Massimilla Harris > Quotes

“The great work of our time is to bring the feminine into this culture. And it is not an easy path. How does each one of us contribute? Believe it or not, it’s done in the most personal ways. Take time to listen to your dreams. Write them down. Take time to recognize that there are things going on within you that need to be felt, or said, or lived, or grieved. Pay attention to these things both in yourself and in the people in your life. Pay attention to the authentic self. – Marion Woodman”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“When the feminine and our vitality become lost to power drives and life becomes a wasteland, the stage is set for the mythic world to give rise to a hero to transform and revitalize the situation. They mythic hero is a metaphor for our struggle to transform our consciousness and bring new life to ourselves.”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“In order to bring the feminine into our world, we must begin in a personal way. It is not an easy path, and we will quickly see how readily it conflicts with the patterns of our daily lives. But in order to value the feminine and have it become reborn within us, we must take the time to reconnect with the wholeness of who we are. We have to take the time to listen to our dreams, to write them down, and to reflect on our lives. Honoring the feminine means having the patience and taking the time, like Mary in the Gospel according to Luke, to ponder these things in our hearts. We must recognize that there are many things going on within us that need to be perceived, accepted, felt, said, lived, grieved, and raged over. We need to give these things our attention, concern, and understanding.”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“From birth to death, love is not just the focus of human experience but also the life force of the mind, determining our moods, stabilizing our body rhythms, and changing the structures of our brains…Love makes us who we are, and who we can become.” These are the words of the modern brain researchers Lewis, Amini, and Lannon in their book on attachment theory and brain research, A General Theory of Love.”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“Or we may be caught in a cycle of frustration because we realize we are split from our authentic selves but cannot figure out how to cultivate and nourish our relationship with ourselves.”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“But our mothers are our first contact with the world of the feminine and the world of our emotions, which are closely related.”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“Marion Woodman shares with us the gnawing sense of fear we may feel when we realize that we are not pleasing people or that they disapprove of us. She says it is as though our very cells were imprinted with a fear of shame, rejection, belittlement, and abandonment. Sensing these things is like seeing Medusa: We close down, becoming numb and overwhelmed with feelings. These, too, are like Medusa’s snakes and must be approached with great care.”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“reconciliation through trying to understand them and their history and to “forgive” them, rather than hold them responsible for their behavior. We have to admit to ourselves that this instinctual hope is stronger than reason and reality. It is like a hope that never seems to die. It is romantic, consoling, and it is praised by our culture. This hope becomes a misunderstood waiting that appears patient, understanding, and wise. In reality, however, it is toxic, like pure poison, the poison of Medusa.”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“As we put together our chronicle and highlight antidotes, dramas, and feelings, we need to disclose our story to someone who cares—someone who doesn’t know all the answers but who cares and has experienced his or her own journey through this territory. When we begin this journey, it is very humbling for all of us to admit that “I do not really know what I feel. I do not say what I mean, and, all too often, I do not do what I say.”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“In a matriarchal society, our relationship to the group is the dominant value. Instead of being taught to succeed, children are taught to think of others first, to cooperate, and to subordinate personal goals to the general welfare. Guilt becomes the haunting terror”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“The father’s role, he says, is to provide the mother with the peace and security she needs to be a good enough mother.”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“couldn’t just tell her to go to hell and get out of my life. If I did, I felt like I would have no one, and I seemed to continue the hopeless path of trying to please her, make her see my caring for her, get her to acknowledge me or what?”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“Looking at the great values of the feminine principle—relatedness, presence, an open heart, warmth, patience, and trust—I”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“The first he calls elementary, and its positive attributes are to nourish and protect, to give warmth and security.”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“Thinking about the quotations from Jung, you can see how important stories are. They represent the point of departure for “knowing” the people we are dealing with—their environment, their experiences, and their struggles.”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“When a woman’s animus develops in a healthy way over her lifetime, it helps her have the inner strength to find healing, to support her own voice, to move into the world with purpose and direction, and to develop her intellectual and spiritual capacities. When a man’s anima develops in a healthy way, it helps him become open to his feelings; to be in tune with his inner values; to feel “animated” and energized in his life; and, through reflecting on his experiences, to know his inner depths and develop his spiritual capacities.”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“thoughts bring up in me? Where do I feel them in my body?”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“This energy is unpleasant and difficult when it comes from acquaintances, but it is most destructive when it comes from someone close to us, whom we are supposed to love and respect—and who is supposed to love us—such as a mother or father.”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“Having this love and attention”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“But too many of us have become battle scarred and have pulled away from even hoping for love. Both in our relationships with others and with ourselves, we often find love difficult to define, to trust, and to”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“These feelings are especially debilitating when they are unconsciously projected on bosses, colleagues, competitors, and other people with authority.”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“The attributes of the first, or elementary, characteristic are to nourish and protect, to give warmth and security. The second, or transformative, characteristic is defined by the dynamic element of nature, which has an inherent urge toward growth and transformation.”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“But she was also a very jealous goddess, and she became furious with Medusa for boasting that she was more beautiful than Athena.”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“When emotions are bottled up in a person or in a society, they will become a psychological complex that will attack and seek to dominate the feminine, both within ourselves and within our society.”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“creative. But he could never sustain his success because his Death Mother complex made him severely self-critical. His attacks of self-reproach produced severe anxiety, which resulted in his obsessively overthinking everything he did, and left him paralyzed in the way he related to people.”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“How conscious am I of how the Medusa in my life affects me?”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“Still, we must make the inner journey of seeking out the Death Mother complex within us, of slaying and transforming our Medusa, in order to become healed and renewed ourselves.”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage. – Anaïs Nin”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“The Death Mother has a devastating influence on a mother’s ability to meet the emotional needs of a child. And many of us are held captive by the internalized effects of the wounded mothering we experienced as children. The healing path that will emerge as we proceed is based on the classic myth of Medusa, enriched with personal experiences and psychological insights that direct us toward healing and renewed personal consciousness.”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“What central theme dominates the fable about my childhood that I made up to protect myself?”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality