Remembering our Sisterhood, Celebrating the Feminine
The New Moon is a powerful time for setting intentions, for taking time to reflect on what’s been and where you want to step forward. Participating in this reflective energy within a Circle of Women is especially potent. It’s a safe and nurturing feminine space where you’ll be heard and held in all that comes.
“Women are the spinners and the weavers, no matter how deeply we lose ourselves in the dark woods, we can always picture the shining thread of the river, far off in the distance. Women know how to find the way out of the woods; we have only to remember that we know it”. (Sharon Blackie – If Women Rose Rooted)
There are many times in our lives when we are faced with this aspect of the dark woods, or, long dark night of the soul. It’s often a lonely space we inhabit at some point in our lives, where we feel lost and alone – and we stumble.
It may be like we’re feeling stuck in a rut, yet aware of the urge of our creativity calling to be expressed. We may feel the ache of something missing but don’t know here to find it. We may feel the call of a different path to the one we’re on and feel trapped or stuck. We may be caught in the hold of a grief that feels like it may never pass. All of these feelings and situations are natural terrain in any person’s lifetime.
Often when we look back, we can see that in these dark moments, there were treasures to be found. There were insights, epiphanies and understandings that could only be discovered in the deep, rich and fertile soul at the roots of the tree – that weren’t to be found among its branches. And we also find, often in hindsight, that there was always a thread leading us out of the darkness, even if at the time, we felt completely lost.
There are always lights in the darkness that help us find our way – left by the women who have gone before us – who have walked the path themselves and left us markers to shine a way out the other side. Many of us have walked, or are walking, a similar path. When you boil it all down, there is a striking similarity to the soul journeys that we take – at their very core – the same unmet needs, wounding, desires, search for heart felt connection – desperation to be seen and understood.
For hundreds of years, it was common for women to come together and support each other in the unfolding stories of our lives. We were present for each other during the birth of each other’s children, at the time of menstruation, companions in cooking, sewing and in raising each other’s children. We would share the critical moments of our lives – the good stuff as well as hardship and despair. We would laugh together, cry together and grieve together.
Over the course of history, we’ve lost touch with many of these ancient practices of genuine interconnection. We’ve lost our circles of women. We have become individuated, living separate lives in independent spaces, often lonely and in search of a greater sense of connection and understanding. In need of being REALLY seen, REALLY heard.
These days, genuine opportunities to connect are harder to find and we often need to actively seek out ways to fulfil this intrinsic need in all of us. We may discover inspiration suddenly in the lines of a poem or the words of a song. Comfort, solace and understanding may develop from a chance conversation with a complete stranger. The chance for healing and connection is there, we just need to be open to the search for it.
When we sit in Circle, we sit as part of a global remembering of Sisterhood and celebration of the Feminine. We create together a space that supports the collaboration of women, working together, and offering their unique gifts to the world. We enter into the act of genuine LISTENING. We are witnessed in our SHARING. We are held to commit to our own intent. And we are seen for our STRIVING. We participate in a sense of rhythm and ritual which we innately recognise as a connection to something deeper than ourselves. And we often sit in an act of creativity together, weaving our wishes, desires, hopes and intentions into our work to create a powerful alchemy for change.
Circle work honours the journey, the challenges, the aspects of the distinct phases of woman hood –wherever we find yourselves – the maiden, the mother, the crone. We become lights for each other – not by ‘fixing’ each other, but through the sharing of our own stories. Our own experience. For you never know when your story becomes medicine for someone else.
Become the light!