BOUDICEA

Goddess of
Focused Energy

Boudicea was a holy terror. Her need for justice and revenge for the  rape of her two young daughters cost 70,000 innocent people their lives.  She destroyed everything and everyone that got in her way. Now, wouldn't you just love to dish out that kind of justice to hateful people in your life? Can’t do it, though. Not legal, and the karmic debt would be worse than the interest on a pay-day loan. However, you can learn from Boudicea.

At the time of the Roman conquest of southern Britain, Queen Boudicea ruled the Iceni tribe of East Anglia alongside her husband, King Prasutagus.  Boudicea was a tall, fiery red-head with a fierce eye and harsh voice.  Definitely a lady to be noticed! The Roman Governor of Britain at that time was Suetonius Paulinus, who was as much about conquering for Rome as he was about punishing anyone who stood in his way. After her husband's death his lands and household were plundered by the Roman officers and their slaves. Not content with taking all the property and lands, Suetonius had Boudicea publicly flogged and her daughters were raped by Roman slaves! Boudicea went on a tear.  While her battle was to keep Britain free of Roman control, even more of her anger and vengeance went into destroying Romans for the rape of her young and innocent daughters.  "Hell hath no wrath..." never rang truer than watching Boudicea fight against the malicious patriarchy of the Roman military.  In the end she lost the battle against the Romans and rather than be taken prisoner, she swallowed poison.  Still, she secured a place in British history remembered for her bravery.  

But how much of what she did was considered justice?  How much done to her and her family could be considered justice?  Just how much does justice actually have to do with right and wrong in our country so pledged to justice for all.

How many times do we ponder vengeance for some egregious wrong done to us or someone we love; innocent men locked away for something DNA will clear them of never having done decades later?  Something that captured the media in late 2017; women coming forward with secrets they feared speaking of decades earlier that ended up costing many of these men handsomely for their arrogant abuses.  And certainly if someone violates a child, surely it should be permissible for the parent to punish the predator as they see fit, up to and including murder of the perpetrator.  Right?  Unfortunately we, as a civilized society, live under the rule of law that says everyone is innocent until proven guilty...even when we know they are guilty.  And unfortunately,  based on the ever growing scarcity of truth on popular web cites in trending social media, it can grow into guilty until proven innocent like a fire storm.  This particular brand of justice can ruin lives long before it's proven to be false in an actual court of law.  The damage was done almost before it could be handed off to a lawyer.  This is definitely not justice.

It seems so unfair.  How can a civilized society allow anyone to walk about freely knowing they are hideous predators and murderers?  How can the same civilized society allow a man to be sentenced for life for a crime he was accused of by someone who was paid to bear false witness for it...or they had a personal grudge against the accused....or because the accused was considered disposable by the same people who sat on the jury that convicted him?  It's been argued that no one is innocent in life....if they aren't locked away for one unspeakable crime, they surely got away with other unspeakable crimes.  Seriously, shouldn't we be better at dishing out justice by now?

I buried a son when he was barely twenty-one years old because someone offered to pay his killer to get rid of him so he wouldn't be bothering him for the piddly amount of money he owed my son.  His killer was sent to prison....and the man who arranged the assault was whisked away by a wealthy father and never even had to testify in court.  Two people should have gone to prison but in reality only the one who was too poor to get a lawyer paid for murdering my son.  I didn't call this justice then and twenty four years later I still don't call it justice.  What provided me justice on that ride to the hospital to see about a son I was told had been shot twice visiting an acquaintance? A decision I made on the way to the hospital; to stay calm and remember people lived all the time from being shot. I reminded myself of the rapper, 50 Cent, who was shot numerous times, but instead lived to get rich writing about it.  I soon learned I was not going to be that kind of lucky.  When they told me at the hospital that the damage was just too great and they could not save him, I evaporated into anguish.  Later I recalled, on the way to the hospital, having "envisioned" a long line of cars with headlights on and I said at that time, "Please do not let me live my life in bitterness."  This was all it took to remove me from the bitterness I should have been consumed with, to this very day.  But such was not the case with me.  

I have never felt bitterness for this man, a young man one year younger than my son. When his mother reached out to me in the court room and apologized for her son's crime, I felt no bitterness.  I felt such pity for that mother, though. A woman clearly struggling with drugs and poverty, but still unconditionally devoted to her son.  A woman who would have to go to bed each night wondering what injustices her son had endured another day in a prison full of hardened, angry grown men.  I told myself she still had a son who would join her one day, but what kind of man would she get back from the scared and helpless boy who went in 8 years earlier.  And what kind of life would he have once out, as a convicted felon.  A convicted murderer.  Still, I felt no bitterness.  I am, in fact, an advocate for real prison reform.  I want ex-convicts to have hope, real hope, for a life outside the cells where they repaid society for their crimes.  I hope the man who took my son from me has found a way to redeem himself and is surrounded by people who believe in him and support him.  I earnestly do.

Over the last twenty four years I have felt anger for any number of betrayals and injustices thrown my way.  I have fantasized having the perfect opportunity to tell a few people exactly how I felt about them for the lies and mistreatment they heaped onto me.  My anger has not been tempered toward disappointments and failures throughout the years I have grieved for him, but I have yet to feel bitterness or contempt for my son's murderer. I have no idea where he is now or how he is doing, but I can honestly say I do not wish additional hardship on him.  I know when I made the request not to be bitter I was granted forgiveness.  All I had to do was send forth that intention and it was done.  I know now, that this one loss lived out in bitterness and hate would have destroyed me.  I know this to be true.

I have channeled his death a plethora of ways from donations to various charities to creating my own empowerment cards years ago.  I promised my son I would keep him alive even from beyond the grave.  I speak of him so often and in such a way that people who do not know I lost him twenty four years ago think I have two sons, which I do, but only one lives and breaths.  

My energy has gone into keeping him alive through me, not suspended in death by his murderer.  Anger can be channeled into useful, constructive areas. It is possible to free yourself of mean and hateful attitudes that weigh you down. With intention you can move on and move up, leaving behind your doubts and fears. Boudicea’s energy destroyed even though it was accomplished in honor of her daughters. That same energy can create in honor of loved ones.  Our focus can create or destroy.  It must be an intention we establish; to use our energy to remember life instead of death.  Focus!

http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Boudica/

TARA 

Goddess of Unconditional Love

Tara, born of Buddha’s tear for humanity’s suffering, answers our pleas for assistance. She reaches for, embraces, and then imparts a profound sense of love and peace to all. 

Hold a gemstone up to the light, perhaps a precious stone in a ring or locket. Notice how the light dances and sparkles as you move it about. Now, imagine that light is love. Send that ‘light’ into the world, to someone special, or to someone you want to understand better. Those "generous feelings" are needed in the world today but would that be considered unconditional love?

It's not a coincidence that gem stones hold such a fascination for humans the world over.  We are drawn to light that bounces from objects and the more brilliant the light, the larger the fascination.  We seem to instinctively know we are born of light, made from star dust, and created to sparkle and shine. It's a form of enlightenment that some people in the world today seem to share.

But is enlightenment unconditional love? Is unconditional love an intention?  Is it something one just "sets their mind to" in the same way forgiveness is achieved; something one must be willing to experience? Is unconditional love a willingness to see things differently, a willingness to simply open the mind to explore other possibilities and all other egotistical burdens are simply erased, for good?  Can it be that simple?  We just agree to needing nothing in return and regardless the facts, just impart our love to others?  If this is the case I would think by now we would have mastered our feelings of jealousy and envy and greed in the world today.  I know of no place on earth today where feelings of ego are not creating division and strife within even primitive societies.  So unconditional love can not be as simple as deciding it while maintaining life as usual in a stressful and busy daily routine.  I mean, I'm not talking Eat Pray Love mastery of the ego by monks or gurus.

Being happy is an intention, as well. But what about those people who seem to come alive in the face of defeat or failure?  Even in situations most people abandon for hopeless at first sight, that intention to remain hopeful and positive is there in some people. It's the perpetual cheery of Little Orphan Annie, or never-quit spitfire of Unsinkable Molly Brown.  Where does this unquenchable spirit of Can Do come from in people given to being described as unstoppable?  You see it more in times of crisis.  You see it bubble up from the depths of despair following a natural disaster.  Do some people require the test of a mass shooting, or Category 5 hurricane to put their pessimism and bigotry aside to embrace humankind without condition and impart a profound love to those on the brink of destruction? Is it during times of struggle for survival that we recognize a universal need all humans share; inclusive love and nurturing.  But this is not unconditional love.  It's a brotherly love that, thankfully, arises in times of great crisis.  We saw this after 9/11.  An unbridled desire to serve, to embrace, and to love, sight unseen.

Light represents love.  Light speaks of hope.  Light reminds us there is a reward for hanging on.  That precious gem on the finger of the woman loved and adored by the one who provided that symbol of a promise made is binding between the two sharing a journey together.  That gemstone represents loyalty, devotion, and unconditional love.  To betray that promise by either party is to remove the shine from that gemstone.  It will never shine again in the face of betrayal.  That gemstone has not changed physically but it now forever represents bitter loss once betrayal has entered the relationship.  So enlightenment must be protected, cultivated, nurtured, and respected.  But this kind of love is NOT unconditional.  This love is dependent on mutual or reciprocal love.  

The unconditional love Tara brings is not based on what one person deserves, or earns, or returns.  It remains in the face of betrayal, or scorn, or rejection.  It has the ability to do what is best for another, even if it means allowing another to leave us.  The love stays.  Tara seeks to meet you on very difficult terms in order to tend to the emotional or mental pain that being broken wide open has rendered you.

When you have been broken open you are exposed to the world.  You have no fight left in you.  Your grief oozes from you like a open wound.  You submit to the tears and regret and sorrow you have fought for too long to hide.  This is what is sometimes referred to as "praying through".  It is lonely.  It is painful.  It feels endless. It is at this most vulnerable time that Tara whispers to you that she understands and knows exactly how you feel and what you need. Christianity calls this the Holy Spirit. The Comforter comes to the Jew prostrate in grief.  Muslims call on the created Messenger called Jibrayil.

For those who have been broken open and felt the comfort and care of a spirit that imparted not only a feeling of healing but also an unconditional love that says nothing we can do will ever separate us from that Original love, they are left changed for the rest of their lives. That level of acceptance and comfort felt during a time of great despair and need never leaves.  It makes it possible to relate or empathize with others on a level they couldn't have known before.  People who have experienced this kind of spiritual intervention aren't guaranteed a life without pain or struggle ever again, but they fully understand they aren't alone in this world.  They are connected to a Higher Love that has been with them all their life and will go with them into death.

Unconditional love is love originating from God or agape love.  Parental love understands unconditional love.  There is nothing a child can do to separate a parent from that love for their child. Not unspeakable rejection of the parent, not unspeakable behavior of the child toward another person, not addictions to things that make that child unrecognizable from the child placed in the arms of those parents at birth. The same is true of God.  There is nothing we can do to separate God's love for us from Him.  It doesn't have to be accepted to be true.  It's not dependent on our belief or devotion to God.  It just is.  To know love and peace on such a profound level is to have been touched by agape love.....unconditional love.