Dr. Ayn Cates Sullivan on the Power of Crafting Worlds through Stories

And this is Messages of Infinite Light with Mirabai Devi over there. And so she’s doing amazing things in the network and has been for quite a long time. So we’re super excited to feature her this month celebrating Women’s History Month. And so I’m gonna read our statement about how the Superpower Network celebrates Women’s History Month and is proud to align with the 2023 theme of honoring the women who tell our stories, as more women endeavor to find their voices and share their experiences, we open pathways, pathways for others to follow. We love you and love each other. So welcome, welcome. That’s what we’re talking about today. And we’re going to talk with you specifically about the power of crafting worlds through stories. And so with over 15 books published right many more are on the way. And that’s impressive, right? Well, it’s a couple of PhDs in there, plus a few other things. But what I love and when I love to brag when I brag about you, and I do brag about you a lot, I brag about you. And I’m like, dude, she’s a bard, like, a bar, like, who gets to say that it so talks a little bit about, you know, this is why I love that you’re leading off her our Women’s Month on storytelling because that’s a serious storytelling pathway and you chose it and you did it. So can you share a little bit about what being a bard is all about? And what that was like for you?

When when we see a depiction of a person doing something miraculous, right? There’s something in us that wonders, well, could I do that right? Or? Or is it possible? Or you know, and we discovered that with the whole superpower thing from the beginning asking people what are your superpowers and people responding right from all different walks of life, all different professions, all different, you know, ends of the earth like it’s amazing, that it that that spark of like, I could be special like I could have a special power or an ability or a gift to share right? Whether we see that as a spiritual imbued you know, ability or gift or God-given or, or just an innate, you know, human potential gift. We all sort of have this desire, this hope to believe in that. And I think it comes through in our storytelling, and so do the shadows, right, so do the things of like, wait, hold up, what else is there too, right? And so and so we get to craft worlds, when we start telling stories and having the courage to tell stories, right, diving into the traditions and pulling them out and making them relevant for today. That’s one of the things that I’m really impressed with about your work. That’s one of the things I’m really impressed with about your work is the ability to take stuff that that’s, you know, for the most part, historical or sort of out of context in our current modern systems and bring it forward in a relevant way where we can all kind of find ourselves in it. It’s a beautiful gift. And so talk a little bit about how that came about and how you started to see this connection between characters. And yourself. Right? Like there’s, is there a separation there? How’s that work for you?

Dr. Ayn Cates Sullivan:

I think we’re many layers. We have many, many stories, and make characters within ourselves, right? And this is what’s fun about storytelling. So if we think about it for a minute, we learned through a parable. When we read the Bible, we learned through parables, we go back, mythologically, most people know that have a sort of European background know the stories of King Arthur and the right quest for the Holy Grail. When I went back to the Celtic world, I was so excited because I found stories of women with superpowers. And I had, I mean, okay, so I knew the Greeks and the Romans, I knew some of the others. But, you know, taught maybe Tara, you know, from from the Tibetan tradition, but I was like, Oh, these are the women of my culture and my people. So, you know, being such as like sky, you know, who it was a Scottish Goddess that heroes would go to when they wanted to actually find out the truth of who they were. Now, you were talking about the shadow and light aspects of stories. And I think stories, by their nature, have to be dualistic. I mean, we, when we’re in this world, we tend to face those things that are good and those things that are challenging, and that’s what sculpts us and creates us, right as human beings that polishes our pearl. And so that’s what these stories do. And I feel that they’re very important to tell for each age. I mean, the names might change. And we said that they were out of context, but they never are. Because these archetypes are these vast beings that go on for 1000s of years, we can call them different things. But basically, they’re the energies of the optimizing force, let’s say some people might, I mean, who is the character the optimizing force might say Buddha or Jesus or something like this, but there’s a force behind these energies. Then I love Lady of the Lake, right? Because she’s since she’s the underworld, and you don’t know quite what treasure she’s going to bring to the table next she always empowers humanity. That’s her role. She appears when we need help. So she’s actually kind of a good figure for the times we’re in now.

Tonya Dawn Recla:

That’s accurate, too. So we’re gonna take a quick break here. We’re talking with Dr. Ayn Cates Sullivan about world crafting through stories on us as part of our celebration here Women’s History Month on the Superpower Network and the theme of women who tell our stories. So we will be right back after the break. But before we cut to the break, where do we want to send people so they can find out more about you and your beautiful work?

Dr. Ayn Cates Sullivan:

Well, you can go to AynCatesSullivan.com, or you can go to imagineosfi.com, or InfiniteLightPublishing.com. I’m all over the place. So come and flag.

Tonya Dawn Recla:

Beautiful, beautiful, we’ll have links to those on the episode page, folks, we will be right back after the break and make sure while we’re going there, go to SuperpowerExperts.com To find out more about how you can access your superpowers and get into that space of your creative expression and become fully who you are here. Now you don’t have to wait, folks. So go check out Super Power Experts and we will be right back after the break. Stay tuned.

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