Where Is the Broad Tapestry?

When in my turn I dance in your power
Aida Wedo se bon se bon
When inmy dance I turn to your power
Aida Wedo se bon se bon
When in my turn I enter your trance
Aida Wedo se bon se bon
Then I will see who will smile tomorrow
Aida Wedo se bon se bon
Then I will see who will cry tomorrow
Aida Wedo se bon se bon
Then I will see who will die tomorrow
Aida Wedo se bon se bon

--Haitian voudoun song to the goddess

The great force of the feminine acts through us, whether we desire it or not. Embracing that knowledge will not change us into someone else. It will simply let us become more truly ourselves.

I know this is true, and this is one of the reasons that I am working so hard to find my path again. There are days when I find it easier to embrace the truth of that than others. I'm all too often a shrinking violet, which is not at all a divine feminine trait, and this makes me wonder just how it is that the goddess can be working through me at such times. I cannot think of any goddess of any pantheon who could be described as such.

Is my own perception of myself then flawed? Should I be thinking not in term that are negatively passive and week, but suggesting perhaps that I am bending like the willow in order to avoid snapping like the oak, at those times when I do not stand up for myself quite as I should. How can I reconcile the way I judge myself, and the knowledge that the divine feminine works through me?

There are other times when I do feel the goddess at work in me and through me. Times when I feel I am being particularly strong, or times when I am being particularly maternal or loving. These are the stereotypical images of the Great Mother though, and I would hate to think that my own perception of Her has been reduced to such a narrow, shallow focus. She is and always will be such a rich tapestry of different strengths and intelligences, of many influences. Intellectually I know this - notI need to recognise those things in my heart.