CICLO MENSTRUAL

"Na cultura ocidental a menstruação, por muito tempo, foi vista como algo negativo. Mas, segundo Raven Grimasse, autor de "Os Mistérios Wiccanos" publicado pela Editora Gaia, o sangue menstrual nos chamados Mistérios Femininos da antiga Europa, “era mais do que um simples indicador do ciclo de fertilidade de uma mulher. A vagina era vista como um portal mágico tanto para a regeneração física como para a transformação espiritual”. Por isso, dê as boas-vindas à menstruação vendo-a como um sinal de saúde e uma ligação com as energias da Deusa... Encare a sua menstruação como uma bênção, não como um incômodo. Celebre esse aspecto da sua essência feminina que mostra a ligação sagrada entre a energia feminina e os ciclos lunares.

Em algumas culturas o sangue menstrual é considerado um fluído sagrado. Para o povo celta as mulheres eram aspectos vivos da criação e a menstruação era considerada sagrada. Quando estavam menstruadas, as mulheres se refugiavam na floresta e discutiam sobre os problemas da tripo. Nas tribos nativas americanas era comum as mulheres se separarem do resto da tribo para gozar um período de descanso e contemplação enquanto estavam “enluaradas”.

Enquanto menstrua, a maioria das mulheres fica mais intuitiva, o que torna esse período ideal para realizar divinações ou encantamentos. Durante a menstruação é bom evitar exercícios vigorosos. Em vez disso, faça exercícios suaves e descanse o máximo possível. A mulher deve tomar banho com mais freqüência durante esse período não só por uma questão de higiene, mas também para melhorar a circulação e relaxar a tensão muscular.

Um dos problemas femininos mais comuns hoje em dia é a tensão pré-menstrual – TPM - que pode durar alguns dias ou algumas semanas, todos os meses. Os sintomas vão desde irritabilidade, melancolia, fadiga, agitação, desatenção e até depressão profunda e violentas oscilações de humor. Para aliviar a TPM evite alimentos gordurosos e frituras, alimentos condimentados, álcool, cafeína e doces processados. Em vez deles, consuma chá verde, maçã, hortelã, morango, melancia, peixe e tofu. Procure tomar chá de ginseng para aliviar o mal-estar.

Experimente fazer essa afirmação para celebrar o seu corpo durante o período da menstruação: “Meu corpo é abençoado pela Lua e eu celebro o fluxo da minha essência feminina.”

Extraído e adaptado do artigo "Body Sacred", de Emely Flak, Wicca Almanac – Almanaque Wicca 2008

Sacred Prostitution: The Whore and the Holy One

Sacred Prostitution:
The Whore and the Holy One

I was sent forth from the power,
and I have come to those who reflect upon me,
and I have been found among those who seek after me,
Look upon me, you who reflect upon me,
and you hearers, hear me.
You who are waiting for me, take me to yourselves
And do not banish me from your sight…

For I am the first and the last
I am the honored one and the scorned one,
I am the whore and the holy one…

I am the silence that is incomprehensible
and the idea whose remembrance is frequent.
I am the voice whose sound is manifold
and the word whose appearance is multiple.
I am the utterance of my name…

Excerpts from "The Thunder, Perfect Mind",THE NAG HAMMADI LIBRARY.

Download HERE

So opens "The Thunder, Perfect Mind." This short tractate is part of the Nag Hammadi Library, a collection of mostly Gnostic writings from the third century CE, discovered in Egypt in 1945. Scholar George W. MacRae calls "The Thunder, Perfect Mind" a revelation discourse. It is the proclamation of the great female I-Am. Throughout the piece this powerful voice utters apparent paradoxes in what seems more like a hymn or a poem than a discourse. In his introduction, MacRae comments that "in terms of religious tradition "The Thunder, Perfect Mind" is difficult to classify as it presents no distinctly Jewish, Gnostic, or Christian themes."

I believe "The Thunder, Perfect Mind" may represent or contain fragments of a religious tradition older than Judaism, far older than the classical period of Greek civilization, certainly older than Christianity and Gnosticism, a tradition that was no longer intact at the time "The Thunder, Perfect Mind" was written down. MacRae compares the tone of "The Thunder, Perfect Mind" to the Isis aretalogies, but he notes that "The Thunder, Perfect Mind" differs from the aretalogies in its insistent use of paradox and contradiction.

I invite you to consider this possibility: If the voice of "The Thunder, Perfect Mind" echoes the voices of Isis, Ishtar and Inanna, goddesses who were once all powerful, who contained all paradox in a magnificent wholeness, then at the time that this voice lifted itself up she had to speak in paradox. The voice of "The Thunder, Perfect Mind" is the voice of a divine female power asserting her importance to a people who were already deeply ambivalent about her and their attraction to her, whose ancestors had been torn for centuries between honoring and scorning her. Even more, this female I-am knows that she is pleading with a people on the verge of forgetting who she is, becoming deaf to her wisdom, silencing her. Some 1,800 years have passed since the writing of "The Thunder, Perfect Mind", and our own time. We are only just beginning to hear again "this voice whose sound is manifold."
Once upon a time, so long ago that we only have fragments of Sumerain and Babylonian tablets, myths and our own dreams to tell us this story, the assertion "I am the whore and the holy one" would not have been a paradox at all. In ancient Sumer and Babylon, temple priestess/prostitutes of the goddess received the god-bearing stranger. Their sexual union was, for both participants, communion with the divine. In many ancient cultures, in order for the land to prosper and for a king to have legitimacy in the eyes of the people, he had to celebrate the hieros gamos (sacred marriage) with a priestess who represented the goddess. In Sumer, the people sang ecstatic, erotic hymns to encourage and celebrate the marriage of the shepherd-king Dumuzi with the goddess Inanna. Here’s a passage from the Sacred Marriage Rite translated by Samuel Kramer from the Gudea Cylinders written in Sumer around 3,000 BCE.
The King goes with lifted head to the holy lap
He goes with lifted head to the holy lap of Inanna,
The King coming with lifted head,
Coming to my queen with lifted head
Embraces the Hierdoule.
According to Jungian analyst Nancy Qualls-Corbett, author of The Sacred Prostitute, the term hierdoule literally means sacred servant. It refers specifically to the priestess whose functions included sexual rites.
Over time the enactment of the king’s symbolic marriage with the goddess probably became mere form and finally obsolete as Babylon and other societies became more stratified and war-like. Then military might, instead of mystical union with the goddess, conferred legitimacy on a ruler. In Babylon there was also a hierarchy of prostitutes from the high-ranking temple priestesses, the entu and naditu, to the tavern or street whore called harimtu. It’s worth noting that in Babylonian religious texts, the goddess Ishtar identifies herself with the lower ranks of the street prostitutes, saying "When I sit in the entrance of a tavern, I, Ishtar, am a loving harimtu." In another Babylonian text Ishtar proclaims, "A prostitute compassionate am I."
Isis began her long, illustrious life as a goddess in Egypt around 2,500 BCE. Worship of Isis spread all over the Mediterranean world and beyond. There was even a temple to Isis on the Thames River. In Rome, though she was regarded by the ruling class as an exotic (and suspect) Oriental import, she was worshipped well into Christian times. Like Jesus, Isis was a universal and merciful savior who paid no attention to social class or lineage. Like the Virgin Mary, she was a divine and devoted mother. She was also beloved by prostitutes. According to the wealth of lore surrounding her, during her long search for the body of her lover/brother Osiris, she was a prostitute in Tyre for ten years, perhaps a temple prostitute. She eventually found Osiris’ coffin in a pillar of a temple to Ashstarte in Byblos. Isis’s own temples were often located near brothels and had the reputation of being a meeting place for prostitutes.
Isis, like Inanna and Ishtar, was all in one: whore, wife, mother, all holy. Apparently worshippers saw no contradiction, no need to exalt one aspect of the goddess (or divine feminine, if you prefer) and debase another. But something happens, some dis-integration. Listen again to the voice of "The Thunder, Perfect Mind."
I am the one whom they called Life
and you have called Death.
I am the one whom they call Law
and you have called Lawlessness.
I am the one you have pursued
and I am the one whom you have seized.
I am the one whom you have scattered
and you have gathered me together.
There are many theories about what might have caused the near total-eclipse of goddess worship (at least in the Western world) and I don’t want to address them today. I just want to observe that she (whoever, whatever she is) seems to be re-emerging. It is time to gather together her scattered archetypes. In her virgin mother aspect, she never completely disappeared, at least among Roman Catholics. I can’t help wonder if the tragic adulation/hounding of women like the late Princess of Wales doesn’t have something to do with the absence of a goddess to adore in the predominantly Protestant cultures of the United States and Britain. I believe that in order to heal our individual and collective psyches we need the divine feminine not only as the holy mother or the virgin or as a disembodied divine Wisdom, but as the holy whore, the "prostitute compassionate".
It is probably not practical or possible to reconstruct temples to the goddess for the practice of sacred prostitution (although some of us might like to). But we can begin to reclaim the archetype of the holy whore—or to put it more colorfully, we can embrace the sacred prostitute within. We can also examine our own and our culture’s attitude towards secular prostitutes, the descendants of the harimtu with whom Ishtar identified herself. The virgin/whore dichotomy, with all women implicitly forced to one side or the other of the good girl/bad girl divide, has harmed us all, women and men. If the virgin/whore dichotomy stands, then our souls and our bodies, our spirituality and our sexuality also remained divided, even at war.
As noted, Inanna, Ishtar, Isis and other great goddesses played all parts: wife, mother, lover, and in their completeness-in-themselves, also virgin. (As an aside, it is worth observing that the patriarchal classical Greeks divided these archetypal roles between many goddesses so that no one female deity had the kind of power Zeus wielded.) Though in Isis’s case, her lover is her brother, the goddess often bears a son-lover. The son begets himself as is technically the case in Christian doctrine, the son and the father being different aspects of one god. But in our culture we can’t quite grasp the concept of divine sexual passion. So Mary conceives mystically through an angelic messenger, and her virginity is taken literally as intactness of the hymen. We do not allow her to experience sexual ecstasy.
Although we profess to believe that Jesus became incarnate to share our human nature, in all its joy and sorrow, we do not allow him sexual expression or freedom. We know that a lot of women followed him (although they are not, officially, acknowledged as disciples), chief among them Mary Magdalen, the first witness of his resurrection. We are not supposed to speculate on the nature of his relationship with Mary Magdalen, although of course we have for centuries.
It is interesting, in terms of archetype, that so many women in the Gospel are named Mary, at least five, possibly six. No doubt Mary was an ubiquitous first century name. But it almost seems as if all those scattered parts of the goddess—virgin, wife, mother, sister, lover, whore—want to come back under the name Mary. The name Mary in Hebrew is Miriam (also the name of Moses’ sister) a name rich in meanings, among them bitterness, rebellion and the salty brine of tears, of the womb, of the sea.
The virgin/whore dichotomy demands that Mary Magdalen serve as the whore counterpart to Mary the Virgin, although there is no scriptural evidence that Mary Magdalen was a prostitute. Also, according to the lore that has accrued to her over the ages, she was a repentant prostitute, turned from her sinful ways by Jesus who heals and forgives her. And so, ironically, despite her reputation (deserved or not) Mary Magdalen doesn’t get to experience sexual ecstasy either. Regarding Mary Magdalen as a repentant, redeemed prostitute does nothing to heal the split between spirituality and sexuality, for in that scenario she does not integrate her sexuality with her new found life of the spirit, she merely renounces it.
Nickie Roberts, a former prostitute and prostitutes’ rights advocate writes in her book Whores in History: "To this day the whore stigma affects all women, whether or not we subscribe to the good girl/bad girl dichotomy which can be traced back to the beginning of patriarchal thought. Any woman can be branded a whore if she steps out of line."
Until the holy whore archetype is honored, there will be a whore stigma. Women will be divided against each other and themselves, and we will all be at odds with our own human nature. As a practical counterpart to archetypal integration, I’d also suggest that we advocate for decriminalization of prostitution. However women (and men) enter what is called the oldest profession, whether as victims of circumstance or by choice, whether they practice in a manner that we view as sacred or profane (another aspect of the same dichotomy) they do not deserve to be persecuted or prosecuted.
I’d like to leave you today with this proposition (pun more or less intended): Maybe Mary Magdalen, whom according to Gnostic texts Jesus loved above all others, was a whore, a real and unrepentant whore. Though there is no scriptural evidence that she was, scripture also makes no mention of her father, brother, husband or son. Without male protection and support her options for livelihood were few. The Gospel (Luke 8) indicates that she (and other female followers) may have provided Jesus with financial support for his ministry. They had to have some source of income. Why not the oldest profession? (Thanks are due to Judith Marcus for helping me develop this line of thought.)
Maybe Jesus, who had no tolerance for hypocrites and who was not exactly a proponent of conventional family values, loved Mary Magdalen just as she was. Perhaps he had the wisdom and the greatness to recognize in her the prostitute compassionate, the whore and the holy one.

Thank you all for listening today. If anyone is interested, I have a bibliography available.

May the compassion of the Holy Whore be with you and flow through you for the healing of us all. Amen and Blessed Be.

Bibliography:

• Cunningham, Elizabeth. Holy Whore, a novel-in-progress, Volume II of The Magdalen Trilogy. Research for the novel inspired this sermon. Volume I, Daughter of the Shining Isles, is complete. I am seeking a major publisher for the Trilogy. Watch for it!
  
  
• The Nag Hammadi Library. Robinson, James, M., General Editor. San Francisco: Harper and Row Publishers, 1978.
  
  
• Pomeroy, Sarah B. Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. New York: Schocken Books, 1975.
  
  
• Qualls-Corbett, Nancy. With a foreword by Marion Woodman. The Sacred Prostitute: Eternal Aspects of the Feminine. Toronto: Inner City Books, 1998.
  
  
• Roberts, Nickie. Whores in History: Prostitution in Western Society. London: Harper-Collins, 1993.
  
  
• Spector, Susan. The New Seminary Study Guide. Greenwich, CT: Marcus, 1997.
  
  
• Stone, Merlin. Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood: A Treasury of Goddess and Heroine Lore from Around the World. Boston: Beacon Press, 1984. 

Fonte: http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/other_news/ishtar.htm

A Prayer for Healing

 

Mother, sing me a song

That will ease my pain,

Mend broken bones,

Bring wholeness again.

Catch my babies

When they are born,

Sing my death song,

Teach me how to mourn.

Show me the Medicine

Of the healing herbs,

The value of spirit,

The way I can serve.

Mother, heal my heart

So that I can see

The gifts of yours

That can live through me.

SOULstice 2012 ♥

SOULstice 2012 ♥ in the language of Light and Sacred Geometry ♥

http://vimeo.com/43596228

Ciclo Corpo-Terra-Lua

Com Maria Magdalena, trilhamos o caminho do Coração ♥
Venham Circular connosco no proximo Sádado dia 17,
no Espaço AmanheSer. em Paço de Arcos.
* Meditação: 11-12.30h * Círculo: 15.30-19.30h *
Sejam Bem-Vindas!

SssssNAKEssssS

SNAKE POWER ANIMAL [This is my power animal]
By Ina Woolcott

As Snake sheds its skin so we can shed our illusions and limitations. Then we are able to use our vitality and desires to achieve wholeness.


Snakes deserve respect. Throughout history the snakes have had many legends surrounding them, linking them to creation, fertility and transformation. Nowhere are the differences between cultures and religions more sharply emphasized than in their attitudes towards Snake, differences which will also uncover different vistas on elementary aspects of being alive.

On one level, the differences relate to sexuality. We see the snake enticing Eve in the Garden of Eden, being symbolized as Vinata the Indian goddess, or shown as the legs of Cernunnos the Celtic fertility god. In Hinduism, kundalini, or serpent fire, is coiled at the base of the spine. As we mature emotionally and spiritually, the energy rises, stimulating the chakras, which are emotional, mental, and spiritual energy centres. This is also shown in the worldwide symbol of the spiral. This flow of energy is indispensable for good health, and the Greeks, in their own understanding of this, used the snake as a symbol of healing and wisdom.

In Israel the snake was regarded as the earth mother and played a role in fertility. In Egypt the cobra was known for its ability to expand the upper neck into a disc shape by spreading its ribs, symbolizing immortality. Snake was also considered to represent inner vision. Christian lore sees the snake rising from the chalice of St. John, wound around a cross sometimes portrayed with a woman's head to depict lust and temptation.

For time immemorial people have associated Snake with both male and female aspects of sexuality. In religions where sexuality, in both its physical and spiritual aspects is celebrated, Snake has been held with honour. More repressive belief systems have linked snake to evil.

The Celts sometimes called the Druids, leaders and teachers in poetry, music, the law, spiritual wisdom, and healing, adders. Sadly, the more stiff practitioners of the Judeo-Christianism seemed to fear wisdom. When St. Patrick bragged that he had driven all of the snakes out of Ireland, he meant the Druids. The apple the snake gave Eve was from the Tree of Knowledge.

This is just a start to the contradictory attitudes towards Snake. The snake also represents aliveness, as expressed in sensuality - in this case meaning feeling and responding to stimuli, and more generally, to the flow of energy which creates us and makes us alive.

When snakes shed their skin, they metamorphose into a new being. This is very significant to those with snake as power animal, symbolising our ability to shed beliefs and habits which we have outgrown, moving into higher spiritual energy. The ability to do this is wisdom.

The shedding of the skin is also associated with astral travel and out of body experiences. The eyes of a snake are always open and are protected by immobile transparent scales. Before shedding their skin the snakes markings become obscure and the eyes appear opaque or blue, giving them a trance like appearance as if they are looking right through you. Learning how to see into the hearts of others is part of what we are taught by snake.

On the deepest level Snake's skin shedding symbolizes death and rebirth, an idea which is depicted by the image of a snake swallowing its own tail, a symbol of eternity. The Snakes medicine is not to be treated lightly. Its meaning touches on the deepest mysteries in life. If you are ready to shed your own skin, Snake is ready and waiting to guide you through the spiral path of transformation. On a material level snake is vitality, on an emotional level ambition and dreams, on a mental level intellect and power, and on the highest level, the spiritual level wisdom, understanding and wholeness.

Snakes / serpent's power includes - Being the messenger of the Rainbow Serpent, wisdom, healing, initiation, elusiveness, manipulation of lightning, transmutation, exploration of the mysteries of life, primitive or elemental energy, protection from religious persecution, goddess energy, psychic energy, creative power, immortality and the connection to, or forming, the magic cord by which the shaman travels to the soul world. Snake medicine is the energy of wholeness, cosmic consciousness, and the ability to experience anything willingly and without resistance. It is the knowledge that all things are equal in creation, that all is one.

Snake is a powerful animal guide, a symbol of transformation and healing. The snake is wisdom expressed through healing. This is a protector and guardian. If snake has come into your life, your creative forces are awakening. Your intuition will strengthen and be more accurate.

When on the move snakes make no noise whatsoever. They are invisible when resting and are unable to produce their own body heat, often to be seen lying in the sun. The suns warmth together with their behavior regulates their body temperature. They don’t rely on the energy of food to generate body heat and can survive on scanty diets for long periods of time. Those with snake as power animal need very little food for energy. They are usually cold, with body temperatures below average, and prefer warmer climates.

Snakes do not have eardrums nor external ear openings. Instead they have small bones in the head that conduct sound. They can hear low frequency sounds and sense vibrations that travel through the earth. This links them to the underworld where secrets are kept.

The snake depicts healing on a cellular level. With their lightweight and flexible bodies they possess extremely fast and agile. If snake enters your life, expect swift changes to sweep through your life. These changes denote death of the old and a birth into untapped power, creativity and wisdom. Snake is very powerful to have to have as a guide. It is the guardian of sacred places and the keeper of concealed knowledge.

[Information from http://www.shamanicjourney.com/

Oneness

“Soul mates are brought together for a reason. All their lives they have been preparing for each other. When they look back at their lives they will see a new purpose to actions they have taken. Their lives take on a sense of oneness equalled by no other. Oneness of purpose, ambition, and love which can be a beacon to others along their spiritual paths.”
~Edgar Cayce

wholeness

“I acknowledge the Divine in You, as I see and acknowledge the Divine within Me. For Relationship provides a window into myself to heal and return to wholeness.”

land of darkness

A woman has a more natural instinct to go to the darkness... to the land of dreams and intuition... she will usually be more fearful than a man... because of her natural disposition to go to the obscure... or what is hidden... to the subconscious... to the world of spirits... she embodies the yin energy...

A woman afraid of her nature will be afraid of the night... when a woman faces her most darkness... the fear will come yes... then the compassion... when she stops trying to change what is... and this will happen at one point no matter what... because there is nothing anyone can do wrong... the love in herself will start to overflow... a light from within will start to shine... and this will just happen no matter what...
We are all opening to the feminine... for this we are all experiencing our woman side...

I AM...

When the Earth is ravaged, and the animals are dying..
A new tribe of people shall come unto the Earth from many colors..classes..and creeds..and who by their actions and deeds..shall make the Earth green again!
They will be known as the Warriors of The Rainbow ~♥~

Time

"There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace."

~ Ecclesiasties Chapter 3

Espiralando! ♥

Change

"If you change an atom in fractal reality then the whole hologram or reality changes!" ♥

...embrace and surrender...

"As I completely embrace the feminine within me, I surrender and receive the masculine in his entirety."

~ Sidonie Bouchet

Intimacy...

"Men are terrified of a woman's depth of love and the energy that moves as a woman's sexuality and emotions. And, at the same time, men want nothing more in this life than to merge completely with a woman's devotional love and wild energy. Only as a man outgrows his fear can he handle a woman's tremendous love-energy without running. And only such a man is worthy of your devotional offering in a committed intimacy." ♥
~ David Deida

I AM...

Truth

Shakti

"Shakti is the quality within that allows us to break through old patterns that keep our energy from flowing and manifesting new visions and creating our heart’s desires. This can feel dangerous, risky, radical ... but without facing this danger, without going to the edge of your experience and beyond, you can never become who you truly are. You have to dive into the deep unknown to know who you are."

~ Padma Prakasha

Oração à Deusa / Oração da Bruxa

Eu sou a Deusa, eu sou a bruxa
Eu sou aquela que ilumina e protege
O poder da Grande Mãe está dentro de mim
Que a Grande Mãe,
a Senhora do Norte,
encha de frutos a árvore da minha vida
Grande Deusa que habita dentro de mim, Santifica cada palavra minha e cada ato meu
Afasta cada sombra de minha vida
Ilumina todas as minhas estações
Torna-me forte na dor!
Torna-me bela no amor
Que teu nome e teu poder
sejam o meu nome e o meu poder
Assim sempre foi, assim sempre será.

~ Lilian Amaral GreenWitch

Spiritual partnership

For thousands of years couples have made countless promises in the heat of passion to remain together for a lifetime. Such vows are often impossible to honor. Why?

Because most individuals enter into relationships for the wrong reasons that eventually weaken rather than strengthen the union.

The result of it all is that the old way of being in love is slowly coming to an end. At the same time a new and wonderful idea is emerging that will usher in an incredible age and way to partner with another that is based upon unconditional love and a true sense of the sacred in that blessed coupling.

In short, it's time to put aside the traditional concepts of relationship and seriously consider the notion of a cosmic, spiritual partnership that will transcend those of the past. Not only is this new concept beginning to take hold and flourish, in the end it is going to prevail. And it's going to prevail because ego will have no place in such a union.

Spiritual partnership is based upon equality, balance between the male and female energies, the freedom and the strength to be one's self while taking responsibility for one's actions, sacred sexuality, open and truthful communication without fear of ridicule, honoring and respecting the other's strengths and weaknesses, and the genuine recognition that your partner is truly your most intimate and all-embracing friend.

Artist: Android Jones
By: Be A Part Of The Shift 2012