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.

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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.

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.

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By Sara Davidson

Mirabella, February 1997

It’s a Friday night and I’m standing in the Wilshire room of the Sheraton Miramar in Santa Monica, registering for a workshop in Tantric sex. A friend I’ve known for twenty years, who urged me to do this and is taking the workshop for the second time, waves and walks across the room. As I pin on my nametag he says he has to go out of town in the morning. “I might be back Sunday. What I’ll miss is the stuff about sacred-spot massage. You know, G spot?”

I look at him quizzically.

“Vaginal orgasm,” he says.

“Oh, come on,” I say. “Vaginal orgasms don’t exist. We settled that twenty-five years ago.”

He raises his eyebrows. “I’ve known women who…”

“So have 1. 1 mean, I’ve spoken to hundreds. This is something I feel certain about.”

He smiles and looks away. A bell rings and about ninety people, nervous, curious, take seats on the thick brown carpet.

My friend was not the first person who’d recommended this workshop, given by Charles and Caroline Muir of the Source School of Tantra in Maui, Hawaii. My sister, who lives in Hawaii, had taken the course in 1987. She’d been prodding and I’d been resisting for almost a decade, but in the past year I’d heard glowing reports from others, including the actors Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker, whom I knew to be sharp, discriminating, feet-on-the-ground people. “It transformed the way we thought about sex,” Tucker told me. “It took us to states we’d never imagined, and I realized: This is what we’re here for, to love like this.” Tucker said they’d moved to Northern California partly to be close to a community of others practicing Tantric sex.

The journalist in me was intrigued. I showed the brochure to my boyfriend, Richard, a cowboy artist who’d never taken a workshop of any kind. We’d been enjoying what we considered the best sexual relationship of our lives, and I thought what I knew about female sexuality was state of the art. I’d gone to Berkeley in the ’60’s, taken part in love-ins and protest marches, and visited communes where no one wore clothes. I’d written a book, Loose Change, chronicling the ’60s and the sexual revolution. I’d been to consciousness-raising groups and heard women of all ages, backgrounds, and races talk about their sexuality. Still, Richard and I had been together three years, we’d fallen into certain rituals, and, as he put it, “How can you ever know too much about sex?”

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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.