I See You Are Beautiful
In Honor of Mothers Everywhere
Mothers, I am here to remind you of your crown.
You have literally been initiated
into the creative source of the Universe.
So often, I have seen mothers uproot themselves
from their own superpower when trying to act in the world,
as if the big boys in suits know the rules of
the game of creation better than they do.
Mothers, you know how creation works, more than anyone.
Stay close to that knowing.
The knowing is not in your cranial brain;
it is in your womb brain.
You do the impossible; you have superpowers.
You have been through receiving life, growing life,
gestation, holding, sustaining. You know how to wait;
you’ve been through all the different changes
that happen in order for new life to come.
You know and have experienced exactly
when the time is right to move in full action.
And you have learned this symbiosis,
this total merging with another being—
the complete, utter commitment
and surrender required of you.
We need you more than ever. Your Shakti, in my view,
is what’s going to save us.
And it is saving us every single day.
Without you, none of this would be here.
Mothers, take your seat.
Straighten that crown, and hold your head high.
Own what you’ve been through and what you’re going through.
The world needs you.
~ Chameli Ardagh
Brigid’s Blessing
May Brigid bless the house wherein you dwell
Bless every fireside every wall and door
Bless every heart that beats beneath its roof
Bless every hand that toils to bring it joy
Bless every foot that walks its portals through
May Brigid bless the house that shelters you.
♡
In February the ancient tribes of Europe celebrated Imbolc and the return of spring. Imbolc marks the halfway point between winter solstice and spring equinox. It falls on February 3 in 2017.
Brigid is the Pagan Goddess / Catholic Saint that the Celtic people associated with Imbolc. In Celtic tales, Brigid is said to have been born at daybreak. She rose into the sky with rays of fiery sun beaming from her head. As an infant, Brigid was fed with milk from a sacred cow from the fairy realm. It is also believed that small flowers and shamrocks would appear wherever the Goddess Brigid walked. As a sun Goddess, Brigid’s gifts are light (knowledge), inspiration, and the healing energy of the sun. Brigid is also associated with sacred healing waters. There are many springs and wells named after her in the British Isles.
Whether seen as a Goddess or Saint, Brigid commands the power of both fire and ice. You can honor Imbolc and Brigid by lighting a candle and offering gratitude that spring is on its way.
I’m with Her… and Her and Her
Lots of women are online today lecturing the women who marched in one of the Women’s Marches across the country. Apparently, lots of women feel the need to dictate to other women exactly how they should protest… even telling them not to feel happy about a peaceful march, insisting that the peace and joy the marchers experienced was all bogus because the crowd was “too white.” Lots of women are also lecturing other women about the best way to support minority women. Lots of women are judging and guilting and dismissing other women today… Is this really helpful?!
Sorry ladies, but you don’t get to define me. You don’t get to dictate what my protests look like. You don’t get to guilt me simply because I’m a middle class white woman. You don’t get to tell me what kind of sign to carry or hat to wear when I protest. You don’t get to dismiss me because I marched with a smile and didn’t scream in rage and burn shit. You don’t get to poo poo my commitment because I don’t protest the way you do.
I will choose when and how I take political action. I will choose when and how I speak out and act. It is MY choice, NOT YOURS!
✧
When one group lectures another about how to behave and how to feel, it sounds suspiciously like old patriarchal Bullshit to me – even when women do it to other women.
EVERY woman needs the space to take political action and express herself in the way that’s most appropriate to her WITHOUT being judged and lectured by other women – and that includes white women from the suburbs!
We won’t fix this mess by telling one group of women to shut up and stuff their feelings, their needs, their wisdom in order to serve another group of women who now take precedence.
We want change, right? Real change? That requires creating a space where ALL women can dialogue with each other and be heard with respect and love. That’s true inclusivity.
“The language by which we have been taught
to dismiss ourselves and our feelings as suspect
is the same language we use to dismiss and suspect each other.”
~Audre Lorde
Signs From the Front Lines
#Women’sMarchonDenver
Feel It All
“The opposite of love is not hate,
it’s indifference.”
~Elie Wiesel
It can be difficult to follow the current political news, much less act on it. So much of what is happening now is crazy and scary. I try to hold this quote from Elie Wiesel (above) close to my heart.
Sometimes I have powerful negative feelings bubble up when I see what’s happening in America today. I feel deep fear and anger and even hate at times. That’s ok. Those too are normal human emotions. It’s all spiritual grist for the mill – even the crazy ugly stuff.
Denying or stuffing my negative reactions to the news doesn’t help anyone. Denial ties me up in knots. I lose my ability to act. But if I can allow myself the space to feel whatever I’m feeling about the chaos around me, no matter how uncomfortable, I come out the other side stronger and clearer and more capable of acting from a space of love and compassion.
Now is the Time — the Fierce Feminine
THIS. This is the antidote to all the bigotry, hatred and fear in America right now. Thank you Chameli. ❤️
The moment you take a stand for what really matters to you,
you step into Sankalpa Shakti, a current of infinite creativity and energy.
By committing to what matters to you and stepping two feet in,
you access the very power needed to live out your Sankalpa.
So what keeps us sitting on the fence?
I have witnessed in myself and in my practice sisters
how we minimize the value of our path and our wisdom
when we cannot find confirmation from the outside;
how we are still waiting for approval,
comparing the fresh kiss of spirit that we are offered
in the intimacy of our own practice with the outdated models of spirit
embodied by men only. We are still moving in circles, repeating the past.
We tend to avoid that one scary step outside the circle of the known,
into the rush of self-arising wisdom expressed through us.
Are we secretly hoping that someone else will do it for us?
~ Chameli Devi Ardagh
☾☽
Chameli’s recent TED Talk, The Fierce Face of the Feminine: