This is the second of a five part series on The Mysterial Sequence. To receive insight and support, join us here.
For several decades, my work has been dedicated to the awakening of women and of their leadership capacities. Through my University Women’s Leadership Development Programs, we were able to decode a developmental pathway that unlocked ‘evolutionary capacities’ in women, empowering them to be a match for these complex times!
If you’re just joining us, I highly recommend you begin with the first gate in The Mysterial Sequence: The Mother Wound. In our research with hundreds of women, none of the five gates arose in isolation—there was always a critical relationship between the Feminine/Yin essence and the Masculine/Yang essence. The Mother gate is where we land in the sufficiency of our being and relax into who we are. We overcome the limiting core belief ‘I am not enough’ and grow into the liberating belief ‘I am enough just as I am’. It is from this grounded place that we can then source our most creative actions in the second gate: The Hero.
The Hero
The Hero energy in women typically arises between the ages of 8 and 10, often before we receive too many messages from our culture about what we should and shouldn’t do as women. Before we are held back through these limitations, we tend to have a lot of energy and desire to express ourselves in specific ways which are unique to our individual gifts. But what happens to that natural impulse for creative self expression?
Why does it matter?
The Hero energy allows us to be a dance partner with the world! For over 5,000 years we have been in a paradigm of hyper-masculine culture with tremendous Hero energy. That was not wrong…it was evolutions way of moving the human species forward. But at this point in the global story, in the absence of a relationship to the deep ground of our Feminine being, that Heroic energy often burns too hot. We need to learn to harness this energy In order to engage in the world and make our creative contribution without burning out. We need to have the heroic courage to claim what is ours to do and then act on it.
The Hero energy is the aspect of our nature that helps us to:
- set and achieve goals and objectives
- hold an intention and a desire
- see a clear way ahead and move toward it
- say “No” and draw boundaries (in order to cultivate and say “Yes” to higher priorities and values that we hold dear in the deep ground of our individual being – related to The Mother gate)
- take risks: moving towards the edge and leaping into the unknown
- differentiate from others
- know when to pulse into action and when to be still
By first healing The Mother wound (our sense that we are enough just as we are) and then The Hero wound, we have access to the Yang energy and clearly know and can act on what is ours to do.
The Shadow Root of The Hero
Within the collective unconscious resides the limiting belief of The Hero gate:
The limiting belief of The Hero
“I have to do to be of value.”
This imbalance, or shadow representation of The Hero often expresses in these ways:
- Workaholic bravado
- Over-doing – valuing of doing over being
- Not being able to accomplish things, having an attitude of “I give up”
- Capitulation “I’m not even going to try”
- “I have no idea where to focus, or what is mine to do”
When the shadow work is done in The Hero gate, the liberating belief arises as an embodied reality:
The liberating belief of The Hero
“I am empowered to do what is mine to do.”
In contrast to the deep resting of the first Mother gate, The Hero energy is how we move forward in the world. When we embrace the relationship between these two gates, the previous battle between being and becoming is allowed to integrate so it is no longer a polarity that cannot be resolved. Both are held as healthy and necessary; ‘supportive of’ vs. ‘in competition’ with each other.
The healthy Mother and Hero Archetypes often express in our lives so that we are:
- connected to the deep ground of our being
- sourcing our doing from that deep ground
- connected to our unique purpose
- aware of what is ours to do
- not over-doing but also not being afraid to do
An Invitation
I invite you to take in these words from the poet Rumi, to inspire the healing of your Hero wound:
“Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”
-Rumi
As always, thank you for exploring with me. I invite you to explore the next gate in The Mysterial Sequence: The Father Wound.
