Medusa - New Moon Club March 2022

March's New Moon Club box had a Medusa theme and I REALLY got into thinking about Medusa, violence, female rage, misogyny and monsters.

Medusa has long been a symbol of women's rage. Anger so powerful that just one glance at her face would petrify forever.

It's easy to see why she was so angry. Raped by the God Poseidon in the temple of Athene where she served as the high priestess. The goddess Athena punishes Medusa for the violence in the temple, by cursing her with snakes for hair and stone-making gaze. OR Athena protects Medusa from further harm by transforming her famed beauty to horror and prevents anyone coming close to hurt her again. ( as much as I prefer this 'women supporting women' reading, it doesn't quite play out when we know that Athena later provides Perseus with the shield he needs to murder Medusa.)

Here's a picture of all the lovely goodies in March's New Moon Club box ,  all medusa all the time.  Print, shiny snake sticker, Medusa's head pin, and tote bag.   I've popped some of the spares up in the shop if you would like one.

Medusa's image has been found on artifacts as early as 580 BCE, over 2500 years ago. Is it because her story is so powerful and her image so symbolic? Or is it because snake hair is ALWAYS in fashion?

Probably one of my most fave enamel pins I've made pins ever tbh.  And I have a feeling the medusa  tote bag is going fast become my favourite too. 

I recently came upon the use of Medusa as an metaphor for dealing with trauma. In the metaphor, Medusa IS the trauma, and for somebody suffering the effects of PTSD, looking directly at her is likely to only be retraumatised, sent straight into the protective ‘freeze’ response that is the bodymind’s way of protecting our systems. Our responses turned to stone.

My initial response to reading about this was “URGH BET THIS WAS WRITTEN BY A MAN , of COURSE - let's just take this traumatised victim of male violence and make HER the problem- TYPICAL”

But sitting with it for a while, I can see it's a useful illustration. I guess something can be more than one thing eh?