Life as a gypsy... dreaming of roots.

This painting is evocative of me/my life, currently: Becoming more aware; nurturing the preciousness of life and self; listening to my intuition; seeing with my inner eye; focusing on my path ahead, while honoring my own voice of wisdom. L.W.
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The Triple Goddess by Bonny Hut

Life is in flux. Again. Changes are afoot. 

Are you sensing change, too? 

Are your deepest (or oldest) feelings surfacing? 

What are you embracing and letting go of?

Are you experiencing meaningful synchronicity? 

Have you noticed swiftly enlightened awareness? 

The profound in the seemingly simple? 

Me, too!

I can feel the soul deep, spiraling energies stirring, changing and moving me, my life and everything around me. I can feel a faint uncertain longing whispering 'Almost... ...almost'. I sense that something BIG is about to happen - that something magickal is about to be acknowledged, understood and joyfully lived! Something peaceful, something better; something long awaited. Something akin to bliss.

O! But, the unknown...

 

The unknown is simply that: unknown! Nothing to fear... yet,

It can feel scary when it dances you.

It feels unsettling when it awakens you. 

It may even stir the cauldron of your intuitive being 

in such a way that you surprise yourself.

Can you feel the rhythm?

Can you hear the beat?

 I can!

I am reminded:

Be true to yourself. You are strong. Hydrate, Nurture. Grow! Shine Your Soul Light. Forgive. Have Compassion. Trust.

Pay Attention. Believe. Listen. Speak with your authentic voice. Be daring. Follow the path with heart. Fly.

Though you and I know these truths, yes, and more besides, still we falter, doubt, and wonder... Confidentially,  I am not at all certain of anything in my life at the moment (including where I will be living after the 20th), yet, I do know that it is all going to be as magickal and helpful as I can imagine, and as beautiful and meaningful as I can manifest. I am choosing to live with courage, focused intention, and belief in myself! 

I am leaving what I know behind. I am following the path with heart. I am trusting my inner knowing. I am being divinely guided. I am believing in the beauty of my dreams.

I am setting off on my own.

I am walking away from what was, and is now past. I am reevaluating my life choices and core beliefs. I am facing life on my own terms. I am designing my daily life rituals. It has been a while since I have had my own private, quiet space ...a very long while. Living alone is my gift to myself. I welcome it as a time to focus and work without distraction; space to create, grow, write, garden and practice yoga. Room to meditate and reconnect with the sacred and with what matters most to me. I will be deciding how I truly want to live - Choosing: what strengthens and inspires, what nurtures and heals, what delights, what is meaningful and healthy, what is true to who I am and who I am becoming. This is what I am clearing space for - this is what I am starting this wild adventure in search of. This is where I step into the center of my being and allow what I find there to transform me into my new expression of SHE. I can feel the divine feminine passionately stretching within my body, mind and spirit. She longs for the freedom to speak, to act, and to be honored in new ways. Ways that respect and mirror Her authentic essence; Gaia, and the wild ways of woman. She is the phoenix that I shall become. She is the flames that will burn away the unnecessary and release the vital, enduring, soulful within my self. I seek roots, but She gives me wings!

Phoenix by Karen Salmansohn

The ways of woman and the ways of the Goddess are one, and the same. We flow and twist and turn and gracefully appear still when we move. We trust and allow and embrace as we think and feel. We echo ancient voices, speak truth, and communicate with clarity and wisdom. We are gentle and strong and passionate when we touch. We gather what is needed, what is helpful, what is healing and honest. We lovingly hold ourselves and others. We destroy and begin again with energies that have become tangled, chaotic, and are no longer useful for our holy purposes. We rest and allow ourselves to be rejuvenated by the elements of each season, by the phases of the moon. Within our womb space, we manifest and create all that we hold sacred, all that we desire to birth into being. This is our magick. This is our mystic unfolding. This is our time to blossom profusely. This is our time to remember and reclaim our self.

Though I will be offline during this holy process, I will return at the end of summer with magickal stories, hidden treasure, and wisdom found along the way. Indian summer will stretch her long arms and protect and preserve all that is precious, the rest will be set aflame. While I shake off the ashes I will witness Autumn claim and add them to her collection of dead, stolen leaves, damp soil and other things forgotten. In time, she will strip the roots bare and bury her dreams where heaven and earth meet. The sun will shine... and the last of the years wishes will remain briefly until wind or breath carries them away into the vast unknown. Darling, what do you wish for?

I am making wishes that I find my home 

before summer fades away.

 It won't be long before Autumn will make her nest in the earth...

Currently she is busy daydreaming, envisioning a quiet winter's rest. 

In the coming weeks:

 Consider how you might reevaluate your life, your thoughts, you dreams. Choose only that which feels true, nurturing, and wise. Honor who you are and who you are becoming as you walk your own path of beauty with ever deepening integrity and purpose. Take steps to realign yourself with your highest calling. This is not the time to let your dreams slip away unrealized.

Knowing ourselves and acting bravely is key to living a fulfilled, soulful, enlightened life. May we all be blessed as we embrace change. 

Lovingly,

It's Time

You can threaten a village wise woman with death and torture and she may say "jesus is lord" to survive, but you can never know what's really in her heart...that, I feel, is how the goddess survived centuries of history and hatred.   ― Dianne Sylvan

Long ago, all women were dreamers and healers.

Caroline Manière

We had a profound and conscious relationship with our beloved Mother. 
We knew magick, and how to work with Her natural forces: 

Earth, Air, Fire, Water. 

We heard Her voice. 

We felt Her wisdom. 

We channeled Her power.

We honored the cycle of life and death. 

We remembered from whence we came - Her womb. 

We embraced our hopes and envisioned mystery's unfolding dream.

We knew to where we must willingly return - Her tomb. 

We were fearless and saw the beautiful truth of our shadow self. 

We were part of the precious and fragile fabric of life. 

We were cognizant of the gifts given to us.

Caroline Manière

We knew the cause of suffering. 

And, we found ways to alleviate pain and resistance.

We assisted the birthing process. 

We assisted the dying process.

We knew that both were holy purposed.


Yet, something went askew. 
We were silenced. Our bodies pillaged. Our wisdom denied. 
Our blood tainted. Our sexuality shamed. Our power feared. 
Our spirits wounded. Our dreams were shattered.

The Emperor - reversed
 representing domination,
excessive control.

As we attempted to gather the broken shards of who we are,

we learned to keep secrets. 

As we contrived to heal our disbelief, our severed memories, 

we learned to hide. 

As we struggled to regain what was stolen and lost at great cost,

we learned to pretend and acquiesce...

But in the hidden places within, nestled in eons of sorrow 
and secrets, sequestered in the dark unknown, 
we found our truth unharmed. 
We found our inner voice. We found our inner knowing. 
We discovered that we are stronger than ever before. 

One by one, we gather our power. 

Caroline Manière

Now, as we expand our consciousness, 
we reach beyond the realm of man and call to Spirit. 
SHE hears our prayers. 
SHE knows our voice, 
it has been on Her lips from the beginning. 
SHE has seen and born witness to our lifetimes 
being of service to mother earth, to mankind... 

SHE smiles as we dance with each season, 
just as our mother taught us. 
SHE beams at the way grandmother moon guides us 
to flow with Her cycles of change. 
SHE rejoices that we are learning to trust the rhythm 
of life, death, rest and rebirth.

Feminine Medicine by Caroline Manière

SHE calls us Daughters of the Earth and Sea and Sky.

SHE knows the reasons why we cry. 
SHE knows the reasons for all things. 

SHE holds us in Her sacred space, 
safe in the cosmic universe of LOVE.

SHE calls to us. 

SHE whispers to our secret heart, 
our soul being, and our intuitive mind.... 
SHE asks that we remember HER. 

SHE says:

 It is time to heal and dream again.

 Reclaim the feminine power that the masculine aspect 
of self has slain. Resurrect ME within yourself. 
All that lies dormant, is ready to be reborn through you.

Can you hear my whispers, daughter? 
Can you hear my voice?

May we all hear Her whispers to awaken.

May we all heed Her call to reclaim our divine feminine essence.

May we all remember who we are.

May we all honor from who we came and to whom we shall return.

Lovingly,

Leesa | The Gypsy Priestess

Reflecting the Goddess

Journal Notes:

All women are a reflection, 
a mirror of the Goddess. 

Remember, you are the Universe figuring itself out. 
So, of course you are identical to the female aspect of divinity.

— Robin Rumi

I know myself to be ONE with the GODDESS.

Yet, it both frightens and empowers me to think that I AM the Universe figuring itself out. How terrifying this enormity of responsibility!  How wonderful this infinite and vastly creative, unknown realm of possibility...  

I know this unfathomable thought to be true; the way my thoughts and divine inspiration weave together creating this unspeakably beautiful fabric of life. The way I dance with energy and move between the veils... And the way I catch fleeting glimpses of unimaginable radiance amid the most mundane acts of being ... 

The mirror is revealed: How like the Moon there is hidden, a side of myself I have never fully seen, nor truly know, and even so, I intuitively and profoundly do as I effortlessly radiate its inner light! 

When I embody the Goddess, I feel Her presence. I hear Her words of wisdom so clearly. In these moments I am stronger, wiser, and more graceful communing with the energies surrounding me. 

Other times, when I am heavy in my woman soul; lost in the tangible softness of this flesh and blood and bone body, I may become overwhelmed. Feeling so weary and weak and fearful of the unknown, I ache with longing to be held in higher consciousness, in Truth and in LOVE. I wait to hear whispered words that would comfort and allow me to rest in the timelessness of peaceful space. I also wait for inner guidance to show me vistas beyond my knowing.

These dual aspects of my essence constantly breathe me in, and breath me out... Entering and letting go of consciousness - I forever keep rhythm with Her cosmic heartbeat. 

There is a sacredness in the most ordinary things when I realize how interwoven and entangled, how forever whole and ONE I am with She Who Is All Things. She is both the womb and the tomb... She is the Source of constant change, revitalization, regrowth, renewal and rebirth. She is the holy cycle of life, death, rest and rebirth; and so am I. 

Her wisdom bids me to follow the sacred flow. To let go and allow Her essence to radiate in me. To be as the moon basking in Her light for a time, and then, for a time glowing as if lit from within.

In moments of clarity and certain knowing, I am profoundly grateful to be alive; to be walking this path of beauty with the Goddess whom I mirror in all ways.

Aren't you? 

Key Suggestion:

Reflect upon the ways in which you mirror the Goddess, and with sacred intentions consider how powerful, beautiful, wise and wonderful you truly are!

She Who is Complete in Herself

There are some things that cannot be spoken. 

These things are carried on the dark wings of wisdom.

I came across this quote, today:

Her womb from her body. Separation. Her clitoris from her vulva. Cleaving. Desire from her body. We were told that bodies rising to heaven lose their vulvas, their ovaries, wombs; that her body in resurrection becomes a male body.
― Susan Griffin, Women and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her

As I read those words, I thought: 

Who told us this is so?

My spirit cried out: 
That cannot be true! Why should a female body, upon rising from this earth, become a male body?

I have not heard of this theory, before. Have you? But there have been claims always which infer that being male is far superior to being female. This type of patriarchal thinking has waged war against the female and her body for ages... 

Countless daughters of Mother Earth have had our wombs taken and our clitoris cut from our bodies. Many spend our entire lives ignoring or silencing our desires, shaming our bodies, hiding our power; all because we have been told that being born female comes with inherent sin, and therefore, we are tainted, worthless or unworthy, that we should forget the carnal pleasure of our woman bodies and focus on attaining holiness, so we can become 'men'? 'there' (in heaven)?? 

Oh no! This will never do! 

The goddess is not an out-there force among the far stars or beyond death, but is here and now and living.
― Diane Stein, The Women's Spirituality Book

The holy, the sacred, the divine, resides within us now. We are alive, here, upon our beloved mothers living body. And, therefore, with holy ritual, with sacred intent, and with divine grace, shouldn't we fully live here now, honoring the divine feminine form of our own beloved flesh, and blood, and bone bodies? 

Sister, we must remember that we are in these sacred, beautiful, soft, flawed, precious, magickal, life giving bodies here and now. Our bodies are holy temples. We are earthy, sexual, sensual, divinely feminine creatures. Women.

We are the daughters of She Who is Complete in Herself. We are the daughters of the Earth, the Sea, the Sky. Heaven is not apart from us. All of creation resides within our being. We are composed of stardust, water and the salts and the minerals of the earth!

Our womb is our spiritual cauldron, where all things are created, where all things are possible. Our clitoris is a blessed gift; pleasure its only purpose. The desires of our body speak the language of our soul and sing us into being, into wholeness. We were born female. We are a reflection of the Goddess, Herself, in all Her many expressions. 

I do not think it less than miraculous that we are born with all the dream seeds (eggs), and more than we will ever need in our maiden ovaries. Each containing infinite possibility. Symbolically, this is as we are - Each of us a tiny, but powerful part of the Goddess; the gift of life, capable of creation.

Frances MacDonald MacNair (1873–1921)

To deny us of our female bodies is sacrilege.
To strip us of being, blasphemous. 


My prayer:

Divine Mother of us all,

In this moment, and forever more, I give thanks for this truth. I disregard what I may have been told or still unconsciously believe, which would deny or destroy my goddess essence. I am grateful for my uniquely perfect, (no matter what flaws) woman body. I see Your divine light, grace, strength and beauty in myself. 

Within me, You live. 

Within me, You love. 

Within me, You create.

I am You and You are me. 

Selah  So it is.

Namaste

The goddess in me honors the goddess in you.

Resources:
Daughters of Eve
Daughters of Eve is a non profit organisation that works to protect girls and young women who are at risk from female genital mutilation (FGM).

Glossary:

Selah means stop and listen.

Divine Women

RESOURCE: Film

BBC Documentary: When God Was a Girl

DIVINE WOMEN

by Historian Bettany Hughes

Watch the Trailer

Watch the Series.