Inspirations: Archives

You know the saying, “between a rock and a hard place.” Between Scylla and Charybdis is tantamount to the same, except it’s more nuanced and poetic because Homer wrote it. Scylla is a rock on the Italian side of the strait of Messina. Charybdis is a whirlpool standing opposite, which once upon a time Homer personified as a female sea monster that devoured sailors. ‘Between Charybdis and Scylla’ calls for more tenuous maneuvering than figuring out how to shimmy between ‘a rock and a hard place.’ It is about the avoidance of one danger exposing you to the destruction of another. If Charybdis is the yin ‘monster’ of the chaotic, instinctual feminine, ready to devour whenever we fall deeply into a sea of emotion, then Scylla is the un-yielding yang of the jagged rock of our masculine. This face-off puts action, and stability up against the inchoate, watery feminine. Who wins? Depends on where and when you fall overboard, and who pushes you…no? Since this demanding passage lies within as well as without, it is a journey we all navigate, often. It can be the fine line between attempting perfection, without a willingness to fail. It is the equally difficult journey of doing ‘a slide,’ that is taking a risk knowing it cannot be done well. Before you even begin you know you will slide home by your Charybdian hairs. It is simply all about being on the journey, and making the most conscious, informed choices in each moment, and this comes only by diligent navigation. More often we wreck ourselves on one side or the other, reeling from imbalances of over-reacting. But if our pilot is seasoned, the years of Practice having formed a strong heart, with muscle at the ready, and well-honed instincts alert, then we have a… Read more »