Panther energy in poetry

This episode explores the poetic and spiritual significance of Sylvia Plath's 'Pursuit,' delving into themes of sexuality, violence, and the primal nature of both. It also examines the dark side of divinity from the dark Divine within the self, and the ways we use and engage that Divinity with tools, like oracle cards, which was the inspiration for this episode.

In this episode, I connect the poem to the animal energy of the Panther in the Wild Unknown Animal Spirit deck, speaking on the shared invitations of purging for self-growth, embracing the shadow- self through vulnerable, erotic self-love, and using the Panther archetype in relation to collective struggle and to make space for a new, brave, prosperous, and vital self.

My goal with this episode is to bring two of my great loves together, and show you how cards like tarot or oracle give super juicy, delicious meanings when we find them in context to the rest of our lives, like a poem. 

 **Trigger Warning** This poem does have elements of both a sexual and violent nature. If you do not wish to hear the poem, skip ahead to the 8:00 minute mark

Happy New Year! Thanks for listening. 

Research links:
https://thebadbread.com/2013/02/18/featured-poem-pursuit-by-sylvia-plath/
https://neuroticpoets.com/plath/poem/pursuit/
https://blackcardiganedit.com/newsletter/63-sylvia-plath-and-the-writing-of-the-pursuit/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwkXyHjgoDM&list=PL4D0A206C6E5E8CAE&index=2

My Links to Work with Me:
My Links

Transcript

Ashlie McDiarmid: 0:01

Hello there, dear spirit. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening to this episode from the Tea and Tombstones podcast. Tea and Tombstones is a platform dedicated to helping you root into nourishment through the haunted darkness and claim your hallowed ground through tarot education, spell crafting, spiritual coaching and nature- based services. My name is Ashlie, the creator and wolf-child of Tea and Tombstones, and I welcome you here. In today's episode, I would like to honor my two great spiritual loves, and possibly start a recurring episode theme. The other day, I was going through my daily pull, and I turned, I was working with the Wild Unknown Animal Spirit deck from Kim Krants from the Wild Unknown brand, and I turned over the Panther. I love big cats. They just... they're so beautiful. They're so majestic. They're so powerful. They're so graceful, and when I turned over this card, I immediately thought of the poem "Pursuit" by Sylvia Plath, who's one of my favorite poets of all time. And I mentioned that in the introduction episode again, that I wanted to try to figure out a way to bring poetry into the podcast, and I didn't really know how I was going to do that. I've been sitting and sitting and sitting on this idea, and I think what I would like to do is do something that's considered like a poem meditation, or a theme meditation, really just emphasizing a certain theme, a certain animal, a certain focus, and share a poem that speaks to this theme, or this focus, and just go deeper into the energies that combine these and how we can use both the poem and the card to really be of service. So, that is what we're going to be talking about today, a I'm super excited. I hope that this is something that you guys like. If you do like it, please let me know on Instagram or wherever you want to contact me... email, because I want to make sure that I'm obviously creating episodes that are authentic to to me, to my platform, to the Tea and Tombstones brand, but I also want to make sure that they are of service to you because that's why I created the podcast in the first place. So, if this is an episode that you like, please let me know. Also, please give it a rating so I can see that this is something you like. So the first thing that I would like to do is share the poem"Pursuit," and discuss some of the themes and images, and why I wanted to share this poem in relation to the card the Panther from the Wild Unknown Animal Spirit deck. Before I begin reading this poem, I would just like to put out a preface that there may be some trigger warnings with this poem. This poem was written actually right when Sylvia Plath first met Ted Hughes, the infamous poet who would go on to have an affair on her. There are many people, myself included, who believe that that is one of the main reasons that Sylvia Plath killed herself, because of the affair, and Ted Hughes was also just a big personality. He was quite famous. He was charming. Women loved him, and it was something that Sylvia Plath had to endure. She had to endure him. I don't know a better or more fitting way to put a man like him. I'm obviously not a fan of Ted Hughes, and I....., but yet I love this poem, and I think the reason why I love this poem so much is because when we speak about archetypes, and when we speak about themes and the focus of a poem, and how it also transcends the focus, "Pursuit" is a poem that really emphasizes the hunt on both a sexual nature and also on a violent nature. So, what both sex and violence have in common is that there is a sense of primalness to them. And so in this poem, you will hear, if you haven't already read or not familiar with this poem, there are some sexual and violent themes and currents that flow and run through this poem. So I just want to put this out there. I was, when I was kind of doing some of my research, for this episode, I was reading a few different websites and blogs that I will obviously have linked in the show notes and some of them really mentioned that this is a poem that needs to be read in the right time and in the right place. So I just want to put that preface out there, that trigger warning, that there are both sexual and violent undertones and themes within this poem. So, if you would like to skip ahead, I will have a timestamp to when I am done reading the poem, so if you do not want to hear the poem, I will have a time stamp that you can jump to. So this is "Pursuit" by Sylvia Plath... There is a panther stalks me down: One day I'll have my death of him; His greed has set the woods aflame, He prowls more lordly than the sun. Most soft, most suavely glides that step, Advancing always at my back; From gaunt hemlock, rooks croak

havoc: 5:51

The hunt is on and sprung the trap. Flayed by thorns, I track the rocks, Haggard through the hot white noon, Along red networks of his veins What fires run, what craving wakes? Insatiate, he ransacks the land Condemned by our ancestral fault, Crying blood, let blood be spilt; Meat must glut his mouth's raw wound. Keen the rending teeth and sweet The singeing fury of his fur; His kisses parch, each paw's a briar, Doom consummates that appetite. In the wake of this fierce cat, Kindled like torches for his joy, Charred and ravened women lie, Become his starving body's bait. Now hills hatch menace, spawning shade; Midnight cloaks the sultry grove; The black marauder, hauled by love On fluent haunches, keeps my speed. Behind snarled thickets of my eyes Lurks the lithe one; in dreams ambush Bright those claws that mar the flesh And hungry, hungry, those taut thighs. His ardor snares me, lights the trees, And I run flaring and my skin; What lull, what cool can lap me in When burns and brands that yellow gaze? I hurl my heart to halt his pace, To quench his thirst I squander blood; He eats and still his need seeks food, Compels a total sacrifice. His voice waylays me, spells a trance, The gutted forest falls to ash; Appalled by secret want, I rush From such assault of radiance. Entering the tower of my fears, I shut my doors on that dark guilt. I bolt the door, each door I bolt. Blood quickens, gonging in my ears. The panther's tread is on the stairs, Coming up and up the So that is the end of "Pursuit" and I hope that I was able to stairs. read that poem with some justice given to it. If you listen to the poem, you can hear and as you take in the words, you can see that there are a lot of heavy and visceral themes within this poem. There's themes of a sexual nature. There's themes of a violent nature. There's also themes in relation to this primal appetite and this sense of divinity that is, perhaps kind of scary, and that is something I think that really stuck out to me when I first heard this poem was that the when we look to these divine archetypes or these.... these shapes, and these creatures, and these beings of divine holdings, that sometimes it's not love and light. Sometimes the divine, and the divine creatures in this world, and the divine in the form of archetypes can actually be, can be violent and sexual and scary at times. Some of the themes just within the first stanza is... that I see that I want to go deeper into is: the sense of insatiable, primal appetite. His greed has set the woods aflame, that.... there's this sense of destruction that comes with this need to satiate that appetite. She refers to him as a lord. She says he prowls was more lordly than the sun, which is... it's beautiful, but again, it's starking. It's a very stark contrast to how we speak of divine beings, and there's this sense of fire which is going to come into contact when we[errrr] going to come into play I'm sorry, when we talk about the Panther from the Wild, Unknown Animal Spirit deck because the panther is in the element of fire. All of the..... all of the animals in those cards are grouped by their elemental association- so earth, water, fire, air, and then spirit, and the panther is in the element of fire. So again, we're already seeing this collective unconscious coming together in the archetype of the Panther. There's also this grace to him. "This most soft, most suavely glides that steps" so there's this sense that the hunt is graceful even in this violent, sexual, insatiable appetite, there is this sense of of grace and fluidity. Almost a dance, if you will, in the midst of all this destruction. It's also a sense of struggle when she talks about flayed by thorns, I trek the rocks haggard through the hot white noon." This is really talking about struggling against the power and the control of other in the power in control of the foe, if you will, or within the archetype of the hunt, the prey is struggling within the throes of the predator. One of the reasons why I really wanted to do this type of podcast episode is because as we end this year, I really think there needs to be, at least within my own narratives, I have noticed that I've needed to kind of pay homage and nod and bow down to the areas where there has been singular and collective struggle against that which we can't control. How it brings this sense of fear and uncertainty and how this sometimes the bigger forces that play make us feel like we're just trekking through the rocks in the haggard white noon. That's really.... it's very humbling, and not the easiest way. When I was working with the Panther card, [sic] the day that I pulled it, it really brought to the forefront, a lot of it brought to the forefront a lot of or I should say a need to, again, pay homage and to nod and to bow to the areas where I have been both the predator in my own life, and the prey. Excuse the noise. There are some people doing work in the condo above me. As we move on to the next stanza, the first thing in the very first line, which says"insatiate, he ransacks the land," there is this element of purging, of purging the landscape, and I think that in a way, that's actually quite a beautiful way to embrace and embody Panther energy as we begin this year that we just go through this purge. This almost indiscriminate purge of the things that are no longer serving us, or that are unnecessary, but that we're still holding on to because we feel that we need to carry them into this new year. And after the year that has happened, after the year of 2020, it might actually be beneficial to embrace and embody some Panther energy and go through an indiscriminant purge, almost a necessary purge, so that as we move into this new year there's the sense that we're not carrying or burdened by what is unnecessary or hindering us. We also see this in the next line, which says, "condemned by our ancestral faults," and I should say, with all poems, all forms of art that, obviously they are up to interpretation. That you take what you want or need to take from them. What I take from that line is that there's this sense of error and inclination, an inclination, excuse me, to destroy. That we have within us this deep-seated Annihilator. This.... this Panther energy is sitting within us and we have this ability to destroy for bad or for good. That's where some of the violent themes coming through that through this sense of violence, which is not... I'm not advocating that we go out and act in violent ways, but that we almost go through when I say an indiscriminate purging, that we do not go through this indiscriminate purging because we are actively trying to do harm, or we're trying to wreak havoc and chaos, but more that we allow that Annihilator within us, that's probably within our shadow, that's within the collective unconscious to have space to destroy is no longer... that which is no longer necessary for us. I also want to say with this sense of error and inclination to destroy, as it can be for good or for are bad, that we also recognize when in nature, the Panther, the Jaguar, the Leopard isn't violent because it chooses to be violent. That's the way of nature. That's the, that's the laws of nature- that there are prey, and there are predators that hunt the prey, and it's not pretty. It is nature, red in tooth and claw, as Alfred Lord Tennyson once said, so when we look to ourselves, again, not advocating for harm or destruction that hinders us, harms us or destroys us, but that we look at the Annihilator within the shadow self, so that we can allow past errors to be cleansed in a way. That there's the sense of destruction in order for renewal. We also see this collective unconscious with the singeing fury of his fur, which is such a beautiful line. It creates this element again, for me at least, that no one is above this. No one is, no one is without this. No one, even the Panther as he ransacks the land is actually the singeing fury of his fur is actually visible on him himself. So there's this sense that no one is above this. No one is safe from the shadow self. No one is safe from the need to purge and destroy and be both predator and prey. I think perhaps we see the sexual, violent, and primal nature of this poem nowhere more clearly than in the last two lines of the second stanza. "Charred and ravened women lie becoming his starving body's bait." The speaker, and I think it's also important to state that when we are reading a poem, or when we are looking at a form of artwork that we don't always associate the artist's identity with the artwork itself. That sometimes with the speaker, it's not always relating directly to the artist outside of the artwork, if that makes sense. But here, I see that the speaker knows of this destruction, and is both fascinated and repulsed by it.That really speaks to the shadow self because within our own shadows, we project out which that we have not accepted and embraced within our own self. I think that it's that this, these two lines in particular are vital and also sensing this sense of annihilation, this graceful but also messy dance of the hunt, that we're both fascinated and repulsed by the hunt. [sic] both We're both fascinated and repulsed by the the purging the ransacking of this, this metaphorical land. It's speaking to we don't want to engage in the hard work. We don't want to engage in the purging of that which is no longer necessary for us. But at the same time, we have this fascination towards this. It's almost like this attraction. When we look to the third stanza. I think one of the most prominent themes we see is the theme of shadow and eroticism. Specifically, the second line"midnight cloaks the sultry grove," which is such a juicy, juicy line. I get the sense that there's an element here that midnight needs to come in and cloak that sultry grove because the shadow self, the erotic self, the self that is engaging in this primal purging and also this primal hunt, needs to almost happen within the shadows, needs to be repressed and unseen by the cloak of midnight so that it is not awakened and embraced within the conscious mind. How we can embrace that form, those themes, or that idea going into the new year is that this is a year where we can really step into the shadow self, into the self that has been repressed and reclaim this erotic sense of self- love for our growth to be seen. Part of the shadow- self may have had to be put on hold, or embracing the shadow self may have had to be put on hold, because of the year that 2020 was. Such powerful emotions and situations may have detracted us from some of the things that we really wanted to engage in.Some of the work that we really wanted to do with the self it's very, very hard to step into a place of vulnerable, erotic self- growth and self- love when we are gripped within this global pandemic and the... the fear, the news intake, the... the uncertainty and the lack of action by the administration, that makes it really hard to find the time to be open and embodying this, these elements that we want to work on within the self. So, I think that as we move into the new year, and as we close 2020 I think that this... these themes are actually quite apparent and quite palpable for the new year- that we can really step into an embracing and embodying of this vulnerable, erotic, visible self growth and self love. When all of the other situations are out of our control. We also see, the theme continued with the line "lurks the lithe one in dreams ambush."Almost like there's this inability to ignore that there's this breach that comes in, this ambush. She writes, that the supple one, the one who is supple, comes in and ambushes her dreams- that it's there's, there's no longer a capability to ignore, and again, in looking to working with the Panther energy, embodying the Panther energy, I think that this energy really allows us to embrace and acknowledge where our own dreams were ambushed, put on hold. Where our self growth was detracted or hindered, or also where it was illuminated and where we were the predator.[sic] The Panther is not just we're the prey and the Panther has come in for us. We can totally be the Panther. Maybe this was the year that your dreams, or your work, or your embodiment of that which you want, you were able to fully embrace and ambush that even in the time of 2020. So that's not to say that we can be you know, we can be the Panther or we can be the one that the panther is hunting. So I definitely feel that there is again, this.... this theme of being unable to ignore what role we are in and how it is serving us. That we can't move into 2021 and not embrace our shadow, not move from a place of purging and self love and this vulnerable erotic nature to grow and to birth hat which we want for the new year. We can't... we can't move into this year the same way that we have perhaps moved into other new years because at least for me, I am not the same person that I was when 2020 started. I had to recognize a lot of my shadow, but I also embraced a lot of my shadow, and so I was both the predator and the prey in that sense. And I'm not... I know I'm not the only one I'm just speaking from my own personal perspective that this is where the Panther can be of service. That we we can't ignore it. Where you don't have the inability to to run from it, so we might as well embrace the purging, the destruction of that which is no longer serving so that we can invite in this changed self, remove that midnight cloak and allow the sultry grove to be visible, to be seen, and that soul tree grove is us! As we move on to the last stanza and then the final two lines. This is where I see some of the hard work coming in that is ample Panther energy, but it's not easy energy. The line states"I hurl my heart to halt his pace, to quench his thirst I squander blood. He eats and still his needs seeks food compels a total sacrifice." The themes there are obvious. It's sacrificing, purging, destroying. There's this annihilation that comes in. That's where the root of Panther energy is. However, it's very hard to.... it's very hard to work with that energy and still try to ignore or resist the energy all in the same space. So that in working with Panther energy, perhaps one of the first things that needs to be purged is part of the ego. Part of what we knew, part of what we wanted, part of what we thought we could attain, what we could do, or it could be purging something or an experience, a memory, or someone that is not, that's not serving us. It's like a... it's.... it's a sacrifice that the releasing of it is going to be hard and shattering and it's going to change the landscape internal forever, but at the same time, it's it's quite necessary because in order to move into that space of brave, prosperous, complete vitality we can't embrace that if we don't do the hard work of sacrificing the things that are not serving us, that are unnecessary, that are burdening us in some way. This energy is so ripe right now. This is the time of the year when many people are making new year's resolutions, and they are going to start trying to enact those and I don't know exactly what the statistics of failed New Year's resolutions are, I'm sure it is above 50. If you know, please, like comment on like my instagram or something because I would be fascinated to know. Maybe I'll find that and put it in the show notes, but this is a time where we see a lot of purging, or a lot of annihilating of old habits, old behaviors. There's this release of some part of who we were to make space for a new reborn us. A new, brave, prosperous, vital... a new, vital, prosperous person, many don't change the behaviors, the habits, the choices, the coping mechanisms that need to be part of the work in order to be successful, and that's exactly... that is the heart, that is the bedrock, that is the paydirt of where Panther energy resides, and that's why I chose to really sit with the invitation that this card brought forward, and I just kind of was like, "Yeah, I have to, I have to do the podcast on this because this is exactly what needs to happen. That in order to step into this brave, prosperous, vital self, there almost needs to be a sacrifice." First, there needs to be a sacrifice of a behavior, of the ego, of a part of the the heart intelligence, the mind intelligence, the body intelligence that we can't, we can't change without challenge. I was actually doing a workout today, because I took a fitness and wellness class this year, and I have really been working to try and just get into a healthier body and into a healthier state of being, and I was doing like a hip- hop dance Zumba type of thing today- it was actually really, really fun. Total sidenote, I'm not trying to like detract from my point here, but the I don't remember her name, I'll put it again, I'll put it in the show notes, but the the woman running this session on YouTube kept saying if there's no challenge, there's no change, and that was really vital for me in terms of Panther energy because it is quite challenging energy, but we can't change if we're not challenged. We can't go through this work unchallenged and expect to see that change and going through that can create fear. It can create resistance. It can create negotiations and bargains that we feel that we can hold on to this, that we will do this, that we allow ourselves this short term, perhaps gratification or that we consistently start and stop new projects so that we can see which one is a good fit. And really, it comes down to just going through that purging, get.... getting rid of and changing what is no longer necessary. That's really hard. That creates a lot of fear, and that creates a lot of hesitation and resistance, like I said, and yet at the same time, it's again, it's inevitable. It's... we're unable to ignore it. And I think after this year, as we move into a new year, at least for me, I want to move into a new year, brave and vital and prosperous, and I'm I know I'm not, I'm not the only one. I'm just speaking out loud, what my heart wants to say. It is... it is hard, there is fear, there is disappointment, and those are things that have to be purged, released so that we can make space and grow through the challenge into that... into that sultry grove. So that is the"Pursuit" poem by Sylvia Plath. I really hope that in some ways, this, this poem, this going into the energies and the themes, and the focus of this poem helps. I would like to just spend just a little bit of time talking about the card itself, some of the elements to the card, and tie that back into the poem so that we can close out with the sense of fullness and coming back full circle. As I mentioned before the Panther is in the fire element. All of the fire animals relate to transformation and change. These are the cards that are going to come forward when we are moving into and through change. So that means that all of these cards can present a form of challenge, discomfort, or moving out of our comfort zone. The Panther in particular, I think, speaks heavily to, to that theme of comfort, being out of our comfort zone, because if we look to the numerology which the cards actually do not have any numbers associated with them, but the guidebook says that the animals are placed in this specific order in relation to moving on the ladder of higher levels of consciousness. The Panther is the fifth card. There are fourteen cards, so just like in the tarot, there's ten pip cards, and then you have your four Court, and usually the fives represent the summit, the pinnacle, the conflict, the challenge, the change, if you will, the..., the alchemy. It's not always doom and gloom, I'm not trying to paint it, you know, in this dreary, macabre unsavory lights. It can feel like that. The fives really just are the alchemy cards, I see them as... they are the ones where we are required to pivot in some way from the structure and the security of the four into harmony... into the harmony of the sixes. So the Five is the pivot card, the alchemy card, and the Panther is the fifth card. And so discomfort, being out of the comfort zone, and moving into change, this is.... this is exactly the theme of working with this card, and so it may feel uncomfortable, but it's such a [sic], palpable, excuse me, powerful card. The beautiful thing about this is that when we step outside of the comfort zone and we embrace that brave, courageous fire within us, that is where the sweet good stuff happens. That is where the.... that is where the change is made. That is where the alchemy happens, and in the shadow, if we continue to repress or if we step too heavily into that, into that archetype, it can be... it can become harmful because we can start to create a space that is not serving us the other way- that we we become pushy. We become arrogant. We become vengeful, and that's not helpful either, so when we step out of our comfort zone, in working with this card from a space of wholehearted want and need of change, we embrace the most beautiful parts of this card. That through change and through challenge comes transformation. If we're not allowing the vulnerable, wholehearted energy of this to come through, it can be harmful. It can be destructive. I can turn back on us. The guidebook says that to bring Panther energy into balance is to get rid of the unnecessary, so again, that's I think that's why it's such a great, such a great card for a great day, and a great time a great threshold from 2020 to 2021. That, even if you get rid of one thing, really see what... where are... where are you the Panther?And then where are you the prey? Where are you... where are you in this hunt? Where are you in this graceful, messy dance of purging because with that also comes a sense of... comes a sense of lightness. There's this almost relief, this release that comes with Panther energy, so really look to see where you can purge something, get rid of something that is not serving you, and see how that creates, even if it's a sliver of space within you, or in your environment, in your home, in your put your whatever there put, you know, fill in the blank there, really see how even getting rid of one thing can really encourage that release and that light sensation to come in. For me, one of the things I've been doing is just really going through a bunch of my stuff, recognizing that I don't need to have as much stuff as I do. Not that I'm like a hoarder, but I am... I still have a few things that I've just... I've just been holding on to because I just do not want to get rid of them. And that's totally fine. I mean, there's no judgement. I want to make that perfectly clear, that if there's still something you're holding on to that you just cannot get rid of, it's totally okay. You do not have to feel forced. Because again, if you feel forced, that's where the shadow side of the Panther comes through, and that can do more harm than good. It won't be of service to you. So no judgment. Judgment is one of the first things that needs to be purged when working with Panther energy, but see if you can engage in this... in this space and in this releasing, this purging, this annihilation, this destruction and even if you need to, like physically, I mean just like you know, destroy something like,,, don't like go destroy like public property, I'm not saying that, but like one of the things that I had to do was I've been holding on to some makeup palettes for much longer than I should have, and I had to actually like fully destroy them because I've been holding on to them for so long and they represented this part of my glamor magic that was just no longer serving me, that I felt I had to hold on to them even though they weren't performing the way I wanted to, that I felt that I had to use the whole palette up because I spent money on it, and it actually felt quite good to like get into all of those eyeshadows and like you know pull out the chunks of... and like see like the colors, and the glitter like fall into the trash. See the you know just kind of see this destruction of something that I've been using for so long, so if you can and if you choose to it may be beneficial to engage in some playful, I say that very you know I emphasize that that it's not about harm it's not about destruction in the form of you know hurting someone else or anything like that, but playful destruction. Doing something so that it creates this release within you can be quite beneficial, so maybe see how you can work with that. How can you be more productive by getting rid of something? How can you be more in your own Panther space by going through this purging so that you can be released from judgment and from the burden of carrying what is no longer I think that's where I wished to end it today. I wanted to keep serving you? this episode a little bit shorter. Thank you so much for listening. Again, please if you like this type of podcast episode, please let me know. Please leave an honest review. That helps me know that these are the types of podcast episodes that you would like to hear more of. That also helps other people see and gain access to the podcast. Also, you can always show some love, share with a friend. I would really appreciate it. If you would like to become a patron you can... you can become a patron and then you will get a third monthly card. The next episode that I will be recording is the monthly cards for the month of January. So, if you would like to become a patron you get an extra card and you get extra podcast time. I would like to give a shout out to my spooks patrons, Lisa Zimmerman and Bobbie McDiarmid, thank you so much. This year was so much lighter because of the support that you showed and the support that all of you have showed to Tea and Tombstones. It is truly almost breathtaking. So thank you to my spooks. Thank you to you listening. As always, I will have information for all of the links that I've mentioned. And if you have any other inquiries if you would like to connect with me if you would like to work with me. And if you would like to see what services and offerings I have on the Tea and Tombstones platform, please head over to teaandtombstones.com You can also send me an email at teaandtombstones@gmail.com. I wish you all a beautiful, safe, happy new year full of blessings and abundance. I will talk to you, connect with you, in 2021 Take care... bye.