Women's Mysteries
Next Ishtar Ceremony

The Birthing

Friday 22nd June
6:30pm start

Sheik to Sheik bellydance studio
Shop 1 /115 Lefroy Rd
Beaconsfield WA

Entry is by donation (your generosity is appreciated).

Bring a floor cushion, a meditation blanket or wrap, and a small plate of supper food to share...

RSVP to Ishara on 9314 5973 or ishara@ishtarsdaughters.com

Please pass this invitation on to your friends!

A book on meditation
explicitly for women

At present I am enjoying dipping into an inspiring book entitled Meditation Secrets for Women: discovering your passion, pleasure, and inner peace by authors Camille Maurine and Lorin Roche. This book came to me highly recommended by a friend, who had been loaned it by another friend.. It is premised on the notion that "There is one sobering but liberating truth that you need to understand right off the bat. The ancient meditation techniques were not designed for women's bodies and psyches".

The book is divided into twelve chapters, each of which expands on one 'meditation secret'. Secret number 8 is "Say yes to every part of yourself". I'd like to share with you an extract:

"When you take time for yourself to meditate, any or all of these parts of yourself may come to you in turn for attention. In meditation it is as though you have come home and the kids, the dogs, the cats, the neighbors, the husband or lover, all want to come tell you about their day. Their vying for attention is often your experience when you first close your eyes to meditate. Do not tell them to go away, just bring your attention where it is called. Having to attend to your many inner voices when you long for rest and silence may be the hardest part of meditation. But don't despair - you are on your way into relaxation.

"Your inner characters show up as moods, emotions, inner dialogue, body sensations or visual images. Let them speak. The communication may not be in words; some parts may 'speak' through qualities of movement or by suffusing you with wonderful energies, feeligns or colours. Your task is to listen, appreciate and learn. When finally they've settled down a little bit, return to the unifying focus, which may be your breath, a sound or a movement. By allowing your attention to flow back and forth between the focus and the inner voices, you are weaving together these disparate elements.

"In the ancient language of Sanskrit, this is yoga, which means 'linking together'. Human beings are so complicated that we need to make an effort to link our many parts together. It is part of our regular maintenance, and we suffer if we neglect this work. This linking is also tantra which means 'loom'. You weave all elements of life - mind, body, emotions, breath, soul, individuality, and infinity - into one glorious tapestry."

 

At the end of our March ceremony, as I turned the lights up again and unlocked the door a woman appeared, desperate to get in and connect with us. She has since been to two of my chalice ceremonies. In conversation over the last two weeks it became clear that she too was being called to the path of the priestess. Through formidable layers of disruptive resistent energies that manifest as she begins to step towards it, but unmistakably called.

         phoenician sun priestess
Last Friday, ahead of the Ishtar ceremony in the evening, I had the joy of spending some time with the lovely Linda Graham, whose monthly 'Colourful Times' connects so many in WA and beyond. A year ago, Linda was the first to accept my invitation to deepen her relationship with the Goddess through an initiation into the Ishtar mysteries.
One year on, visiting Perth again for three weeks, to my oy, she shared with me her growing awareness of her priestess self and chose to take the further step - the opening of her being to the full red power of the Goddess through a second initiation. I feel very blessed be able to share her journey in this way, and to witness the slow opening of this very beautiful deep red rose to the golden light of the Great Goddess...

On Friday, following the ceremony, another unforeseen moment of mutual recognition bloomed for me - connection with another woman in whom the fire of the Goddess burns brightly - in the middle of an intriguing conversation about spiritual vocation, sexuality, tantra and the Great Goddess.

Saturday midday, over a cup of tea, I found myself once more reflecting on the path I'm called to walk, this time with my soul-friend Trisha, whose name is an anagram of ISHTAR. Speaking of the need for positive transformational energies in this chaotic world of ours, she underscored the ongoing importance of our weekly chalice ceremonies..

I've been attending an informal tutoring group with astrologer Daniel Sowelu (who writes that monthly column in Nova magazine) once a month on a Saturday afternoon. In our first session one of the women came up to me and reminded me that she had been in one of my Ishtar ceremonies some time back. Yesterday she and I each chose to explore one aspect of our own natal charts - and voila- her own priestess vocation emerges to match my own, surfacing slowly but irrevocably through the past few years to a point where it now demands a fuller expression in her life. 'What could that look like?' we asked.. We parted ways, promising to talk further.

Today, another email, this time from a woman living on a farm near Narrogin, feeling lost, lonely and like she's missing some kind of fundamental connection to source. She keeps on finding herself falling over my websites, and wonders if perhaps it could be the Goddess that is calling to her??

Two years ago, after this same mystery point, I wrote: "One day soon, my Beloved moves in. And then what ever I do, where ever I am - there SHE IS! "
Today that priestess-reality is fast closing in..