A Celebration of Women™

is elated to Celebrate the Life of yet another trail blazer in our world, making positive changes in her life and that of those around her.

Celebrate this Life  and the work it produces, with us here today!

WOMAN of ACTION™

Suzan Still

 

An alchemical dictum states, QUAERO QUOD IMPOSSIBILE: seek that which is not possible. This could be my life’s motto. I am a Woman of Action because I have performed an alchemical transformation on a difficult life and now help others to transmute their own dross into gold.

 

I was born to pioneers in the Sierra Nevada foothills, without benefit of electricity, running water or telephone. My father hunted for food. However, my parents, both college-educated, loved books. Besides their guidance, I had two wonderful mentors: books and the world of nature that started just outside our front door.

 

Although our home was remote, books brought the world to me, instilled a life-long love of learning, and lent an innate sense of how literature is crafted. This has borne fruit as, in 2011, my debut novel, Commune of Women, was launched and almost immediately rose to the Top 100 Bestseller lists of both Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook

 

I’ve roamed the woods of the mountaintop where I was born and still live. The beauty and mutability of nature inspires an abiding love that expresses itself through writing, poetry, painting and sculpture, and in an understanding that the Divine lives, moves and breathes through the endless cycles and miracles of Nature.

 

In my teens and early twenties, I worked in a sawmill to earn tuition money for a university education. It took me thirty years, but eventually I completed a BA in English with a minor in biological sciences, an MA in art and writing, and a PhD in Depth Psychology, and earned straight As doing it. I finished my doctorate at age 53, and I like to remind women who think they are too old to get or complete an education that it is never too late!

 

Because of my early struggles, I’m an advocate for those whose lot in life is hard. I taught for five years in a men’s prison, where I developed writing programs that focused on self-understanding and -development, and I continue to mentor several of my former students who remain incarcerated. As a speaker at several national and international conferences, most notably as keynote speaker at the 2000 International Conference on Archetypal Psychology, I have focused my talks on the plight of the incarcerated, the abysmal social conditions which underlie much criminality, and on the dangers of the privatization of prisons.

 

As a university professor of art, I developed courses that focused on self-development by combining depth psychological and artistic perspectives, the most popular of which introduced my students to the Divine Feminine, in Her many names and guises. It’s one of my life’s missions to bring Her gentle but fierce messages to the world.

 

For over 25 years I’ve been running dream groups for women, aiding understanding of the messages that arise from the unconscious and unraveling the social injunctions against being all that they can be, so they can grow and evolve in response to the dictates of their own psyches. Dreams are an individual contact point with the Divine and once women are conversant with their inner lives through dreams, I know they’re in good hands.

Most recently, my debut novel, Commune of Women, was published by Fiction Studio Books (http://www.fictionstudiobooks.com/Fiction_Studio_Books/Home.html ) and offered by both Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Commune-Women-Suzan-Still/dp/1936558165/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329502477&sr=1-1 and Barnes & Noble, ( http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/commune-of-women-suzan-still/1103400240), where it has been on their top 100 e-book lists.

Currently, I‘m finishing a second novel, Fiesta of Smoke, to be published in July, 2012. I’ve spent extended stays in Europe and Mexico, where I have traveled for over 30 years. The social and political troubles with which Mexico is beset, particularly the lot of women there, are of deep concern, and this book seeks to educate about the root causes of this unrest.
 

Both Commune of Women and Fiesta of Smoke deal with the empowerment of women, as it’s my goal to speak about the condition of the feminine, worldwide, and to bring understanding to the difficult issues of religious repression, structural and domestic violence, and social stigmatization and marginalization that women all too often encounter. My writing is intended to have a transformational effect on core beliefs about the lot and the potentiality of women, no matter what their race, religion or social standing.

 

I write a daily blog that often includes my own photos, paintings, collage and poetry (http://SuzanStillCommune.blogspot.com/ ) to infuse readers with a sense of wonder about the natural world, keep them apprised of important social issues and encourage their spiritual, creative and deep psychological approach to life.

The creative urge only grows stronger, as the years pass: I’m a published poet; have had two one-woman art shows; sculpt in bronze and marble; paint large images in acrylic on paper; and do collage. Much of the imagery is focused on the Divine Feminine — for example, the cover for Commune of Women, which is one of my own collage images.

 

Has this life been difficult? Oh, yes!

Has it been worth the struggle? Yes, beyond doubt!

 
Adversity can be good for the soul. In these troubled times, that’s a message I convey often. We are all works in progress and are being worked by the work. That’s the nature of alchemical transformation: it requires pulverizing, liquefying, drying by exposure to heat, putrefaction, annihilation and rebirth.

 

As the saying goes, the difficult we do every day; the impossible takes a little longer. But it’s in the nature of women to do that which is not possible and it is my delight and privilege to both demonstrate that and to witness it in the lives of others. QUAERO QUOD IMPOSSIBILE: seek that which is not possible. No matter how great the labor, how far the distance, how imponderable the odds, set forth! Rewards far outweigh effort. It’s the very essence of living passionately to take on the impossible.

A Celebration of Women™

welcomes this amazing spirit with open arms and warm hearts into our
Alumni of WOMEN of ACTION™.

Brava Suzan!