Who is the Sacred Feminine? An Experiential Exploration

What I have learnt most from my initiation into the Sacred Feminine is that she is not society’s ideal woman.  She feels everything unashamedly and she can be with all of her emotions.  She doesn’t feel obliged to giving anything other than her authentic presence. If she feels like shit she doesn’t put her face on with a happy smile and keep it all inside for it to blow up into some insidious fight later….she cancels her plans if she needs to and brings her attention inward, willing to do the work to come back to an open heart, not contracting against anything that she is feeling or anyone else is feeling.

Any significant relationship (weather you are in a male body or female body) is an initiation the sacred feminine (although at the human level your partner may not know this).   Without the sacred feminine, we experience endless cycle of suffering.  She touches us to love with an open heart and to feel everything without shame.

The Sacred Feminine embodies the four major archetypes: Mother, Amazon (Warrior Woman) Lover, Medial or Priestess.  The Mother bathes us in her unconditional love.  The Amazon teaches us to create Healthy Boundaries stand up for our selves and be willing to see and face the truth.  The lover teaches us to rest in our hearts and bodies and have a sensual appreciation for love and life.  The medium teaches us to be empty…to be a conduit for Spirit and let go of the mind.

The mystery of each of these archetypes is truly revealed when we feel them…so I will attempt to help you to do this.

Mother (The Rose):  First, I invoke the Mother who is nurturing, who has what you need, who can be there for you, show up for the child inside of you, and who can support you in your own mothering.  She is devoted to the burning sacred heart of unconditional love.  She has a tender compassion for every single living thing.  She is the Divine Rose that is creation, sustaining and renewing life. Imagine yourself in a place where you would like to meet this inner mother.

If you feel you weren’t adequately mothered this inner mother can support you in those areas, fill in where you didn’t receive loving nurturing mothering energy.   Close your eyes and look around, in your imagination, where can you meet this inner mother?  see what there is to see, hear what there is to hear, ground yourself, notice how you feel in your body….Call her forth.  what does she look like?

If you have a connection to Mother Mary, it may be Mother Mary who comes to you…feel her purity, compassion and stillness…feel and see her arms outspread, welcoming all of you into here heart.   How does she sound, what is the energy that comes forth from her to you.  If you would like to bring in your own inner child to meet her you can do that.  You may be surprised what appears, or not, simply allow, allow, trust that what comes forth in this moment is perfect for this moment.

The way of the feminine is to surrender, to trust, to value intuition over mental knowing.  So open your intuition now, your feeling body…trust.  How can she support you in your life right now today?  What kind of support and nourishment do you need from her?  Is it a hug? Kind words?  or do you simply need to know she support you, she loves you no matter what.  Hear her say I love you just the way you are.  take some time to be with her is there something you want to share with her is there something you want to ask of her…ask her for support and loving nourishment while you go through the process of healing the inner child this weekend.  Maybe you just need to be held, sit in the mothers lap, we are never too old to sit in the mothers lap.

Simply receive from this mother.  If you need help with your own mothering you can ask her to show you, to teach you how to mother your child, how to mother your inner child, how to nurture yourself.  Sometimes thats where we need the most help, is in nurturing and loving ourselves.

Take the time now to be with her, receive from her, get to know her.  Just receive her love into your heart.  Now become her.  Feel that she is with you always now to mother your inner child and to shine the light of love, compassion and forgiveness to others.  Feel the power of your heart to bring lightness, healing and sunshine into your life and the life of others.

The Amazon (The Warrior):  The Amazon is our greatest ally.  She creates Healthy Boundaries, setting limits for Personal well-being and self-respect. She is never a Victim! She is prepared to lovingly stand up for your self and make choices that serve her highest good and she helps us to face our fears and be committed to the Truth of our own Soul.

Of all the archetypes, when our Amazon is in shadow, it is perhaps the most dangerous, to ourselves and others.  We cannot protect ourselves.  We are people pleasers and see other people’s “yes” as more important than our “no”.  When our amazon is in shadow, we may feel completely ineffectual, unassertive, and incapable of making or following through with a plan or a task.  A woman with a passive shadow Amazon may be unreliable vis a vis time, commitments, or agreements.

She does not create boundaries for herself, so people invade her space or walk all over her.  She thinks that she is to blame for everything and is very hard on herself, having no idea how to protect her inner child.  She may be disabled by her fears, low on confidence and self-esteem, afraid to ask for what she wants or needs.  Shadow Amazon can also appear defensive, aggressive, invasive, disrespectful of others and their boundaries–a “tough girl”.  She projects her anger energetically or verbally and its extremely volatile.

Fear is behind this behavior but it is hidden, and most likely, her vulnerability is not even felt.  These behaviors or her “Guardian” arose to protect the child in difficult circumstances.  It can be transformed when the fear and vulnerability are met and felt.  The shadow Amazon serves the ego and fear rather than the deepest Truth.

How well do you OWN YOUR RAGE? Suppressed Rage is most certainly Amazon in shadow.  It comes from years and years of playing nicey nicey, avoiding conflict until you have so much inside of you, you project it passively and/or eventually blow up then feel guilty for it…until the next time. Anger does not go away no matter how much love and light we drench ourselves in. The only way to release our anger is to really let ourselves feel it without letting the feelings become thoughts…surrender to our bellies and express and release that potent powerful energy in our own time, without projection. Enter the internal red tent and do the work. When we are in tune with our own powers and have learned how to harness our feminine fire, we can redirect it away from relationships (partners, our children, our mothers and fathers) and toward Creativity, toward Transformation, toward the good of Humanity…it is here that the feminine is unstoppable. When we can use the passion inside of us to alchemise suffering into consciousness…to turn our hearts into a temple of fire….to be transmuted into glowing ambers that spread inspiration, warmth, love, laughter and yes, light. Suppressing or denying our anger and trying to skip straight to love and light by putting a spiritual mask on does not work. It catches up with you.

The anger eventually leaks out…and then its more destructive and repugnant than ever….and stays in the Shadows….denied.   I invite you to give yourself permission to feel, express and release your anger. Not just yours, but the anger held in your ancestral line.  If you can consciously observe your anger, ad express and release it when it comes up, rather than frustrations building up….you are moving the energy consistently so that it can transmuted into feminine power and you can radiate and glow like a warm burning fire rather than a scolding all consuming fire that leaves a trail of destruction in its wake. Including your own destruction.  Anger is the most powerful emotion…if it is channelled with self-responsibility. The journey to the Sacred feminine embracing and celebrating ALL of yourself – your light, your dark, your humanity, your divinity, and Reality….behind the masks.

A path lived with a mask on is well paved (and well-trodden) with thousands of people on either side of it cheering you on. It makes you feel seen. Important. Special. Like you are being recognized and celebrated.  You have lots of friends on this path.

The other path is a little quiet.  Hushed. With no cheering crowds. It is your own path, you are not trying to fit in or impress, just walk your true path and be yourself. There is no need here to be seen in any way other than in our authentic truth.  If you choose this path there will be no need to impress or recieve external acknowledgement, no need for an audience, no competition, no comparison, no jealousy, no desire to appear better than.

Initiatory Prayer: Warrioress teach me to serve the Truth, and to tell the Truth– especially to myself.

Close your eyes and feel her energy in your body.  Imagine you are her.  This feminine who has healthy Boundaries—who can set Limits for Personal Well-Being and self-respect. Who is never a Victim! Feel her strong and willing to face her fears and face the Truth.  The Amazon lives and acts from her heart and knows how show up for herself, for others, and for what she has committed herself.  She is scrupulous in our inner work, faithful and devoted to something beyond her own ego, and how she will appear, to the underlying, impersonal Truth.  Her energy calls and strengthens you to meet your fears, your traumas and wounds, and to face your shadow.  She is courageous.

We can call on our Amazon to provide strength and protection to the child within.  She is essential to creating the safety needed for our inner children to come forth.  Amazon boundaries are also essential to creating healthy friendships and intimate relationships.  Often our greatest Amazon challenges are to be faithful to the Truth as we know it, especially when our ego doesn’t like it or want it, and to not abandon ourselves, to stay present to ourselves.  The first step is telling ourselves the Truth and then another even if it means risking losing that persons love..which if we do was not real love anyway.

Can you feel her energy in your body?   This amazon is in you.  This energy is in you.  Her energy is strong clear decisive she loves and serves the truth and while she may not be fearless she is willing to meet her fear, willing to do things with fear alive inside of her bc she knows that courage is not the absence of fear but the strength to do something even when the fear is alive.  Where in your life do you need amazon energy right now?  Is there a situation, a relationship?  Is it some fear that you have that you are ready to take on now?  Is there a truth you are ready to face now?  A truth you are ready to give to someone else? or to an aspect of yourself? Invoke her courage, her willingness to serve the truth, he willingness to show up.  Do you need to show up for the child inside of you?  If no one showed up for you when you were small, you now have the opportunity to protect yourself.  This amazon can be fiercely protective of the child…coming from her heart.  Invite her in.  Feel what happens when you bring her energy and her presence to a particular situation.  Know that you can call on her anytime.  If you are in the middle of a confrontation with someone or if you’re in a situation where decisiveness is required.  Call on her now.  Who do you need to have a conversation with?  Someone who you need to assert boundaries with?  Your inner child?

The Lover compliments the Amazon beautifully.  She is the energy within us that fires our longing for the Mystery and sources our journey Home to Self realization.  Longing is the energy and the path that takes us to the Mystery.  We may attach our longing to many external objects, like relationship, money, status, substances, chocolate, but, when we truly follow our longing to its Source, we realize that all longing is for the Sacred and that can be fulfilled by meeting the longing.  The Lover brings compassion and kindness to ourselves, as well as to others.

The bright Lover archetype within us is like a playful, uninhibited, three-year-old. She enjoys touch and intimacy and wants to engage the world with her body, her senses, and her heart. Eros, relationship with others and with ourselves, with animals and the natural world, are primary to the Lover within. Our bright Lover is sensual, sexual, embodied, creative, inquisitive, and in touch with her emotions. The Lover in us usually feels that more is better, and is not crazy about boundaries. To have healthy relationships, we have to have boundaries and the help of our Amazon.

The Lover falls into shadow when we are traumatized, abandoned, sexually abused, or in some way hurt as children.  She can also fall into shadow after a rape, an abusive relationship, or a deep loss of someone we love.  If we had mothers and fathers who didn’t know how to make contact with us, or didn’t hold us or truly see us, our Lover may not feel safe enough to come forth.  The shadow Lover is often disembodied, may have a distorted image of her body, may carry excess weight, health problems, chronic accidents, or be anorexic or bulimic.  She feels deep shame about her body and her being, and may abuse drugs, food, or her own body.  The shadow Lover can can overdo everything, override her own needs and her body’s needs.  Relationships can become very addictive and a hell realm for women whose Lover is in shadow.  The wounding of this archetype within us can also deaden our creativity and our sexuality, as well as our ability to feel our feelings.  Unhealthy seductress is also part of Lover in shadow as her self esteem is based on how much she is desired.

The healthy Lover knows that  most important person in your life who can give you consistent, warm, nurturing, loving personal support and acknowledgement is yourself. She knows and practices this. As we become more responsible for our own needs and wants, our ability to be in our authentic self heightens and we can experience a peaceful safety and assurance that all our needs and wants will be met, even if others are withdrawing. The magic of self-care, self-esteem and self-love is that we no longer feel the pull to enmesh with another because we have this fulfilling healthy intimacy with ourselves. We can begin to exercise our “belief” muscles like we exercise our physical muscles, and have more than a new body, we have a new life. Try saying right now, I LOVE YOU (say your name), I really really love you. You are wonderful and totally acceptable just as you are. You dont need to be or please anyone other than yourself. And smile as you place a hand of your heart, imagining breathing love into yourself from your heart.

The Divine LOVER teaches us to rest in our heart and be in our body, to come to love ourselves,  our body and all of  life with a sense of wonder and joy.

The Medial/Priestess:  I am now going to invoke the medial woman within you.  Imagine yourself transported to a place where you can meet the inner mystic.  She is priestess, healer, ritual maker, shaman, magi.  Perhaps you have a sacred place in your home in your garden out in nature somewhere.  Imagine yourself there and call the medial forth.  She could appear as the crone, the wise woman, she could be young or old and may not have a form.  Trust however she comes.  She could be a shapeshifter and change her appearance each time. Notice how she looks, her demeanour, how do you feel in her presence.  What is she like?  How does she meet you?  How does she look upon you?  How could you use her gifts in your life at this time?  Do you need to fall in love with the unknown…thats one of her specialties.  Do you want to become more trusting of your own intuition and guidance.

She can teach you how to listen to the silence to that still small voice of your soul within you.  She can show you how to connect with nature how to see beyond the obvious she can teach you to pray is there something you want to pray for ask her to show you how.  If you need ritual in your life, she knows how to make ritual.  She knows how to invoke energy healing…are you stepping forth in your life in some new way as teacher, healer, priestess, artist.  She can support and serve you in that process.  She can help you connect with your own spiritual authority.

Teach you to trust it.  So talk with her ask her what you need to ask he.  Bring her into an area of your life where she can offer you wisdom and presence.  Embodiment is important to the medial, ask her to show you how to strengthen your body to carry the energy, the shakti….divine feminine life force energy.  If you have a question put it forth, you may or may not hear something now.  You can know that at some point the clear guidance will come to you.  So spend some time with her now.  Get to know her.  Get to know this part of you.

It is the archetypal energy in us that sends us on a search for knowledge: spiritual, metaphysical, psychological, intellectual, scientific, technical—all kinds.  She draws us to the Unknown—or the Unknown draws us to it via the Medial archetype.  Initiation teaches us to fall in love with the Unknown, and get comfortable with not knowing anything.  It’s such a paradox.  The Medial loves to understand how things work, and often becomes a “technician” of the sacred, serving as healer, shaman, ritual maker, and priestess.

The Medial serves as the receiver from other dimensions: dreams, visions, art, music, poetry, healing energy, insights, instruction, guidance, information, dharma, and endless other possibilities. This Medial archetype can bring us a great deal of sensitivity to energy, sensation, feelings, and numerous unseen and unacknowledged things happening in our field of awareness, which might extend beyond our own bodies to our families and the world.  Medials tune things in, and this can be a wonderful gift when it is in service to healing and awakening, and it can feel like a curse when it creates an overload and we can’t then find ourselves.  Medial women are challenged to be open and at the same time learn how to screen out what is not wanted and protect themselves from the onslaught of too much input.  One of the major tasks of a predominantly Medial woman is embodiment.  We have much more to contribute more effectively when we are grounded in our bodies.

Initiations in the Medial realms call us to impeccability, high levels of discernment, and scrupulousness in our own inner work and our service to the Sacred.  We must learn and be committed to the right use of spiritual powers.  Initiations call us to address our healership and life as a priestess, legitimacy in a patriarchal world, and visibility in the world as a Medial Woman.  This can be scary, as we carry the collective memory of the witch hunts.  This work leads us to take our place in the world as healers, and empowers us as priestesses and ritual makers.   Initiation teaches us to learn to listen deeply to our hearts and our bodies, as well as to the Silence, and it brings us to a place of recognizing the Voice of internal spiritual authority.

A suggested Ritual: Choose an area of your life for which you would like some guidance, some clarity, then take a Medicine Walk.  Drop your question into your heart and take a walk. Observe what you see, hear, touch, smell.  Pay attention, don’t think, analyze, judge, or try to figure anything out.  Be empty, don’t know anything, open to everything, and see what comes to you.  Ask the Goddess to teach you to fall in love with the unknown, and to rest in not knowing anything.  Ask her to teach me to trust your intuition and magical abilities .Write a description of what you experience, without interpretation. Then see how it relates to your question.  Nature is a pure reflection – it will tell you the Truth and you will hear it if you are empty, and willing to not know anything.

Say to the Sacred Feminine:  I am ready.  Ask her to turn up her volume in your daily life and learn to listen to her when she calls you.  Over time and with practice you will learn to discern her voice from the myriad of other voices running around your mind and body.  She is constantly communicating with you but it takes a willingness to become accustomed to her language which is different from your ego or fast, witty mind or event the love and light language of your spirit.  She speaks best through dreams metaphors symbols synchronicities, your body and your feelings always communicating simple but powerful life changing messages,  This job is not right for you.  Stop trying to be so spiritually correct.  Stop thinking so much and start dancing more.  Don’t take life so seriously, laugh love and enjoy.   Ask questions you cant figure out with your mind and dare to hear the answer….have a moon bath, spend time in nature, listen to that friend, speak your truth to that person, go on that date, play with your children, breathe, Deeper, cry harder, laugh louder, get messy, get clean.  Your not alone.  She’s got your back.  Remember.  She is right here all the time.

Soon your soul will start to feel like a palpable presence you are intimately a part of and she of you and you invite her more and more into your bodies awareness by consciously sitting with her, dancing with her, moving and listening and speaking and touching and loving as her.  Undoubtedly there will come a time when she will demand even more of your conscious attention,  When the pressure to know and love and unleash your soul self will move up a notch or ten.  There will come a time when you will be asked to come forwrd, closer still till closer has meaning no longer.  and it will thrilling and terrifying and gorgeous and annoying and there will be days you question everything and tell the universe to screw itself and other days you will be trusting everything and telling the universe to bring it even more.