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Originally uploaded by riabaeck

Last evening I was part of a group we call the Deeper Inquriy Group. Here are my morning reflections – holding the infinite evolutionary dance of individual and collective, and all the beauty and magic as we move as one.

Checking In Today
In a recent circle we talked about bringing circle practice into everyday life. What would that be like to start and end our days together, in circle, coming present to one another – present from Source – from the deepest part of who we are – as an individual and as collective presence?

This is my check-in this morning. My practice is meditation and then journaling. While there is not an other to be present to or with, there is the greater community of conscious others, of humans in circle active and present in the web of life. And this morning you in the Deeper Inquiry group are with me.

I recall last evening the gathering of the Deeper Inquiry Group, a group of OD practitioners who show commitment to be present on a regular basis. We come together once a month to sit in circle, to enter into and from silence, and to be present through conversation to the emergent. These seem to be our implicit agreements. As was also said last night there is a sense of love and compassion that seems, on varying levels, to permeate the group field.

If I reflect back on my 2 or so years with the DIG, I have seen and experienced an evolving pattern from revolving leader facilitation, lots of discussion and debate, and often little depth to something much deeper, slower, and more present. Over the 2 years there was the occasional evening when we diverged (or were led) to tap into other ways of knowing, to complement the rational/logical with a deeper inner subtle knowing. All along, and still, I see the dance of individual wants and needs (ego) trying to know how to be with a more collective presencing process. My sense is this is an evolutionary edge for many of us, to be present to both, to be fully present as individual souls (not egos) in a process that taps into a greater than any one of us, collective knowing. And the collective presence, if you will, comes alive through each of us and in between us. We are essential and yet must give over to something greater than any one of us.

How does this relate to our time last evening? If I sense deeply, am fully present, and bring language to what I am noticing, what emerges now? What is my, from Source, deep check-in this morning?

I sense a bit of the sacred in the middle as the candle brings light. We sit in circle, in silence; there is no structure, no leader, and someone will speak as they feel moved to. (If I recall correctly, this process of waiting and speaking what comes into the middle came into being a few sessions ago. It seems to be very close to Bohmian way of dialogue. We have had some principles on the wall as guidance. They were not there in the beginning last night.)

After one person opened with what was going on for her tonight, I spoke that I would appreciate a check-in from each in the circle. Later some resistance to this would arise as one or two were not sure they really wanted to do that. So there is a question in the middle. What is the meaning of check-in? What does it mean for each of us? Have we different interpretations? Is that OK? Could it be guided with a question? Is it OK for someone to pass? What part of us resists or wants, or doesn’t want? I always like to notice resistance to see what is underneath that.

Later the guiding principles, at the request of one of the group, were displayed again for us to see. She was seeking more guidance and maybe clarity. I recall that the one principle that stood out to me in that moment was “focus on process and not content”. If I take a step back, I notice that our undefined process means that process evolves – or doesn’t. While I sense commitment, interest, and curiosity, I also sense a lot of uncertainty in the collective field. And hesitancy. Is part of this due to lack of process or guiding structure? One person voiced that he is still lacking full trust in the group. What is the relationship between uncertainty as an edge that invites the emergent and enough trust in self and group to go to the edge? What is the dance between some kind of structure (even if very minimal) and being void of defined structure (2 extremes, of course). Where is the minimal optimal?

I also noticed that there is sometimes disturbance in the field. Is this coming out of this hesitancy for the group to fully engage (I do sense this hesitancy)? And so is there some kind of underlying turbulence seeking to find a larger voice? It was said that our group has not tapped its potential, or has untapped potential (or something to that effect). If this is so, what roles were we each playing in that, including the one who raised the point? Are we really willing to look at that? This is a Deeper Inquiry Group. While I sometimes sense we are deepening just a bit, I also sense the discomfort. Often after a deeper dive, someone will bring us back up. Possibly we were out of our comfort zone. And what about the notion of inquiry? More thought on that.

Are we willing to inquire? There is an implication that we would be seeking to know something we don’t yet know. The format (or very minimal) of letting what shows up be the thread of conversation can be aimless and may just be sharing what we already know. Out of the void our thoughts/words seem to seek some kind of meaning; often we struggle. And then content becomes the focus as we humans seek, by nature, to find meaning.

Why not have a line of inquiry? A guiding question? We already have hints showing up. What is deeper inquiry? What is inquiry? What is our purpose in coming together? Why are we there? What is the potential and meaning of check-in? Is there a minimal optimal structure? What is the meaning and role of uncertainty, trust, impermanence, love, silence, fear, the future potential? What are the key components of deep collective practice, of tapping into Source, of collective presencing? And can we ask those questions from an experiential place, in the moment? Not from a head space alone? Can we come from the wholeness of who we are into collective presencing and hold true open space?

I think we are stuck in not wanting to be uncomfortable – and we are on the verge of something new. I think we hold the potential for evolving collective presencing practice that can become a new human practice. If we look, there are openings. There are people, often younger than most in our circle, who are ready to jump. They are hungry. They are seeking our wisdom. They want to learn at an accelerated rate. They are fast and we are learning to slow down. Is there room and a place for both? I also see little emerging organizations (Paul Hawken, Blessed Unrest) who are on the cusp. They are ready. Are we? How can we truly serve?

My questions are endless. What are yours? What are you curious about? How does that relate to the minimal optimal structure for collective presencing or deeper inquiry practice? How can we as individuals truly engage collectively? And I see in-the-world, practical application. Are we ready? As Malaena recently said (in a similar context), “We are open for business.” Are we?

With love and deep commitment to the process,
Judy

An open vessel

 

 Reflections / Themes from Women Moving the Edge May 1-4, 2009 

Be an open Vessel for the New Form(s) wanting to emerge 

What does this mean – to be an open vessel?  How do we offer to ourselves what already is and invite what we are not yet aware of?

 Be in the Not-Knowing, a state of inquiry, in the moment, open to the emergent … Ria spoke of Night Consciousness.  In the day there is light and we can see our path.  In the night it is as if we are walking backwards, feeling our way, uncertain, using all our other senses, our bodies, our intuitive knowing, all ways of knowing we have not yet tapped into to take just the next step.  Just one very careful step.  It seems to require a lot of letting go, of trust, and of becoming an open vessel for Night Consciousness to illumine through us, individually and collectively, the yet unknown ways of addressing the great questions we hold and for which we have no answers. 

The Wild, Seduction, Allurement  There is an aspect of feminine wholeness that we so often keep in the background or even deny.  In my religious and family upbringing, being seductive was too sensual and sexual to be encouraged or even acknowledged. It was sinful and dark.  And it was the feminine who seemed to hold it down, to keep that bargain, somehow.  Had there been long ago an agreement to hide this aspect of who we are for something we valued more?  Was it for our and our children’s protection, a safe and warm place to live, for food and some sense of security? And in an older place in consciousness did we not yet see the power and value of allurement in attracting the best in human potential?  And the creativity and unpredictability of the wildness?  Was this all too scarey?  What if we truly opened as a vessel to live and be the highest future potential in all its attractiveness, it wildness, its seduction?  What would that look like?  How would we be?  How would we embody this?  

The Shadow, Illusion, the Real and the UnReal   Why are the wild, the not knowing, the sensual, the night, and often the feminine, all associated with Shadow, with the parts of ourselves and human consciousness that are not yet illumined, that we don’t want to see, that we avoid?  As women during this Women Moving the Edge we saw that shadow is an illusion.  Clouds casting shadows on the earth are transparent, and behind them is the radiance of light.  Are they merely our illusions, our ways of not fully seeing?  Is it possible that in the shadows lie our greatest potential, the answers we have been seeking for eons?  What if we are an open vessel for the light?  And this brings me to the veil.

 Lifting the Veil  This theme emerged early on during WMtE 6 and I notice it is in my writings from earlier months.  There is this sense that the feminine in all her full potential,  in how she can truly partner with the masculine, has by her own agreement been veiled for a long, long time.   And in so doing we mask the full potential of the Earth herself.  We can see the veil as a kind of shadow or illusion that we are still holding for some kind of protection.  It can be the thin layer in consciousness that we construct to keep from knowing what lies just beyond in the realm of other dimensions, other ways of knowing.  It can be the way we have allowed the masculine to hide us, to keep us in the shadows, to protect even themselves from the wild seduction, the unpredictable and yet tempting alluring not-knowing that haunts us.  It can be the way we have become disconnected from the Earth and our own earthiness. If we become an open vessel, like the birth canal itself, the vagina that we cannot name, how could we then protect ourselves?  What if we would not need to? There seems to be long patterns of fear, for both masculine and feminine, intertwined in the dance that is itself a gridlock that we have created.  How will we break free?  

 Collective Sourcing    We have many questions and now, as we begin to come together after eons of separation, we discover our collective wisdom and power.  Being an open collective vessel for coming from Source, is really an incredible tool and practice for breaking through eils of illusion.  Back to the question of “How do we offer to ourselves what already is and invite what we are not yet aware of?  Not-knowing includes what we already know and a willingness to let go in the moment to know beyond anything we might have imagined.  And the power comes through the question, and we find the higher and bigger the question, the deeper we can source.  Women Moving the Edge has been an evolutionary path for the feminine qualities of knowing, of sourcing, to become visible and known to us.  We are beginning to see how to hold this kind of space is being an open collective vessel for what wants to emerge, for new forms to be birthed, for the next steps to be seen and given direction.  We see we must be whole in our presence, beyond the ego self, and willing to collectively know. We are learning to give language to what we are experiencing.  And the experience is one of even greater wholeness – of knowing and embodying all ways of knowing – of opening all we are as vessels in service to evolution, as part of the Earth herself.  This is true freedom.  The fire of breakthrough, the grounding in Earth, the blinding light of illumination as we hold all paradox in the birthing moment, as we become fully alive at the edge. 

More to come…

 

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Photo taken by Helen Titchen Beeth, Women Moving the Edge 5, Belgium Feb. 2009

She is still partially veiled, asking us to make her visible.  And me sense is we are called to develop a new human capacity of collective inquiry in service to the evolution of this great being, this life in whom we live and move and have our being.  She is calling us now.

My question:

If we humans are developing a new capacity of collective inquiry for accessing wisdom in service to evolution, what is wanting to be known, to come alive, to be made visible through us now? 

And with this new capacity, what is possible in our world?

The Call:

I long to inquire into this question with others.  Together we gather as fully present, as souls, open to the emergent, accessing Source.  As we sense into, learn together, and evolve this sacred collective capacity of inquiry, She will be visible, be known, come alive through us.  This is our service now to Evolution.   Our collaborative experiments and c0-creative actions will naturally take shape.

I am calling a circle of wise women in the greater Boston area.  Here is what is emerging through me and in conversations with others.  More to come as we give birth to this collective being.

Question:  What is asking to be known through us?  To become visible?  To be given language and form? 

Intention:

• to bring wise women together
• to sense deeply, to collectively source into what the world is asking to birth through us
• What is the language?  to give articulation?
• What are the emergent patterns?
• What are the threads, the interwoven tapestry taking shape?  What threads do we hold? Do we see a greater pattern?
• What are the collaborative potentials emerging, new directives and directions wanting to manifest?
• What would it be like to continuously inquire, sense, co-presence -  and from Source birth the not-yet known?  What might this look like?

Why us?  Why now?

Why us?

• She is calling us.  (The She – The Earth, The Planet, The Soul of Humanity, The Voice from the Womb)
• She is asking to come alive, to be heard, to be visible, through us.
• We are the collective She.  She comes alive through us.
• We have the cappacity, the consciousness to be the “field”, and to sense the next impusle of emergence.

Why Now?

She is in peril.  Her immune system must be revitalized.  All life on this plaent hangs in the balance.  Evolution happens in every moment, on the edge of the next.  We can stand at that threshold, on the cusp of the Cosmos, and walk with presence into the Cosmic Circle.

The Practical

We each have a sense of quickening, of the intense and yet joyful and exciting responsibility to be present now, to step into our calling, to make a difference, to come together with and collaborate with others.  This Wise Women’s Circle gives energy and intention and the potential for manifestation.  We hold the possibility for the highest potential to come through us.  And we must do it together.  

Gates to the Cosmos

Winter by the Sea from Eastern Point

Gates to the Cosmos

As I hold my pen and ask “what does it mean to be VISIBLE?”,  here is what fell onto the page.  The drawing arrived after the words.  Winter by the sea holds me as I move deeply inward to bring the inner more visible – and not just to me.  It is part of a greater collective inquiry and service.  I am only one of many.

Engage, be in the flow, be present, let go – of structure, of the known, of ego-based concerns. Look to the other side (of the veil).  Open the door, the gateway to the mystery.  Walk into the unknown.  What does it look like here?

I am on a platform to the stars.  A sense of limitlessness.  There is no floor to stand on and yet total solidity.  I can move effortlessly, held in space.

Who is here?  A vast circle, tiered and deep.  Lighted souls invite me to become enfolded in the great circle of Beings, into the Cosmis Circle.  We are here to serve.  We are here to hold the space of this Cosmic Circle for what is to emerge through human consciousness on planet Earth.  Some will falter and we will hold them so they can go again.  All are ready and we have our humaness too.  We will continue to evolve, to learn and grow in consciousness as we move in flow with service.  We bring all aspects of what it is to be human into this circle and onto the planet.  We are of life (human) and yet more.  We are of the Cosmic Universal Family.  We hold the sacred possibility.  We invite others to come in, to take this step, to open the door.  When each is ready they will cross the Threshold.

(I notice here, I am being spoken to)  Many cross and return as you have.  Then one day your groundedness is here, in the without-ground, without-sturcture, in this vast space of unknown potential.  You are more of this realm than human.  This is the greateer portal for the future emerging (and it seems only one of many more).  These are the Gates of the Future.  Anytime you come across this Threshold, we are here. You are one of us.  

Now go back and be visible.  Engage. You have all you need to do that.  Choose wisely – your co-collaborators, your writing, your timing, and where you post.  Be wise in how you care for your well being.  Tend to your human emotional and physical  health; be whole.  Be in silence.  Be present in every moment. Co-create wise action AND know when to stand back.  Know you are held.  We are here with you as you hold us there.   And the circle is held within greater circles (a greater Collective We).  Step into the Circle now.

I first wrote this in June 2008.  As I look now from this present place in Dec. 2008, I see how we have moved with the evolutionary unfolding of understanding “holding space”.  I will share here what I wrote then with more from Nov. 23 and today. 

My sister in collaboration, Ria, has been holding the question “What is holding space”?  And so at some level I have held this question as well within a greater question of “What is the next level of the emergent feminine?  What is wanting to be birthed through us now”?  We often speak of “holding space” when we gather collectively to inquire into collective knowing.  Or we speak of holding space for others who are facilitating a large collective process where innovative ideas, solutions, and actions can emerge.  

To give context –  I recently read something that Jean Houston wrote about the UN.  A UN person said that her experience was like that of being in the womb and not knowing what would be born.  In 1945 I was born into the energetic birthing impulse of the UN and have always resonated to this planetary work.    And now I know it and own it as part of the feminine, our collaboration with the planetary womb that holds and gives birth through us to the next turn of the evolutionary spiral.

The followoing is from my morning meditation on November 23;  these things came onto the page. 

The UN, the womb, the messiness of the birthing process.  What are we experiencing, learning through this?  From the womb we are not sure yet what we will birth.  We must be in the chaos, the messiness, and the beauty and repatterning all at the same time.  We must be in the silence and active stillness and at the same time in the thrust, the incredible force of the life impulse itself.

Not only is the feminine (the womb) empty and receptive, taking in, holding, nurturing; she pushes out, an undulation of life, an emptying so as to take in again, to give even more life into the world.

It came to me here that the process of “emergence” is itself a birthing.  There is a thrust, a burst and something new is born in consciousness.  There are often the birth pains, the contractions, and then – Wow, Emergence, in all its messiness, even ugliness and yet life itself, so beautiful, so unique, so full of potential – the evolutionary and even revolutionary.

Holding space is really what we women do; we are the womb.  We take in the seed (a question), and we hold the possiblity of potential for the new life to emerge.  When we hold space we do what we do as the womb – hold, support, nurture, protect, listen, love – in quiet strength we hold ambiguity, we hold the sacredness of life, the sacred space connecting to and nurturing the possible.

And when this fragile new being wants to emerge, we release it, sometimes thrust it, almost violently, into the world, into life, into Being.  Emergence from the silence and safety, through the chaos and messiness (almost like a burning ground) of the birth canal into the vast open space of freedom, of Life, and into the next level of the Unknown.

Now on Nov. 23, 2008 I have a deeper understanding and connection to the womb as Source.  Women Moving the Edge in its 4th iteration brought clarity about Collective Presencing from Source.  It is the feminine that holds this place of the emergence for future potential.  It is the Collective She that has the capacity to birth the yet-to-be-known.  With an intentional evolutionary question held in the womb of collective inquiry, moving with wholeness of knowing as engaged in collective will,  we access the Source of the emergent seeking to come into form.

Now on Dec. 7 as I reflect on yesterday’s call with R and L, I see that we must claim, name, and own this feminine capacity of “holding space”.  We must no longer be silent or devalue this essential element in our collective process of cultivating Presencing from Source.  In partnership with the inspiration of collective inquiry, we  are the birthing ground of emergence for the highest future potential to come into manifestation.

Ria Baeck’s Model - The Masculine (Spirit) and the Feminine (Source) collaborate through us in the dance of holding the space for our open inquiry into collective presencing.  From here the emergence of our highest future potential and the next steps for manifestation are born. 

Women Moving the Edge in its 4th iteration, Nov. 14-17, 2008 at Angel’s Rest in Western Mass was full of the gifts of collective emergence. Evolution happens through us individually and collectively as the ‘field’ comes into ever more resonance and coherence as a vessel for conscious evolution.

I have been holding an intention for deeper understanding of the feminine emerging through us.  More recently I began to hold the potential for being in the dance with the masculine and the feminine and to understand more fully how they integrate into “wholeness of being” as we humans hold them.

On the very universal level Ria’s model illumines for me how these archetypal energies we call “masculine” and “feminine” can seem so different and even separate and yet when we bring them together in us, individually and collectively, the emergent potential is limitless.  And it seems we are only beginning to learn how to do this AND we need one another to do it. 

It is the “Coming from Source”, through the invocation of the Open Will in resonance with the Open Mind and Open Heart (Otto Scharmer and Theory U) that really draws me now.  This seems to be our learning edge in the immediate future.  It is from here that we hold the potential to birth the “not yet imagined” future potential.  This is the birthing ground for the new practices that can carry us into the next turn on the evolutionary spiral.  And it is here where we hold the future potential for life on our planet and the planet herself.

On a more everyday level I seek to notice, to sense into those feminine qualities and ways of knowing that bring us into wholeness, that can inform our journey to Source.  And that may even be coming from Source.  I am very aware that for me silence is a door into this deeper knowing.  If I enter meditation with a question (inquiry – masculine) and move into the holding space (feminine) of meditation – emergent ways of knowing abound.  I can experience them by sensing into the ‘field’, by looking with an internal vision, by listening into the space, by stream of consciousness writing, and by holding more silence. 

So there is something about this ‘field’, this resonance where multiple ways of knowing converge, ways that are beyond the rational mind.     And in this ‘field’ there seems to be a wholeness although we may each as individuals know only some part of that.  This is where our “collective knowing” is vital, our coming together to inquire collectively.  As with my meditation there is intention and attention.  We move into collective space as we would into sacred space.  We move with a question, we are fully present as souls, we listen attentively, we sense into the silence as well as the words we speak.  We become the ‘field’.  The ‘field’, the Collective Being comes alive through us.  And what emerges through us as a circle could not have been known by any one of us. 

This way of knowing, of coming from Source, collectively, is the Feminine holding and birthing the emergent future potential.   The inquiry, the inspiration of Spirit, is the masculine seeding the process.  It is our ability to come together, to slow down, to open, to hold, to be present, to nurture our relational space withone another beyond ego that seems to be key.  My sense is this begins with the Open Heart.  Full co-presencing is possible when we come into the highest and deepest intention of Will.  Then Source, through our collective presencing, is accessible.

I awakened relaxed and realizing the beauty and joy of a warm summer morning close to the sea.  I gradually come into the day with recall and reflection on the last couple of so very rich days with Ria. And I arise into the world full of the “possible”, of understanding always at new levels the evolutionary process that arises in consciousness from the Middle.

Our time was rich with conversations on the porch, inquiry into the deepening of our work with Women Moving the Edge, the flip chart always near for Ria’s artful capturing of essence.  We walked and talked and took in the natural beauty of Eastern Point, as she juts out and opens her vistas to the sea.  We encircled the so solid and silent majestic stone retreat center with her hidden labyrinth overlooking Brace Cove. 

It seemed Nature enhanced our meanderings in exploring 2 days of the weaving of our individual lives and work with the collective emergenece and direction appearing in front of us.  We explored  how we conceive the theory of change underlying our work.   And I reveled in all the pregnant possibilities of interconnected work, the web that Ria is holding.  And I continue my own reflection on what that is for me.  Where are the interconnections for the two of us and the points of intersections with other special humans who are commited to the highest evolutionary change we can hold for our planetary system – as change happens at all levels all the time.  Where are We and me in this incredible chaotic and beautiful journey as our sun whirls our planet through space? 

Ria and I have come together for Women Moving the Edge.  And as we, with Eve-Marie and Wendy, build and hold the field for our fourth gathering in November, that edge seems to be ever expanding – higher, wider, deeper,  in some kind of dynamic movement, always to a new edge.  On our call yesterday our collective conversation seemed to move through reflection, exploration and questions, moments of clarity and then paths into greater complexity and mystery.  I notice myself in moments of stretching into new territory, beyond where I or we have been.  It happens almost magically.  I sense an excitement in the moment that lifts me so high and at the same time a yearning to rest in some kind of knowing that is familiar. 

And that is how I experience this collective journey  It is a movement into the vastness and never ending unknown – waiting to be known, to be awakened through each of us.  And I feel how I imagine it must feel as one jumps into  the seemingly infinite - parachuting high above the earth – experiencing the thrill and exhileration of the flight and then the relief of landing on safe ground – and then wanting to go back again and again.

 I yearn for these conscious collective conversations.  This informs my life, my work, my very being – to be in the midst of not knowing, and to want to know, and to explore this in relationship with others.  And we learn and explore into ever more wholeness – an evolving wholeness of knowing – in all the ways we can know.  Through this movement into the Collective We, together we bring the implicit explict.   Through us change happens at all levels all the time.

For more detailed notes on Women Moving the Edge building the field conversations, please visit Evolutionary Nexus.

     From the Middle 

I recently wrote an article on collective intelligence that I will share here. I welcome comments.

Apprenticeship – the “Collective We”

I am an explorer.  I want to understand how we each as individuals engage in that rare space where the “Collective We” magically knows.  I and others must learn how to show up, how to be present to open this door.  What I write here is birthed from my direct experience in exploring with others this evolutionary edge.

I notice some practices that nurture this fertile ground for collective knowing.  A question arises and holds deep meaning to bring focus.  I must come with an openness to inquiry and to the emergent.  I must sense into the moment, letting go of everything else.  And for me the most profound is silence.  With the sound of the bell, the mind and body still.  I (and we) drop out of the rational mind into resonance with the collective field.

I experience the circle conversation as slow and thoughtful as each takes the talking piece, not knowing exactly what will be said.  Voice is given to what is present in the moment, not rehearsed or drawn from books or opinion.  I sense and listen with my whole being, yearning to know what is present between us now.  I and we strive to be fully present, but not as the small self.  We are the voices, the unique sensing organs of consciousness itself.

We are apprentices.  We come together to learn to know collectively.  Each time we learn more into the how.  As we evolve, individually and collectively, the field expands.  The next time we gather it is easier to deepen the groove and to move the edge a little more.  We will do this over and over again seeking to magically slip through that mysterious door. 

Once we have tasted the “Collective We” knowing, aliveness and stillness at the same time; we are nearly intoxicated with seeking to experience this magic again.  And yet, I observe myself and others often pulling back.  I sense an intense vibrational shift when an unknown voice speaks through me.  The energy is hard to hold.  Some can hold this rare space longer than others.  They are our mentors, the pioneers who help us to glimpse the possible.

I have experienced the burst, the life force exploding from the deepest core of the Earth, as a voice brings ideas not yet known.  Then in the very next moment someone brings forward a personal story.  The energy deflates; the frequency drops.  On many occasions I have experienced this energetic rise and fall.  I see the holding of this higher interlude and frequency as one of the great challenges of our collective apprenticeship.  We think we have to say something and maybe there are no words.  The silence says it all. 

Poem From Women Moving the Edge, a string of sharings by all of us, noted by Maria.

We are physically walking along
With our bodies
We can sense and feel the way aheadThe masculine that protects
Looking for that within ourselves
And in others
What does it protect?
The Feminine!Being informed by the ancestors
And the young ones
Give over to what we are birthing
Our youngins have so much
To teach us
Lets make space for them
To teach us the futureListening and sensing and feeling
What is around us
Is it sufficient for us now?
And – listening to the trees
The birds and the leaves
Helping us to listen

I realise that I touch people
I don’t have to be part
Of an ‘edgy’ organisation
I make a difference

Surrender…Surrender
To who we are
I have to get that, I am
Already doing it

I walked the woods backwards
Feeling the strength at my back
I walked it backwards twice!
And I did not fall

The simple and the explicit
The touching and being held
The simple gestures of touching
Connecting

The question is…
Is staying disconnected an option?
Because it is uncomfortable
For a few moments to connect?

I am not really ready to find anything
I am still in the inquiry
Still in a place of seeking

Why am I afraid?
Because women in my time
Were burning bras – hating men
I did not want to be part of this

Yes – it is about us being powerful
About us being out there
And touching men – touching women
Out there – in the space we want
To act upon

Have we lost something?
I know there is a deeper level
We do not have to drop it
We touched it and left – touched it and left

For me the real feminine is to
Stay in that connection all the time:
To stay present to your body and senses
To contain your attachments
To ego – or to what ever

We are just beginning to see
How much we are living in the masculine
- Not to say that we are doing a bad job -
Our track in consciousness of the masculine
Is so deep
The new track is hardly visible
And it needs all our consciousness
What is the subtle that calls my awareness?
Allowing the silence
So much noise
So many words

They will not heal us
Only when they are connected
We hardly touched what is
Connection to Source

So much to discover deep inside us
Inner wisdom, inner knowing
As Priestesses we need to bring it out
It is still there

The Feminine is about collectiveness
Holding the Whole
The only way we can nurture
Ourselves back to this
- Not just as feminists – is to come together
As women
It is needed – it is necessary
As far as I know
All Priestesses, all Witches
Have come together
In Circles to hold the Source

To get a physical experience
Of how it is to be in
Feminine Energy
We are overwhelmed with the masculine
How we work, our cities, our buildings

It is only fair to get a physical
Experience of the Feminine

We are more knowledgeable
About Zen
We need to be in experience
Be in the body
Be in the layers of the body
Then use our consciousness

Let the words come out
From the deep layers – not the minds
And the grandmothers sit around us
Three, four, five circles
Just lean back!
They hold us
Lean back!
Life is happening anyway
Just sense how it wants to be born
Which muscle you have to stretch or release
Evolution is happening anyway
Get out of the way
Rest in silence

I know that when I sit in circles like this
And this is not the first
Then when – we are ready
Source vibrates out of the centre
It’s a resonance
I can move from it, speak from it, act from it
But unless I am open
And those that gather
Can contain resonance
It is lost
Until the presence is ready again

I have no doubt
That Source appears
When there are men and women
But there is a quality that emerges with women
Because Source is deeply feminine
There have been times throughout history
Delphi, Witches – 8 million women burned
Because they held power of self
They were connected to this
This was perceived as dangerous

There is a reverence to embodying
And the noise is so – it is everywhere
The static – the confusion
For me – I guess – in this moment
I am understanding the reason I came here
It is to reconnect to the brilliance that is
This energy called Source
To plug myself in again
And to witness others into that to

The other name of Source
Is Home
Not good enough to just know it exists
And feel it from time to time
We have to act from it
And invite it into places without question

I am feeling so much pain
In my body
Can we dance?

And we did!