The Goddess Sessions - why?

The Goddess Sessions were the monthly meetings I used to run with friends years ago. Initially, we had devised these 'sessions' as our own way to re-connect with the Divine Feminine power in us through a variety of logical as well as intuitive methods: from life coaching to shamanic healing practices, from counselling to magical rituals at sacred sites across the country.

We immediately realised that the Goddess Sessions were a wonderful arena in which we could reach out for our fullest potential through the magnifying power of shared consciousness and ritual. Magic, fun and imagination punctuated our 'sessions' from the beginning. As well as a respect for the sacredness of nature, the timelessness of ancient knowledge.... and a highly developed sense of style! We set out to achieve various goals... and many were reached! One of our aims was to share the 'format' of our sessions with a broader audience in order to expand the energy: we believe that like attracts like.

Eventually, we opened our 'circle' of two to a number of like-minded, spiritually inclined female friends. As a group we would meet on the first Monday of each month, to support each other as we walk on the Path of the Goddess. We all came with dreams and ambitions, experience and knowledge... as well as issues to resolve and obstacles to remove! Now the Goddess Sessions have become an established social feature in many of my friends' lives, and these meetings can be potentially transferred to social networks such as Facebook (watch this space).

Let me outline a couple of important concepts behind the idea of the Goddess Sessions.

WHO IS THEGODDESS?

In the olden days, before the development of rationality and the advent of the Male God, the Great Goddess ruled the minds and heartsof humanity with her reign of magic, intuition and instinct. Now things are different: logic has established itself as the best thinking method, while imagination is frowned upon by the powers that be. In recent times, the struggle between the Goddess of the Ancient Ways of the Earth and the horrors of the modern world with its need for control and lust for fear-based power is, more than ever, becoming magnified.


The following quotes by Daniel Jacob - received years ago from the Reconnections - (http://www.reconnections.net) explain female power vis-a-vis male power in relation to its impact on the individual and on society, and its possible future implications on the planet at large.

"Femalecontrol is not superior to Male control. It's just different,that's all. It moves through the body in unique neuralpathways. Women striving to gain control (in society) is simplyanother reaction to outward circumstance. Though it has sometemporary cathartic value for them, it is really the softening of malepride and aggression that could finally turn the tide of our planet. The drawback of control, whether it is masculine (overt) orfeminine (covert) is the fact that it requires the controller tobe deliberate in his or her methods. After all, if YOU are theone at the wheel of the car, then it is YOU who must decide. And, tobecome deliberate is to de-liberate yourself from the joy of being achild, of being free, of being receptive rather than the Initiatorall the time.

[...]

The Goddess Religions were founded upon many [...] hidden elements [...]: nature, her cycles, looking at theworld from the inside out. The power of the Goddess rests, not merely in hermastery over nature, but also in her deep knowledge of what motivates andstimulates the heart of humanity--what makes it glow, and what keeps it healthyand strong. Is it any wonder that heart disease is a major killer in yourworld today? When the pillars of Her Temples were knocked down, a gooddeal more than a religion was lost.

[...]

The Divine Feminine is re-establishing Herrelationship to the Masculine Dominance that currently fills that planet. What will shine forth in humans, on a small scale, is but a faint glimmer ofthe bigger picture, which is now playing itself out in a whole host ofways.

A grand SPLIT once occurred, between two guidingconcepts, within the Pantheon of Archetypal Being--a split that has affectedhumanity in grave ways. The God/Goddess Rift is reaching its crescendo,and resolution of these conflicts is now close at hand. The Power of ONENESS(integration) is up to us. Meanwhile, all can see the resistance toit playing out in wars, monetary struggles, religious clashes, and many otherarenas in modern culture. And many of us are tired.

The Temples of the Goddess, which some historiansoft referred to as "Houses of Prostitution," were designed ashospitals for the body and soul. They were a place where men and womencould retire--set in elegant and holy energy--to explore the depths of who andwhat they were. In Pagan Society, there was no rift between Spiritualityand Sex. Both were seen as true and vital forces, dancing in beautifulsymmetry."


Perhaps this can be seen as an idealised interpretation of the old Goddess Ways. But perhaps it is not. Perhaps I'm over-romanticising the past and hoping for a future that will never be. But perhaps I am not. Yet the Goddess Flame is burning strongly in my heart these days. Once again, the Goddess is the choice I want to make. I want Her to guide me. I want to feel, not just think. I don't want to run away from my feelings as I'm often told to do. I want to tie pretty ribbons around them and make them so pretty that I'll find them irresistible, that the world will find them irresistible.

WHY THE GODDESS?

She is alive in so many of us ... waiting for that prince's kiss to wake her up ... over and over again ...




I am hungry for symbols: archetypes, totems, fairy tales... I want liminality, I don't need all that clarity ... I want the Goddess Ways to return, I want to understand life also through my heart, through myth, in the language of symbols that speak to the most ancient part of our brain, to our primitive memory, to our DNA.


What is your favourite fairytale? What is your totem? What archetype are you following? Do you know?


I will always love Peter Pan and Pinocchio, hold the butterfly as my proud totem and embody my archetype of the Lover even when the world tells me to do otherwise and my wounds come to the fore. I know no other way...


May all of our dreams come true...