What’s inside your Pandora’s box?

I am very fascinated by mythology. A myth is not a lie, it is a complex symbolism of human nature in its many faces and always helps us to observe a little more about ourselves. They are the masculine and feminine forces, in their maximum expression of duality.

You can see that Olympus is right here. A huge mess of desire, vanity, betrayal, fear, anger, celebration, expectation, kindness, love, blessings and curses; that are described from absolutely patriarchal times and, for that reason alone, influence the roles we “should” have in life.

Even though it is a patriarchal narrative, sometimes female figures it’s the fault. These conceptual overlaps, facets of humanity, are naturally shown in the way we deal with life, revealing themselves in women and men.

How myths reveal themselves to us

Do you remember when you held everything on your shoulders? Atlas did it.
And when you locked all the pain inside you? Medusa knows.
And when he didn’t want to, he didn’t want to, but did he? Oh, Persephone…

Since I was 12 years old, out of pure passion, I have researched various mythologies and I always find inside myself Gorgons, Hercules, Perseus, Aphrodites, Persephones, Panaceas, the distrustful Prometheus, who sees everything first, and the skittish Epimetheus, who sees later, anticipating to always things.

I also find Pandora, with her box, which was actually an amphora.

Apart from these, so many other myths inhabit me, sometimes dormant, sometimes very active. I find it wonderful to stir this cauldron.
Pandora’s Myth

Pandora was “invented” by three male figures; Zeus, Prometheus and Epimetheus, from the discord between them.

Zeus’ intention was to deceive and punish men; look at them there in the center of the universe again, no matter that, for that, he used the figure of a woman.

Pandora was granted the gifts of enchantment, Athena gave her the breath of life, the goddess Aphrodite gave her beauty, the god Apollo gave her a soft voice, and Hermes contributed persuasion.

Led by Pandora there was such a jar, or box, where the worst things that plague humanity to this day were kept and are said to be the punishment that Zeus destined.

Pandora shouldn’t open the box, her husband warned her to be quiet, but her investigative curiosity, about wanting to know what was inside, overcame her fear of the unknown and yes, act of courage, she opened it!

That’s when the content that was there, tight, emerged to be a bubbling cauldron.
Pandoras, women and men, increasingly bring their boxes

Therapist by personality trait, who later came to terms with the profession, I observe that each client brings, The your own pandora’s box.

Sometimes small, sometimes in huge boxes. Some are colorful, painted to disguise the pain, other boxes are almost armored.

Others look at the box, but it is not yet available to open, and according to their priorities, they may allow it to be opened at some point.

Pandora is just one of the women who are blamed for everything that goes wrong in the world. After all, who told you to open the box, you stubborn curious ?!

The fact is that women are predominance in the universe of therapeutic searchbenefiting the many men who decide to investigate the path they once wanted to walk and also face their boxes.

I am always very grateful when men make themselves available for therapeutic research, as they end up finding their brave Pandoras.

Opening Pandora’s box, in my way of feeling, is getting in touch with that bunch of things that Zeus declared as punishment for human beings, but that live inside us. Having a female figure as an icon represents how much everything that is feminine, sensitive, creative, has been hurt and locked up, in women and men, over the ages.

The paradox is that it is only through sensitivity and vulnerability that new hypotheses can be made, which means that, sooner or later, we will need to verify all these things. locked inside us.

Sensitivity and vulnerability: deep processes of trust

Breathe in this word: With trust.

Here we circumvent the good spelling rules to just feel: With trust.

Trust. Weave together. Sewing a story, many stories or no story. Just the act of looking at the jar, touching the jar, knowing that there is something in there and that what has already been exposed or expelled is, and always will be, just part of it.

Guilt weighs on the myth of Pandora, the one who dared to open the box and make the cauldron boil; and many people, when they start their therapeutic processes, unconsciously think that they should not have opened the box, that they are to blame for their symptoms and behavior, that something threatens them and that it is their responsibility to maintain the status of control.

Countless times there is no room to breathe, despite breathing being the signal that life happens.

Do you really think that your changes, which make family wonder and the friends become a little distressed when they perceive new Limits being proposed, should not happen.

However, for Pandora, it is also intended to guard the hope that is, still, inside the box. It is not an empty hope.

It’s a vibration, an information, a fragrance, a flavor that there is something not yet explored, something that suggests that everything can change at any moment. The hope it is in itself, to be breathed in and breathed out.

And the eternal duality. In and out. Above, so below.

From the same place where pains came from, also rests understanding and strength; and it may take a new act of curiosity or courage to see what else is in there, behind each symptom or behavior.

Take a deep breath… and let go.