Hello, hello freethinker!

Today, I am writing to you from the floor of my office. I’m curled up in a blanket, my coffee on one side and my pup on the other. I also have current books I’m reading scattered around me and a printout of the recent design draft for my book waiting for me to add my design revisions. I have the back door cracked open, and the soft sound of rain is coming into my space, along with the chirping of birds brave enough to venture through the current weather. I feel at peace but also mindful as I feel pressure building within me to ensure I complete my daily tasks on time.

Just as I am taking a moment to pause and notice my inner and outer worlds, I encourage you to do the same. Noticing the colors around you, the sounds, the textures. Then, shift your awareness inward to your inner landscape. Noticing any emotions, thoughts, or sensations, you may be experiencing. Not judging or labeling anything you’re finding. Instead, simply notice, witness, and allow all parts of yourself and your experience to the table. This is a practice of personal freedom that you can utilize at any time.

–

Today, I am exploring the freedom on the other side of the Dominant Dogma: F*** the haters. The freedom of Inner Stability & Self-Responsibility.

To explore this freedom, I will offer my present exploration with the myth of the greek goddess Hestia. Hestia has been coming up for me in a number of ways lately, and I feel that her story has so much to offer regarding inner stability and self-responsibility.

As we begin, please note that this myth contains intense scenes concerning rape and incest, as is common in mythical stories, please take care and note this may not be appropriate for children. Additionally, please keep in mind these are mythical stories and, as such, they are fantastical and over the top. However, as I will share in a moment, they often have deep symbolic meaning that can support personal freedom. 

As you read or listen to Hestia’s story, I encourage you to notice what stands out to you.

What do you resonate with in Hestia’s lineage? What does hearing about her choice feel like in your spirit? What additional symbols, situations, stories, or people come to mind for you? I encourage you to set aside time to journal through whatever comes up for you. Additionally, if it feels comfortable and safe, invite your unconscious on this journey, and know that whatever you admire in Hestia is also found in you.

Let’s begin.

First, how can myth be supportive as you claim personal freedom? To explain, here is a quote from Nathan Harter as he speaks about Archetypal Psychology, “For those unfamiliar with Archetypal Psychology, the personages or gods represent aspects of the psyche and not actual figures living on Mount Olympus. They are condensed knots of meaning correlating with the way we imagine. The premise is that the mythology about the gods persists because it fits the way our minds work.” – source

In other words, myths are age-old projections from our inner worlds that when we hear them, we can often identify with them. We can see ourselves in them in new ways resulting in the ability to engage with our present reality from a new perspective.

And so, the story of the goddess Hestia.

Hestia comes from a family of great trauma and ego-driven behavior. While considered one of the twelve Olympians in Greek mythological tradition, and a goddess no less, she has no shortage of difficulty. In fact, the “haters” and the egoic drama she works to hand back are within her own family. 

To understand the breadth of Hestia’s ancestral trauma, we must go back three generations.

You see, Hestia’s grandmother is the Great Mother Gaia. Married to Ouranos, she gives birth to their children only to have him force them back into her body, causing her a great deal of pain. In an effort to overthrow Ourano’s power over her, she, in turn, wields her power over her children. Making a sickle, she scares her children with it, and convinces her youngest son Kronos to help her. He brutally seizes power by castrating his father, then marries and rapes his sister Rhea. Kronos fears his children will take his power away just as he took his father’s power away, so as Rhea births their children, he swallows them. 

And this is when we reach Hestia.

The oldest of Rhea and Kronos’s children, she is swallowed first. Then Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon.

While, like her mother before her, Rhea was too weak to confront her husband directly, she does thwart Kronos’s ego-driven behavior by quickly swapping her last child, Zeus, for a rock. Once grown, Zeus forces his father to vomit his siblings and sends him to Tartarus, a cold hell where light never penetrates.

After emerging from her father, Hestia is presented with marriage proposals from Poseidon and Apollo. However, she turns them down and makes a promise to Zeus that she will never marry. She chooses to exit the family drama, live a life of peace and solitude, and for this, Zeus appoints her a place of worship: the hearth of the home.

From that point on, Hestia was worshiped at the hearth, the central place of community within the home, where people gathered, kept warm, found stability, and healed.

There are many interpretations and explorations within this myth, but I want to offer the freedom of Inner Stability & Self-Responsibility. 

Hestia, born into a family of trauma, manipulation, hate, and drama, opted out. She is the least-known goddess in mythological tradition because this is her only story. 

Instead of engaging in the cycles of hate we so often see in our world today, she said no.

I’m going to hand back the hate, the manipulation, and the drama.

I’m going to take responsibility for myself and my actions.

I’m going to carve my own path.

I’m going to turn inward and cultivate inner stability.

I’m going to tend to the hearth, the heart of myself, so that true love and deep community can be cultivated.

That is the myth of Hestia. 

Where the cultural and ancestral Dominant Dogma of “F*** the haters” and other polarizing and hateful actions are handed back for the freedom of Inner Stability and Self-Responsibility.

–

And that is where I am going to leave you today. Again, please notice what is present for you with this myth, and journal through whatever comes up for you. This type of practice can feel elusive, intense, and confusing, so I encourage you to drink lots of water, move your energy around however you prefer to move, and feel free to email me with how this lands for you! My email is megan@megscolleen.com, and I would absolutely love to hear from you.

Additionally, If deep in your spirit, you want to claim inner stability and self-responsibility, I would LOVE to work with you! My goal is to help you integrate the parts of you feeling afraid and unsupported, hand back the outdated cultural stories, and guide you to rise as the deeply, wildly, and holistically free human you already are. If this resonates and you want to work with me as your coach, your next step is to book a FREE Clarity Call with me! Head to megscolleen.com now to schedule your call!

I’ll see you in a couple of weeks: Freedom is yours,

Megan