Essentially Athena

Image by silviarita from Pixabay It's hard to know what to say in times like this. My whole life, I've had the privilege of living in a peaceful country where I was generally unafraid—occurrences such as shootings or terrorist attacks simply weren't a part of our lives in an immediate way, existing only on the periphery of awareness and many miles away. Now, they are on our doorstep. Now, the need for vigilance is beginning to creep into our lives too.  What I'd like to stress right now is that it is so tempting for this vigilance to morph into fear. I'm urging you to not let this happen. It's natural to question our safety and look for protection outside of ourselves when these things happen, but we need to start realizing that we have far more power over our circumstances than we think. Clinging to something (whether it's a person, an institution, escapist tendencies, religion, ...) out of fear just generates more fear (Lessons from Scorpio 101). And, in t...

You probably know the feeling — the one rising up from the pit of your stomach in distaste as you stumble across some magazine or newspaper column saying that you're  totally incompatible with Leo if you're a Taurus and you should probably  not  go skiing on Wednesday if you're a Pisces (your crush might ask you out by Friday though, so you're good). And even though statements like these are admittedly not completely divorced from astrological theory, it's still enough to make just about anyone cringe. But what if I were to tell you that astrology is so much more than that? Beyond all the generalized, superficial drivel, there's a world of timeless imagery and a wonderfully rich exploration of the human experience — the main premise of which being that there are certain basic tendencies and patterns of behaviour (in other words, archetypes) that can be found in each of us, the evolution of our lives, and the world around us.  "(...) forget everything you t...

It's easy to demonize authority. From Walt Disney's "The Little Mermaid" to George Orwell's "1984", it's been rehashed with strikingly similar motifs time and time again. After all, this is something we've been wrestling with since we were two and Mom or Dad told us to eat our veggies.  Now it's "Don't go outside.", "Wash your hands.", "Don't play with the other kids." — needless to say, it's got some of our inner terrible toddlers just a little riled up. W e all long for personal freedom: the freedom to choose, the freedom to express, the freedom to pursue and explore our dreams and desires without restriction, or to simply create a life for ourselves  without major interference. And yet, m any of us are currently being confronted with a level of control and, let's face it, semi-totalitarianism that we've never personally experienced so far in our lifetime, even if it is for t...

Photo credit: Aaron Burden (via Unsplash) If you're interested in some of my older writings, you can find them on my second blog,  The Dustbunny Archives . There are a few movie and music reviews, poems, as well as general musings, such as:   "One Down, Four to Go" —  music review "Rose Hues"  — poetry "La La Land"  — movie review "Child Philosophers"  — anecdote "Big Hero 6"  — movie review "Millennial Musings"  — poetry, social commentary "Pipe Dreams"  — poem  "Really, GRAMMYs?"  — music review, social commentary "Irrational Man"  — movie review   I'm not planning on adding much else (which is why there is no option to subscribe), but if I stumble across anything I feel like publishing, I'll post it and most likely share via Facebook! :)