It’s raining today. Because after the March winds here in Virginia, April is known for all the rain. But it’s okay. My seeds are in the ground. I have a mug of hot coffee, it’s Rough Draft Challenge Month, and I’m thrilled with my current manuscript (which is a miracle!). The rain doesn’t get me down like it used to because I understand its job in the universe. Nothing can grow without water, just like nothing can grow without light. And without light, there can be no dawn…
Aurora & Eos
We often think of Sleeping Beauty’s Aurora as the ultimate passive princess—slumbering until love (in the form of a handsome Prince) wakes her with a kiss. But the name Aurora carries more power than most people realize. Aurora means dawn, a name that has ancient roots in mythology, most notably in the Greek goddess Eos, the radiant bringer of morning.
Eos is a Titaness, a daughter of the Titans, Hyperion and Theia. Sister to Helios (the sun) and Selene (the moon). Eos rises each day before the sun, from behind the River Okeanos (Oceanus) in her winged chariot, painting the sky in streaks of rose and gold with her “rosy fingers.” Her morning routine dispels that shadows of darkness and mist that nighttime leaves behind. In some myths, she is perpetually in love—falling for mortals, unable to resist any kind of beauty, and forever chasing new beginnings. But she is also powerful. Unstoppable. The herald of light.
Aurora, her mythical Roman counterpart, shares this glowing identity. Centuries after the stories of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses faded into myths, the tale of La Belle au bois dormant—“The Beauty Sleeping was in the Woods”—was rediscovered, reimagined, and rewritten by authors like Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. That’s when something subtle but magical happened to this story. The name Aurora became attached to the princess in the 17th and 18th centuries, solidifying her identity not just as a girl cursed to sleep, but as a symbol of rebirth. She is not only someone who is awakened by love—she is the awakening.
As the Age of Enlightenment bloomed across Europe, this merging of fairytale and myth made symbolic sense. Aurora became both princess and goddess. She embodied the promise of a new dawn, the transformative power of love, and the beauty of light returning after a long period of darkness. A period of darkness we now call The Dark Ages, a time of little sunshine due to a volcanic winter in 536 AD, the Black Plague, endless wars, and decades of famine. Even the act of Aurora’s waking from a lover’s kiss became metaphorical: the soul stirring after sorrow, the artist returning to the page, the world beginning again.
Maybe we’re not meant to be just damsels or dreamers. Maybe, like Eos and Aurora, we are meant to rise. We, as writers and creators, are meant to be the light-bringers—the ones who open the gates of morning, who cast golden stories across gray skies. The ones who say: Even after the longest sleep, something new can begin.
Want to bring more light into your writing life? Try one of these soft, illuminating rituals:
🌅 Dawn Pages:
Write for ten minutes just after waking. No rules. No goals. Just your voice, half-dreaming, reaching toward the light. They could be morning pages, prayers, or just a gratitude list. The only kind-of-rule about this practice is don’t go back and edit what you wrote. Just get it down, close the notebook until tomorrow, and get on with your day.
🕯 Light Your Writing Space:
Burn a candle or turn on twinkle LED lights. Create a sacred, cozy ritual that signals to your brain: the goddess/muse/Holy Spirit is awake and ready to work.
📖 Read a Myth or Fairytale Before Writing:
Let old stories stir your imagination. Ask yourself: Where is the Aurora in my story? What wants to be awakened? My iMac literally sits on top of an old volume of Grimm’s Complete Fairy Tales that I found in a thrift shop. (see photo below if you don’t believe me! lol)
🌸 Remember: You Are the Dawn
Say it out loud if you need to. Whisper it to your characters. Remind yourself that even slow mornings, soft scenes, and long rewrites have their own kind of sunrise. Writing is an act of dawn. A promise we make to keep waking up. To keep telling stories that shine. Rise, light-bringer, creator of stories. The world desperately needs your magic.
