Week 24: "Cassandra Speaks" & Lemon Cookies

WHY THIS BOOK?

This book explores the question what if women's stories were told from the beginning and were an important part of history. Elizabeth Lesser takes us back to Adam and Eve and how fault was placed on Eve and is broken into three parts: origin stories, power stories & a brave new ending.

In the chapter "Women, power and the shadow" I learn about the term innervism in relation to activism.

Activism is described as anything you do to serve a cause greater than yourself. Activism is "love made visible", according to Kahlil Gibran.

Innervism is love of oneself. It is the realization that healing the self and healing the world go hand in hand. Innervism has also been called shadow work.

Last week I spoke about the Four pivots and how we need to heal our trauma and it is interesting how this book Cassandra speaks touches upon this topic as well in relation to women and power.

She discusses how the term power is seen as a negative word for women. I have often watched women in power throughout my career and have seen at times when women mimic men to fit into that power stereotype. I have also seen what happens when they do not.

The chapter on "A day without a war metaphor" was eye-opening & interesting as well. The author shares an experiment where she tried to go without saying an aggressive metaphor throughout the day. Through that experience she learned where the various metaphors like "low blow" and "no holds barred" originated from. FYI "no holds barred" refers to wrestling where you could do whatever to win your match.

The final takeaway from this book is around meditation. Now I do not meditate. I know how wonderful it is however I have always struggled with it. She shares the "Do no harm and take no shit" meditation. You have to read this book and in there on pages 230-233 she explains this meditation technique which I will be trying this week.