Big Cat Energy in Egypt.
For those of you who have been following my journey, you know I’ve been meditating on the archetype of the Big Cat + all the qualities that this symbol embodies.
Strength, grace, laser focus, primal, intuitive, majestic, + walking softly on the earth--to name a few.
My nervous system had favored the “freeze” + “fawn response" when I was dysregulated. I’d appease others + be playful cute so as not to cause conflict or the potential for harm/rejection.
Over the years of trauma therapy + yes, psychedelics, I strengthened my sympathetic system--the fight system, building a stronger sense of protection within myself.
I started seeing that I could hold a confrontation without fainting.
I could speak directly in uncomfortable, vulnerable conversations without shaking.
I could call forward someone’s unkind behaviors (and learned not to over-rationalize for them).
I learned that I could hold anger + tell someone I was angry without it attacking (I had the belief that my anger was attacking + could hurt).
I’m still doing this work.
Avoidance + freezing are still things I do in response/coping. The difference is in the frequency, duration, + intensity--THAT is the true measurement of healing--not the ABSENCE of.
Being in Egypt, the land in which they revered cats, domestic + big, as gods, was a powerful addition to my archetype practice.
Since I was little, I was obsessed with Bast--the domesticated version of feline, representing protection, pleasure, family, sexuality, fertility, softness.
She was a cat + so was I.
I wrote all my research papers in grade school about Egyptian Mythology + imagined I lived in that time.
This trip, I was most drawn to the archetype of Sekhmet--the lioness representing protection, power, chaos, war, destruction of enemies, but also benevolent love.
Fun story: It is said that when you stand in front of her figure in her temple at Karnak + ask her a question, her face will contort to either fierceness or softness as the answer to what you inquire about.
Some myths say that these two are one of the same, representing both sides of a Cat, while other stories say they are sisters--depending where you hear + from what time period of Egypt.
Both powerful in their own expression.
Both so necessary for us to learn to embody.
Since I’ve been home, I’ve been met with situations every day that required me to step into my power + direction--all while feeling the heaviness of jetlag + the need for rest after my program launch. I told my therapist I felt I was hitting up against my edge of what I’ve held before both in career, love, + activity of life.
My system wanted to pull away, “Could I hold all of this without overwhelm?”
The truth is yes, if we have the skills to relax + regulate, give ourselves breaks, lean into community, listen to the body’s needs, speak vulnerably, + imprint the new reference points of us holding bigger things.
Big Cats need the rest, softness, love, benevolence directed at ourselves as much as towards others.
As we consider the health of the nervous system, we need to care for it if we are asking it to hold more energy + stimulation than ever before.
It’s time to be like the Big Cat that we are.
How are you stepping into your power + supporting the expansion of your edge?
This is what I consider in all of my workshops + therapy work with my clients.
We’ve GOT to include the body if we are wanting to make health, sex, + big moves in the world.
We can’t just change out thinking, it’s got to be done on the somatic level.
Are you ready to make big changes?
Check out my online programs and LEZ GO!
BIGGEST thanks to the crew who led this. Wow is Now Daybreaker, Eli Clark Davis + Rhada Agrawal, Insider Expeditions + Carl Shepard and so many amazing others