As we approach the Winter Solstice, many of us are feeling a profound ‘disturbance in the force’ to quote Obi-Wan Kenobi. We are watching the old structures that we have relied upon for our entire lives crumbling to dust before our eyes and, at the same time, we are rather urgently scanning the horizon for some small signs of a new world taking shape. We see more forces of hatred and violence afoot in the world and yet we also feel the frequency of love growing stronger in the hearts of hundreds of millions around the world.
Learning how to live in this both/and space calls us to practice deep spiritual resilience and strength. As women, we are naturally skilled in this profoundly important work: we are mid-wifing the new and hospicing the old simultaneously and with compassion, while holding the center as the edges drop away.
The Winter Solstice is the perfect season for this kind of work. We celebrate the return of light after the longest day of darkness; as human beings we claim renewal and enlightenment as our birthright. We surrender to stillness in our hibernation cave, to prepare a sacred space within for the light to come. The Ceile De https://www.ceilede.co.uk/ teaching for this Celtic holy day is: “I will own my light and carry it into the world.” The world needs your light now more than ever before – just as you need to remember the full power of that light for yourself!
Since our last newsletter, several of us from WSF made a 16 day pilgrimage to sacred sites across several regions of France, walking in the footsteps of Mary Magdalene and visiting more than a dozen Black Madonnas. These mysterious figures can be found around the world and there is heavy concentration of them in France. Some historians believe the Black Madonnas grew out of ancient worship of Isis and other early pagan goddesses. Others speak of them as representing the rich, dark soil of Mother Earth and her powers of healing and regeneration. In contrast to the pale immaculate Virgin at the front of a cathedral, these dark figures are often found underground in a basement crypt and offer a Sacred Feminine archetype, who spills her blood into Mother Earth’s dark soil with the birth of her child. The Black Madonna was often revered for her healing miracles, especially for fertility and healthy births. She seems like the perfect companion for us as we enter the darkness and hold onto our faith that a new world of light and love will be born on this planet.
We have been engaged in several deep conversations about how we can express our most effective spiritual leadership in these times. Keeping in mind that we cannot solve problems using the same tools that created them, what new forms of activism are actually going to help birth a new world and not just reinforce old patterns of polarization and ‘othering’?
We love this guidance from Pam Gregory Pam Gregory – Spiritual Development – The Next Step: LOVE and JOY are some of our greatest acts of defiance!
Pam often speaks about how each one of us is responsible for creating a new world, both individually and collectively, by being very careful where we focus our intentions and attention. When we focus on the bad news and our own fearful responses, we generate more separation, conflict and fearfulness in the world. When we focus on love and joy and peace, we actually contribute to creating islands of coherence and peace in the world. Those islands can then become connected into massive webs of light.
We are not talking about some kind of magical thinking woo-woo spiritual by-pass! Toko-Pa Turner Home reminds us that this may be the hardest possible inner work any of us can do — healing our own self-hatred and trauma. “There’s a big difference between staying positive and being generative. The first disregards hard truths, the second is the fruit of having composted them.”
Our wise friend Diane Longboat has kept a sacred fire burning for more than 30 years at her Soul of the Mother lodge in Canada. Recently, some of us joined her for ceremony. One of our WSF elders shared this powerful message that came through: “There are places in the fire where you will not be burned.” As we stared into the intense heat at the center of that fire, we could hold the truth of this wisdom at the same time that we could feel the impossibility of it. Later in the same ceremony we were guided by the ancestors that singing and dancing may be good tools to bring people together and heal the wounds that divide us.
What if it is indeed true that love and joy and singing and dancing are the best forms of radical activism for these times?