth the wage” - about time to fling that back in their faces.

Chiron/Aries reminds us that we have the right to be alive at all. Woundedness here can be healed.

Nessus/Pisces reminds us that “the buck stops here” is always a possibility. We can give it all to The Cosmos.

Eris/Aries reminds us to fight like hell.

[thedrarrylibrarian]

I've been so excited about this month's Happy Hour guest because I enjoy her writing so very much. I first fell in love with @drarrily-we-row-along's writing during her 100 Drarry Drabbles in 100 Days. Short fics are sometimes hard to set a scene for, or hard to give good plot for, but I remember racing through each of her drabbles, feeling like I never wanted them to end because each bite sized piece of writing was so good! Most recently, I've been enjoying her contributions for @hdcandyheartsfest. It feels like every day in February I get to read something new and wonderful from @drarrily-we-row-along and I love it!

One of the things that I've learned about writers is that they are often readers, so it's always one of my greatest joys to get to peek into what one of my favorite fic writers is reading herself. Here's our wonderful February Happy Hour guest rec from @drarrily-we-row-along!

Hello friends! I was super excited, and very honored, to be asked to be the guest for Happy Hour in February. I love this blog and have read *so many* incredible fics that have been recced here! I’ve actually been reading quite a bit lately (so many beautiful fics that have brought me a great deal of joy) so it was really tricky to pick just one!

I ended up deciding on Fire Meet Gasoline by @lettersbyelise.

Fire Meet Gasoline by @lettersbyelise (62,600 words, rated E)

When Draco’s anger management issues land him in St Mungo’s, he thinks his Quidditch career is over. But Harry, A&E Healer and notorious workaholic, is faced with a similar predicament. To save their jobs, the two of them decide to fake a relationship. All they have to do is convince their friends and employers… and not fall in love in the process. Simple, right?

This fic.

It hit me right in the solar plexus. I read this fic back in the middle of January (read: devoured this fic- I couldn’t put it down once I started) and it’s been lingering in the corners of my subconscious ever since. This fic is really beautiful and honest; both Harry and Draco are incredibly flawed, wounded people and reading about their healing is immensely satisfying.

Also, it’s a fake-relationship fic which is always it for me. Give me all of the casual intimacy of a couple and all of the angst of a slow burn wrapped in one delicious fic. I’m obsessed with the rules they make in the beginning and the rules they break along the way. I’m a sucker for the ‘idiots to lovers’ tag, for the way that both of them feel they aren’t worthy of the other, that they could never be loved in return. *chef’s kiss*

(An important side note: Their relationships with their friends are beautiful and heartwarming in so many ways. Their respective found-families and the unconditional love they receive from them hit me in the feels repeatedly. I fell in love with Snaffles, and the version of Scorpius in this fic owns my entire heart.)

But most importantly for me, Harry and Draco in this fic are written absolutely perfectly in their imperfections.

Fics that deal with trauma in a realistic (and sometimes painful way) are my favorite and I love the look into both of their psyches in this story. Draco is so very much himself in this fic; he’s strong and he’s brilliant, he’s sarcastic and devastating; he’s all of the things that make reading about Draco such a delight. The way that he articulates himself, the way that he holds his boundaries, the way that he keeps everyone at an arm’s length, the way he feels about himself when he’s at his most honest; I’m undone. And Harry! Harry’s flaws and woundedness are absolutely, stunningly believable. I would read all day about a workaholic Harry Potter, who can never measure up to impossibly high standards that he’s set for himself because of childhood trauma. He’s a gorgeously flawed character, who seems to be trying very hard not to actually find himself and not to deal with all of his own hurt. Frankly, there were times that I had to take several deep breaths and blink back tears when I was reading about Harry because some of it hit just a little too close to home and the words were so poignant and touching.

This fic is beautiful from start to finish, I hope that you click the link and give yourself a treat. By the end you might just find that this beautiful fic has not only healed something within our lovely boys, but within your own heart as well.

Thank you again to @drarrily-we-row-along for this brilliant rec and thoughtful review! Thanks for joining us in the library!

❤️ As always, if you find a fic you enjoy, please remember to leave the author a kudos or a comment! ❤️

Lots of Love and Happy Friday!

[esotericfaery]

With These June 2024 Downloads - Briefly, Black Moon Lilith through the Signs, Planets & Houses

Lilith is the dark, hidden wounded feminine, and her energy expresses differently for everyone within the collective consciousness. This month during Gemini (communications) Season, it’s particularly important to work with Lilith, especially as we’re square-heavy in our transits.

See my post, “Quick Tips for June 11th Through the 22nd, as They’re Particularly Difficult, Plus Good News Amidst Massive Black Moon Lilith Triggers”, for details on transits.

These tips work with any Black Moon Lilith transit, yet are particularly important to keep in mind for at least the rest of this month.

~

Aries / 1st / Mars: Dark sexual impulse control of lack thereof, aggressive power-plays between the sexes.

Taurus / 2nd / Ceres: Feminine woundedness expressed within mother / daughter dynamics, and how that effects values and material resources.

Gemini / 3rd / Mercury: Healing through, or wallowing within interpersonal duality themes of literature, music, films, or the news. Charismatic words, whether trickery or service towards others. Sexual harassment or other bullying, particularly online.

Cancer / 4th / The Moon: The security of space to equitably nurture and be nurtured is up-ended. The intensely passive-aggressive emotional mirroring of manipulations between the sexes, stemming from early childhood trauma or lineage trauma. Lack of desire for parenthood.

Leo / 5th / The Sun: Challenges to leadership, jealousy leading to smear campaigns, judgementalism of creativity.

Virgo / 6th / Chiron: (Lilith’s current, analytical placement for now) Vindictive competitiveness within challenges involving routines & health. Highly traumatic & confusing struggle to integrate polarities in a modern world which suffers abuses within the medical system, and social restrictions upon healthy emotional expression.

Libra / 7th / Venus: (Lilith enters diplomatic Libra on June 29th) One on one interactions explode between the sexes, particularly in romance. Indecision increases. Radical views of femininity or against other traditional values crop up. Maintaining close relationships of any type becomes difficult to, in some instances, impossible. Diplomacy can be twisted into egotistical control.

Scorpio / 8th / Pluto: Lilith is most similar to the transformative push here. This is crisis energy when new, and, fittingly so, highly rewarding when integrated. Psychic power and emotional depth are strongly inherent here, even when unaspected. This sometimes indicates either the abused or the abuser, particularly within sexuality. Rebellion is common within loans & debts.

Sagittarius / 9th / Jupiter: Repression of freedom within belief systems. Rebellion within approaches to travel & continuing education. Restriction of adventurousness, and within multiple new experiences. Setting oneself up as a dogmatic guru or other master of disciplines.

Capricorn / 10th / Saturn: Themes of hierarchy & power struggles, dharma and public recognition are intensified within restrictive forms, leading to obsession in business. Fear of the power of the self, within rebellion of these lessons about aging.

Aquarius / 11th / Uranus: Forward thinking leads to shunning. Extreme repression, or overall embracing of innovation within rebellion, particularly in social circles and movements, yet ultimately for the collective of humanity.

Pisces / 12th / Neptune: Trauma leading to the desire to escape addictions or obsessions takes form in either self-destruction, or separation of truth from illusion within spirituality. This must be surmounted and transmuted into

[drarrily-we-row-along]

Hello, I've been a big fan of your blog for at least three years now but I wanted to ask what you recommend to people thinking about posting their writing/art online?. I'm a poet and I really want to post my work online but I'm terrified for a number of reasons. Mainly, about not being able to grasp people's attention. (And my work being stolen/ reblogged w/ credit but yk). I love your work and would really like to get your opinion on this.

Hi there lovely!

Thanks so much for the ask, I'm genuinely honored to be sent an ask of this nature; I'll do my best to give you my thoughts on the subject. <3 (I got a little long-winded, I'm really passionate about this. tldr; sharing a piece of yourself in your writing is absolutely terrifying but you should do it anyway.)

When I first started posting my writing (7 years ago?!) in the Sherlock fandom, I was so afraid that people were going to be mean. Literally the only way I could start posting was by telling myself that if everyone hated it, I could just delete it and pretend it had never happened. And I was terrified when I started posting drarry stuff on this blog and I told myself that if even 10 people liked it, that would be enough (I couldn't have imagined how many people would engage with this blog and my fics). Over 350 stories (ranging from 50-100k words) later, I still regularly get nervous about posting things.

I don't know how to get people not to steal other peoples' work. I don't know how to stop ai bots from consuming writing/art and popping out soulless shit because of what it consumed. There are no answers that I can give you on this front.

And if I'm being honest, I don't have the foggiest clue how to grasp peoples' attention. The follows this blog gets and the posts that get attention continue to be a mystery to me; I can't ever guess which things will gain traction and which stories will go dark (and sometimes I get pissy about it- my fic on AO3 with the most kudos is a stupid 1k story that I wrote in 30 minutes while stories that I've spent literal years writing do half as well, but I digress). And there are stories that I see other people writing that I'm obsessed with- their prose, their imagery, their crafting- that don't receive anywhere near as much love as they should and I can't understand that either. It often seems like there is no rhyme or reason to what "does well" and what doesn't.

Which is why I can't let myself get caught up in which stories are well received and which aren't. For me, writing and sharing things can't be about what will get the most reach because I can't base the story's worth (or my own worth) off of that or I'd never post anything at all. Don't get me wrong, I love for my fics to receive kudos/likes, comments, and reblogs- it's a euphoric high. But in the end writing has been about giving myself permission to be free to be an entire person without the constraints I put on myself day in and day out. It's been about putting into words all of my darkness, my fears, my failings, my desires, my wants and needs along with all of my beauty, and strength, and joy, and hope. It's been putting my heart down on a page and believing that the response I receive is less important than the process of self discovery. Over and over, I've written myself the life I want to have; I've written the type of partner I want to have, the type of partner I want to be; I've written about healing and self discovery. Writing for me has been a way to fall in love with myself over and over again, to heal woundedness, to offer myself some hope, some comfort, a dose of encouragement and bravery, a little bit of tenderness when it was scarce.

Reading fanfiction when I was in my early twenties saved my life. I'm not saying this to be dramatic, it is actually true. Reading fanfiction saved me from an abusive relationship and helped to keep me from going back. Reading fanfiction taught me what it meant to be loved well and it changed my standards for myself forever. Part of my desire to pour back into this community stems from that. If there is even one person whose life can be touched in that way, who can realize how lovable they are, who can see how they deserve to be treated and loved, my time was well spent.

I'm not saying that has to be your reason for sharing the gift of yourself. We all write and create for different reasons. But I do believe that all humans were made to create and we were all made to share ourselves in what we make. Share your words for you. Share them as an act of rebellion. Share them as an act of war or change. Share them as a way to express the deepest emotions of your being. Share them because they are a part of your own soul. Share them as an act of self-love and a way of honoring the unrepeatable, beautiful person that you are. Whatever your reason for sharing your words, make it a reason that is about you. You deserve to be seen and loved, to be known in a way that can only happen when you give yourself permission to be vulnerable. There are, in my humble opinion, few things that bare your soul the way that sharing something you've created does. Love yourself enough to give yourself away.

[jamietukpahwriting]

Shame about woundedness keeps many people from seeking healing. They would rather deny or repress the reality of hurt. In our culture we hear a lot about guilt but not enough about the politics of shame.

—All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks

[a-servant-of-the-secret-fire]

The most human characters in Blade Runner 2049 are the ones who aren’t human at all. Nearly all of the human characters in the film are the ones who act most like machines. They’re the most cold, the most utilitarian. Their care for others is based on the use they can get out of them. Humanity views others as objects. Yet Officer K reprograms Joi, a sex AI, designed purely for the sexual gratification of human beings, into a real companion who he simply wants to share his life with. He values Joi for who she is, though her identity, like K’s, is an artificial creation of humanity. The objects treat others as humans while the humans treat others as objects. It’s easy enough to spot in the film, and easy to spot in humanity itself. But the hard part is to see it in ourselves.

It’s not hard because it’s not there but it’s hard because it forces us to look at our wounds. We have our coping mechanisms that turn others into objects. We might even have our coping mechanisms that turn ourselves into objects. I know I do. Robbing myself of my humanity is a habit I know all too well. Because if I’m not human, I can’t have wounds that are only human. If I’m not human, I can’t have trauma.

I’ve never experienced trauma. I’m fine.

That’s the lie I told myself for almost my entire life.

If I don’t have trauma, I don’t have to heal from it. My coping mechanisms are fine. I don’t need to change anything. Because I don’t want to, even when I’m forced to admit my habits are unhealthy. I want to continue as is.

I can’t do that. It isn’t sustainable, and it won’t make me happy.

But if I’m not human, I don’t need to be happy.

So the self-objectification continues until I confront my own humanity and accept that I have the dignity proper to the human person, that I was created by love and for love. The ones who have traumatized me probably have the same problem themselves. They objectify themselves and don’t see their own dignity and so treat others like they treat themselves. They see Christ’s command to “love your neighbor as yourself,” and they really do so, in the strict sense. Yet they don’t realize that implicit in the commandment is that one loves themselves. And only in this way can one harmonize the two commandments, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and “Love one another as I have loved you.”

If one is to love one’s neighbor as oneself and love one’s neighbor as God loves them, then it logically follows that one is to love oneself as God loves them as well.

Yet there’s another struggle that I’ve had. Sure, God loves everyone and He loves the others that I see, and He wants them to go to heaven, but that’s just the way things are for other people. I’m different. I’m special. Does God really care about me? Does He love me? Does He see my pain and all the pain that others, even the religious, even my own family have inflicted upon me?

Logically I know that the answer to all of those questions is yes. That I’m not special. I know that even viewing myself as special in this regard is a result of the sin of pride, but I have a hard time actually accepting these things in my lived experience. My own father wounds have been imprinted in my heart upon God the Father. And I have trouble going to God without feeling the own wounds my father gave me.

God is the great physician but what am I to do if my own woundedness prevents me from approaching the physician? “It’s not the healthy that need a doctor but the sick,” yes, but when I cannot bring myself before the Doctor, where are my friends to lower me through the rooftop? Perhaps that’s where the saints come in. Maybe the saints can bring me before Jesus and I can be lowered through the roof, or into the pool at Bethesda. But maybe all I need to do is cry unto the Lord, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” Maybe a simple touch of His garment will be enough to heal me too. Or maybe I just need to say in a simple, humble voice, “Domine, non sum dignus ut intres sub tectum meum, sed tantum dic verbo et sanabitur anima mea.”

I don’t know.

I do know is that I am wounded and I need the grace of healing.

Yet Flannery O'Connor was right when she said, “All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful.”

Yet painful as it may be, gratia non tollit naturam sed perficit.

I have made myself less of myself, and God wants to make me more of myself. I hate myself and God doesn’t. I can’t stand to look at myself and thus don’t want to show myself to God. I don’t want to do what Christ told the leper, “Show yourself to the priest.” And it has nothing to do with God or His instruments and everything to do with me and my own wounds.

I may think I’m afraid of God but maybe what I’m really afraid of is myself.

[vampirae]

Hey! What does it mean to have neptune conjunct chrion and Saturn?

Hello <3

When Neptune, Chiron, and Saturn are conjunct in a birth chart, it generates a complicated interplay that may have a huge impact on your life and personality.

Neptune Conjunct Chiron: Neptune is associated with spirituality, intuition, dreams, and illusions, whereas Chiron is associated with healing, woundedness, and the search for meaning. When these two planets align, it indicates a mingling of their energies. This combination might enhance your character's sensitivity and empathy. You may have a deep awareness of others' suffering and a genuine desire to assist and heal. It can, however, also imply a struggle to set boundaries or a problem discerning truth from delusion.

Saturn in conjunction with Neptune and Chiron: denotes structure, discipline, responsibility, and restrictions. When Saturn conjuncts Neptune and Chiron, it gives a feeling of reality, anchoring, and practicality to Neptune and Chiron's spiritual and healing elements. This pairing can create a conflict between the longing for transcendence and the need for stability and order. It might also represent a deep inner conflict or a sense of duty for spiritual growth and healing.

To sum up:

Spiritual Wounds and Healing: the alignment of Neptune, Chiron, and Saturn denotes that you have suffered from severe spiritual wounds or existential crises. These events may inspire your spiritual journey as well as your desire to heal and find purpose in your life. Empathy and sympathy: You have a tremendous empathy and sympathy for others. Because of your sensitivity, you can comprehend and connect with people on a deep emotional level. Idealism and Practicality: Your approach to life may be a mix of idealism and practicality. While you are motivated by spiritual aspirations and a yearning for transcendence, you also recognize the value of structure and discipline in attaining the goals you set.

Establishing appropriate boundaries and discerning between truth and illusions may be reoccurring themes in your life. You may need to learn how to blend your idealistic impulses with a realistic knowledge of your practical constraints.

Your own growth and healing experiences may make you a good mentor or guide for others. You may find pleasure in assisting others on their spiritual journeys and in overcoming the wounds they have endured.

[shammah8]

The Oil of Joy for Mourning The oil of joy for morning, or the anointing of the Spirit in lieu of that plenteousness of tears which naturally belonged to mourners,2 is a supernatural inner healing anointing from the Holy Spirit for God’s children to apply during their time of mourning.I remember many years ago, I met a sweet-tempered woman who had lost all five of her children in one night during a horrific accident. I was a complete stranger to her, but she opened up to me; for whatever reason, she felt I was a safe person for her to share her deepest hurt in life and the journey she went through to heal.

This inner healing doesn’t mean she forgets her children or that they are no longer an important part of her life. What it does mean is that in His great mercy for her, He goes into the secret crevices of her soul, her mind, and her emotions, and carefully brings her back into the stream of life where she feels safe to open her heart again to others and truly smile, laugh, and even dance again. What He does for this woman He will do for you.

Now, when I met this woman she had a sweet temperament about her, but as she shared that is not the way she was before her healing.

Unfortunately, after the death of her children she turned to alcohol, but it couldn’t take away the pain. It just compounded this deep pain in life.

She blamed God, others, and even herself for the tragedy. She became an angry alcoholic and very dysfunctional.

Before we finish with her testimony, we need to set the record straight on something.

Did God Take Her Children?

To set the record straight we need to look at this tragedy through the eyes of God’s Word. Did God take her children? According to John 10:10, it is the thief, satan, who comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy—not God.

Continuing on in this passage, Jesus tells us that He came to give us life and life in abundance. So let me ask you again, “Did God take her children?” No, He did not; satan did.

But you say, “He allowed it!” What He allows to every person is a free will. The freedom to make choices, both big and small. Sometimes we make wrong decisions, and even a seemingly harmless one can causegrave consequences. So am I saying it’s the fault of humans? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. Quite frankly, putting the blame for a tragedy on God or on a person doesn’t bring healing. What does bring healing is the truth.

What is the truth in these matters? John 16:33 tells us that “in the world you will have tribulation,” meaning in this world we will pass through difficult times, not because God has ordained it but because we have an enemy, satan, who is bent upon our destruction.

If you blame anyone, then you need to blame satan. He is the one responsible. Jesus is your helper in time of need.

Apply the Oil of Joy

Despite her anger, bitterness, and alcoholism, she had a few friends who remained faithfully at her side. Somewhere along the line, her friends had found the greatest healer of all, Jesus Christ. They shared Him with her, and she accepted Him as her Savior and made Him her Lord.

He went into those deep, dark crevices of her soul, and He shed the light of His healing Word and brought her back to the place called “life” where she was again able to smile, laugh, love, function, and even dance again. This did not happen overnight; it was a process. He continued to heal the woundedness of her soul as she allowed Him entrance.

I want to give you these words sung by David in Psalm 30:11, “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.”👏B Dvorak

[graceatthemargins]

The Healing Poet?  

(Inspired by R S Thomas) Dipping his head the poet drank from the depths of his soul, there in his woundedness lay memories of such pain, Remember me they cry, we can wound again, write us out, share our bane. ——– Still,      he wrote,  and I’ve heard, a despair sore, poems written, stored, but a lost souls connected with his canting one, sources new strength like a bird chiming in a…

[skepwith]

trauma is not sacred

violence is not special pain is not holy suffering does not make angels abuse defines no one you are more than the things that hurt you you are more than the people you have hurt do not make an altar to your woundedness do not make a fetish out of mine a body belongs to no one a memory is not made to be eaten does it titillate you to hear about assault if i told you my story, would you swallow it whole if i confessed my sins would you feed me to the beasts to purge your own i will show you mine if you show me yours we have all seen the darkness now give us the dawn tell me about the joy you keep in the hollow spaces between your bones tell me again how you laughed when you realized that you were not wholly unlovable i’ll tell you again how i cried when my best friend told me that I was not a bad person remember how we used to count the lines on our palms when we were little how we used to try to read the future for its gifts how we used to make lists of the things we would dream of when finally we were free i will make you a list of the things i’m grateful for i will sing you a litany of reasons to be alive i want to know the songs you wake up for in the morning i want to marvel at the unbelievable graciousness of your being i know that i am capable of pouring love like lavender oil into your cupped palms there is forgiveness like honey pooled in the chambers of our hearts you are the thing i am most grateful for all bodies know how to heal themselves given enough time all demons carry a map of heaven and their scars beneath the skin of every history of trauma                 there is a love poem waiting deep below

Kai Cheng Thom, “trauma is not sacred” from a place called No Homeland. © 2017 by Kai Cheng Thom.

[esotericfaery]

2024 Black Moon Lilith Return

As difficult as She can be, don’t let anyone convince you that you can never have beautifully empowering experiences with Lilith. My Lilith

As difficult as She can be, don’t let anyone convince you that you can never have beautifully empowering experiences with Lilith.

My Lilith return is on Wednesday, and it’s shaping up to be a good one, cause it involves two grand trines, and three mystic rectangles. All of those aspect patterns are in fire and air signs. This provides me with multiple packets of balance, structure, and harmony, particularly in the areas of both intellectual and high, outgoing energy. Where I’m at in my life now, though in many instances they can be a struggle to integrate, these mystic rectangles are a core of strength.

As my natal chart is more earth and water heavy; concerned more with practical groundedness and deep emotions, I’m not used to so much air and fire energy, but I’m already sensing and enjoying this. As Lilith is an energy of feminine rage and repression, this is a burst of massive ease in healing such issues.

Lilith is prominent for me, because in my natal chart She’s highly aspected, particularly through close transits involving my asteroids & Pluto (deep transformation), so this return is a real gift.

So with all of the other work I’ve been doing over the past while, including healing from all of my past romances and becoming celibate again, I don’t anticipate encountering any experiences which are too difficult for me to handle.

The current North Node (conjunct my natal Ascendant) in my 1st house and South Node (conjunct my natal Descendant, Vertex, Mercury, & Saturn) at my 6th cusp to my 7th (where Lilith in Libra is), indicates resolution of regular ego and health issues which related to one-on-one relationships, through my work with energies from other lifetimes which have helped me reach karmic balance and justice in this life.

The Ascendant / Descendent adds self-awareness and how I want (have wanted) others to perceive me in romance, the Vertex is fate, Saturn is stable and responsible structure, and Mercury is thought and communications. I’ve already experienced improvement in those areas since Lilith entered Libra in April and began to help me to come out of repression and back into innate alignment.

If I hadn’t been so serious at my shadow work the past few years and finally come back to the right path of celibacy, then I would be at risk of all of the above being twisted into lack during this return.

Lilith begins Her journey as repressed woundedness which often leads to some form of rebellion, and finishes as solid feminine empowerment.

Now I get why I’ve gone through these long periods over the last couple of years of happening (often daily) to check the time at 1:11 and 11:11, usually multiple times a day, and why that has picked back up in the last few days. My Ancestors are with me, congratulating me on closing off this cycle.

Gratitude.

[riszellira]

Feast of Saint Thomas, Apostle

Reflection: Healing

Everyone wants to be healed. But most of us want healing—bodily healing, healing of relationships, spiritual healing—in a painless way. Hurting for a long time, we do not like any further pain.

The Gospel story about Thomas challenges us. The Apostle had followed Jesus for around three years. He had been taken by Jesus’ “different authority” in teaching. Thomas was one of the Twelve who assisted Jesus, and he saw at close range many miracles of cure and other wonder works that the Master performed. He had hoped in his Master Jesus, but this was shattered by the events of Good Friday. Jesus, the one whom they called “Master and Lord,” was put to death. He did not come down from the cross when He was challenged by the Pharisees. And the Twelve went into hiding. He, Thomas, was deeply affected, and he did not want to invest in another hope.

No amount of stories, no amount of joint testimonies by even more than two persons—as was the Jewish custom of testifying to the truth—could ever give Thomas his peace and healing. He waited for Jesus to personally appear so that he could hear from Jesus Himself the words of peace, and so that he could really touch the nail marks and wounds that would show that the reported Risen One is the same as the Crucified One. Jesus Himself thought the same. So He appeared and let Thomas touch the wounds. Then Thomas was prepared to hope and to have the faith—that he even travelled to faraway India to preach about the Master.

True healing has no shortcuts. The woundedness has to be confronted. The issues cannot be simply glossed over. Hurting reality cannot be healed by realizations. Only another reality can mend hurting reality. Pain, to be healed, needs to be shocked. Surgery, not palliative “feel-good” therapies, is needed. Reality must be overcome by the power of Truth.

~Fr. Domie Guzman, SSP

Do you have any “wounds” that you have glossed over and have taken for granted through the years? Touch your wounds and be healed by Jesus’ healing love.

Heal me, Lord, of my wounds. Make me whole. Amen.

Prayer

… for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the unborn.

… for the strength and healing of the sick.

… for the healing and peace of all families.

Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most.

GOD BLESS!

[pennstateuniversitypress]

Q&A with Loretta Victoria Ramirez

The author of The Wound and the Stitch: A Genealogy of of the Female Body from Medieval Iberia to SoCal Chicanx Art discusses rhetorics of woundedness, using historical rhetorical genealogies as acts of decolonization, and more.

Could you define rhetorics of woundedness?

Rhetorics of woundedness renders reality through the perspective of one whose woundedness has been undetected, disregarded, misdiagnosed, or superficially bandaged. This rhetoric exposes autobiography in its most vulnerable states to confront audiences, discomforting them out of passivity and into accountability. Displays of woundedness transform audiences into witnesses. Encounters with wounds additionally prompt audience action—to tend to the wound or deliberately let the injury fester. Rhetorics of woundedness is advocacy rhetoric, recruiting supporters while demarcating oppositional forces. While examining wounds is essential, the rhetoric avoids fetishizing wounded states, focusing instead on precariously stitched states and signifying delicate ephemeral healing amidst still-active assaults. Woundedness remains visible as an insistent marker that the public sphere is held accountable for examining historical conditions wherein violence against bodies is continuous and systematized. This violence may be physical, symbolic, linguistic, or academic, and is overwhelmingly related through female testimony. Indeed, rhetorics of woundedness has been historically associated with women.

How can the Latinx population benefit from learning about rhetorics of woundedness?

Latina artists, writers, and theorists have contributed enormously to shaping rhetorics of woundedness. In visual rhetorics, an illustrious contributor is Frida Kahlo, who emphasizes an unmaking of body to envision new states of being. In textual rhetorics, we see foundational works by Chicana writers such as Cherríe Moraga, Gloria Anzaldúa, Ana Castillo, Emma Pérez, and Alicia Gaspar de Alba, who mobilize theories of the flesh wherein rhetors’ lived experiences generate knowledge of women’s embodied realities to petition for reform and justice. Latinx populations benefit from learning about the rhetorics of woundedness since the rhetoric is entrenched in Latinx cultural rhetorics and recognizes women’s contributions to a distinct line of cultural rhetorics with deep historical roots. Thinking of these roots, I am reminded of my students’ quick recognition of cultural rhetorical strategies when we discuss articulations of woundedness. I teach in an ethnic studies department, and many of my students are first-generation Latinas. Within this demographic, students often express emotions of fragmented identities as they daily navigate multiple social and cultural settings but do not sense their belonging in any of those spaces. Many of my students have learned that voicing the hurt of unbelonging activates a rhetorical belonging within a cultural genealogy that exposes wounds to challenge biases. Realization of rhetorical belonging is profound. Indeed, the cover of The Wound and the Stitch features a self-portrait by my former student, Ana Berrelleza, who has situated herself within rhetorics of woundedness and discovered not only a sense of belonging but also personal empowerment.

How can historical rhetorical genealogies serve as acts of decolonization?

I map rhetorics of woundedness as a continuity of historical rhetorics of the body, rooted in two prominent rhetorical inheritances: late-medieval female Iberian Franciscan devotional rhetorics and Mesoamerican concepts of securing stability, or nepantla, during turmoil. Yet ruptures in these rhetorical lineages manifest notably in late twentieth-century rhetorics that recentralize woundedness to express not devotional sacrifice but disproportionate losses wherein Chicanas are systematically targeted to surrender self, body, and opportunity. Many of these losses are rooted in colonial histories that still impact living conditions. Rhetorics of woundedness positions colonial wounds to serve concurrently as accusations of assault and testaments of survival. As I trace the female rhetorical genealogy of the rhetoric, I am most invested in ways Chicana adaptations disrupt normative rhetorical patterns to guide modern Chicanx rhetorics. This is the chief purpose of The Wound and the Stitch—to illustrate contemporary inheritors of rhetorics of woundedness as stepping outside European narrative frameworks to repurpose historical rhetorics for more immediate agendas focused on self-empowerment.

The Wound and the Stitch: A Genealogy of of the Female Body from Medieval Iberia to SoCal Chicanx Art by Loretta Victoria Ramirez is available for pre-order from Penn State University Press. Pre-order your copy here, and save 30% when you use discount code NR24 at checkout: https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-09727-5.html