Motifs in Black Swan

Written By Cristy

Wow, I am struck by the film Black Swan and its unnerving quality. I’m contemplating Natalie Portman’s character, Nina, as holding the light and dark aspects of the Princess archetype, a motif or primordial pattern of nature and psyche.The more she pushes to split off her darkness, the more the passion/energy it illicit to take over, as if by possession in reaction to the polarizing pull of expectations.

I appreciated the layer of building this story over the already tragic story of Swan Lake, based on a Russian folktale about Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer. This male presence could be considered the negative animus possession, the inner masculine side of woman that is compulsively driving her to consider the truth of her logic, and if positively mediated brings about consciousness.

I was able to attend a presentation by the film director Darren Aronofsky. It appeared to be quite a feat to get this film produced and I couldn’t help but consider how poignant it is for this material to be coming into collective consciousness.

I consider the 1948 film “Red Shoes” about a ballet dancer torn between love and her career, as a predecessor. Then and even still, it seems, the lead feminine must die to not compromise the ideals placed upon it. A heavy burden to carry.

Certainly rich imagery, themes, and topics for exploration.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d67FxOH8eqg/T99iwtD7vWI/AAAAAAAABsE/xrSXvP3lb7k/s1600/The+Red+Shoes,+1948.jpg
Cristy

Hola, Piyali, Hello! I am a queer Latina Chicana mestiza ((detribalized Caxcan/ Iberian colonial) mother, storyteller and decolonial somatic psychotherapist licensed in California with fourteen years of clinical experience in the field of depth psychology. My private practice, Imaginal Therapy + Sacred Arts, centers soul care and offers ketamine journeys. I am a graduate of Loyola Marymount University, Pacifica Graduate Institute and the Hakomi Institute of California. I specialize in intergenerational trauma, healing the family soul for personal and cultural transformation, and psychedelic/entheogen integration. I work with clients in a holistic approach to connect to collective wisdom through imagination, intuition, mindfulness, embodiment, dreamwork and creative expression. My treatment focus is on relationship, cultural wounds, trauma resolution, ancestral lineage repair, animist parenting, kinship ethics, and reconnecting to the sacred.

I am a certified Ancestral Lineage Healing practitioner and also an initiated serpent medicine keeper and priestess in sacred arts with 8 years of training. As a ritualist and coach, I offer virtual mentoring and circles globally. I am steeped in my traditions, mythology, cultura and roots, originally from the villages of Juchipila, Zac, Mexico, born and raised in Tongva lands, Los Angeles, residing on Nisenan land, Sacramento. My lineage gifts are in storytelling, dignity, sweetness, relating to the spirit magic of bee, deer, maize, and cacao. I have been given the medicine name, Cloud Serpent. I am honored to reclaim reverence for my mother mountain, Tlachialoyantepec, a sacred site. I hold a vow with my people to live the repair, in service of the anima, mundi, the world soul.

https://imaginaltherapy@gmail.com
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