Goddess Centered Practice
In the woods behind my house rest a collection of nine large flat rocks. Daily, I walk down to these “priestess rocks” for some sacred time alone to pray, meditate, consider, and be. Often, while in this space, I open my mouth and poetry comes out. I’ve come to see this experience as "theapoetics"—experiencing the Goddess through direct “revelation,” framed in language. As Stanley Hopper originally described in the 1970’s, it is possible to “…replace theology, the rationalistic interpretation of belief, with theopoetics, finding God[dess] through poetry and fiction, which neither wither before modern science nor conflict with the complexity of what we know now to be the self.” Theapoetics might also be described, “as a means of engaging language and perception in such a way that one enters into a radical relation with the divine, the other, and the creation in which all occurs.”
Book Review: Wild and Wise + Special Year-End Meditation
“Women’s circles and mother-daughter circles are perhaps the most powerful agents of change on the planet right now, with each woman contributing to the healing of our world as she herself experiences healing.”
–Amy Bammel Wilding
I have been organizing retreats, Red Tents, women’s circles, and ceremonies for more than ten years. I often include a guided meditation as part of our retreats and circle and so I am always on the lookout for resources for creative meditation and visualization experiences to incorporate into our community’s practices. A tremendous resource for Red Tents, women’s retreats, rituals, and ceremonies, I deeply appreciate the dedicated focus of Wild and Wise on meditations for women’s circles. The clarity and focus makes this book exactly what you would expect from the title and perfectly fills the niche for which it is intended. Rather than trying to be a comprehensive resource book, it is specifically intended for a single purpose—a dedicated compendium of insightful, potent, richly descriptive visual journeys, designed to take women into the heart of themselves. Author Amy Bammel Wilding is an experienced Red Tent leader herself, and she brings her depth of experience into the richness of these meditations.
Wild and Wise includes the added benefit of a series of targeted, exploratory questions after each meditation, perfect for use for group discussion in circle and/or for personal journaling and processing. This book is appropriate for personal or group use. They hold rich opportunity for personal insight and illumination and can form the basis of a personal journey into the deepness and complexity of your own unique life.
The meditations in this book are organized into three sections. The first section is about the Sacred Feminine and includes powerful and timely meditations such as “the power of no” and “the mother code.” The second section, The Inner Goddess, offers the opportunity to meet twelve goddesses from a variety of cultures and connects each goddess to a theme relevant to the lives of modern women. The third section, The Wheel of the Year, offers a seasonally thematic energetic meditation for six different holidays around the wheel.
Wild and Wise is also available as an audiobook read by the author. As a special year-end gift for you in conjunction with this review, Amy Wilding has made her powerful Winter Spiral meditation available to you as a recording here. I used this meditation as part of our Winter Solstice Circle this year and I highly recommend “walking” through 2017 in this way as you close out the year and prepare to greet 2018. It forms the base of beautiful, powerful, personal ritual of celebration, honoring, and acknowledgement and I thank Amy for allowing me to share it with the Brigid’s Grove community. (This related post from me details the process of creating a year-end ceremony as well.) Enjoy!
“As you become more practiced in connecting with this aspect of yourself, you will become more and more aware of the messages that your inner wise woman communicates with you on a regular basis. You will feel more connected; more complete. You will cultivate a relationship with your inner world that will be a safe place to return to again and again…”
–Amy Wilding
If you are ready to cultivate a conscious relationship with your wild inner terrain, Wild and Wise is available from Amazon, Amazon UK, and Womancraft Publishing. It is also available on Kindle and as an audiobook.
Comments
-
Please login first in order for you to submit comments