We Share

2010 - Giving and Receiving

I've found in my women's group that the women are very used to nurturing others but not themselves. So I include some self nurture activities. And from my own experience of A Call to Power, nurture and healing of the self plays a huge part in touching the divine light that is within ourselves and then coming from this place of light in all our perceptions and actions within our world.

One very nurturing exercise is to have women work in couples, and each woman bathes and dries the other woman's feet. I ask, if possible, that women do not chit chat during this exercise, so that they can focus on feeling the exercise. Feel how it is to tend another woman, and feel how it is to receive such tender attention. I provide bowls, warm water, a selection of essential oils and each woman intuitively selects an oil for their partner. Its a profound exercise.

Each meeting we initially gather in another room of the house where we smudge. Smudging as a means of clearing for the women in their personal lives and homes- bringing ritual and nurture to their everyday lives is encouraged. I also have the women smudge themselves rather than one another as a reminder that a strong woman never waits on anyone to do anything for them, but has the power to do for themselves.

We then dance into the room where we hold our meditations and rituals. The dance is one inspired by the Grandmothers as I experienced many years ago. Women line up in single file, left hand on the left shoulder of the women in front. The step is very simple. On step forward with left foot, bring right foot up to the left foot. So its a kind of shuffling step led by the left foot. Left side of the body representing the feminine side, and the past. The group are asked to retrace the steps of the Grandmothers in forms, their own grandmothers, the pathway of all women. So with half closed eyes, and focus being on connecting with all women and not on the technical aspect of the dance the dance moves into a circle in the other room much like the movement of a snake and continues until the end of the music. Absolutely beautiful to watch and profound to experience.

Most favorite music to dance to is provided by a group called Dead Can Dance - the track "Yulunga" (Spirit Dance). The women sound during this dance in response to the call to their hearts that is provoked by the music. In my very first women's circle some 10 -15 years ago, which was lead by a woman who had been mentored by Native American Grandmothers, she stated that from within the circle I was attending, would be a woman who would pick up the mantle offered by the Grandmothers, I knew that person to be me, even though I had no other knowledge of what or when or how to do. It was a silent commitment. We were also told at that time, that each time some earthly woman takes up the mantle, then a Grandmother who has parted this world but still working towards the salvation of our planet, is released to do her work on a much higher level. The very first circle I held, during our meditation I saw the naked feet of a Grandmother, trailing the hem of her long skirt across the bare earth sending up small clouds of dust that settled calmly in her wake, as she walked towards her higher destiny...hence the inspiration for the dance, and my tears each time.

I would like to bring women back to the sacredness of their cyclic nature, the cycles of the moon. So there is discussion and various exercises about aligning our own energetic output to the waxing and waning of the moon, and our menstrual cycles. This is a little difficult for menstruating women because they are not aligned to the moon path...menstruating on the Dark Moon, but I saw that in this contemporary pace of life, women needed to be aware of their own output of energy twice within the month, and encouraged to do something that was nurturing and healing for themselves during menstruation and/or dark moon. For menopausal and post menopausal women it was easier to pace themselves throughout the month. I'm sure you can see the wisdom behind this awareness, seeing our society is so task driven. One of my young mothers actually endeavors to make the social commitments of her children and her family along the moons path and has found that so successful for her children. Of course for the women who are externally committed, to be even aware of it being a time of withdrawal to her inner world, is quite profound and releases mindless activity into a deeper and inner awareness of her actions.

We do a variety of different exercises along the path of the moon and our individual issues each month....they are too many to note here and perhaps this is not exactly what you are wanting.... but in relation to your Call to Power...I see the woman's power as being that of her creative womb and heartfelt desire.

Nijole, Lithuania