Work of the Soul

                                                          Marion Woodman on the Self

"There is a part of most of us that has not been recognized. We have been told how to think; we have been told how to perform. ... And so the authentic being has not been recognized. And so most people feel that at some point they were abandoned. And they were, by their own parents. But their own parents were probably abandoned by their parents too. And that tragedy is the only reality they knew. So they learned to put on a performance, and they expect their kids to put on a performance. Because if you haven't got performance and you don't know your authentic person, what do you do? Escape into an addiction, or a suicide or whatever. If you experience yourself as nobody worth looking at, ... if [your parents] told you that isn't what you think, this is what you think ..., if you cannot trust your own authenticity, then you were abandoned.

 And you have to go back and find that little child that was abandoned... And you have to be mother and father to your own little lost child. Nobody out there is responsible. You can't look to a man to love you and take care of your abandoned child. You'll suck him dry. And you can't look to any other person to take care of you, if you are a mature individual. You have to mother and father yourself. ... Eventually she [the abandoned child] gets stronger and stronger and more and more beautiful. And then you want to let her play, you want to let her sing and dance and do her dreams..."

"If we are going to address the patriarchal system then we have to address those power issues inside ourselves. There is no sense in blaming someone out there. ... We have been treated with power and we will treat others as we have been treated. And it takes great courage to face the power in ourselves. But any addict is the victim of power ... over himself. Now it swings back and forth; one minute he is powerless; and the next minute he is using power. But it just swings from one side to the other. There is no strong voice in the middle...that says my life is worth something, my soul is worth something, I am an authentic person, these are my values, and this is what I stand for, and I will stand to my own truth. That voice is not there."

(From Dreams: Language of the Soul, Sounds True audiotape, ISBN 1-56455-052-4; tape 2, side B.)