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Posted by Ash on April 29th, 2008 in Goddess Energy

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I was reading this morning about the Goddess that is represented for this time cycle of April 21- May 21 (Taurus)
The Goddess is Juno and some of the archetype characteristics are:

Security in material things, insecurities caused  by feeling threatened by anyone or thing that seems to go against their sense of stability. Revengeful actions towards others, jealousy issues or fear of losing their things.
The irony in reading this was that at this time so many women I know, (including myself) seem to be going through a time of simplifing and purging of material things.
Actually, I think as a society in whole, we are facing this right now. Due to our economy upheavel, those who have had a lot and enmassed all they wanted, have found themselves losing a lot of it. Our planet is suffering due to our wastefulness and need to have things that are quick and disposible.
It has also made a lot of folks take a look at just what having things means to them and is all of it really necessary for happiness?

With the Juno goddess archetype, the lesson is to see that your things aren’t what create a stable life. Stability always comes from your inner strength, having a deep and fulfilling relationship with yourself, having mutual respect for others instead of seeing them as a threat. Co-habitating with a world of folks not just like you and feeling comfortable with that. Seeing that there is no need at all to fixate upon, much less “fix” something in another person’s life that you think is wrong.
That can be hard for women. Let’s face it, we are taught to be fixers. Some of us were put in the role of caring for others at an early age, way before we even learned to take care of ourselves.
Things seem to fill that void of insecurity and can easily become the focus.
Yet, there is nothing wrong with things. I believe life is to be enjoyed and right now here on this planet, we deal with things as a part of our everyday living.
Where do we draw the line?
Where is that fine line between enjoying life and it’s things and not becoming obsessed with our material things being what defines us?

I have had this conversation many times with my children. They believe they can have whatever they want in life, as well they are each focusing on their joys being in experiences, not things. BUT, there are things they are looking forward to having in life.
I guess it boils down to really asking ourselves the question: What do I really need to have in life to be happy?
Where does my happiness come from?
If it comes from how my things define me and what others think of me according to what I “have” then is it really true happiness?
I keep thinking about the family who was on the Oprah show. The wife/mom became an obsessive hoarder. She shopped daily, not for things needed but just to shop and after some time, ended up with a house filled literally to the ceiling with so many things, it took over their lives. Part of the process of cleaning out the house and to heal her addiction to shopping was for her to decide on what it was that she really wanted out of life.

I believe that what we all want, most of all, is connection.
To feel connected to life, to feel connected to others, to ourselves, to our planet. We are all connected, but we have done so much in our society to disconnect.
We work so hard at putting up fences, barriers and closing off our life force, the very force that gives us our true energy. Then we try to fill that empty space of disconnection with things, labels and well, basically “stuff”.

Here are a few questions we can ask ourselves to begin to see where we need to let-go, de-clutter and allow space for true happiness to enter our lives.

1. What will really make you happy and content with regard to your environment?
2. What objects from the past no longer define who you are in the present?
3. What does self-care really mean to you?
4. Where does your energy come from?

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