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Claiming Your Inner Goddess in the Summer Season
Posted on: Jun 25, 2022 @ 10:00 Posted in: Featured, Sabbats
I’m deep in ritual at California Witchcamp in the redwoods on the northern coast. The night is dark, cold, yet a bright hearth fire illuminates the center of our magic circle of warmth and power. A woman approaches me, takes my face between her hands and says: “Thou art Goddess.” Then she kisses me gently on my brow and moves on.
Photo Credit: Vero Photoart on Unsplash
I, in turn, take the faces of others in my palms and repeat: “Thou art Goddess,” and then kiss their brows.
Even as I write this many years later, still I feel my heart swell in response to this simple voice of recognition that applies to each and every one of us: We are Goddess. We are Divine. We are beautiful, powerful, worthy beyond our wildest imagination.
I didn’t grow up with these words. No one talked about the Goddess or Inner Divinity. The only beauty, power and worth that came my way were meted out by outer voices, according to standards I had no say in and could never measure up to.
Once I reached adulthood, I inhabited a strange, disconnected zone of business woman in my work world and sex kitten in my social life. I had two wardrobes, each with their own set of rules of conduct and outer masks. I did this unconsciously, seeking power and value from the meager, soulless options from the culture I’d been entrained to.
My stomach clenches as I write these words. Because that’s how I lived in those days, with my guts seized up and pushing down the true power and beauty inside of me.
The outer voice is all-pervading. From the moment we’re born, this voice kicks in, speaking through our family, friends, school, community, the books we read, and the media we watch, varying its message depending on the color of our skin, sexual orientation, body type, gender, gender identity, ethnic background, economic status and countless other variables. With its many tongues, this voice tells us over and over who we are, how we should live, and whether we’re worthy or not.
This outer voice works its way inside of us and rewires our self-concept and self-love. By the time we reach our adult years, we’re entangled in its trap, and the outer voice is what we hear inside our head, and use to chart our life course and determine our beauty and value.
Yet the other voice, that connects us with our Inner Goddess, is also all-pervading. We just need to know where to seek this alternative voice and then choose to listen and learn in new, empowering ways. Nature speaks in this other, alternative voice and is especially clear in Summer when the powers of light and life are at their strongest.
When I step outside my door into the forest landscape that surrounds my home, Nature grants me direct access to the ways of the Goddess. With the sun shining bright and a sweet, forest-scented breeze warming my skin, my belly relaxes as I breathe slow and deep.
Viscerally, sensually, I sense the Goddess in all things: the dance of the wind in the new-green leaves, the jewel-bright dragonfly that flits by, the hot pink foxgloves as tall as me, the whooshing shadow of a passing raven, and the secret, musky world of microbes and crawling creatures hidden from view.
Step outside your own door. Let your belly relax. Breathe deep and slow. Feel the hot sun on your skin. Savor the sweet, warm air that smells of flowers and green growth. Notice the wild things that come into view: insects, birds and other creatures, each going about the business of flourishing according to its inner essence and purpose. Sense the Goddess’s living presence in your wild kin and the truth that everything around you is equally beautiful, worthy and essential for the wellness of the whole.
Now close your eyes and turn your awareness inward. Connect with the part of you that senses and knows these truths. This is your Inner Goddess. She is your personal, alternative voice that remembers your unique beauty and purpose, and knows that you’re infinitely worthy, simply because you are you.
Your Inner Goddess is with you from the moment you’re born and through all the days of your life. She’s always just a breath away, ready to remind you of your Inner Divinity and innate worthiness whenever the outer voice becomes too loud. With Her guidance, She can help disentangle you from the ways in which you’ve internalized the outer voice, and claim the self-loving voice of your Inner Divinity and Goddess nature.
I take your face between my palms, kiss your brow and whisper in your ear, “Thou art Goddess.” Claim this truth as your own and then pass it on. We are Goddess. We are Divine. We are beautiful, powerful, worthy beyond our wildest imagination.
Claim your Inner Goddess with the Path of She’s Guided Summer Journey.
The Summer Journey: Thou Art Goddess immerses you in the mysteries and magic of your Inner Goddess and Nature, inviting you to claim and blossom into your best, most beautiful Self.
The Summer Journey includes: a Guidebook (pdf ebook), Journal (pdf ebook), and Guided Meditation (mp3 audio) that offer an integrated, seven lesson program with wisdom teachings, awareness practice and journaling exercises, and a guided meditation. The cost of the Summer Journey is $16.99.
Click here to go to learn more.
Celebrating the Summer Solstice
Posted on: Jun 12, 2022 @ 10:00 Posted in: Featured, Sabbats
Excerpt from Path of She Book of Sabbats.
At the Summer Solstice, your journey of soul invites you to blossom, shining forth the true essence and beauty of your Deep Self into the sunlit world of your everyday life. Emulate Nature in this summer season of generosity and abundance by cultivating your soul-sourced authenticity and sharing your best gifts and qualities with others.
The Solstice marks the first day of Summer and a peak in the powers of light before the scales tip once more toward the dark. Nature grants us a heady display of its fully unfurled beauty and overflowing munificence. From the mighty oak tree with its vast, green canopy to the fledgling robin casting itself from the nest, what is inside, the unique, luminescent spark of Creation within each living being, seeks its destined place in the sunlit world.
Midsummer festivities are part of our ancestral heritage and are still celebrated around the world. Bonfires are lit, honoring the brilliance and fertility of the summer sun. Merriment, music, dancing and feasting abound, reminding us to take pleasure in the good things in life while the days are long and hot, and the natural realm shares its plentitude.
The life-centered ways of the Goddess and the sacred feminine are revealed in this plentitude. The Mother Earth holds us in Her loving, generous embrace, showering us with beauty and nourishment for our hungry bellies and souls.
The robin cannot help but embrace its powers of flight, navigating the air space on its outstretched wings. The oak cannot help but burst forth from the acorn, sending its brown roots earthward and its green arms skyward. We cannot help but reach for our place in the greater world, drawing on the essence and gifts of our Deep Self. We may repress and truncate this primal soul imperative, yet our innate, unquenchable desire to flourish in our own unique way remains, ready to bloom outward, in all its brilliance, into a waiting world.
At the Summer Solstice, the Divine power that waits for you is your own Goddess Self who holds your remembrance of the ways and mysteries of the sacred feminine. She resides within the core of your being, connecting you with your inherent, indisputable beauty, worthiness and sacred purpose. She will show you the parts of your beauty and purpose that are ready to blossom, and will guide your journey of soul as you cultivate this blossoming in your everyday life.
When you offer your very best to the communal table of humanity, in a spirit of grace, goodness and generosity, you are making abundance a real, substantive part of your life and the greater environment of your family, workplace and community, and encouraging others to do the same. From these small and big changes, an ethos of abundance can take root and flourish in our human society where there is enough love and nourishment to feed, mend and transform our lives and our world.
Summer Solstice excerpt from The Path of She Book of Sabbats. Available in paperback and e-book at Amazon. Click here to purchase.
Make your own transformative magic for the summer season with the Summer Journey: Thou Art Goddess. The Summer Journey guides you through seven, integrated lessons that take you into the depths of summer’s teachings about abundance, goodness, self-love and blossoming.
Your Summer Journey includes: two pdf ebooks: the Summer Journey Guidebook and Summer Journey Journal, and the Summer Journey Guided Meditation (mp3 audio).
The cost of this integrated Summer Journey package is available at the Path Store for $16.99. Click here to purchase.
A Summer Solstice Meditation: Thou Art Goddess
Posted on: Jun 18, 2021 @ 10:00 Posted in: Featured, From The Book of Sabbats, Sabbats
Excerpt from: The Path of She Book of Sabbats
In the midday brilliance of the Summer Solstice, find a comfortable place in your home by an open window or a private space outside to do your meditation. Bring your attention to your center and imagine breathing in and out from your solar plexus. Feel your belly rise and fall with the movements of your breath. Slow your breathing down and track its reflexive, rhythmic cycle from fullness to emptiness, fullness to emptiness, over and over until your body is relaxed, your mind is empty, and your consciousness is deeply anchored in your inner core.
With a soft-focused gaze, open to the signs of Summer in your part of the world: the dry heat, the sun-bright green edges of leaves, the fragrant smells of flowers and grass, and the infinite other ways Mother Earth is blossoming around you.
See what plant, bird or other wild thing catches your attention, and notice its beauty and behaviors. Know that this plant or creature is doing exactly what it is meant to do, in accordance with the blossoming instincts of its unique essence and purpose.
Close your eyes and use your breath to shift your awareness down through your flesh and bones, and into the depth of your inner landscape. Draw the enervating powers of sunlight deep inside of you and feel it spark your blossoming instincts.
Sense the soles of your feet against the contours of the earth and let the powerful presence of your Goddess Self lead you forward.
As you travel, take in the state of this path. Is it smooth and well-tended, in a state of neglect and disrepair, or somewhere in between? Is your way free and clear, or blocked by debris and brambles? Are you beleaguered by limiting thoughts, doubts and fears? Or are you in synch with the natural state of abundance and grace that underlies this path?
Take a deep, full breath and accept that, whatever its condition, this is your path and way forward to your beauty and blossoming.
Feel the rightness of your desire to reclaim your destined place in the greater weaving of Mother Earth. Open to your hungry longing to be reunited with your feminine wisdom and instincts that connect you with the mysteries of beauty, blossoming and sacred purpose. Listen for the beckoning voice of your Goddess Self. Try to catch Her scent on the wind. Surrender to Her magnetic power, and you will be drawn to Her side.
You will know when you have reached the threshold of your inner sanctum; something deep inside will tell you: yes, this is it, this is my most private, sacred space. Take a few minutes to center yourself and ensure you are completely present, for this is a powerful moment — a homecoming and reclaiming of your holy of holies.
Your Goddess Self may look like you, or have Her own unique appearance. Bask in Her beauty and radiant smile, absorbing the details of Her physical form and the up-close sensations of Her energetic presence. Open to your own energetic and emotional responses to this reunion and homecoming.
Reach out to your Goddess Self, clasping Her hands in yours. Gaze deep and long into each other’s eyes. Let the love and goodness that you are, and that infuses all things, flow between you. Settle into this rightness that is you — this worthiness that is you — this beauty that is you — this power, mystery and presence that are you.
Spend as long as you need with your Goddess Self to renew your bond and to receive Her guidance, insights and loving support. Follow Her into the deepest roots of your beauty, gifts and best qualities. Delve into the true essence and purpose of your Deep Self. See what parts of your beauty and purpose are ripe for blossoming, and what your emerging pathwork may look like. Explore together your shadow-side, fears and doubts that are also part of your pathwork.
Expand your shared awareness beyond your personal pathwork and story to your broader environment, including your family, workplace and community. Open to your Goddess Self’s knowing of the natural abundance of the sacred feminine and Mother Earth. Let Her reveal the beneficial impact you can have on your outer environment through your beauty and gifts, and how you can bring more grace, goodness and generosity to your life and to others.
If you are ready, say yes to your blossoming and the pathwork that has been revealed to you. If you not ready, share whatever changes and commitments are right for you at this time on your journey of soul.
Retrace your passage along the pathway that led to your inner sanctum. With each step and breath feel yourself return to your physical body and everyday consciousness. Open your eyes and connect once more with the summer-bright world, basking in Nature’s generous gifts of sunlight, fresh air and green-growing things.
Put your hands on your solar plexus and savor this moment. There is no separation between you and your feminine wisdom, and there never was. Like the plants and creatures of the natural realm, you too have a luminescent spark of Creation in your core that holds the unique essence and sacred purpose of your Deep Self.
There is a place for you in the great weaving of life, just waiting for the shining outward of your deepest beauty and gifts. In this shining, and your spirit of grace, goodness and generosity, you naturally are a part of the munificence of the Mother Earth, and naturally help to create an ethos of abundance in our human society.
The Goddess is everywhere and in everything. Thou art Goddess.
Excerpt from The Path of She Books of Sabbats: A Journey of Soul Across the Seasons.
Let The Path of She Book of Sabbats transform your life through teachings, guided meditations and pathwork exercises that reconnect you with the seasonal energies of the Earth, the mysteries of the Goddess, and the deepest roots of your life’s purpose and story.
Available in ebook and paperback--visit the Path Store.
Summer Journey: Your Inner Goddess
Posted on: Jul 10, 2020 @ 10:00 Posted in: Featured, Sabbats
Excerpt from Summer Journey: Thou Art Goddess
The Goddess, in simple terms, is the feminine of Divinity, the sacred feminine. Pagan teachings tell us that She is immanent: She exists everywhere and can be found in all things. She is Mother Nature, the living body of the Earth, and the seasons and cycles that govern the physical world and our human lives through birth, life, death and rebirth. Her deepest presence is a golden love from which life emerges, is nurtured, and returns to at the end of its days.
You come to know the Goddess not through words or ideas, but through direct experience of Her presence and ways. Each turning of the seasons offers an opportunity to engage an aspect of the Goddess or God that is reflected in the mysteries and energies of the season. The Goddess who comes to greet you in the summer season is your own Inner Goddess.
You are Divine. You are beautiful. You are precious and worthy beyond your wildest imagination. Your deepest presence is love. You have special gifts and a sacred purpose that are yours alone to share with this world. You are an essential part of the great weaving of life that calls you to blossom and flourish in the summer season, and offer up your very best gifts and qualities for the well-being of the whole.
These are not just pretty words. They’re the lost truths of your Divine origins and Goddess heritage. They apply not just to you, but to every single living being of this Earth: from the tiny plankton to the majestic blue whale; a single blade of grass to the Amazon rainforest; the red-breasted robin to the fearsome condor. The earth, the air, the water, and the life-light within, these too are sacred, precious and essential for our shared existence.
See the summertime magnificence of Nature through your Inner Goddess knowing. Wild creatures and green-growing things cannot help but blossom into their true beauty and sacred purpose in the life-giving powers of Summer. Each is doing exactly what it is meant to be doing in the prime of its life; their physical forms and outward behaviors are natural, seamless expressions of their inner essence and primal drive to flourish.
From the bees busy gathering nectar and pollinating plants in their travels, to the raspberry bush offering up its delicious fruits for hungry bellies, to the birds who feast on this fruit and spread it seeds, to the swaying canopy of the giant maple tree that is home and habitat to these birds and many other wild creatures — this is the way life is meant to be, a living, breathing world of interconnected beings doing their destined part to ensure the health and well-being of the whole.
Our human world doesn’t work in these ways. Most people don’t live connected to their inner essence; they don’t bloom into a beautiful, full expression of themselves and their sacred purpose in life; and they don’t offer up their best gifts to ensure the health and well-being of the whole. Much of the unhappiness and destructive impulses of humankind find their source in this core wounding.
Consider these cold, hard truths in relation to your own life. Think about the masks that you wear and the roles that you play in your everyday existence that disconnect you from your true, beautiful Self. Open to your inner longings and unmet needs to live an authentic life, sourced from your inner essence and sacred purpose. Let yourself feel the unhappiness, pain and loss that arise from this disconnect.
You’ve never lost your Inner Goddess, nor your connection to the ways of the sacred feminine and the living truth of Nature. There’s no separation between you and your true beauty and sacred purpose. These things have always been waiting for you to show up and reclaim them as your own.
In Summer, with the powers of light and life at their peak, it is these very things that call you to take your destined place in the sun-bright world, alongside the wild creatures, green-growing things and your fellow humans. It is time for you to live from your very best gifts and qualities, and to play your part in ensuring the health and well-being of our shared human society and Earth home. This is how you can transform your life, and help build a better, more beautiful, kinder and joyful world. You need to simply show up as your true, beautiful Self.
You are ripe. You are ready to blossom and flourish. Your Inner Goddess can show you the way.
Claim your Inner Goddess with the Path of She’s Guided Summer Journey.
The Summer Journey: Thou Art Goddess immerses you in the mysteries and magic of your Inner Goddess and Nature, inviting you to claim and blossom into your best, most beautiful Self.
The Summer Journey includes: a Guidebook (pdf ebook), Journal (pdf ebook), and Guided Meditation (mp3 audio) that offer an integrated, seven lesson program with wisdom teachings, awareness practice and journaling exercises, and a guided meditation.
During these COVID-19 times, when many of us are struggling and in need of spiritual inspiration, I’m offering my Summer Journey at sliding scale prices.
The full price is $16.99. Use this coupon: summerdiscount to pay 50% of the purchase price. Use this coupon: summergift to download the Summer Journey package for free.
I ask you to pay what you can and to take what you need in support of your spiritual pathwork at this time.
Click here to go to the Path Store. Add the Summer Journey to your cart, then enter the coupon on the checkout page.
Tale of the Lost Daughter: Thou Art Goddess
Posted on: Jun 17, 2015 @ 10:13 Posted in: From the Tale
Photo Credit: Mona Eendra on Unsplash