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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in goddess inspiration oracle

Posted by on in SageWoman Blogs

It seems like themes of sexuality and pleasure have taken on an increasingly important role in my life over the last year. A few years ago, I took a last-minute job teaching a course on the Anthropology of Sexuality, a topic in which I had grounding but did not consider myself an expert. In the intervening three years, I have increasingly been called on to teach similar courses and to speak on issues of sex, sexuality, sex education, and sexual empowerment. I have come to think of myself as a Sexuality Educator, rather than simply as someone who teaches courses that deal with the topic of sex. And I've become increasingly passionate about medically accurate, comprehensive sex education, as well as about sexual empowerment more generally. This past spring, I started my Internet radio show, All Acts of Love and Pleasure, which examines love, sex, sexuality, eroticism, and relationships in a Pagan context. I have become, in a very real way, passionate about pleasure.

Running alongside these themes has been the overarching theme of trying to find and live my passion. My career has been in flux, in various ways, for the last couple of years. I've been working to discover the passions that drive me, and to make my life and my living doing those things. This work has been some of the most difficult of my life, as it asks me to plumb my deepest depths and be unflinchingly honest with myself about my wants, my desires, my fears, and my expectations of myself -- as well as my Divine right to live a life that fills me up and feels good. I have been working to embrace the Divine Yes.

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Posted by on in SageWoman Blogs

It feels like spring has finally come to North Texas. The first of our famous wildflowers are finally starting to show in the grasses along the highways, and the sun is blessing us after an uncustomarily dark and cloudy February and March. I'm seeing the first butterflies of the season, too, as the trees and flowers begin to come back. But that fine mist of blue and orange which heralds the emergence of bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush are what tells me that spring is finally here.

Along with the wildflowers and the butterflies, the Goddess Psyche has come fluttering into my life to remind me to seek the deepest truths of my soul this week. I've loved the myth of Psyche and Cupid since I took Greek Mythology in high school, but have never thought much about Her as a Goddess in her own right. Her message to allow love to transform me, and to seek my most fundamental truths, is a welcome one right now.

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While we haven't had the hard winter that Boston and much of the Eastern Seaboard of the United States has had, it has still been a rough season here in Texas. Late February snow and ice, followed by a series of overcast days, have kept me in my home and away from so many of my favorite early spring activities. I am grateful for the much-needed water that will (hopefully) help alleviate the long drought we've been suffering here in the Lone Star state. And yet when the weather turns dark and moody and cold and wet, I find myself often turning inward. This inward state is not self-reflective or introspective as it might otherwise be. No, my winter "turning inward" is often a function of depression -- what I call my Black Dog -- and is as hard to shake as the Texas gumbo mud on my shoes. This winter has been one of re-evaluation, principally of the career which has been the center of my life for more than a decade. I am finding less and less joy and more and more frustration in the classroom, and becoming increasingly frustrated with the exploitative nature of part-time faculty life. And yet the idea of changing my path is fraught with emotional landmines -- a sense of having given up, of having failed, of being adrift and not knowing what to do or where to turn next. In many ways this is my relationship with the Element of Water -- it is so easy for me to give into the darker side of my emotions, to pain, to self-pity, and to fear. Perhaps because I have always lived in land-locked places, the idea of open water terrifies me. And the sense I've had of being adrift upon a vast sea has, of late, been really stoking my fears.

And so this week, Yemanja (otherwise known as Yemaya), the Holy Queen Sea of the Yoruba pantheon, has come to remind me that when we fight the current, we drown. But when we can surrender to the flow, we float.

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Susan Harper
    Susan Harper says #
    Thank you so much, Connie. Surrendering to the flow is hard -- I'm a make-it-happen kind of gal -- but I know that this is exactly
  • Connie Lazenby
    Connie Lazenby says #
    Susan, i found myself in much the same position during the summer and fall of last year. Thankfully the decision as to exactly w

Posted by on in SageWoman Blogs

b2ap3_thumbnail_Waldherr-Huchi-Fuchi.jpg

Huchi-Fuchi, by Kris Waldherr

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  • Anne Newkirk Niven
    Anne Newkirk Niven says #
    I did not know about this Goddess before. Do you have any pages that describe her further that you can link to?
Weekly Goddess Inspiration: Bastet

Bastet is one of my household Goddesses, and I'm looking forward to spending time with her this week. A household with five felines in it has to honor Bastet, right? And a house with two queer female householders and five felines really has to honor Bastet! She is, after all, not just the Goddess of Cats, but of sexuality in all its forms, a protector of women, and the patroness of divine play. Bastet was one of the first Goddess I met, on a transformative trip to Egypt in my early 20s, and she has had a place on my altar and in my heart every since. Even if I am not always so good at remembering her message, to find play and moments of lightheartedness.

And I can use some lightheartedness this week! Last week was trying, with the news that a promising job lead had fallen through, my partner's mother having hip replacement, and a brief descent into a black depression that kept me mired in sadness and inertia for several days. (I am happy to report that my partner's  mom is doing well, there are new job opportunities on the horizon, and I'm back to my usual self!) Last week was heavy beyond heavy, with few moments of laughter and play. This week I'm thankful to have the reminder that we need those moments of light, of silliness. We need to be able to look at the world like a cat and see everything as something to investigate, to be curious about, to play with.

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Weekly Goddess Inspiration: Baba Yaga

Baba Yaga might be one of my favorite Goddesses/female figures from folklore. I love the image of the wild-haired Baba Yaga, living in her house perched on chicken feet, embodying all our stereotypes of the witch. The "eating children" part I'm not as down with, but I get how that is part and parcel of her image. I've been fascinated with images of witches since I was a child, and even today as a Witch myself, I collect images and figures of witches of all different kinds.

What I also love about Baba Yaga is that, in her guise as a witch, she embodies some of humanity's deepest fears. And perhaps the biggest fear we have is change.

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Weekly Goddess Inspiration: Berchta

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, it's nearly Summer Solstice. Thankfully, the Texas heat has (mostly) held off so far, and we've enjoyed some lovely temperate days. The full force of the Sun will surely arrive after the Solstice, but it's been a nice respite to have our days in the 80s and low 90s.Here in the high, bright days of June, the Winter Solstice seems very far off indeed.

As we approach the midpoint of the year, I've been doing a lot of reflecting on what it is I'm trying to create in my life, what I'm trying to manifest, and what I want for my future. My companion this week is a Winter Goddess, Berchta. Worshiped throughout what is now Germany, and one of the patrons of Midwinter, Berchta is thought to oversee spinning.  Cloaked in her mantle of snow, and sometimes pictured with swan's feet, Berchta is also the guardian of beasts and of mothers. (Her celebration at Winter Solstice is known as Mother's Night.) She is a great teacher and an initiator. And like other Goddesses associated with spinning, including the Fates and the Norns, she is also a Goddess of Destiny.

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  • Susan Harper
    Susan Harper says #
    Thanks for reading! I sometimes get soooo caught up in trying to "make" things happen!
  • Ted Czukor
    Ted Czukor says #
    Excellent questions and reminders, Susan. Thank you. I, too, find that things go better when I allow them to unfold. I, too, somet

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