Metis Wisdom Janeta Tansey home header moon

“Mētis makes light appear in the midst of darkness.”

—Detienne and Vernant (1978)

Mētis Wisdom

Mētis Wisdom is a response-ability for the wonder and terror of our unique lives and their liminal spaces, with a supple and shimmering freedom to navigate and name meaning in the moment. The work of Dr. Janeta Tansey on highlighting this aspect of existential authenticity accommodates a defiant creativity that responds to the depth, height and metamorphosis of each human story, as surely bounded by natality, mortality, love, and mystery as by ruptures in the fabric of daily life.

A liminal space is the transition between the death of our old ways and structures through rebirth, regeneration, creation, transformation. In our liminalities, we are challenged to see that what was presumed predictable, static, or even universally grounded now invites, -demands – a courageous, nimble, and creative response from Being into our Becoming.

With no claims to infallibility, a human conscience exercising mētis is bold in apprehending what is good and beautiful and sacred in the tensions of a unique life, rather than mindlessly submitting to what others have declared the static or universal map of human flourishing and knowledge.

The accumulating prudence and perspective that arises from this deepening intelligence is honed into a storied integrity that rises to the challenge of what Viktor Frankl called  “the ten thousand commandments arising from the ten thousand unique situations of which life consists.”

This is an existential courage demanded for this time, our problems and our stories.
For this work, we call for dia-logos and a visionary communitas.

Teacher, Coach, Speaker
Ethics and Professionalism Training
Dialogues, Conferences, Workshops, Retreats

Dr. Janeta Tansey is an M.D. physician with a Doctor of Philosophy in Religious Studies, and board-certifications in Psychiatry (ABPN) and Integrative Medicine (ABPS). A Diplomate Clinician in Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy, and a scholar in existential philosophy, she specializes in Ethics and Existential Analysis. Dr. Tansey is founder and CEO of Virtue Medicine PC, a collaborative group of integrative medicine practitioners.

More About Dr. Tansey

Sign Up For Metis Wisdom Updates

Teacher

An experienced instructor, clinical supervisor and recipient of multiple teaching awards, inviting joy and insight in training and teaching settings.

Contact Me

Coach

A board-certified coach, specializing in executive and professional care for strength-building and creativity at growth edges and in leadership.

Contact Me

Speaker

An authentic and warm public speaker, weaving interdisciplinary insights and humanistic perspectives to support a deepening sense of community.

Contact Me

Mētis Musings

A series inspired by the scholarship of Marcel Detienne and Jean-Pierre Vernant,
Les ruses d’intelligence: la Mētis des grecs,
translated from the French by Janet Lloyd (1978)

Mētis to navigate, opening up a route over the sea and bringing light into the stormy night.
Mētis to navigate, opening up a route over the sea and bringing light into the stormy night.
Mētis can seize anything yet be seized by nothing; its shape is as fluid as can be, the most mobile and the most baffling.
Mētis can seize anything yet be seized by nothing; its shape is as fluid as can be, the most mobile and the most baffling.
Supple mētis which appears to bow before circumstances only so that it can dominate them more surely.
Supple mētis which appears to bow before circumstances only so that it can dominate them more surely.
Mētis must adapt itself constantly over a shifting reality.
Mētis must adapt itself constantly over a shifting reality.
Mētis is swift, as prompt as the opportunity that it must seize on the wing.
Mētis is swift, as prompt as the opportunity that it must seize on the wing.
Mētis is a living eye which never closes or even blinks.
Mētis is a living eye which never closes or even blinks.
Mētis operates by continuously oscillating between two opposite poles, as victors, as vanquished.
Mētis operates by continuously oscillating between two opposite poles, as victors, as vanquished.
A mētis gift of metamorphosis: genesis on two levels, cosmic and mental.
A mētis gift of metamorphosis: genesis on two levels, cosmic and mental.
In a nocturnal ambush or in fighting on the moving expanse of the waters, the suppleness of the bond with the power of the circle.
In a nocturnal ambush or in fighting on the moving expanse of the waters, the suppleness of the bond with the power of the circle.
Shimmering sheen and shifting movement are the nature of mētis.
Shimmering sheen and shifting movement are the nature of mētis.
With mētis, the primordial power weaves, plaits, links and knots together the threads of Becoming.
With mētis, the primordial power weaves, plaits, links and knots together the threads of Becoming.
Medicine is an art of the fleeting moment, with all the resources of an intelligence as polymorphic as the enemy.
Medicine is an art of the fleeting moment, with all the resources of an intelligence as polymorphic as the enemy.
The master of bonds is himself bound, encircled and enclosed.
The master of bonds is himself bound, encircled and enclosed.
Mysterious and disquieting, a daemonic force by virtue of its fiery nature.
Mysterious and disquieting, a daemonic force by virtue of its fiery nature.
The mesmeric goddess ‘with the brilliant gaze’ and the power ‘with the sharp eye.’
The mesmeric goddess ‘with the brilliant gaze’ and the power ‘with the sharp eye.’
Mētis of the midwife - skillful, quick-witted. Sharp intelligence is never aimless.
Mētis of the midwife – skillful, quick-witted. Sharp intelligence is never aimless.
There can be no science of that which belongs to the category of the unlimited.
There can be no science of that which belongs to the category of the unlimited.
Sisyphus, the Death-deceiver, brings malice to cunning.
Sisyphus, the Death-deceiver, brings malice to cunning.
Victory is only to be won through mētis.
Victory is only to be won through mētis.
It is through mētis rather than through strength that the wood-cutter shows his worth.
It is through mētis rather than through strength that the wood-cutter shows his worth.
Sleep casts a magic net over even the swiftest thought and the most agile mind.
Sleep casts a magic net over even the swiftest thought and the most agile mind.
Fire, like mētis, is a multiple thing, terrifying or the most familiar.
Fire, like mētis, is a multiple thing, terrifying or the most familiar.
The peculiar is the visible symbol of mētis.
The peculiar is the visible symbol of mētis.
As subtle and flexible as the coming-to-be over which it presides.
As subtle and flexible as the coming-to-be over which it presides.

Mētis

The suffering under global crises, persistent paradox, authoritarianism, and the inadequacy of old norms have pulled Dr. Tansey’s gaze to an underappreciated human strength called mētis. This kind of intelligence navigates in those places where there is no map, using a keen eye, an agile mind, a swift cunning, a prudent realism.

In its Greek origins, Mētis is the name of the Titaness, pregnant with Athena, whose games of metamorphosis with Zeus end when she is so small that he can swallow her up. In this consummation, he obtains a cunning sovereignty not previously possessed: a royal mētis.

But Athena emerges full-armored from his head as the flashing-eyed goddess of wisdom, full of mētis herself, guiding gods and heroes in navigating challenges where general rules simply do not hold or help.

The idea of a mētis intelligence is recognizable throughout the fables and epics of the world. The Monkey King in Chinese mythology comes to mind. And Buddha. Lilith. Jesus. Krishna. Coyote. Anansi. Isis. And others. These stories point to a truth: in its fullest flowering, a cunning responsiveness to the moment exists not for mere trickery and power, but for the service of enlarging perspective and wisdom.

As moments of mētis intelligence are cultivated towards a disposition of Mētis Wisdom, we find human stories and souls that shimmer with an inner illumination: unique individuals inextricably bound together in our intersubjective processes of Becoming.

Sign Up For Metis Wisdom Updates

Metis Wisdom Dr Janeta Tansey river mountains fog

What is the meaning of my life?

This is an inescapable question; it is a deeply personal responsibility to be answering this again and again in each moment. It can be tiring and tasking in its complexity and burdens, particularly when existential work is uncoupled from dialogue and love.

Feeling overwhelmed, disoriented, and alienated, we are tempted to helplessness, mindlessness, mere compliance, reactivity, tranquilization, self-deception, ignorance, fanaticism, or fatalism.

The journey of a meaning calls for both courage and compassion.
Awaken your Defiant Power of the Human Spirit.
Find your mētis wisdom for meaning in the moment. Find Joy.

Contact Me

Demand meaning in the moments of your life.

Chart a navigation course that is clear-eyed and nimble.

Cultivate the habits of perspective, creativity, and curiosity.

Call forth your fiercest capacities for courageous authenticity.

Seek Wisdom.

Janēta Fong Tansey, MD PhD

Metis Wisdom Dr Janeta Tansey Chinese symbols

All Content © Janeta Tansey, MD PhD • mētis wisdom
Design Co-Creation by Janeta Tansey and Molly Martin Reeser, Vortex Digital, Inc | All Rights Reserved | Contact Webmaster