Tag: women empowerment

Origins and Sources for The Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy- Part 1

On By Roger B. BurtIn Origins of Gaia's Majesty, Transformation, Women RisingLeave a comment

Inspiration and the Author

Whatever That Means

As soon as I input the word inspiration, something inside of me asks, “what?” At once I understand. Inspiration is defined by Google as “the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative”. Does that help? Not for me. Like so many things, it raises more questions than answers and the stimulation is not just mental.

A familiar image is of the author sitting before a typewriter (now a computer) waiting for something to stir him or her or give them direction. First off we have to wonder why the author came to sit there if there was no clear inclination of direction or clarity of substance.

Inspiration does seem to have an independent life of its own. Partly because books of fiction have roots inside ourselves. Nonfiction may be simply our need to give clarity to a real world subject. But fiction is another matter.

A Process Without Clear Delineation

At the same time it just may be that we are wasting our time trying to define inspiration because we are led into a cave with a myriad turning points and possibilities. Sometimes it just may be that we have to accept that we are being stirred by something we cannot immediately define. It may be that where we begin may be nowhere near where we end up.

As such it may be best to see what we can do to focus an idea no matter how vague and see if an outline of some sort may emerge. As a psychologist I often come back to the idea that things are often not what they seem. What we call reality has anything but a hard edge and certainly inspiration may be fuzzy. We may have to simply take inspiration off its leash or find a way to do that.

A Road or An Adventure

In fiction we are certainly looking for a way down a road, an adventure of some sort. The beginning is to simply start down the road. And the road we choose may be very different depending upon the stage of our lives. We may be searching a purpose for ourselves, looking to reveal something to others or even doing an assessment of where we have been and its meaning.

Finding a Beginning Point

Looking back I have to wonder where the beginning of the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy really was. There were just two general thoughts. One was that in my life I search for possibilities and that I’m entranced by mythology. The simple explanation was that I found myself focused on the meaning of mermaids. In their own way they are so prominent. As a story began to develop it became clear that women were central and that another root was the matter of the empowerment of women.

From there I found an outline was becoming insistent and steadily clarified as it grew and grew and grew. Since I am hardly at the beginning of my life I had to realize I was doing an assessment and was turning pages to think further about what may lie in our collective future. Together we can see where it leads and search out the substance of meanings.

What is inspiration for you?

Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called: Women in Power by Roger B. Burt

Roger B. Burt’s Amazon home page

Creating Characters and Plots by Roger B. Burt

Stepfamilies: Professionals and Stepcouples in Partnership

Whatever Happened to Community Mental Health by Roger B. Burt

Honorable Mention Award

On By Roger B. BurtIn Cusp of Reality, Women Rising, WritingLeave a comment

Honorable Mention Award

I’m pleased to announce that Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called: Women in Power has been awarded an honorable mention in the Wild Card category at the 2017 Hollywood Book Festival.

The category makes me smile because I’ve been wrestling with category choice. The book has a real world setting but with mermaids. So I often wonder if it’s fantasy or fiction. Then the series will take off into the future and dive deeper into mythology and fantasy elements. But in terms of fantasy it is not outlandish and there is a strong real world setting. Women are central but they have mystical and mythological elements. In the end Wild Card suits me just fine.

A Tragic Waste

On By Roger B. BurtIn vision, WritingLeave a comment

 

What’s on your list of wrongs perpetrated against women?

Pervasive Efforts

A recent post presented the concept of the mysterium tremendum which relates to that which grips or stirs the soul. It is of interest because it is my belief that this sort of effect of women on men may well relate to the pervasive and eternal efforts by men to keep women from empowerment.

Daily we continue to see evidence of these efforts. Recently I turned on the television and saw an interview about the fight to get women who had piloted aircraft in World War II, Women Airforce Service Pilots or WASPs, the right to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery . These women had been granted veterans status in 1977 and burial rights at Arlington since 2002. Then, recently, they were deemed ineligible.

It is not necessary to go into greater detail. The subterfuges, the discrimination and callous attitudes regarding women are endless.

Truth From Leonardo

And then I ran across an interview with Leonardo DiCaprio regarding his recent movie The Revenant. At one point the interviewer asked, “Why is the role of women in the movie so small and the men so gruesome and dominating?” His answer was, “This represents the savagery of a lawless culture. Women have been the most persecuted people throughout all of recorded history, more than any race or religion.” He was not asked to elaborate or support his statement but I know what he meant.

And currently we have an ongoing war against women in the United States. And what I find is that the rationale is lacking in substance because of the pervasive nature of the war.

Inner Meaning Beyond Our Grasp

What is so interesting is that there is normally no in-depth discussion of this process. The battles are fought on specific issues but rarely focus on the extent of the discrimination and its inner meaning. It seems we don’t know the proper questions to ask and I believe in part it is because the real reasons are deeply buried in our psyches and we don’t know how to access the real process. Does the Mysterium Tremendum touch on the real reason ( See WordPress posts of 1/18/16 and 1/20/16)?

What does your intuition tell you?

Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called: Women in Power by Roger B. Burt

Roger B. Burt’s Amazon home page

Creating Characters and Plots by Roger B. Burt

Stepfamilies: Professionals and Stepcouples in Partnership

Whatever Happened to Community Mental Health by Roger B. Burt

Commentary on Women and Our Future

On By Roger B. BurtIn vision, Women RisingLeave a comment

Comment from Seregon O’Dassey (Goodreads reviewer)

“I agree with everything you said. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Believe me, I’ve actually said everything you said, and in return I get “faminazi”, “found the feminist” – as if being feminist is a bad thing – , or “man hater”.

In addition, I’ll add that a HUGE part of the opposition isn’t men – it’s other women! Women put down women a significant amount of the time. A big part of this are the women that hate on other women who feel empowered by exposing skin. All too often models – especially those in Playboy or who dance for a living – are called “whores” and “asking for it”. Meanwhile, those same women love to drool over shirtless men with muscles on book covers. Why do men get to chose to be half naked, but women don’t? Nudity is the SAME as birth control/abortion: You’re right when you say it’s not about the birth control or the abortion – it’s about women making the choice for themselves. The same thing can be said about clothing/nudity. The common denominator is that men have choices women do not. Because society looks down upon women making their own clothing choices.”

Response to Seregon’s commentary
Seregon’s comment added value. Yes, the word “feminist” has been used as a pejorative. Isn’t it curious that the word feminazi would even be created. Women have been working for their justifiable rights for a long time. What a travesty to refer to it as fascist. I, for one, am very clear that feminism and empowering women is not about domination. I believe strongly that what we are seeking is equality and productive partnership. Otherwise what a waste. There is enough which should be demanding our attention which is truly threatening.

I’ll admit I hadn’t focused on the opposition to the movement on the part of some women. Certainly I had heard some complaints by women but I took them to be from extremist “nutcases” to put it nicely.

As to skin, it is all rather bizarre. Certainly there are issues of decorum depending upon the place and time. But choice should be ours in many regards. Men do indeed seem to have more choice without criticism. But I must admit I’m amused at the beach when I see women in bikinis and men going to swim in what I call floods. That means full length pants a boy had outgrown.

And then there was France. After World War II when we were in France my older brother was delighted to take pictures of women in bikinis on the beach. When the film was developed Kodak had placed big black marks over the women.

Cruising in France recently we passed beaches with signs saying “plage sans vêtements”, meaning beach without clothes. When we pulled up at another beach two young women were unloading summer clothes for sale. Then they removed their tops. No one batted an eyelash. The culture is different and they were not degrading themselves.

It is clearly a mixture of custom and choice. But the underlying troubling issue is about women’s rights and suppression. We are having a discussion at last and the dividends are already coming in. More on these issues to come in future posts.

Join us and enter for an opportunity to win a free autographed paperback copy of Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called: Women in Power
To enter, email rogerbburt@gmail.com . Drawing every two weeks. Each person entering will receive the first two chapters of the book by return email.

Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called: Women in Power by Roger B. Burt

Roger B. Burt’s Amazon home page

Creating Characters and Plots by Roger B. Burt

Stepfamilies: Professionals and Stepcouples in Partnership

Whatever Happened to Community Mental Health by Roger B. Burt

The Myth Underlying the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy – Part 3

On By Roger B. BurtIn Characters, Mythology, Origins of Gaia's Majesty, Women RisingLeave a comment

All I can ask is, What if?

Struggle and Conflict

Gaia understood that struggle and conflict is at the core of the nature of life both within and among creatures. In fact she created it to test her creatures and aid their development. Central to this struggle would be the matter of power which was not easily shaped or yielded—especially by predators. But Gaia had a plan.

She knew struggle might involve failure, but she found the clever creatures called humankind intriguing and did not want to give up on her experiment easily. So she reserved a population which might be needed if she had to start the experiment all over again.

Creating a Refuge

While humankind lived on the land, she chose to make the sea available as a refuge. She reserved cities in the sea for a population made up mostly of women who were called Progenitors.

Since they lived in the sea, Progenitors had fish tails and webbing between their fingers while in the sea. But they could also morph into usual human form if they chose to come to the land. If need be, from them could spring a new race.

The cities in which they lived were called Tethys and among the women were a few men to insure diversity and because they might be needed if the population was to be restored to the land. The people who lived in the Tethys and those who came to land to live were collectively known as Tethyans.

The Reality of a Legend

While the existence of the Tethys was not widely known, some of the residents of these cities were sighted from time to time. The legends about mermaids were born of those sightings. And, of course, as with all legends, they took many forms going well beyond the matter of what actually existed. But the legends touched on one element of the reality of what Gaia had created. The image we have of the mermaid is correct in many regards.

The story of these people is deep and rich. Through it we experience the enhancement of the power of women and the benefits of partnership between those women and the men with whom they join. And then there is the matter of where the development of these people may lead.

The first book in the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy is Gaia’s Majesty – Mission Called: Women in Power

The Andromeda Defense Force
Brigid Lynch

A Core Person (See her picture above.)

Of course safeguarding the future is not as simple as placing women in the sea. Their roles had to be diverse and there had to be a defense force called the Andromeda. In the first book, a woman by the name of Brigid Lynch is introduced. She is a talented and core person in the force. One of my readers referred to her as the “flaming haired assassin-for-good”.

An Interesting Origin

In fact, innocently, I created her as a redhead of Irish origins. Later I read the book The Amazons by Adrienne Mayor and learned not only that the Amazons were not mythological characters but originated in the area to the east and north of the ancient cultures surrounding the Mediterranean. And incredibly many of these women who fought in the nomadic and seminomadic tribes had red hair. Evidently it seems over time they migrated West to settle in places like Scotland and Ireland.
Dedication to Our Future

Brigid began life innocently enough. But life held a cruel fate for her after her mother’s suicide. The evil Overlord of the Irish estate where she had lived with her mother had her dumped on the street with no future at all. Or could it have been that Gaia had an ordained future for her. In time she was taken to a Tethys off the coast of Ireland in the care of Andromeda women. Her pain was transformed into dedication as she came to be an important figure in the crucial Andromeda defense force.

Roger B. Burt’s Amazon home page

Creating Characters and Plots by Roger B. Burt

Whatever Happened to Community Mental Health by Roger B. Burt

Change and Empowerment – Revelations in Fiction

On By Roger B. BurtIn Cusp of Reality, Women Rising, WritingLeave a comment

 

dreamstime_m_25553059

What do you see as the major themes on our planet right now?

Why Write Fiction?

You’d think a clinical psychologist would know why people write fiction. It’s fiction! What’s to ask? Probably a great deal.

The fact is I don’t know why people write fiction but I can speculate. I suppose there are some general reasons which may apply to most art forms. But I’ll save you the meanderings which you might find interesting or not at all interesting. Let me tell you why I think I write fiction.

At Duke they awarded me a doctoral degree after my studies and what I had done proved to them I had a grasp of the human mind and behavior. I’m trying not to laugh because my education continued far beyond my graduate school years. I now believe that all such endeavors are forever a work in progress. Psychology is the study of human and animal behavior—Period. That’’s a big door to walk through. Contrast it with psychiatry which is the study of mental illness, emotional disturbance and abnormal behavior.

Creating a Blog

Definitions can be endless. The longer I look at life, the more I struggle with the meaning of behavior and, I believe, concerning mental illness, we need a wholesale reexamination. and redefinition. This blog is entitled Cusp of Reality because I have found that reality is ephemeral. We desperately grasp at it to retain our stability. It requires ongoing examination and it is clear humankind is constantly confronted with all forms of instability and change.

Exploring a Changing World

As a function of my personality I am always fascinated by possibilities and work to contain the exploration of them and to maintain some order. It appears we are currently entering another dangerous period of world instability related to climate change, demographic dangers and what may be the end of capitalism. But to me one thing has stood out and that is that we don’t focus enough on the empowerment of women. It almost seems it is dismissed as simply a function of the contraceptive pill. As women gained control of their fertility their horizons expanded.

Maybe there’s more to it. Leslie White spoke of the extrasomatic stream which is culture. At this moment there is broad based cultural change underway related to the role of women. Recognition of this fact and my regard for the potential impact of the end to the subjugation of women led me to generate a “what if”. My personality type is known for searching possibilities and I love the process although it must be restrained.

Extraordinary Potential in Women

The bottom line is that I could not resist telling a story about women leading us not just to a stable and productive future but possibly to an unexpected transformation. Women are generative and hold so much potential in their hands. In their world there are untold benefits. Men certainly make their contributions but their nature requires restraint.

Looking at earth and the challenges we face I wondered what might happen if there really was an earth goddess called Gaia who was working to safeguard our future. She found us intriguing and thought we held potential. So she decided to guard and even guide our future.

Beyond Fundamental Conflict

In history gods and goddesses were often reflections of facets of human behavior. They hurled thunderbolts, fought with one another and on an on. But what if there was a process with meaning beyond earth as we know it. There is a universe out there and it is reflected in the here and now but also may have much more meaning related to a future we might only imagine.

Birth of the Story

An idea led to characters being born. They appeared and the story of Gaia’s Majesty opened. Frequently it seemed ever so far beyond my grasp or my control. What started as a story and probably one book grew into a trilogy. I thought that ended it but now a fourth book is materializing.

Bottom line. Why do I write? I write because I explore and while I am in my later years the exploration does not end. I continue to mine parts of myself and to scan the world. Human existence comes in waves both personally and collectively. We seem to be at the end of a wave and the next phase relates much more to what women will bring to our future. I cannot resist telling a story reflective of these possibilities.

Where do you think women will lead us?

Roger B. Burt’s Amazon home page

Revelations

On By Roger B. BurtIn Cusp of RealityLeave a comment

 

dreamstime_m_26993048

Do you search for revelations or do they just come?

World in Crisis

An important election is hurtling at us. The contenders are unusual and, to put it mildly, a lot is at stake. Being absorbed in this political conflict may obscure our view of the true extent of conflict in the world. We face the effects of what may become a hundred years war in the Middle East. There are countries in Africa with frightening genocidal potentials. Precious efforts at political maturity in Europe are being endangered. Migration of stressed populations may bring renewal or terrible conflict. America may restore a process for our potential or may fall deeper into obstruction. One of the questions to ask is whether this is merely a crisis period or something more fundamental.

Among the major themes the world must face are climate change brought by human activity, demographic crises related to aging of populations in “advanced” countries and
poorly understood economic processes indicating we may be reaching the end of capitalism as we have known it. It is tempting to simply see these themes as events in the march of history. They deserve deeper exploration. Have a nice day!

Gaining a Focus

It would be presumptuous of me to think I can bring wisdom to clarify that horrifying list so I will attenuate my focus on this blog. Some of it will address interesting “realities”, some thoughts to be weighed and some will address my devotion to the potential in the movement to empower women. The latter will, in part, be seen in posts related to the meaning and origins of the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy.

Categories

There are categories which will address a number of themes. One is vision. Recently I addressed two visions in the Cusp of Reality blogs. Appalachia was 7/25/16 and the elderly was 8/1/16. We should not just be observers of the world. Opening visions will lead us to fascinating challenges.

Another category is human personality. Carl Jung brought us a rich personality typology. It is both intriguing and useful. I will address the components of this system. In the discussion you will sooner or later see yourself. I was so intrigued I used it in my doctoral dissertation at Duke. I confirmed that the personality of the artist (painter in that instance) is revealed in his or her work. Too much time had been spent on speculating about psychopathology as if creativity was a display of mental illness. We also learned that the personality type is a major determinant in the work of art, more so than the degree of difference within a type.

Yet another is the origin of Gaia’s Majesty. It is not merely a story. Its origins are found in mythology (inspiration from Carl Jung again) and the worldwide movement to empower women. This is a rich category which relates to the origins and development of the concept and process. We will discuss the meaning of specific characters in the books and the writing process itself.

Of course the world is hardly a boring place these days. Events and issues will present themselves and commentary expression and examination will be inviting.

Opening a Forum

Speaking of inviting…I do not perceive a blog as being a confined activity. Each and every one of you who read it will find something personal and have your own perceptions. I hope you will share them and I will be pleased to share what you have chosen to present.

Please let US hear from you.

Roger B. Burt’s Amazon home page

The Myth Underlying the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy: Part 4

On By Roger B. BurtIn Characters, MythologyLeave a comment

Book 1 Los Res 10-1-2015

Gaia has chosen to join us by gracing the cover of Gaia’s Majesty: Discover – An Unbearable Choice, the first book of the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy 

Join us at cuspofreality.com. the commentary, join the conversation, and get the FREE Novella at publication.

Can we start a movement of Primal families in the interest of our world?

While the Progenitors often lived much or most of their lives in the sea they could also live on the land when they had specific duties and tasks. Yes, the sightings conveyed in mythology are of the Progenitors. And they entered the land through specific seaside villages where they were known, protected and aided in their transition to terrestrial life. When they came to land they would transform and their fishlike attributes would retreat into their bodies. They then took on what we know as a wholly human form.

Over the millenia there were women and some men who came from the Tethys to the land to live. The families that there were on the land had strong female members firm in marital partnerships who referred to themselves and their families as Primals. Generally these families became quite wealthy but by truly constructive means. When they were in business their businesses were well run with a vital social contract between workers, shareholders and owners. When their dedication was to public causes such as support of the independence of women in general and safeguarding control of their own fertility and economic sustenance, their stewardship led to flourishing communities and countries.

Opposed to them were the people they referred to as the Overlords. In contrast to the families of the Primals, the Overlords were dominated by aggressive males who were highly predatory. These men cared only for power and profit. They too had originally come to the land from the seas. Thus, there was some overlap of the lineages but the Overlords were primarily the remnants of the dominant power oriented predator class.
Luisa Penza
Brigid had a pet name for Luisa and called her Kitten. A darling gamine, she used her sexual wiles with great art. It was in the service of her people and she enjoyed the form of power it gave her as well as loving the act itself. She came from a wealthy Italian Primal family and was propelled into using her talents in the service of her people and in defense of our future.

Stewardship in All Regards

On By Roger B. BurtIn StewardshipLeave a comment

 

The Mountain Road bridge, straddling small waterfalls in the hills of the Brecon Beacons, National Park, Wales, United Kingdom.
Understanding Essential Obligations

In the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy stewardship is an underlying theme. We are facing an issue of stewardship in regard to our fellow humans and our planet. There are so many levels of stewardship and the people in this story are facing central issues in defense of our future. Attention to the needs of stewardship often prove deeply inspirational.

After World War II we collectively took a deep breath. Not only were there whole countries that had to be rebuilt but there were many millions of people who had put their dreams and their futures on hold. We got to work. About twenty years later things began to change.

Beyond Normalcy to Change
For me high school ended and I entered college innocently. Suddenly sputnik was lofted by the Russians and there was a new mission. Almost simultaneously the civil rights movement opened and we began to focus on preserving the planet on which we live. Amidst it all the women’s liberation movement was born. The dawning of this movement seems to have been related to the availability of effective birth control but it meant a whole new potential and form for our relationships.

While I was in graduate school mental health took on a new dimension with the advent of community mental health. It was not just a matter of mental health. We began to look at interacting with whole communities. I wrote about it in my book Whatever Happened to Community Mental Health. We weren’t just treating mental illness. We were responding to the needs of communities.
Recognizing Stewardship
For me there was one word which characterized all of these events. Stewardship. And to this day it continues to hold our attention but is most often heard in regard to stewardship of our home planet.

But for me it holds a broader connotation. We are stewards in all regards. Whether it is in the civil rights movement, in the relationship between men and women or the planet itself, it is all a matter of stewardship. Anything can be lost or impaired if we do not become thoughtful managers. It was this underlying recognition which fed a great deal of what I was to come to write in the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy. I actually had no idea what it was fomenting deep inside of me. We have broad responsibilities to tend to each other and our home. And it just might be that we are seeing something even more fundamental. We seem to be taking ourselves to a new dimension.

Dedication to Our Angels and Spirit Guides – Women

On By Roger B. BurtIn Women RisingLeave a comment

dreamstime_xs_19710368

How important do you think recent changes in empowerment for women will be?

An Underestimated Wave for Our Future
This blog addresses a number of themes which play out in the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy. The fact that we live on the cusp of reality is one of the themes. Another central one relates to the empowerment of women and the fact that women are rising to full partnership with men. I chose to make women central to these books because of the importance of the changes. The mythological context gives it life and highlight.

We live on a planet and woven into our mythology is the name Gaia. She is simultaneously our goddess and our planet itself. In a variety of ways she is our spirit guide. Isn’t it interesting that this being is a woman. Atlas is said to hold the world on his shoulders but the planet itself is a woman. Of course she is our mother in many ways and our image is born of the woman who bore each of us. And there are the angels who have stirred us over the ages.

Rising Feminism
Let me go to another level. I am a dedicated feminist. I must confess I’m not entirely sure how this commitment began. Perhaps I should take myself into therapy to discover why. Except, of course, I don’t consider it problematic and it gives me no trouble whatsoever. So, maybe I’ll just probe it in this blog and the trilogy.

But it is clear that the subject of women rising needs attention because it is clearly happening in a way that exceeds anything in human history. Let me point you toward an essential book. It is Uprising: A New Age Is Dawning for Every Mother’s Daughter by Sally Armstrong.

I won’t even try to summarize this amazing book here. It is a must read and spells out the essential direction for women and humankind as a whole. The implications of the work brought tears to my eyes. It has been a long struggle for humankind and while our conflicts still rage we may be seeing light at the end of the tunnel and that light is seen in the eyes of women.

And So I Forged a Story
My perception of the coming age of women and their importance led me to place them as the central force in the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy. Men are involved in the story but women rising and how they shape the outcome of the story makes them central and essential.

I’ll be blogging a lot more about women in this series. Who they are and who they are becoming is deep in a growing reality as well as being found deep in mythology. In mythology we often find great truths and these themes about women belong in the speculative fiction I have written. Variously we see them as our angels and spirit guides.This is going to be a very interesting journey indeed. And the women we share it with are truly exciting.

What do you find most interesting about the world of women? Where do you think it will lead?