The Goddess of the Threshold

What is to be crossed?

Let me tell you of The Goddess of the Threshold.
The one who conjures doors and gateways.
Portals and openings.
The one who stands in the in between and beckons us near.
So that we may step.
Over.
Through.
And into what awaits.

---

It began a recurring dream, though barely so as anything more than a hint of her presence would slip away as soon as my eyes opened.
I would wake with a feeling of being called to an edge.
To an end.
Where a beginning sat untouched.

The dreams left me unsettled.
Wanting, but unsure of what.

Then, within the Museum of the Mystery, I came across a shoe box marked The Goddess of The Threshold.
And something from the labyrinth of my unconscious broke free and rose to the surface.
I knew. I knew. I knew.
Even though I had no recollection I knew that she was the spark that brought those dreams to me.

I read each letter.
Each word.
Each story that told of the times when The Goddess of the Threshold had appeared to people.
And offered them a threshold to cross into something new.
Something of their creation.
Together.

The letter writers spoke of leaving behind.
Not themselves.
But stories.
Vows.
Rules made by others.
They spoke of the relentless call the Goddess had.
Whispering to them through the breeze.
Singing at them in the storms.
Asking them to make a choice between what had been.
And what could be.

Reading their stories, I felt a yearning to do as each letter writer had…
To cross through the fear.
To claim a needed truth.

It was late when I put the box away.
As I got ready for bed, I asked for the Goddess of the Threshold to visit me once more.
I leaned over to turn off the light and knocked over the small box that contains the questions I am to explore as Resident Something or Other of the Museum.
I won’t lie. I thought of just leaving the box on the floor until the morning.
But a sense of responsibility won out.
I looked and saw that only 2 cards had actually fallen to the floor.
I turned them over to see the questions they held.

“What is to be crossed?”
“What is on the other side?”

I laughed.
And sighed.
Perhaps rolled my eyes as I snuggled back up into bed.

Sleep did not come easily that night.
I found myself pondering the questions.
The threshold is to be crossed…but what does that mean?
What does it hold?
I know that on this side there is a binding to a desire for a safety that exists only as an illusion.
Within that are wounds that became grooves that became the song that was easiest for me to sing…one that wants the way shown. One that wants the answers offered. One that does not want to deal with fear.

In time, the dream reached out and pulled me in.
Under.
I found myself wandering through the woods.
Searching, yet finding nothing of whatever was needed.
Before me a shadow transformed into a being of great beauty.
The Goddess of The Threshold.
She unfurled a rope made of ivy and honeysuckle and laid it out in front of me.
Her voice boomed.

“On this side is everything that was. One that side is all that could be.”
I looked out into the distance, over the threshold.
But the world was unformed as if it were waiting for someone…me, perhaps, to tell it what to be.
I started to step forward, as if to cross the threshold.
But her hand reached out to grab me.
“No,” she said.
Not yet.
You must first decide what lives beyond.”

She leaned in gently and whispered into my ear that I was to make a threshold of my own. She told me how.
And that when it was done, she would be there.

I woke with a start.
It was still dark out. Too early for my tired eyes.
But my mind would not let me rest.
So I began to ponder the other side.

In the stillness, I could feel new commitment forming.
A vow.
An oath.
To myself.
To listen to the knowings within.
The ones that answer my questions.
The ones that show me the way.
Even when the way is scary.
Even when I don’t want to listen.
On the other side is a settling.
Deeply.
Lusciously.
Into the fullness of my being.
So that I may choose.
Over and over.
The path this is mine to be had.

When day finally broke, I went into my studio to begin to craft my threshold.
It is still a work in progress.
As per her instructions, I am not to rush.
I am to enjoy the process.
And not be too precious in its creation.

But when it is done.
I will wait until I feel her.
When I am called, I will step over.
To truly discover what is waiting.

Won’t you join me?

See you on the other side~
Jo Anna


P.S.
I held the full moon clearing on Monday evening.
It felt like an ocean wave rolling out, creating new pathways and clean slates.
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