T.we all have a guiding spirit inside. A “daimon” that leads us to our mission in life. Everything is in perceiving it, in listening to it. Because once identified it can make sense of its existence. At least from a spiritual point of view. Daimon (Piemme, from May 17th in bookstores) is the title of the last book of Selene Calloni Williams, psychologist, founder of shamanic yoga and very popular writer with a community of thousands of people.
After books like Wabi Sabi, Mudras and Meditations to travel between worlds And Imaginal warriors, just to quote some of her latest texts, this time the author focuses on a theme that is close to her heart: the myth. «Because – he explains – each of us continuously stages one. And the myth tells us of the origin of things, of how they manifested themselves in the world for the first time. Knowing the origin of things is the starting point to change or transform them ».
Selene Calloni Williams: “Myth is poetry”
The book retraces eight “famous” mythological figures told in the first person and then, and this is the most precious part, reports as many case histories of Williams patients. Which, through the analysis of the myth of Arianna (betrayal), Antigone (failure) rather than Cassandra (anxiety and fear), Medea (anger) or Prometheus (boycott) they are healed by transforming their discomfort or by understanding the reason for certain existential situations.
The case of Claudia who opens the book and has to deal with her husband’s deception. The same suffered by Ariadne with Theseus. The woman understands that the problem is not the betrayal itself, but how we give ourselves and choose us.
«Obviously the myth should not be interpreted in a moralistic key, but in respect of the aesthetic, emotional expression of the archetypal tales. Because myth is poetry and poetry is an action capable of giving life to a reality. Abandoning one’s beliefs and demolishing false certainties », underlines Selene Calloni Williams.
Selene Calloni Williams
First rule: silence the mind
What does the myth mean?
We are myth which is nothing but the language of the soul. And the myth repeats itself incessantly. Three thousand years have passed since the time of ancient Greece, yet everything is repeated the same, always identical. And that’s because we don’t elaborate, we don’t solve. Freud said that things repeat themselves until they are resolved. If we all stage a myth we can also find a way to solve it in our lives. Just go back, go back to the first time, which is always a time of the mythological gods. Only in this way can we heal.
Why a book dedicated to the Daimon?
The Daimon is our guiding spirit. And it is the voice that puts the myth on the scene, he is the narrator of the story. His action is poetic. The daimon speaks through the heart and not with the words that the mind feeds on which, instead, only makes noise. To feel the heart, the divine, one must gather, meditate, overcome fear – generated by the mind – and have faith. The more you have faith, the more you are able to stay silent.
Sixty seconds to connect
It starts with Ariadne and ends with Agamemnon: what myth does Putin belong to today?
No doubt to Agamemnon. Or rather he stages the myth. He was the supreme leader of the Achaeans and does not hesitate to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia when an oracle tells him that, after having offended the goddess Artemis, it was the only way to have the wind in their sails and leave for Troy. He gets to kill the soul for power. He has to show his strength. Agamemnon is a social myth. He represents men who want power and do not hesitate to sacrifice the feminine, or the soul. If we look around it is still like that, right?
You invented the OMI, the one minute immersion: is 60 seconds enough to connect?
Absolutely yes. Indeed, I recommend more “omi” per day. These “mini meditations” serve to deprogram the mind and to “stay” in the here and now during the day. The best would be to practice Buddhist Satipatthana, the conscious exercise, the path of conscious attention. But when you live in Milan or New York and you are not a monk, it is quite complex to “stay” at all times. Even just a minute seems like a little, but it’s a lot.
The author will present the book in Milan on June 8 at 6 pm at the Rizzoli bookshop in Galleria Vittorio. Emanuele.
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