Beauty and Strength

And back to the very, very beginning

Greetings!

Happy New Moon today; this is an excellent time to plant new seeds of focus and intent. Where do you want to put your energy and attention in the coming days?

We are also stepping into the Year of the Dragon… The Wood Dragon year 2024, when combined with the nourishing Wood element, will bring evolution, improvement, and abundance; it is the perfect time for rejuvenated beginnings and setting the foundation for long-term success.

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This morning I’m feeling cleansed and empty; yesterday my friend jesikah and I did a traditional temazcal ceremony with a curandera in Teotihuacán, Mexico. A temazcal (from the Nahuatl temazcalli , 'house where you sweat', from temaz , 'sweat', and calli , 'house') refers to a pre-Hispanic ritual and in turn a steam bath of medicinal and aromatic herbs used in medicine traditional and the daily life of the towns of central Mexico.

Being cleansed with copal by doña Concepción before I entered the temazcal. Photo taken by our fire tender, Duvi.

We entered into the brick womb and over several hours in the dark and heat doña Concepción gently guided us back in time. First we traveled to different ages - five years in the past, 10 years in the past, 20 years in the past - remembering and releasing what no longer served us. She brought us through being 5 years old all the way back to being in the womb, and for a long time we lay in the warm, wet darkness, bringing in the nourishment from our mother.

Then doña Concepción asked: Do you know who you are? Where do you come from?

We both gave the wrong answer. She reminded us: you are not your name, you are not just from your parents, you are much, much older. Keep going back.

She guided us back to the beginning of life: to the big bang, the fire at the center of the earth and the slowly cooling mantle, the thousands upon thousands of years of steam and heated waters, to the first single cell organisms.

We all come from that original explosive fire, from the heat of the oceans and a single-cell organism, and the long, creative evolution ever since.

May we remember that inner spark, that we come from fire, warm waters, evolving microorganisms. We come from the union of ovum and sperm colliding, and cells dividing to become form. We come from the mystery, star dust, ocean tides, love. We are a miracle, constantly manifesting.

Fire and rocks with heated herb mixes

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Today I share one of my favorite poem / prayers. I carried a tattered copy of these words around with me everywhere when I was in my 20’s. It is an honoring of the Goddess, a invocation to embody the Divine.

There is also a New Moon meditation for our Phoenix pod (my nickname for Out of the Fire paid subscribers…)

But first, an invitation….

tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow

There is still time to join me for my workshop tomorrow, Saturday, February 10th called Living the Warrior Goddess Way. I'm offering this online event it as a delicious pay-what-you-can from $1 to $147

I’m so excited for tomorrow’s Living the Warrior Goddess Way workshop! I’ll be sharing practices and tools from Warrior Goddess Training: Become the Woman You Are Meant to Be, and from my upcoming book Wild, Willing, Wise: An Interactive Guide for When to Paddle, When to Rest, and When to Jump Naked into the River of Life. 

This is a brand new workshop — I’ve never taught these tools and practices like this before — and you get to choose how much to pay (from $1 to $197, it’s your choice!).

Learn more and register today… warriorgoddess.com/theway

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Going Home • https://www.etsy.com/shop/HolgaJen • if you love this image support Jen by checking out her Etsy store

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Charge of the Goddess

I who am the beauty of the green earth and the white moon
among the stars and the mysteries of the waters,
I call upon your soul to arise and come unto me.
For I am the soul of nature that gives life to the universe.

From Me all things proceed and unto Me they must return.
Let My worship be in the heart that rejoices,
for behold-- all acts of love and pleasure are My rituals.

Let there be beauty and strength,
power and compassion,
honor and humility,
mirth and reverence within you.

And you who seek to know Me,
know that your seeking and yearning will avail you not,
unless you know the Mystery:
for if that which you seek,
you find not within yourself,
you will never find it without.

For behold, I have been there with you from the beginning,
and I am that which is attained at the end of desire.

~ adapted by Starhawk in The Spiral Dance