Are You Hearing Athena's Whispers?

Lately I have been acutely aware of judgment, and the specific heavy oppressive feeling that it generates in my body.  I don't mean I just notice other people's judgmental attitudes - I feel those, but I feel the same feeling when I am the one being judgmental. And recently, I have been exquisitely tuned in to that vibration, so that every time I encounter it, whether it is generated from myself or another, my body reacts with a giant "NO" and expresses it by having me experience the discomfort of this heavy feeling that accompanies it.

The best way I have been able to sum up the message I am receiving here is this: standing back and making critical judgments/decisions/assumptions about "other", whatever that is, is no longer going to keep us safe (if it ever really did).  This is just no longer an option.  Every time we do that there will be a push back.  And the push backs are going to get bigger and bigger until we get the point.  ​
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And what comes to my mind is the mythology of Eris, the Greek goddess of chaos and discord. Eris, astrologically, is a dwarf planet that had been in Aries since the mid-1920's. She's a slow mover, not making moves so much on her own as she just sits where she's at allowing the other planets to trigger her energy with their movements. This is an important point when thinking about her energy, because as you will notice below in my summary of a couple of the myths surrounding Eris, it is mainly the actions and reactions of others and their shadows that create the disharmony for which this goddess is famous.

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In the myth of the Golden Apple of Discord, the story goes that Zeus was throwing a wedding party and chose not to invite Eris because she, as the goddess of chaos and discord, tended to cause upset. Enraged at this, Eris inscribed a golden apple with "kallisti" (to the fairest), and tossed it into the party.  Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite fought over it and asked Zeus to decide who would get it.  Zeus instead pawned the responsibility off on Paris, a mortal.  The goddesses offered Paris bribes, and he took Aphrodite's offer of the most beautiful woman in the world.  That was Helen of Troy, who was already married.  Paris stole Helen away one night, and thus the Trojan War began.  ​

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In yet another myth where Eris appears, Hercules is out walking and happens across something he doesn't recognize and so hits it with his club.  It immediately doubles in size.  He hits it again, and rather than going away, the thing doubles in size again.  Before he strikes a third time, Athena intervenes, telling him that it is actually Eris in disguise, and he should walk away from it.

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In both myths, Eris doesn't actually "do" that much, but things swirl around her and reactions escalate, whereas if everyone (or anyone) had just walked away, there would've been no event at all.  

Judgment - the act of creating dualities, the process of categorizing all that we come across into good/bad, and right/wrong - and the fear and attachment that swirls around that within us, is what keeps things energetically "sticking".  It's what keeps us in a place of attracting to us the negativity we most want to avoid.  It's what keeps that karmic loop going.  It's what perpetuates that feeling of heaviness and oppression.  

When we are judging the world around us, we are also judging ourselves.  This means we are criticizing ourselves and creating that heaviness and oppression within ourselves.  

And the judgment creates the engagement and opposition that creates the escalation.  Judgment gives the negativity traction and something to stick to and push against.  Judgment feeds the negativity.  It feeds Eris and her supposed love of chaos and discord.  (Or maybe chaos and discord are just her tools or what is familiar to her, and not really what she truly wants or loves at all, but in this way she has been associated with them over time?)

But you can take a lesson from Athena, as she now whispers those words of wisdom into your ear just like she did Hercules'...."just walk away".  You can be allowing, and stay in your center, and not strike out at that which you don't understand just because you don't understand it.  Pull into your center and put down your club.  Even if you know something (or someone) creates problems and is something you don't like or don't want to tolerate in your life, send it/them love, because just like in Eris' myth, the more you try to make something or someone bad or wrong or disown it, the more it will take center stage in your life and prove that it won't be ignored.  Eris is ultimately that part of you that you want to disown, and the only way to appease her is with love.  You cannot exclude her - she will come bubbling to the surface at precisely the most inopportune time.  You cannot silence her - she will be heard no matter what.  If you attack her, she will only turn into a bigger and bigger monstrosity.  

​The only option is allowing, acceptance, and love, for the Eris within yourself and all of the reflections you see of her in the world.