Giving permission

There is something quite profound we can give each other that often we don’t even know we have made the gift. When one is living their life, as deeply sourced as they can, with all the juicy that flows comfortably through them, their actual presence becomes freeing. Their lives become the beacon, the gold standard, the possible. Just by being themselves we can perceive our own possibility.

This is the kind of freedom we can afford each other in the circle, that most of us have not met before. The kind of vulnerability that feels like it would be deeply dangerous… any where, let alone out loud in front of other women, those dangerous women, the ones that can rip one to shreds… yet, these are the women that can use their power, the Kali Sword of our word, our spoken out loud truth, to set us all free. When we give ourselves permission to sit in circle with the kind of dedication to truth that we are capable of. For perhaps some of the most damaging lies we tell, are the ones we tell ourselves.

Tis interesting to consider what we may need permission for, and yet our obedience is assured in many ways, due to the training we have endured to participate in our current cultures perception of approval, acceptance… to live the life that doesn’t make any one uncomfortable in theirs. To be easy, low maintenance, going with the flow… which is fine, till you can see the cliff that we are all about to “flow” over. Then, to be the one that says it out loud, what perhaps a whole lot of other people were thinking.

The role of the writer is not to say what we can all say, but [to say] what we are unable to say – Anais Nin

… this is the permission we can afford ourselves and in doing so, we make room for others to perceive it too, tis the power of the now, to say it as we see it. To get as deeply comfortable with what is, what truly is going on, thus be able to shift and change what is possible in our own lives.

May your life, lived fully, as whole as possible, as real as possible, for you, here and now… to be what you choose.. or not..

I give you permission to share in these comments… what real and whole may be for you, for it is different for us all.

Finding the worth… when we are told there is none.

Mama is an abundant state. Being with our Earth, our natural Earth, an overflowing cornucopia of goodness, a type of abundance that feeds everyone, freely… That’s the thing about Love, tis given freely or not at all. To be with the Earth is to be with Love. To find worth there, deep sustaining worth in and of the Earth, is to feel that love. If there is no worth, no value… where is the Love?

I have quested for the worth of Woman most of my adult life. The worth of being ALL that we are, reaching deep into our nature, and finding that we are connected to our blessed Earth in such a core way, such a profoundly beautiful way… tis just that all this noise has us forget who we are, what we are made of, where we actually live. All these song and dance routines outside of self that seem to consume our attention, our time, our energy… they are not why we are here… to make more shit that we don’t need, consume more excitement than our calorie controlled intellect can possibly process, in fact all we have done with this noise is create a sort of barrier around us. A dampening field that has us numb to the real value-able parts of our loving Earth.

Perhaps if we stopped, let go, breathed the deep breath, heaved the big sigh… the one for those that are fed up, over all the BS and just wants to go home now. Turn from the noise of it all, turn off the telly, burn the paper, switch off the radio… even try putting you smart phone in the bread box for 2 hours… then just get out there… into Her, feel the earth beneath you, the sun above, the wind and water moving through everything… You are the centre of the Circle… every where you go… the elements, the directions, are just waiting for you to acknowledge them, respect them, find value and worth in knowing you are a part of these primary elements of life. As women, we have a belly full of worth, a profound part of this dance of life moving through us each cycle… do we know this worth?

May today be the day you find real worth in being a Woman. May today be the day you find real worth in the Women around you. For me, this is my work, my coalface…

Sharing Blood Space…

I am so excited to hear this morning that the Michelle Buggy’s project has been funded! Please, continue to fund the project, as the more women/artists that line the edges of this delicious Red Tepee the better!!

I love that as part of making this dream a reality she created this beautiful little felt red tent with her children. An incredible inspiration for us all making manifest from our hearts to the real thing outside of ourselves, with our children part of said creating!

I love this project for many reasons. The first is the tepee space itself, for anyone that hasn’t stepped into a tepee before, it is just delicious. You really feel like you have stepped into another world, and it holds you there quite gently, away from all else.

The next would be the art… expression, deep blood expression that truly needs to be shared, from the core depths of our bloodmind, our bleeding space that we enter when we truly dissolve and allow that blood to flow through us, out into the world in a such a way as to touch, inspire and give permission to other women to travel here, to the honest blood lands where we are doing no wrong, committing no treason, to turn within and source ourselves thus… Blood Art is what I call a Howl Back, an offering made to the world that feels so good to give that you wish only to give it again, and when you do, the feedback is so powerfully good as to open to even deeper expressions, allowing even more women to know and share their sacred flow.

Then there would be the bit where this is intended to be used to share with young women, that they may have some image, some moment where their arriving blood is a good, strong and loving experience to enjoy! I truly look forward to inviting this powerful blood space down here to East Gippsland that we may share it with the young women of this area!

Viva la Love of the Blood Space!

 

In the Company of women.

The Amazing Ebony Kate … http://ebonykate.zenfolio.com/

To share the company of women, only women, just for a while… tis a blessed thing. What we can afford each other in this moment, where we share what it feels like to be a woman, in ourselves, in our worlds… Sometimes it’s about men, but mostly it’s about how we feel about other things… life, death, sex, children, mothers… Veet hair removal gel for men comments on Amazon…  we were going to do readings for each other, but that didn’t happen, even though there were about a dozen sets of cards on the table, we didn’t need them to start any conversations, open us up to what was going on within. Seems we have found that delicious space to trust each other, where we just need to be together and it starts to flow, the words, the rarely spoken words of self, safe in the “cone of silence” that is the agreement to keep each others secrets. To just hear each other without judgement…. YUM, I truly Love the Company of women! May you know the Delicious state that it is to be held thus beautiful woman.

OH, and the Food…!!

This Sweet Black Earth Lodge.

 

The Grandmother lodge site, just the edges defined, the hole dug.

I have been promising a real description of the Black Earth Lodge… and here it is.

I hope that most people reading this post have attended at least one sweat lodge in their lives, if not SOTEMS, a wonderful organisation, is a powerful place to get to experience a sweat lodge at CERES on a regular basis, both mixed lodge and men’s and women’s lodges.  I am writing with an assumption that you have been to a sweat lodge, if not, there is descriptions of the experience here. 

Ever since I moved out to the Farm, I knew I was to build a lodge… but I was unsure if I was to be delivering full sweat ceremony, it didn’t feel like I was to be doing so. I even went to a dear Shaman sister to ask if she could assist in my training to be able to pour lodge, and together we recognised that what was to be built was not the most traditional of lodges… which being that I am not the most traditional of shaman’s is probably why.

Then, during a deep blood about 6-8 months ago I found an option I had never heard of before, but feels amazing. Here is the theory; there is profound alchemy in the movement between the elements that are in the lodge, between the earth the air the fire and the water, deep spirit is accessed. The intensity of the heat, the dedication of self to keep breathing through the heat, allowing all else to fall away, is part of the journey.

The Sweet Black Earth Lodge is still an alchemic process, we are still in strong relations with the earth the air the fire and the water, tis the configuration that is fundamentally different.

Instead of heating the rocks for the centre of the Grandmother lodge, we heat loose black earth. As it is moved from the fire to the lodge in a wooden yoni shaped vessel, we are taken deep into the belly of Her. Softly. As we are all placed in the dark lodge as we would a sweat lodge, we rest with our feet in the centre, in the hole, and the blessed black earth arrives to bury our feet. Gently filling in around our feet with this warm earth, the soft warm earth. Allowing ourselves to sink further in as the darkness consumes us all. Sinking deep within, letting it all go, allowing oneself to die, unto themselves.

In lots of ways this is a very familiar place for me and my blood practices, tis the process really of bleeding and I deeply look forward to entering the lodge as I next bleed as it will be finally ready. Perhaps it is the invitation to my man, to join me in this sweet black earth lodge that will be the most profound. My feeling is that I will be able to share just a small taste of the descent that is bleeding, the surrendering that is slipping off this mortal coil for but an instant, an hour or however long it takes for the earth to go cold, and the return begins.

Please, I would really be honoured if you would share what this theory feels like to you…? Would you join me in the deep dark sweet black earth?

Valuing the Female Experience

How do we value something that is not considered value-able by our culture? How do we make worthy of our attention whole sections of ourselves that this consuming culture considers worthless… primarily because no one can sell it to you…

The Female Experience… a vast and mostly uncharted lands deep within every woman walking around… that would be over three and a half billion perceptions of the inner landscape… and then, when you consider that every man is walking about with his very own Anima that makes for over seven billion versions of the Female Experience.

There was  a time in our race’s past where we honoured women, the blood, birthing, becoming crone… we were in profound relations with the Earth and all her bounty. We understood the healing within so much of her plants, we were in relations with Her cycles… then things changed. This account, Herstory by Jane Hardwicke Collings, helps us put it into context, understand that this is where we have been, what has happened, and perhaps what we can do from here.

Valuing the Female Experience… making room, space, time, attention… upon that which is inherently of the power from within, the feminine feeling nature capable of ALL human beings, but mostly women are biologically hooked into the source, if  indeed they haven’t plugged up or medicated down. I don’t want to make any woman wrong for doing so, but the impetus  to do so, to shut off our Female Experience, can be related to the part of us that would just conform, do what most people expect. Same for the menfolk, just ignore that desire to nurture your own children, shut of the feeling part of your being whilst you directly negatively effect the environs, for dammit, there is money on the line.

Valuing… finding worth…. this is part of the key, to truly understand our inner landscapes, find peace and power within our stillness and our deeply guided action. How do we make space, create time, open our lives to this part of ourselves?

Turn off the noise. I mean ALL of the noise, ALL of the broadcasting noise that will tell what to value, how you should be acting, what you must be purchasing if you are a “good… mother, wife, woman, father, husband, man…”  Don’t be fearful of not knowing when the next world war is about to start, I am sure someone will tell you.

In the silence that will ensue, insert quiet time. Instead of having emotionally engaging one sided conversations with the characters in the soap opera, try having an emotionally engaging conversation with those that mean something in your life… about how you feel, how they feel, about how feelings are important, about how to make more room for feelings in your lives.  Perhaps there are sisters in your world you could set up circle with, menfolk that would be open to building some space together?

Essentially, this current culture is not going to make this happen for you. YOU will need to claim the space to value your Female Experience. Please Do.

The next StarFire and Harnessing the Fertile force will be held both up in the hills at Selby, and at CERES too, please join me in making some power-filled space to honour the Female Experience.

The Returning…

Temple of the Blood Menstrual Meditation CD is a powerful part of the education that is StarFire.

Ok, so that’s 2 and a bit weeks since we all shared some delicious time together… Who else is feeling it’s almost like a dream? So far from where we one is now? I’ve been talking with people about what I experienced.  I’ve been sharing with people what it was like to walk with so many women. How I noted that with all those women there, just us women, and why we were there, it was interesting that I saw not one drink, smelt not one funky cigarette… No one was there to get out of it, we were there to get ALL the way IN to it. That was a powerful intent to share with so many others.

When ever I have entered a circle, when I have cast it and called the edges forth so that I can slip in between the veils, beyond this time and space to where the magicks live, I have had a reason to go. And Seven Sister’s circle was no different. I had a very real and important reason… To share what I know to be real… to open and bring forth an opportunity for other women to taste the power and wisdom found in the belly of the blood, the blessed beauty of a circle of women.

When one returns from a journey within, tis wise to make something real from it… otherwise it can get lost like a dream. This is me making it real…

I have an invitation to extend… There will be aStarFire and a Harnessing the Fertile Force held in both Selby Community House and in Melbourne, at CERES.

They are open to any woman, even if you are no longer bleeding there is still wealth here. Very open to our young sisters along side their mothers, although not dedicated to that space. We will be holding these three very power-filled days of profound menstrual education over 6 weeks, fortnightly, so that you can take it in, go away, feel it through, come on back and take a deeper swig of the juicy Mama loving belly succour that is my blood work, my passion, my offerings.

So, the details? Just in the middle of this page.

May your Return be treating you well… May you make something real from what you felt and shared!

Blessed BE on this Delicious Samhain

Tap your Shoes together Three times!

 

Red Slippers you can Make?

There’s no place like home, there’s no place… you get the story… the one where the power to take ourselves home has always been there, within us… and it IS.  So, for ALL of us that felt like “home” at Seven Sisters Festival, please remember, that home, lives within.

Integrating back into our lives, after a big opening, can be a bit hard… how does one fit back into such a small place? There are all sorts of theories,  from “make your world bigger” to, “don’t try and fit”…or “let all that you know dissolve, that you may start afresh with all this new found self!”. We do it after Confest, we do it after summer, we take all this open self and try an put it into a closed system… one that is stable and quite fine thank you… well, what every body knows of you… complete with all the agreements you made to keep the status quo… but, if I may, part of what has opened you is that the status quo is far from serving you, and/or the earth.

It’s not a throw away line, to truly wish you know yourself held in circle, because I do… Truly wish for EVERY woman to know themselves held in circle, like the ones we all felt at Seven Sisters. Can we imagine that? Women everywhere with a core self intact, heard, held and seen on a regular basis… WOW, that would be awesome. That is what I call women empowered.

If there was ever an impetus to create circle, it is this longing for what we just touched, the sisterhood that touched us. I know I am not waiting for a whole year to sup from that chalice again! By being in my circle, indeed bringing to my circle what I felt during the Seven Sisters Festival, I am held open, safe in my openess.

So, make  your list, set a date, offer the space… allow yourselves to drop deep down into the mama within, the womb of earth. Create a safe circle, make it confidential, keep it respectful, honour yourselves and each other. Be kind. Step in and surrender to your circle of sisters… and just like that, three taps of your shoes together, and your home!

 

http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/knitting/accessory/143-one-skein-sweetheart-slippers/1212  To make those lovely slippers above!

Creating Sisterhood Circle…

So, once we have the desire to live with circle in our lives, to share with women, how do we build that?  This is this simple, just begin. Sit down with a cup of tea and feel it out… write a list of the women that you love and admire, women that you trust, and even if there is only 4 women on that list, start it anyways! It will grow. Invite these women to your dreaming, ask them to see the bounty and beauty of being held in circle. Enrolling your women to the vision, for bringing a circle to life is all about holding open the space. Drawing women to it and allowing it to stay. Using just one’s own lounge room, and sharing the hosting around makes for an opportunity to be with even deeper, although the idea of having one at our own place can feel a little daunting but can become special as we make room for women that we adore.

Remember that you are building a vessel, a circle. Like any partnership or agreement between people, there needs to be edges to the vessel, the decisions of “this is what it is”, “this is what it’s not”. Now some of these will be just because of who you are, and how you live, so probably wont even need saying out loud. Some of these parameters you may find are best left to decide till there is a mass of you, till you have a sense of how many are willing to commit to the process, the creation and then maintaining of the circle. Once you have decided to open it, you may find that you have some very clear intents that you wish to explore, and that is what you are doing here, inviting others to come with you to share those emotional realms that most don’t make the time to explore, or even acknowledge.

Once you have a quorum, a core of women in the center, may I suggest a code, a creed, a written expression of who you are, what you are committed to and how you want to do that.  Having a drafting process, to make sure your words are deeply useful, and then building a beautiful copy that you all in pride of place in your homes, makes for a very strong manifesting of EXACTLY what you collectively want. A powerful expression of what women can achieve together when they put down the swords and shields.

In time you may wish to hold a more open space, an invitation to the Red Tent. Building a big beautiful sister space, like the one in the picture is a dream of mine soon to be realised, and the notions of the Red Tent are deepening, with a whole movement unfolding beautifully…it is incredibly inspiring!

But please, if I may, begin with a circle. Give yourself and your sisters the time you ALL deserve to hold gently your hearts and lives in the soft gentle glow of a candle, of shared tears and the many warm hugs. We deserve this beautiful woman, we all deserve to be heard, held and seen in our true selves.

Please use the comments to this post, to share what is in the way, what is stopping you? Why can’t you have circle… when we say it out aloud, sometimes we can really see these obstacles for what they are… When circle is so juicy good, why would we not?

Safety in the sisterhood…?

I didn’t meet my first heart sister till I was 23. She was the first woman to help me feel that women were safe. Up until then, women were dangerous. When I was 12, I had a double D cup size, it was hard to be a 12 year old. Attention from young and older men that I didn’t know what to do with and a hostility from other young and older women that had nothing to do with me. I had a few good mates in high school, the misfits, the others that didn’t fit in, but all we had was our shared outcast status.

In lots of ways, that assisted me to live a fairly sovereign life, holding very little value to any one outside of me. A fairly alone existence, I had no idea how much I was missing out on. When my first sister held space open for me, with me, with her, I began the longest love affair of my life, the love of being a woman, with women. Being a Cancerian (and a young mum), I am very good at the mothering of others, but the place of being with, all equal and everything was what I was to learn to share, to be with, to enjoy deeply.

Sisterhood is a very very BIG word. One for the offering of another state between women, beyond that constant place of competition, where every other woman is a threat to the man you have or the man you want.  On the other side of comparison, the constant diatribe of who is prettier/thinner/taller/smarter/richer… than me? When we put down the swords of competition, and the shields of comparison, we have a chance to truly be with those incredible moments of being a woman with women.

In the picture I am sitting in circle with women from the Seven Sisters gathering last year. We are in a very safe space, a delicious tipi, sharing some deeply powerful parts of womanhood. I am eternally grateful for sharing this circle and many many others. I know that it takes a whole lot of practice to put down the swords, usually our cutting words, and our shields, mostly our judgmental mind, but if I may… Well worth the effort!