Volume 1, Issue 2
Ishara

Mysteries continue...
In the mystery ceremonies at the Sun, Moon & Star, I am working to create a spiritual centre which will draw a circle of women together for spiritual sustenance and healing. Women are welcome to come and participate in these open ceremonies whenever they feel the need, whether regular or occasional. There is also an opening for anyone drawn to assist in the process of creating the sacred space to arrive an hour before the advertised starting time.
  The same quality of devotional sacred space, and the feminine stream of blessings which I am working to ground, is available on an individual basis, through my intuitive healing work.

 

    at 7pm on

September 17
October 29
December 10

Sun, Moon & Star
Spiritual Centre
Minilya St,
White Gum Valley

By donation

Welcome to the second newsletter from Daughters of Ishtar. When last I put pen to paper I was considering the approach of the great Birthing mystery of midwinter, which is now well behind us as the Spring Equinox approaches rapidly.
In this issue:-
Its been an interesting three months in my personal journey as a priestess. I thought birth was a fairly familiar energy to me, so I was surprised by the amount of stuckness I experienced in the wake of the birthing mystery ceremony. But the Goddess always has something up her sleeve, and in my case it was coming face to face with the realisation that with my first breath I imprinted overwhelming fear. So, my own healing journey continues, whilst my healing work with others seemed to have been put on temporary hold by the powers that be! However I am continuing to make myself available on Mondays on an ongoing basis should you or a friend require my services.
With some close individual tution from transiting Saturn to make the most of, I'm continuing to work with the affirmation that the thousand mile journey can only be made one step at a time.
Sacred Play for Mums with Babies
Celebrate the Goddess ~ a baby-friendly sacred space for mums with babies under three ~ was inspired by memories of the early days with my son Robin. I still treasure memories of time spent with the special women whose mutual support got me through those years with my sanity more or less intact.
All mothers need spiritual sustenance to help us get through this early mothering phase. And yet the adult spiritual groups and contexts that met this need in pre-baby days may not be especially welcoming of little folk. Or they may simply seem out of practical reach to a woman who is regularly exhausted from the day by the time dusk comes around.
In this group of women and babies, we sing some simple chants, do a bit of dancing around the room, maybe draw a Goddess card for inspiration. I tell a short Goddess story as an excuse for a simple craft activity for mums, one which the older kids have a hand in too. And above all, we talk and share our stories about pregnancy, birth and motherhood. (And I get the occastional opportunity to indulge myself in holding a baby. I do like the snuggly feeling of a relaxed baby in a sling!)
The Goddess Play group will be resuming in October (after a two week break) in the studio room at the Sun, Moon & Star Spiritual Centre on Tuesday mornings between 10am and noon. Mothers are welcome to come along to an initial session to see what we get up to. The cost is $60 per five week block, payable at the end of your first session if you decide to stay.
So there's really no need to sit at home with an infant feeling isolated. Give me a call - Come along and connect with some other Goddess-celebrating mothers!
The Importance of Women's Ceremonies

There are times in a woman's life where it is extremely helpful for her to affirm her innate strength and beauty as a woman. And to have that affirmation echoed and reflected in the faces and voices of a circle of women.
Goddess grants us our inner spiritual initiations in Her own way, in Her own time, through the winding course of our lives. But a circle of women can be called together whenever we feel the need of them, to hold and affirm us as we pause momentarily on the brink of significant change in our lives.

"On the third day, I lit a small fire and began to dance following the rhythm of my heartbeat. As I did this, I felt I was being encircled by a ring of ancient, brown-skinned women who were blessing me. They were blessing my breasts and womb and legs and belly, and praising my strength and beauty and courage. As my eyes filled with tears of gratitude, they told me that I should not weep because this was my birthright as a woman. 'At one time every young woman was blessed in this way,' they said, 'so no one could be pulled off her knowing by a man. The young ones knew they were whole and connected to everything that lived because we elders sat in witness for them, just as we're doing for you today.'"

Anonymous woman quoted in The Feminine Face of God

   Women's ceremonies can help us: to prepare ourselves for a wedding or handfasting,; to gather our inner resources on the eve of giving birth to a baby, launching a new business, dedicating our lives to the Goddess, beginning a new job or role or creative project, embarking upon an apprenticeship, training program or course of study.. A circle of women can bear witness as we celebrate endings: progressively let go of our growing children, grieve and heal a divorce, the end of a relationship, the anniversary of a loved one's death; claim mastery and step into the authority earned through our lived experience.
   But what about those in-between times of our lives? The daily round of continuing to show up, pay attention, stick at it. The months of persistent hard work for delayed or intermittent reward. What of the years of perseverance? What sustains us through the ups and downs of a long-term relationship, of family life, of work as a carer, a teacher, a social or environmental activist, an artist or writer or priestess? Where does the sustenance come from to keep on with a personal journey to heal from physical illness, addiction or abuse? Or indeed, whatever other form of soul-work regularly occupies your energy and attention, and may occasionally leave you feeling emptied out and weary?
   We are indeed fortunate to live in a place and time where so many different spiritual paths and traditions are available to us. Her e in Perth there are temples, churches, mosques, synagogue, a Quaker meeting house, and probably more. Open the Nova magazine any month of the year and you will find an amazing range workshops, classes and retreats with teachers from a wide variety of traditions offering meditation practices, yoga forms and an ever growing range of healing modalities.

   Women work in this world alongside men. Many of us have fathers, brothers, lovers, sons and close male friends who are a beloved and important part of our social, emotional and spiritual lives. Our lives are entwined, and from many perspectives our common humanness out-weighs any gender-based difference. If we eat, work and sleep together, then it is natural enough that we should want to pray together also. Shared spiritual practice can bring us into a beautiful awareness of the unity which encompasses and underlies our human differences. Why then, might a woman seek spiritual sustenance in the company of other women?
   There is a particular quality about women's sacred space which is hard to adequately capture in words. For some women, in some phases of our lives, it offers us something we don't as readily find anywhere else. This is particularly true when we are engaged in the "invisible" work of our culture - spinning and weaving the threads of relationship and spirit which bind families and communities and keep the worlds together. (This is not exclusively women's work, but it is work which many women do). The Ishtar Women's Mysteries address this reality, are part of this work, and can help feed and sustain us on this level.
   Arguably, before a woman is ready and able to engage in a full, filling and creative relationship with another person, she needs first to have come into her own creative power as a woman. To have tasted her own soul and found it juicy and good. Even in these supposedly "liberated" days, this is not something easily come by. We, like a growing proportion of the world's population, are living with and working to heal the residue of a couple of thousand years of a culture which has stolen the spiritual birth rights of both women and men. We are drawing on the inspiration of older traditions and finding our own ways to reclaim the gift of being "at home" and comfortably embodied upon the Earth - body, mind and spirit - in female, or male, form. The Ishtar Women's Mysteries are one possible vehicle that a woman may make use of in this quest.
Questions or comments? Email me at ishara@ishtarsdaughters.com or phone 08 9494 1665
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