The Fifth Task - Serving the Non-Rational

Edwina Murphy-Droomer and Inarra Aryane Griffyn delve into the tale of Vasalisa from "Women Who Run with the Wolves," focusing on the significance of serving the non-rational aspects of the feminine psyche. They draw parallels between Vasalisa's journey and personal empowerment, emphasising the transformative power of mundane tasks as metaphors for inner purification and renewal.

Edwina starts by quoting Clarissa Pinkola Estés, setting the stage with Vasilisa's encounter with Baba Yaga, symbolising the wild, intuitive forces within women. They discuss the tasks Vasalisa performs for Baba Yaga—washing, cooking, and cleaning—as essential for reconnecting with life force and intuition. This challenges societal norms that often dismiss such tasks as menial, highlighting their deeper symbolic importance in maintaining life-death-life rhythms.

Inarra shares insights from her experiences studying yoga and traditional healing, where repetition of basic tasks forms a meditative practice crucial for spiritual growth. She contrasts this with Western approaches that prioritise shortcuts and outsourcing, underscoring the value of deep engagement and humility in learning.

They stress the importance of nurturing one's inner fire through passionate pursuits, whether creative endeavours or personal growth journeys. Inarra emphasises pushing beyond comfort zones to fully engage with life force, rejecting societal pressures to conform and encouraging listeners to discover their unique passions.

The conversation critiques mainstream narratives like the Barbie movie, which they find shallow and contrary to empowering women authentically. They advocate for embracing the magic in everyday rituals and reclaiming personal autonomy in shaping life paths, urging listeners to embark on their own transformative journeys.

Edwina and Inarra conclude by announcing their collaborative program, "The Doorway: Reconnecting To Your Wild Intuition," aimed at awakening wild intuition through personalized, initiatory methods. They invite participants to explore their individual visions without external interference, promoting a deeper connection to their psychic and creative potential.

Their dialogue inspires listeners to reevaluate societal norms, find empowerment in everyday actions, and embark on a journey towards authentic self-discovery and expression.

Summary
In this episode, Edwina and Inarra discuss the fifth task in the initiation of intuition, which is serving the non-rational. They explore the importance of discernment and the process of sorting what is worthy of feeding and what needs to be let go. They also discuss the tasks of washing, sweeping, and cooking, and how they relate to purification, creating a clear psychic environment, and nourishing the wild soul. They emphasize the importance of passion, creativity, and embracing new beginnings. The episode ends with a reminder that sorting and organizing our psychic life is an ongoing process.

Takeaways

• Developing discernment is essential in determining what is worthy of feeding and what needs to be let go.
• Creating a clear psychic environment involves clearing space, organizing our physical and mental spaces, and making time for contemplation.
• Passion and creativity are nourishing for the soul and can lead to new directions and growth.
• Embracing new beginnings and stepping out of our comfort zone is essential for personal and spiritual growth.
• Sorting and organizing our psychic life is an ongoing process that requires continuous attention and effort.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:12 Task 5: Serving the Non-Rational
• 2:39 Developing Discernment
• 3:32 Purification and Washing
• 5:00 Nourishing the Wild Soul
• 7:20 Embracing New Beginnings
• 10:54 Sweeping and Clearing
• 16:54 Cooking and Passion
• 22:36 Sorting and Organizing

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 and welcome back. Tonight we are diving into the fifth task in the initiation of our intuition following along in the story of Vassalissa. And tonight we're talking about serving the non -rational. So I'm gonna start with just reading the first little snippet from Clarissa, because I feel like it gives a great grounding in what we're gonna be talking about in this particular task. So the psychic tasks of this time of learning are these.

staying with the hag, acclimating to the great wildish powers of the feminine psyche, coming to recognize your power and the powers of inner purification, unsoiling, sorting, nourishing, building energy and ideas, washing the Yagga's clothes, cooking for her, cleaning her house and sorting out the elements. So not so long ago, women were deeply involved in the rhythms of life and

So in this particular task, we're talking about the sorting from this from that. And it really is about looking at developing discernment, how we discern what is worthy of feeding, what is worthy of that, of feeding that life force, what is ready to be, to die, to let go of. And as we look at this particular task, we're diving into the three different aspects

washing, sweeping and cooking. So in mythology, the woven cloth is the work of the life, death, life mother. And in the tale, Baba Yaga changes, charges Vasilisa to do the laundry, to bring this weaving, these patterns known to the life, death, life goddess out into the open, to the consciousness handling them, washing them and renewing

So whenever we think about, whenever I think about that purification or the washing in the river, immediately it evokes a picture of these beautiful women in India with their clothes, clothes in the river or women by the stream and these ancient rituals, according to my way of thinking in the Western world, we don't do that so much, but it

this way of doing things in a traditional way of purification. then, you know, it also evokes those images of, of people being christened or, you know, dunked under water in rivers and forever water has been a source of purification. And so when we think of it in terms of the weaving and cleaning the cloth, and how these different threads get to show their patterns again, and the old threads,

disintegrate and fall away, which is natural and the stronger threads stand the test of time. We're thinking about this in terms of not just the physical cloth, but in terms of our psyche. So it's not just, know, we're thinking about it in terms of energy as well as the physical. So, you know, I feel that when we think about this particular

aspect of this task in in washing. How do we use this? How do you think about this in our in terms of different things that have happened in your life where perhaps you've used water as purification or even in perhaps in meditation and through your yoga practice? Do you do visualizations that sort of a washing through the inside of the soul as well as you know, the

the, the lichel? Absolutely. I mean, it's so interesting because I wrote a book about 20 years ago called Sacred Journey. And one of the main aspects was looking at the, ancient water blessing sites all over Britain and Ireland. And I went to many, many, many of them. It was the first form of worship of the goddess, uh, water sites. And it had everything to do with the source as the source comes out.

She is recognized as a she, and then they were Christianized much later, and they just put a cross on it and they made it St. Bridget. But before that, it was bridey. And the cleansing and the washing and the drinking of water was all the most primal ancient form of worship of the divine. And when I use meditations now, I will often use them to imagine

standing under a waterfall, for instance, and the water not only moving on the outside of the body, but moving between each cell in the body. So it's a really distinctive journey that I go on cleansing out darker areas, areas which have density or heaviness and releasing old thought patterns. So that's one thing. And I think also that, you know, she really mentions like who is the spider goddess here, Arachne.

the original weaver. And the idea that yes, it's closed. That's one aspect of it. Closer your identity. You're moving through identities and they're not the same as you keep weaving the currents of life as life changes, you will have a different identity. And I know when I look back, there's distinctive

styles and clothing ranges and you know, the way I look, had a whole green phase at one point, which people laugh about my leprechaun era. That's when I was deep into sort of hippie -dom and going to sacred sites. And I don't touch green now. It's like, you know, love it, but it's not my vibe. And you can really feel like we change identities with the places and the things that we need to deal with at the present moment. And sometimes you

gonna let the old go, you know, like green rent at some point, whatever I was dealing with. I'm not doing that anymore. Yeah, it's I think that persona aspect of, you know, of clothes is really interesting and cloth and Clarissa talks about it a little bit more in the book, but it is, you know, your story of wearing green and now you don't like green. I've it's interesting. I've just done

a little bit the same, whereas I've never liked purple and wearing purple always made me think of kind of like a tie dyed, not, you know, like not in a good way. And just recently I've done a whole rebrand with my business and the colors that have come through really strongly at these deep. The other color that I didn't like was maroon because it reminds me of school uniforms. I don't know what it's like in the UK, but in Australia it's like maroon is like a standard school uniform color.

And so I was I didn't like maroon and like deep, sort of crimson maroon colors, and I didn't like purple. And now these really rich crimson maroons and purples are coming through my branding. And now I love them. It's like I've, grown into them. Yeah, I love those colors. I mean, you've changed identity. that's really what it's about the learning, the cleansing, the letting go and the cyclical nature of that, that we don't stay the

And we're not meant to stay the same. We're meant to actually go through life and have different identities as we move through. And letting certain aspects go of who you, that's letting go of the routine as well. We could stick so easily into just being the same over and over and over again. And I know in my life, I've reinvented myself so many times and I probably will again. You know, I think it's here. Am I here?

Am I here yet? Probably not. Am I grown up yet? I grown up yet? And it's interesting because I have just been through this. If we talk about these life, death, life cycles, I've just been through this and it's taken a few months, but my youngest child finishing school last year and I've had

for 20 years, for two decades, I've been my life has revolved around doing school lunches and getting kids to school and all the things that go with that, which has been massive. And I wasn't expecting to go through this grief process of it coming to the end of that because it's been a mammoth part of my identity, the core of my identity for so long has been as a mother, it is who I am for first and foremost. And then it feels like, you know, like now I'm not

needed in that role in the same way. And so there's been a death of that part of my identity, not a death of being a mother, but the role of, you know, the way that that was. yeah, it's interesting that that ties in with this, you know, change in in colors that are really appealing to me now. And yeah, all sorts of things. It's, it's fascinating to think about it in terms of we start going through these stories, how it how

plays out in reality. It's fun to think about. So the second task is the sweeping. so Clarissa talks about this in, where was I?

Uhhhh

I, I apologies. So the next task is to sweep the hut and the yard. So here, she talks about a wise woman keeps her psychic environment uncluttered. She accomplishes such by keeping a clear head, a clear place for her work and working at completing her ideas and projects. And I know from all women I've coached and spoken to completion.

is a major task for lots of us. It's a real thing that we get to think about and look at. For many women, this task requires that they clear a time each day for contemplation, for a space to live in that is clearly their own, with papers, pens, paints, tools, conversations, time, freedoms that are for this work only. For many, psychoanalysis, contemplation, meditation,

the taking of solitude and other experiences of descent and transformation provide this special time and place for the work. And I think, you know, one of the really fun things to do if you live with other people is to create an environment that's just yours. You know, if you have a space where you meditate, where you can light a candle

have a salt lamp and have your furnishings in your things that are just for you. I'm sure this is something that you've done magnificently in ARA. So how do you create this clean, uncluttered space internally? You should see my desk. You should see one of the drawers in my desk.

But that is my work life. have this buzzy brain and I'm always up to something and it stays as clear as possible. However, I do do a big thing on alters and I've taught alters. So one of the things in an initiatory path that I teach is you have your own altar and there's nobody else can have that altar. You can even have them in the same one

in every room of your house. In a way, that's a bit like Feng Shui dives into that as well. But you're looking at the different, what's the focus of the time right now? What's the focus of the moon? What's the focus of your identity? What are you up to? And you fill your altar with all of those symbols and keep it very clean. You might have

One mention of every single element. So earth, air, fire, water. So a candle, incense, a bowl of water and soil or a crystal representing the four elements. One of the things that is an ancient teaching is this is, it's very, very old and I always think it's incredibly empowering. So air is to know, fire is to will, water is to dare.

and earth is to keep silent. And when you have those four elements, this is an ancient medieval, it's called the law of the Magus. When you have those handled, you get the fifth element, which is called ire or to go. And that's the transformation. So when you think about it, the space that we're talking about, actually, she really is talking about holding space for yourself, the sweeping, the clearing.

the keeping that sacred space for self. And when I talk about the altar, think about the energy of, of earth is actually silence. And we don't give ourselves silence often. We turn the phone on all the time. You know, I turn my phone off all night and I don't have any electrical things in the bedroom. It's like conscious, conscious living when you like that. Yeah. And then you elevate into.

to go, which is this transformational state, magical state where it's not one plus two equals three. It's actually you do these four things and you are going somewhere like it's altered states or next level. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting in these tasks, she's really addressing

the water, fire and earth because she talks about encouraging people to create a garden to experience that life, death, life. But air is not in this list of tasks. I wonder, I'm trying to think of it comes up in the other ones. So maybe in the book, but maybe not in this story. That's all. Yeah, it's actually not, it's not jumping into my mind and

studied a lot of these stories. That's interesting, something that I will look for. To sweep the premises means not only to begin to value the non superficial life, but to care for its orderliness. Sometimes women become confused about soulful work and neglect its architecture till it's taken back by the forest.

A cyclical and critical sweeping will prevent this from occurring. When women have cleared space, the wild and nature will better thrive. So what does one feed so wild a goddess? Firstly, to cook for the yaga. So we're onto the third task here, which is the cooking. To cook for the yaga, one lays a fire. A woman must be willing to burn hot, burn with passion.

burn with words, with ideas, with desire for whatever it is she truly loves. It's actually this passion which causes the cooking and a woman's original ideas of substance, of what is cooked. To cook for the yaga, must one arrange that one's life, creative life has a consistent fire under it. So remembering that, you know, fire really is the metaphor for the life.

force within us and what are the things that really nurture that life force that nourish us? It's creativity and nature. And when we think about nature, it can be absolutely through the food that we eat, but it's through the experience of being in nature and being able to see horizons and sunsets and sunrises and you know, like all those bits and pieces. It's also being involved in that life, death, life cycle of being in nature.

This is part of what nourishes our connection to life. It's our connection to the oneness, the connectedness of all life on earth. And if we're not seeing it, if we're not witnessing the changing of the season, which unfortunately for many people who live in concrete jungles or it takes more effort to actually witness the changing of the seasons other than just the temperature changing.

but it is that connection that fuels our life force. And it's also our creativity. The number of women who identify as being not creative. Well, I can't draw and I can't sing and therefore I'm not creative. You know, this is a story. This is a conversation that I think is so fun when we dive into how many ways we are creative.

And it's, you know, like it's how we put food on a plate. It's how we, for me, I've got one of my fun things that I do that's, you know, just like inside my wardrobe is I've got this obsession with woolen jumpers and beautiful colored woolen jumpers. And I have them all stacked and the colors and I just, it brings me so much pleasure. So even things like that are creative. You know, there's so many ways that we can light this creative fire.

What are some of your quirky or fun things? Inara? I'm fairly obsessed with clothes like I know you are. so along the path, I reward myself with clothes. I was looking around my house, my flat, and I thought, I don't renew. Like once I've bought something, it just sits there forever, right? I'm really happy with the thing, like the table and the chairs and whatever.

So I don't reward myself with new big objects, but the flow of the expression is always around clothing. And there was a time when I used to feel, know, is this, you know, can I afford this? There would be stories going on around it. Can I afford this? Is this a thing that I should do? And the other thing is I haven't really changed shape dramatically in my life. So there is no reason.

often and I look after things to let them go. I have to do an absolute binge removal, take them to charity shops. And that's the identity that changes. The thing that changes is not the clothes. They're in good name. I look after them. They're the same shape. I could keep them forever like my objects, but no, the cleansing, the clearing, and it's very symbolic for me. And I gave myself permission years ago.

that this is okay. This is how I celebrate life itself. so big one on clothes for sure. And I know you relate to that. And I have a love for, you know, what's old, whether that is old homes, old furniture, but also I've got clothes that were belong to my aunt who had a fabulous dress shop in a very fancy part of Sydney. And my mom, you know, like my mom's going to be 90 this year and I've got

clothes of hers that are probably 50 years old that were just beautiful, you know, like pieces that I've kept that I'll keep wearing. So I, you know, they carry a soul for me. They carry, you know, like personality. So on this, on this cooking part, it is the cooking up of new and completely original things, of new directions, of commitments to one art, one's art.

and work that continuously nourishes the wild soul. And I think this is one of the conversations that's so important to highlight. The older we get, the more stale we can become. know, it's like, what can we do to really grab hold of something brand new, try something really different and explore, you know, unique and audacious and fabulous ideas. It's like that, that energy

newness of new beginnings and creativity is just the ultimate food for the soul. good. It's like pushing against your edge, not just staying in this routine. it's like we came into life alone, we will leave alone. So we're here on a soul journey and your soul wants to express itself. wherever you find yourself,

limiting, you know, thinking, should I or whatever, that's the should conversation that we've had before. But even more dramatic than that, I think you can take a moment, shut your eyes, breathe listener right now, even shut your eyes and you can, you can feel where you are not expressed. You can go through and actually ask yourself, do I feel on fire? That's a great language. Like, do I feel a liveness in

in all areas. And if you don't really there, that's a task to start to work away from that thing, whatever it is. you're being given an indication that's intuition right there. It's like, if something doesn't make you feel alive, move away. And sometimes that's big decisions. It's like relationships, styles of food that you're eating. Maybe you want to let go of alcohol, you know, a whole bunch of things, but you will know.

Where do I feel not alive? And that's the edge right there. There's great growth. I would add one other thing that, we are taught very much to stay comfortable in life. Like comfortable is, I think we all have, because I work a lot with entrepreneurs, I often ask them, where do you want, where are we going? What do you want to do? And it's, they have this fantasy of, when all the work's done, I'll be sitting.

with my feet up and I'll be comfortable. actually, wherever the discomfort is, the uncomfortable is the biggest growth areas. It's the conversations that you think, I don't want to have that conversation. It makes me feel, know, ill or nervous or whatever. If you go have that conversation, suddenly the uncomfortable, there's a revelation there and there's a high speed to your next level.

comfortable is is not your friend actually comfortable is it's staying absolutely stuck for the rest of your life. absolutely. And you know, it's it's interesting. Absolutely. Absolutely. And on a business front that has been my experience, as well as in my life. And I've, you know, I think about the living I had a flower farm with

as a single mom with four kids and ran a property. And I used to, we had to chop wood for heat and I used to have to manage my own water and, you know, unblock a drainage so that the water would get into the tanks. And there was, you know, there was a lot of manual work that went on as well as cooking the meals and doing all the bits and pieces. And I was like, just, I wish I didn't have to do this. And I wish I didn't have to, and it'd be so great if I could just flick a switch and have heat.

It's interesting when we moved into town and my kids started, you know, preparing more meals and I wasn't needing to cook for them so much. I didn't need to chop wood anymore. I desperately miss having an open fire. That's one of the things that I miss. I don't have to manage our water anymore. I just turn on the tap and it's, and now I miss it. Now I understand that the almost the meditative practice of that, of being in connected to the things

provide life, the things that provide comfort, rather than the comforts just being easy on tap. It's like you've got to earn the comforts. And, you know, it's even when I have a meal that has been prepared by a friend, or I've prepared it myself, the pleasure that comes from that meal, rather than something that's just a takeaway is chalk and cheese, it doesn't compare. It's like the whole energy that goes into something that you've put work into

had the uncomfortable process of actually bringing it to life, whether it's our businesses or a meal, it's the big and small. I want to just briefly apologize to the listeners because when I started talking about this chapter in my mind, I was half thinking about chapter six, which is about the sorting this from that, but we'll get to that. So this chapter really is this, you know, the thinking about the tasks of the psychic tasks that

the wild hag mother, the wild mother gave to Vasilisa to do, to clean out, to sort out, organize her psychic life. So I'll finish it up

Though you manage to do my work once doesn't mean that you can do it again. So here's another day of tasks. Let's see how you do, dearie. So it's really this idea of you get to prove yourself more than once. This isn't a one and done. This is something that we get to continually do and address and think about. It's like, how do we keep the inner environment of our psyche sorted?

Alright, beautiful souls, that is it from us for this episode. And next episode, I will be talking about the discernment of sorting this from that. Alright, beautiful ones, that's it from us for this episode. So much love and bye for now. Bye for now.