I’m undertaking a 1000-day reinvention project, blogging here daily to track my progress. In Friday Flash, I share an epiphany or aha moment from the past week.
Yesterday I wrote of the Queen of Wands Tarot card, the queen of the fire suit. In her book Tarot for Change, Jessica Dore likens her to Hestia, one of the original twelve Olympian gods.
In Goddesses in Older Women, Jean Shinoda Bolen writes of Hestia:
One of the most important Greek goddesses had no persona, no physically identifiable characteristics that can be seen in statues or paintings. She is Hestia, the goddess of the hearth and temple, one of the original twelve great Olympians, and the eldest….
As a goddess, Hestia was the sacred fire at the center of the round hearth, present in the flames and in the glowing coals, a source of light and warmth. As an archetype, Hestia is the still point, the center of the psyche, what many think of as the Self.
Bolen continues:
The goddess Hestia was one-in-herself, as many older women who have a sense of themselves as whole can be. These wisewomen are beyond the need or delusion that something or someone outside of themselves will complete them. They are at peace with themselves just as they are.
This describes me when I am at my best: at peace with myself just as I am, not seeking for something or someone outside myself for completion. In those times, I do feel myself to be whole.
And more than that, I feel a drive to manage things on my own. I am a do-it-yourselfer in many areas of my life: home maintenance, art, writing, money management — but in somewhat limited ways. Sometimes I must rely on other people and on commercial services for certain work I need done.
I am contemplating taking back the reins of my traditional IRA from the asset manager I’ve used for a couple years. The main thing he did for me was to keep my hands off the money. I love to actively trade, but for an IRA, a buy-and-hold approach is best (but perhaps adapted with some momentum-based timing rules to limit huge drawdowns and also tell you when to get back in after getting out).
Hestia the hearthkeeper
Maintaining a home, and a garden, and the money to support it can be a meditative activity. Shinoda Bolen writes:
Tending to household details is a centering activity, a means through which a woman puts her house and herself in order. As a “hearthkeeper,” she finds inner harmony through outer order. With Hestia, there is no rush, no eye on the clock, nor an internal critic. What she does pleases her and absorbs her in the same way that concentrating on the breath absorbs a meditator. As she sorts and folds laundry, irons or cleans up clutter, picks and arranges flowers, prepares dinner, or puts her closet in order, she is totally in the present moment.
I want to expand the idea of hearthkeeping to include money management, the fuel that keeps the fire burning. This is something I need to do a good job at for the rest of my life, until I can’t anymore, and by that point I hope I will have set up systems via which my kids can take over.
hestia the virgin goddess
Shinoda Bolen writes:
In Greek mythology, Hestia was one of three Olympian virgin goddesses (along with Artemis and Athena). They were the only divinities impervious to the arrows of Eros or the love spells of Aphrodite. Hestia did not take part in the conflicts, struggles for power, or contests that are the subject of so many myths. It was enough to be present in homes and temples. As a virgin goddess archetype, Hestia is “one-in-herself,” meaning taht she did not need anyone else to be complete, not a spouse, not a child, not a lover.
The virgin goddess archetype, as described by Esther Harding in Women’s Mysteries, is motivated by a need to follow her own inner values rather than a need to please, be liked, or gain approval. When a woman is one-in-herself, she does what has meaning for herself, and is not deterred by what other people think. This usually becomes easier to do the older one becomes. Sometimes, Hestia comes into the psyche only after loss and grief lead a woman to discover the richness of an inner spiritual life or the sweetness of peace and quiet.
This applies broadly to my life but also to my financial management. It has been difficult to go my own way with money management because it is so outside the mainstream. But I find my approach satisfying and effective, and I think I can do the same with my longer term funds.
I have seen much loss and grief in my life, for reasons I don’t want to get into here. But I think that has been an important part of the story I’m living, and provides a foundation from which to move forward, as one-in-herself.