A 13th Century Persian Mystic Speaks to Brave Hearts

What would a thirteenth century Persian mystic have to say to Brave Heart women? Well, a lot actually. As a woman I felt the impact of Rumi's words when I first read his poem below:


You suppose you are the trouble
But you are the cure
You suppose that you are the lock on the door
But you are the key that opens it
It's too bad that you want to be someone else
You don't see your own face, your own beauty
Yet, no face is more beautiful than yours.


I offer below my comments on this poem.


You suppose you are the trouble

Starting with the curse pronounced by God on Eve and all womankind after Eve ate the forbiddenapple, we’ve been invited to suppose we are the trouble. Just by being born in a female body, we inherited this primal blame. And we have taken on the mantle of self-blame for so many things that go wrong.

But you are the cure

Now we’re becoming conscious of such mind traps, we’re breaking free from the caged bird phenomenon as we recognize negative limiting beliefs about ourselves.

You suppose that you are the lock on the door

We not only learned self-blame, thus becoming problematic to ourselves, but we also learned to argue for our limitations, rather than for our particular strengths as women.


But you are the key that opens it

We see that we are the key to our own locks. We're undoing old beliefs about ourselves, opening the door to our own potential and power. And we see ourselves as the ones who are the key to opening the cage for others, not just for ourselves.

It's too bad that you want to be someone else

Not so long ago we adopted masculine values because we saw that as the way to move within the larger world, the workplace, and raise our self-worth. Our own powers as women didn’t seem sufficient for moving effectively within that sphere. We didn’t realize there’s an oxytocin highway to wellbeing and prosperity that better suits our feminine nature!

You don't see your own face, your own beauty

Rumi is talking about our original face, the true nature of our being that we brought with us into the world when we were born. For Rumi “your own beauty” means your own uniqueness.

Yet, no face is more beautiful than yours.

We’re now seeing ourselves as beautiful faces, those who bring vision into the world through our authenticity, passion, purpose, and inspired action.

Come to think of it, this whole poem expresses the elevated perception of ourselves that our BraveHeart RISE conference fosters!


Note: The unusual image I chose to accompany this post suggests to me our original face being born from the ocean of Being. What does it suggest to you?

©2011 by Chickee Atalla, author
Conversations with the Goddess
Facebook Conversations
GoddessSpeaks on Twitter