Happy April, and welcome to Day 1 of the month-long A-to-Z blog challenge where hundreds of folks are posting their way through the alphabet. Be sure to check out the myriad of participating blog players here.
I love language, especially strange and wonderful words, and I love manifestos. I’m challenging myself this month to work my way through the alphabet creating a manifesto reflecting wonders, curiosities, and delights currently captivating me; each day focused through the lens of another unusual, obscure, or simply charming-to-me word.
So let’s begin.
A is for…
autognosis, defined as self-knowledge; understanding of one’s character and peculiarities; the process of self-analysis which leads to this.
Manifestos are meant to declare who we are, but an essential part of the process is autognosis.
I’m firmly in sync with the classical Greek philosophers who admonished “know thyself.” I believe we have to remain curious and dig deeply, and I find it surprising, somewhat disconcerting, and rather sad that while we spend the whole of our lives “with” ourselves, there seem to be a remarkable number of folks who are quite lacking in self-knowledge.
I think of autognosis as a dynamic, never-ending process. We are always changing, always growing, always evolving. There are layers of resistance, things we don’t want to see/know about ourselves, collective beliefs we accept as truth that need to be untangled and dissolved. The path is not without darkness and twisty turns, and yet what is the point of being here, in this embodied life if aren’t aware of who we are?
Over the course of this month I’ll be constructing my wonder manifesto, one significant, and likely unusual word at a time. But for today, in honor of my word autognosis, I’m sharing what basically amounts to a manifesto in itself. Manifestos are meant to declare who we are, and I’ll give you a peek at who I am with this construction based on the template of George Ella Lyon’s Where I’m From poem.
I welcome autognosis and its invitation to ever open my awareness. I want to live with deepened and expanded knowledge of who I truly am, and I want to embody that knowledge fully.
What about you? What do you want to declare today? What do you know about yourself? I there an “A” word descriptive of something important about you, or of interest to you? Do tell – you know I love to hear.
Autognosis – great word and post Deborah thank you. I love George Ela Lyon’s manifesto – is/was she a woman? Just wondering given her name – I remember George Eliot (Middlemarch) the wonderful woman writer – and Lionel Schriver of course …
My word for today since you ask re A… Attitude is All 🙂
George Ella Lyon is indeed a woman. I enjoyed using her template to write my I Am From piece – it’s always interesting to see yourself in different perspectives.
Thumbs up for your Attitude Susan – a perfect opening intention for April isn’t it?
Truly the reason we are here, right now. Thanks.
Beth
https://bethlapinsatozblog.wordpress.com/
So true Beth. Thanks for stopping by, and happy A-to-Z ing!
The past five years since my husband died, I’ve been in a constant process of autognosis, and it hasn’t been pretty at times. Then when I began dating 2 years ago, that also caused more self-searching and quest for awareness. Sometimes I just want a cup of coffee and a mindless book! Your poem is wonderful. I remember those secret decoder rings; I was fascinated by them!
I’m certain life never stops giving us opportunities to discover more about ourselves. But I’m with you – sometimes a cup of coffee and a book are the most perfect things to turn our attention to.
My husband gave me a secret decoder badge and it never fails to make me smile; though I think there are some secrets of the universe it isn’t quite up to unraveling.
Hi Deborah – what a great idea … and word autognosis … something I hadn’t thought about – but I know I’ll be back to read more thoroughly and to find out more about George Ella Lyon’s … cheers and here’s to an informative A-Z …Hilary
Yes Hilary – just hours into the A-to-Z marathon and I’ve already learned new things, met new folks, and been delighted and entertained. How does April get better than this?
Your I Am poem. Completely swoonworthy. Love
Thank you my dear friend!
Happy Easter and start to A to Z! Autognosis is a good word and a practice of which I’ve only started to realize was necessary in the past five or six years! Love your I Am poem and I need a female author who writes with a male name for one of my PopSugar categories so I’ll have to check George Ella Lyons out! Looking forward to the rest of your alphabet as usual.
Happy April Janet! I’d forgotten about the PopSugar reading challenge. One of the things I’m planning on doing this A-to-Z is keeping track of books folks mention, and for those that I already have in my to-be-read piles, perhaps bumping them higher up in the pile. But I swear I’m not going to be swayed into turning to something new until I finish what’s already on my plate. Yeah, we’ll see how successful I am with that. 🙂 I’m still aiming for reading 100 books this year though. We’ll see about that as well.
Thank you Deborah.
When I logged on your site, the bit that caught my eye was: you are here: Home. Visiting you after a long gap feels like that–like a home-coming.
My A word would be: aware.
Autognosis sounds like daily meditation:
A is for Alum Chine
Oh Arti, what a kind thing to say – thank you!
Aware is a wonderful word, and one you clearly dance well with.
I’m so delighted April is here with all its A-to-Z magic. I suspect we’re all going to have a wonderful time.
Hari OM
Deborah, an honour to meet you. Thank you for finding me, that I could find you. We both have chosen to utilise affirming, self-awareness words for the April challenge – an Affirmation of Universal Consciousness! This line, “The path is not without darkness and twisty turns, and yet what is the point of being here, in this embodied life if aren’t aware of who we are?” is one which speaks loudly to the key purpose in this existence. Looking forward to sharing this month with you.
In Love and Light
YAM xx
ooops forgot the word you requested… Aatman – The Wholeness of Spirit. Yxx
I’m so glad to have discovered your blog Yamini, and I look forward to our April journey.
Aatman is an utterly beautiful word – thank you for sharing it.
The poem is perfectly spectacular! Loved it… and my A-word is Abandon – not the abandon hope all ye enter here type of abandon…but the other kind, loving with abandon, unrestrained uninhibited deeply engrossed rapture…life is for wringing out every drop of enjoyment from it.
Have the most glorious April and A-Z!
Nilanjana
Madly-in-Verse
Oh yes! Abandon is a perfectly delicious word, and exactly the right approach to this month’s magic. Happy happy A-to-Z ing!
Beautiful poem! I made one in my first A-Z challenge in 2014 but didn’t realize the template was from George Ella Lyon. Thanks for the reference, I’ll correct it in my post.
Ah you’re a veteran A-to-Zer Gail – how fun! You intrigued me with your poem mention, so I hunted down your post. Lovely. It’s such an interesting way to know ourselves isn’t it?
I loved your poem! It reminds me of something we’ve started in my extended family called the African Praise Poem. Family members contribute memories and characteristics of one of our elder members and make them into a poem, like you have done about yourself, and gift it to them. It is a way of telling them who they have been and still are to us. I think it started when we realized how much we find out about a person at their funeral – and wouldn’t it be better if we said meaningful things to them when they are still alive and with us. Thanks for a thoughtful start to the April Challenge.
Oh Shirley, my mind reels at the beauty of your African Praise Poem practice!
I so agree with you that we should tell people who they are to us and what they mean. I consider it one of my sacred joys to write love letters to people, and I would love to see that practice widely adopted. But the idea of your poem practice is even more fabulous because it’s a collaborative co-creative effort. Very nice indeed!
What a lovely word Deborah and a lovely start to April… I empathise with Margaret’s comment earlier – sometimes I just want a coffee and a mindless book lol It feels like a constant process of autognosis these past years – I get through one layer, feel smug and comfortable for a short while until wham! something else resurfaces – Go Away is what I feel like shouting some of the time lol But we’ll get there.
I’m not playing along this year, but really looking forward to reading yours and some of the other participants as you go through the month.
I’m smiling at your comment Fil. For a while know when I’m doodling, I’ve been drawing people as onions. So many levels sometimes it feels like we’ll be peeling forever. LOL.
While I’ll miss your challenge participation this year, I do hope you’ll manage to gift yourself with some gentle ease in what is usually proves a crazy time.
It is so important to reflect on ourselves, and put in the work to know ourselves the same way we work to learn about other things.
Thank you for the poem! I love it 🙂
The Multicolored Diary: Weird Things in Hungarian Folktales
Thanks for the kind words, and for stopping by. I couldn’t agree more about the importance of devoting time and energy into knowing ourselves. There are so many wonderful things to be curious about and engage in, and I certainly think we’re one of them.
This made me think in a good way. Great start to the AtoZ Challenge, I am very courious what you will come up with next 😉
Thanks Viola. I’m looking forward to your next post as well. I think this will be a great month where we discover all manner of interesting things.
I love your poem and I must say many of the things in it are very mysterious and things I’d love to know more about…
LOL – we’ll have to talk. Maybe I’ll use my secret decoder badge to decipher some of the mysteries for you.
i love this exercise. I’ve used it so many times in homeschool classes … and in women groups. And that reminds me that I can use this at an upcoming event. Thank you for planting that seed again.
Oh I bet this is fabulous to do in a group Cynthia, and I imagine each person’s story is fabulous.
“Stopping by from the #AtoZChallenge Road Trip!”
Thanks for introducing me to a new word ‘autognosis’. It is such an important word, actually. Because, only if we know ourselves, we can understand others.
Interesting post.
Let me check out your other posts during April.
– Pradeep
Thanks for visiting Pradeep. I think you’re right, self-knowledge helps us know others, just as knowing others helps us understand ourselves. Lots of win-win.
Hi, Deborah – I am stopping by from the #AtoZChallenge Road Trip! Manifestos is such a great theme for this Challenge. Thank you for sharing autognosis with us!
Hi Donna – I’m delighted you stopped by, and hope you’re enjoying the road trip.
Autognosis! What a great word!! Brillinat post 🙂
A great start to the challenge!
Stopping by from the #AtoZChallenge Road Trip!
Cheers,
Dream <3
Thanks Dream – I’m so glad you popped by to say hi.
Stopping by on the #AtoZChallenge Road Trip to declare – I learned a new word! I love learning new words, so of course I loved this post.
Thanks Jen – I’m always on the lookout for a good new (or obscure old) word too.
I’m glad you stopped by. And happy road tripping!