AUSTRALIAN MYTHOLOGY
I have reached a point where I feel ready to build the blog I have been working towards.
My intention is simple. I would like artificial intelligence to help organise the structure of each essay, while the reflections, questions and personal experience remain my own.
Today I would like to introduce three figures from Greek mythology: Achilles, Apollo and Aphrodite. For me, they are not merely mythological characters. They are metaphors that help us reflect on human nature.
Achilles represents the hidden wounds that every person carries. We instinctively protect these wounds, just as we instinctively pull our hand away from a hot surface. When someone touches one of our emotional wounds, our first reaction often comes before reason has time to speak.
Perhaps what we often call stupidity is not always a lack of intelligence. Sometimes it is simply an attempt to protect a wound that has never fully healed.
Apollo and Aphrodite represent something different. I see them as symbols of the highest potential of the masculine and feminine qualities within us. Not as a standard of perfection that we must achieve, but as a lighthouse that reminds us there is always a direction in which we can grow.
Many people know the experiment with two jars of rice. One receives words of kindness and appreciation. The other receives only criticism and negativity. Whether one accepts this experiment literally or simply as a metaphor is less important than the question it raises.
If our words can influence our relationship with other people, what happens when the same words are directed towards ourselves every day?
This brings me to what I call the mirror.
Whenever you stand before a mirror, there are really three participants: you, your reflection and your subconscious mind.
If your inner voice constantly repeats that you are not good enough, not worthy or not valuable, that message slowly becomes part of the person you believe yourself to be.
Perhaps our greatest wounds are not the ones created by other people, but the ones we begin to repeat to ourselves.
I do not offer these thoughts as final answers. They are simply an invitation to observe, to question and perhaps to discover something about ourselves that has always been there.
