Greetings Goddesses -   A fine time was had by all who became a part of the Center For The Sacred Feminine's first Mary Magdalene Circle.  We are a sacred group who will grow together as friends and as sisters as we learn about the "apostle to the apostles" as designated by Yeshua Himself, Mary the Magdalene, whom he loved more than the other apostles and would often kiss her on the [mouth].  Startling news to women who have never heard these things revealed to them before.  Particularly if you have been raised in a Christian family and are a follower of what I refer to as Institutional Christianity.  I was one of these devoted, loving, sacrificing, dedicated people . . . until questions no one would or could answer drove me to delving deeper into my own religion.  

I had decided at the age of nine that I would follow Jesus/Yeshua's teachings all my life.  I also wanted to know the things He knew, and how he came to know them.  Deep thinking for a nine year old, but there it was; and there it's been since then.

 The journey will be told in one way or another, and the  point at this moment is a heavy focus on doing the job I've been led to do; which is to wake up the women of the early 21st century with an URGENT MESSAGE every woman on earth needs to hear.  Whether you are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or any other religion, if you are a woman it's heads-up  time.  No matter what you believe or practice as your own daily worship, we  ARE the Sacred Feminine that is so desperately needed at this time to usher in a consciousness of love and compassion across the globe unlike anything ever seen before in humankind.

Love, compassion, gentleness, pleasurable experiences, happiness, peaceful hearts and like, positive, supportive emotions and words would simply change the world within days . . . within hours.  It would be the most healing virus ever to spread through the human population.  Women are the natural choice to bring the world into compliance within the generally accepted definitions of "love and compassion . . . Mehta-physics.  

The Sacred Feminine has been stamped out of our consciousness for over 2,000 years by a patriarchy that has perpetuated war after war after war.  Women can stop this waste of precious time and life by standing strong in her love for her husband and sons, and helping them learn to channel their aggressions in positive, ways to work for the healing of our planet and species.  It was once said to be true, that the hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world.  That was a time of Matriarchy across the land, a former time of peace.

At this time in history, we are to resurrect  herstory and bring the Goddess back into power to the point of BALANCE with the masculine.  In the end, it doesn't matter whether we are talking about Jesus and Mary Magdeline or Osiris and Isis.  The stories are different. The myths and point are the same.  Our men need our help to stop the fighting.  No matter what religious myths we've been marinated in, we must instill a strong, spiritual heirarchy  of morals and respect one for another,  and we must hold our young men and our adult men to higher standards than that of a six-month-old screaming at the top of his lungs for his Mother's milk.  (Don't get me started!)

I have twice now brought up the issue of "righteous indignation" to my colleagues, and each time I get blank looks.  I should think that once we begin to analyze the psychological stage of development at which uncontrollable rage becomes part of one's life; but more importantly, when is it 'whopped-up-side-the-head by it's MOTHER who demands an acceptable human reaction from her growing sons (and daughters),  we should be able to see where we are at fault and take responsibility for the teaching of manners, kindness, sharing, the value of hard work, and serving our fellow humans as a matter of the course of civilized living.   When mothers and grandmothers, aunts, daughters, cousins and nieces begin demanding better behavior of their men.  We will return to a level of humanity redirected by the loving (and sometimes tough-loving) expectations of righteously indignant women who have been beaten, battered and denied; but who are getting up, rolling-up their sleeves and consciously raising their children in loving, positive, supportive and non-violent homes across the globe.

My hope, my work, and my life are dedicated to the awakening of every woman's life I touch, to the Dahli Lama's statement that"Western women will heal the world."  Not to be pushy . . . but that means you and me . . . NOW! 

With All Love and Blessings

Dr. AnnaLynn Zinn de Vine

The Goddess is everywhere . . . in fact, she's in every female on the planet.  The message is spreading, empowerment is happening.  Women are realizing how strong they are and are setting things right in the world.  When the Dahli Lama makes the statement, "The worlds problems are going to be solved by Western women." , it should make your brain jerk to attention.

 This is the time some of us have known is coming, and more are learning those things that have been hidden from us for more than two-thousand years.  The approach to the subject for most is a clear eye-opener.  An "awakening" that when it happens and something which has been lying latent in the brain is suddenly turned on.  It's often the BIGGEST Ah-HA!! moment one has ever experienced.  And, it's very freeing.  It does not conflict with one's current beliefs.  What it does, is fill in the gaps with everything that is sacred and feminine.  The two words are synonyms.  That which is feminine is sacred. 

Love and compassion is the Sacred Feminine power that is changing the world.  Love and compassion are the MEANING of Metaphysics  Mehta is the ancient Sanskrit word invoking the action of love and compassion.  Physics indicates the inner-workings of that power.  It is the ancient Sanskrit word that Jesus was teaching among his own people and as he walked and preached between the ages of 30 and 33.  Metaphysics, or Love and Compassion is the most powerful force in the universe . . . and we women are the holders of that power to make positive changes in our world.  We must stop holding it, open up our arms, and let it flow out in overflowing portions.

When we are introduced to the subject of the Sacred Feminine, by whatever it is that gets our attention, we have suddenly become aware of an entire perspective of feminine BEING that wasn't in our consciousness before.  I yearn to sit in an ancient Goddess Temple where girls and women were instructed in all things under the Sacred Feminine umbrella.  That umbrella is HUGE and it covers all the efforts of womankind to bring peace and balance back to the earth.

All over the world there are women who know how chaotic the world has gotten under the spell of patriarchy.  They are single mothers, married mothers, adult women no matter what their lot in life who KNOW it is WE as individuals are the ones who must, NOW, pick up our own crosses and walk the walk as well as keeping-on walking and talking-the-talk .  We HAVE to hold hands across the globe and do whatever it takes to save ourselves from the out-of-control aggression, killing and wars. This has to be the end goal on bringing ourselves and our globe to balance.

Just in the past few weeks, I am amazed at our awakened numbers.  There are women everywhere making changes in their circumstances, taking their own power back, and as one of my dear colleague's stated during a brain-storming session, We're "gonna put on our big-girl panties" and do what needs to be done.  Another dear friend and colleague has also recommended the book, Crones Don't Whine for those of us who are a little older and wiser.  The point, as I hope every woman sees,  is that nobody is better equipped to do what needs to be done in the world to right it than women.  And it has to be Westernized women, because there are still too many of our sisters who cannot take the bull by the horns in their own households and communities.  Only by educating ourselves as to what the tasks are, can we take our rightful places in the world today to bring the Sacred Feminine into BALANCE with the masculine.

We who can remember the 50's were born and bred into an almost idealistic time in history.  We went out to play . . . for hours . . . and came home at dinnertime.  There was almost no crime. No one worried about our safety.  We left our doors unlocked and our cars open with the keys in the ignition, at home and downtown.  Through the churches and community organizations love and compassion were expressed.  Everyone was kind and respectful to each other, and life was good.

Today, the world has become a much different place.  We have gone too far and everyone is afraid of what may come before it gets better.  This fleeting thought should not defeat us.  We must do more and exhibit and teach love and compassion in our homes.  We need to teach our men to control their aggressiveness, and express it ONLY in appropriate places as on the game field or court.  We must teach them that competition is appropriate when you are honing your skills, but that it is not an appropriate emotion in the home, at school or in public. 

Mothering and Grandmothering MUST STEP UP and instill in all children that it is the golden rule that must top our priorities as we get-on in life.  That we must do unto ALL others, that which we would want to be done to ourselves.  Until we ALL begin to express this integrative principle, we will continue in chaos.

Love and Blessings,

Dr. AnnaLynn Zinn de Vine 

The tube arrived while I was teaching.  I didn't see it at first, but then it jumped out at me.  Here it is . . . my diploma!  I've already dragged the frame out of the back closet which has been waiting for it's diploma since I bought three of them originally for my B.S., M.S. and Ph. D.  degrees. What date is today? 

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

What does it represent?  It represents the creation of a whole new creation.  Today I can feel the chrysalis breaking free of it's cocoon.  How blessed I am that I should have received this many days to live.  How blessed I am to think that I just may have many more to live, because I've come to a point of knowing that my best offerings to this world will be written in private,  allowing the women of the world to decide whether or not it is a worthy offering toward the re- emergence of the Sacred Feminine into the world, and to begin to put the world's energies back into balance.

Mary Magdalene is my impetus.  Margaret Starbird my teacher, along with many other women whose Magdalene-led-lives are helping to bring her back to life.I am charged with assisting in her resurrection by way ofI creating a Mary Magdalene Circle.

I was an institutional Christian for most of my life.  Today I'm a follower of the Way as Jesus spoke it, and I am what the church named a heretic. I am a credentialed Metaphysician and, I AM a representative of The Magdalene.  Mary Magdalene, as the goddess in our very own gospels helps us bring back a full understanding of who we are as women.  She is Christianity's representative of The Feminine Principle which has been squashed into suppression since the early days of The Roman Catholic Church.  

Mary Magdalene was painted as a whore in order to suppress her influence on the loving and compassionate aspects of what and who Jesus was teaching us to be.  She is named The First Apostle, The Sophia.  She irritated some of the other disciples because she was a woman, and yet seemed to be Jesus' constant companion.  

When we look into the traditions of the culture when Jesus lived, we find out that Jewish men of the time were married by the time they reached the age of 19.  It would be putting blinders on not to recognize the probability that Jesus was married. The Bible even tells us that he settled down, and where.  But, of course, everything was written in the masculine principle in our gospels, as women were quite successfully being pushed into the background.

There are so many more things that have been revealed regarding HER story in HIStory that I am salivating at the opportunity to begin teaching what I know through an appropriate venue.  I have discovered that venue and will now be offering the opportunity of creating a Mary Magdalene Circle.

 The intent behind creating a strong MM circle is to incubate the concept of integrating the sacred feminine back into the sacred masculine.  It is a living, breathing hope and effort to create and duplicate Mary Magdelene Circles/Goddess Circles everywhere. 

This introductory MMC is necessarily Christian in its content.  I see this as an exquisite opportunity for Christian women and women of all Davidic and other faiths to learn the Sacred Feminine principles in each other's religious myths. To further accommodate expansion in understanding beyond fundamentalism,  Intermediate and Advanced Courses will be offered that expand the basic principle of One-ness that Jesus taught after learning from religions of the east. 

The bottom line is that we need to fill in the blanks in our sacred feminine herstory to begin the steps for our daughters and granddaughters and great-granddaughters to understand, live, and teach so that this vital life-giving way of living is re-exposed to the world in a more expanded, enlightened way.  Our world today demands it.

Keep watching our calendar and our facebook page for the start of this dynamic, life and world-changing class.   Come with an open mind and heart, and prepare to be blessed by your own validations and epiphanies.

Love and Blessings,

AnnaLynn Zinn de Vine, Ph.D.

As I sit with my accomplishments it's hard to know what to feel.  One would think I would be overjoyed.  I'm happy and satisfied.  I feel positive, almost as if I needed to do this to prove who I am.  Not really "prove".  That's not exactly right, but I am grateful to my teacher and mentor, Jennifer Jennings, M.S., C.H.T who knew me well enough to introduce to me the American Institute of Holistic Theology.  This institution was my portal into personally legitimizing myself and literally healing myself. . . my mind, my body, and my spirit, psyche or soul.

As I look back over my lifetime, the high-points include my birth, from which I've carried all KINDS of anger, to a pretty wonderful early life and young childhood.  I remember my 5th birthday, and my 6th, our family's first home where I lived until I was twelve.  Then we moved to the property of the Motel house where I shared a bedroom with my little brother from ages twelve to sixteen.  I know!  How weird was that!  Then, from age sixteen until I left my parents' home we lived in the most beautiful home on the back-bay at Morro Bay.  It was priceless.  I don't know why my parents didn't keep it.  I understand that an actor from James Cameron's Titanic now owns the house.  Wish I knew who.

My first wedding took place in the back yard of that house.  My Dad worked so hard on making that yard beautiful, and it was.  It was a beautiful day in December.  The clouds parted as the wedding began, the sun shone right on cue.  I married my first two children's father that day.  Seven years later I divorced him.  About five years later he went to prison for sexually molesting his second-wife's daughter.  It answered a lot of questions about my own daughter's behavior.These are only the highlights, of course, but as I write, all the stories will be told.

 Next we have the sixteen-year marriage to a Middle-School Administrator who had the temper tantrums of a two-year old . . . jumping up and down with his knife and fork in his hands, red-faced, screaming, "I wanted the last pork chop!!!"  In the end, it turns out he had an inappropriate penchant for those little middle-school girls.  It was then that I was told he had been molesting my beautiful little daughter for approximately eight years.  She was seventeen when my mother told me she had seen him molesting her when she was three years old.  I went numb.  

After the divorce he quickly married a woman who is VERY much his mother. "Ach. Tung!"  He has gone publicly unpunished for the crime of sexual molestation on a child age 3-9.  He still works in the public schools.  He successfully scared my daughter into never talking.  Speaking of my daughter, she is thirty-five years old now, and if you think these "Chapter Notations" comprise an interesting framework, when we get to what her life has been like as a result of what was happening nearly her entire childhood, the stories of my life will pale next to hers.

Fourteen years of being alone, raising my children by myself on an office-clerk's salary took a lot of sap out of me, and there were good times too.  I worked in various medical offices in capacities ranging from medical transcription to office and personnel management.  They were poundingly hard years of great responsibility.  I went to work every day and was always the faithful employee, until the day came when I could not do it any more.  I melted down slowly, trying to get my grip again, but the harder I tried to continue to be the person I had always been, the closer to final breakdown I got.  The years that represent this portion of my story are the most dynamic of all.  These are the years that gave me the freedom to become who I was meant to become, free from the pre-conceived goals and actions of others for my life.  Free for the first time to define myself and do the work I was put on the earth to do.  Sometimes "You have to go out of your mind to get into your heart" -  Kirtana. 

There are the years I spent on the road living out of my car.  Wonderful, terrible years of complete heartbreak, education, elation at living simply in nature, standing in food lines, feeling the humility of accepting it freely, bathing in cold streams, sleeping in my car, stripped of all my material possessions by a family who didn't understand.  Suffering the outcast by extended family, and starting over again.  Earning my Bachelors Degree and Masters Degree on the road.  Eating breakfast with the deer and stuffing myself on wild blackberries.  Standing in the redwood forests, hearing and feeling the Ohm as I wraped my arms around around one of them.  Holy, Sacred moments of praise to God and the Goddess for this unimaginably vast universe and our Mother, the Earth who gives us her living waters and feeds us through her harvests.

Following this time a whole new cycle of life began.  It included my marriage to a man who is the epitome of my dreams.  He loved me.  He loves me.  He will always love me, and I him.  My husband has given me the fertile ground in which to grow as a Metaphysician.  In his home he tolerated the entire process of earning my Ph.D. and that is saying a whole lot.  He is the most patient, loving and compassionate man I have ever known.  We will have been married four years by the last quarter of this year, 2010.  We have weathered our own personal adjustments as well as the various crises our collective seven children and their families have gone through.  One really becomes clear about what it is that ages us.  And love has prevailed!

That's my rough draft/outline.  Taking on the mantra of another of my mentors, Dr. Wachtang "Botso" Korisheli, in asking myself each day, "Have I done enough?", I know I have enough material to keep me busy for years to come.

 It is my sincere hope that when the day has come that I feel I have no more to say, that the story of my life will help guide another though his or hers.  I have done my utter best to use my life's lessons for my own empowerment as well as the empowerment of others.

AnnaLynn Zinn de Vine, Ph,D., C.H.T.

Hello Goddesses - The Universe is spilling over with possibilities and the Homo Sapian Sapian is entering it's evolution to Homo Divinus and/or Homo Universalis.  The technology of the internet alone is speeding up time as we have known it in the past with information available on anything imaginable on a 24-7 basis , instantaneously.  We are merging into one people on every level humanly and technologically applicable, from reproducing ourselves interracially and interculturally to biogenics,  a greater and growing understanding of quantum-physics and cosmic consciousness. 

We live in the undisputed most exciting time in history.  It is true that we face the disintegration of systems that no longer work,  and which cause individual and collective hardship as well. However we must look at these things from the perspective of the big picture and take part in the creation of new systems being weaved into the old.  These kinds of thinking will make life better for all in the long run.  But during the time from now until everything falls into place for humankind, we have the greatest possibilities ever presented us  to re-create ourselves as this rapid evolution takes place during OUR lifetimes.

 I work with a few of the most hard-working, brilliant, loving and compassionate LightWorkers a person could ever  have the pleasure of knowing.  The connections  these women are putting together for the healing of humanity is weaving a web of holiness, sacredness in the studied knowledge of the human body, mind and spirit.  We are taking advantage of the technologies through the Center For The Sacred Feminine website, Facebook,  our own individual websites, attending the activities of others working toward conscious evolution and reinstatement of the sacred; and we begin to see the power of this networking to change the world in our own and collective ways.  The combined healing knowledge of just the five of us women is a powerful seed of transdisciplinary healing bursting forth upon the world with healing energy.

A few months ago, I was introduced to an absolutely magnificent magazine by the name of Enlighten Next.  The articles are intellectually challenging and fascinating.  The latest edition  features their sponsor, an organization called Beyond The Edge.  www.beyondtheedge.org , whose message is in moving "From Success to Significance".   "The mission of Beyond the Edge is to help expansive thinkers move from success to significance much more rapidly than has been available to us in the past.  Recognizing that potentially world-changing ideas are often held captive to individual interests, we create a safe environment in which thought leaders can collaborate for mutual and global benefit." – Richard F. Sdchaden – Founder – Beyond The Edge.

 Earlier this year as we sat in a meeting, the issue of time being of the essence in moving forward with our work came to the floor.  There has been such a sense of needing to “get on with it . . . yesterday! many people have been frustrated, wondering just how in the world we  were going to do that.  It's becoming easier and easier to see how getting on with it is going to, or rather IS happening.   We are already in such fast-forward motion,  It is through both the technologies and the booming growth mankind is experiencing in our own conscious evolution. 

I would love to see all people plugged-in to the positive changes that are happening.  There's a new movement to just do one "green" thing you haven't done before.  That alone would cause one small step for you as an individual, and a giant leap forward in the compassionate awareness of the earth as our Mother who sustains our lives for mankind.  As we move forward, a little moving backward soothes the pain of large transitions as well.  As we move to a consciousness of oneness instead of duality, we become the greater-evolved dialectic thinkers (both/and) who will ease the transition to the much-more aware human being  we now are, and are further becoming.  We begin to understand how it is we can allow our perceptions to expand to both/and instead of either/or.  When we integrate this truth, of oneness, we see how hard we've made things in the past by insisting on the dualities of on/off, up/down, here/there and black/white and trying to fit everything into these extremes.  When we realize polarities are nothing more than locations on one continuum, we begin to understand that everything IS one, not two distinctly different and separated things.  Can you see  in your mind’s eye that if you had the black and white yin-yang symbol of opposites spinning rapidly what you would see is a whole  circle of grey that would demonstrate the tying together  and oneness of the whole of these  perceived opposites, as well as the myriad possibilities that exist between the two extremes; Can you integrate that concept into your thinking and understand that the grey represents all of the possibilities within the entire spectrum? 

I remember my mother telling me as a child, that the Bible teaches even humans would become more unisex, more "One"; and just look at what's happening in our world toward the acceptance, love and compassion toward lesbian, gay and transgendered people, who are just as legitimate human beings as are the cowboys and the Sufi’s, The Dahli Lama and the mentally ill.  The conscious evolution of accepting people as and for who they are within the spectrum of the male/female polarities is a movement forward, and a spiriling upward of human intelligence and acceptance one for another. 

The trains are leaving their stations with all the global community efforts, being created to propel us into being the people we were Divinely designed to be.   If you don't jump on board one of these trains or  build and drive one of your own, you will be left behind wondering what happened on every level of your understanding.  It's far more exciting to be a part of the rapid changes as they whirl before us like the Sufi’s  Whirling Dirvishes when they dance.

 Jump in with both feet and re-design and re-define yourself in accordance with your interests, natural talents and skills.  It's no longer about Success as much as it is about  the Significance of what you have to offer the world through your creative thoughts and actions; and with companies and organizations like "Beyond The Edge",  "Institute of Noetic Science", "The Center For The Sacred Feminine", and myriad others coming into existence for the betterment and advancement of humankind through the greatest force in the Universe, Love.  There are no excuses or reasons you can't "up" the significance-  level of your life and join the spiraling-upward of our own conscious evolution.  If what I'm saying here interests you, check out the websites I've mentioned here.  If you haven't a clue what I'm talking about, do the same.  Check out the websites and join the excitement.

Post Script:  As I begin to post blogs more often, there are pieces of information I will reveal of myself to my readers.  Due to the nature of my work I operate under the general assumption that when Christians see me, my brochures, business cards or car which has The Center For The Sacred Feminine advertised on it along with HypnoBirthing and Supporter of Conscious Evolution stickers, one of the first things they may think is that I’m not one of them.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  I will tell my story as time goes by; but the first statement I wish to make at this time is that I have been a follower of Jesus Christ since I can remember.  I made a conscious choice to model my life after His as a very young child.

My journey has been less as the traditional, church-going, fellowshiping  Christian, although I certainly spent many years in the church; and more one that has mirrored Christ’s life.  I asked for this experience in my life and I was given it.  The love I have for Jesus Christ can’t be explained in a post-script.  What I have found most interesting in the journey, though, is the experience of being the outcast amongst one’s own, due to fear and lack of understanding.  What I have found  to be the greatest blessing is knowing I can sit and use technology to share that journey, knowing that those who are interested  in finding out that God does not live in a box, or one doctrine, or even one Holy Book.  I know that those who need to find the bridge from doctrine  to the spirituality Jesus Himself lived will find me and the Sacred Feminine I represent in His name.

Affirmation:  “I AM the personification of the Divine Feminine”

Love and Blessings,

AnnaLynn Zinn de Vine, Ph.D., CHT.

Metaphysician

Clinical Hypnotherapist

Certified HypnoBirthing® Practitioner Specialist                                       

Today it is my desire to share some of the quotes from The Feminine Face Of God that challenge us to question what needs to be done to create the empowered state of change in our lives.:

" . . . it doesn't make sense for anyone else to tell you what you need to do.  Each of us is so different.  We need to wait for our own inner timings . . . watching the outer cycles and waiting for the inner timing."

 "We don't have enough continuity with the events of our lives because we don't live in extended families or even in nuclear families for very long.  So we search for the right relationship or the right partner or the right kind of sex or the right kind of marriage.  But the link that is missing doesn't have anything to do with those things.  It has to do with a lack of sustained intimacy that gives us our sense of human rootedness.  We don't have this base right now, this grounding, but we need somehow to build it."

"How do we begin to build a base for our relatedness that provides intimacy and continuity, not just occasionslly, but over the long term?"

[The authors] found that "weaving enduring and often beautiful webs of relationship based on caring" is one of the most important things women have done in the past and continue to do today.  "But what is surprising and may seem paradoxical is the women's emphasis on solitude as the sine qua non (essential element or factor) for wholehearted relationship."

Despite the difficulty of creating solitude for themselves, ". . . the women placed a very high priority on solitude."

"Expressing gratitude for those who have gone before us is important for a sense of connection and continuity, but it is from those who walk beside us that we can gain the strength and courage to remain true to our purpose.  And what many women todayu are discovering as they "dig a new-way path" is not a teacher or guru or guide, but a "resonator," a friend or sister or companion so true to her own inner reality that she inspires them to be faithful to theirs.  Somehow the resonator calls us to our true selves, remainding us and reflecting to us our deepest possibilities, asking the difficult questions and encouraging us to take action."  " . . . "living those values ---blending compassion and respect for others right along with her anger and challenges."

Maya Angelou on Sisterhood:  "Women so often have been denied respect, true respect.  We need to extend this to each other.  The ability to respect another human being for what she is offering is the foundation for a friendship.  It is not to be taken lightly."

On Making a Community:  "In our diversity is our strength."  "Value each demand or concern or challenge for the contribution it makes."  "See your role primarily as listener and learn how to listen and respect and confront one another.  This will transform us.  Through this learning we would come to trust and love and depend on ourselves."

"This work has taught that it's in community, in our love for each other, that our interdependence becomes most visible.  I feel how much we need those communal forms and how much we have to be faithful to each other, to build ourselves --- humans and nonhumans alike --- into each others' lives in new ways."

"There need to be the bridges and the networks . . . of support that women find with and through each other.  Such matrices create a viable and lively ecumenical movement that is the indispensible key to a woman being able to be in the church/group and also be true to herself."

"The making of "relatives", it seems, is slow work.  It takes not just caring, but the courage to tell the truth to each other and the perseverance to face misunderstandings and emotional struggles --- along with whatever else needs to be worked through --- in order to grow together over the long term."

On Connectedness:  There is a Hebrew word that describes this action:  tikkun.  It means to heal, to mend what has been broken, to transform.  In the beginning of the world, the legend which is the source of this word goes, the abundant divine light was held in primeval vessels.  But somehow - - - no one knows how ---the vessels were shattered, and discord and confusion spread everywhere.  The great task for human beings, the story tells us, is to repair the ancient vessels, to gather together the scattered light, to call home all those who have been lost or in exile, to heal the separation and bring peace to our world."

Namaste

AnnaLynn

I feel as if I’m in a bubbling pot of spiritual stew.  Just as I watched the rolling boil of the pot of beans I’d made earlier in the day, while reading Sherry Ruth Anderson ‘s and Patricia Hopkins’ The Feminine Face of God,  I read the experiences of other women regarding their individual and later collective spiritual wisdom, all the while comparing them with my own experiences.

I’m almost to the end of the book and just am in a winter solstice sort of space.  I know I’m alive.  I know that humanity is falling apart and needs divine intervention.  My awarenesses are keen in prophetic ways; and I feel a quietness akin to despair.  At the same time, I’m  aware of being like a seed planted underground, sleeping for awhile; knowing with an inexplicable deep awareness, that warmth from the sun and sprouting are just a few sleep/wake cycles away. 

Waiting for the awakening of humanity to occur is a dreadfully slow hibernation for those of us wanting to get on with our work.  Trying to thrive in conservative, fundamentalist communities is my greatest frustration.  Knowing my Bible and my own basis in religious teaching in that very same fundamentalism increases my frustration a thousand-fold.  My deepest desires include teaching what I’ve learned about the sacred feminine behind the patriarchical teachings of the sons of Abraham.  Our entire planet is so male oriented, it is women's  responsibility to continue to move forward; creating a balance of masculine and feminine energy on our precious planet.

There are those of my colleagues who are doing their own work, building their practices one client at a time; and there are those much younger fearlessly putting themselves out there in new, innovative ways; carving out a new sacred feminine way to BE for the women of the world.  Both the wisdom of the elders and the vibrant innocence and motivation of youth propel that which is uniquely feminine and sacred,  powerfully into the new millennium.  The energy and excitement of youth growing to maturity causes in-depth explorations into femininity that would leave the  Victorian  ancestors blushing with embarrassment at their openness about deep, intimate, physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual topics which were previously taboo.  Life could not move forward without what we may call radical thinking. (Remember the 60’s)  It also cannot move forward in a positive manner without the wisdom of the elders; whatever the tradition.

As for myself, my belief system is becoming less of a belief system and more of an understanding that women are searching, some desperately, for validity that their experiences and thinking aren’t crazy.  The lost feeling we have as women is directly relatable to the fact that we don’t meet at the stream to do our laundry anymore.  We don’t meet at the tribe’s communal cooking area each night as we collectively prepare food for ourselves and our families.  We simply do not have sacred feminine space to share our thoughts, grieve our losses, and uphold each other as we have in times past.  We are separated, confused and lonely; and we need the traditions, rites and rituals of those who came before us and who had structured education for girls and women including emotional support from the mothers, elders,  and sisterhoods available as part of their daily lives.

 And so the question arises, “What, then, do we do?”  My answer to this question, is that we begin taking advantage of those places that are earnestly working to restore powerful women to the earth.  We stop living in our own heads and make the effort to commune.  Read a book like The Red Tent to get a feel for the gathering of women for support, relaxation, restoration, moon-time, grieving and validation.  Then envision a space that is always open to this type of daily communication between women.  This is my vision for The Center For The Sacred Feminine.

What I fear may be the downfall of my offering is apathy.  Apathy is ubiquitous.  It’s in full-saturation in western culture.  As I write, our country, the basis on which it was founded, everything considered sacred under our Constitution is being plundered and plowed asunder.  America is teeming and full to the brim with people who don’t know and understand what has been created by the founders of the United States of America; and what it has cost in blood, sweat and tears.  We are a country that has been and is being buried by the very things Nakita Kruschev threatened when I was a child watching him yell and beat the podium with his shoe; saying, "We Will Bury You!".  What is happening in our country today is a bitter pill to swallow because it is apathy and ignorance that is allowing it all to happen.  Those who were too anxious for a new day, a new leader and a new way will be counted amongst the apathetic and ignorant when they all come to the realization that nothing is free.  You wanted it, now you and we are going to be paying for it through every orifice known to man; and it’s going to hurt like hell.

“They” (the powers that be) are already predicting, and therefore, preparing us for a huge rise in inflation by the end of 2010.  This is just the  way “they” prepare us for the next phase of the plan for a world monetary system.  If you think things are bad now, it’s not too late to start paying attention and to prepare yourselves and your families for a rougher road ahead.  Everything that has been happening financially up to this point was only a tremor.  How many ways do you think things can continue to work in a way to which we are all accustomed,  when there IS no money available to keep it going?  It’s all being withdrawn from the public by the money people (Google the Bilderburgs).  Our own President, Barak Obama has been seen coming and going from the Bilderburg meetings, and so has his financial guru Ben Bernenke.  We are being played by the powers that be.  It is a fearful game they play.  Only world-wide education of the masses would stop the machine that has begun rolling toward a catastrophe of unparalleled proportions.  Only mass awareness and anarchy will stop it; and that is simply yet another catastrophe of unparalleled proportions waiting to happen.

Which is the lesser of the two evils?  Can humankind avert the disasters we’re already neck deep in?  Or will it, indeed, take Divine Intervention to save us from ourselves?  Is there time for us to do our divine work in the world today?  And can we do it with the fervor necessary to tip mass consciousness into awareness?  My take on this is that it is only women educating themselves into awareness of how powerful we actually are that can tip our forward motion into calamity in a different direction.  We have it within us to, as Sherry Ruth Anderson and Patricia Hopkins put it, “become adults of God” and with a gentle and compassionate yet righteous anger, right the wrongs that are happening in our world today. I have a visual of The Goddess putting her foot down, in the form of women's work to stop the destruction, the hate, the wars.  It's happened in the past on two documented historical occasions when women in two separate communities withheld sexual relations until the men stopped their testosterone-driven warring.  With the tools we have at hand today, it's completely conceivable that the same sort of ultimatums can be presented to mankind again today. Are we willing?  Are we ready?

Thinking about the power of women through the ages and the stories I’ve read of the courage, strength and determination it takes to make a stand for right and good, tells me that people, on the whole will fight for the right and the good when given the opportunity to do so.  There is an innate goodness in mankind to help and serve one another that no evil empire or immoral corporation can change.  When a lone woman stands against enormous powers of corruption, although it takes a toll of personal crucifixion,   when gathered together as in a jury, people will decide for justice to restore the faith of the crucified and the righteous.

What conclusions can I come to about my own spiritual journey as I walk the earth?  Do I follow the rituals and recitals of the beginning seeker?  Do I recognize Mother God as the one to calls the world to compassion and love?  Do I revere the power and sanctity of my own womanhood with a commitment to live it out in every situation, every day of my life; and to do so faithfully according to my own inner voice of guidance?

Do I spend time in meditation and prayer?  Or LIVE my life as a meditation/prayer?  Is my awareness stayed on keeping the power of love alive in the world?  And how do I most successfully convey that love and compassion to the people I meet and come in contact with every day?

The word “risk” comes to mind, as I think about the times I’ve exclaimed about something interesting while in the line at the grocery store; only to be met with the silent, stoney  faces of the strangers with whom I was intending on sharing the moment .  Embarrassment happens, but there have also been the times when a handful of people have been open enough to share a special moment, or laugh; and those experiences are the best!  So what if strangers think you’re a bit ditsy.  If you can make people smile today, you’re doing a good job.

How does this fit into our goals of being more spiritual?  CONNECTEDNESS.   The greatest number of human beings today are unaware of the myriad matrices and streams of interconnectedness we are all a part of.  In The Feminine Face of God, great wisdom is attributed to a woman by the name of Helen when she speaks of learning to relax with the fact that “life is change”, or as I learned it, “The only thing in life that ever stays the same is change.”  Life is a forward-moving process that, in today’s world, happens at  a head-spinning pace.  Our lifestyles don’t give us a minute to reflect on how we feel about what is happening outside our own little worlds.  We raise our children in the rush of being able to provide for them.  If we worked outside the home,  we were not in full control of what happened to them during their days away from us; and the highest of prices were paid for those  ignorant and innocent negligences. It will take a re-ordering of priorities to slow the pace, and to make the time for those things which are the MOST important things in our lives. It takes "centering" in quiet meditation/prayer to "listen" for our own prompts from that place of higher consciousness that dwells within each of us.  It takes "commitment to change" and a more relaxed attitude toward those continuous changes that make up the fabric of our lives.

The point I’m making is that the way through it all is to KNOW who you are.  Follow your inner voice when it tells you something.  Learn from that part of yourself that accesses truth from great wisdom without your knowing how it happens.   Case in point:  Practicing love and compassion toward a person who has and continues to act out of fear and hatred toward you.  Loving someone who has been only cruel to you and those you love.   Behaving lovingly in the face of disrespect from someone to whom you have offered only love and guidance.  Even in my state of moderate enlightenment, my soul and my gut just aren’t able to come to an agreement as to how I should behave in such situations.  Behaving lovingly in the face of insult and injury goes against the grain of the ego.  Releasing the ego and responding from Spirit continues to be a daily lesson in spiritual growth.

My soul is full of such painful and tragic memories from my lifetime, I shall never recover on my own from them.  Though to the outward world my life looked uber-blessed,  on the inside I felt like a whirling-dervish of simple survival.  What I was to learn ultimately about those years, substantiated what was going on in my life and my mind.  I was being systematically and intentionally driven to distraction by family members who had created an evil triangle around me.  My mother admitted many of the things she and my father along with my then husband had done to me during those years; along with tearful confessions of recent happenings at their architecture of the taking-apart of my life, home and belongings.  She wondered aloud, “I don’t know how you can forgive us for the things we’ve done to you.”  It's called forgiveness.

As often happens in the model nuclear family, there is the abuser, the enabler, the hero and the victim.  Our family was a  perfect reflection of the model.  Without getting into the specifics of our particular family dysfunctions,  we played our parts to perfection.  As also often happens if the victim has the strength of character to remove him or herself from the dysfunction, to individuate away from the pattern of dysfunction into an wholistic and self-contained expression of cosmic power, true and complete healing can take place. Empowerment takes the place of the former abuse.

In my case, the losses were unbearable for a very long time.  If it had not been for my daily immersion in course-work as I earned my B.S., and M.S. in Wholistic Psychology, their efforts to destroy my life would have been successfu.  It was my own strength of character, my knowledge of the Word of God, the teachings of Jesus, and my life-long thirst to know what Jesus knew, and to live my life as close to His as I could that kept my head above water during those dark, confusing and deeply-hurtful years. It was my spiritual awareness that made live livable.

The studies and a life-adventure that I couldn’t have dreamt in my wildest dreams unfolded during that time as well.  I was made into a survivalist by a traveling companion, to whom I owe blessings I haven’t the capacity to bestow.  I was hot without the capacity to cool myself off.  I was freezing without the equipment to keep myself warm.  I was hungry at times; and stood in food lines for a meal at other times.  I lived in the desert, the forest, at the beach and in majestic  places of breathtaking  beauty. . . in my car.  Contemplation and study filled my days.  Tears of confusion and pain filled my nights for two years.  Then one day, for reasons unknown to me, I picked my head up off the pillow and declared that I was no longer going to be that person for anyone.  I was sick and tired of crying and coming from a place of victimization.  Even though the reality of it was that I had been severely victimized, there was just a point when I’d just had enough.  That was the day I began becoming myself without all baggage.

In the eight years since then, I have completed my Ph.D., opened the Center For The Sacred Feminine, made wonderful friends and built a new life.  Knowning that the only thing in life that stays the same is change, has created in me a relaxed human being who has learned to "watch the outer cycles and wait for the inner timing" in faith and a deep understanding now of how the universe works; and how we can most productively insert ourselves into that natural flow of manifestation to change the world and bring forth love and compassion in place of the hatred and warring.

It is my intention in 2010 to feed my readers with knowledge, information and skills for taking back their innate wisdom and power to make the necessary changes for a better world.  

Onward and upward!

Love and Blessings,

AnnaLynn

In our continued efforts to offer exciting events and motivating information, we have come to the word, “consistency”.

As I look at that word, I realize that where this blog is concerned, I have been consistent in my inconsistency. Interesting how we can negate a word and action that in and of itself offers us the opportunity to grow and expand and/or fall down on the job.

And that leads us to “mindfulness”. Slowing down our thoughts and actions to the point we can BE consistent in who we are and what we do in the world is an imperative that is easier said than done.

IF it is a deep concern of yours to add consistency and mindfulness to your days, take some time to sit and write out what consistent mindfulness you wish to express in your life; and then decide WHERE in your day you’re going to put these reminders.

Some of the mindful moments spent in consistency might include putting your morning devotions or chakra balancing on the refrigerator so that you begin your day placing the foundations of your mindfulness in your mind while you drink your orange juice; or beside your bathroom mirror so that you can speak them while you put on your make-up. Another could be setting your cell-phone alarm clock for 12:30 to remind you to take a few minutes away from the job to B-R-E-A-T-H-E

Simply filling your lungs with oxygen by taking three to five deep, long inspirations and letting them go in longer exhalations as you relax your head, neck, face, shoulders, chest, solar plexus, abdomen, pelvis, thighs, legs and feet, gives you a few moments to regroup, relax, restructure and begin your work anew reinvigorated.

Put consistency in your life with these mindful practices in the early morning, mid-day, and when you get home in the evening, begin a 30-minute “sacred time”; whatever that means to you. It might be a time to reestablish your meditation, prayer and openness to the voice of your guides. It might be thirty minutes following dinner and before baths, to spend consistent quality time with your children. The point is . . . MAKE the time and BE consistent with it daily throughout your lifetime and the lifetimes of your children, so that they KNOW there is a time, every day, they can count on your being there.

Just three times during your day, consistently be mindful of being good to YOU. You will be surprised at how just these tiny little moments will change your days for the better, and give you the foundation you’ve been yearning for.

Love and Blessings,

AnnaLynn

My mind has been all over the place today.  It’s not necessarily a bad thing.  It just IS what it IS.  Although I have been feeling under the weather yet again, for most of the day I was able to be privy to several sources of information which I like to watch, listen-to and read.

Today the word love stuck out all over the place. If the only thing I get across to the people who have known me in my life, my message to them is that the only motivations I have ever had, have come from love.

I’ve been learning lessons all along, some of them hard, some of them impossible, still, at this point in my evolution.  It is only love that has kept me going.  Those who have given me theirs, must know that all of mine belongs to them.

How did I get to this place?  Grit, guts, determination and unconditional love for those who could not understand me, nor respect me and my faith in that indescribable power most of us humans have some knowledge of; and from which we have latent memories of sacredness and respect.  Often not well modeled in our  chldhood homes. 

All of that got tied up in religiosity.  No matter what your religious backgrounds and early life experiences in your places of worship,  we were all one in the recognition that there has been a guiding intelligence in the creation and evolution of mankind. 

When enough of us have been educated in the religious philosophies to see that in the end, all of us have always been reaching toward those examples and emulating these icons, there will begin to be a global shift in consciousness as we collectively take the position of a higher perspective on what our religions were SUPPOSED to teach us.

It is that time in human conscious evolution to realize we have God-given capacities to bring about a peaceful world; (see my favorite scripture following my signature on all e-mails); IF  we’re still here and have put an end to war. Well, we’re still here . . . and we’re working our tails off to put an end to war.  Most particularly as the money-making machine, the price of which is the lives of our children.

So  now, it’s time to begin to recognize,  in hoards,  that love is the greatest power in the  universe.  We have to always react honorably . . . out of love for ourselves and the sorrow of the ignorance of others.  No matter what we feel inside, we must always act and react honorably.  The energy of emotions must then be channeled into our passions for creativity.  (And that does NOT include creatively re-arranging the other guy’s face!).

Learning that what we call problems are actually opportunities to move upward and onward in life.  They are those opportunities we might not have recognized or known about on our own, but for the movement of the natural universal nature of things the opportunity would have been missed. 

Seeing the world from new, well-chosen perspectives, turns this time in history into an opportunity for changes from the bottom up.  Let us love ourselves through our government representatives and demand accountability.  This means we MUST get involved on some level.  Each of us has to take on more responsibility, even as we are bending under enormous pressures.

We have such an amazing opportunity to change our world for the better; and it stands in the fertile fields of our collapsed economy.  Don’t let the news fool you, we haven’t even hit the hard-slide-down yet.  There will be a world of opportunities for us to restructure our communities around the world in a sane and learned way.

The thing is, though, each of us has to give up some computer time and make some brain space for what’s going on in this country and the world.  There’s a lot that’s what we would label as bad.  There’s more and more, and more of what I can see as myriad possibilities for a well-put-together future.*  This can only happen, however,  if enough of us become conscious of how much power the power of one has on the outcome of what our lives are going to be like in the span of just a few, short years.

I’m talking about the loss of our freedoms while we sit and play computer games, dumb ourselves down and lose the most well-thought-out blueprint for the building a government that is OF AND FOR THE PEOPLE.  We live in precious and rare freedom, and that includes the right for me to write these words, and your right to read them.  What are YOU going to commit to to . . . BE the change you want to see in the world . . . a quote from Mohandas Ghandi.

Love is the answer.  You figure out how you can express it best; and then give it all you’ve got.

Please, take some time to discover what you can do to begin to live a “conscious” life.  It’s imperative to our short and long-term futures.

In love and sending blessings,

AnnaLynn

Recommended Reading:

EnlightenNext - Magazine – available on line: www.EnlightenNext.org

Spirituality & Health – Magazine – www.SpiritualityHealth.com

OK. I loved Michael Jackson . . . and just had a rant while listening (not) to one of our illustrious leaders spouting negativity about the man and “THE PEOPLE’S” reaction to him. I don’t yet know his name, but all those who did not recognize Michael’s soul, give it credence and rejoice with him in his well-deserved joy, will not be able to understand or forgive him for attempting to understand and experience. He made a decision a long time ago to retrieve some of his childhood by creating a Neverland that gave him the impetus to create everyman’s dream . . . to bring joy to himself and others; as one who deserved what he could afford. Because of how much he agonized, and how well he expressed his hurts through his triple-threat song-writing, singing and dancing, THE PEOPLE of the world connected with him non-rationally through the heart. They connected in LOVE.

Notice that I said “Non” rationally, not irrationally. The world is responding to the power of love which is a “feeling” much more powerful than thought. Men throughout the world have traditionally responded to the powerful aggressive impetus of testosterone. Wouldn’t it be great if all that testosterone-driven power could be channeled through their work in love of what they do, as Michael did? What if we all were living from our passions, accomplishing things that until now have been impossible due to our (only) three-hundred year old fascination with rationality. It is time for the world to remember, acknowledge and put into practice the power of “emotional intelligence”.

Love is the most powerful force in the universe. Women, en masse, are moved by love. Men whose hearts are open feel the power of love too, and also recognize it as a power that overcomes all rationality. It is a cellular-level experience that rearranges everything we know about ourselves and our world. Allowing one’s self the freedom to live, eat, speak, feel and express from love, breaks all chains as well as the rules. The world doesn’t know what to DO in the face of love, as displayed by our auspicious leader in his classless and ignorant attack on a stellar human being. Our response is to pray for those who despitefully use us. That’s LOVE.

So, like the Master’s have attempted to teach us in our ignorance, there is a way to accomplish good. It is the spiritual journey that teaches us the transcendent and inclusive power of love. Jesus taught it. Michael “got” it and used it to transform the world. What a magnificent example he was.

Love and Blessings,
AnnaLynn