Priestess in Blue Jeans

Gathering the Wisdom of the Feminine

I've been delving deeply in a new round of research for an ongoing project, gathering the wisdom of the Feminine and talking with many women, and some men, too, for whom and through whom the Sacred Feminine -- by many names -- is re-emerging.

With each conversation I have, I'm more amazed at the way this wisdom is arising, through so many different voices and perspectives, from so many different traditions.

So far, this has been a labor of love as much as it is one of vocation, which has on more than one occasion felt intensely challenging. I've felt my faith and trust tested again and again, my practice deepened and expanded, and I've felt the vulnerability of not knowing exactly what was next, not being certain of where the project was leading, or even if I was on the 'right' path with it. As I've come to learn, this is very much the way of the Feminine.

Yet as I've continued, receiving guidance and taking one step and then the next, I'm also becoming more aware that there is an interwoven web of little lights around the world that is coming alive, and there is strength and conviction that comes from that feeling of being part of a greater thing that's growing, that's taking root.

In each conversation, I'm hearing stories about how the Sacred Feminine came knocking on the door of awareness, sometimes through a personal crisis or dark night of the soul, sometimes through an interaction that brought a sudden new awareness, and almost always with a deep longing for something that couldn't, for a long time, be identified or articulated. And from there, the real journey to remembering -- re-membering -- begins.

As I speak with more people about this energy, this presence, or wave of consciousness, there seem some common characteristics and experiences, even as the individual journeys can be quite different.

Like many of the women I've spoken with so far, whose experiences in many ways mirror my own, there is a language of the Feminine that needs to be remembered, re-learned; a different way of being, not separate from the Masculine, but integrated with it so that we can experience a wholeness that we've been missing.

Becoming fluent again in this language often feels awkward, because it's so very different from the linear, analytical, thought-driven language that's been so dominant for many of us. This is a more fluid, intuitive, multi-dimensional and sensory language, with an emphasis on listening deeply, watching intently, being more fully present.

The language of the Feminine is rich and textured, and takes us out of the containers of preconceived notions that are often very limiting, so that we can see  more inspired ways of approaching the challenges we face individually and collectively. With this language, everything speaks, and we learn again to read and interpret the signs and let that inform our actions.

As I weave together the ribbons of wisdom that I'm gathering, the patterns begin to emerge. One of those patterns is the need for connection with others on or opening to this path -- whether in one-on-one conversations, or circles of two or more.

I'll share more from this project along the way, in an upcoming series of SophiaLogues (a new generation of InspiraLogues, on Ivy Sea-Sophialon), in writings, and ultimately in the book and other expressions of the project.

And you can join me in the Sacred Feminine tele-circles. The next one is Tuesday, February 23rd.

There is great benefit for our work in envisioning and co-creating conscious enterprise and holistic business, and new ways of relating, as well, since so many of these Feminine characteristics are vital.

Feel free to post comments from your own journeys and experiences with the Sacred Feminine as well, by whatever name you call it.

Blessings from the Field,

Jamie

Love is at the Heart of us

Love, love, love.

We hear about it, talk about it, yearn for it. In Western culture, we have a Hallmark Holiday for it - Valentine's Day - associated with chocolates, flowers (as symbols of one's love), and V-Day cards.

If Valentine's Day is truly about Love, then it's Valentine's Day every day of the year. Will you be my Valentine?

I'm a big fan of chocolates, actually, particularly good dark chocolate. Flowers are fabulous, tool.

But the Big Love? Mmmmm, well that's the ultimate, isn't it? At the heart of it, it's what everyone really seeks.

The Love we seek in our hearts and souls is what shaman and mystics call The Big Love, the essence of cosmic connection that fills us up from within and overflows in loving, compassionate expression.

It's what the sacred texts write about; it's what we truly seek, it's what we yearn to pour out on the world.

In mystical traditions, Love is what we are, what we're made of, what we come from. Like water is to a fish, Love is to us (and the fish, and the water, for that matter). Christian scripture reminds us that, "The greatest of these is Love."

Rumi, the Sufi poet and mystical Lover, writes, "Looking at my life, I see that only Love Has been my soul’s companion. From deep inside My soul cries out: Do not wait, surrender for the sake of Love."

But what is it, this Big Love we are, this Love we seek? If it's in us, around us, and what we're made from - the very fabric of our being - how could we not know it? How could we ever need to seek what we already are?

I'd read all the texts, said the 'dangerous prayer' of St. Francis of Assisi, "...make me an instrument of your Love" (my version), yet for a long time it seemed 'out there' rather than 'in here'.

Like others, I might have seen or felt fleeting glimpses of it, but like many of us in our culture particularly, I was pretty well 'armored against Love' -- armored in protection from a 'harsh world', as we're taught.

In the Summer of 2008, that changed. For a bit anyway, yet in a way that left me knowing what IT is, and that IT is possible.

In late-July of that year, after a radical series of events that cracked my heart wide open, I spent several days feeling that Big Love, like I was marinating it yet also filled with and radiating it.

For the first time I can remember consciously, I understood the scriptural wisdom, "Perfect Love casts out fear."

In those few days, I felt no fear. Neither could I reach any judgment about others. The armor had dissolved. Seeing through the 'eyes of Divine Love', everything and everyone looked different. Unconditionally.

It was bliss over those few days. The Big Love. Divine Love. I remember saying, "I want to breathe this, be this, eat this, sleep this, drink this, dream this, speak this, write this...".

After a few days, that peak experience waned, yet the experience was so vivid, it stayed with me.

Finding words for such a deeply-sensed experience is difficult, even for 'a woman of the word' like me.

Because unlike many cultures, which have many words for different experiences and expressions of Love, we have just one: I love a good burrito, I love dark chocolate, I love my family, I love my partner, I love my friends, I love you. I love the Source of that Love. I love getting together with friends over a good meal, with good wine and good conversation. Did I say I love chocolate and burritos? No wonder we're confused.

The gift of that experience in 2008 is a knowing that this Big Love of the mystics, Lovers, and poets really does exist around us and within us; a knowing that it's accessible, that while we've been pretty systematically taught to believe we're sinners when in fact we're love.

We've been taught to believe we're separate and 'out there' on our own when we're connected to everyone and everything, that we've been taught to believe we have to earn Love when it's what we are, well, that's the stuff that missions are made from.

If the Big Love is everywhere; if the Big Love is what made us, where we come from, what and who we are, then all we have to do is remember. It's in there. It's out there. We just have to open to it, to connect, to remember, to know, to ask. Eden, paradise, is when we all remember and express the Love that we are. Wow, what a Valentine's gift that would be!

Wishing you remembrance of the Big Love that you are! And enjoy the chocolate, flowers, romantic meals, and Valentine's cards.

Love,

Jamie

* Image Credit: Eros & Psyche, by Antonio Canova, Musee de Louevre, Paris

Money as Sacred? (Re)Emerging Perspectives...

Money has its roots in the sacred. Surprised? It's true. Money, like all other 'matter', was once seen and experienced as expression of the Divine, by any of its names. Money, like all other expressions in matter, was sacred. My friend, Barbara Wilder, has written a book on this, called Money is Love. You'll find audio-dialogues with her in the Ivy Sea InspiraLogue library.

This morning, continuing a new round of research and interviews on the Sacred Feminine, I found my way to a wonderful trio of YouTube talks (actually, one talk distributed over three YouTube clips) from Charles Eisenstein.

Charles talks about this very thing - money as sacred, not separate. He also shares a vision and perspective on what might be emerging as a more healthy, whole, sacred, and connected currency.

"Wealth  becomes no longer a matter of having, but a matter of giving," he says. "Begin this change of thinking from 'how can I get enough' to 'how can I best give my gifts', because that is the mentality that will make you rich in the future."

Take a look at Charles' YouTube talk on Money as Sacred.

Blessings on the Way,

Jamie

Snowy Day Alchemy

There is a certain alchemy that a fresh snow brings. Snow, like the thick fog that would roll into San Francisco, tends to bring a stillness with it, inside and out. If we follow the energy, that is.

The novelist, J.B. Priestley, wrote of snow, "...it is a magical event.  You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?"

And so it is here where I am today, with nearly a foot of fresh snow already gathered, and more falling, with high winds and blizzard conditions expected as afternoon turns to evening.

Like Winter herself, snowy weather beckons us to slow down, draw inward, rest a bit to gather inspiration and energy for the next burst of activity. If we follow that inclination, our natural rhythm in response to cold, snowy, darker days, we'll stay inside, and seek out what's warm, nourishing, and cozy -- perfect 'yin' activities in a 'yin' season.

Much got canceled and rescheduled today, either in anticipation of the expected blizzard conditions or as a response to gathering snow and expected winds. Activity and busyness gave way to a quieter pace, for the moment anyway. As always, Nature is our teacher, helping us to slow down when we're not inclined to do the wise thing by choice.

Because we're an extroverted, activity-addicted culture, we have learned to devalue the more gentle, introspective, restful ways of 'yin', even though these 'yin' ways are the very source of inspiration, wellbeing, wellness, healing, vision, and Divine guidance.

So a good snowfall is most welcomed as a gentle guide, and perfectly timed as we follow Imbolc-Candlemas with the dark of the moon and then the upcoming new moon. The opportunity and invitation is to quiet down, go inward, seek insight and inspiration, and bring that renewal, insight, and inspiration into new moon intentions that become inspired-action.

Tomorrow, when the sun rises to set the snow-crystals sparkling, I'll head outside and make a snow angel. Until then, I'm luxuriating in the stillness, happy to be inside, having made a pot of soup and mugs of hot cocoa, and content to watch the snowflakes falling.

And if you're in an area where the gentle Snow Guide hasn't visited? You'll have to tap into the magic, make pretend, and move with the rhythm of the moon.

Blessings on the Way,

Jamie

Candlemas, Venus Year & Diamonds in the Dark

"The more powerful the vision,

the more powerful the work that results."

Roderick MacIver (Heron Dance 335)

Each year, I write about the Candlemas cross-quarter celebration, called by different names in various traditions. You'll find previous entries at my Sophia's Children blog.

Candlemas, or Imbolc, 2010 offers unique, rich opportunities for clearing, visioning, and setting or empowering our intentions. Why? Because it follows a powerful lunar and solar eclipse cycle, and occurs in what Steve Nelson, author of Mythic Times, calls a 'Venus Year' -- a time in which "all things Venusian prosper."

Let's look at the symbolism, in which we can ground ourselves for rich inspiration as we look into this Venus Year, 2010.

Candlemas is a cross-quarter time -- midway between the Solstice and Equinox, or vice versa. Traditionally celebrated in the first several days of February, it's 'exact' when the Sun reaches the mid-point of Aquarius. So in 2010, Candlemas is February 1-4.

Candlemas symbolizes the beginning of the new cycle, the 'diamonds' of light that we birth in the darkness of inner Wisdom and externalize in new expression and inspired action. The seeds of Spring have already begun their journey upward through the frozen soil of Winter, ending the season of fallowness with new life ready to bloom.

Candlemas has also been a traditional time of purification -- releasing that which no longer serves, including old thought-forms, patterns, habits and beliefs -- and planting those 'vision seeds' that will grow in the new cycle that follows.

Traditionally, Candlemas rituals include those elements: water for purification, an intention to release what no longer serves, fire (candles) for inspiration and transformation, and those vision-seeds that come as diamonds from within, ready to illuminate your path forward and shine through new expression.

That Candlemas in 2010 follows a powerful eclipse cycle is considered to magnify the potentials and energies. Steve Nelson calls eclipses 'Mother Nature's re-set button' because, energetically and psychically, 'the old' is eclipsed, and we get a re-boot to allow for something new to take root, or take shape.

Nelson writes, "When an eclipse occurs there is much greater possibility for eliminating patterns of thought and behavior that have troubled the world. This is an opportune time to clear away what stands in way of our dreams being realized. The more old patterns are eliminated, the more energy is freed for a new creation."

Add to this the idea of 2010 being a Venus Year (sign on to Steve Nelson's newsletter for more on this in coming weeks), and we have a Motherlode of inspiration and beautiful potential with which to fortify our vision-seeds.

Venus, in addition to being related to the Great Goddess and a symbol for the Feminine, also stands for -- as fiercely as it takes -- beauty,  harmony, prosperity, love. Wonderful characteristics and energies to weave through your intentions and visions.

Astrologer Kelley Hunter, in her early January musing, reminded us that Venus, like Pandora and other Feminine images, is often shown with a mirror, along with other symbols of beauty, wisdom, and abundance.

Traditionally, through a Patriarchal lens that has misunderstood, feared (or envied), and thus exiled the Feminine, the mirror has been thought to symbolize vanity. And perhaps this is one perspective -- the dangers of allowing ourselves to be guided by our shallower ego-mind.

Yet when I reflected on this, what arose within me was another possible perspective: That Venus with her mirror is signaling to us that all that we see is but a reflection of what's within us. We look around and see in that 'mirror' a reflection of ourselves, our own Divine essence, our thoughts and projections. With this wise reflection, we're able to make inner-adjustments, so that what we're projecting and experiencing is more beautiful, harmonious, loving, and abundant.

As within, so without. These are the inner Mysteries of the Feminine which nourish, inspire, and wisely guide the conscious Masculine -- wise, inspired 'doing' begins within.

Grounding ourselves in these celebrations throughout the year allows us to center ourselves as time and events around us seem to accelerate and magnify themselves. If we ground ourselves in 'clock time' and to-do lists, in the context of news headlines, we can easily find ourselves overwhelmed.

The antidote to that more myopic view and its understandable overwhelm is an expanded vision, and rooting ourselves in -- or devoting ourselves to -- something greater than ourselves, greater than any detail or circumstance. Then our more detailed manifestations and 'doings' reflect those greater, deeper values of love, harmony, consciousness, beauty, and abundance.

Happy Candlemas. Happy Venus Year. Happy Venusian Visioning!

Jamie

* Photo/Image Credit - Eclipse January 15, 2010 - Randity.com