A Word from Athena

Athena is a warrior and an artisan, known for wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, justice, and skill.  She and Poseidon were the most important deities in Athens.  She's associated with the snake (connection to the earth) and the owl (wisdom.)   It is a practical wisdom, useful in tangible application, not overly philosophical.  Her first gift to the city of Athens was an olive tree, useful for heat, light, food and construction materials.

The philosopher GWF Hegel famously wrote, "The owl of Athena flies with the dusk," indicating that wisdom comes after the events which trigger it.  Some have extended this by saying that wisdom comes with age, only after life has largely been lived.  These things are true as far as they go, but Athena herself would like to say some things about her own owl.

Do not consider the dusk as if it were only the end of the day, as if the night doesn't matter, as if the daylight hours are the only ones that exist.  There is value in the night which we do not want to miss.  You can embrace darkness and it can be very helpful.

New wisdom arrives often at times of apparent darkness.  It is not when things are bright and sunny, smooth and easy, that we are most open to new insights.  We seek deeper understanding when we've been challenged, when our view of the world no longer fits, when we see something new we can't understand with the thinking we've developed so far. 

We don't usually welcome such events, they look like trouble and they can be upsetting.  But trouble sometimes carries the hidden blessing of deep understanding, which is easy to miss if you don't seek it out.

So in times of trouble you can enhance your own wisdom by looking for lessons contained within the chaos of upsetting events.  There are sometimes aspects of fulfillment to be found even in the most turbulent times.  They may have arisen as a direct result of the turbulence itself.  If these aspects can be preserved, even cherished, they can add to the depth of your understanding.

How many times have you worked on a problem with your rational approaches, studied all its aspects and tried to force a solution, and nothing seemed to work?  It looks like barriers all around and we end the day in a form of darkness, not seeing how we're going to resolve the issue.  Then the next morning, sometimes in the shower, the path is clear.  After the apparent darkness, illumination comes freely and easily.

One foolish fellow decided to spend more time in the shower just because of that.  But without the darkness it didn't do him much good.  The darkness has a value, it prepares the field for new growth.  We don't seek it out for its own sake, but sometimes we can see its worth:  The owl of Athena flies with the dusk.

Athena is not a dark energy in any way, she did her weaving and metalworking, forming shields and swords by the light of day, but darkness was part of her twenty-four hours and her nocturnal wisdom is worth embracing.

Athena's owl is usually shown as a small likeness of Athena
herself, as in this statue in Venice.  She's not often shown with
the owl, she is the owl - she is the personification of wisdom.