Masculine-dominant cultures are terrible at grieving, whether it's actual loss of life or the decaying of institutions, ideas, hopes, futures -- and that's by design. We have hardly any skill or stomach for the thing we’re all inevitably careening toward, and perhaps that's one of the biggest reasons we're bubbling over with anxiety, depression, avoidance, and cruelty as a group. But it doesn't have to be that way. Through the recent loss of her dad, Vanessa explores grief as an opportunity to deepen into the feminine. Whether personal loss or collective, if grief is love with nowhere to go, maybe we can give it some direction.

Filmmaker brutbros joins me for an in-depth exploration of the symbolic and archetypal themes in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.

• brutbros film library: https://www.youtube.com/@brutbros

An intro or refresher on the archetypal masculine and feminine.

Masculine metrics tell us who to trust. We pay for that certainty with our own instincts. Who do you give your authority to instead of yourself?

What's the value in understanding and observing archetypes without literalizing them? How can these symbols and patterns provide us deeper insight into ourselves and help us #feedthefeminine by embracing our yearning for spirit rather than repressing it through material worship?

On this episode, dedicated to my mentor and friend Bruce Avery, I share how my personal experiences of grief and the wisdom of poets and psychologists alike have led me to understand the meaning of mourning.

References:

Psychoanalytic Diagnosis - Nancy McWilliams

The Dark Interval - Rainer Maria Rilke

Unlocking Us with Brené Brown - Grief and Finding Meaning

All There is with Anderson Cooper - Grateful for Grief with Stephen Colbert

Refuse in Grief, Megan Divine

Codependency influences us to be responsible for making other people feel better. Success in that area is what can determine a sense of personal value, but this creates suffering. A more objective truth is that we can support each other but the work to quell our upset and evolve is ours alone. And boundaries – a trait of the masculine light – is where that healthy separation begins.

Discussing behavior traits of the feminine shadow and their impact on relationships. When we’re stuck in the feminine shadow, our self-image is usually not great. Because it’s a darker manifestation of feminine light which is about relationship and community, when that healthy manifestation turns dark, it’s still about relationship and community but about us being on the outside of it, feeling disconnected from it, not allowed into it.