What Happens When the Goddess Goes to Church? I Found Out This Week!

Oodles of red roses.  Huge colorful images of the Divine Feminine.  A living Priestess in flowing red robes, barefoot, enthroned, guiding deep healing meditations, striding over creaking centuries-old floorboards of Boston's Old South Church.  Woman after woman standing up to speak, shaman, indigenous elder, Reiki Master, grandmothers, mothers, daughters of the congregation of Holy Women calling out vows to walk in Divine Love, from private tenderness to public justice.

Retelling ancient stories, corrupted to erase the power of women and therefore the wholeness of us all, words that bring us into our natural state of sacred embodiment as creators, healers, nurturers, leaders, lineage bearers.  Restoring relationships with the land, with our history, with one another, with our human family, with our sacred communities.  Female voices resonating as never before from altar to pulpit to balcony, echoing to roof timbers and I daresay down to the very foundations of that venerated structure laid on unceded tribal ground.  Dancing among pews and in the aisles to Nina Simone’s "Feeling Good," "Defying Gravity" from Wicked, and Kamala Harris' campaign anthem "Freedom!"

Monday's monumental event was called "Remember," a unique gathering of the Holy Woman community, founded and led by Sarah Jenks, with hundreds of women in person and thousands more joining online, as I did. 

From the church bells calling us to gather to Kelly Taveras’ beautiful benediction and beyond, wholeness was spun of loving respect for honored traditions, healing lineages all but lost, and new ways emerging, into threads for each of us to carry forward, weaving the sacred feminine into the living of our lives, and into our presence.  I’ve been part of this beautiful community of women for almost a year and it has been a crucial part of my healing journey and personal growth, my croning and priestess path.

We found Her right where She has always been.  In our hearts and hands, our mind and bodies, our lands and altars, our families and communities, our imaginations and devotions, our remembering and creations.

You also carry the legacy and promise of the archetypal sacred feminine that is missing from our collective culture, no matter what gender, sex or orientation you embody, no matter what religion or spiritual path you do or don't follow.  

If you feel a resonance with the sacred feminine or are just curious, I invite you to explore further with three options.

• Join me this Sunday with Vision of Light online for reflections on this powerful, holy energy arising in a world so desperate for Her healing touch.  Sign up for the Zoom link and VoL newsletter at www.visionoflight.org.

• Enrollment in Holy Woman is open only until Monday, May 5, for a special monthly or 6-month membership that includes New Moon celebrations in person and online, Full Moon rituals Shamanic Astrology Oracles, Sacred Start daily practices, The Path of Remembrance course and much more.  Find details and sign up here.

• Awakening to the Priestess Path will be a summer 13-day mini-course to nurture the sacred feminine in yourself and your life.  It covers everything from creating altars and energizing sacred space to raising, sending and grounding energy, connecting with the Goddess and God, working with the seasons and the Moon and more.  If you’re interested, email connect@essentialarts.net and I’ll send you all the info once it’s available.

We live in truly magical times, when great healing power is boldly weaving through the madness and chaos that seems poised to prevail.  There is so much beautiful work being done in the world, and much more to do.  One big step was taken over a historic threshold this week, with loving intentions for the greatest good of all, in the spirit of fierce love and creative passion, deep inner work and community gathering.  Onward.  Blessed Be.  And Blessed Beltane!