Charlotte Babb Portfolio: The Silver Gate
facing
new experiences and the unknown
a time of discerning what is no longer needed
and casting it away to make room for the future
I get up in the morning and write down affirmations, statements both of what I appreciate at the moment and statements of how I want my life to be. I do not focus on changing the entire world—no requests for world peace or the collapse of the patriarchy—only a description of my personal sphere of desires.
I hope that Tarnas is right in his suggestion that the ego death of the masculine western mind is just round the corner: “the feminine then becomes not that which must be controlled, denied, and exploited, but rather fully acknowledged, respected and responded to for itself” (p. 444). At the very least, it is the fully feminine that I wish to embrace in my own life.
artifact: Do What? essay
Reflection on reaching the Silver Gate
The silver gate is the one that comes
as we leave our youth, our children grown, our second life ahead of us.
We do not have healthy stories for passing through this gate because for
our grandparents, it did not exist. Culturally speaking, they died before
they got here.
Whatever we are now, it is up to us to take charge of our lives and decide
what else we want. I passed through the silver gate when I boarded the
first plane to California to come to Pacifica in March of 2005 alone to
see if this program was for me. I was looking for my tribe.
The snake is a symbol (in this picture, James Hillman) of the point of transformation--the snakes are painted silver, there are torches for light, and a trash can full of old things no longer needed.
Tarnas, R. (1991) The passion of the western mind: understanding the ideas that shaped our world view. New York: Ballantine.