We know that life is a challenge and it’s not all fun and games. We get that. One of the biggest challenges is to get an image, a perspective of ourselves, and gauge it in terms of how it makes us feel, rather than how we look. The fun part is that our mirror reminds us that life is truly – and literally – a matter of perspective. The way we look at things from different angles, and the type of mirror we use, influence what is visible and what appears to be invisible. If you are not directly in front of a mirror, but view objects – or people – reflected through the mirror from another angle, things seem different. It’s truly magical: now you see it, now you don’t!
This game we play with mirrors goes a long way in aiding us on the road toward self-care, which is about taking time to pamper ourselves, but it’s also about fine-tuning our sense of perception: watching, listening and being aware of certain things that we don't generally see.
In a social face-to-face environment, for example, if the person who you have always looked up to suddenly challenges your trust in them, it’s as if they’ve fallen from grace. You think they may have tricked you into taking a particular stance, and did so only for their benefit. We generally become aware of it through hindsight in a face-to-face setting, when we once again experience the scene as if it were a movie.
But what happens when the person you’ve lost faith in is the one staring back at you in the mirror? The inner conflict can set up a situation where we’re boxing with ourselves. This “shadow boxing” is about refining our perceptual skills in seeing and trying to hide, seeing and not wanting to see certain things, from our position at a certain place and time. A sparring match between the side of ourselves that we reveal and the side we conceal.
Goddesses do not allow anyone nor anything to shade their perspective or steer them away from pleasure, which is sacred to them. Even when hidden in the shadows they create, they stand in plain sight, because their influence is felt despite not being seen.
The surge of female empowerment embracing the divine feminine is the goddess lighting a path inspiring her sisters. Pleasure, ladies, is our pot of gold.
Pleasure In Perception And Perceived Pleasure
The way we receive messages, or perceive them, influences how we respond. That’s why it’s important to sharpen our perceptual skills. One way to refine these skills is to focus on an imaginary object that’s about one yard away. Fix it in your mind. Own it by smiling to yourself as an indication that you like what you see. Then move the object three or four yards away from you. See it, focus your vision on it, bring it to the foreground and blur all things around it. Again, own it by smiling.
This exercise also helps us refine and fine-tune our meditation skills. It raises our energetic vibrational state and is the first step in being able to hear, read or sense messages from the universe and from our spirit guides. These are steps that you can take on that road to making a qualitative jump in life and putting yourself in the position of halting those windmills of the mind, those obsessive thoughts we often become stuck on.
Our thoughts reflect who we are and how we project to the outside world. Perception and attitude are all about the way we perceive things and the way we can change our vision of things, using pleasure seeking as our compass.
Enhanced perception is another superpower that goddesses always use and never stop using!
Her advanced analytical and observational skills, as well as a keen eye for detail, move her forward on her pleasure-seeking path. Quick to spot the minutest detail which others overlook, your inner goddess can assess people and situations, while effectively turning them all to your own advantage.
This superpower makes you well-aware of your surroundings and perceptive of anyone or anything that you observe and analyze. This allows you to see through anyone’s behavior and gain clear understanding of details that others hardly notice. The greatest advantage this superpower gives you, fellow goddesses, is the ability to predict or anticipate the outcome of someone’s behavior and actions. No matter how subtle or complex these are. And what a delight it is! Just think, being one step ahead of someone or something that interests you, allows you to either take action – if it suits you – or to sidestep the limelight, should this even better suit you..
Visibility and Invisibility
Social interaction is all about how we perceive others and our relations with them. Our senses and perceptions are culturally bound and evolve over time. Visibility and invisibility lie at the intersection of perception and power, both thriving on the symbolic and symbols – red lipstick, a dramatic neckline, or army boots – speak volumes in social interaction. Just think of the powerful and ambivalent notion of "light" in Western culture, its metaphysical connotation, making it the obsession of physics as well as of religion or spirituality.
The symbolic dimension of the visible is also central in media technologies and how communicative technologies work as extensions of our senses. Visibility becomes a metaphor of knowledge, but it’s not simply an image we view or see, it is a real social process. The notion of visibility and invisibility appears in fields from gender to minority studies, from communication studies to theories of power.
The relational quality of visibility works something like this: when the activity of watching occurs among people, seeing and being seen are intimately connected. Researchers the world over have written volumes about the power of eye-to-eye contact and most sociologists agree that it represents the most fundamental type of human interaction. Ask anyone who dances Argentine tango. Its sensual nature derives from this form of communication, before and while on the dance floor.
In an ideal natural setting, the rule is that if I can see you, you can see me. But things aren’t that simple. The relation of visibility is often asymmetric and the concept of intervisibility, invisibility or reciprocity of vision, is always limited. For example, when I’m on the peak of a mountain and you’re in the valley, I can easily track your movements, but you can’t easily track mine. The charming and amusing side to an asymmetry is that it transforms visibility into a sort of strategy.
The notion of strategic visibility is explored by sociologist Irving Goffman. Since glances are interactive, he points out that relations of visibility overlap and intersect with perceptions of danger. Goffman showed that normalcy, in fact, represents a state of invisibility of the environment, where no alarms of danger exist. In the lack of alarm messages, the environment results as being transparent to an observer. In the difference between being at ease and being alarmed, you can appreciate the characteristics of what is normal as being invisible, what is normal is not noticed.
Another, truly revealing aspect of interpersonal and interactive watching and glancing, is how we mark both time and space when we speak about someone we saw. For example, the expression “I saw them at a glance” paints a time-space picture for us that clearly describes how a person perceives someone and how more or less important that person is to them.
This is a two-way strategic game. We get information about others and, in turn, also about ourselves. And goddesses use this superpower most, especially when seeking out their pleasure to work for them and aiming on a specific target.
Superpowers of Enhanced Vision and Invisibility
When a person, or something you are interested in, becomes more visible or less visible, more in sight or farther out of our reach, it’s the first sign that a development is occurring. Time to scoop up this opportunity! Shaping and managing what we see is what all people do tirelessly. What you see or don’t see, has the power to transform your life. The same holds true with what we show or don’t show.
In come our superpowers to save the day!
Your ability to see with amazing clarity and detail, noticing nuances like colors along a spectrum, even in the dark, is your superpower of enhanced vision. Trish Walker, the adoptive sister of Jessica Jones in Marvel Comics, uses this power to help her sister’s investigations and for her own survival.
Bringing this superpower to bear on your goddess’s pleasure-seeking path, means first putting it in the context of your strategic visibility.
When you look at someone, who then looks back at you, is the beginning of a conversation without words. Of course, there are so many ways of watching, inspecting, detecting, noting, noticing, recognising, scrutinizing, peeping and spying, that all come under the umbrella of vision. Enhanced vision begins when we analytically view people for specific purposes. For example, if it’s not for questions of survival – as in Trish Walker’s case – it may be for the purpose of gathering information that will help you prep for, say, a party invitation.
If, on the other hand, your looking game has its sights on a special someone, it can involve all sorts of nuances that conceal myriad messages and intentions. Things to bear in mind are the duration, intensity, rhythm, depth, attitude and – of utmost importance – reciprocity, meaning if your look is exchanged with the same intentionality. This superpower allows you to distinctly understand how to grace your efforts.
All visibility involves thought, awareness, understanding, appreciation, recognition and often invites talk, but also manipulation and control.
Now imagine what would happen if these looking and watching relations would extend beyond two people and occur within a group of people: what if who looks at me is not a single pair of eyes, but tens or hundreds of stares? If you can enter a room or meeting where there are more than two people, try to fix your gaze on others, shifting from one to the other, enjoying this kaleidoscope of crossing stares.
What type of visual experience is at play in these crowded contexts? Who looks at whom? After the meeting or gathering, you may want to jot down any emotions you felt or eye-contact communication that occurs between you and others. Does your experience differ in relation to when you play the looking game only with one other person? Is the nature of looking or watching altered? And if so, how?
Another vision-related superpower is invisibility. Ava Starr, who goes under the moniker of Ghost, thrives on her invisibility, again for survival, but more importantly for the advantage it gives her when interacting with others. She is able to pass in and out of the visible spectrum and first used this superpower for the purpose of spying. She would then vanish and reappear to launch surprise attacks.
We as goddesses are the ones to assess whether to “strike” or take a step back, concealing our intentions for the moment. We’re able to do this thanks to our superpowers of enhanced vision and invisibility.
Becoming more aware of the captivating power of our eyes and our gaze enhances the allure – and magic – of our goddess presence!
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