Archive for Spirit
What is a priestess?
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About 10 years ago, I went on a Vision Quest. One of my visions included women in long dark robes and head drapes moving around in a stone portico. When I recounted the image to my Quest teacher, I referred to the figures as “nuns”. My teacher suggested they might have been priestesses.
The shift from my traditional Western interpretation to one that is more inclusive was an important one for me. It caused me to begin thinking, “What is a priestess?”
I still wonder about that. I have a lot of images of Priestesses, mostly from readings such as The Mists of Avalon, tarot interpretations, etc. Images of divination and magical powers, flowing robes, and living separately from the world are the primary images I held of Priestesses.
Over the years, I have amended those images. Primarily, I believe Priestesses hold a lot of wisdom and knowledge, some of which they share and some which they hold within for a more appropriate time. Their wisdom is their power. And their wisdom comes from going within and exploring the Mystery of life.
I think that Priestess has much in common with Magician and Sorceress and Shaman in that she listens deeply to her intuition and her spiritual guides in order to better understand the truth. She creates and teaches with intention. She helps to focus intention and shift perspective, which – to me – is what magic is really all about.
While “ministering” is usually saved for ordained clergy, I believe that we all minister to others. And I think Priestesses minister to many.
I had a recent experience at the spring 2010 Womenspirit retreat in a Healing Circle that was guided by Lisa Michaels. It was a powerful experience for me: I was recovering from a recent hospitalization so I was one of the women in the center receiving healing energy. Lisa, with her loving, shining energy and confidence, led the ritual, calling in many spirit healers. There were other women encircling us, guiding and holding energy. The women were all exquisitely beautiful in the soft glow of candles as they acted as conduits and conductors of healing. I wrote this poem after that experience.
We gathered together,
those needing to receive healing
and those needing to give.
I sat in the center
With five other sisters,
open and receptive,
supported by
sisters, silk, and sacred water.
Energy channelers
formed a powerful ring around us –
one for each of the central six,
flowing among us.
The protective ones
created the outer circle,
holding energy
standing firm
creating a shield.
Priestess in the center,
guiding, calling in
Mother Mary, Roses, the Healing Hathors,
Isis, Quan Yin, Tara, others.
Encouraging everyone
to open and receive,
to let go of grief with sound from
our deepest depths.
Ageless wailing,
Distressing and evocative.
I was nourished,
opened then emptied,
rocked like a baby
and filled up again:
by gratitude
by the vision of
candlelit women
~~ maidens, mothers, crones ~~
who showed up.
Who sat or stood
with strength, grace, and beauty
Healers
Priestesses
Holy women
Giving the selfless gifts
of their time and energy and essence
in support of their sisters.
And the greatest gift of all
(this is the way Spirit works)
is that in blessing us six
they, too, received blessings.
We were all lifted up
By a wondrous web
of connection and sharing.
I struggle with thinking of myself as a Priestess. It seems such a high aspiration, and I am, well, just me. Yet I do know that I hold special and sacred abilities, and it doesn’t serve anyone for me to have inappropriate modesty about my role in this world.
So I am going to spend some time learning more about Priestessing… and how to serve my community and this world in doing that. It will be focused intention, which is a powerful force!
Kate is a multi-media artist, writer, and teacher who is grateful for the opportunities she has to co-create with Spirit and others. You can learn more about her business at www.TheCre8tiveFlow.com and read more of her writings at www.Kate-Stockman.blogspot.com.
Thanks Kate for submitting this beautiful article. If you are called to activate the priest/ess within, there is still time to join one of the upcoming fall Priest/ess Training’s. Home Study Course with Lisa Michaels begins Sept 8, Atlanta Circle with Lisa Michaels Full Weekend Format Begins Sept 11/12, North Georgia Circle One Day Format with Bonnie Salamon and Susan Kersey begins late September. As always we love your comments and insights.
Many blessings, Lisa
Get Growing
Posted by: | CommentsAnytime you want to be more, have more, or do more, in order to expand up and out in your personal or professional life, you have to develop a deeper stronger and more stable root system. Just like a tree, you are an organic living system comprised of the elemental forces of creation (Earth, Water, Air, Fire, and Spirit).
Each of the elements impact your organic living system and your ability to expand and bring into form any of your dreams and desires. The more consciously you know how to draw on, access, and work with the elements the more effectively you can strengthen your “inner root system” in order to expand and create.
Strengthening your “inner root system” requires something different with each element. With…
Earth you need to deepen your ability to create structure and form for your expansion and creations. They can only be as solid as your capacity to effectively hold and manage them in the physical earthly realm.
Water requires you to enhance your skill at magnetizing your desires by increasing your emotional maturity and learning to run clear, clean, emotional current.
Air calls for you to learn new mental and technological skills and create a more expansive and compelling vision to help you focus your intentions and actions for better results.
Fire asks you to align your actions, life force energy, and passion to fuel your dreams and desires that are for the highest good of everyone concerned and the planet.
Spirit urges you to express your essence more fully and to explore the creative outlets you feel called to bring into form in your personal and professional life.
Learning more about the elements and the ways they ignite your inner gifts and activate your personal power helps you strengthen your inner root system to expand into all you can be.
At Natural Rhythms our mission is to help you do just that. Assisting you to develop and stabilize your inner capacities what we work toward daily. We have two new classes beginning June 16 & 17 that can help you.
For those of you who want to expand your business our Natural Business Success 4 module teleseminar course begins June 16. And if you want to develop the foundational powers of the elements our NR100 Home Study course begins June 17. If you have time for both they very powerfully work hand in hand to reinforce and develop your capacity to work in alignment with the forces of creation.
There are also two more free events this week Expand Your Essential Creative Potential Webinar Sunday June 6 and on June 9 a free teleseminar on Natural Business Success.
Please contact me if you have any questions about either of these potent ways to strengthen your root system and skills.
Many blessings and much natural success, LIsa
A compass and a guide
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When someone is out in the forest with no compass or map, every direction looks almost the same. Which way do I walk? Where do I call for guidance? Is it safer to rest or keep walking?
While many of us have clarity about certain areas of our life, it is not uncommon to have specific situations arise where we feel a little lost or stuck. And there can be times when we feel no clear sense of direction at all.
The Natural Rhythms coaching sessions provide you with the vision and tools to better understand how you found yourself in your current situation, and more importantly how to clear a pathway to begin confidently moving in a clear direction with clear goals in mind. The Life Purpose Session helps you better understand how you interact with the world and the energies that naturally expression through you.
The Energy Clearing sessions help remove obstacles so you can see more clearly and confidently flow with life. And the Creation sessions empower you to open to your own innate wisdom and personal power so you can bring your authentic passions and visions into reality.
I cannot say enough positive things about how profoundly the Natural Rhythms work has impacted my personal healing, my clarity of vision, as well as my ability to better understand and accept both myself and the people around me. Stepping out of the forest and into the light of my deeper Spiritual Essence has brought me a freedom, confidence and joy which is difficult to put into words. I am so excited to be able to share these tools with others! What a great gift!
By NR Creation Coach Jeff Craft
It seems like today’s corporate world is full of more transition and change than ever before. And even when we truly desire a change and long to create something new in our lives and in our work we often feel some kind of inner resistance that makes our next steps seem unclear or even impossible. The power to create the lives we are meant to live, begins within each one of us. In Creation Coaching sessions I am honored to hold a container to help my clients to deeply listen themselves into awareness of inner resistance, outdated patterns or mental models that are holding them back. Awareness opens up the choice to release, to shift and to let go, enabling them to choose to step into creating new possibilities for themselves.
By NR Creation Coach Lynette McCormack
I am one of nine recently certified as a Natural Rhythms™ Creation Coach. Accessing the individuated teachings of Earth, Air, Water, Fire and Spirit is a continuous vocation of mine, and thus an ongoing process.
Each of the elements has opened doors inside me some of which were rusted shut, some had the handle soldered off, others open and shut like a back screen door on a windy day. Thru these incredible gateways to the core of creation, I have gotten to know myself in all my glory and all my shadow.
The beauty of creation is it is what it is and you are what and where you are right here right now. When you access your own inner nature thru the master teachers of creation, you can release, you can remove blocks, and you can decide how you want to re-create your life thru your own divine power.
If you yearn for a place where you can explore your truth want tools and space to see what your nature and your unique connection to the elements can do to bring your life into divine alignment, I invite you to work with one of our Creation Coaches. The sessions offered can make an immediate difference for anyone. If you are curious follow your own intuitive call … contact a Natural Rhythms Creation Coach™ and see where it leads you.
By NR Creation Coach Judy Keating
Between the Sun and the Rainbow …
Lay the road on which I traveled home, Sunday afternoon March 28, from the 6-day intensive Natural Rhythms 300 training, and Natural Rhythms Creation Coaching training. The depth of feeling about this experience was defying words, and so I just relished in the feelings, allowed the emotions to flow, thought about all the options now opening to me, and was excited to return home to take the first steps on my new path.
Up ahead the sky was darkening, and suddenly, all the Elements began to do an “as within, so without” dance. Rain began to sprinkle, then became a downpour, and out of nowhere, hail pelted my windshield. All the while, the sun continued to shimmer in my rearview mirror.
Suddenly, a rainbow appeared ahead, faint at first, then becoming stronger and more vibrant. It seemed to traverse a sunrise to sunset expanse. Next, a second rainbow appeared, this one closer to me, going all the way to the ground, with individual raindrops visible within the colors.
Then, it happened. The rainbow laid itself down on the ground directly in front of my car. As I approached to meet it, it seemed not to move. I was driving over the rainbow. The prisms of color remained suspended, a phenomenon that cannot actually happen, so it is said. But, when you are evoking the Elemental Forces of Creation, what was once not possible comes swiftly into focus, and provides the stepping stones for journeys of unimagined depth, joy, and beauty.
By NR Creation Coach Bonnie Salamon
The Natural Rhythms creative coaching training gave me an additional tool that will enhance my clients experience to the elements in their private sessions. Thank you Lisa for your lens that bring a richness to aligning with natures magic.
By NR Creation Coach Cherie Lyon
The Goddess Temple of Orange County
Posted by: | CommentsTwo weeks ago, I entered the doorway of
the beautiful Goddess Temple of Orange County, California. I heard about the temple the week before from a lovely woman, Vajra Ma, sitting next to me on the last day at the Woman of Wisdom Conference in Seattle.
She had also presented at the conference and as we discussed our love of dance and where we were traveling to next we discovered we would both be in Southern California. She told me about the Goddess Temple and her presentation about the Natural Spiritual Authority of Woman. I was thrilled when I realized I could be there.
Eve Ensler: Embrace your inner girl
Posted by: | CommentsThis talk helps create a deeper understanding of the experience of the feminine aspect of men and women.
Description from TED talks…In this passionate talk, Eve Ensler declares that there is a girl cell in us all — a cell that we have all been taught to suppress. She tells heartfelt stories of girls around the world who have overcome shocking adversity and violence to reveal the astonishing strength of being a girl.
Eve Ensler created the ground-breaking Vagina Monologues, whose success propelled her to found V-Day — a movement to end violence against women and girls everywhere.
Direct Link http://www.ted.com/talks/eve_ensler_embrace_your_inner_girl.html
Feeding the Soul of the Feminine
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At four o’clock this morning I woke up still wrestling with an inner question I have been working on for months. I had spent the afternoon and evening preparing a new video blog on the dancing priestess process and was just too tired to send it out at 9:30 when it was complete.
There was one line in the blog that as I tossed and turned kept surfacing in my mind…Dance is a primary form of worship of the Goddess. I realized as twilight dawned that a part of me, even after 11 years of being a high priestess and facilitating over 30 priest/ess circles, was still afraid of publicly making such a statement.
At each new level of development as I have made my way through the years of being a priestess I have had to clear old fears and internal patterns. Cellular memory runs deep. I have found the years of persecution as patriarchy took over the Goddess temples and imprint of the burning times were layered in my consciousness. And they have gotten released and healed one layer at a time.
Read More→
Practical Dancing Priestess
Posted by: | CommentsIf you, or someone you know, has a heart that opens and a spirit that sings when it dances (no matter training level, size, shape, or age) then you need to know about what is happening this year in Atlanta. Please forward this link to anyone else you know that this might speak to…
For the first time ever there will be a process starting that will help you increase your body’s ability to bring spirit into matter and your consciousness to more fully connect to the Divine. In the Practical Dancing Priestess process you will activate the inner priestess (or charge her more fully) and connect to the sacredness of dance to increase your capacity to channel Divine Essence into your life.
This creates powerful authentic movement to unify the desires and dreams of your spirit in order to manifest them into physical form. Find out more by watching the presentation below…
Dancing Practical Priestess
Posted by: | Comments“We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars…the stars form a circle, and in the center we dance.” Rumi, 13th century
Your inner priestess forms the part of your consciousness that directly connects you with the Divine. When activated and practically applied to any area of life or creative pursuit, the priestess within helps you bring Spirit into the physical world. The priestess archetype deepens your ability to fully run the energy of the Divine through the temple of your body and dance in step to the sacred rhythms of nature.
Read More→
Dancing Your Body Temple
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A temple is a structure reserved for spiritual activities; such as prayer and the worship of a divinity. Often seen as the dwelling place of the Divine, a temple provides sacred containment for reverence, devotion, and connecting one’s soul to Spirit.
The body is often referred to as a holy vessel or a temple. Understanding and aligning with Spirit within your body temple can provide you with a clear and direct inner path to the Divine. Hidden among the layers of skin, muscle, blood, and bone resides the creational glue of the universe.
Comprised of the fundamental forces – Earth, Water, Air, Fire, and Spirit – your body provides you with a portal to the core essence of creation. The rich matter that make up your cells flow in harmony with the universe when you honor the forces of the Divine within and dance in time to the rhythmic pulse of cosmos.
Celestial Timing Tango
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Working with the rhythmic timings of nature is like listening to the music when you dance. There is a certain musical point when it is most effective to begin the movement or step on to the dance floor – the count of one. The same holds true for the creational dance of your life. Certain points make the best time to take powerful and intentional steps into the flow of creation.
Both the sun and the moon have great points for stepping in. The sun makes points in a solar yearly cycle while the lunar cycle creates a conscious entrance point each month on the new moon. The problem is most of us have forgotten to listen to the celestial music Mother Nature plays so that we can dance in harmony with her rhythms.
If you forgot to listen to the music during the tango you would never be effective or be filled with the feeling of grace. There is something magical that happens when you step in time to the music and coordinate your steps with grace and harmony. When you are in rhythm, an amazing feeling begins to flow inside which uplifts, centers, balances, and energizes you.




