Claiming Your Shamanic Priestess Self

I recieved this today, and it is so precious, I had to add it to my blog site!

You might think I’d say… “This course is awesome, you should take it!”… That’s totally an understatement! This is truly a ‘PROCESS’ of transmutation, which has totally amp-ed up my self-esteem and self-worth big time! It has birthed a new level confidence. Anyaa and her amazing Apprentices Kristina & Zanzara, reflected to me, who I truly am (each one has their own special gifts… just like other leaders & apprentices of the SPP). They acknowledged my power, love, and truest essence, right to their core. That kind of reflection, made me feel nurtured in the most comforting way one can possibly imagine.

Yes…they pushed my buttons, but in a good way. They lovingly reflected what I needed to learn most, and what I need to let go of, etc. They also acknowledged what gifts I offered them, that they found valuable. So there was a sense of equality as Sisters, rather then a hierarchy.

This is a beautiful experience for all ages of women. We all just honour each other, as adoptive-spiritual Sisters. We’re like long-lost Priestesses that have finally found each other again, that hold sacred not only the upper chakras, but also the lower chakras. We honour the teachings of our light-side, but also honour the teachings of our shadow-side.

The initiations I hold most precious. They are spiritual acts in the moment that always bring out the Divine. I understand old ancient pagan rituals now, as the SPP has taken it more into an up-to-date version of ceremony. This totally resonated for me, in that we had a basic template, but each used our own imagination about how the exercise related to ourselves. It was so much fun, and truly transformational! This is more of a modern creative way of “Shamanic Journeying”. It’s not strange, but actually really fantastic!

I must say that I can’t believe how much ‘living ceremony’ meant so much to me during this ‘process’! I always thought ritual was weird. Now I see that there is some form of ‘magical alchemy’ that creates transformation. I think taking a sensitive topic, and then mixing it with creativity, fun, and theatre, makes a sacred space for metamorphosis to occur.

There were many highlights. I really enjoyed all the prep-work for each event. Each time I went, it felt like going somewhere really magical (ie: like the ‘Mists of Avalon’!)… our retreat centre was actually on an island with real mists!

Each event I wanted to look my best, share my best homework attempts, and bring the right ceremonial supplies, including the joy of finding accessories to accentuate my Goddess/Priestess makeshift outfits… so I got to be a Princess for the day, several times throughout the process… thank-you very much! The little girl in me that still loves Disneyland, also still believes in… fairies, unicorns, magic, Gods & Goddesses… which was a wild fantasy come true!

The SPP creates a sacred space with lots of fun activities (ie: dancing, meditation, tarot cards, sacred talking circle, feasts, writing assignments, creative projects, etc), that’s accentuated with the most beautiful modern Goddess music! It’s also incredibly feminine and loving, as it feels like being tucked away in a ‘receiving blanket’, being re-birthed as a true Priestess to myself, and to the world… however I choose to express that gift the process gave me. There’s no dogma, so my own spiritual belief viewpoints are totally honoured, just like everyone else’s. It’s also an excellent opportunity to become an ‘Ordained Minister’, if you choose (an additional exciting option… which I took!
… now I can minister weddings, funerals & births!).

The Shamanic Priestess Process ‘naturally’ instigated a ‘mid-life’ crisis that I’m presently in. I wouldn’t have done it, agreed to it, or have moved through so much in one-year, had it not been for the amazing leadership, and wonderful circle of sacred women.  Since the official process has been over, the transformation seems to have amplified pending changes (…I’m still in the process ~ which is more then wonderful J ).

I need to let go of the old that no longer is serving my life, in order for my new dreams and goals to manifest and come in. The SPP helped give me the nurturing love and care, to make all of that possible… which I’m truly grateful for… more then words can possibly express!!! Even leaders can benefit greatly from the program.

Now I have a wonderful group of Sisters not only in my circle, but previous ones (and future ones), as well as a larger network on an international level. There are many Priestesses, as our sacred circle is growing! This kind of continued support after the course is over, is such a joy to be part of, to allow further growth on my journey, creating a sacred space for my higher-self to manifest into my life as a reality, rather then a dream… in more deeper, and subtle ways.

This process makes your dreams a reality. Because of this, all of the commitments involved are totally worth it! I dare you to feel that worthy, to treat yourself with that much respect and care, to get all of the nurturing support, with TLC and a little tough love that you need; to make that shift in your life, so you can truly soar!

I dare you to allow yourself to be that great! This process has the most amazing support system and tool set, to fully claim your true-self, as a Shamanic Priestess to the world!

Love & blessings,
Priestess Sahara

Reflections on The Great Shift in Women

(at the New Moon Solar Eclipse window 1-13-10), by Anyaa T. McAndrew

I’ve been immersed lately in the predictions for 2012, including documentary films, astrological predictions, and channelings.

I also recently I had the pleasure of a week with my Beloved in Tulum, Mexico, where the Mayans left their legacy of the great settlements and their prophetic calendar. It’s clear that we are already well into what my astrology teacher Daniel Giamario has coined The Turning of the Ages. Our reality has accelerated to warp speed vibration while systems and structures are literally collapsing all around us. This morning I heard the news of the Haiti earthquake and fears that as many as 500,000 may have lost their lives. My partner Gary and I have been working with the mortgage banking system for the past 9 months to get a permanent mortgage on the round house we built as our forever home. One thing after another has happened including lost paperwork, lenders closing, and misunderstandings about the value of our home because of its’ unconventional roundness. We have sent out our own prayers, asked for prayers from friends and community, and are now in a surrender mode because there is nothing left to do. We cannot trust anyone or anything but Spirit, and we know we will be taken care of no matter what!

The message to set intention, take action (which means do whatever you can do) and then let go is a huge one for all of us. This upcoming New Moon in Capricorn (tomorrow Thursday Jan 14th at 11:11 pm PST) is also the first new moon of the year and a solar eclipse. Solar eclipses mark the beginning and ending point of the past and the future. In Vedic astrology, it is the Vedic Winter Solstice and in India it is referred to as “Pongal”.  Spiritually this is the time to overhaul your current self and get ready for a higher self. This festival celebrates leaving behind the old way of doing things, be it relationship, money matters or health habits. This timing is potent for working with the energies of the Great Shift. If you have not set intention yet for the year, here is a ritual you can use that comes from Barbara Hand Clow’s channeling of the Moon in her book The Pleiadian Agenda:

  1. Write down 7 things you want to bring into your reality. Think Conscious Abundance, calling in what your soul needs to live out your purpose and give your gifts, rather than what your ego wants to get to feel safe and comfortable.
  2. Describe each one as specifically as you can.
  3. Now work with each one and visualize 3 different scenarios of it coming to you.
  4. In your visualization, leave out specific people as the source, as this can manipulate another’s reality.
  5. Tap those scenarios into your medulla oblongata, the chakra at the back of your neck at the top of your spine…tap into that point a magical number of times…you chose!
  6. Now put it all away on your altar and check your list every once in awhile to see what has manifested from your list….cross off and add others (to make 7) once you have manifested something!

Yesterday I received a call from a priestess who said her whole life is falling apart from the inside out. My dear friend Star Wolf is ready to launch a huge book tour to promote her book that urges us to wake up in these Shamanic Times and do the work we need to do to get as conscious as we can in the time we have left, however long that is (ShamanicBreathwork.org). Another friend is trusting that although she has no income, she is in the right place at the right time while she channels a book already accepted by a wonderful publisher. I have a small circle of priestesses who are struggling and resisting as they face their time of dying to the old and Emerging as priestesses.  In Cincinnati, 19 women (a lunar cycle number) are signed up for this coming weekend to explore with me the Shamanic Priestess Archetype and Women’s Mysteries. I feel the potency and the power all around me! As I connect every day with my own multi-dimensional selves, I ask to be taken to the next level, whatever that is! My final decree is always: I am willing, I am willing, I am willing, meaning I will use my will to fully participate in this next level, however it looks.

One of the questions I have been reflecting upon is What does it mean to be a priestess NOW? I have answered that question in the past in various ways, yet I find the answer starting to shift with the SHIFT! I realize now that it is no longer sufficient to be the priestess who is the conduit for bringing the Divine Feminine to Earth. It is now time to be the Goddess in all her glory and diversity and radiance. We can no longer assume the position of human woman humbly opening to the Goddess. WE ARE HER, she is HERE, and THERE IS NO MORE WAITING! As it is declared, We are the Ones we have been waiting for. What this means is that each and every woman who chooses to walk the priestess path is now ready to take her place on the wheel of the Great Goddess energy of these auspicious times, to assume her rightful personal and spiritual power in her own way in her own unique world. The diversity of the

Divine Feminine is wide, expansive and colorful. There is no doubt in my mind that every woman who walks in her life and acknowledges the sacred in everyday life has a place as a goddess. It’s now time for each of us to claim it and BE it. One of the ways to BE it, is to align with all of our selves in all dimensions and to realize that the collective of these selves is more than 3-dimensional.

Our planet is moving quickly into a great expansion of dimensions, some say 9-dimensions. We will be wise to acknowledge that our little 3-dimensional selves cannot hold it all!

Another insight I had is that in order to claim this collective multi-dimensional Goddess Self fully, we as women are going to need to step up our personal self-care to the next level. There is no way we can stand in the intensity of vibration that is around and within us if we are not in our bodies fully receiving. Our 3-dimensional physical self is the conscious zone from which we operate, acknowledge and access all the other levels. I have been working with my own self-care issues since I abruptly entered menopause after a uterine hysterectomy 3 years ago. I noticed I did not have the energy to care for myself in the same way as I continued at the same frantic pace of work life and travel. I eventually crashed, and am slowly climbing out of a deep dark hole of fatigue and overwhelm. I am now feeling a renewal of aliveness that has been the result of lots of good boundaries, quiet time, research and new applications of information tailored for a rejuvenating, more centered way of life as a seasoned woman of consciousness.

I am also realizing that I can no longer whine, complain, or play the blame game in my life if I am claiming my multi-dimensional Goddess Self.  I must take responsibility (finally!) for everything I create, and do it in style, with a smile! We no longer have the time or self-indulgent luxury to play the game of blaming each other, gossiping, walking away from commitments because we are afraid, or being intolerant of another person’s perspective on reality. It’s time to clean up our messes, apologize when appropriate, make amends to those we have offended, and finish what we have started so we can move on in expanded consciousness. It’s a time when if we don’t do what we say and say what we will do, and follow through, our lessons come to us many times harder the next time around.

I have found in my own life that I can be critical of the man in my life, and I have recently come to a crossroads with that behavior, understanding that I have an obligation to be loving and kind all the time, not just when I feel like it!

The Initiated Woman is one who walks her talk, has a strong inner masculine who is grounded and accountable and on purpose, and a feminine who is open, loving and radiant.  She is not afraid of looking at her own shadow or claiming her gifts to the world.  She knows she needs sisters to walk with her, and she relies on her sisters to call her out, to gently tell her their truth when necessary,

love her through the inevitable times of pain, struggle and loss. As the Goddess, She honors and speaks her gratitude to all Her blessings, to all living things as we all go through the birth canal of the Great Shift of the Ages together.

Blessed Be and So It Is…….

Love,

Anyaa

A letter from Vicki Noble and a Goddess crop circle!

Dear Motherpeace Friend:

Feast your eyes on this newly discovered crop circle that appeared this week
in England. Those of us involved in Goddess spirituality and the Women’s
Spirituality Movement have maintained for many years that the “divine
feminine” is making a comeback at this late date in his-story. In what we
hope is the nick of time for saving the world, She graces our imaginations
through dreams, visions, received messages, apparent displays such as
“orbs”
and myriad other creative expressions–crop circles being one of them.

Artist and activist grandmother, Lydia Ruyle, sent me the link this morning
for this recent crop circle, but I myself have also seen them over the years
on visits to England’s sacred landscape around Silbury Hill and the West
Kennet Long Barrow. There are many wonderful books available and articles
written by hunters and afficionados of the crop circle phenomenon, which has
been going on for decades. Skeptics have attempted to show them as bogus,
but happily, the magical formations so far defy all efforts at debunking.

All (or most) crop circles are beautiful to look at, often symetrical and
perfectly arranged geometric shapes or flowers, aesthetically very pleasing
and impossible, by scientific standards, to create in such a short time (as
they often appear overnight, or even in a period of a few moments). They
simply defy the modern scientific understandings of reality and force us to
open to what we don’t understand and cannot name in traditional ways. What
a gift for us in this time of the “solid state reality” that maintains
nature is not sentient.

Tonight (3 am in California) the New Moon Solar Eclipse takes place at
around 10 degrees of Leo. The eclipse can only be seen in the far northern
latitudes of the Arctic Circle, but no worries–it will be felt all over the
world! Not only is it important as all eclipses are, but it falls on one of
the sacred cross-quarter days of the Goddess Calendar–Lammas or August Eve,
the festival of the first fruits (in the northern hemisphere). That this
Goddess figure has appeared in Her full splendor as a crop circle with this
precise and precipitous timing is a gift and a blessing to the world.

Native people tells us that eclipses amplify whatever we’re doing by
millions of times, so make good karma now and try not to be harmful in any
way. Say your prayers, make your wishes, do your mantras, sing your chants
before you go to bed tonight, and perhaps your dreams will bring a message
of positive healing power. Astrologers tell us that eclipses always affect
world events which unfold in the months and years following the eclipse
itself. This Solar Eclipse falls at the same degree as the Ascendant
(Rising) of the chart representing the New York Stock Exchange, so expect
some kind of roller coaster ride in the next few weeks and months.

Our ancient ancestors went to great lengths to honor, mark and celebrate
Solar and Lunar eclipses for many millennia. Some of the most beautiful
earthworks in the world, such as Stonehenge in England or New Grange in
Ireland, or even the Butte in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, have been arranged
and modified in order to accommodate and record eclipse cycles.

May this holy time be a blessing for each of you and all of our kin. May the
world be illuminated by the light of the spirits of peace and love. May we
all be part of a transformation and healing of this beautiful planet that
involves a return of the values and energies of the sacred feminine.

Blessed Be, Vicki Noble

http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/honeystreet3/honeystreet2008c.html

Stages of Healing the Wounded Feminine: Dissolving the Scars of Patriarchal Abuse “Part I: The Wound” by Anyaa McAndrew

The Sacred Feminine, the Empowered Feminine, the Divine Feminine. These words evoke images of a large luminous being, goddess-like, regal, and leading the way to new world, to heaven on earth. Her radiance would cause all war to cease, and the feminine principles of compassion, cooperation and community would prevail. All beings would live in harmony with nature.

Thanks to first and second-wave feminism, through the efforts of the earlier suffrage movement, and the feminism of 30-40 years ago and now third-wave feminism of today, the feminine has been somewhat restored. Women now enjoy some measure of equality and respect. At the time I write this, Senator Hillary Clinton is one of the candidates for the Democratic nomination for the presidency of the U.S; a remarkable feat when we consider that the fate of women in the 50’s was to choose housewife, mother, nurse, teacher, factory worker, sex worker, or mistress as their life purpose.

Women in general are full of themselves these days; full of power, authority, self-confidence, self-esteem and self-love. I love working with women to facilitate this fullness! We’ve come a long way, baby! Many of our gains have come from our courage to move forward and take risks to be more than our mothers, to find a bigger Self among the remains of previous generations.

My personal experience is that women are infinitely creative, yet practical when it comes to getting what they need to take care of themselves and their children. When given the insight and the opportunity, they can be even more creative and determined when it comes to climbing out of bad relationships, stuck patterns and old paradigms. Perhaps this is because we have been shut up and shut down for the last two to five thousand years of patriarchy, under threat of rape, and worse. We understand what it means to be patient, to bide our time, and then venture forth when the coast is clear. The coast has been clearer than anybody can remember, but there are still some big shifts to make. Continue reading “Stages of Healing the Wounded Feminine: Dissolving the Scars of Patriarchal Abuse “Part I: The Wound” by Anyaa McAndrew”