Mysterious Artemis

Botticelli's masterpiece remains persuasive 525 years later

Sandro Botticelli – The Birth of Venus – iPhone 4S, 4 | GelaSkins.

Venus came to visit recently, and she came to kick me in the ass. If you believe in synchronicity and all things in life having a purpose, even if only because you insist on finding one, then you will understand this.

I just left a job editing contractor reports at a foreclosure mill. Day in, day out I was looking at photographs of destruction and decay, of trampled lives and shitty toilets. Colleagues of mine routinely saw animals left to die in crates, even blood spattered murder scenes complete with chalk outlines.  In the midst of all this (for the brief six weeks I was there) I asked myself, “WHY? Why am I seeing all this?”

I’m an artist. I like beautiful things.  I’m also a transpersonal counselor. My field is often accused of being overly focused on the “higher” elements of human experience at the expense of the nitty gritty raw unpleasantness of the deep psyche.  I am very sensitive and shudder when I see my brother wince in pain.  And yet, there I was, watching people get locked out of their homes, houses ripped apart, their stuff stolen or destroyed.  “Why?” I asked.

And then Venus came to me.

“You have underestimated me,” she said. “You think I am frivolous, my gifts a luxury. You think to do my work in this world is a lark, a fancy, reserved for bored baby boomer housewives and artists on the fringe. You have this idea that to be serious and dutiful you are supposed to suffer and toil in unpleasantness and sacrifice…but this is FALSE.”

(Did I mention this was ten days into the Wall Street protests? I suspected Venus was getting used to speaking her mind again.)

“This is why you are here, seeing all this tragedy,” she continued. “This disaster and pain you see, this is what the world is like without me. Without grace. Without beauty. Without balance and money and love and pleasure. Do not discount me. You have disrespected me for years thinking I am frivolous, and as a result you have hesitated to commit to working with me. I am your path. Enough is enough. This I guarantee you won’t forget. Now get your ass to work.”

Humbled and somewhat terrified, I have complied.  And my Mysterious Artemis blog was born.

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“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

– Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Address

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