Yesterday, my amazing Circle of amazing women got together and did one of our rituals that focuses, in a direct way, on our skyclad, physical bodies as a gateway to the magic of our lives. Our bodies are women's bodies, not the idealized bodies splayed across tv and magazines, but the bodies of real women who are trying to bear children, have born children, will never bear children, have had cramps, have had cravings, have gone through the "slash, poison, & burn" of breast cancer, have gone on diets, have done Pilates, have belly danced, have walked on treadmills, have had amazing sex (of all kinds), and have eaten both healing herbs and too much plastic-enclosed, high-fructose corn syrup because we were too busy/poor/uninformed to do anything else.

I love each of those bodies. I do. I love my Sister's bodies. One of the greatest privileges of my life, and I say this as a completely straight (but not narrow) woman has been the opportunity to adore the bodies of my Sisters, scars, burns, fertility-treatment-changes, and all. I would be so much poorer had I never come to this religion where the Goddess commands:

Listen to the words of the Great Mother, Who of old was called Artemis, Astarte, Dione, Melusine, Aphrodite, Cerridwen, Diana, Arionrhod, Brigid, and by many other names:

Whenever you have need of anything, once a month, and better it be when the moon is full, you shall assemble in some secret place and adore the spirit of Me Who is Queen of all the Wise.

You shall be free from slavery, and as a sign that you be free you shall be naked in your rites.

May it be so for you.