The Divine Feminine is at the very heart of Women of Spirit and Faith
and the absence of Her is at the heart of the unbalanced,
wobbly world in which we find ourselves living.
Photo: Puck’s Glen, Scotland © WJC
We are more committed than ever to honoring, nurturing and celebrating the Divine Feminine as it is expressed through the spiritual leadership of women.
When we began WSF in 2009, we learned that women in all faith traditions feel marginalized, and that their wisdom is seldom recognized or welcomed in their own faith hierarchy. Women have struggled to be accepted in leadership positions as clergy, teachers or mentors in many religions; they have been denied access to sacred teachings; and they have struggled to feel spiritually equal in a world where God is almost always defined only with masculine words – He or Him, Father or Son. While men have told us this should not matter because there is an understanding that God is beyond gender, we also know that the overt supremacy of the Divine Masculine has allowed sacred texts to be used a tool to subjugate and control women around the world. Perhaps most importantly, the world has been deprived of the wisdom of the feminine for centuries under patriarchy. As Sister Joan Chittister said at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in 2009, “Humanity is like a bird with only one wing. It is no wonder it cannot take flight.”
We are delighted to see that there is a lively conversation in social media in service of restoring the feminine to our spiritual landscape. Some women are actively weaving feminine nouns and pronouns into religious liturgy and hymns. Women are creating their own churches and spiritual spaces dedicated to the Divine Feminine while others work within their church structure to support women’s ordination and leadership. Many are seeking to restore women leaders like Mary Magdalene and Miriam to our spiritual histories. [https://www.cnn.com]
Each woman must discover for herself the right way to reconnect with her authentic spiritual root. Some women may want to take pilgrimages to visit sacred sites related to the Divine feminine — the history of Mary Magdalene in the south of France [http://www.theinterfaithobserver.org/] , the rich Celtic tradition of Scotland and Ireland, the ancient Divine Feminine relics of Crete and Malta. Others gather in circle with women locally to explore without leaving home – reading spiritual books, researching lineage, discovering together the spiritual traditions of our ancestors. 
Indigenous women of North America have been invaluable guides in helping us return to our own spiritual roots. Because so many of our own ancestors -the spiritual elders and wise women of Europe – were killed as witches during the Burning Times* we needed to rely upon the indigenous grandmothers closer to home to help us remember our true spiritual power. We are especially grateful to Diane Longboat of Six Nations in Canada and
Adelia Sandoval of the Acjachemen Nation for their generous and loving teachings, and we honor the memory of Rachelle Figueroa who gifted us with her spirit and wisdom.
*Between 1550 and 1650, at least 40,000 women were prosecuted and killed as witches or heretics across Europe.