A Letter to Women Around the World by Camille Maurine

A must-read for all women interested in the Divine Feminine!

In the wee hours of the night, with rays of the full moon seeping though the window shades, I was awake and listening. I was sensing the body of our sweet planet, nestled in the breast of the galaxy, embraced in the arms of the Cosmic Mother. I felt the presence of women around the globe, gentle, thrumming heartbeats, pulsing with passion for life. I was hearing the call – the call you must hear in your own way – to unite our feminine forces at this critical time on Earth.

I have a proposal for you – woman to woman, heart to heart.

We live in an unprecedented era of possibility, a pivotal point in human evolution. Our capacity to destroy vies with our capacity to create; the threat is dire and the outcome uncertain. Some say that human nature cannot change, that the legacy of war and violence will never end. I wrestle with this: Deep change happens so slowly – how will we ever make it? But I know, from the inside out, the reality of transformation within an individual. I also know that individuals joining together in creative consciousness ARE a force of nature, inestimably powerful, with the potential to affect the course of history for good.

What if…?

…We are poised at the portal of a collective spiritual initiation. Not a new thought; teachers have voiced this perception before. Now consider: the essential role of women in this passage.

Continue reading “A Letter to Women Around the World by Camille Maurine”

“Charge of the Goddess”

I who am the beauty of the green earth
and the White Moon on 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 the 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 with out.
For behold,
I have been with you from the beginning,
And I am that which is attained at the end of desire.

Doreen Valiente, “Earth Prayers”

See “The Priestess Process” and “Events” for a unique spiritual and personal empowerment path for women.

Enlightening the Shadow Between Women

The human experience in a female body comes with a particular overlay as we move out of patriarchal times. Not only do we tend to repress & deny our essence qualities simply because of cultural conditioning, as women, we also tend to experience internal sexism towards our own gender. For example, “normal” cultural conditioning might say “never questions authority, “ while patriarchal conditioning will say “male authority has more validity”. Mary Pipher, Ph.D, in her book “Reviving Ophelia” talks about how this works in early adolescence, calling it “rigorous training for the female role or “false–self training.” She says “at this time girls are expected to sacrifice the parts of t themselves that our culture considers masculine on the altar of social acceptability and to shrink their souls down to a petite size. The rules are: be attractive, be a lady, be unselfish and of service, make relationships work and be competent without complaint. She calls America a “girl-destroying place” because there is so much encouragement from all aspects of the culture to sacrifice the true self.

The result of this indoctrination into niceness and lack of authenticity is that the real self gets pushed into the realms of the shadow and will eventually be acted out or projected onto others. As Alice Miller says “it is what we cannot see that makes us sick.” Former Rhodes scholar Rachel Simmons spent three years traveling around the country talking to America’s grade school & high school girls and found that one of the results is an epidemic of “bullying “, or girls using relationship as a weapon to victimize other girls. In her book “Odd Girl Out” Simmons emphasizes that girls & women do not have equal access to feeling and expressing their anger.

Continue reading “Enlightening the Shadow Between Women”

The Lord’s Prayer: The Original!

A Translation of “Our Father” directly from the Aramaic into English (rather than from Aramaic to Greek to Latin to English) provided by: The Women’s Spiritual Network

O cosmic Birther of all radiance and vibration!

Soften the ground of our being and carve out a space within us
where your Presence abides.

Fill us with your creativity

and empower us to bear the fruit of your mission.

Each of our actions bears fruit in accordance with our desire.

Endow us with the wisdom to produce and share
what each being needs to grow and flourish.

Untie the tangled threads of destiny that bind us,
as we release others from the entanglement of past mistakes.

Do not let us be seduced by that which would divert us from our true

purpose, rather illuminate the opportunities of the present moment.

For you are the ground and the fruitful vision, the birth-power and

fulfillment, as all is gathered and made whole once again.

Goddess make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow your love. Where there is injury, let me bring the concept of self-forgiveness. Where there is blame, let me bring the insights of self-responsibility. And where there is darkness, let me bring the knowledge of eternal light.

See “The Priestess Process” to learn more about a unique spiritual and personal empowerment path for women. See “Events” for upcoming circles or contact Anyaa@goddessontheloose.com to schedule an Introductory Weekend in your area.

Reclaiming Initiation: The Priestess Path

By Anyaa T. McAndrew

Anyaa McAndrewThe Divine Masculine may have started out as a worthy counterpart to the Divine Feminine in the ancestral environment. Unfortunately, over the past few thousand years, patriarchy, the shadow side of the Divine Masculine, has gained ascendancy and fostered myriad forms of oppression (suppression of women’s rights, Holy Inquisitions, etc.). You can tell how true this is by how you feel in your gut about the very word “patriarchy”. Over millennia we’ve had priests but no priestesses; a male God, but no Goddesses. It’s been pretty one-sided . . . but things are changing.

One of the features of patriarchy has been an emphasis on “solar initiations” or those that focus on transcending the body to join with Spirit. Fire-walking, warrior sweat-lodges, the Sun Dance, meditations, some martial arts, and many forms of visionquests use endurance and trance to reach out of the body and, thereby, elevate consciousness. By contrast, the Divine Feminine employs “lunar initiations”, or those that call Spirit into the body (a welcome alternative to jettisoning out into the universe to make a connection!). After a long suppression, this Divine Feminine and the priestess archetype are returning to cultural consciousness and acceptance.

A feature of patriarchy is our loss of soul connection to our bodies. The result is that most of us center ourselves from our neck up. We identify heavily with our thinking. But as women reclaim their Divine Feminine natures, the true feeling function of femininity gets to play and be re-membered. Shakti dances into ecstatic bliss. Aphrodite revels in sacred sexual pleasure. Pele fully runs the life-force energy of fiery passion. Inanna consciously surrenders to the death-rebirth mysteries. Baubo laughs her bawdy belly laugh. Kuan Yin cries her tears of compassion for all living things, while Gaia pours forth her infinite abundance. Priestess consciousness allows the myriad faces of the Goddess to be soulfully expressed, as the human woman learns to step into her spiritual power.

Women walk very differently on a spiritual path when they are fully encouraged to express their soulful nature. The soul itself is described as feminine by many sources, being at once wild, willful, chaotic, earthy, sensual, sweet, deeply emotional, passionate and compassionate. These natural soul qualities are also the qualities of the divine feminine seeking to awaken the priestess within the woman. This awakening results in the full empowerment of the woman as a Priestess whose Temple is the everyday world. She exerts her influence in all of her roles—as daughter, mother, lover, career woman, neighbor, and in every interaction she has, moment to moment. At last, the divine feminine and the divine feminist are joined.

Women’s spiritual work calls for full embodiment if we are to co-create a New World with Spirit. We can no longer afford to be disembodied victims of a worn-out patriarchal system on any level: physical, economic, social or spiritual. At the same time we cannot afford to exclude the Divine Masculine as we embrace the Divine Feminine. This Sacred Union, or Sacred Marriage within, is the spiritual foundation from which springs true personal growth and empowerment. It is the alchemical activity that engenders wholeness and balance.

The Priestess calls us back with the “Charge of the Goddess”:

I who am the beauty
Of the green earth and the
White moon on
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 the 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 with out.
For behold,
I have been with you from the
Beginning,
And I am that which is attained
At the end of desire.

—Doreen Valiente
from “Earth Prayers”

Anyaa McAndrew is a licensed psychotherapist and resides in Western North Carolina. Her work is grounded in Transpersonal and Shamanic psychology as she walks the spiritual path of the Goddess. As an ordained Madonna Ministry Bishop and a Magdalene High Priestess, she has birthed the Mystery School of Life Force Energy, encompassing the Scorpio-Taurus Mysteries. Her Priestess Circles empower women to reclaim the lost soul essence of the priestess within.

You can contact Anyaa or call 404-432-1499 or Anyaa@goddessontheloose.com

See “Events” for priestess circles forming or contact Anyaa to schedule an Introductory Weekend in your area.