Dear Wise Women,
Tonight’s circle was one of the most courageous and honest gatherings I’ve witnessed. Your willingness to ask to receive more of what you want and to release that that no longer serves was a gift to behold. And, wowza, did you dive deep into the pit of your bellies!! I could feel us working together to release lifetimes of holding. My belly thanks you. I know I could not have done that work on my own!
I also want to thank each of you for holding such presence for each other! As you know, ever March, I have felt a very strong calling to create women’s circles, and to trust the circle to create its own healing energy. For millennia, women like us have gathered to support and hold each other. Sadly, this tradition was lost as patriarchy took over. In recent times, it seems that women have spent more time posturing and competing with one another than supporting each other. This is changing and it is circles like ours that is impacting this change! Even though we don’t know each other well, we are holding each other, we are witnessing each other and that is the beginning.
We are not alone.
The Belly of Compassion meditation
“Bring your attention into the sensation in the body. Just feel what sits here. Feel this body you were born into. Allow awareness to come to the level of sensation in the body.
Gradually allow your attention to drop into the abdomen. And begin to soften to the sensations in the belly. Softening the belly to receive the breath. Softening the belly to receive life. Softening to any resistance. no holding. No grasping in soft belly. Letting go of the hardness in the belly. Practicing “merciful belly”.
Moment to moment softening the belly. Moment to moment making room for your life.
Don’t try to grasp or trap the breath, to shape or control it. Just let it be.
Surrender to the breath, softening the belly from moment to moment.
In soft belly is the release of the posturing of a lifetime. All the grief hidden hard in the belly. Have mercy. Letting the hardness float in the belly.
Levels and levels of softening. Levels and levels of letting go. Levels and levels of letting be.
The belly fatigued with its holding, with its mercilessness to itself. Have mercy. Just for this moment at least, soften to this ancient clinging. In a new mercy. In a new willingness to heal. Have mercy on this mercilessness.
Each in breath, belly rising. Each out breath, belly falling. Rising and falling, let your breath breathe itself. Letting go of control, trust the breath to breathe all by itself.
Each breath breathing itself in soft belly. In soft belly we have room for it all. Even room for our pain. Room to get born, room even to die in soft belly, in merciful belly.
Levels and levels of softening. Levels and levels of letting go.”
The Autumn Equinox occurred on September 21, 2018 at 7:55 pm. The full moon occurs on September 24 at 8:52 pm.
“This equinox is designed to support and honor inspired change and new intentions. Change requires letting go. What you let go of includes your harvest of lessons and experiences of relationships and events and it is important to honor the medicine of your personal harvest as you choose
what to let go of and what to fold into a new cycle.
The time is marked by a robust emotional energy that can fuel new insights and decisions influencing your intentions going forward.There is an opportunity to turn recent challenges into powerful allies that can energize your path instead of depleting your enthusiasm. This is also a great time to honor the balance between the masculine and the feminine, the sun and the moon, the sky and the earth. If you are contemplating a big change that requires letting go, this is a good time to anchor it, to make a concrete plan, and to release the old pattern connected with the past in some ceremonial way.
We always recommend doing a ceremony or ritual in honor of the Equinox as it represents the change of seasons, the ending of one cycle and the beginning of another. A simple ritual is to write your releases, burn or bury them with gratitude for their medicine, then write your new intentions keeping in mind what wants to emerge from any recent insights or clarity.
Right on the heels of the Equinox is the Full Moon on Monday September 24 at 8:52 PM MDT. This full moon further supports the energy of the Equinox for release, restructuring and recalibration. As you work primarily with what you are letting go of, gain clarity by focusing on what you don’t want instead of second guessing how the future may unfold. In this way you may gain some clarity on a new direction.
As you let go of the patterns that have held what you no longer want in place, there will be a need for choice. You are the only one who can make the choice you need to make and it may take courage and commitment. Use the mental creativity available at this time, as well as an open vulnerable heart in the process of healing, to connect with what you have a passion for. This will inspire you to reach for that new frequency that will support the bigger picture, the longview, and the change you need to make for a new path forward. ”
Continuing with our theme of open-heartedness, I shared the following Oracle, a card I drew for our circle over the weekend. I invite you to read it slowly and really take it in, there is much to glean from these wise words!
“In the chaos of modern life and the constant fluctuations of our minds, it can be difficult to remember that a sublime sanctuary lies within. Yet it is always there. Beneath the ceaseless activity, there is an endless, vast spaciousness that exists outside of time. Some might call it “eternity”.
Within that sanctuary, sacred sound is felt rather than heard. That sacred sound is actually the reverberating heartbeat of the entire universe. Your own heart’s rhythm sounds within the greater universal heartbeat. The totality of life, all of your being, can be felt as one, through listening to, and feeling for the sacred sound of the heart beating within you. It is though the heartbeat that we experience a love that is more than preference or attachment. This list the love that inspires, energies and moves us to create - even beyond what we once thought was possible. Your love for life, the need to feel alive and express yourself, and the quest for that which is truly fulfilling...these are the sacred urges that rebel against fear and promote passion for being alive, they flow through your blood and can be felt through the beating of your heart.
This oracle has a message for you. There is the way of the mind - which makes mountains out of molehills, even when it thinks it is turning mountains into molehills! Then there is the way of the heart. It is subterranean and moves subtly beneath possible obstacles, intelligently shifting with exquisite sensitivity, sensing the way forward, through dangerous pathways and responding to what is before it even occurs in the physical world. However, with the heart’s intelligence we cannot see and know in the same way that we do when we allow the mind to direct us. We have to be open to another way if we want to benefit from the innate intelligence of the heart.
The mind sees, plans and strategizes. The heart feels, responds, senses and intuits. When we walk the path of the heart, we must feel and respond rather than plan our way. It is a different way to live and create. It is closer to the earth and to the source of life itself. It is not for those who are lacking in courage and trust, but you are not one of those! You are being asked to trust your heart, and to drop into it. The mind is important, but it cannot supplant the heart. The role of the mind is to serve the truths of the heart. That is, to create the spacious chamber of receptiveness into which the sacred rhythm of your heartbeat can resound.”
With the balancing energies of the equinox in full force, I felt it timely that we practice the balancing movements of Five Element Qigong. These series are designed to bring the energies of the Five Elements and their associated energies and emotions into harmony and balance. The focus is on balancing the energies, rather than getting rid of the “negative” emotion. Remember, every emotion just wants to be seen and honoured.
Metal: Lungs and Large Intestine. Exhale Grief and Sorrow. Inhale Compassion and Empathy.
Water: Kidney and Bladder. Exhale Fear. Inhale Courage and Wisdom.
Wood: Liver and Gall Bladder. Exhale Anger. Inhale Strength.
Fire: Heart and Triple Warmer. Exhale Anxiety and Overwhelm. Inhale Joy and Peace.
Earth: Spleen and Stomach. Exhale Worry. Inhale Trust.
Fellow Wise Women, may you courageously venture into your week. Celebrate the joyous occasions, celebrate your body and your every breath. It was a very powerful practice today and I wish you continued integration throughout your week.
With so much respect and love,
Patti
