| What is Women's Spirituality? |
| Charge of the Goddess " I am the beauty of the green Earth the white moon among the stars, the mystery of the deep waters, the breath of the whispering winds, & the desire of human hearts... Therefore... I call upon your soul to arise and come unto me... for I am the Soul of Nature that gives life to the Universe! From me all things have come and unto me all things must return, so let my worship be in the heart that rejoices.... for behold... all acts of love & pleasure are my rituals! Let there always be beauty in your life, Strength & Power... Love & Compassion... Honor & Humility... Reverence & Joy... And remember... Your seeking & yearning shall avail you not unless you know the mystery... For if that which you seek you find not within yourself, you shall never find it without... For behold... I have been with you from the beginning, and I am She who awaits you at the end of all desire! Blessed Be |
| Women's Spirituality is a return to the Earth as Mother, source of life. It is reclaiming our unique mysteries, talents, gifts and values as women. It is celebrating our lives as Maidens, Mothers, Crones & Dreamers, created in the image & likeness of the Great Cosmic Mother herself. Women's Spirituality is taking back our female bodies & souls. It is embracing our natural beauty, magic, power & wisdom. It is acknowledging ourselves as visible spirits, one with all life; It is aligning ourselves with the waxing - waning cycles of Nature; creating diverse lifestyles and working with sisters everywhere to rise above the insidious ways of Patriarchy. It is healing from the detrimental estrangement and sickness created by a toxic world & a sleeping humanity. Women's Spirituality has been called by many names... the Goddess Path; Womanspirit; Feminist Spirituality; the Dianic Tradition; but it is primarily rooted in the Old Religions & Women's Traditions of our ancient ancestors, those who honored the female as giver of life. The essence of Women's Spirituality is to MAKE WHOLE AGAIN because it supports a woman's autonomy and right to live freely, consciously, joyously and harmoniously on every level of life. It is celebrating our unique mysteries and rites of passage. It is rejoicing in all that a woman holds near & dear; it is the reclamation of our body, mind, emotions and soul; a deep reverence for a living Earth and her natural laws & for our oneness with all things in the great web of life. Women's Spirituality celebrates our unique mysteries & rites of passage. It is honoring ourselves as creators, nurturers and preservers of life. It is a full moon ritual by the sea or a new moon ceremony in the high desert. It is playing in a forest grove or running sky clad under twinkling stars. It is drumming to the heartbeat of the Earth or singing with the wind. It is remembering ourselves or sharing our stories by a crackling fire. It is chanting in a stone circle; meditating by a flowing creek; contemplation in a labyrinth or moving rhythmically in a spiral dance. It is the glowing aura of candle lit altars; sweet smelling oils and incense; house blessings; prayers spells; trance journeys; smoking cauldrons. It is feasting on good food or passing a chalice 'round the circle in love & trust; It is healing ourselves with ancient remedies or following intuitive guidance; It is honoring the Goddess of a thousand names in her many guises; It is serving humanity for the Great Mother herself... Women's Spirituality is self-love above all with a joyful recognition of our divinity, power and beauty. It is knowing that when we sing, dance, dream, laugh, weep, feast, make love or make merry, we are honoring the priceless words of the Goddess herself... "Let my worship be in the heart that rejoices for behold, all acts of love & pleasure are my rituals!" |
The Words of Artemis Hear the words of the Divine Virgin, Artemis, Maiden Huntress & Lady of the Beasts... " You are enough! Wholeness is your birthright, your natural state of being. Obey your instincts, and your true knowledge will lead you back to your wildness, your essential sacred self. Be not afraid to remove your harness and step out of your cage. The cage door has never been locked, only untried. Taste and drink of the freedom that is known to all creatures, that which you have lost. Run with me & my nymphs through the forest, knowing the night as your lover... moving in & out of the shadows, aglow with silver light. Feel the wind on your bare body, & breathe in the ecstasy of a free woman. To know me is to fully embrace your wild woman self, and from wildness comes all possibilities. Let my spirit move in you like the running deer.... without fear." by Ruth Barrett Author of Women's Rites, Women's Mysteries Dancing Tree Music. com |
Our Lady's Prayer Our Mother, Who art the soul of Nature & Spirit of the universe, Holy be thy many names & sacred be thy ways, Thy wisdom comes as thy way is done, unfolding within the depths of us... Bless us this day with love & trust For thy body provides our every need. Let us not fall prey to illusions of separateness for we are bound, one & the same, with all life. Your breath moves us, Your light transforms us, Your waters shape us, Your Earth heals us... So let us awaken to the rapture of our soul & dance with joy to the beating of our heart... For we are graced with the mystery of Being in the ever changing turning of the seasons, And thy laws abide & guide us in all things with everlasting power & wisdom, time after time.... now & forever! by JoAnna Silverwitch |
| The Goddess Path " Goddess belief is for women who are in search of women's spirituality and rediscovering their own power within as daughters of the divine feminine. As women of faith, we are growing into our full sacred integrity. We believe the Goddess shows herself to us daily through Nature and inspires us through wisdom. The Goddess is the Holy Spirit who embodies and engenders everything. She reveals Herself as creation. She is the original Holy Trinity: Virgin, Mother & Crone. She is the Mother of all Gods. She is responsible for the divinity of all births. There is no damnation in her religion as ascribed by the male gods of the desert religions. She is death. She is resurrection. She is transformation. She is heaven. She is glory. She is salvation. She is grace through which all humanity is born. In the ministry of the Holy Goddess, all are equal in spiritual unity. Your daily life is attuned to the Universe as a Goddess path... & the Guiding Mother Goddess of All -Life." Z Budapest Founding Mother of Women's Spirituality Z Budapest.com |
Women's Religion As in Heaven, So on Earth What people believe is political because it influences their actions and because it is the vehicle by which a religion perpetuates a social system. Politics and Religion are interdependent. Every new social structure strives to come up with some kind of mythology of divine origin for its values and aims. The mythology is passed on for generations, and often its validity goes unquestioned for centuries. For example, a self-created male god who has no mother is a totally insupportable concept. It is, to say the least, not supernatural, but merely unnatural. Nothing in nature parallels, let alone substantiates, such an absurdity. Everything, even a star, originates somewhere. Every creature in the world has a mother force. Obviously, to deny motherhood is to deny women. Patriarchal religion is built on this denial, which is its only original thought, the rest of the edifice having been ripped off stone by stone from the Old Faith of Paganism. The Christian Trinity is a word-by-word reversal of the Fates, the Three-Fold Mother, the Graces. The Dove is the sacred bird of the Great Mother. The Great Mother was eventually incorporated into the new Christian religion in the form of the Virgin Mary, who is today worshipped in an idolatrous fashion in the Catholic Church. Who absorbs whose culture is a crucial issue on the cultural battlefield. Those who refused to accept this accommodation and continued to practice the ancient arts of our ancestors were persecuted. Women's Spirituality is rooted in Paganism, where women's values are dominant. Goddess worship was once universal. Women's religion is pleasure-oriented, joy and feasting prone, celebrating life with dancing and lovemaking. Working in harmony with Mother Nature, we discover and recover the All-Creatrix, the female power without whom nothing is born or glad. Male energy pretends to have power by disclaiming the female force. Today, given the patriarchal society within which we live, feminist politics say clearly that the real enemy is the internalized and externalized policing tool that keeps us in fear and psychic clutter. The Craft is not only a religion; it is a lifestyle. In the time of the Matriarchies, the craft of women was common knowledge. It was rich in information on how to live on this planet, on how to love and fight and stay healthy, and especially on how to learn to learn. The remnants of that knowledge constitute the body of what we call witchcraft today, or woman-craft. The massive remainder of that knowledge is buried within ourselves, in our deep minds, in our genes. In order to reclaim it, we have to open ourselves up to psychic experiences in the safety of feminist circles. This is the Dianic Tradition. A new kind of trust is the most important contribution that women's spirituality has to give the women's movement. We learned we can trust our bodies when we learned we had the right to control them. We are learning we can trust our souls through learning that our right to have them is rooted in our recognition of the Goddess, of the female principle within the universe and ourselves. It is from this source that our independence comes. From the Holy Book of Women's Mysteries by Z. Budapest |
Seasonal Magick The year is a dancing woman Who is born at the coming of Spring The year is a dancing woman Of her birth and death we sing... In spring she comes to power When the red of Her moon bloods come Then She dances & spins toward summer To the beat of Her passion's drum... 'Tis then She become so fertile With the Life that is to come She flows with the life that feeds us 'Til the Harvest Time is done... Then she dances & spins toward darkness All dressed in autumn fire To descend to the time of shadow And rest from the world's desire... Then her hair is touched with silver Winter's wisdom claims her soul And She births the spirit within us Bringing light and hope to us all... Igniting a blaze in the darkness To kindle the coming spring She dreams 'til her resurrection And Her story again begins... The Year is a dancing woman Who is born at the coming of spring, The year is a dancing woman of Her birth and death we sing! by Shekhinah Mountainwater beloved late Sister and Friend |
| THE DIANIC TRADiTION The Dianic Tradition is a creative, evolving mystery tradition inclusive of all women. It is an Earth based, Goddess centered spirituality that was revived from the ancient European religions of women in 1971 by author & activist Z. Budapest. Our practices include honoring our mental, emotional and physical experiences while celebrating numerous life cycle passages that all women share simply by being born female. The Dianic Tradition as part of the feminist movement recognizes the greater influences of our dominant patriarchal culture on every aspect of a woman's life and provides circles, ceremonies & healing rituals everywhere to counter the effects of a misogynist culture. We define patriarchy as the use of power-over thinking and action to oppress others both institutionally & within the personal sphere of our lives, and the Dianic tradition is a realistic, practical path that feeds a woman's soul, both individually and collectively. |