The BackStory

People ask me “why Arachne?” a lot. So here’s the backstory.

In 2015, I left my job of nearly ten years to answer a calling to serve my fellow writers, especially women writers.

I wasn’t exactly sure what I was doing, but I had a few ideas, some inspiration, a weird little newsletter idea thingy, and a spirit guide who came to me in my dreams in the form of a wonderful nurturing old woman…and who morphed into a gigantic spider when I wasn’t writing. Which was pretty much all the time back then.

I’m terrified of spiders. Eek.

But I knew this spider guide was connected to something much older and bigger than my fears. It seemed specifically designed to trigger me, to get my attention, and figure out how it connected to this calling to serve writers. And as I explored this more deeply, I found out that there were actually a bunch of spiders in our ancestral stories related to story craft and the creative arts.

One of the more well known of the stories is that of Arachne, the young weaver from Greek mythology whose gorgeous tapestries rivaled those of the goddess Athena. Arachne and Athena ended up competing with one another, and whether Arachne won or lost the bet, the story ends the same. Athena turned her into a spider to weave for the rest of her days.

arachne’s guidance

On it’s surface, Arachne’s story is taken for a cautionary tale about prideful behavior. And that caution may still be relevant on some level to artists. Our relationship with pride can be a huge obstacle we wrestle with on our creative journey. It’s the kind of topic no one likes to talk about, but if we did, we’d realize how important it really is.

A healthy sense of pride is usually perceived as confidence. Writers know we need confidence to keep showing up in the face of rejection and criticism. But there is a point where confidence gives way to arrogance, an inflated sense of one’s own presence. And this is detrimental not just to our relationships with others, but also, in the end, to our own success. Having a distorted relationship with pride, as Arachne did, is self-sabotage. And Athena displayed a distorted sense of pride, too. (Depending on which version you’re hearing, I guess.) Her desire to put a younger artist in her place went a little overboard, as goddesses are likely to do.

So I always kind of wonder what might have happened if Athena and Arachne hadn’t doubled down in the shadow side of pride. What if they had supported and critiqued each other from a place of centeredness or grace instead of throwing down? What could they have accomplished together if they had appreciated each other’s handiwork, shared loom tips over coffee, and agreed to meet up at the next trade show? With Athena’s wise mentorship and Arachne’s youthful passion, they would have been quite a team.

There’s definitely something to be said about the dark side of competition in creativity. And yes, friends, there is a light side. Don’t go believing all competition is bad. It serves us at times. Competition challenges us to try new things and grow through relationship with others. It can be playful, too. But too often, we approach competition as conquest. We forget that each player is part of a collective that needs one another to survive and thrive. We forget about sportsmanship. We forget that challenge, while necessary at times, is best received and processed when it’s given in a spirit of love. Writers, readers, teachers, editors, coaches, illustrators, designers… we are all united by our mutual love of and need for storytelling. And we have to remember that if we want our writing community to stay strong, we have to BE strong. In ourselves. And in our relationships with each other.

thIs collective is made of individuals

This business and blog have emerged as part of my calling to gather and guide an empowered collective of storytellers and writers who deeply respect the relationship between individual and collective.

Empowerment has become a bit of a buzz word. It means a lot of things to different people, but in the simplest terms, empowerment is about choice. It’s about freedom. It’s about sovereignty. As a collective, we are passionate about empowerment, but because of our different ideas about what it means, we can also be frustrated, angry, and aggressive with each other. In an aggressive environment, the pressure to fight and defend oneself is tremendous. We’re pressuring vulnerable people to out themselves, to put themselves at risk before they’re ready, to be taken seriously. We’re writing off potential allies because they disagree with us in part. We’re blaming other people for how we feel rather than taking responsibility for our feelings. And none of these things is empowering to ourselves or a disempowered individual on the other side of the conversation. It’s the exact opposite of what we say we want.

We can’t be an empowered collective without first becoming empowered individuals. We can’t have empowered conversations without assertive communication skills. We can not teach empowerment to others without being empowered ourselves. We can not teach empowerment from victim mentality or fear consciousness. We can not nurture compassion in our hearts when we’re stewing in judgement and anger. We have to start with ourselves.

We start by recognizing and valuing our own power. Some of the most undervalued actions and states of being are empowered.

Meditation is empowered. Happiness is empowered. Love is empowered. Peace is empowered. Reason is empowered. Willingness is empowered. Even Neutrality is empowered. (All those quotes about it being bad are actually about a state of consciousness called Apathy. I’ll write a blog post about this.)

When we writers come together as fully empowered and divinely guided sovereign souls, we will rise together. And we’ll create a beautiful container for other emerging writers to be nurtured in. But we have to work on ourselves first.

This blog will explore topics of interest to writers on the path I speak of:

Book Talk • Examine character arcs in terms of empowered consciousness, rather than likability or relatability

Story Craft • Learn to weave story elements with intention without sounding heavy-handed or preachy

Writing Life • Create more ease in your life, overcome victim mentality and fear, channel your anger into something productive for YOU

Spirit • Journal with me, find peace and clarity through meditation, ground in nature, and show up for your calling in a more fulfilling way

Some of these topics may be less comfortable than others at times. And to be honest, I’m scared of writing about it. But I must. The spider lady said I have to.

As a certified empowerment coach and Reiki master teacher, I hold space one-on-one for writers struggling with all kinds of challenges in their lives. It’s our nature to seek comfort, but discomfort is a powerful guide. Everything we want, including our own power AND peace is on the on the other side of that discomfort. We can’t skip over it. We can’t sweep it under the rug. We each have to walk through the fire of our own personal transformation on these difficult subjects and learn to hold ourselves (and others) in grace when we fall down. Because if we’re really living? Let’s be completely honest. We ALL fall down. And we have to help each other get back up.

It is up to each writer to develop their own relationship with comfort and challenge, with flow and resistance. We can’t force someone else to do it on our timeline or our way. And we can only hold space for others when we’ve held that space for ourselves.

Each of us is called to our personal empowerment journey precisely when the moment is ripe for us. Trust in the process of transformation and in our higher selves is essential.

come with me on a journey to become your highest, most creative self. create a writing life that flows.