What is the opposite of fear? (Hint: it’s not love)
Theme: Magicians Reporting for Duty
Week 38: What is the opposite of fear? (Hint, it's not love.)
Beautiful Magicians,
On Tuesday, we had our first gathering in Praying in the Dark: When People Feel Safe Patriarchy Falls Apart. And it surprised me. Despite planning the intensive for weeks, writing the teaching outline, creating the slides, and partnering with Cathy Stevens Pratt and Tony Goncalves on the content. Despite all that, when the curtains closed, I was too stunned to move.
An idea had arrived that didn’t just land on my chest, it cracked me open. An idea that really could bring patriarchy down. And, an idea so big it could explain my life. All 78 years of it. And, I think, an idea big enough to explain yours.
The idea came from Tony. It began when Tony took us into his Paleolithic shamanic anointing as Mammuno. He told the heart-stopping story of his initiation, and then led us to anoint our bodies as he had been instructed to anoint his.
Now, I thought I knew a little bit about anointing. Emma Kupu Mitchell and I have partnered for years to create powerful mystical anointings using oils formulated by Mary Magdalen. But this was different. Probably because it is so ancient. And yet, even through such deep mists of time, my body remembered.
Of course it remembered. Because I was there. And you were, too. Not necessarily at Tony’s Paleolithic anointing, but at countless anointings.
As Myrrhophores, mystic witches, wise women and wise men, we have anointed our bodies and anointed others’ bodies for millennia. We have anointed pregnant women, birthing mothers, newborns, the ill and the dying.
This is what we knew then and we know now: Anointing is prayer. Foundational mystical living prayer.
So, as I followed Tony’s voice, anointing my entire body with sacred symbols and lines, I sensed something profound happening. I was literally, not figuratively, opening portals and pathways to the elements in my hands, my feet, my throat, my womb. And my body responded. Those portals and pathways actually opened.
And into those openings poured a massive idea. Or rather two massive ideas.
Tony shared that everything we are experiencing in this intensive about safety came to him from safety. Safety stopped being a psychological or emotional concept or goal. Safety came into form as a being, a spirit guide, a great and holy teacher. Tony communed with Safety in his prayers, meditations, and anointings. He learned to rely on Safety for information about how to perceive what was happening in his environment and for guidance on how to stay safe in situations that didn’t feel safe.
So massive idea #1 is that Safety is a being. A sacred being. Like an animal spirit guide, Goddess, or saint.
Then, Tony told us that his conversations with Safety often emerged on the page in deep soul writing. He was talking with Safety and Safety was answering. And Safety gave him a command.
Massive idea #2 is start a Safety Journal.
I took that request to heart. The next day, I wrote SAFETY JOURNAL across the top of a page in my Praying in the Dark journal and addressed Safety by name.
Safety had a lot to tell me. Things like:
- You cannot convince yourself you are safe. Your body knows the truth.
- You will know safety only when you welcome your abandoned part, she whom you have hidden away hoping her absence would made your life safer.
- You silenced her because she’s too big.
- Oh, what she knows! Things you are now ready to remember.
- Your abandoned self can teach you what it really means to be safe.
- Safety becomes real when the abandoned part of yourself returns. When she is seen and heard.
I kept showing up every day writing to Safety. Plus, I said the 7 Couplets prayers on The Song of the Morning of the World rosary with Safety. I state my need for courage or strength or clear boundaries and Safety answers. It’s a delicious sweet feeling. Oh! This is what it feels like to be safe.
On Friday, Safety took me into a life review of two words: Afraid and Unafraid.
I took a deep breath and began.
Here is a brief overview. I’m going to tell the stories next Tuesday at our second gathering, because I think these experiences are universal.
My relationship with Unafraid began on November 1, 1996, after a scary incident with my husband the night before. I sat up in bed and felt five bubbles rising from my gut to my throat. As each bubble burst, I heard: I. Am. Afraid. Of. You.
And with that, I knew I would file for divorce.
Five months later, I was reading a self-help spiritual book in the bathtub in which the author says the purpose of life is to remember who you are. I threw the book across the room, got out of the tub screaming: Who am I? WHO AM I? Didn’t get an answer, so I dried off and brushed my teeth. Suddenly I heard a male voice in my right ear say: Unafraid.
I stopped brushing and listened intently for more. But nothing more came.
Today, I am confident that that was Archangel Michael.
On February 16, 2000, I found a dead osprey on the ground near my home. Rigor mortis hadn’t fully set in. I couldn’t leave him there for the racoons and ants. Ospreys are very dear to me. They are my totem animal. I brought his perfect body home and called my spiritual teacher. I asked her what it means when an osprey practically dies in your arms. She said, “Ask the bird.” So I did. I put my hand on his heart and then on my heart, back and forth, back and forth, asking, “Tell me why you’re here.” The answer came in deep soul writing:
What is an osprey? A fish hawk
What is a hawk? A messenger
What is a fish? Symbol of Christ
What did Jesus say more than anything else?
Fear not.
In May 2019, I led a prayer intensive on Mary Magdalene with Meghan Don. In the intensive, Meghan guided us into a meditation to be bathed by the Magdalen. At the end, she said ask Magdalen what you need to know. I asked, “How shall I walk?” Magdalen answered:
Unafraid. Unafraid. Unafraid.
In February of 2021, in preparation for The Return of the Witches: a Jeanne d’Arc Listening Pilgrimage, Joan woke me in the night and dictated a prayer we have said at the beginning of every gathering since. Here’s a powerful stanza:
You listened to your voices. I am listening to mine.
And you call me. You call me.
Daughter go on. Go on, go on, go on, go on.
Be not afraid. I go before you.
The path is clear. The crown is yours.
Finally, this summer, when Tony and Cathy developed the Couplets for The Song of the Morning of the World rosary, I said them for the first time aloud one morning. That night I slept better than I have in years. I woke feeling different. Strangely happy. Calm. Joyful. Which made no sense considering what’s happening in the world.
And I wondered, what’s different? Why am I so happy?
And I realized, Oh, it’s the couplets. What I am feeling is safety. The true feeling of being unafraid. Fear is gone. Not by pretending everything is fine, it isn’t. No, this is the true feeling of being safe. Not because of anyone or anything out there. But safe within myself. Safe with myself. With my thoughts, my prayers, my purpose, my work.
So, now do you know the answer to the question: What is the opposite of fear?
It has taken me thirty years from waking knowing I was afraid of my husband in 1996 to starting a Safety Journal in 2026 to know the answer.
The opposite of fear is safety.
Which of course, Archangel Michael, Yeshua, Magdalen, Joan of Arc and the Minotaur knew all along.
Praying in the Dark: When People Feel Safe, Patriarchy Falls Apart continues this Tuesday and you are welcome to join us. The first gathering was recorded and you can watch it anytime.
- We have four Live gatherings on Tuesdays at 6:00-7:45 pm Eastern, a time that works well for the Americas and the Pacific Rim
- We have Watch Parties on Thursdays at 1pm Eastern for our friends in Europe and Africa
- To make sure everyone can come to a live discussion cafe, we meet on Sundays at both 1p and 6p
- Plus, for those who wish to pray, we gather every Wednesday at 5p eastern and once a month on Sunday at 1pm to pray The Song of the Morning of the World rosary
Follow the link below for full schedule and details.
Life is fragile, handle with reverence and communion with Safety
Janet
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