FALLING TO EARTH AND BELOW
A gift from Aphrodite today, a peace offering, an invitation to all that is dead in us, or soon shall be.
The Goddess of Love wants it known that she has a fierce side. She demands careful attention to every detail. You must learn the lessons of love well, she insists. You cannot simply say it or fantasize about it. You must incarnate it. You must learn the consequences of your actions. See how your energy is mirrored back to you. You are responsible for what you are creating. You cannot force someone else to create or change for you. All you can do is look within and learn how to love better. Come to me all who are weary. I will challenge you with impossible tasks. You will find you cannot possibly complete them. You will feel you will never be able learn these lessons. And then--right there--when you are nailed, then you will see. You will find the help you need to succeed when you finally surrender to love.
Aphrodite is not all candle light and rose petals. She is green-eyed in the presence of Persephone's ever youthful beauty. She tortures young Psyche who wishes to marry an immortal, Eros, Aphrodite's son. The Goddess of Love sends Psyche on impossible missions; she sends her to steal the Goddess of the Underworld's beauty elixir and return it to her. Aphrodite in her shadow state, encourages those mortals who long for eternal love to go and steal beauty from the underworld for it.
Aphrodite is married to Ares, not the chill bearded dude with the man bun, but the God of War, and things have been a little dicey lately. What once was a dance, a tease, an energy exchange, fell flat from the high octane sacred order into three dimensional time, a place where Aphrodite's mysteries have been shamed out of religion, a place where her holy daughter Harmony and her inspiring frequencies are not as well known as her other sons: Phobos and Demos.
The target of war has become ourselves, our children, our neighbors, and our planet. The true Holy War is a tension in opposites held with compassion. When that tension is held in fierce love, it opens up a third; Wisdom's Womb is seeded and love is born again.
For humans, learning has become traumatic. The hate machine hopes you will hate back and repeat the cycles trauma. But if enough of us learn to how to truly love, to receive love, to have love for all parts of ourselves and all parts of creation, to love even our enemies and pray for those who hurt us, what then?
Many miracles my friends.
I had forgotten how my mood is so connected to the light. And since we turned past the fall equinox, past the balance of dark and light, now there will be more darkness every day until the winter solstice. I realized today how I was resisting this descent. I forgot how Hades was pulling up in his black mustang to pick up Persephone and they were going to grab a coffee before making their annual descent to the Underworld. Still my body resists. I grasp for so many illusions and so many attachments.
Woodpecker visits me today after I set the altar anew. I thought about those Altar Guild women and how sacred and ancient of a practice this is. I thought about how setting the altar was as close as women could get to the holy of holies which was guarded by men in skirts who deemed life-giving menstrual blood too unholy for a woman to touch the chalice that represents her own sacred life-giving power. I thought about how it is only the female energy line in the fibonacci sequence that crosses The Void. I thought about the sacred geometry of the womb and I wondered how we ever believed we were not closer to the divine, how we ever forgot that we came here to initiate the masculine, to transform the martian mind to heart-centered man, as we invited them ever closer to the heart of our Beloved that always dwelled in our bodies in a very special way. Oh how some have resisted and twisted this love!
Woodpecker gives me a message: open to new possibilities. Make your home in your roots, Remember your deep long ago dream that you have almost forgotten. Where did your bliss go? Listen to the rhythm of your soul. Walk to the beat of your own drum. Open, open, open. Let go, let go, it's ok to let go.
I am learning. Dying is just like giving birth. Soon we will be crossing The Sacred Void. Sisters, Mothers, Grandmothers take hands. Link hearts and crowns. Thy will be done, on Earth as in Heaven.
Birch Tree says: humanity, oh humanity, remember those moments of sheer joy before the opposite terror presented itself. The joy is just as real as the nightmare. Why do you spin so many horrors? Open, open, open your imaginations to infinite divine possibility.
It is true that Wisdom fell from heaven and became mad on earth. She was kicked out of the cities of men. She was sold and prostituted among the powerful. Her divinity was thrown out with the beggar's trash. Her golden tendrils that once softened men's hearts became like rattling snakes. Her sweet chest that once made men worship God in the bedroom, became locked away behind her slumped and grieving shoulders. Her frame has been bent so low as if she is moving to spiral to safety, creating a hard shell as she knew how to do so long ago, as she learned with Aphrodite in the sea making pearls.
But you have been called to rise not to go back. You are called to noble, sacred, passionate love. Remember that you do not truly hate this tender part of yourselves that wants to hide behind the toughest shell. Your innocence is not lost. Your salvation yet awaits. The doorways of pain are the labors of love. Come. Come closer to that which you deny within. Come and listen to the leaves and what they have to say about the messages on the wind.
I pull cards for the altar. Tarot says: Stop clinging to external security. Rise up and see how there is an abundance that flows to you and through you, enough to share with all parts of self, with all in need.
Peace be with you.
Let us pray.
May the sisters who once fragmented and fought and competed and divided return to the sacred circle of love and reconciliation that we create when we join one another in harmony with the Divine Cosmos.
We ask the Source of all Creation, and sacred sowers of light and love to knit us together in one accord, all those who join us in this holy imaginal space, now or in any future or past time, create among us a sacred circle that we may remember how we are one as we were in the beginning and shall be evermore. Dear Ancestors, Saints and Holy Mothers, Gaia, assist us in our connection to the Beloved. Help us harmonize with the Sacred Earth, her wisdom, to her loving presence. Ancient helpers and wise teachers of the law of love and unity, lead us to the heart of the Sacred Cosmos again, come and walk among us as in days of old. Heal our bodies. Direct our minds. Open our hearts. Inspire us dear Muses! I ask for this or better, for the greatest good of all.
Goddess, some call you, Shekinah, Sophia, Isis, Mary, Holy Creatrix of the Void, the Consort of God, Demon Slayer, The Essence of Time, Holy Mother of Jesus, Keeper of the Keys to Resurrection and Life. How can we, who are reflections of you, be of assistance in transforming our world? What shall we create together for the highest good of ourselves and all beings everywhere?
Listen deeply to Divine Wisdom flowing to you now. What does the divine union of Source and Wisdom wish to birth through you? What do you see, feel, and hear?
* * * * * * *
Blessed be. We ask for this or better for the greatest good of all. So let it be, as above, so below, as within, so without. May all beings everywhere be happy and free! May Christ-Consciousness, Divine Love, Infinite Source, Heart-Centered Guardians, Ascended Masters, Guardians of Earth, Guardians of the Heavens, Saints who have gone before us, all those working for humanity's highest good and the highest good of all creation, help us. We ask you to assist us in casting off our sin, assist us in our mending, assist us in our awakening, assist us in our resurrection, assist us in our ascension. Blessed be.
"And may the human psyche learn how she becomes immortal. May humanity learn to die before they die," the Magdalene chimes in.
Persephone knows: What falls will rise again. The end is merely a new beginning.
Have a beautiful adventurous week participating in the rebirth of love on earth <3
Join Grant and I in Pipestone Oct 13-14. We're planning to stay at an historic (haunted!) hotel on Friday the 13. I will be offering teachings on healing trauma through yoga and fairytales and participants will be able to visit this powerful sacred land dedicated to peace on earth. Learn more & Register here.
The light in me salutes the light in you,
Namaste, namaste,
Jess
Jessica Zdenek is the High Priestess of Taraloma Earth Temple, a Yogini in Residence at Blue Lotus Studio, in Moorhead, MN. She offers group and private yoga lessons, prenatal yoga, healing sessions, on-line yoga videos & classes, Reike, sound healing, guided relaxations, meditation instruction, dream interpretations, tarot readings, energy clearings, intuitive readings, workshops, music events, and other things that strike her fancy. She is also available to speak and preach. Jessica has a Masters of Arts in Theology from Fuller Seminary, a Bachelors in Psychology from St. Olaf College, she is a certified yoga instructor, Dove Oracle Priestess, and Nikki-The-Know-It-All-From-North-Dakota, dontcha know.