The Third Task - Navigating in the Dark

In this podcast episode, Edwina and Inarra discuss various tasks related to the story of Vassalissa, emphasising the theme of navigating through life using intuition. They recap the first task, which dealt with letting go of the overly protective "too good mother" archetype. In the second task, they explored the influences of the aggressive, manipulative "stepmother" and "stepsisters" archetypes.

The current task, "navigating the dark," focuses on Vassalissa finding her inner fire after being left in darkness. They relate this to connecting with one's intuition, symbolised by the doll in the story. They share personal anecdotes illustrating how intuition guided significant life decisions, such as moving countries or pursuing specific paths despite societal expectations.

They stress the importance of deepening one's connection to intuition and being attuned to one's body and surroundings. They highlight the role of intuition in making decisions that align with one's true path, even if they seem unconventional or against external advice.

The conversation also touches on societal influences that discourage trusting one's intuition, favouring external expertise instead. They preview future topics, including facing the "wild hag" archetype, Baba Yaga, and discuss their upcoming program, "The Doorway: Reconnecting To Your Wild Intuition" which aims to deepen participants' intuitive connection.

Overall, the podcast episode encourages listeners, particularly women, to embrace and trust their intuition as a guiding force in navigating life's challenges and opportunities.

Summary
In this episode, the hosts discuss the third task in the story of Vasalisa, which is navigating the dark and connecting to intuition. They explore the concept of intuition and share personal stories of how intuition has guided them in their lives. They emphasize the importance of trusting one's intuition and not ignoring red flags. The hosts also discuss the practice of meditation and its role in deepening the connection to intuition. They tease an upcoming program called 'The Doorway' that will help listeners work with their intuition.

Takeaways

• Navigating the dark and connecting to intuition is an important part of personal development
• Trusting one's intuition and not ignoring red flags is crucial
• Meditation can deepen the connection to intuition
• The hosts are launching a program called 'The Doorway' to help listeners work with their intuition

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:13 Task 1: Allowing the Too Good Mother to Die
• 2:11 Task 2: Embracing the Mean Girl Within
• 3:33 Task 3: Navigating the Dark and Connecting to Intuition
• 9:12 Personal Stories: Trusting Intuition
• 11:03 Advice: Don't Ignore Red Flags
• 18:14 Deepening the Connection: The Power of Meditation
• 27:11 Teaser: 'The Doorway' Program
• 31:51 Task 4: Facing the Wild Hag
• 32:29 Conclusion

Transcript

Welcome to Wise Women Stories, a podcast where we dive deep into the essence of womanhood, intuition, transformation, and becoming. I'm Edwina Murphy -Droomer. And rather than skimming the surface, we're here to unravel the true essence of womanhood and the layers that shape and define us. We invite you as you enter this sacred space to take a moment of solitude with just your thoughts, a comfortable chair, a warm cup of tea, and your journal.

And I'm Inara Ariane Griffin. Together we explore the journeys of women who have weathered decades of highs and lows and are now poised to discover deeper mysteries and mastery on their personal development journey. In each episode, we invite you to join us as we work to help you uncover honest insights and share profound stories that empower women to embrace their most authentic, wild, natural selves.

Hello, beautiful souls. Edwina Murphy -Drummer here with Inara, Ari and Griffin. And we are so thrilled to be coming to you tonight with the third task in our fabulous story for Vassalissa. So in the first task, we talked about allowing the too good mother to die. Now always keeping in mind as you listen to this that we're talking about psyche. So there is an element of seeing

these archetypes in our external world and we can certainly all relate to that. But most importantly, it's just the reminder that we're looking at the two good mother within initially, the hovering, the overprotective, the fearful that we get to let die. And that ideally happens during adolescence, but for many, many of us, it doesn't happen. And so it's something that we get to develop as we move

Then in the second task, we looked at the archetypes of the stepmother and the step -sisters. And this is where we allow the more aggressive, the unkind, the manipulative, the exploitative voices to...

influence us to, you know, in a way to be too nice or too accommodating or, you know, I think of it like being the doormat. We allow people to wipe their feet on us. so that comes through. We can embody those voices. And then when we embody those voices, that's the mean girl within, that's the mean stepmother within that says who you to think you could do and so on. So that's just a little recap of the first

two tasks. Tonight we're looking at navigating the dark. So this is where Vasilisa is leaving to go and get fire. They've let the fire go out and now she's in the dark. There's no external influences and this is where, as a reminder, we're initiating connection to our intuition. So this is where she really gets to dig

and she does this, they use in this story, it's using the doll as the symbolic of her intuition. So she digs deep into her apron and uses the doll, learns to use the doll as her guidance system. Clarissa, the author of Women Who Run With The Wolves, who's telling this story,

the doll represents the instinctual life force that is both fierce and enduring. So can you think in our perhaps of a story that comes to mind where you've this connection to that fierce and enduring connection to your intuition kicked in or served you well?

I would say it served me well many, many times. but in the, relevance to this, I had my life, I was born in England and I spent my early years in England. And then I would come over every summer to spend with my grandmother, grandma Ida, who really in some ways was my mother. there was something about the land of England.

that I would relate to in a way that it my land. There was something that held me here. There was something that worked for me or it was familiar. Those are the best ways I could describe it. And actually that was my intuition speaking to me as a child all along, because when I was taken to Canada, I appreciated the beauty of Canada.

But I used to say it's not my land all the time. It was a thing as a child, I would say. What I didn't realize was that this storyline that I created, that my land is somewhere else. My land is over back in England, came to the fore when after university, I had a big decision to make. The expectation was initially that I stay in Canada and the doors had opened for a very, I think quite

honorary life there. I had won an award in the film world. And so all the doors open for a young female director, camera woman, that kind of thing, you know, and the Canadians are amazing at that with the Canadian Film Board. It's quite famous. So everything was good in Canada and it looked pretty and it was all nice.

And there was this piece of me that was just saying, this is not your land. And rather than making the decision, I went on a backpacking holiday and I just never went back. So there was, that was intuition. And, know, I forged my way in England. feels very, very like it's a great place for me to be. I thrive here for all the reasons that I couldn't possibly explain to people.

except that it's known as the heart chakra of the world. And I believe that's why I'm here. But that intuition, mean, again, I couldn't have the conversations with anybody because it didn't make any sense. This is not your land. Sounds absurd. Yeah. That was my intuition. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's interesting. I've often experienced, what I described as where my

soul settles and it's in the country. live by the coast in one of the most beautiful places in the world probably. It's absolutely divine here, but I long for mountains. I long for green rolling hills and the mountains and that's where my soul really settles, which I'm sure there is ancestral wiring in there somewhere. There has to be. It has to come from somewhere that we have these feelings.

There's something in for those that which I do subscribe to the idea that we've our soul never dies. We're we're here for multiple lives depending on how that plays out. But I'm sure in past lives I've absolutely been in the country. It's where I feel the most at home. It's interesting in women who run with the wolves Clarissa talks about women creating

the motherland through our energies and through this connection to intuition and the wild woman. It's part of what she talks about, which is, yeah, it's an interesting part of the story. So the other part of this navigating the dark is looking at that element of the intuition that's handed from parent to child. So in the story of Vasilisa, the mother gives

her the doll, which is the representation of her intuition. And it's not until she, you know, we have this, but it's not until she leaves home that she really starts to use it, until she is in the dark and has no other guidance that she really starts to use it. And I feel like when I look at my life and the different chapters in my life where I can see where I was really forced to

tuning into my own wisdom. was in that, know, forced is the word for me in my journey. It's when my first husband left and there was like, there really wasn't anyone to turn to. I had to work that out and find my own grit and listen to my own wisdom. And so, you know, for the women that are listening to this, I think it's so important always rather

just listening that you're really starting to think about this in terms of your own journeys and your own experiences through life when you tuned into your own intuition. And one of the, I've got sort of three pieces of advice that, you know, that the famous question that people love to ask you when you're interviewed, if you could give your younger self advice, what would you say?

And I'm always tempted when I, when this comes up, I'm always tempted to point people to Helen Mirren, which has got nothing to do with intuition or perhaps it does. But you know what she said to this response? She said to this question, have you heard it? know? I think she said, have more sex in a sort of way. like that. I'd tell people to F off much sooner.

Exactly. have seen that. I just couldn't remember that. Somebody else who says have more sex. I always, yeah, it really stuck in my mind when I heard her say that. Anyway, it's slightly irrelevant, but just good for a giggle. But, you know, one of my things is never, ever ignore the red flags. my goodness. I can see in my life.

so clearly where I ignored that intuition. I ignored that inner voice that said, you're walking on dangerous ground and just let myself create stories about why it was gonna be okay and why I didn't have a choice. so I think part of becoming wiser is being able to see that with absolute clarity.

don't ignore the red flags and those red flags, you know, come up in all sorts of ways. They do. And I think one of the things that when you become very attuned with your whole embodiment of intuition, so it's not just a mental thing. When it stays as a mental thing, ooh, I should go there or this doesn't.

Seem right or all of those kinds of queries that we have in the head. What I've noticed in, I would say sort of spiritual environments, I've heard a misnomer there. And one of it, one of those articulations of it as well, you know, I didn't go somewhere. so it wasn't meant to be. I actually think that's a cop out. That's the cop

brain side of things. Intuition is really, really much deeper. And it's when you become so attuned with things, however you're set up, and we were talking a little bit about human design. So it would be maybe where your authority is. So I have an emotional authority and I feel things are off. It's like a, you know, an uncanny like woo, you know, there's something here that

really not for me and so veer away. And then there'll be equally something that it may seem irrational, like that story of coming to England, coming back after winning an award, after, you know, all this sort of so -called red carpets were open for a great life for me. It doesn't make any sense. And yet it did totally. I came over to London when it was really hard. And you're talking about a sort of past life you experienced.

That's exactly what I think London is for me. It's, I feel like I've been here many times, but there was no rational side to that. wasn't a thinky decision. Oh, this is a good or a bad thing. It's more on the gut level that we're talking about intuition that for no reason whatsoever that anybody could understand. as 23 year old just decided to up and never go back and live in London in a squat.

in, you know, it was rough, it was not elegant. And yet I knew it was leading to something right. Those levels of intuition. She also is mentioning in the book about the doll connected to fairy folk and leprechauns. And she's got a whole thing about that being an ancient form of wisdom, which we put into these little characters.

like dolls or effigies or, you know, giving us advice or whatever. And that's the sort of spirit of the land or the spirit of the place speaking to you. And then it manifests in a version of it, like the fairies and the leprechauns, which is historically so ancient. But really, again, it's that level of deep, deep wisdom that you're tapping into, which is guiding you to the right place, even though it doesn't may not

you know, like bright lights and it's all working. It's a tougher path at some level and yet it's the right path. Yeah. I've, you know, I feel like it's one of the, the things that we can see so clearly in human nature is this desire to always grab the new thing. It's there, you know, like what's the latest, the latest science, the latest, you know, greatest diet, the latest. We always want to grab forward into, you know, the, the

future where we're leaving behind so much wisdom in the past. We can look so clearly at what's worked and what's supported people and what's really nourished women's

mental well -being and connection and like all the fabulous good stuff and it's where we've really gone wrong. It's where we've let go of these rituals of connecting to intuition through the natural world, through other women and lent more into well this

doctor is the expert because he went to university so I'm going to trust him over what my own gut is saying or you know these all these various experts that we now have and the the teaching the dogmatic sort

messaging that we get is don't trust yourself. You know, there's always somebody who's an expert who's going to know better than you. Who are you to think you know how to birth your baby the best or who are you to think you don't, you know, how to educate your child or who are you to think? And this is messaging that is really challenging to get past. It's really challenging to close the door on those external experts and trust ourselves first. It's

that we don't want to take and utilize wisdom from other people, but we've got to put it through our own filter. We've got to put it through our own filter of intuition and truth. And I think this, well, I would even go beyond think. I believe very strongly that this is where we've fallen so off track because if we don't really

cultivate that connection to intuition, it atrophies. We stop hearing it. And this is another part of this story is that Vasilisa stops to feed the doll. So how does she feed the doll? And this was one part of the story that I had to puzzle over for a while because it didn't make sense to me. But she feeds the doll through listening to it, listening to her intuition. So the more that we make space to do

the deeper our connection gets, the clearer that voice becomes. But the other step to feeding our intuition, the doll, is to actually take action on it, to take action on the wisdom that's coming through. Because our mind will want to say, you know, that doesn't sound like a good idea because our brains, our reptilian brains are hardwired to keep us safe.

And it's not always the safest route that is the best route. Sometimes it's the audacious one, the one that's, you know, that we get to jump into on wobbly knees. So when you think about feeding that life force within us, feeding that connection to our intuition, the thing that is the greatest challenge

for all of us now is to turn off distractions. And I say this to myself as well, because the more I have my phone on, the more I'm listening to, know, or watching a movie or whatever distractions are that constant distraction, that is the stuff that turns off our connection to intuition because we can't hear our own intuitive voice and meditation.

meditation is one of your areas of absolute expertise. So you know, perhaps if you where did your meditating, where did your practice start with meditation in our? Well, it's interesting, because I went to Shiva Ray was in town last night, and she is one of the world's most exquisite yoga teachers and transformers

you know, I would say mindset, light, meditation, et cetera. And just the experience of being with somebody who is that profoundly skilled. I went so deep because I'm being guided by somebody who goes to those depths. And we don't find that in a lot of our world. There's a lot of shallow, right? Shallow waters is the name of the game right

But what happened for me was I basically had done some yoga in my 20s early on, it was actually even funnier than that. In the teens, one of my best friend's mothers was into yoga. But at that time, you could imagine that the look of the yoga, she was completely considered weird in a wonderful way. She wore white a lot. She must've been into the Kundalini line, but she also wore those

It does leotards, which has presto in the crotch, all of that. was the yoga look. At that time. Hilarious. And, she was very peaceful and very nice and that, she was my direct introduction to yoga. But I remember that I was like, okay, the outfits, my God, you know, the whole, the whole package, it was like, no way. And, but coming into.

My early thirties, I was diagnosed with a terminal illness at that time and I had done some yoga and then it was like, well, what's going to get me through this? And it was, need to find a life path. can't be something that's just, uh, you know, uh, shallow waters, right? It's deep. was facing death at the age of 32.

I needed something that was substantial to be able to deal with it and the mindset and the healing and all of it. And I knew that. And I chose yoga as a life path. It was like, right, this is it. And it wasn't gym yoga. It wasn't just movement to keep my body going. It was all about the breath work and the, taking myself into other spaces. At this parallel path, I was also

walking the path of becoming a high priestess at the same time and guided visualizations or activations because sometimes meditation puts people off. think it's staring into space and think you're nothing. It isn't. It's actually you can guide yourself with little stories or I'm doing this thing. So you can meditate on a flame of a candle. You can meditate on a flower.

That's a Buddhist technique. You can meditate on something. So it doesn't have to be as abstract as I'm producing nothing in my mind. And for me, it really works if I'm also doing all the breath work that I do. Breath alters consciousness like that. You know, we don't breathe in modern life. We don't breathe. don't, we're not even aware we're breathing. So if you just take those simple elements of going into nature,

going to find a beautiful place where you're already dropping into, you know, you're letting it go. And then you start to do some deep breathing. Of course, you can learn many techniques with it, but there can be something where you extend the breath by four counts, inhalation, hold slightly, exhale four counts, hold slightly, inhale four counts, hold slightly. It's a simple technique and

almost instantaneously you will be in a different space. These are techniques that have been done for thousands of years, sitting in nature, breathing this way, focusing say on one thing that you're looking ahead of and allowing all the conversation in the mind to just drift through, don't get stuck on a thought, just carry on. in the many years I've been doing this and I go very deep in meditations and I can do it quite quickly,

I get inspiration at that time, which is like direct downloads of information about things that I'm meant to do, including like even this podcast, you know, it's like how this happened was ridiculous. And I've said to Edwina, you know, I don't even know how we, how, why are we here? How do we do this? It was the decision -making was so easy because I've been feeling it for a long

And you're just the perfect fit. You know, you just, it just happened like that. But a lot of that showed up in meditation, you know, or what, whatever I call it. I don't really call all of it meditation, but deep psychic connection to what is my right path. I knew a podcast was coming storytelling. It's a no brainer. The world needs more story stories told. So I

My connection to meditation came much later. It was on my should list and I don't have time for this list. And yes, I, you know, it was on that list for a long time. And then one of the most darkest moments I've had to one was after my first husband left. And the second time that was really like led me to a, don't think I even want to wake up tomorrow kind of feeling.

was during COVID and I allowed myself, I've got a clear practice that I've had for years. I don't listen to the news, I don't do like I'm very protective of my energy and I got sucked in and I got sucked into looking at statistics and listening to what was going on in the world and there were things going on with my kids and my husband and it was just like, it was this spiral down, down, down, down, down.

And while I go down, down, down, what was happening to my nervous system was I just got wound tighter and tighter and tighter. And I stopped, I stopped sleeping and I was miserable and I didn't want to work. it was just like, blah. And I was like, right, what do I need to do? And you know, as I say this, it's was my intuition was like meditation. And that's when I started to take it seriously. So it wasn't that long ago, but the effect was.

quite fast. So that ability to unwind my nervous system and it was meditation, being in nature and moving my body. So starting to walk again and even walking meditation, leaving my phone at home, not being plugged in when I walked and it's such simple things, but it's interesting, isn't it? How we can know what to do. The knowing and the doing sometimes it doesn't.

quite merry, but when things get pressing, they do. And I'm so, so grateful now that I have that practice in place. It's amazing. It made some massive difference to quality of life. And it is through that that I've heightened that ability to really hear the intuition, to hear that voice, which has guided us together.

Yeah. And I will add a teeny weeny bit here, a little teeny weeny taster for our audience that how we intuitively ended up here together. I have, I had noticed Edwina for years, like I'm talking like seven years of this little face popping up in various ways. I didn't know her at all, but I had this deep resonance with her, like a feeling.

that something is happening. And I don't even know how to describe that. There was just, you know, every time I saw you and where we are leading some of our work together, because I feel we are being guided together to do these things that we do in our own innate way is to, to doing something called the doorway. And it really is going to be a program that we work together.

to help you work with your intuition at a very deep level. My background is initiating people on a priestess or priest path. so I've, initiation has been something that I find like better than anything, better than goal setting, better than, you know, planning, better than anything. Initiation is deeply connected to using intuition. And so we

I'm just giving you a little hint there, viewers, viewers, listeners, that we are actually going to do something where we work together and we take you through a journey and it's called the doorway. And for now, maybe you want to say something a little bit about that Edwina? Well, I think it's, I think it's the, the mystery of it that is so delicious. And it really is in like anything.

all the things that we're talking about in here. It is the story, but it is looking at your story as well as our story and it's building on what has been and so that we can create a vision for where you want to go is part of it. But of course there will be breath work and meditation and all the magical things that NRA and I have become masters at in many different ways over the years that we're gonna

combine those things to create a amazing experience. I'm very, very excited about it. Very excited about it. So I think that were the main things, but I feel, you know, it's a lovely opportunity as we look at these different tasks to consider it, you know, as you come out of this space of being with us, as you're listening to us, you can turn this

I really encourage you to think about this navigating the dark. is this, whether it is feeling stuck, whether it's feeling unclear of what's going, where you wanna go, whether it is a feeling of a change in a new season in your life, there's a transition happening, there's something, it is this place where you, we can fall into the trap of looking for somebody else

lead the way, but this is where once you understand how to connect to your intuition, it is this divining instrument that will be the navigation that will lead you on exactly the right path. So I think that's it for our third tasks tonight. If you go back, there is the recording of Vassalisa on its own if you feel called to listen to it again, just so that you've got the stories really

within you and you start to understand this more and more. The more you understand it, the more you think about it, hopefully you're inviting sisters, aunts, girlfriends, moms to listen to this with you and you can talk about it together because it makes a massive difference if you can talk about it together. And then we've got the fourth task is our next one is facing the wild hag. So this is when

start looking at who Baba Yaga is, which is just delicious. So fun. And I would like to say that a lot of people say this thing that went down the wrong path. You know, I've, I've went off path, off piste or whatever. And I would counter that with you can never fall off the path.

It doesn't matter what you're doing. You're always exactly where you're meant to be at any given time. It may not feel good, but you are on the right path always. you're exactly where you meant to be. Yeah. I think there was, there was a couple of lines, that Clarissa uses in the book. One of them was it changes a woman's guiding attitude.

what will be will be to let me see all there is to see, which is just another way of saying what you've just said, which is perfect.

She finishes this particular task with this intuitive function belongs to all women. It is a massive and fundamental receptivity. Not receptivity as one touted in classical psychology that is as a passive vessel, but receptivity as in possessing immediate access to a profound wisdom that reaches down into a

very bones. I love the way she rocks. Yeah, she's amazing. We love Marissa. All right, Beautiful Souls, that's it from us for this episode. We will be back with the fourth task next. So much love and bye for now. Bye for now.