Priestessing life

Recently I was talking to a good friend about an exciting project I am working on, and what it means to be a priestess, she wondered how it translates into my everyday life, which I thought was a great question, and I thought  about it long after the conversation was over…..

Since my life is dedicated to the divine feminine, {which also includes a balancing act with the divine male} priestessing is what I do everyday. As a woman I  am very aware that I carry the divine essence of  woman inside me at all times and this spills out into everything I do as a mother, wife, artist, priestess etc…

This constant inner knowing has not been something that has come easy for me, because  although I knew it in my head for a long time, it was through many tough life lessons that I was finally able to come to an inner heart centered understanding of what truly embodying, and being true to myself is all about, and this in turn enables me to embody the divine feminine.

Recently I posted a quote over at our Moon Mysteries Facebook Page that got great responses from woman, and I would like to share it again here because it seems to sum up the essence of what we as women all carry within us, the essence of the divine feminine:

“Before we were conceived, we existed in part as an egg in our mother’s ovary. All the eggs a woman will ever have form in her ovaries when she is a four-month-old fetus. This means that the sacred egg that developed into the person you are now, formed in your mother’s ovary when she was growing in the womb of her mother. Each of us, male and female, spent five months in the womb of our grandmother, rocking to the pulse of our grandmother’s blood. And our mother spent five months rocking to the pulse of her grandmother’s blood, and her mother pulsed to the beat of her grandmother’s blood. Back through the pulse of all the mothers and all the grandmothers, through the beat of the blood that we all share, this sound can return us to the pre-conscious state, to the inner structure of the mind, to the power and the source of who and what we actually are: the pulsing field of all consciousness existing everywhere, within everything, beyond past, present, or future.” By Layne Redmond

As an artist I see everything I do within my family as an opportunity to be creative, from making dinner and baking, to setting up my home in as many creative and beautiful ways as possible.  I am aware that my daughter and son are watching me and learn as much from what I do not say, as from what I tell them with words. This is part of that divine pulse that we all feel and partly, I am sure why I am so  called to make drums!

This is also where motherhood as a spiritual practice becomes just as important as my shamanic work and dedications to the spirit world.

I have learned a valuable lesson over the years as a shamanic witch, and that is how important my family is to my spirit work. For you see family grounds me deeply and keeps me here, as my tendencies are to drift over the hedge and into other worlds, but doing this too much, for too long is unhealthy and can make a person crazy faster then the wink of an eye.

I find that the deeper and deeper I go into my spirit work, the more it can’t help but show up here, in my sacred jewelry and in my priestess work, perhaps those of you who have read a post or two here over the years have noticed, or wondered just how deep my spirit work goes?

This has been something that I have kept very private for well over a decade, but now I am being asked to share and to speak more openly about. So it is with great care, and a little bit of excitement in my belly that you may have noticed a few things beginning to change in my posts and offerings.

In the meantime, here in Vancouver the rain continues on just as the spring makes it’s own quiet way into the buds on the trees and the growing daffodils of which a small clump popped unexpectedly up right in front of my outdoor altar/shrine to my complete surprise and delight!

The kids are home for March break and we have been spending long quiet days reading, staying up late, baking, and drinking tea, and crafting spring themed things for the Equinox tomorrow!

The best of  last week was a birthday gift that one of my dearest friends gave me, which was a gift certificate to a local fabric shop that also has sewing lessons, so Zahra and I have been learning how to sew! Our first mission was to make her the cutest little skirt, made from the best fabric with Amanata mushrooms all over it! Zahra chose it herself to my complete delight!

You see I have wanted to not only be able to sew things for myself, but I have been dreaming of all the cute things I could sew my kids, unfortunately the stage when they were tiny and would allow me to dress them in whatever my heart desired has passed, but my other dream was to teach them how to sew for themselves, Zubin seems only mildly interested because he can’t imagine what he could sew for himself that would be cool.

Zahra on the other hand already has at least 10 projects in mind for herself, and it is my secret hope that she will grow into one of those teenagers that makes herself awesome clothing that you just can’t get at at a store.

*sigh* Have I said it enough that letting go is the biggest part of parenting! I have to laugh at myself here, because it is so easy to forget that it is in the simple moments, the quiet ones that no one sees that true magic happens, and letting go is so hard, but when I remember to do it, when I remember that the single biggest part of the motherhood journey is letting go, I not only am able to do it with my kids, but also in my life and this is, in it’s most humble form, the life of a modern day priestess.

 

The Full Moon Wakes me…..

This week was International Women’s day a Full Moon and our Moon Mysteries talk at one of our most treasured and favorite book stores in the city Banyen Books and sound, a giant and stunning spiritual book store that feels like part library and part temple–seriously!

The book talk was amazing and we somehow managed to pack the room with the most amazing women who were right there with us about subjects from dealing with menstrual cramps, to honoring our moon blood cycle and discussing how we can raise our boys to have love and respect for the women in their lives around this time, it was inspiring to say the least.

I was sorry that our camera died though before we had a chance to get any good shots of us, but I did manage to take a photo of the beautiful altar we put together for the talk, it really was beautiful!

Besides all of the the excitement of having Nao in town from Honey Grove and staying with me, for both work purposes and an exciting creative project we have on the go, the full moon was extremely powerful this month and would not allow me to get any sleep, and when I did it was all wild dreams and tumbles through a shamanic landscape.

This is a shot from our back deck, it was stunningly beautiful and had a full rainbow halo around it, which you can sort of see here.

Ever since I have been filled up and full of ideas and inspiration like only the full moon can bring, now if only I could get some sleep!

Have a beautiful week-end everyone!

 

 

Right Now

In this Moment I am:

~ drinking chai from a big mug and putting together a birthday present for a dear friend.

~ preparing for an adventure over to the Island to spend some time with my coven Hollow Bone Serpent.

~ thinking about an exciting new project I am working on and looking forward to sharing it here.

~ wondering if I will get time today to work on making those beautiful new pendents from Bali into necklaces, I hope so because I have a ton of ideas brewing…..

~ looking at these lovely packages waiting to be shipped and feeling happy about the new brown paper envelopes.

~ thinking about the teachers strike and the great, but depressing article I just read on it.

~ feeling the arms of my daughter around my neck for a last minute snuggle before school.

~ feeling very grateful for her and for my life.

~itching to get outside and into the garden and wondering when the last of this snow will leave.

~ passing by my red bee hive boxes and getting excited for spring and bees!

~ thinking about making some sacred mead with my friend Sarah.

~ wondering when I am going to get over to Honey Grove Farm for that visit!

 

~Hoping that you all have a beautiful and relaxing week-end!~