Artemis: Courage

 

 

 

“Wild woman are an unexplainable spark of life. They ooze freedom and seek awareness, they belong to nobody but themselves yet give a piece of who they are to everyone they meet.
If you have met one, hold on to her, she'll allow you into her chaos but she'll also show you her magic.” ― Nikki Rowe

Artemis never needed anyone but herself.  She reminds us to be independent.  She never needed a man for any reason.  She followed hr own intuition and has unleashed potential that, if we used ours, as well, we could unleash great potential out into the world.  She  believes that she/we can do it all and not even allow others to try to put our dreams and hopes, and willingness to try, down. 

We were all told, in my day, girls were better seen than heard, and that we must be good girls and simply be good housekeepers and prepare for this and motherhood.  We were not encouraged to explore our creativity, our big, wild dreams.  Our self-confidence was securely attached to our fathers and the generation of our mothers and grandmothers.  We were conditioned to be fearful and submissive.  To do else was to open ourselves up to judgment, critique, condemnation, and some, worse.  We were conditioned to be dependent, to accept surrender to men, to live inhibited lives and repress our wildness.

Right in our solar plexus is the wild woman we could, and should, be.  To dfo else causes all sort of health and psychological problems… you know, you have seen girls with eating problems, young girls with stomach ailments, young girls with headaches, depression and worse.  Yes, we have known them, and maybe we were/are one of them.

We have been conditioned not to listen to our intuition, not to feel our strength, our freeness, our confident bold self.  We can face down any adversity.  We can.  We all have times where we were full of fear but we faced it and in the end we won. Girls and women who are leaders are those who know the Artemis of it.  

Artermis was a decisive child.  When she was three years old, she was asked what she wanted for a present.  Her answer was that she wanted six things:

She wanted a life unencumbered with marriage and love.  She wanted a bow and arrow just like her brother had.  She wanted NOT to be dressed up like a lady.  She wanted a hunting outfit.  She asked to be able to bring light to the world.  She Asked for sixty helpers to be her friends and to help her care for her dogs.  She asked to be able to live on all the mountains.  She was a precocious child (I relate to that as I was called “precocious” too).  Her father found it so amusing he granted her all her wishes.  BTW, mine did not. 

Artemis always loved a challenge.  She works in and on us, too.  She gives light to the dark places we fear and lends us her courage as well.  All we need do is ask.  She lives to help the suffering.  She lives to protect the victims.  She was the first known feminist. 

She is goddess of the moon and the hunt, an expert with bow and arrow, and stayed focused on what she wanted ahead of her. 

I am an Artemis; a full-fledged Artemis from the reading and research, I have come to this conclusion.  It does not make for an easy life, all the time.  I have had to learn to temper my wildness, to be sure.  I have to simply stop being so driven and simply BE sometimes.  I have had to learn (and am still learning) not to take things personally, as a challenge or in offense.  I have had to learn to give others space and time, to find the expert in each child or adult I worked with.  I had to stop making snap decisions that trash my hopes and dreams.  Yes, I have had to learn to be Present. I have to learn, still, that I have to finish things I start.  I have had to learn to not be afraid of confrontation.  I have had to learn to be more aware of who needs me and why.  I am still very much an Artemis in the making, for sure.

Do you see some of Artemis in you?

©Carol Desjarlais 10.14.21