womanspirit

Woodspriestess: Medicine Woman

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Molly

Medicine Woman

She who heals

Reaching out
strong hands
supple wrists
cleansing touch
place your hand in hers
and you will feel it…

Energy
passing from one to another
conduit of grace
and repair.

Restoration

Medicine Woman reminds you
to sleep when you’re tired
to eat when you’re hungry
to drink when you’re thirsty
and to dance
just because.

Medicine Woman
let her bind up your wounds
apply balm to your soul
and hold you
against her shoulder
when you need to cry.

Medicine Woman
Earth healer
she’s ready to embrace you.

(7/5/2013)

Memorial prayer flag

I wrote this poem last month as another character/archetype poem that came to mind after my original outraged ancestral mother poem and prayer. (Both of which were recently published in the current edition of The Tor Stone). Prophet Woman and Shakti Woman also showed up, as did Medicine Woman. I’ve still got Yoga Woman out there too and I thought there weren’t any more, until I had a Buzzard Woman encounter earlier in the month.

Last night I went to a local ceremony for the Day of Hope and Healing, which is a national memorial day for families who have experienced miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant loss. The photos in this post are from the event. And, today then felt like the perfect time to share my Medicine Woman poem. I’m also having a giveaway on my other blog for this pendant that I made over the weekend:

I also made some new sculptures and necklaces and updated my etsy shop!

Categories: art, friends, poems, spirituality, theapoetics, womanspirit, women, woodspriestess | 3 Comments

Thesis Project

Posted on August 3, 2013 by Molly

“Here is your sacrament
Take. Eat. this is my body
this is real milk, thin, sweet, bluish,
which I give for the life of the world…
Here is your bread of life.
Here is the blood by which you live in me.” –Robin Morgan (in Life Prayers, p. 148)

“…When I say painless, please understand, I don’t mean you will not feel anything. What you will feel is a lot of pressure; you will feel the might of creation move through you…” – Giuditta Tornetta in Painless Childbirth

“I am the holy mother; . . . She is not so far from me. And perhaps She is not so very distinct from me, either. I am her child, born in Her, living and moving in Her, perhaps at death to be birthed into yet some other new life, still living and having my being in Her. But while on this earth She and I share the act of creation, of being, and Motherhood.” —Niki Whiting, “On Being a Holy Mother” in Whedon

“Woman-to-woman help through the rites of passage that are important in every birth has significance not only for the individuals directly involved, but for the whole community. The task in which the women are engaged is political. It forms the warp and weft of society.” –Sheila Kitzinger

In 2011, I started working on my doctoral degree in thealogy (Goddess studies). Before I even began my first class, I chose my dissertation subject: birth as a spiritual experience. I’ve been steadily plugging away on my coursework and somehow in the midst of everything else that I am responsible for, I’ve successfully completed 13 of my classes. I already have a (not related) master’s degree and this is why I was admitted straight into the doctoral program, even though I have to complete a lot of M.Div (master’s of divinity) level coursework as prerequisites to the actual doctoral classes. After I finished my most recent class and got my updated transcript, I finally actually noticed how many M.Div classes I’ve completed thus far on my journey and it occurred to me to email to inquire what it would take to finish an M.Div degree first. I had this sudden feeling of what a nice stepping stone or milestone experience it would be to finish something, since I know that I have a minimum of three more years remaining before I complete the D.Min! They wrote back quickly and let me know that with the completion of three courses in matriarchal myth (I’m halfway through the first right now), my almost-completed year-long class in Compassion (I’m in month 11), and The Role of the Priestess course (involving three ten-page papers), all of which are also part of my doctoral program, the only other thing required for successful completion of my M.Div would be a thesis (minimum of 70 pages).

As I’ve been working through my classes, I’ve felt a gradual shift in what I want to focus on for my dissertation, and I already decided to switch to writing about theapoetics and ecopsychology now, rather than strictly about birth. I was planning to mash my previous ideas about birth and a “thealogy of the body” into this new topic somehow, perhaps: theapoetics, ecopsychology, and embodied thealogy. Then, when I got the news about the option of writing a thesis and finishing my M.Div, it became clear to me: my thesis subject is birth as a spiritual experience! This allows me to use the ideas and information I’d already been collecting as dissertation “seeds” as a thesis instead and frees me up to explore and develop my more original ideas about theapoetics for my dissertation! So…why post about this now? Well, one because I’m super excited about all this and just wanted to share and two, because I’d love to hear from readers about their experiences with birth as a spiritual experience! While I don’t have to do the kind of independent research for a thesis that I will be doing for my dissertation and while my focus is unabashedly situated within a feminist context and a thealogical orientation, I would love to be informed by a diverse chorus of voices regarding this topic so that the project becomes an interfaith dialog. Luckily for me I’ve already reviewed a series of relevant titles.

The Gift of Giving Life (explores the divine nature of pregnancy and birth from a Christian, specifically LDS/Mormon, perspective)
Embodying the Sacred (written from a Catholic point of view)
Sacred Pregnancy (a gorgeous book with a non-specific spiritual perspective)
L’Mazeltov (written specifically for Jewish parents-to-be)
Birth on the Labyrinth Path (focuses on the divine nature of pregnancy and birth from a pagan wordview)

Now, I’d like to hear from you. What are your experiences with the spirituality of birth? Do you consider birth to be a spiritual experience? Did you have any spiritual revelations or encounters during your births or any other events along your reproductive timeline? (miscarriage, menstruation, lactation…) Did you draw upon spiritual coping measures or resources as you labored and gave birth? Did giving birth deepen, expand, or otherwise impact your sense of spirituality or your sense of yourself as a spiritual or religious person? Did any of your reproductive experiences open your understanding of spirituality in a way that you had not previously experienced or reveal beliefs or understandings not previously uncovered?

When I use the word “spiritual,” I mean a range of experiences from a humanistic sensation of being linked to women around the world from all times and spaces while giving birth, to a “generic” sense of feeling the “might of creation” move through you, to a sense of non-specifically-labeled powers of Life and Universe being spun into being through your body, to feeling like a “birth goddess” as you pushed out your baby, to more traditional religious expressions of praying during labor, or drawing upon scripture as a coping measure, or feeling that giving birth brought you closer to the God of your understanding/religion, or, indeed, meeting God/dess or Divinity during labor and birth). I’m particularly interested in women’s embodied experiences of creation and whether or not your previous religious beliefs or spiritual understandings in life affirmed, acknowledged, or encouraged your body and bodily experience of giving birth as sacred and valuable as well as your own sense of yourself as spiritually connected or supported while giving birth. I would appreciate links to birth stories or articles that you found helpful, books you enjoyed or connected with, and comments relating to your own personal experiences with any of the comments or questions I have raised above. I would love to hear about your thoughts as they relate to:

Pregnancy
Labor
Birthing
Lactation
Miscarriage
Infertility
Menstruation
Reproductive Rights
Birth as a feminist or social justice issue…

Thank you!

With these things said, I also want to mention that I’m planning to redirect a lot of my writing energy/time into this thesis project rather than to blog posts. I’m trying to come up with a blog posting schedule for myself, but in order to actually do this thing, I must acknowledge that I have to re-prioritize some things and that means writing for my blogs probably needs to slip down a couple of notches in terms of priority of focus.

Oh, and I also hope this thesis project will turn into a book of some kind as well! 🙂

“It is hard to find a female-based concept such as Shakti alive within Western spiritual traditions. Shakti could be viewed as an expression of goddess in the female body at the time of birth. I would say its flow / expression and outcome of love is hindered by unnecessary interventions at birth which divert such energy towards fear- based, masculine forms. The use of masculine, rescue-based healing forms such as cutting (Grahn, 1993) can be necessary and useful, yet such procedures are currently used at the cost of women’s autonomy in the birthing process (see Jordan on C-section, 2007), and define the parameters of what feminist thinker Mary Daly called patriarchal medicine (1978). Modern women are largely lost when it comes to giving birth, turning to medical authority figures to be told what to do. Daly pointed to the dangers of this appropriation for women’s personal and collective autonomy.

Birthing bodies resist, disrupt and threaten standard North American modernist investments in linear time, rationality, order, and objectivity. Birth disrupts the Judeo-Christian male image of God, even as He hides the reality of female creation and creativity. I hold that women giving birth act from a focal point of power within their respective cultures and locations, the power to generate and renew human life itself from within the female body. This power is more absolute in its human reality then any other culturally sanctioned act of replication and material production, or social construction. I speculate that how this female power is expressed, denied, or acknowledged by women and within the society around a birthing woman reflects the degree to which women can and may express themselves at large. As each soul makes the journey through her/his mother, re-centring human consciousness within the female-based reality of human birth causes transformation of patriarchal consciousness as a whole…” –Nane Jordan, Towards an Ontology of Women Giving Birth

—

This post is crossposted at Talk Birth

Categories: birth, embodiment, feminism, feminist thealogy, Goddess, OSC, spirituality, thealogy, thesis, womanspirit, writing | 8 Comments

Woodspriestess: Shakti Woman Speaks

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Molly

A special gift from Paola of Goddess Spiral Health Coaching

Shakti woman speaks
She says Dance
Write
Create
Share
Speak.

Don’t let me down
I wait within
coiled at the base of your spine
draped around your hips
like a bellydancer’s sash
snaking my way up
through your belly
and your throat
until I burst forth
in radiant power
that shall not be denied.

Do not silence me
do not coil my energy back inside
stuffing it down
where it might wither in darkness
biding its time
becoming something that waits
to strike.

Let me sing
let me flood through your body
in ripples of ecstasy
stretch your hands wide
wear jewels on your fingers
and your heart on your sleeve

Spin
spin with me now
until we dance shadows into art
hope into being
and pain into power.

7/1/2013

A couple of weeks ago, I published a Shakti Woman poem and the above is the companion piece that I actually wrote first. For the picture to go with it, I just had to share my recent gift from Paola of Goddess Spiral Health Coaching. Isn’t she lovely? Earlier this year, Paola offered to send a gift to the first several responders on her Facebook page and I was one of them 🙂

I love the Willendorf Goddess and consider it almost a personal “totem” of sorts for me. I love that she is so full-figured and not “perfect” or beautiful. I like that she is not pregnant (there is some disagreement about this, I guess) and what I like best is that she is “complete unto herself.” She is a complete form–not just a headless pregnant belly, etc. I just LOVE her. As I’ve written previously, I have a strong emotional connection to Paleolithic and Neolithic figures. I do not find that I feel as personally connected to Egyptian and Greek and Roman Goddess imagery, but the ancient figures really speak to something powerful within me. I have a sculpture of the Goddess of Willendorf at a central point on my altar. Sometimes I hold her and wonder and muse about who carved the original. I almost feel a thread that reaches out and continues to connect us to that nearly lost past—all the culture and society and how very much we don’t know about early human history. There is such a solid power to these early figures and to me they speak of the numinous, non-personified, Great Goddess.

Categories: Goddess, poems, prayers, spirituality, theapoetics, womanspirit, woodspriestess | 2 Comments

Sabbath: Moon Races

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Molly

“Goddess ritual, insofar as it generates reverence for and celebrates that which is female…is fiercely empowering,…[with] possibilities as limitless as the sunshine and the wind.” –Sonia Johnson

“Moon races!
All the women running with hair unbound,
All the women running free
and full of laughter.” –Donna Wilshire (Virgin, Mother, Crone)

You’re a song, a wished for song.
–Rumi

“The archetype of the witch is long overdue for celebration. Daughters, mothers, queens, virgins, wives, et al. derive meaning from their relation to another person. Witches, on the other hand, have power on their own terms. They have agency. They create. They praise. They commune with nature/ Spirit/God/dess/Choose-your-own-semantics, freely, and free of any mediator. But most importantly: they make things happen. The best definition of magic I’ve been able to come up with is “symbolic action with intent” — “action” being the operative word. Witches are midwives to metamorphosis. They are magical women, and they, quite literally, change the world…” via The Year of the Witch | Pamela J. Grossman.

(This was an interesting article! I have trouble embracing the term “witch” myself because of the many years and layers of negative cultural associations…)

The Goddess made the world
with her needle. First
she embroidered the moon
and then, the shining stars
and then the fine sun and
the warm clouds beneath.
Then the wet pines in the forest,
the pines with wild animals beneath,
then the shining waves of the sea,
the shining waves with fishes beneath.
Thus the goddess embroidered
the world. The world flowered
from the swift needle of the Goddess.

Northern Russian folklore
via TheGypsyPriestess

“Shakti woman
I honor you
I carry you

looped loosely

like a belt around my hips
shining from my eyes
tasting your words on my tongue
and in my heart…”

via Woodspriestess: Shakti Woman

“Prophet Woman
she’s a warrior
speaking now
her voice is quiet
in this moment
but I hear
the distant thunder
and I feel
the breath of change
against my neck…”

via Carpriestess: Prophet Woman

Categories: feminist thealogy, Goddess, quotes, readings, sabbath, spirituality, womanspirit | Leave a comment

Woodspriestess: Shakti Woman

Posted on July 17, 2013 by Molly

Shakti woman
coiled within
fiery voice
running snakelike up my spine
bursting free
in the language and poetry
of leaves and stones

Poems gather within me
coiled at the base of my spine
stirred in the cauldron of my belly
cradled by the bones of my hips
waiting until such time
as they spiral upwards
through my chest and throat
and past my waiting lips
speaking words
in patterns I’ve never heard before
and yet that waited inside me to be born.

Shakti woman
unfurling
speaking through my mouth
caressing the planet with her breath
divine union
oracle
open heart
open throat
sweet
rich
biting
burning
energy of creation

Shakti woman
I honor you
I carry you
looped loosely
like a belt around my hips
shining from my eyes
tasting your words on my tongue
and in my heart.

For several days after I wrote my Outraged Ancestral Mother poem and prayer other specific “character” poems kept coming to my mind. Prophet Woman was the first, but she was followed by several others, like Shakti Woman. For some reason, I felt like I needed some distance before they felt “safe” enough to publish.

Categories: Goddess, invocations, liturgy, poems, prayers, readings, spirituality, theapoetics, womanspirit, woodspriestess | 4 Comments

Ritual Recipe: Women’s Summer Retreat

Posted on July 13, 2013 by Molly

My husband picked these summer wildflowers for our circle’s altar 🙂

Friday afternoon was our quarterly women’s retreat and I’d like to share the outline of our process as well as some reflections in case they are helpful for others…

Summer retreat outline

1. Choose bindis (I got some nice fresh ones that are not stuck to the paper!)

2. Circle up and group hum. We do this at every women’s ritual to unify our energy, to harmonize, to focus our intention and to bring our minds and bodies solidly into the ritual space. I feel like this simple action is what “casts the circle” for our group and is a point of continuity from ritual to ritual that we all value.

3. Invocation (slightly modified from Gathering for Goddess by Melusine Mihaltses):

South: We call on Fire with our flesh. Rub your hands together fast and furious, feel the heat you have generated. Now place this heat upon your chest. Feel the heat upon your heart.

We have invoked the powers of Fire.

(group together) Welcome Fire!

West: We call on Water with the moisture found on our lips, lick your lips, wet them with your saliva. Feel how this element lives within you.

We have invoked the powers of Water.

Welcome Water!

North: We call on Earth with the solidity of our own bodies, give your neighboring sister an embrace. All embrace each other.

We have invoked the powers of Earth.

Welcome Earth!

East: We call on Air with our breath, panting and sighs, inhales and exhales. Altogether, breath audibly.

We have invoked the powers of Air

Welcome Air!

4. Candle lighting with reading by volunteer:

…Make a sacred fire
and throw on it all that you would use to harm yourself.
Make kindling from shame.

Let your dance be wild,
your voice be honest
and your heart untamed.

Be cyclical,
don’t make sense..

Initiate yourself.
Initiate yourself.

By Aisha Wolfe

5. Quick centering guided meditation using Elemental Connecting by Traci Nichols.

Summer altar

6. We’re a bit past the summer solstice date, but the energetic theme and the season are still the same, so I shared some summer solstice information and reflections. Each woman took a turn to add a symbol of what she’s been womanifesting to the altar as well as discuss any responses to the questions…

It’s now that we Celebrate the womanifestation of the seed dream/s we conceived at Winter Solstice. Much like the Mother Mysteries associated with this time, we are giving our full attention, time and creativity to nurturing, sustaining and protecting our dreams, while reveling in the abundance of all that we are the creatrix of.

With all of this heightened activity and energy, we may find ourselves bumping up against the shadow of the Mother Archetype. With the full activation of our Fire energy that Summer Solstice generates, we can experience “burn out” by over-giving, over-nurturing, over-protecting, and/or over-doing. So remember to “Mother yourself” as you are caring for your creations. Seek out and create support systems that sustain YOU, as you work to sustain your hopes, dreams and all that you love.

The LIGHT of Summer Solstice not only activates us to “tend the fire” of our creative dreams, we can also feel the heat and challenge of spiritual tests we may be going through at this time. Honoring where we are in our spiritual journey, as well as all of what is being brought to “greater light” and asking for “healing” and “transformation” –

via Shine Your Light! – Chrysalis Woman – Returning to the Mother and Each Other.

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF:

What seed dream have I nurtured since Winter Solstice that is now in full radiance?

Do I Mother myself as I Mother my creations? How do I create support structures for myself that sustain me during times of high activity? Do I experience “burn out” during this time of year due to overwhelm or have I cared for myself in order to feel my full radiance and vitality?

What part of my soul’s growth is being “lit up” this season? What am I being asked to shine a light on in order to heal or transform?

Is my life a reflection of the abundance that is being mirrored to me by the Mother Earth? Does my life flow like Her rivers? Is it abundant like Her gardens? Is it buzzing with loving community? Does it illuminate others with the radiance of the sun? If not, how can I shift in my relationship to abundance so that I can fully and completely shine my radiant light?

via Shine Your Light! – Chrysalis Woman – Returning to the Mother and Each Other.

7. Dance! With jingly hip scarves and scarves in our hands, we raised some energy! This was new for us. After dancing to the African drumming on the Rise Up curriculum CD during our last Rise Up class, we re-visited the action during this retreat. My mom planned out a simple, circle dance and then we did a small spiral dance too. It was fun!

8. For this retreat, we also tried something new for the middle “working” part of the retreat in that I asked each woman to bring an offering to the circle as a sort of group-prepared “potpourri.” Women read stories, shared wisdom and articles, and we made a fun project (see more soon).

9. Shamanic drumming journey CD (15 minutes) followed by journaling and brief discussion. This was also new for the group and had interesting results. Our experiences varied widely, but most had a powerful experience. I think if we did this more often, we’d be more comfortable with the feel of a “journey” and would relax into more easily.

10. Then as my own potpourri contribution and reflection, I read my recent Outraged Ancestral Mother Prayer

11. Closing reading:

…May this day of longest light become for each of us a day of longest gratitude.

A day of longest peace.

A day of longest creativity.

A day of longest hope.

Hold up to the sun your heart, and feel fully present in your life.

May it be so.

via Teo Bishop: Summer Solstice 2013: Hold Up to the Sun Your Heart.

Then, joining hands, we sang Woman Am I together and headed for the kitchen for tasty potluck snacks! I’d originally planned to make a project using some nifty new crescent moon charms I bought recently. My vision for what exactly we were going to do with them wasn’t very clear and so it was great that one of my friends had brought a surprise project to do as her potpourri offering. Perhaps by next time, I’ll have a charming plan in place! My friend had sewed a set of 40 tiny white prayer flags for each of us upon which we drew our Womanrunes symbols with Sharpies. She also brought us each a dowel upon which we can mix or match the womanrunes and stick it in a garden, a plant, or elsewhere to be a rotating sort of “prayer branch.” She suggested either choosing the runes whose meanings match that which we desire OR randomly selecting a set and seeing what messages want to be carried on the breeze. We can switch them out in a semi-infinite array of mini prayer flag action. It was a really good idea and I was excited that she brought something like that to offer to the circle. When my husband got home, he drilled a little hole in one of the beams of our front porch and we stuck my new prayer flag system into it (flying five randomly selected womanrunes).

Isn’t that fun?!

I’ve been feeling a little discouraged about my retreats lately, primarily because there are a lot more women on the email list than actually show up and so I always feel like I’m doing something “wrong” or am not planning interesting enough things to attract them. I also take it kind of personally—there is a vulnerability in preparing an offering such as this and each time I do it I actually feel like I’m preparing a gift for my friends. When they decline the invite, it feels, in part, like a rejection of the gift I’m offering. Cognitively, I know (or, I hope!), this isn’t true, but emotionally that is how it usually registers. This summer retreat was a beautiful experience that felt just as I wish for these retreats to feel—nurturing, affirming, and celebratory—like a blessingway for all of us with no one needing to be pregnant!

Things I was reminded of after this experience:

There is nothing like having friends who are willing to lie on your living room floor and listen to a shamanic drumming CD without laughing or saying you’re ridiculous.
Small IS good—I already know from my years as a breastfeeding support group leader that I’m a sucker for bigger-is-better thinking (I tell my own students: don’t let your self-esteem depend on the size of your group!!!!!). When the group is small or RSVPs are minimal, it starts to feel like a personal “failing” or failure to me somehow. However, the reality is that there is a quality of interaction in a small group that is not really possible in a larger group. At this retreat there were seven women. While there was an eighth friend I really wished would come and who we missed a lot, the size felt pretty perfect. I reflected that while some part of me envisions some kind of mythically marvelous “large” group, ten is probably the max that would fit comfortably in our space as well as still having each woman be able participate fully. Twelve would probably be all right and maybe we could handle fifteen. I also need to remember not to devalue the presence of the women who DO come. They matter and they care and by lamenting I want more, it can make them feel like they’re not “enough.”
Retreats like this provide an opportunity to explore/experiment with ideas and activities that we usually do not allow ourselves time for in everyday life—I know that I often “run out of time” for more spiritual/contemplative/relaxing pursuits.
Circling together in a woman-to-woman atmosphere allows for a type of healing and connection through shared experience that is qualitatively different from getting together to casually chat and socialize. Shared experiences matter and are in some ways more satisfying than shared conversation (most women do plenty of chatting–we can benefit from some being and experiencing together).
The potpourri thing was a good idea. While my husband said it sounded like a nightmare idea to him—he hates being responsible for bringing something to a group setting—I felt like it created a sense of investment and shared responsibility for our circle. It was fun for each woman to be at the center for a while and to share her contribution with the rest of us.
I find great value in interacting with my friends in a woman-to-woman context, rather than a mother-to-mother context. So often when I’m with my friends we are in a space of “co-mothering” (i.e. mothering together and “friending” at the same time). While this can work and be fun, a lot of times it is actually kind of unfulfilling—there are constant distractions and I often feel I’m doing neither well–not paying full attention to my kids OR to my friends, and it is a scattered, distracted, stop-and-start, unfinished sort of mode of interacting (I think this is particularly a feature of having a toddler. If I only had my bigger kids, it probably would be a less scattering experience to co-mother). There was a time earlier in this year when I felt like the sense of unfulfillment or frustration I often experienced during friend conversations had to do with my friendships themselves and it took a post-retreat revelation in the spring to realize that it actually had to do with trying to have a substantive visit with friends with all of our kids present!
That said, perhaps it is somewhat ironic that my own mother is a regular part of this women’s circle—apparently, she can’t escape her kid, ME. But, this too is of important value—despite the close proximity of our homes, we rarely actually have the chance to interact in a woman-to-woman context, rather than as busy adult daughter and grandmother co-strategist. Also, along the same lines of my first point, I also feel lucky to have a mom who is willing to plan ritual dances and lie on the floor with me listening to shamanic drums!

Categories: community, friends, liturgy, priestess, resources, retreat, ritual, spirituality, womanspirit, women, women's circle | 7 Comments

Carpriestess: Prophet Woman

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Molly

She’s been waiting
curled up
knees to chest
head to arms
sleeping
thinking
biding her time
but her eyes have flickered open
she’s stretching her arms
unfolding her legs
wriggling into her purpose
until it fits like a glove

She’s opened up her heart
and her throat
and her voice comes pouring forth
like a swirling river
her ear is tuned
to the hopesong of the forest
her heart is tuned
to the rhythm of the earth
she feels the Goddess sing through her
alive in her blood
and she steps forth…

She rattles cages
she stirs the pot
she shakes things up
she asks hard questions
she refuses to accept no
and you can’t.

She digs deeper
she twists harder
she wonders more
she speaks her truth.

Soon cages bend and open
veils fall away
fires of curiosity are lit
in hopeful breasts
and wisdom no longer belongs to secret places.

The world is reborn
knowing love as the ground of being
and the source of all creation.
and refusing to kill anything
but illusion and despair.

Prophet Woman
she’s a warrior
speaking now
her voice is quiet
in this moment
but I hear
the distant thunder
and I feel
the breath of change
against my neck.

7/3/2013

On the way home a couple of days ago, I was listening to Matthew Fox and Karen Tate speak on the Voices of the Sacred Feminine talk show (see: Mary Magdalene & Matthew Fox on the Vatican, Pope & CIA 05/22 by Karen Tate | Blog Talk Radio). At the end of the show, Fox said that a spiritual presence that needs to be “brought back” and that is of vital importance is the “prophet warrior.” This archetype is that of a loving spiritual activist. Immediately after hearing this, some lines about “prophet woman” came floating into my mind. I was thinking about all the people who are “re-birthing goddess” on the earth or who are raising awareness of the “sacred feminine” or “divine feminine” or God-She or just about women—their bodies, minds, and spirits. I thought about my favorite Facebook presences: The Girl God, Journey of Young Women, The Gypsy Priestess, and Goddess Spiral Health Coaching, as well as many authors and publications that I so enjoy and I realized these are the prophet women speaking. I spoke aloud into my little recorder and when I got home, I typed up my poem and sent it to The Girl God: Prophet Woman.

She speaks! 🙂

Categories: invocations, poems, prayers, readings, spirituality, theapoetics, womanspirit, women | 4 Comments

Woodspriestess: Ovulation

Posted on July 7, 2013 by Molly

A woman in one of my Facebook groups shared this picture from her garden. This Goddess tomato even has a perfect belly button! 🙂

Ovulation
egg coming
ripe
fertile
creative
waiting
wanting.

Round with possibilities
plans, ideas, and determination
permeable to enlivened truth.

Shared wisdom
from the ages
womb tug
from the moon

Heart beating
in Goddess time

An egg rests
in dark safety.
A woman waits
filled
with curled up potential
and the ability to dance
a new way of being.

Pain, hope, promise, joy
listen to your body
all will be well.

6/14/13

Categories: blessings, poems, prayers, womanspirit, woodspriestess | Leave a comment

Womanrunes: The Crescent Moon

Posted on July 7, 2013 by Molly

Womanrunes: The Crescent Moon. Rune of Divination. Ritual. Door to Unconscious.

The Moon Mother calls you. She dances around the edges of your conscious awareness, singing your name, tugging at your spirit. Listen to the Dreamtime. What is knocking at the doorway of your soul? What calls to you in the night?

Are you dreaming?

Have you given up on dreams?

Are you listening?

Have you stopped trying?

Do you remember your dreams? Do you heed their messages? The Goddess speaks in the language of dreamtime, from deep, dark places and in fuzzy, sleepy awareness. Tune in, look inside, wait for wisdom. It wants to enter, it’s on its way. Carried by the moon, drifting in starlight, singing to you, drawing you near. Moon Mother, Dream Mother. Winds of change and destiny are swirling. Pay attention, take heed, become conscious. In seemingly coincidental connections and links your unconscious, your deep self, is speaking to you. She knows many things. Divination is not about predicting the future, but is about understanding your path and heeding the guidance laid out before you in many bright, sparkling, starry, and shadowy ways. She speaks in dreams, speaks in nudges, speaks in signs, signals, synchronicities. This is the language of symbol, myth, pattern, and magic.

This rune also reminds us of the power of ritual. Of gathering together with intention and purpose and power, of raising energy, of sealing bonds, of linking arms in sisterhood and circle and solidarity. This rune calls upon you to create your own magic, to define your own truths, and to stir your own rituals into communal meaning.

You can do it. You already know how.

Listen to what is walking here
tiptoeing through your dreams
knocking at the door of your unconscious mind
whispering from shadows
calling from the full moon
twinkling in the stars
carried by the night wind woman
rising at sunset
peeking out
in tentative
yet persistent purpose.

Listen to the call
trust the talkative silence…

(7/4/2013)

—

Update: this project evolved into a real book!
The first post in my Womanrunes series is available here and all others here. The runes and the names of them come from Shekhinah Mountainwater’s Womanrunes system for which there are no written interpretations available other than the name and one word meanings. I’m engaging in a semi-daily practice of drawing one and then going down to the woods with it to see what it “tells” me–basically, creating what I wish I had, which is a more developed interpretation of the meaning of each womanrunestone.

Categories: Womanrunes, womanspirit | 3 Comments

Collaborative Orisha Poem

Posted on July 5, 2013 by Molly

Orisha altar. A little cluttered! (there are three different areas, one for each orisha)

Spirit of change
destiny sweeping
good vibrations
respect
and thunder.

Float freely
release
and encourage.

Momentum building
crescendo

Water wisdom.

At our last session of Rise Up, we were talking about the Yoruban Orishas, specifically Yemaya, Oshun, and Oya. After dancing together to honor the orishas, we looked into a bowl of water and each spoke aloud what had come to us following the dance. I wrote down what we said and the result was just what was supposed to happen: we’d created a collaborative poem about the orishas. I thought it was a neat experience 🙂 We did a double session of Rise Up this last time and I think it was too much to try to do at once since we kind of lost our steam. Next week, I had planned to do our next Rise Up class followed by our summer retreat, but now I think we should do only the retreat and keep Rise Up on a different day. It took a lot out of me to try to do two classes back to back and I could tell the rest of the group wasn’t really “feeling it” either. I have a tendency to always want to multitask and to double-up to be efficient, but sometimes there is a price to be paid for efficiency and in this case it was a lack of “steam” or connection during our time together. The dancing was fun and invigorating, but I felt like during other portions of the class people started to get bored or otherwise unfocused. I also left out some details about what to bring for our collaborative project and so that was confusing for people too and I kept losing my place in terms of what to do next, because the two classes blended together in my head and I couldn’t remember what went with what. I’d also had a bad morning with my kids (described on my other blog) and that dramatically impacted my ability to be present with our circle. In general, I felt like I basically failed with this particular session, though I try to remember that success or failure of a group endeavor does not rest with only one person, there is a collective responsibility to the usness of a group and a group is a living system with a personality and life of its own. At least our group poem worked pretty well! 🙂

Categories: blessings, community, friends, invocations, poems, priestess, spirituality, womanspirit, women's circle | Leave a comment

Woodspriestess: Outraged Ancestral Mother Prayer

Posted on June 30, 2013 by Molly

Outraged Ancestral Mother
fill my veins
with your singing

Sweep me up.
Stir my passion
until I might be worthy
of your chorus
of enraged beauty.

Embed your
call for action
in my feet
that I may never again
walk in thoughtlessness
or inattention
each step
becoming
a beat of your drum.

I will howl with you
in the hurricane’s roar
and the tornado’s fury

I will crack my lightning
and split my life open
gaze at the red pomegranate seeds within
and I will eat
Knowing that some part of me
will belong in the underworld
forever.

Lash the remainder of my heart
to hope
bind my heartstrings
around destiny
and open my throat
that I might bellow
on the winds
of change
and inspiration…

Categories: Goddess, invocations, nature, poems, prayers, spirituality, theapoetics, womanspirit, woodspriestess | 9 Comments

Woodspriestess: Summer Solstice

Posted on June 21, 2013 by Molly

Hot nature.
Humid thickness
of life
breath
and passion.

Sticky spirit
melting senses
sleepy mind
moving through
watery air.

Mosquitoes whine
ticks lurk
Summer is here.

She’s heavy
weighty
watery
thick
green.

Summer has come to the woods
Summer has bitten my thigh
Summer whines in my ear
Summer waits
for my ideas to bear fruit
rich, juicy, sweet.

(6/11/13)

The Summer Solstice issue of The Oracle is out and contains a slightly revised version of my Womanenergy post:

Womenergy moved humanity across continents, birthed civilization, invented agriculture, conceived of art and writing, pottery, sculpture, and drumming, painted cave walls, raised sacred stones and built Goddess temples. It rises anew during ritual, sacred song, and drumming together. It says She Is Here. I Am Here. You Are Here and We Can Do This. It speaks through women’s hands, bodies, and heartsongs. Felt in hope, in tears, in blood, and in triumph.

Womenergy is the chain of the generations, the “red thread” that binds us womb to womb across time and space to the women who have come before and those who will come after. Spinning stories, memories, and bodies, it is that force which unfolds the body of humanity from single cells, to spiraled souls, and pushes them forth into the waiting world.

via Womenergy by Molly | Global Goddess.

And, I was touched by this post and its Call:

Along the way, you will meet up with sisters who have answered their own calls. After years of trudging alone to the single note of our own call, we begin to sense first, then to see their dirt-smudged, tear-streaked faces. Their scars look comfortingly similar to our own. We are a ragtag tribe of outcasts, moon howling, spiritual homesteaders. The notes of our own call begin to merge and blend, and we become a symphony of stragglers, circling in sacred ritual- we are never truly alone. Our wounds are treasure maps tracing our stories back to the moment we said no, enough, no more, now, this time, my time. They bind us, these wounds, these calls, one to another on this dark wooded path.

To answer The Call is to choose a life outside what anyone else deems worthy, understandable, logical. We are heralded by some as over-emotional, ridiculous, dramatic, eccentric, strange, weird, unnatural. Others like us will recognize themselves in our journey, our words, our artwork, our altars, our homegrown vegetables and homespun clothes. They will feel they are home when they smell lavender at our neck and see sage on our tables.

Our legacy is red, and burns with a passion we cannot contain so that it seeps out and stains our daughters and sons, marking them for a new way of life that emerges- because we were brave enough to answer a Call.

via Her Strange Angels: Call to the Wild Wood ~ A Blessing for the Solstice.

And, I was super psyched to get two new books free on Kindle this weekend:

From Lisa Micheals:

And from Rachael of the Moontimes blog!

I also appreciated this timely reminder from Chrysalis Woman:

It’s now that we Celebrate the womanifestation of the seed dream/s we conceived at Winter Solstice. Much like the Mother Mysteries associated with this time, we are giving our full attention, time and creativity to nurturing, sustaining and protecting our dreams, while reveling in the abundance of all that we are the creatrix of.
With all of this heightened activity and energy, we may find ourselves bumping up against the shadow of the Mother Archetype. With the full activation of our Fire energy that Summer Solstice generates, we can experience “burn out” by over-giving, over-nurturing, over-protecting, and/or over-doing. So remember to “Mother yourself” as you are caring for your creations. Seek out and create support systems that sustain YOU, as you work to sustain your hopes, dreams and all that you love.

via Shine Your Light! – Chrysalis Woman – Returning to the Mother and Each Other.

I feel like I’m in one of these stages right now and working it through.

I’m still working on our own simple family ritual for summer solstice. It will involve many drums! 🙂

—

P.S. I have a good friend named Summer and I had to smile as I transcribed my “Summer” poem, because I imagined her biting my thigh and whining in my ear! (Really, it was a mosquito!) ;-D

Categories: holidays, nature, poems, resources, spirituality, theapoetics, womanspirit, woodspriestess, writing | 3 Comments

Calling the Circle: Context

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Molly

Does standing on the wall at Pismo Beach at dusk make sense? Yes, if the context is one of trying to get some silhouette pictures! 😉

This post is the second in a series, prompted by the book Calling the Circle by Christina Baldwin:

Context is the social, political, cultural, and spiritual force that shapes the life of a person. Every person lives within society’s context–whether we live comfortably in the middle of this collective force or straining at the edge. In every society there are seekers whose role is to push the borders of accepted experience and whose thoughts and actions expand the cultural context. Ideas and social norms pass through a culture, coming first from the edge and, as they are accepted, moving to center and becoming the ‘norm.’ …

Context is the collective atmosphere inside which something is seen and understood…

Context is amazingly important. Pushing the context is how a culture changes, both in expansion and in reaction against expansion. As groups of ethnic and racial minorities, women, homosexuals, the physically challenged, and others have struggled for social rights, each group has expanded the contextual edge, insisting that the culture make room, rewrite laws, and get used to living with these changes. (p. 21)

One of the college classes I teach in human services is called, “working with groups.” However, in all of my classes we talk about systems theory and our core person-in-environment outlook. Every person is inextricably embedded it a network of larger systems and we cannot full understand people without understanding their systemic context. Essentially, behavior is logical to context and human behavior is very often group behavior, no matter how much Western culture likes to point fingers at individuals and individual responsibility. When considering the issue of past social atrocities like those committed by the Nazis, I think about the concept of fundamental attribution error–people’s tendency to ascribe the behavior of others to personal flaws rather than context/environment. We all like to think that we wouldn’t have been a Nazi, or that we wouldn’t drink the Kool-Aid, or that we wouldn’t be the person in the experiment who keeps increasing the electric shock…but, in reality, these situations all involved regular people, who were powerfully influenced by group dynamics. Those dynamics continue to be afoot in the modern world.

As I’ve written before, the sociocultural value of a divine presence that validates women’s bodies cannot be overestimated. Indeed, I believe that patriarchal religion in its most destructive way grew out of the devaluation and rejection of female bodies. A religious context that rejects the female body, that places the male and its association with “the mind” and the soul rather than the earthy relational connection of body, is a religion that easily moves into domination and control of women. Reclaiming Goddess, reclaims women’s bodies—names them not only as “normal,” but as “divine,” and this is profoundly threatening to traditional Judeo-Christian belief systems. In Carol Christ’s classic essay, Why Women Need the Goddess, she quotes feminist theologian Mary Daly (Beyond God the Father):

If God in ‘his’ heaven is a father ruling his people, then it is the ‘nature’ of things and according to divine plan and the order of the universe that society be male dominated. Within this context, a mystification of roles takes place: The husband dominating his wife represents God ‘himself.’ The images and values of a given society have been projected into the realm of dogmas and “Articles of Faith,” and these in turn justify the social structures which have given rise to them and which sustain their plausibility.

As I wrote in a prior post for Feminism and Religion:

…as Rush describes in Politics on page 384: “It stands to reason after so many centuries of brutal religious persecution, that women today should have a deep fear of conceptualizing our own spirituality. Women who try are severely penalized…Because of all this, it is essential that we do create our own spiritual practices. Our spiritual beliefs define what we respect, what we love—and what we ultimately perceive as our highest values. For a feminist, or for any woman, to perpetuate a patriarchal religion and to worship a male god is for her to deify her oppression” [emphasis mine]. This is powerful stuff, the impact of which cannot be denied or ignored. The symbolic value of ritual is extremely important as well. To many women traditional religious rituals and symbols have lost meaning and feel hollow or emotionless. I feel that women’s spirituality rituals bring heart, soul, and passion back to what has become rote in modern practice. Women’s rituals usually honor women’s bodies and women’s feelings and the phases of a woman’s life. They also typically use feminine images of divinity and Goddess language and imagery, which is a powerful antidote to the patriarchal culture in which we live. While on the surface or from afar, a woman’s ritual may seem like an innocently simple affair, in the context of patriarchy it is a radical and subversive act and statement for change.

via Do Women’s Circles Actually Matter? By Molly Remer | Feminism and Religion.

Categories: feminism, feminist thealogy, spirituality, thealogy, womanspirit, women's circle | 2 Comments

Sabbath: Wild Singing

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Molly

“It is that holy poetry and singing we are after. We want powerful words and songs that can be heard underwater and over land. It is the wild singing we are after, our chance to use the wild language we are learning by heart under the sea. When a woman speaks her truth, fires up her intention and feeling, staying tight with the instinctive nature, she is singing, she is living in the wild breath-stream of the soul. To live this way is a cycle in itself, one meant to go on, go on, go on.”

– Clarissa Pinkola Estes

“I want to live darkly and richly in my femaleness.”

–Anais Nin

Categories: nature, quotes, sabbath, spirituality, theapoetics, womanspirit | Leave a comment

Womanrunes: The Sun

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Molly

Womanrunes: The Sun. Rune of Healing. Rejuvenation, Recreation, Play, Radiance.

When you draw this stone, you know the time has come to be healed. Not healing as in forgetting, or in letting go, but in accepting, opening, changing, and growing. An integration of difficult changes you may have experienced in life. Healing may be physical, it may be emotional, it may be spiritual, it may be relational. Consider in which ways you need healing and rejuvenation. In interpersonal relationships? Physical health? Emotional well-being? Mental health? In your relationship with yourself? In your relationship with your body and with the earth?

Healing is both possible in all there is and available, sourced, through all there is. Healing comes in sharing silences, and sharing stories, and in sharing songs. Healing comes in creation, in offering to others, in opening your heart to the circle with women, in silence with another, in connection with your partner. It is also found in being playful; laughing together. This stone also reminds us that trying again is always worthwhile. Draw upon the resources of the earth. Draw upon the resources of your sister. Draw upon the resources of your own heart. And, in quiet spaces and laughing faces, you will be healed.

Yesterday, as I was getting ready to set up the altar for our women’s ritual/retreat, I decided to draw my womanrune for the day. I drew it as I was looking at the altar space and thinking about how to make it a “healing altar,” to bring the energy of renewal in for my mom who gave so much of herself during my grandma’s dying process. I drew the stone and saw the sun on it and immediately knew it was a “healing” rune and it felt like a “blessing” upon this retreat. I was also struggling with a crisis of confidence because several people cancelled at the last moment and the night before I’d been feeling like I shouldn’t bother trying to do this kind of thing any more. I explained to my husband that each time I I plan a retreat I really feel like I’m offering a “gift” to my friends–so, when people don’t come, it is like they are saying, “take that back, we don’t want it!” There is a tenderness and a vulnerability to trying to serve my community in this way. After drawing the womanrune, I then went on a divination feeding frenzy and drew cards from all of my different decks! They were all remarkably connected and had good insights to share about “surrender” and letting things flow and also about new beginnings and new projects, but the best was the Seven of Wands from the Motherpeace Tarot deck which opened with:

“The priestess is challenged by her group…

…anxiety, doubt, and fear may be clouding her ability to stand up for herself…”

This retreat was a combination of rituals. We had a Maiden turning 12 and so we had a coming of age ritual for her. My mom is turning 60 this month and so it was also a surprise birthday ritual for her with an emphasis on healing. We also had a tea ceremony, a yoga practice, and a guided meditation.

My mom went through a lot in the final stages of my grandma’s life. She born witness to her mother’s final journey and it was really, really hard, but she did it. I wanted to hold this ritual for her so she might know that we see her. She offered a deep gift of love and we came together in this space because we wanted to help her rest and restore and to give her back some of the care she shared so graciously with her mom. After she was seated with flowers in her hair and her feet in a footbath, I offered her the body blessing of renewal I wrote for her:

Gratitude body blessing

Head

May your mind be blessed, so that you may be at peace that you were enough.

Eyes

May your eyes be blessed, you saw her through.

Nose

May your nose be blessed, breathe easy now.

Lips

May your lips be blessed, you spoke with love.

Chest

May your heart be blessed, you have loved and been loved.

Hands

May your hands be blessed, you have reached out when you were needed.

Belly/womb area

May your center be blessed, so that you may honor all you have created.

Feet

May your feet be blessed, so that you may continue to walk your own true path, knowing that you do not walk alone—there are those that support and care for you. You do not walk alone.

My mama!

Aromatherapy footbath for maiden!

Triple Goddess cord that I braided for the Maiden to step over as a symbolic threshold into womanhood. I wrote a blessing that goes with it and will post that in a separate post in the future, hopefully.

This interesting, unidentified bone was sitting right in the middle of my path on the way down to the woods shortly before our ritual.

My toddler went with me to bless the ritual items and yelled and complained the whole time. My nine year old was also yelling out the door at me, “you have NINE MINUTES left, Mom! Mooooooom!!!! NINE MINUTES.” I kept going anyway. Such is the mamapriestess life.

—

Update: this project evolved into a real book!

The first post in my Womanrunes series is available here. The runes and the names of them come from Shekhinah Mountainwater’s Womanrunes system for which there are no written interpretations available other than the name and one word meanings. I’m engaging in a semi-daily practice of drawing one and then going down to the woods with it to see what it “tells” me–basically, creating what I wish I had, which is a more developed interpretation of the meaning of each womanrunestone.