Nancy Lankston
“An uneasy reaction to the word Goddess is common among women. Thousands of years of repression, hostility, and conditioning against a Divine Mother have made a deep impression on us. We’ve been conditioned to shrink back from the Sacred Feminine, to fear it, to think of it as sinful, even to revile it… Goddess is just a word. It simply means the divine in feminine form.”
~Sue Monk Kidd
“It’s the hard things that break; soft things don’t break.
It was an epiphany I had today and I just wonder why it took me so very, very long to see it! You can waste so many years of your life trying to become something hard in order not to break; but it’s the soft things that can’t break! The hard things are the ones that shatter into a million pieces!”
~C. JoyBell C.
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#GetYin
Imbolc is upon us. Celtic stories tell us that the Cailleach—the divine hag Goddess who rules over winter and death—gathers firewood for the rest of the winter on Imbolc. If the Goddess Cailleach wishes to make the winter last a lot longer, she will make sure that the weather on Imbolc is bright and sunny, so she can gather plenty of firewood. But, if Imbolc is a day of foul weather, it means the Cailleach is asleep and winter is almost over.
The Cailleach was worshipped by the Celts as the sacred Earth Mother in her bare winter form. And she is not just a dark and evil hag who arbitrarily decides how long winter will be. The Cailleach is also the Bone Mother who collects the bones of the animals that die in the winter. The Bone Mother is said to sing or pray or sleep over the bones all winter long. She does this out of love, so that the animals will cross over and can return as new life in the spring.
There is a magic to Imbolc and the early days of February. It is there, running just beneath the surface. Can you feel it? Mama Earth holds the seeds of spring safe for us all winter. As the cold wind blows and the snow piles up, she holds them safe in her soil.
#Imbolc
#Bone Collector
#Hag Goddess
When your soul was born,
it was like a still ocean that had yet to experience
its infinite life.
Goddess then came to the shore of your soul and
gazed upon the
immaculate splendor that Her divine heart
created.
She then took off her clothes and dove into you.
Nothing on their own have your arms ever done,
the movements of your feet are caused
by the waves She stirred.
~St. Teresa of Avila
River in flood carries me to a new mountain.
Mountain holds me and whispers,
Bringer of the fairy light
Learn to hold the valley… learn to hold.
I rest in the lap of Isis
Sacred mother of all
Tears flow and heal.
Blood river of my ancestors
Washes over me, through me
Dark Goddess smiles.
Just dance your dance.
Just dance your dance.
I am drumming my sister awake
Blooming hills surround
Bee priestesses dance
And Her honey flows.
~Nancy Lankston
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