Learning how to tell the truth
This week’s show is with Gillian Pothier, a LA-based writer and coach. Women work with Gillian to reclaim their instinctual knowing. She guides them to write and create from their deepest Feminine essence: their pussy. Gillian believes that women alive in their deepest truth and in the fullness of their erotic expression is the medicine that will save the world.
Gillian’s actually one of my own mentors and coaches and I’ve been dying to get her on the show to share her with you!
In this show we explored power of learning how to tell the truth – which is something Gillian is particularly passionate about and also beautifully placed to guide others in. We talked about why telling the truth can be so challenging and scary, and how we can learn to go to and name the our hidden places, and the power that truth can have out in the world.
I’d love to know what YOU think about this week’s show. Let’s carry on the conversation… please leave a comment below.
What you’ll learn from this episode:
We can open into greater vulnerability and creative freedom by being present to the truth of our lived experience moment to moment. It means a willingness to be present to what is so – when it involves others, being willing to name it, regardless of the chaos and reorganisation that naming the truth might catalyse.
A women in her fullness of telling her truth can be terrifying (as Gillian quoted the wonderful Christiane Pelmas “We must remember our right to be terrifying.”
And of course, telling the truth can be terrifying and dangerous for us too. As Gillian quoted Michael Beckwith saying: when women tell the truth what they must face is the fear is being burned at the stake, and when men tell the truth they must face the fear of being crucified. But as Gillian said “Telling the truth is dangerous, but not telling the truth is corrosive.”
You might feel that you’re already telling the truth but what is the river beneath the river? What is it that you know that you don’t want to know? What is in the underworld or the basement?
As Gillian said “When women are not willing to own the fullness of their desire, even when they’re cast off into the shadow aspects we can then weaponise our shame for having the desire. And then that gets injected it into the collective towards men.”
When we can own the fullness of our desire, like Persephone, something becomes possible in the way we hold the fullness of our own humanity. How do we create the space that can hold all the truths, even when they seem contradictory?
A first step to learning how to tell the truth is being in in a sacred witnessing container, such as a women’s circle. That’s something of a theme that comes up show after show and it’s no accident – circles really do have that much power.
In this work of creating a world that works for everyone, women can’t do this without men, and men can’t do this without women. In Gillian’s words…”Men and women carry one another’s medicine”
Resources and stuff that we spoke about:
Gillian’s website
Gillian on Medium
“Facts do not convey truth. That’s a mistake. Facts create norms, but truth creates illumination.” ― Werner Herzog
Thank you for listening!
There’s fresh episode each week, if you subscribe then you’ll get each new episode delivered to your phone every Tuesday (that way you’ll never miss an episode):
Thank you!
Lian & Jonathan