One Broken Trust

Dear friend,

Here’s a myth card I pulled from an early prototype of a set of oracle cards I’m developing. The idea is that you allow the divine, however you think of the power that moves the universe, to communicate with you through intuition as you choose the card that feels most relevant to you in that moment.

This one is the story of Ganesha, the elephant-headed Indian deity.

Ganesha & the Broken Tusk (Hindu) – The One Who Made a Tool From a Wound

"Ganesha, remover of obstacles, was writing the Mahabharata, the great epic of gods and men, for the sage Vyasa.
He had vowed to write without stopping. But his pen broke.
The story could not wait. The words could not stop.
So he broke off his own tusk and kept going.
And that’s why statues of Ganesha often show him with one broken tusk."

Often we demand perfection of ourselves, waiting for the perfect time to begin a project or to make a change we’ve been considering.

This myth makes me think about the vulnerability we can feel when we commit to action. How easy it is to be fooled into giving up when we run into self-criticism: either our own, or from others.

Even Ganesha, the remover of obstacles, is challenged by events. His promise to himself and Vyasa is that he will write and let nothing get in the way, and so he reaches for whatever tool he can to continue his work, wounding himself in the process.

The wound becomes the tool he uses to complete his task.

Can our wounds become our strengths?

If our hurts are met with kindness and acceptance and compassion, doesn’t that transform us from the inside out?

Nothing stops Ganesha, unless Ganesha chooses to stop.

Showing up.

For each other.
We can do that.

We don’t need anyone’s permission to join together and work for what we believe is right.

I’m seeing a growing number of Ganeshas.

Determined.

To follow through on promises we make.

The ones we make to ourselves and loved ones.

That broken tusk.

Makes me think of the stories our bodies tell as we grow and mature.

Scar tissue grows where wounds heal.

Till tomorrow

Love,
Mikey