Rising from Trauma: Embracing Love, Joy, and the Divine Feminine Gifts of Osun and Tara

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on diverse ways women of color can heal after experiencing sexual, mental, and emotional abuse using tools and insights from depth psychology and mythology, as well as Black feminist, Womanist, Ifa/Orisa, Tibetan Buddhist, and heart-centered modalities. It also examines how two female divinities, Osun the Yoruba Ifa/Orisa and goddess of love, and Tara, a Tibetan divinity considered a fierce and compassionate bodhisattva, can help us heal the world today and bring about wellness, love, and wisdom. Patriarchal social constructs have inflicted chaos, pain, and injuries both physical and mental on women of color, children, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning, and Two-Spirit community. These groups of people are not respected or considered equal to some men in the economic, domestic, medical, legal, and political realms. One in three American women and girls experience rape or sexual assault by the age of twenty-five, compared to one in six men and boys. Men commit the great majority of these crimes. Among girls and women whom men have raped and/or sexually abused, eight out of ten share the risk factors of being women of color, Native/Indigenous women, LGBTQI+2, immigrants, or disabled. These groups experience the highest rates of gender violence and usually know their attacker. This social situation means there are millions of women of color, who, like me, seek healing for sexual and mental trauma in a culture that does not take their pain seriously. This dissertation includes a performative memoir of my experience of sexual abuse and how I rose out of victimhood to strong survivorship and flourished with love, peace, harmony, joy, and power. I searched for and found diverse spiritual and emotional tools to heal myself. By describing my path to these tools and insights, this dissertation offers other women who seek healing new understanding of the wisdom and power of Osun, Tara, and the human heart. I include examples of my encounters with spirit, ancestors, shamanism, and mythology that empowered me to grow beyond my wounds and trauma and define myself as a person of wisdom, beauty, strength, love, and joy.