Calling In the Goddess, A Ritual for the New Moon
Artist: Sara Robinson
There are as many ways to meditate and create as there are people on the planet.
There is no right way to revere the sacred.
What is sacred is deeply personal and unique to you, and so is the way you call in a goddess (i.e. that next-level aspect of yourself that you're ready to embody).
If it weren't for the vast landscape of South Indian mythology and its reverence for Tantric Goddesses, I doubt I would have taken meditation practice (and the power of a quiet mind) as seriously.
What I love so much about meditation is what it can give you in your life when practiced well.
I fell in love with yoga first through its incredible mythology. The stories and the deities that were illustrated became more than engaging narratives; they became a teaching manual on how to embody alchemy.
Working with the goddess through meditation and mantra was (and still is) an important way I practice myself as well as to prepare for my healing work with clients.
Meditating on a particular deity is an incredible way to go deeper into your own self-understanding as well as open to receive supportive guidance for your life, creative work, and healing relationships.
Meditating on the goddess is a practice of awakening that aspect of Her in You. Mantra aids in this process by helping to calm the body and still the mind so that you can move into a more open, receptive state of being. The two together become a total and complete map of that consciousness as it relates to you in any given moment. The essence of this practice is that it is alive and changing as you are alive and changing. The practice evolves with you.
It's especially important to become aware when a particular meditation practice has run its course, or has become repetitive and dull. Has it lost its aliveness for you? Discipline is important, especially at the beginning, but if you're trying to force yourself into quieting the mind, then a new method of connecting with yourself may be helpful.
I hear often from my clients that their practices no longer work as they used to. They become attached to one way of meditating, and it becomes forced and rigid, usually yielding much frustration and furthering attachment to negative thoughts. It's important to notice when your practice feels less alive and to practice expanding into different aspects of yourself so as not to get too caught up in focusing on mastering just one area of your meditation practice and/or life.
For example, once I studied with a teacher who taught yoga through a Taoist perspective. One day, she did a body reading for me, and her advice (which I was resistant to at that time) was that I needed to become more worldly both in my attitude and actions. She remarked that I had overly developed my spiritual side and that it would benefit me greatly to go out, choose a passion, and make lots of money, having more fun and doing things more spontaneously in the world.
I was shocked and a little upset because all I wanted to hear was where or with whom I could study more. Looking back, her reading was spot on. I needed a different kind of practice to bring me to the next level of my growth and consequently into more joy in life. As an introvert and deeply spiritual being, I am still having to practice this piece a lot!
What goddess practices have given me, with time, is an understanding of meditation that is deeply generative, focused, and creative. It's like plugging into an electrical socket of universal life force energy to recharge and come home to a new, more compassionate understanding of myself and the world around me.
Most of all, it brings me so much joy to share them with you!
1. They are easy to learn and so simple to do.
2. They are incredibly nourishing and soothing to your nervous system.
3. They connect you to your body and parts of yourself you either never knew you had or have been lying dormant for some time.
Mediation is a foundational practice, and it is not a one-size-fits-all.
Meditation connects you to an infinite source of creativity. When practiced well it becomes a daily ritual to set clear intentions for your day, synchronizing body, mind and heart so that you can align and receive, while allowing for relevant guidance to arise for your life, work, relationships, and business.
On Sunday at 1:00PM EST on October 31st, I will be hosting a women’s gathering in preparation for the New Moon. My hope is to create a sacred space for you all to simply receive, lay your burdens down, and relax into the nourishment that comes from remembering the full power of your embodied presence.
The goddess in all her forms is a reflection of what is already alive and radiant within you. When we come together, our results are amplified through sharing and witnessing one another.
If you are seeking a deep space of connection, curious about how to unlock the next phase of creativity for your healing work and want to discover the next level your intuition through embodied practice this gathering is for you!
With Love & Devotion,
Andrea
“Relationships are always guiding us back towards discovering what we need to see about ourselves… If you do the inner work you create the fertile ground to invite and experience the relationships that are in alignment with your highest good.”
—Shakti Malan