News UPDATE ~ June 2006 
|
Next Ishtar Ceremony
Saturday 24th June - 7pm start
in the Studio Room of the Sun Moon & Star Spiritual Centre 16 Minilya Ave, White Gum Valley (2 shops left of the deli)In this ceremony we will be exploring our connection to the birthing power of the Goddess and that aspect of our own creative beings which is able to bring our visions and dreams into full manifestation in the world.
Bring an open heart and mind, and prepare to give birth to yourself - again!
Entry is by donation - feel free to be generous!
(I rely on this support to enable me to continue the development of this sacred work.)
| Latest News...
It isn’t final or official yet, but change is afoot at the Sun, Moon & Star and its not clear how long the large studio space will be available for our Ishtar ceremonies. It seems possible our winter solstice / birthing mystery ceremony will be the last in that particular space, and I am beginning to look about for an alternative. I’ll keep you posted – but in the meanwhile, I’m very open to what suggestions you may have. On a personal note, various other changes are unfolding… I’m settling in to my very part-time job at the Fellowship of Australian Writers (helps keep the wolf from the door until Daughters of Ishtar gets more established!). On the housing front, I have successfully applied for membership at Inanna’s House Women’s Co-op in Hilton, and am expecting to move into a house there in late July. Naturally I am/will be a little busier than I was before both of these developments, but I’m still very much available by appointment for individual healing work and personal blessingway ceremonies, and deriving considerable satisfaction from both. I’ve got lots of energy and excitement coming up around forthcoming Birthing Mysteries ceremony on the 24th June. It feels as though it will be a very powerful energy and I very much look forward to sharing it with you all. All in all – just like a typical first-time mother – I’m having too much difficulty seeing past the coming birthing to be able to make definite plans for July to October as yet. None the less, I would love to hear from you if you have a specific interest or request for when I do get to sitting down and planning the program for the next trimester. If you’d like another creative Goddess night, or another opportunity to participate in “Reclaiming Lilith” or “Blessings of the Blood”, or a weekend retreat, or something else, please get in touch! |
See you at the Combined Covens Social Club
YULE FETE
SUNDAY
2 JULY 10am - 4pm
at the Sun, Moon & Star!
Volume 2, No. 2
In this issue:- |
Sheila Na Gig *
Kilpeck Church, Hereford, England
(*To learn more about the Sheila Na Gig, why not take a look at this online article by Kathryn Price NicDhàna )
Our ”Discover the Goddess” night on the 19th May was lots of fun – Thank you to the six women who came to play with me. We cast a simple circle, drummed and chanted, listened to the story of Inanna’s descent, and gave ourselves permission to go back to kindy with scissors, glitter and glue in our creative play with mobile making. I’m encouraged to think of repeating the experiment sometime soon. |
Tentative date for the next Ishtar Ceremony is
Saturday 5th August
(date & venue to be confirmed)
Private
ISHTAR Ceremonies
Also intuitive healing / energy work! |
Blessingway Ceremonies A special ceremony
in your own home within for pregnant mums,
... or at any other time of transition in a woman's life |
Winter Solstice approaches. The time of greatest darkness. The belly of the Great Mother swells with expectation, and we too ripen towards something special, something awesome… What is this swelling potential within us that now makes us seem to move so awkward and ungainly through our lives? What is this inward crescendo building to? Waves of light. Waves of love. Waves of opening and surrender. We are the ocean and the shoreline. In our oceanic depths the great Dreaming constellates itself into a new beginning, coalesces itself into wriggling form.. and the ripples of its coming, as it dips and rises to break the surface, rock our being: shaking out our old fixed ideas and expectations, shaking out the rigidity of old trauma or hidden fears, releasing soundwaves from our oldest densest dark… We are the breaking wave and the song of the shale, the sound of rock reducing and refining into powder fine sand.
How do we go graciously with the waves of Birth?
|
A bright ring of star birth around a galaxy's core - Hubble Space Telescope "You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star" Nietzsche |
The only way out is through.
I surrender to the power of birth.
We are in Holy times and in a Holy place..
Say “I love you.” It will open you up in many ways.
A new soul is about to be born.
Be not afraid.
Think of all the mothers laboring at the same time. Share energy with them.
Perhaps by forgiving ourselves...
Forgiving ourselves - for second guessing at our own ripe timing and for all the ‘false starts’: the early rehearsals of the birthing song and dance where we almost convince ourselves and the world that this is our time… until we and the wave hesitate, falter and fade again, just for the moment. Recognising the truth that the dips and peaks of pre- and early labour are all a necessary part – signs of our active engagement with the evolving dance of surrender.
Forgiving ourselves - for failing to understand the magnitude of change that’s a-coming in our lives as we work on, ‘business as usual’, barely allowing ourselves a pregnant pause before we drop … shocked to find ourselves whisked clueless off the edge of time into the maelstrom of creation.
Forgiving ourselves for going ‘past our dates’ or coming ‘premature’ to the great opening. For succumbing to the need to measure ourselves against the expectations of the world and finding ourselves too late, too old, too young, too soon … to truly trust our process.
Forgiving ourselves our own messiness and inexperience. No matter how many times we’ve ‘been here, seen this’ before, we’ve never been at this birth, never danced this particular intimate dance with surrender, and can’t possibly know the grief/growth and ripening it brings.
Giving Birth ~ How else to teach us what we most need know to better be becoming Mother?
| Questions or comments? Email
me at ishara@ishtarsdaughters.com
or phone 08 9494 1665 To subscribe to this newsletter, please signup online at www.ishtarsdaughters.com |