I started an online community! It's called Soul Revolution, and it's a place where we can practice realigning with nature and being our most authentic selves together! Membership is free. Check it out here:
https://www.skool.com/soul-revolution
In my masters degree program, my concentration was on women and the divine feminine in western antiquity.
Did you know the purpose of building cathedrals was to disconnect people from their direct experience with the divine? Once empire forced Christianity to go inside, people became disconnected from the place they'd always found the divine — outside!
Pre-Christian European traditions held strong beliefs in feminine forms of the divine, most commonly calling her some version of Natura or Dame Nature (this is the origin of our phrase Mother Nature today). She was seen as the creator and sustainer of all life on earth, and she was often personified as various water goddesses — since water is life. The Druids called her Danu, goddess of the Danube river. The Celts attributed water goddesses with each water spring throughout their region. And a Romano-Gallic image of Sequana, goddess of the Seine river, can still be found today at the river’s source in France.
Since Pre-Christian tribes believed the waters were already divine/sacred/holy and feminine, going into them to be baptized and rebirthed was an easy sell for the empire that was using Christianity to homogenize culture.
When the empire began solidifying its spiritual monocrop with cathedrals, people were forced to look for god indoors rather than experiencing god through a direct experience outdoors where god actually resides.
Once baptism was brought inside the cathedrals, the water suddenly required sanctification (to be made holy), since it was no longer Natura's holy waters that were being used. And, of course, this sanctification process required the authority of a priest (who, of course, happened to be male).
One of the main aims of the Soul Revolution community is to empower us to break free from the stories we’ve been sold by empire. You'll be invited to challenge the limitations empire has placed on you and to reawaken the ancient wisdom in your DNA. You won't do this alone. We’ll do this together.
We'll learn how to align with nature’s cycles, interpret nature's wisdom, and celebrate the rhythms of the earth. We’ll learn how to play with the energies, archetypes, and practices of each season so we can grow in harmony with nature.
November 1 — the halfway point between fall equinox and winter solstice — was observed by all of our ancestors. My ancestors called this day Samhain. They believed it was the day of the year when the veil between the physical world and the spiritual world is the thinnest. The divine feminine and divine masculine archetypes associated with this 6-week season between now and late December are the feminine Mystic and the masculine Magician. These are parts within all of us, regardless of gender, who:
Have the ability to alchemize. Our inner Mystic and Magician know how to take the shit (fertilizer) of life — our losses, griefs, sufferings, pains, wounds, hurts, hangups — and use them as compost to bring about new chapters, new lives, new identities, new perspectives.
Trust personal intuition. Our inner Mystic and Magician know they can trust their inner compass for direction, rather than looking for external guidance or instruction. These parts of us know Source speaks to each of us in a unique language only we can understand.
Stand on the shoulders of lineages. Our inner Mystic and Magician are connected to not only our ancestral lineages but also the plural paths we've taken and been exposed to that made it possible for us to be who we are today. These parts us of know that those who brought us this far won't abandon us now.
Step into the role of teacher. Our inner Mystic and Magician hear the call to teach. These parts of us don't teach from the book. These energies within us enable us to teach from a place of integrated wisdom — a place of personal experience that makes concepts come alive and feel real.
As I sat in ceremony with fellow travelers this weekend, I had a direct experience with the divine. My inner Mystic showed me several intentions I'm carrying into this season with me:
She reminded me of the source of true authority — inside of me.
I remembered a memory from when I was 4 years old and I was already a brewmaster/ brewmeister (Greek origin master, Latin origin teacher). In ceremony, I suddenly remembered a song I used to sing when I was 4. The words were, Stirring and stirring and stirring my brew…ooooo…ooooo…
I heard my ancestors tell me to live before I die. And I felt connected to the lineage of the evolutionary process itself.
I took a big step into the Dharma shoes I'm here to fill. I'm stepping into my most audaciously authentic life. I'm flapping my wings as a butterfly who has emerged from the cocoon. I'm building the system that will allow me to deliver you my goods🍯.
If you want to set some intentions of your own for this season, here are some prompts you can meditate on or journal on: What does it feel like to trust your inner ability to alchemize? How good does it feel to trust your intuition instead of questioning it or second-guessing it? How many teachers, mentors, and ancestors had to align perfectly in history for you to even be here? And with whom are you being called to share your wisdom? Do you feel any resistance to embracing your inner Mystic or Magician? Can you show those resistant parts of you compassion rather than judgment? Can you tell them thank you?
We are waking up, we are going back outside, and we are remembering! We are having direct experiences again, we are reconnecting to mama nature, and we are getting free from empire. We are not doing it alone.
It's time to tap into the revolutionary power within us! Let's walk this journey toward freedom and reclamation together!
See you there!
https://www.skool.com/soul-revolution
Bibliography
Blamires, Alcuin. “Beneath the Pulpit.” In Medieval Women’s Writing, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Hernandez, Albert. “The Merrie Month of May: Nature, Pentecost, & the Holy Grail.”
Jensen, Robin M. Living Water: Images, Settings, and Symbols of Early Christian Baptism in the West. Ann Arbor: Columbia University Press, 1991.
Jones, Prudence, and Nigel Pennick. A History of Pagan Europe. New York: Routledge, 1995.
Macy, Gary. “The Ordination of Women in the Early Middle Ages.” Theological Studies 61, no. 3 (2000).
Newman, Barbara. “Did Goddesses Empower Women? The Case of Dame Nature.” In Gendering the Master Narrative: Women and Power in the Middle Ages, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003.
Ruether, Rosemary R. Goddesses and the Divine Feminine: A Western Religious History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.
Ward, Jennifer. Women in Medieval Europe, 1200-1500. New York: Pearson
Love that you started Soul Revolution and can’t wait to learn from you and develop practices for each season. LFG!