The Goddess of Willendorf

Discarding the Scientific World View

A Weblog for Our Mother God — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:38:13 +0000

A reader writes: In your Notes on Descartes, Annalinde Matichei says:

there is no possible step beyond the cogito ergo sum in the absence of the traditional understanding of Pure Intellect. Logically and legitimately, empirical thought stops right there and can go no further.

My question is, is Miss Matichei seriously suggesting that the entire empirical (ie scientific) method should be discarded? is she unaware of the huge scientific discoveries that have transformed the world we live in that are all the results of this method? Annalinde Matichei replies: I was not and am not suggesting that the empirical method should be discarded. I am fully aware that this method has yielded excellent results in the technical sphere. What I was saying was that the attempt to regard empiricism as First Philosophy (which is what Descartes did and the world following him continues to do) is fundamentally dishonest. And it is. To say - there is clearly before us a self-consistent system (the physical world) and by restricting us to the consideration of that system from within, we can build predictive models that allow us to achieve technical results is wholly legitimate and proper. To attempt to extrapolate beyond this and claim some "ontological" value for this predictive/technical model is illegitimate and has been based from the beginning on unclear thinking at best and outright intellectual fraud (very much of the time) at worst. Should you discard the "scientific method"? No. Should you discard the "scientific world-view". Absolutely. It is the only valid intellectual course to take. That the modern West has to big an emotional investment in the "scientific world-view" to discard it, I fully understand. In that case it is stuck with a flawed and dishonest pseudo-mythic view of the world. And ideas do have consequences. A false and crude "First Philosophy" leads to a false and crude culture. And that is precisely what we see, degenerating by the day.

Descartes imagination and reality

A Weblog for Our Mother God — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 16:56:33 +0000

In the bourgeois materialist world shaped by Descartes, imagination and reality are regarded as very distinct. But in fact the modern world-outlook has no real criteria for judging between the two.

All about Moura

A Weblog for Our Mother God — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 07:37:50 +0000

Moura is the Thirteenth Month and the Fifth Season of the Sacred Year of Our Mother God. Learn all about it.

Blushing before Baldur

SiegfriedGoodfellow — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 02:49:00 +0000

Everyone blushes a bit at mention of Baldr, because even in the presence of his name, which alone carries the reputation (let alone his strong and bold and shining presence itself), living in an age of shame, one's best deeds themselves seem to shrink from what suddenly and obviously seems possible, what to say of those times one acquiesced to the worst ... It is not that Baldur holds us to an impossible ideal, for then he would be cruel to an incapable being, no, it is far worse than that. It is that in the presence even of his name we remember, at first dimly, and then ever more clearly, how sold down the river our own sense of possibility has become, and how much more we could be, not only for ourselves, but for the world, if we would dare to believe in the good inside of us and all things, and defend that for the treasure it is. Baldur defends that gold, the true gold, that treasure-ore that held up to the warmth of the sun, in truth and light, may slowly, gradually, beautifully shed its slag and come into its own ; and in his time here, held his sword high against any who would tarnish this process. Instead he escorted the gradual, steady, forward-looking and daring untarnishing of world, its progressive unfolding and blossoming into its treasure-nature. In his presence we feel, my God (O Bright and Boldest God!), how cravenly I have been before the world's cynicism, how far I have bowed before the idols of moral cowardice, because all that is commonly declared impossible in the human soul is, gasp and weep and pull oneself up to see, normal. It at least once was in the presence of such bravery, which boldened one, encouraging and coaxing one to dare the deep goodness within self and world, and raise the sword to match that high bar. So naturally, in the face of such uncommon confidence, such realized goodness never doubting, one feels some chagrin, even for whatever good one has eked.

But that feeling does not last long, because there is a gusto, not unlike his brother Thor's, but with a milder, even more grounded nature, that manifests as deep friendliness, a kindness that is anything but weak, that dispels shame as something untoward which prevents the will from better tending the good. Baldur is a friend for whom our excuses and hidings from our full potential, even in shame, mean little, for suddenly in that friendly glow, that knightly and powerful presence, all of the doubts and incriminations begin to melt before the inner sun glowing in everything, and one realizes, the sun in the sky (beloved Sol) is there to awaken that light within, and all one's power given up to fear is power wasted. How good it feels to rise up like a man (or woman), on one's feet, no longer craven, and come to one's full height, rather than negotiate the bogs with fools and cowards. Set the standard high, and dare it, and see how the common denominator may raise, however slowly, however asking for chivalrous sacrifice, in time. An embarrassment that is no more than the light reaching the shadows and dispelling cobwebs, he gently patiences, with a beautiful strength of benevolence in the face of newer resolve against the fallen lies of the world. Restored to that vision of could-be which is actually our original mandate, forgiveness follows the intent to set it right. For all ill is grounded ultimately in fear, which in a dangerous world of peril and opportunity may be understandable, but cowardice is the will bowing itself before fear as an idol, and that is beneath us, and to turn oneself into something less than one can be out of secret pledging to cowardice is a sin, a sin of senseless nonsense whose strength fades in the presence of Baldur. Such sin is simply unimportant before the light. Tend the light instead, Baldur says.

Cowards whisper slanders against Baldur, having betrayed their own inner grandeur, and caved to the petty and ugly aroused in this world, projecting their own weakness, hiding beneath a thin veil of grizzled bravado, onto him. But it must be remembered that in his day, a glance of his eyes was enough to ward off wolves, for in those mirrors, their own cowardice was unbearable before such light. And he was beloved, however begrudgingly, even amongst giants, for however grudging, even they could not deny that he never abused his power, always gave due what due was owed, his judgements fair and wise beyond reckoning, reminding the soul of more in that moment of judgement, which was itself spur and forgiveness all in one. His clemency was strong, a trait even the lowly were forced to admire. Not a hint of weakness. All things asked willingly gave themselves over to his protection, as they knew, from long memory, he had protected them.

Shed that cynicism like a snakeskin (ah, the coiling surface of Laufeysson's kin!), and simply let the self-scourge drop : there is more important work to do. There is light to be fostered in the world. Are you man enough? Are you strong enough? Are you brave enough? Take Baldur to heart, and you will be. You will be.

Cyclical time? Or Spiral Time?

A Weblog for Our Mother God — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:16:07 +0000

Cyclical time is known to be the traditional way of understanding history, as opposed to modern ideas of linear time - but in certain senses it is more accurate to speak of "spiral time".

Getting Your Good From Passed Love

SiegfriedGoodfellow — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 01:32:00 +0000

I want to encourage a little more rigor in the evaluation of passed relationships. It is mental and emotional laziness to focus solely on the sour, and to fail to adequately appreciate and assimilate the lessons we were gifted in the relationship. The Gods put us in situations which provide opportunities for growth and learning, and relationships are not to be evaluated in terms of their pleasures alone, but often in terms of the productivity gained by their challenges. That a relationship has proven unsustainable does not mean it was unproductive. It is likely the other person stretched you in new ways, and gave you eyes to see things in a way you never did before. If not, the fault may often lie in the mirror more than in the other.

If time with a person helped you to grow, if a genuine giving happened, gratitude is appropriate. You should honor one who has helped your growth, even if it was at times through difficult testing.

We go way too easy on ourselves in these regards, letting our duty slip, and our associates, steeped in the disposable culture, are accomplices cheering on our emotional laziness, as we are encouraged to "leave it all behind", that hallmark of American denial. Leave it all behind? That is no heathen value! Rather, we honor the past, and draw out its genuine fruits to weave them into the blossoming of the present!

I say this less to excoriate and more to bolster and edify, for when we are lazy, we do ourselves a disservice. Be fair in your evaluations and judgements. That is all Baldur requires, but it is required, and is a high bar to match. Do your bitching and whining and tantruming in the company of friends or in your own privacy, get it out of your system, then gird yourself up, pull up your suspenders, and take a hard look. Put aside the "Screw her/him" reflex for a moment and perform an inner inventory of what you have gained over the course of your relationship. What did that person add to your life? We know there was plenty of material for manuring as well, but that is not the focus of this self-searching. You're looking over a particular period of your life with the object of appreciating your wyrd, grasping the lessons and strengthenings that, intentionally or not, you received. Be honest, because you're cataloging your store of resources, and you will want to make sure you continue to nourish and invest in those resources, to make good on the gains you got for your troubles. To fail to do so is to insult self, ex-lover, the Gods, and the Norns. Not a very prudent move. (No, not with shades of some kind of supernatural punishment, but the allowing of the natural consequences of self impoverishment.)

Be fair, and give acknowledgement where due. Gripes have a way of accumulating and burying the good : excavate. You'll be surprised at what you uncover and had forgotten. Sure, it might be hard work. You might have to go through a whole range of emotions and reactions. Work it through. Let your soul process what has happened, and draw gain from hard lessons and free gifts.

If the relationship wasn't completely abusive (in which case it is appropriate to keep them outside your law), see if in time a friendship can be salvaged. Don't be swayed by the easy maxims of the disappointed and lazy who say, "It can't be done". Do your determined, persistent investigation before you come to that conclusion. In time, past lovers can make great friends. Get over the sting and the bite, and they may prove themselves tried and true. Romance may not ultimately have been the reason for drawing you together. A different kind of fruit, more mild perhaps but still sweet, may come of it. Why turn down potential fruit? A heathen dares the difficult, and looks the impossible in the eye and stares it down, with faith in Gods who know "it is only a matter of time, skill, and wits" until all giants are ground down on the mill and made to serve some useful purpose.

Live and love in that spirit.

Families? Or Tribes?

SiegfriedGoodfellow — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:35:00 +0000

I hate to burst anyone's bubble in nuclear family-worshipping America, but the family is not the primary social organization of Homo Sapiens. It is, rather, the band, and the tribe. In other words, Aristotle was right : man is the political animal, the animal that lives in the polis, the level of social organization that transcends the family and which requires complex interaction of people from different lineages.

This is really important to emphasize, because first of all, it represents actual social organization amongst our ancestors and everyone else on the planet, with the extended family clan-band, organized into local, clan-interacting tribes ; and secondly, and far more relevantly, because it was the fascists in the last century who were the big "family values" folks, with the Christian Right following closely in their footsteps.

No, I'm not telling you to hate your mother and father. Au contraire. Your mother and father are links in much wider chains. Pick up a textbook, for example, on Australian Aboriginal kin terminology, and realize that complexity in social organization is the particular genius of humanity, as humanity. Looked at in this anthropological way, Aristotle was correct, at one level, even though the "polis" as a literal burg or town is not the only way of creating this trans-family organization. The polis was, in many ways, an advance over agrarian ways of life, which for all their idylls, had many disadvantages. Anyone who has studied the agricultural revolution and the dislocations and cripplings this created for humanity, in addition to its advances, understands this, as important human elements lifted up into expression by the hunting-gathering way of life were left behind for more settled ways. Anyone who is not familiar with these studies had better come up to speed : let's get with it, folks! Mannaz is a critical rune, so catch yourself up with what scientific anthropology has discovered and compiled about our species. Moreover, the contradiction of agrarianism, with its settled mentality, stifles one of the most important energies relative to our spirituality : wod. In fact, many anthropologists believe that the pastoralist way of life was subsequent to agriculture, as a reaction to its oversettled ways, as people packed up with a few goats or sheep and allowed themselves to wander again. (Pastoralism also has its own contradictions. There is Fire and Ice in everything, and the key is to find the right balance.)

The disadvantages of the agricultural revolution are important to understand, because it is that revolution that ultimately generated the dynamic between the cities and the countryside, because cities are, in part, places that people flock to to escape from the boredom and dulling of their human potential to be found out on the farm and in plantations. (It's far more complex than this, and, I want to make this clear, farm life has a great deal to offer, particularly when a native nobility provides a microequivalent of some of the cultural advantages of the polis in their courts and halls.) Slavery is primarily a feature of agricultural peoples.

Any time the vast complexity of human potential is blunted by a social system, that social system is ultimately headed for revolution of some kind, even if that takes thousands of years, because there is an evolutionary imperative to developing all the gifts the Gods gave us. While it may be true that the Australian Aboriginals refined and developed our particular human talent for social complexity to a savant pitch, there is no doubt that the genius is common to us all. There is a yearning inside humans to reach out to their potential. This is why isolated family farms, cut off ages ago from larger tribal connections, will not satisfy everything in everyone, and why they will produce movement towards cultural centers where the possibilities for interaction are much greater. Tribal forms can provide many of these satisfactions without the need for literal cities, but the interactions and the satisfactions they provide must be present.

It may seem obvious to common sense that families are the basic unit from which the species reproduce and from which we have emerged, but reality is often counterintuitive to our common sense. In fact, a study of our closest biological relatives, the primates, indicates that reproduction happens within the context of the band, with male-female bonding a relatively transitory phenomenon, perhaps becoming perennial in some instances. The family as a coherent male-female pair with children exclusive to them is an emergence out of this matrix. The family is, therefore, not primary, but subtractive from the primary social matrix. We can see, therefore, that there is nothing wrong with families, as they provide certain kinds of satisfaction we enjoy, so long as they are not cut off from the larger band and tribal organizations.

This is evident in "home schooling", which has many perks to recommend it, but one of its drawbacks has often been an impoverishment of social contact amongst people so raised. (Not to mention that, let's face it, so much of this movement has simply become a way for regressive Christian Rights to resist coming into the 20th century : yes, I said the "20th" century, because they are a far distance from the 21st. Public schools, for all their imperialist indoctrination, and yes, that needs to be resisted, at least teach people the basic facts of modern life, and, more importantly, they provide (however messed up these may be at times) significant social contacts.) Don't think so? Talk to people who were raised in home schooling and then went to a real school, and what it's like to actually have friendship circles now, and how goddamned stifling a confining family life can be. (Readers familiar with my style will understand how dialectical I am, and that I push provocation to overcome rigid thinking at the same time the core legitimacy is affirmed ; I support home schooling, conditionally, and find it has many interesting possibilities to offer. Many succeed, although many don't, in overcoming these contradictions.)

If Aristotle is right --- and he is, albeit modified from an ethnological level, which shifts the terrain to kinship complexity, and corrected of its citystate-imperialism --- then emphasizing the family is just not going to do it, because, a) the human spirit reaches beyond this level of organization to something more complex, interesting, and satisfying, and b) it is not the evolutionary unit of human survival, and thus does not satisfy the requirements for social cohesion necessary to sustain us over eons of time.

Thus, it is the extended family (ie., the clan or kindred) and the theod which should be emphasized. No, and with all due respects to the lofty formality of the theodists, the theod doesn't need to be organized as an Anglo-Saxon tribal kingship, but a social contract of some kind between extended families is the idea. And, let's get more real : a theod is simply an organization corresponding to people who share the same language, and thus, it expands out to embrace the nation itself. (No, for Gods' sakes, I am not encouraging nationalism, but inter-national indigenism that takes up the human potential developed in the primal matrix and attempts to raise it to higher levels, without distorting its proportionality. So far, "civilization" has produced lopsided images ; which doesn't mean it won't, with some intelligence and democratic input, eventually succeed in raising things to a much higher level, in a way that corresponds to our innermost potential, and which doesn't distort the innate proportionalities of that potential.)

Put concretely : question your neolocal-supremacism. Look at Mexican families, for example, where children and grandchildren often live under the same roof as their parents, along with aunts and uncles. Those households are extended family households. In a certain sense, they are a collection of families as we understand them in the nuclear sense. And they offer many advantages. So : do you make fun of people who live with their parents, who live with their grandparents? Do you support and understand those who choose to affirm the extended family system, or do you automatically assume there is something wrong with those who do not choose neolocalism (the anthropological word for the situation -- a minority-choice in the history of humanity, by the way -- when people leave their parents' homes to go live on their own)?

Mannaz : the ways of humanity. They are complex, but ultimately satisfying to learn and to fulfill.

The feminine body is an expert in pleasure

awakeningwomen — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:42:34 +0000

Longing is the deepest design of the Universe.

awakeningwomen — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:50:54 +0000

Guest offering by Sukhvinder Sircar

The universe as we know it was at origin one unmanifest whole,
the remembrance of which lies deep in every particle of it.

The secret & spirit of evolution is embedded in this longing.
Longing is not a sign of incompletion. It can exist even in the most peaceful and settled souls.

It is the thread that connects one to source, one end of which is in your heart.
It is the remembrance as well as the compass.
By following this direction called longing, one unerringly heads back home.

This is not the time to abuse, neglect or ignore this light thread. Within it lies the secret of your evolution.
Speak to your longing, ask it and it will reveal to you your path and your greatest Self.
It will reveal to you who you really are.
It will lovingly show you how to become more of who you long to be.
This longing will stay with you till you finally achieve that which you long for.

Longing is god’s most compassionate way of keeping connection with you.
Who knows, is it you longing for God, or God longing for you?

Sukhvinder Sircar: is a Yogini sister in our 21 day Lakshmi Sadhana, she is a metaphysician, mystic, healer and transformation leader. She is deeply passionate about women’s work, and works in divine partnership with Shakti to bring forth the awakening. Her Joyous Woman! Workshops are divinely inspired. An accredited Process Facilitator with 18 years of work, she most ably creates a safe space for the participants, and through her process, leads you gently, powerfully & swiftly in your awakening & self-love. Transformation is a vulnerable process, as it means letting go of the familiar and comfortable. www.primecreator.org

On Wizards

SiegfriedGoodfellow — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:55:00 +0000

A wizard goes beneath and beyond. A wizard has penetrating sight, and sees through. A wizard assimilates and grasps learning(s) at a much deeper and less literal level than most. A wizard is comfortable with contradictions and riddles.

For these reasons, most people can't trust or understand wizards. They are strange to them. They may love them, if they feel their benefit, but they don't essentially "get" them. A wizard remains inscrutable.

It is a different kind of path, one that trusts dreams, one that reads at the dream level and thus experiences texts at a richer depth and breadth. Part scholar, part philosopher, part naturalist, part oneiromancer, part riddler, part poet, part necromancer, and part conjurer, they ponder, they posit, they interconnect their intuition and their intellect, coming to trust the wisdom of the former and the brilliant intensity of the latter, and the rich intergrowth between them. A wizard lingers after dreams in the dark and coming light, pausing before the day's demands to let the wisdom of dreams have at least its half-sway. The wizard has less certain knowledge than illuminating puzzles in which a deepening confidence develops, akin to knowledge. In fact, it is a kind of knowledge. A wizard often pores through books, surrounded by them, even immersed in them. Books layer the complexity, giving the mind grasping-points from which to bring up insights from the depth into articulation.

Most people who get involved in a belief system expect loyalty to it at its literal level, for that is what they grasp. A wizard grasps its wisdom and thus can enter into it with passion and erudition, and yet never be fully "of" it. Wizards have this mercurial quality of betweenness. They are thus suspect to those caught in literality and particularly superficiality. Their betweenness gives them a liminal quality that can evoke projection on the part of others regarding all their fears of liminal spaces, including traumas that have occurred in this space. The wizard must carefully sidestep these inevitable projections, never identify with them (ie be caught or caught up in their spell), and instead, allow each person to dispel their own bad enchantments in time. Needless to say, a wizard must aim at the highest integrity, willing even ascesis in its service, but all along with the savvy to remember that "no good deed goes unpunished", in the sense that that which people do not understand, they fear, and that which they fear, they actually misunderstand.

The wizard fails to conform not out of rebellion but out of a deeper loyalty and service to holy powers generally unrecognized, and as such, simply can't be bothered with much of the ordinary drivel. A wizard must be willing to intellectually explore dangerous places to gain knowledge. This "Faustian" imperative is balanced by its loyalty to the deep that keeps it attuned, rather than seeking the vainglory or manipulation of the surface-world. A wizard is a free thinker and a free spirit, whose thoughts can go anywhere, wandering the universe with the mind, even descending into the dark dales beneath the mountains to retrieve the mead absconded by monsters. The search is for wisdom, whose wells of bright, deep sadness refresh the world, and the wizard seeks to refresh the world through such conjuring.

Because of all this, the wizard must declare allegiance to powers deeper than those acknowledged by the usual loyalty-politics, which the wizard, however sympathetic, stands outside of. A good folk recognizes, however it may spook them, that a wizard serves deeper imperatives, and stand aside, out of the wizard's way, letting the work be done, glad when they can get benefit. But much is obvious to the wizard's eye that is not to the ordinary, and the wizard ought become accustomed to the bafflement and misunderstanding that will often result. Some will confuse the wizard, because of the conjuring, with wizardry's close counterfeit, the con artist. Sometimes there seems but a hair's difference, but the wizard is always in service, to something awesome and wise, that is sought for benefit, for general refreshment, while the con man is only in service to himself, utilizing illusions not to riddle and illuminate, but to manipulate. The wizard uses tricks as devices to evoke deeper truths (and sometimes to evade the dangerous projections and prejudices of the uninitiated), not to defraud. The integrity a wizard represents is mandatory, even if it is an inscrutable one, even if at times it partakes of the tricksterish.

A wizard can hold positions that seem contradictory but are not because the wizard either knows their deeper connection, or trusts it will unfold with time and further investigation. This trust of hunches, though not infallible, becomes a good guide for the wizard. The wizard because of all this is transideological, transcultural, transsystematic, and this slipping in and slipping out quality of transcendence can be quite unnerving to those secure in one worldview and paradigm alone. The wizard juggles paradigms at will.

A wizard gives strength to what serves life, to the degree and for the time that it does serve life, and thus may have many irons in the fire and several horses in the race. Many partial systems bring out truths more whole than they can fathom, and thus are useful (in the beneficial sense) articulators and movers.

Only a culture that has a word, unweird, which means unlucky, as the Anglo Saxons did, can fully understand and appreciate the importance and significance of having wizards, who are riddlers, shamans, poets, mystics, druids, and philosophers all mixed into one, without entirely being any of them. A wizard is very special, but a wizardless culture might not know it.

Wizards are likely to be characters, slightly eccentric, erudite, arcane, baffling, good natured with a strange edge of the sinister, which is simply the echo of the peril the wizard risks for knowledge, perhaps with a dash of the curmudgeonly or crabby, yet generous, filled with good will, and a genuine, careful, non-naive love for all creatures in their special faults.

What good is a wizard, you may ask? Someday you might have the joy of knowing that, if you build milieu welcoming to them. When you grow that flower, the wizards will come to taste the nectar, and your culture will then feel rich, flavored, grounded, and suffuse with the magic of the ordinary, whereby the miraculous beauty hidden in all things unfolds its grey garments in exquisite indulgence for all to see. Then the spirits will dance, the spirits in trees and rocks and meadows, and the ordinary at last will achieve its fitting synthesis with the extraordinary. This could be yours.

See also this on wizards.

George Lakoff, Metaphor and Metaphysics

A Weblog for Our Mother God — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:23:22 +0000

George Lakoff and his research on the universality of metaphor shines an interesting (and unintended) light on the fundamental metaphysical basis of human thought and speech.

Arrogance Beyond Belief!

A Weblog for Our Mother God — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:24:21 +0000

A reader comments on our recent article on Spiritual Evolution:

The behavior of "Swami" Kriyananda is really astonishing: He goes to an Eastern society, is welcomed into their religion, defiles their Holy Orders with gross sexual misconduct and then attempts to teach "the savages" that their traditional doctrine of the cycles must be stood on its head! And on what evidence? On the evidence of the "obvious superiority" of Western technical civilization! The arrogance is truly beyond all belief!

Pour Some Loving Kindness Into the Place of Not Enough

awakeningwomen — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:29:25 +0000

When you first arrived into this human form you came with exuberance,
eager to show the world the gift of YOU.

Then a little time passed by, and slowly you began to feel a vague sense of not being “enough”.

Just as the air we breathe is shared by us all, sadly this underlying current of not “being enough”,
runs in our collective blood, and keeps us glued to the trance of the small “me”.

Look around you and realize that everyone is part of this trance.
This will open you to compassion.

I’m enough

Let the words drip like nectar into your heart
and take you beyond.

Loving Kindness Prayer
As you say the prayer the first time, say it for yourself.
As you say the prayer the second time, say it for a loved one.
As you say it the third time, say it for someone you are in conflict with.
When you say this prayer the final time say it for all of humanity.

May I have loving kindness 
May I be well 
May I be happy and at ease 
May I have loving kindness

May you have loving kindness 
May you be well 
May you be happy and at ease 
May you have loving kindness

May all beings have loving kindness
 May all beings be well 
May all beings be happy and at ease 
May all beings have loving kindness

Spiritual evolution

A Weblog for Our Mother God — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:24:56 +0000

"Spiritual evolution" is one of the key notions of the "New Age" movement. We examine this deceptive and anti-traditional doctrine.

Are you allowing yourself to be supported?

awakeningwomen — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:02:56 +0000

In my Yoga class this morning I found my self leaning my legs up towards the wall, a blanket was rolled up underneath my thighs. I had two pillows supporting both my wrists, and one under my head. Oh, and did I mention the warm soft blanket hugging my whole body?

This was the point when the yoga teachers asked: are you allowing yourself to be supported?

It went straight in. I cried. I whispered to myself: yes, yes I am supported.

I wonder what makes it so hard to ask and to receive support in our daily life? Where did we get the idea that that is weak?
In our striving to prove ourselves to be on top of it all, that we can do it alone, we are re-enforcing an identity of being limited and separate, overlooking that we are all part of one totality and intimately connected to all things.
Everything and everyone are endlessly giving and receiving.

Where am I blocking the flow? Am I resisting support? Am I holding back my gifts?

Do you want to practice with me right now? Lets do it together…

Feel the seat underneath your body, holding you.
Feel the breath filling you, always taking care of you.
You are being held
You are being breathed

Are you allowing yourself to be supported?

ahhh….
I am letting go.

21 day Global Feminine practice immersion starts January 25th. Have a taste of the support from the Yogini circle. The course is happening online and on the phone. Learn more here

Eckhart Tolle

A Weblog for Our Mother God — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:00:12 +0000

I have read about Eckhart Tolle and his philosophy. Apparently many people find it appealing. However, something about it is disturbing to me. Would you please comment on whether his ideas are compatible with the Deanic/Filianic Faith or not and why. Thank you, Rev. Madria Georgia Honored Madria Georgia, we cannot claim to be in any way experts on the writings of Herr Tolle, although we have encountered the name before and done a little research. Essentially the work seems to be rather similar to many New Age writers who take bits of the more "airy" aspects of world traditions and stick them together to make something new. While this is in itself a little dangerous, by far the worst part of the New Age is not the bits it collects, but the "glue" it uses to stick them together, which invariably turns out to be modern individualistic ideas, post-Freudian "psychology", Darwinist evolutionism projected onto a supposedly "spiritual" plane etc., etc. Alarm bells should immediately ring when we read (on Herr Tolle's official website) that:

"at the core of Tolle's teachings lies the transformation of consciousness, a spiritual awakening that he sees as the next step in human evolution."

This is one of the key "fingerprints" of New Age error - the notion that humanity is "spiritually evolving" into a higher phase, when in fact, in spiritual terms, humanity in the late Kali Yuga has never been at a lower ebb. This adoption of the modern progress/evolution superstition (and when a biological theory and a social ideology are mixed together, as they are in most people's minds, as though they were somehow the same thing, one can only speak of superstition) and then re-packaged as a "spiritual truth" we know we are dealing with one of two things: unfortunate error or deliberate charlatanry.

On Using a Statue of Kuan Yin

A Weblog for Our Mother God — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:42:06 +0000

Annalinde Matichei wrote the following as part of a discussion on worshiping the Daughter in the form of Kuan Yin: This is an interesting question. I have a statue of Thousand Hand Kuan Yin as my main Altar-piece. Do I "worship Kuan Yin"? What would that mean? I do not see her according to Buddhist doctrine - though I do believe that she refused Deity until all being was saved "even to the last blade of grass" - which is just another way of putting the Daughter's Taking on of Fate that we celebrate at Luciad (the Feast of Lights). I certainly do not believe she was the daughter of a king who was murdered and freed the souls from hell as some legends state, but I do believe she is the Daughter of the One Queen of the Universe, who descended into Hell, died and was reborn and freed the souls from Hell. I would not especially refer to Her as Kuan Yin, but I would not be averse to calling Her that either. This is not like modern Pagans who say "I'm working with Bast this week" - I do not believe that deities from different traditions are separate entities, like the people we meet on the street. They are simply different ways of seeing the same Universal Truth - and of course I believe that a lot of patriarchal accretions are highly misleading. And having said that, is there something different about seeing the Daughter through this statue rather than, say, a Marian one? I think there is. It has a special quality of contemplative purity. She is in perfect repose, while her "thousand" arms (actually 24 on this statue, but figuratively a thousand) so clearly and beautifully represent her all-saving omnipotence. They also help us to be free from the "humanism" of the Christian perspective, in which everyone is a "historical figure" and of the pagan perspective (which I have never inclined to, but is in fact just a natural outcropping of modern individualism) that "Deities" are individuals, pretty much like people. So this statue represents Dea - and in particular the Daughter - under a very particular aspect, stressing certain of Her Divine qualities, because as humans we can't see them all at once. To me in particular it represents repose, purity and Unacting Action ("Earth moves, but Heaven is still"). As for names, I am not inclined to give personal names to Dea. The Scriptures once mention the name Inanna (which is just a universal Name of the daughter) but other than that She is never referred to by a name in the whole narrative. To me using the Name Quan Yin would tend to localize and historicize the statue (even though I love the name!). This is not a statue from some part of Telluria of some particular figure in some particular tradition. This is a universal statue of Dea in Her Daughter form, in perfect repose and perfect compassion.

Happy New Year!

Hecate — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:58:00 +0000

Happy New Year! I've moved the blog over to a new address. Hope that you'll come visit me and will adjust your settings.

Hello World, Here I am!

awakeningwomen — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:40:33 +0000

Some of the Other Angels

A Weblog for Our Mother God — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 01:57:50 +0000

Many devotees of Dea are familiar with the names of the Seven "Planetary" Janyati. However, many of us have also heard mention of other Janati. I would imagine that there are many Janyati whose names we do not know. However, I would be interested in seeing a list of the names and characteristics of some of the other Janyati whose names are known to Aristasians. Thank you, Rt. Rev. Georgia B. Cobb The Seven Great Janyati are of course the primary ones, but there are several others. While we do not have an exhaustive list, some of the more important are: The three Werdes: Sai Maia, Sai Werde and Sai Kala, said to be daughters of Sai Thame. Sai Herthe Janya of hearth and home. Sai Annya the Janya of fire - very important in some forms of Deanism. Sai Ouranya Janya of the sky - often seen as an "emanation" of Sai Thame. Sai Vaya the Spirit as Wind or Breath - sometimes conceived as a Janya.

One day you just find yourself dancing

awakeningwomen — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:32:39 +0000

The infinite universe planted a seed. Inside the seed is all the wisdom, the inspiration and clarity, everything the seed needs in order to grow into what it is meant to be.

It has the spark of life within it, and will, in one way or the other, grow to fulfill its incarnation, because there is no other incarnation that will blossom in this exact way, ever.

If it does not succeed, it died trying, but it died, fully spent.  It had given every fiber of its being into this holy quest.
The seed is you.

Do you have sense of your calling?
Do you feel a split, a separation between your Being and your actions? And do you long to bridge this, long to have your actions, words and creativity be a reflection and a direct experience of your innermost realization of truth?

“What we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.” ~ Joseph Campbell

The Goddess Saraswati is the master guide in the realm of creativity, the mysterious spark at the core of all things.
She symbolizes the Shakti (creative, feminine life force) permeating the unique expression of you.
She’s both the music playing you, and the one showing you ways you can fine-tune your instrument, your body, and your skills.

Saraswati, does not teach us the ABC’s of how to do the right thing.
She’s feminine, she knows that life will always show up with different masks, with different clothes, with different challenges and opportunities. So to try to figure it all out, both your future and your past for that matter, can be interesting, can be insightful, but it can also be a distraction of your time and energy.
Saraswati teaches us how to dance.
She teaches us how to feel the rhythm of evolution in our bodies; she teaches us to listen to the beat inside the beat inside the beat.
She teaches us to open our nostrils wide, to let our eyes become soft and endlessly deep like forest lakes.
She teaches us to feel the air caressing 72,000 nerve-endings in our bodies;
she teaches us the language of the wind, sufi dancing in the treetops.
As you are fine-tuning your instruments more and more, She will play you.
And being played by Goddess (life-force, great spirit, earth, Christ universe, insert your name of the mystery here) is indescribable. Your questions do not become answers~~ one day you just find yourself dancing.

Here are some practices that you can explore right now, to help you dive into the ocean of creativity, which you are. Help you tune in to the creativity inside of creativity, into the unique way this vast intelligence is expressing itself,
as you.

:: Follow your bliss

“Follow your bliss. If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be. If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn’t have opened for anyone else.”
- Joseph Campbell

Your bliss is an underlying sense of openness, of a yes. It is an underlying vibration within you, a feeling of being in tune, in resonance. A feeling of living aligned with your unique self.

Bliss is not exactly a feeling, it is deeper than that. It is more like a vibration, which is really the feeling of being right in the core of the creative flow, and it can be there through difficult times as well as in easy times.
It is a disposition within yourself of resonance, just as when a violin is tuned perfectly, and it is played by a master.
Learn to recognize this dimension of yourself, let it guide you. Just as the flowers turn towards the sun, you move away from that which does not nourish you, that which is not in resonance.
Follow your bliss and your life will keep opening up.

Anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you. ~ David Whyte

:: How can I know what impulses are aligned with my calling?
How can I know it is not just my ego or other peoples expectations talking?

With practice you will learn to know the difference. Action may look the same, but they belong to different layers of the world. And with practice, we begin to feel the different layers of the world without judgment and resistance, simply with observations. Take pauses from mental decision making and drop deeper. Pay attention to how it feels.
We can feel the different layers of consciousness as different flavors, atmospheres, different frequencies, just as we can feel different atmospheres in opera versus heavy metal.
Sometimes we get stuck in certain layers, and we find our way out.
And we learn.
Sometimes we engage in actions that are ego based, and we learn the taste of it, and we learn how to connect deeper.
With time we trust the inner guidance more and more.
Here is a simple checklist that can be helpful as you navigate through this discernment process:

1: Does it harm anybody?
2: What is my motivation? Is it greedy, is it making me smaller or bigger?
3: Is it of service? “Does it grow corn”?
4: Is it aligned with why I’m here?
5: Is it connecting me with my bliss?

Enjoy the ride!

Join us for a retreat in German in March fully and totally devoted to Saraswati and her magic.

Urd Offers Choices

SiegfriedGoodfellow — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:41:00 +0000

Let the world teach you how to be old ; let death teach you how to be inevitable, unstoppable, inextricably woven into the heart of things. Life is a frightening adventure of peeling back fear to reveal treasure and grandeur, if we will dare to step out from our petty, little hovels from time to time and listen to what the widelands say in their breadth and depth. This world was shaped by divine hands out of the remains of monsters. All reduces to formidable miracle. The tough places are the learning places : stop to listen, for hints whisper in the cracks. We begin pimpled geeks struggling to learn maturity from a world of elders. Let the world peel your geekdom and age you into a masterpiece, a sculpture of time, with all inessentials carved away. An opportunity awaits. Urd offers choices.

Inevitability

SiegfriedGoodfellow — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:11:00 +0000

There is a certain bleak inevitability to the Northern way that superficially has gloominess and grimness to it. But beneath this is great joy, and endless faith in life's powers. The hands of Urd the Great hold us all, and this is a deep, loving inevitability mediated by the Gods and our gambles. Beneath the flavor of bleakness lies the hope. There are smiles hiding in hidden crevices.

Inevitability, which at first seems so bleak, is an embrace that holds one close, a level of deep being one approaches, and if a heathen, then with panache and flair.

Bleakness may just be the roar of the distant ocean singing a world-song far more profound, and thus more alien and at times more cold, more ancient, than a human tune. The great is-ness of the objects in their grandeur of old, old being, having found themselves long ago, and not at all new to world, is formidable and steep and strong, full of very deep comfort, if you can feel it. But it sings a drone, a hum, a didgeridoo so ancient it is strange, and wisdom is in part accommodating oneself to the strangeness of the world, to sing with the coldness of rocks, and dance in the bleak beyond the human pale, and there in the cold, to affirm your own human warmth, as an addition to the song.

The grimness, in the end, is just a shield, like the ice that keeps the greening earth intact in winter's grip. There is great warmth beneath the surface. There is an awesome party raging in Hel : hear the horns clink and the sounds of baritone laughter, and the honey of the dwarf's yeast upon rhythmic lips and wooed, wondering ears.

Folk foreign to this way do not imagine the simmering mirth beneath the dour, Stoic face, the endless fund of faith in life that lies beneath the grizzled grimace at a world gone cynical, that studies the bleak for signs of endless power, hints on how to become eternal. The angels, one might say, sing strange and potent surf-spells. Hear them roar.

Bring the Gods Together in Your Heart

SiegfriedGoodfellow — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:50:00 +0000

You must find the Gods and bring them together. They have left their traces deep within the sinews of the world, but within the world, to surface-eyes, and minds scarred by the axe, they appear to be in contradiction in the tangle of complexity. To have faith in them, you must find them, every one, within the world, and bring them together as a pantheon in your mind and heart and soul. They are already pantheoned in the macrocosm ; to find faith, you must bring them together beyond contradiction in the microcosm.

Remember that the Abrahamists and Puritans are half-atheists : they have emptied the world of the traces of divinity, and see all immanence as empty materiality, their deity existing alone in transcendence.

Ea ch God holds high very pure principles, principles so polyvalent and potent, they manifest as complexity in this world. Each one represents a complete and ample vision of deity, and one would suspect, from externals, that these are incompatible, and yet we know they are coordinated and richly interstrewn. Yet for us, it is as if they are lost in the tangle, and our journey is to find them, and bring them together so they may fund and multiply our possibilities for bringing life alive again in our lives and those around us.

These are reflective Gods ; they appear upon reflection and not naive realism. It takes depth to perceive their movements. Often in the midst of things we do not perceive them, and only upon reverie or dream do we catch the traces of their movements.

Understand you are holding together forces and principles that assembled together in the world of appearance and seeming would seem in complete contradiction. The pantheon presented by the myths should appear counterintuitive, and is only the result of deep, Hegelian synthesis of meditation, contemplation, and gambles tested over hundreds and hundreds of generations. You are bringing together something bold and impossible in your heart, and asserting to the world that there are higher solutions to what seem contradictions, which may never fully resolve themselves in time, but which are transcended through perceptions of wisdom and wyrd, and there the Gods are. You are asserting great faith, audaciously, that some mystery guided by higher powers is riddling itself out beyond our powers to fully grasp, yes, in this world, in this world so deeply touched already by corruption that it has become opaque to the light of the Gods. Yet that is but the depth of the surface. Faith says beneath, the deep movements of the Gods still endow foundations, if they can be found. The goblins, for all their might, allowed for a time to have their illusion of reign, are but spooks, whom the Gods in time will mop up and literally wring out of this world.

You do not need to divide yourself and choose a single vision ; you only need choose good over evil, yet when you do, you find goods so diverse, so seemingly contradictory, so calling for risk and gamble, that they are truly alive. The vision of unity, of high Asgard on high, is not a simple one, simply attained, through throwing all together in a mush. It is a pinnacle of epiphany achieved in the spiritual struggle of the soul with a difficult world, and wrestling to untangle the divinity wrapped inherent in its great complexity. Dream bold.

I am a billion sparkles of light.

awakeningwomen — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:08:11 +0000

I am a yogini. I am timeless.
I am a woman offering myself as truth,
as a throbbing yearning heart.
I am a roar
I am a sigh
I am a billion sparkles of light.
Come closer to me, I will hold you.
Come with me into the realms of constant blossoming,
in to where each atom is flaunting its stunning power.
Together we dare to be that big.
To be that radiant.
To be that trusting.
Come with me into the heart inside the heart, the world inside the world.
Our roots growing deep into cosmos,
in all directions.

21 day Lakshmi Sadhana starts January 25th. Learn more here

Who "Borrowed" Epiphany?

A Weblog for Our Mother God — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 07:51:16 +0000

The High Feast of the Epiphany of God the Daughter falls on the 12th of Herthe (6th of January). Surely worshipers of Our Mother God "borrowed" this from Christianity? No indeed - it is exactly the other way about. Learn more about the Feast of Epiphany here.

"Little Nativity"

A Weblog for Our Mother God — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:23:28 +0000

Herthe 11th (January 5th) is Duodecima - the Twelfth Day of Nativity. Herthe 12th (January 6th) is the High Feast of the Epiphany, popularly known as Princesses' Day. Epiphany, the showing-forth of the new-born Daughter of Dea is often called Little Nativity, and is one of the most joyful and important festivals of the year. Read more about it here.

Millions and millions of women have prepared for this time

awakeningwomen — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:08:17 +0000

I know that life sometimes sucks, I know you have been through hell.  I know people have disappointed you, hurt you, that you have failed many times, that you have regrets and unfulfilled dreams.
I know that your body does not always fit into the image that you want it to be.  I know relationships are hard.

I know you have spent years and years working on your “issues”. It is all good.

Now when we have all that out in the open, lets turn it around.
Lets turn it all inside out, and let’s discover a new way, a new world.

We are not leaving this world behind,
this new world is the world inside this world.

It is the world inside that pain, inside that hope,
it is the heart inside the heart inside the heart.
It’s home.

This path is not a path of self improvement,  it is not about fixing yourself,
or comparing yourself to an ideal future state.
It is not a path towards a goal.

It is a love affair.
Union.

You fall helplessly in love, and everything shifts.
All is the same, all is different.

You feel everything stronger,
the pain is more excruciating
the bliss more unbearable beautiful.

You receive every breath, every sound, every thought
with wonder
with attention,
with curiosity.
Some moment are dull or dense or stuck, even those moments are miracles.
Just as when you first fall in love with a person,
you see with fresh eyes.

This is the path of the Yogini.

Here there is only one way to fall and that is deeper and deeper in love.

Everything you call “me”,
thoughts and preference, memories and feelings, hunger and thirst, divine and broken.
will continue to arise, yet the glue between it all will melt away.
It all swirls around like a raindrops in an ocean of light, gone before you can grasp it.

Once you claim your seat on this Yoginicircle your life will never be the same
you fall in love
with yourself.

It is an infinite love affair
with an infinite self

Oh yes, the Yogini’s are back, dancing in from the horizon of timelessness, gathering the sisters.
Millions and millions of women have prepared for this time,
and in the midst of this magnificent display of passion, and love and beauty
if you look around you, you will discover your seat among the wild hearted Yogini’s, ready to live it.

It is time.

21 day Lakshmi Sadhana starts January 25th. Learn more here

Photo: Bibbi Friman

A 21 Day Lakshmi Sadhana Immersion

awakeningwomen — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:57:01 +0000

~ aligning your life with your souls desire

With Chameli Ardagh & The Global Awakening Women Circle

January 25 – February 15, 2012

You are invited!

Get all the details here.

Image: Bibbi Friman

Awakening Women 2012-01-01 20:02:01

awakeningwomen — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 20:02:01 +0000

The Women’s Ashram in Corfu, Greece

If you are planning to come with us to Corfu this year, don’t wait too long to reserve your place, we are filling up quickly.
As of today these are the spaces that are still open:

Women’s Temple Group Facilitator Training: Still places left

Yogini Paradise Retreat Two weeks: 13 places left

Yogini Paradise Retreat Week 1 only:
Fully booked (make sure to put your name on the waiting list)

Yogini Paradise Retreat Week 2 only: Still places left (experienced students only)

Chameli will also be facilitating The Deeper love Holiday Retreat together with her husband Arjuna.This event is for both men and women, couples and singles: Still places left

Welcome to paradise!

Image 1 Bibbi Friman

Image 2 Mikaela Larm

The Day of Sai Herthe

A Weblog for Our Mother God — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:50:22 +0000

From an Aristasian blog: We had a wonderful Herthedi Service today! Honored Raya gave one of her inspired talks that really suddenly made it clear to me how the Day of Sai Herthe fits into the mystical journey that is the Year. We really should try to record these Services, as honored Raya says so many wonderful things that are nowhere to be found in Elektraspace or anywhere else. On the other hand, maybe it is part of the magic that these things are shared with the Family, with those who choose and make the time to be present and part of the Sacred Event. It is hard to summarize what honored Raya said as it was so inspired - but she was talking of the Star Fairy coming down the chimney, and of how in the Motherland folks take this kind of "legend" on a very serious level, whereas in Telluria, even religious people don't think there is anything very important about such "peripheral" traditions as opposed to Scriptural religion. Honored Raya said that many Tellurians would consider that taking these charming "folk" stories seriously is the sign of a less sophisticated people, but honored Raya said that it is in fact the sign of a more sophisticated people. A people that sees beyond the childish literalism of "it did happen or it didn't happen" to the much deeper spiritual truth that lies beneath the surface of the narrative. She explained how Nativity is about the Divine Light descending vertically from the spiritual realm to the manifest cosmos - entering the House, which is the world, through the vertical chimney (cheminée, camino - way) into the heart or hearth and thence as radiant light and warmth into the world/soul. The Day of Sai Herthe is, in a certain sense, the same Event seen from the perspective of the World, or House. In the Motherland - certainly in those places that follow the Fire Temple tradition (such as Rayapurh and Novarya), Sai Herthe's day is the only day of the year in which the sacred house-flame (from which, in more traditional times, every hearthfire, candle and lamp was lit and every flame that cooked food) was allowed to go out. It was ritually re-lit by a flame taken from the sacred Temple Fire. Thus the kindling of the World-hearth from the Spirit-hearth is enacted in the microcosm of the home and the great Event of the Coming of the Light is actualized on the domestic level. The "new year" element of the festival, although our actual New Year is three months away, lies in the fact that the home-fire is extinguished and re-lit at this time, the only time in the year, and so a new cycle begins (and, interestingly, the death and rebirth of the light in the home is an obvious reflection of Eastre, the true New Year).

pssst… sister… the universe is hiring

awakeningwomen — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:02:46 +0000

So I pray.
It is my job. For real.
Everything that we explore in the Yogini circles, everything you read here,
everything, arises from prayer.

But what about self empowerment?
What about taking charge of our lives?
What about looking for the answer from our own wisdom?
What about all the ways women have given away our power in the name of religion?
What about that the divine is within us?
That there is only One source and no Other to pray to?

I know. I know. It does not make sense.
But what can I do when I again and again find myself on my knees offering rose petals at Her feet?

I have signed up for full time service, and I could spend the rest of my life saying thank you.

There came a time when I knew I had done it my own painful way long enough,
and I decided to trust Her for real.
When my head touched the ground, I found dignity
In surrender, I found power
In asking and receiving, I was able to serve in a big way
In loosing myself, I found myself
In turning my eyes towards Her, for the first time I saw myself
Finally I found my way

Last night I said to my man, if I could choose my life over, I would not change a thing.
I cannot imagine anything more ecstatic than this (but I assure you that She can, she does it for me every single day.)

Looking back at this year, I saw the crash-landing of an entire online ashram, I was diagnosed with cancer, had surgery, found out I did not have cancer and I lost a beloved friend and colleague in a challenging business break up.

 So no, ecstatic does not mean that life is always pink and frilly.

Looking back I also saw a radical expansion of the Global Yogini circle, I turned forty, I moved to my dream house (correction: I could not even dream such a beautiful house, Lakshmi did.) I stayed four weeks in Corfu, my heart’s sanctuary. The most talented awake and inspiring women joined our Awakening Women Team, making the admin side of this work a blast. I started getting direct guidance from ancient Yoginis, and the year ended with 150 wild souls joining our 21 day sadhana intensive.

So no, ecstatic does not mean that life is always about obstacles either.

Every sensation rushing through me is reminding me that I am given another moment
in this achingly beautiful experience of being human.
Transcendence, density, expansion, contraction,
the Goddess is dancing hot tango with her man,
I am the pulse between their yearning hearts.

Sister, before you get all busy and serious about your new year resolutions,
take a moment to tune into that force which beats your heart,
which grows the leaves on the trees, which creates and tears down,
everything.
Tune into the captivating rhythm of evolution,
and dance your way into your holy calling.
The whole universe is dancing with you.

With love, always

21 day Lakshmi Sadhana starts January 25th. Learn more here

The Twelve Days of Nativity

A Weblog for Our Mother God — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:28:51 +0000

A Filianic blogger writes:

I say "Nativity" and not "Post-Nativity" thoughts, because it is still Nativity. Please do not think that when the first day of Nativity has passed all that magic Nativity Snow is just plain ol' snow snow. It isn't. It may be inconvenient at times, but it is still the Snow of Nativity.
Nativity lasts until the Feast of the Epiphany. Not all of it may be holiday and merrymaking (though in some parts of the Motherland it is), but all of it is the most magical season of the year. Carols are still in season and two important festivals lie ahead in the next two weeks.

The great Midwinter Festival of the Birth of the Light has always been a twelve-day season at its core (in fact it has often been much longer - its penumbra beginning in the fall and not fully ending until Luciad, the Feast of Lights, six weeks after the Solstice).

The one-day Christmas was a Victorian invention, made in a world where the wheels of industry and commerce must not be allowed to stop for more than the briefest period.

The oft-stated perception that the season "starts earlier every year" is almost a drift back to the older tradition. It is commercially driven, of course, but as stated in our recent article on Nativity, even commerce cannot help but reflect the powerful pull of the Universal Event called Nativity.

What has remained as a Victorian heritage, though, is the dead-stop on Boxing Day (Masquiday in Aristasian tradition) - though even this is in some places giving way to an extended holiday or semi-holiday from Nativity to the Day of Herthe (Christmas to New Year). It is not, however considered, at least in Protestant countries, "still Christmas".

For Filianists, it is very definitely still Nativity until the Epiphany. It is a magical, beautiful season. A time for continued celebration and a time when the subtle world and the physical world are very close.

A happy continuing Nativity to you all.

Hail to the Princess Who is born and Whose glorious showing-forth we still await!

to dive unreservedly into life

awakeningwomen — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 22:05:10 +0000

It sounds great just to be present.
Who wouldn’t choose that?

When we look a little closer, we realize that in order to live it, we will have to get down in our bodies. And stay. It is not always pleasant to be in our bodies, but to be present, means to welcome life in its totality.

It is tempting to try to live in a world made of daydreams and tidy ideas rather than living right here. Many of us use our intellects and even our spirituality as an attempt to escape this wild messy turmoil called human life.

But for the feminine it is too faint-hearted to abide in lofty spheres of golden light. She longs to dive unreservedly into life. She realizes with all her being that she cannot separate spirit from matter and that the divine is not residing somewhere else. In her willingness to stay fully present, she allows spirit to reveal itself in form.

Our practice is to embrace life by loosening the grip of the mind and emotional dramas enough so that we can grace the world with a tangible embodiment of presence and love.

It is commitment to the moment, where we even choose to feel hurt rather than to kiss the cold lips of yesterday’s bliss.

Everything changes the moment the grip the soap opera of our lives has on us relaxes enough for our attention to rest in the moment. Not that the swirling dance of life stops or ever will; it is more that our relationship to what is happening changes.

At the moment the domination of our thoughts rests a little and we are fully here, we can recognize the luminous consciousness that permeates everything and realize that this is essentially what we are made of. For some, a glimpse into this dimension of reality will be a pleasant but fleeting experience; it will soon become just a memory, and they will go on with their lives as before.

For others, it shakes everything from the bottom up and becomes the new foundation their life is built on.
Once we discover the intense joy and peace of this deeper nature, all our thoughts and emotional dramas will never again have the same significance. This realization is often referred to as a “spiritual awakening.”

Spiritual awakening is sometimes thought of as very rare. It has been sought as the peak of spiritual seeking, as something that mostly happens to very few Eastern monks or gurus.
But after meeting with thousands of women around the world and listening to their experiences, I have no doubt that we have all experienced shorter or longer moments when our sense of self expands into something bigger.

Often it is the very myths about spiritual awakening that make us ignore those profound glimpses into our most natural and innocent being.

Maybe you have felt absorbed into a vaster stream of life while painting or playing music, while being stunned by a majestic vista in nature, while snorkeling in the ocean, or while being swept away in lovemaking.

My friend gasped, after giving birth to her daughter, “I have never felt so one with the infinite, with the mystery, as that moment when she slipped out of my body so utterly perfect.”

Although often times presence comes as a kiss of grace, it is absolutely possible to cultivate presence by the simple regular practice of moving our attention from our thoughts and into the body. Like the most trustworthy anchor, your body is always right here.

Here are a few simple practices for you:

Be Aware of Your Breath

As long as you are alive, your breath is a steadfast, tangible reminder of the moment.

Moving in, moving out. Right here.

Whenever you feel lost in thoughts, bring your awareness to the breath.
Notice how it moves. How deeply it goes is also a reliable barometer of what is going on in your body.

Simply bringing awareness to the breath often helps our breathing become more soft and relaxed, moving deeper into the belly, and helps us become present and receptive to what life brings.

Do a Body Scan

Make it a regular habit throughout the day to scan your body with your awareness.
Rest five breaths in your shoulders.
Then rest five breaths in your jaws, in your chest, in your belly, in your feet.

This capacity to bring your awareness to your body can be of invaluable support, even in times of tension or conflict.

During the day you may find yourself completely caught up in trying to change another person.
Of course, we are not always aware in these embarrassing moments, but if you have just a glimpse of awareness, it is enough; you have the chance to bring consciousness to the situation. It is as if you have been standing in the saddle on a running horse; now you can sit back in the saddle and scan your body.
You will return to presence, to the moment, and be able to deal with the circumstances in a saner way.

Opening Your Senses

In each moment you can enjoy something through your senses. It can be the color of someone’s shirt, the way your neck feels when you move your head, the way the breath is filling your lungs, the sound of the rain, the movement of your tongue. It is as if you are opening each cell to the moment, meeting it as you would meet a lover.

When we experience life fully, through our senses, we are no longer trapped behind the filter of our thoughts; we are one with the experience itself.

When you feel trapped in an emotional drama, in some situation in which you feel closed to the moment, make it your meditation to seek out a way to feel pleasure. Maybe it is just the feeling of two fingers meeting. Maybe it is just the atmosphere in the room, or maybe you becomes aware of the sound of the rain on the windows and find yourself, in an instant, becoming present again.

On the Second Day of Nativity

A Weblog for Our Mother God — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 17:50:20 +0000

Nativity has not ended, but what has ended is Astraea, the Star-month. We are now in Herthe, the Hearthfire-month.

In Astraea, the Star-month we look upward and in Herthe, the Hearth-month we look inward. Nativity is the Northern Gate of the Cosmos through which the Divine descends to earth. This is reflected in the Star Fairy coming vertically down the chimney into the heart(h) of the house, and of course by the birth of God the Daughter into the world of manifestation.

During the month of Astraea, the Divine is a star in the heaven-world, about to descend. During the month of Herthe She is born in our hearts and present in the heart(h) of our sacred households where She is born on the last Star-day.

Interestingly also is that the Feast of the Conception of the Daughter (Astraea 11th) is exactly a month from the Feast of the Epiphany, or showing-forth of the Divine Child (Herthe 11th/12th).

Especially fascinating in this context is that this is true only in terms of the Filianic calendar, even though Christians celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (of Mary, not of Jesus) on the same day (December 8th/Astraea 11th).

Fanaticism

SiegfriedGoodfellow — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 01:06:00 +0000

We are taught to fear fanatics, as if our own cynicism were not as deadly, as if passion and determination and stubborn steadfastness, not to mention force at times, were not necessary to break through inertia and stagnation and achieve progress. As if thinking bold and acting audaciously did not please our Gods. As if thinking small could sustain us, as if dwelling in the remains of disappointment could nourish us. As if there could be heroism without high ideals, and without sacrifices for those high ideals. As if drive and direction were not necessary to transcend, and fully enter becoming.

I do not fear the passion nor the drive of fanatics ; I fear alone one-sidedness that is not the point of the advancing wedge of wholeness. It is lack of wholeness I fear, and many cynics lack it. It is lack of wholeness I fear, and most of the jaded perpetuate it. It is lack of wholeness I fear, and sometimes the fanatically unfanatical are more fanatical in their unwholeness than those who drive forward.

Question the standard equations, the easy formulas that could rob you of the best in life by urging emotional acquiescence to ill-considered slogans. Wholeness says, passion and well-roundedness, idealism and common sense, audacity as well as ability to roll with the punches. The undogmatic know that sometimes a taskmaster and a whip are necessary to get us off our butts, if nothing else in dialectical protest that at last activates us. And we also know, sometimes, don't tread on me, I'm evolving at my own speed (as long as that speed is not zero). Both are necessary. The fanatic has something to teach you. Something about your complacency, your slumbering potential, your surrender to defeat, even to the point of redefining defeat as the only, everyday reality. The fanatic says, rightfully so, fuck that!

Yule Offering

SiegfriedGoodfellow — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 01:04:00 +0000

Out by the sands, shore-swept wash, tonight I threw five pebbles one year ago I collected by the shore. I had asked then, what offering would Njord want? What would a coin really mean? It came to me : collect several stones and live with them for a while. Let them become acquainted with my life, absorb a little of its ample flavor, witness my routine and all my struggles, and collect into themselves the lessons and boons of this exchange program. Then they might be returned to their home, the waves, with the profit or interest of what I was able to share, and glowing with that little bit of life force, restore to the waves a new spirit of giving, to keep the gift exchange alive. And in that spirit tonight, I walked to the waves' edge, and hurling my pebbles into the receding wash with great intention, gave to Njord and all the Gods, completing one cycle of countless myriads to come of the great Circle of Gifts. And it felt good and strong, and appropriate on Yule, to give back. What an honor.

HAPPY NATIVITY

A Weblog for Our Mother God — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 15:53:18 +0000

13. And when the voice of the Janya ceased, a silence fell that was the first true silence since the beginning of the world, and the last that shall be until it end. 14. And the children of earth watched the sky as the first rays of dawn crept across the heavens. 15. And a cry issued out of the cave, saying: The holy Child is born from the most holy Mother; Light has come forth from Light, Perfection from Perfection. 16. And at once the air was filled with the daughters of heaven, and the sky was ablaze with the radiance of their joy. 17. And they sang aloud to the glory of Dea.

Good Yule!

SiegfriedGoodfellow — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 10:58:00 +0000

Good Yule! Good Yule!

I write to you beneath a blanket on the beach outside Ventura. The night is crisp, the stars are bright, the tide thrums on, its baritone thump along the shores holding, forgiving, strengthening. I roll about on the sand, ask Jord, ask Njord for healing. My heart has been sad. I look up at the Milky Way. Gods, this is a beautiful world. In every way, beyond gorgeous. Heimdall lounges on his sparkling, silver-golden spackled bridge, sipping warm mead from a horn. I am cradled between Frey and Freya's parents. I seek the old wisdom of Fjollnir, the Wise One, the All-Father. I see how far Urd's wide hand stretches, weaving meaning, deep significance, even where we see none, where we see sorrow and tragedy. It is a riddle, but beyond a riddle, it is a mystery. It doesn't always make sense to us, and yet the truer we are to our being and all the call therein, the more we will see we are taken care of. Urd is very gentle in her large, unfathomable tides, crashing, overwhelming, and uncanny as they may seem to us.

I roll about, I hold my ribs, I breathe, I shake, I sob. I do not know what or why i do, but I trust the body and spirit. I need no reasons. I am an animal, and the earth knows what to do with me. All I need do is surrender, and trust the rhythm and the gentle madness. Ah, there, I sink into soul, soul, yes, find my pattern, feel my melancholy and my luck ; O joy, were they ever different? How lucky to have the sadness we have! I am deeply sad, and I am deeply happy. This messed up world is all it should be. It is just right, even though it ought to be better, and I will participate in my own humble way in making it better. Mainly by being myself, by fruiting every capacity within me, and giving my all.

That is the spirit of Yule. Giving your all to all you love. And friends, despite your petty quarrels and your serious strivings, I hope that circle of love ripples outward to finally touch all the children of the Gods, because if it does, then your love is truly strong enough to nourish you, and may you prove worthy of it.

Gratuity. That is Yule. The pure Gift of Being. Gods who are tough on you because Gods who love you, Gods who know you are worthy of a tough and fibrous world that you can meet. And you can make enough to share. There is abundance here, even in the cold.

The cold time of year comes. The sun is shrouded in veil, as a widow in mourning. Even she must take the time to be still, and heal sorrowed times by donning the black veil and doing homage to the melancholy of existence, so in time, through this toil, to release its inner joy. So it is good in this dawn of cold and dark to hail the light and effervesce in the warmth of each other's company, giving from the heart, raising cheer, and building morale for the slower, colder, more contemplative days to come. Spring has been promised to us -- as a gratuity. Life is all giving. Never let Gullveig blind you to that. A gift calls for a gift. That does not mean tit for tat. It means total giving. Life, friends, whether 'tis popular to say or no, is communist. On Yule we remind ourselves of this, so that the world of commerce inaugurated by Heid's distrust and greed does not engulf our entire being. This is practice for when Baldur returns. Sol's brief sojourn through cloudy veils of darkness is a yearly liturgy reminding us that when the larger year is over, just as Springtime will now come in a few months, so Baldur will return to rule a bold world of peace, freedom, adventure, and full giving, where trust is the rule and not the exception. Those are times to live towards, and in our holy tides, they are times we can live in seed right now. Frodi is ready to teach us that festive, communist spirit of giving today in the mirth of kith and kin ; and someday, someday as we evolve, we will naturally, as extensions of our stronger, more enlightened beings, stretch Yule out until that giving at last covers the whole year long, and then we will at last have exiled Gullveig for good! May that day come sooner than later, this holy tide promises, if we will heed its call in our hearts!

Dare to be an idealist today, if no other day. Peace on earth and good will towards men is a heathen value. Frodi's Frith is alive at Yule. Retouch that idealism underneath your grizzled self. Laugh, and remember it is one of the sources of your strength. Dare on this day to think large and imagine a world where the Mill once again churns out peace and plenty for all, a world where the Gift has returned to its rightful, central place, and all that mistrust poisoned into us in the dawn of time by Heid dissolves, banished with all her curses, for all time. That day may be long in coming, but friends, let that day live in your hearts today, and all the long fortnight of Yule! Here dreaming may begin again, renewing the year to come with blessfully needed spirit.

Beneath Night's cloak, on the milled flesh of Ymir that Frigga has lifted up into soul of Jord, by the crashing waves of Njord, I greet you and your kin this Yule, and wish all a good day, and good night!

Every parent knows, we have the honor of becoming Santa. Herein lies a great mystery and a truth. May we incarnate his great and mighty wisdom. Good night!

Everything Happens For the Dream-Reasons of Wyrd

SiegfriedGoodfellow — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:34:00 +0000

a follow-up to "Everything Does Not Happen For A Reason"

Urd, the Well of Wyrd's keeper, dreams, and her dream-weaves web upon the tapestry of life. It makes no sense to logic-eyes of wordlock, but in the end, her benevolence cups and holds events, even nightmares, in a stranger logos, one that makes no sense to bodies locked in time's excruciating struggles, but to soul, to soul, a story lurks and hides, awaiting eyes to see. Urd is a grandmotherly poet dreaming sagas in the dark of Night, her daughter, Odin's sister. The wind blows, be it mild, even in Mimir's realm ; from such breeze the slightest droplets from his well are carried on the wind. Out beyond the meadows in a romp within the wondrous woods, an ancestor of yours in open-mouthed awe may taste that droplet, and the veils pull down, and see the saga in the chaos of your wondering-why of tale. And then if you give pray to depths to reach your roots towards forefathers, that he or she who tasted droplets lending sense to senselessness, revealing saga, may give sense to you of what before seemed merest mayhem, and then you may find some peace. Such peace ancestors sipping honeydew from meadowflowers' cups in philosophic strolls bestow if we will hear. And Wyrd dreams on, in odd, fluent benevolence. Look hard in the face of what hard faces you : Wyrd is winking ; secret blessings hide within the hard. O sleep and find the dream-reasons daily-mind is dull to ; only dreams sometimes restore the threads of frayed and weary wyrd. She sips her cup of tea and winks ; a wink is luck within the hint of time, to souls alive to riddling puns of smiling Urd.

The Hobbit

SiegfriedGoodfellow — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:47:00 +0000

O say that Northern spirit still divine within our Western Walls resides! For there is hope within the embers not yet passed that we may light the hearths again! And that is food for toasts! Let lift the wine, in silver-rimmèd horn, to lips, and spill the words of praise that honor Gods of wizards, One-eyed’s scions sleek and oaken-strong! I hear the baritonéd voices of my forebears chant their galdurs! Raise they rhythms, luck-bestrong, from holy hel’s deep doors of dawn, where they may share, from meadows’ blossoms, all their treasures’ broadest heartsong! Tales spun gossamer by fairy’s flight in flit through skull-song, quill-bedreaming, summon all the buried hopes, and let the soul be sung again by men! This lore is spell, may spellbound be the sons of ash and elm, to feel their roots and raise their branches high to sun’s encrystal-shellèd cobblestones! From heavens high to hel below and all between in middle earth, may what is whole and holy live again, and take rule of this world forevermore!

Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart

awakeningwomen — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 18:28:52 +0000

Candles burning, Tibetan incense whispers secrets in the early morning.
I am re-emerging slowly up to the surface after almost 21 days of Sadhana, of Spiritual Cleanse.

Daily I claim my seat among the outrageously devoted Yoginis.
Prayers and howls are the soundtrack of my days, the inner channels humming with sparkly fresh winds, the soul raw and real.
I offer flowers at the feet of the deities of my heart, I’ve done it for ever.

Oh, sisters, what a hot and holy ride this is.

Thank you for being part of this circle in whatever way you are claiming your seat.  You are important. You are contributing in your way, and this field of Shakti would not be the same without you.

It is the end of the year, remember this:

  :: You did well, sister. You did all that you could. You always do.

:: Forgive yourself. And do it again.

:: Dedicate the fruits of your practice and your awakening this year
to the benefit of all sentient beings.

And this:   

Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart
  and to try to love the questions themselves  
as if they were locked rooms
or books written in a very foreign language.   
Don’t search for the answers,
which could not be given to you now,   
because you would not be able to live them.

  And the point is, to live everything.    

Live the questions now.   
Perhaps then, someday in the future,  
you will gradually,  
without even noticing it,
 live your way into the answer.
  ~ Rilke

Yours, Always

Coming up:

The next Sadhana intensive will start January 25th. We will focus on Lakshmi.
We will let you know when we are ready for registration

Magical Transformation and Nativity

A Weblog for Our Mother God — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 05:09:24 +0000

Excerpt from a recent blog post that may interest our readers, reprinted with permission: We had a little catch-up meeting today so the pettes who missed Cinderella this Rhavedi could see the missed epis. And we saw my favorite scene when the Fairy Godmother transforms from an ordinary(ish) Godmother to the Queen of the Fairies. It reminds me very much of the Magical Girl transformation scenes in Anime that never fail to thrill. I talked to honored Raya about it so fulsomely (the last time I saw it) that she actually preached about transformation scenes at the Service this Rayadi. She explained why it is that we are so thrilled by them and why even an audience that is often bored with any repetition will watch lengthy transformation scenes that may be the identical in every episode, often regarding them as the highlight of the episode. And the reason has to do with Nativity! What really fascinates us is the moment when the ordinary is infused with the Transcendent, when the material is touched by the Spirit whether it be in the individual soul or in the cosmos (for the two are really different levels of the same thing - microcosm and macrocosm). The Divine bolt that enters the world (in the microcosm of the House, through the chimney) lighting and warming the True Heart[h] with spiritual luminance - the only Light there really is. In the Cinderella story, of course, the Fairy God-Mother (in this version) transforms herself and also transforms the exiled soul (Cinderella), and in this lovely scene, she is at first the Spirit in Disguise, even (partly and ambiguously) disclaiming her own power and proclaiming the magical and miraculous to be dekanai (impossible). And the ambiguity here is the fundamental ambiguity of the impossible, paradoxical interaction of Dea with the world. For as the Scriptures say, God the Mother gave birth to a Daughter that was not separate from Her but One with Her, and the Child of Her Light. Dea came to the place where Dea is not. So it is indeed dekanai: impossible. And at the same time, it happens every day, and must happen if the manifest universe is to survive even a moment. That is the highest level of the truth expressed by this pure, traditional "fairy tale" (this particular one is found in just about every culture known). But Truth operates on every level. Cinderella is a story for us, who are exiles. And the scene below is also about the true possibility of miracle and magic in every level of our lives:

Things for Nativity

A Weblog for Our Mother God — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 23:09:59 +0000

As Nativity draws closer here are two things that may delight you! Hail to the Princess A beautiful Nativity carol The Dream Key A heartwarming feminine seasonal story. May Dea bless you all!

Reader Comment – demons in the modern world

A Weblog for Our Mother God — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:51:43 +0000

This is more of a simple point in an area of interest of mine: the "paranormal". Now, I don't dally in it, myself (thats just dangerous!), but I do watch documentaries and read stories. I have just this minute been watching a documentary I have on a disk, and a very interesting point on demonic infestation came up. It was said that a demon's sole goal is to destroy all [maid]kind. This point was also followed by another: that in a demonic haunting, the diabolical entity begins this task by destroying the family unit, by tearing it apart. In this age of conflict, nothing could be closer to the truth: this is an age where nearly all that is good is twisted and made to appear undesirable, and what is wrong is made to seem desirable. Among those good things is the concept of family and dependence. Family units are encouraged to go their own ways, to separate, to be "independent" of one another. This story of diabolical haunting seems to be a small-scale case of what is happening in the modern world this very day. The forces of darkness are at work, pulling apart the harmonious bonds of love and interdependence in their efforts to destroy maid altogether. Just as in the documentary I watch now, the only way to fight this demonic influence is by reasserting the bond of family and the principle of Love. Unfortunately, most don't understand that message, and the central reason for this is because of the vilification and trivialization of faith. People don't believe in fundamental Good -- nor to they believe in fundamental Evil. Could there be a greater tragedy? Let us pray that someday soon this grave situation is remedied. -- Willow Marina-Marie

Thank you for this very insightful comment. Indeed it is true that in the current world demonic activity on the "macro" level, affecting the whole society is more significant than such activity on the "micro" level, affecting individuals and families one by one. It is one reason why those of us who resist the demonic pattern of the overall society are often more subject to attacks from the Forces of Darkness. To them we are "escapees" or "pockets of resistance" to their overall domination. But in the end darkness cannot overcome light.

Spiritual Practice is Self Love

awakeningwomen — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:19:19 +0000

I love spiritual practice.

Yes I know, some cringe thinking about the dreaded D word (yes, discipline..) having had too many authority figures telling us what to do.

But we can also view our commitment to practice as self love. It is a commitment to that which truly nourishes us.
We feed the practice, and then the magic begins to happen when the practice feeds us back.

I have been dedicated to the Women’s Temple and the feminine embodiment practices for many years already, and the depths of beauty that begun to reveal themselves to me just this last year, are something I could never have imagined was even possible.

I am in with both feet. I am on fire. I am helplessly in love.

Sometimes the practice is juicy, sometimes it is flat, sometimes we feel heavy, other times we are soaked in bliss. And just as any meditation practice… our job is simple to get our glorious behinds down on that cushion.

It takes surrender, it takes commitment, it takes devotion, and then maybe, maybe, if we are lucky She reveals herself in a fraction of a second, as a scent, a breeze, a rhythm…and nothing is ever the same.

Our practices arise out of an ancient lineage of yoginis (feminine spiritual practitioners, wild women in its truest meaning) and they invite us to move fluently between the esoteric and the highly practical realms.

We are asked to challenge the truth of any duality between spirit and body, between the holy and the mundane. Where is the red dotted line?
The focus of the practices are embodied awakening, embodied love, to be an instrument of awakening in this world.
For real.

Oh, how can I contain this. I think I will have to go and bow down for a while.

On my knees showering rose petals at your feet,

Image Bibbi Friman

Readers’ Comments

A Weblog for Our Mother God — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 20:03:19 +0000

Thank you for your excellent explication of the concept of Anima Mundi. The threefold constitution of the cosmos and of the jiva as microcosm is of course a central teaching of the perennial philosophy. Sri Lalita Herself is named Tripura Sundari, the "beauty of the three cities (worlds or selves)".

Dear loving friends,I wanted to comment on your great website.I myself am Jewish and I am a great believer in the Divine feminine alongside the God of Fathers and Mothers.I am not Filiyanic but I love the great wealth of Goddess knowledge you afford to all women of all faiths. I am also a straight woman as well with a lesbian daughter and granddaughter.I like the comment of the YouTube about the beliefs coming out of the 60's with neo-paganism.I am learning about the Mother in my own life and faith-The Shekinah-Shabbat-Sofia.I do however believe in both Genders for God as Father and Mother God both equal.The Goddess is becoming more a part of my life and I am really learning a lot on your site. Can you explain to me what Filiyanic means compared to the other terms you relate to in other faiths? In my language and faith Abba and Ima bless you and your wonderful site. Malka Miller. Thank you for your kind appreciation. The term Fliyanic, or Filianic refers to those devotees of Our Mother God who adhere to the Mythos of God the Daughter. The exact beliefs of the Filyani, or Filianists are outlined in the Filianic Creed.

Talking Through the Door

awakeningwomen — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 20:57:49 +0000

You say who is at the door?
I say your slave.

You say what do you want?
To see you and bow.

How long will you wait?
Until you call.

How long will you cook?
Until the resurrection.

We talk to the door.
I claim a great love and that I have given up
what the world gives to be in that love.

You say such claims require a witness.
I say, This longing, these tears.

You say, Discredited witnesses.
I say, surely not

You say who did you come with?
I say, this majestic imagination that you gave me.

Why did you come?
The musk of your wine was in the air.
What is your intention?
Friendship.

What you want from me?
Grace

Then you ask, Where have you been most comfortable?
In the Palace.

What did you see there?
Amazing things.

The why so desolate?
Because all that could be taken away in a second.

Who can do that?
This clear discernment.

Where can you live safely then?
In surrender.

Now silence. If I tell more of this conversation,
those listening will leave themselves.
There will be no door,
no roof or window either

~ Rumi

Image Bibbi Friman

Anima Mundi and the Human Psyche

A Weblog for Our Mother God — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 02:07:27 +0000

What do we mean by the Anima Mundi and what relation does it bear to the human psyche?

Why Advent Comes So Soon!

A Weblog for Our Mother God — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 20:15:08 +0000

From a recent blog post: We had a lovely Eve of Advent Service on Rayadi, and Honored Raya in her sermon explained something I have never understood. Why does Advent come so suddenly? Because it does, doesn’t it? Every year, even though some shops have had Nativity displays since the Feast of the Dead, we suddenly think “Golly-gosh-oh-greenies, is it Advent already? Well there really is a spiritual reason for that. I don’t know if I can explain it as well as Honored Raya, but essentially it is because Nativity, the Winter Solstice, really is the Northern Gate of the Year, where Heaven enters the realm of earth – and the birth of God the Daughter really is a Mystery and an apparent paradox (Dea coming where Dea is not). So the Coming of the Daughter really is a “surprise” in the deepest spiritual sense, and, as superficial things metaphysically reflect deep things, the Advent always tends to take us by surprise.