My Own Health Journey Began with a Broken Foot, a Severed Christian Faith, and a Descent into the Unknown.
In August of 2012, a year and a half after I left an abusive marriage - I broke my right foot while practicing Zumba. Within a month, my Christian faith followed suite.
Six weeks later I experienced my first free-form conscious dance space while at a Woman's Embodiment Retreat.
I was enamored with both.
In the Dance - I felt free and open - even with a broken foot!
In the circle of women at that retreat - I descended from the "safety" of my Patriarchal beliefs into a Vast Unknown I had been told was evil, forbidden, shameful.
Into my own Femininity.
Defined not by men, nor the Bible, nor pastors.
But by me. By Women, sisters and mothers who had come before me.
What I found in this PREGNANT VOID was a space all my Soul to be fully expressed.
I had never felt so seen, heard, loved and as connected -to these strange women. To myself. In this circle I found sisters that looked deeply into my own Soul - and me into theirs.
It was there among these women that I also started to understand the depths of the woman's physical body, how it is connected to the emotional and spiritual. Of how it speaks to us of undeniable mysteries that make this life rich and abundant - and so much more fun to live.
In the months and years to come, I continued the descent deep into my internal world of understanding the chaos, flow, emotions and feminine sensuality that had never been allowed to see the light of day. Exploring a vast majority of this on Conscious Dance floors in a Free-Form Movement practice.
These aspects of what is called the "Dark Feminine" have been repressed, shamed, ignored and denied in our culture not just by the outward patriarchy - but by the internal patriarchy that keeps each of us in our own prison.
Over the past 10 years, I have spent thousands of hours working on curating my own Doctorate of Feminine Consciousness. Which includes
(1) dismantling that real devil - the inner patriarchy and learning/integrating a healthy masculine energy,
(2) resurrecting the dual aspects of the Feminine (both the life-giving/light/pure/youth/mother aspects AND the death-regenerating/dark/sexually charged/crone aspects)
(3) harmonizing these 2 energies into a beautiful dance.
Some of the work I undertook included:
- Working with coaches, spiritual directors, energy medicine professionals learning about how to balance the physical, emotional, mental, energetic and spiritual worlds
- Sitting in circles with women, learning more about the Women's Mysteries (as espoused in the Red Tent) and eventually how to host circles and how to live in a cyclical manner according to my cyclical female body;
- Reading, pondering and applying lots of wisdom from books about the creation of patriarchy, pre-patriarchy tribal life (both in the Americas and Old Europe), other feminine spiritual awakening journeys
- Seeking education and training in NLP, Life Coaching, Somatic, Body Language, Feminine Leadership, Body Work and Energy Medicine.
Now, I offer you this wealth of experience as a sort of Spiritual Director - helping you make your own personal descent into the Underworld. As your witness, friend, sister and guide I assure you ~ YOU can take the Descent and Return to a transformed life.
Oh - and in case you feel like this might be all so serious and - well serious - I promise to bring playfulness, curiosity and levity into every session.
