Linda Cohen's Luminous Lotus Blog

Saturday, January 23, 2010

January Thaw....

It's a perfectly January morning. 10:16 am. Moon in Taurus. I feel as if I've been swaddled in the deep freeze since Thanksgiving and now am longing for February to inspire me to spread my wings in several important ways. First, I have lots of good ideas for sharing the good, the bad, the sublime and the ridiculous in my new writings with this blog being a journaling/regular space to share and interact. My Goddess Circle is working to embody the qualites of Sheela Na Gig, bawdy, bold and powerful; symbol of feminine power so up front and personal that we witness Sheela consciously opening her own vulva, as symbol for divine creativing and the cycles of life. Always exploring ancient/new female energies to inspire and emulate. I am feeling the radiance of next Saturday's full moon already; can we dance? together. Can we make visions, aspirations, hopes and dreams...actual. With the support of my fellow goddesses and tools for stearing the mind/heart/ and body to greater wellness and a deeper, easier flow and flowering, I feel on the tip of the new. I think February could be a wonderful month for LOVE of many sorts; Self Love of course, is always the seed for love for others. I want to inspire myself and create beautiful colours with my life and actions. There is so much going on but it is the "divine feminine" that calls out to be recognized, honored, and brought more fully into today's shaky circumstances. I am whole, abundant. I am reveling in the birth of my grand daughter Bee, surely a life-changing event in our family. It seems as though, with Tabbie, the baby nurse, off on weekends, I have the great good fortune to hang out with Bee on Sunday afternoons like today when we again hope she Bee the lucky charm that brings another Jets win. I affirm: all I want and need comes to meet with ease and grace for the greater good of all. I took a good dollup of Hibiscus, Sierra Primrose and Apricot flower essences this morning. I shall put my arms around this day and give a big hug to all of us expressing ourselves, sharing, being vulnerable, supporting a more open loving, creative way(s) to live. I am a holy being. I am a living goddess.

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Monday, January 18, 2010

The Divine Feminine - The Living Goddess


We are holy Beings...


We are Living Goddesses...


For as long as I can recall, I’ve been fascinated by gods and goddesses, myths and legends: how are all the hundreds of thousands of goddesses (and gods) throughout time and space (geography) related? From where do these supreme archetypes come to us? What is it about man and womankind that has always laid the foundation for their civilizations upon the belief in the power and reality of gods and goddesses, divine Beings in whose image (with a great deal of latitude here) we are crafted, who are loved, feared, called upon for divine intervention, emulated and appeased? At the heart of civilizations are creation myths that tell intricate detailed interwoven stories of how these civilizations came to be. The myths are as diverse as the peoples from whom they come and yet there is a sublime and recognizable similarity, even in the most different spiritual expressions of the myths of these cultures. The “goddess” has a million aspects, faces, personalities, functions…yet all are related to the ONE prototypical divine feminine energy. All myriad forms emanate from the same SOURCE. Let us speak here of “The Goddess” aka “The Divine Feminine”. This Divine Feminine should not be confused with The Matriarchy of the past, which oft’ times manifested in similar ways to the Patriarchal society – aggressive, territorial, logic-ruled - we live in today that is on the verge of nuclear proliferation and disaster. We must come into balance, male and female energy, if we are to survive, if our mother planet is to heal and support life.

I would like to clarify that in the context of this blog, The Goddess is most often “seen” as female (but divinely feminine qualities are also embodied in conscious men). In truth The Goddess proffers qualities that are different from the masculine, logical, imperialistic, earth-conquering, patriarchal manifestations of male energy gone haywire. Goddess energy is Earth-honoring, loving, non-linear in thinking, intuitive, compassionate, holistic – even though SHE may wear a demonic face or shed blood from HER thirsty tongue! Always, with The Goddess (and God), we must seek the “original” energy from which the many manifestations are derived. SHE is the “emptiness” into which the male form is expressed, the void, the egg, the Circle, the mystery, the ineffable… the container of life. SHE can be a wily trickster, an ancient hag, a spider woman, a virgin, a whore, a seductress, a wife, a mother – and or all of the aforementioned –
a divine presence offering hope and renewal, inspiration and faith. SHE has the power over life and death and rebirth. SHE IS THE CIRCLE.

For thousands of years, at least, as far as I can discern, since the great god Yahweh of the Hebrews, dwelling in the ominous thunder-clapping sky with His might and vengeance, judgment and punishments, holding us to rigid standards of ethics, “an eye for an eye”, has been dominant over earlier matriarchal, societies. SHE has been abused, shrouded, tortured, misconstrued and out and out hidden! In recent times, perhaps with the dawning of the Age of Aquarius (hidden mysteries revealed to the every woman/man), we feel HER returning. It is HER qualities and gifts that our overly fire-consciousness Nuclear Age so needs to balance the destruction, disaster, hate, fundamentalism, proliferation of arms and warfare, separatism and ruination of our Mother Earth.

I have been studying and working to embody the divine (and sometimes seemingly not so divine and all too human) feminine for nearly twenty years. My journey has brought me to the edge of New Age (though ancient as The Beginning) medicine, as a certified flower essence therapist and field rep for the leading flower essence society in the universe, FES, The Flower Essence Society in Northern California Flower essences, Nature’s vitamins for the emotions, are liquid tinctures made from the blossoms of flowers to help heal emotional traumas, as well as help us to support those qualities which we most want/need in order to manifest our purpose/higher destiny, and of course, to help us stay healthy mind/body/ Spirit. Esoteric perhaps, but practical as the joy and healing flowers offer in their splendiferous variety. My path has, in recent years, brought me to work in healing Circles with women who want to learn about the many faces of the goddess and support HER higher qualities within, as well as share these virtues with all. In this light, I facilitate “Goddess Circles” each month in my home. Each month, I introduce a different goddess to the Circle… to be embraced - and HER higher qualities (fearlessness, nurturing, powerful, mystical, ritualistic, sacred, healing) identified and emulated in order to create more meaning and connectedness in our lives. More peace within. Without.

In the few years I have been leading the Goddess Circles we have “met” The Snake Priestess from Crete, Kalima from India, Tara from Tibet, Mary Magdalene, Astarte, Inanna, Sheela Na Gig, Athena, Isis and many divine others. We will meet many more in time and no-time, wearing the iridescent colors or the darkest inky black, as well as the uncompromising nakedness, SHE wears, taking healing essences of flowers to support our visions, doing rituals and ceremonies, as it ever was, to bring HER more and more to the Earth plane where SHE is so much needed NOW.

I feel HER inside me. When I aspire to be beautiful and magical, compassionate, one who can listen, aware of the Earth as a living being, patient and kind, giving and loving, connected to others, mystical and sparking, creative, transformational, skin-shedding, inspiring and powerful…it is SHE that I AM. And I am so very grateful to the brave and fun-loving goddesses who share this journey of celebrating and BECOMING with me. Now it is to take the sharing a step further, to offer this blog space for sharing ideas and insights and practices, communicating, interacting, voicing, and creating a dialog about the nature of the divine feminine as SHE manifests in US. So please bring your truths and visions to this forum and feel the freedom and creativity of HER. A WOMAN.

I AM A HOLY BEING

I AM A LIVING GODDESS