“Grace is always present. You imagine it is somewhere high in the sky, far away, and has to descend. It is really inside you, in your Heart. Grace is the Self. . . .You are never out of its operation.”
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
Satsang
In late afternoon
wind and redwoods
get together to talk
about the ocean.
They are remembering
mist that arrived before dawn:
call it manna,
or grace.
The trees make a vow
to stand all night
so they won’t miss it.
- Ellen Grace O’Brian, “The Moon Reminded Me”
Satsang is Sanskrit for a gathering of devotees. It refers to being in holy company, those who come together for spiritual study and remembrance
Dear Wise Women,
By now you are aware that our wise women journey is not a linear path. I do not follow a course outline and each gathering is informed by the energies of the moment and the uniqueness of the women who sit together. For someone who like to plans ahead and be in control, I have had to learn to trust in this process and to fully surrender to its grace.
And Grace has yet to disappoint.
When we gather, we create a container for magic to happen. We open a portal for the divine feminine to flow in. We create the container and Grace fills it!
As we know, we are standing upon a critical threshold, a transformation, a rebirth….and the labour pains of this birth are intense. We are witnessing a surge of division and a flare-up of the polarities. The challenge is intense and we must answer the call - we must stand in the light.
There are a myriad of tools, techniques and teachings available to us and, though all are valuable, it can also feel overwhelming.
And so, my dear tribe, as we embark on our spring journey together, I find myself being called to simply rest in the heart with you. With so much going on around us, it is my sense (and it is a profoundly deep one) that the highest service I can provide at this time, is to provide a sanctuary of grace and nurturance. To hold Satsang.
May our gatherings be a respite from the noise. May you get exactly what you need and may you be replenished through the power of feminine connection.
Thank-you for your trust and faith in the process.
With love,
Patti
p.s. I wish to thank my friend and wise woman Gabriole Wilson for an email she sent to me yesterday. Her words came at the exact right time and solidified the strong pull I was feeling to “offer more by providing less” for our spring session.
“…l also want to thank you for all the work you did bringing Pamela Wilson to Calgary so that I could have her lovely, calming presence in my life. I had a private satsang with her because I was just feeling . . . well . . . the same as so many of us who are getting frustrated by the never-ending journey toward an abiding awakening and the shouty voices of some teachers who just seem to throw more homework at us rather than just giving us the opportunity that you and Pamela do to just reside in a community of blessed silence.”
“The way of the feminine is the way of connecting. And the path of the mystic leads from the illusion of separation to the reality of divine union, manifested as interdependence with all that is. To walk as a feminine mystic in this world is to recognize that our lives are interpenetrated with the lives of all sentient beings and that the One we love shines from every nexus in that web of interbeing. Whenever we tend to a single strand, we are participating in the care of the whole. When we turn our face from the suffering of any being and walk away, we are exiling ourselves from our Beloved.”
“Sometimes we drift into despair when we perceive the entrenched power imbalances that devalue life. We cannot imagine how we could possibly rectify anything on our own. The song I am singing—and millions of my sisters and brothers are everywhere echoing the refrain—is one of interdependence and mutual empowerment, of collaboration rooted in love. These are feminine values. Cooperation and emotional connection. Championing one another’s efforts to build a better society and supporting one another’s projects to sustain the earth.”
Mirabai Starr, “Wild Mercy, Living the Fierce and Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics
“The Sacred Feminine is needed in our world now more than ever – on a global level, and on an individual level – to bring our planet and our psyches back into balance. The reawakening and reclaiming of the Divine, by women and for women, began in the last century and is gaining momentum with each passing year. Women the world over, like individual drops in the ocean, are coalescing to form a great wave of change, and the tide is now turning – away from the patriarchal rule this planet has known for over 2000 years.
As is the case with the majority of movements that pertain to women, this shift is coming not from the top down, but from the bottom up. Like seeds buried generations ago, we rise organically, sensing the time is now to see ourselves as the awesome force of nature we were born to be.
The rebirth of the Sacred Feminine is, like most things symbolically female, circular. Rejecting the current social values placed on hierarchy and linearity, women have begun to reclaim the domain of sacred circling as our birthright, honoring our cyclical nature. Women’s circles and mother-daughter circles are perhaps the most powerful agents of change on the planet right now, with each woman contributing to the healing of our world as she herself experiences healing.
What would it be like if our life experience as females was that of being safe, being valued, being respected? For many of us, it is difficult to envision being part of a culture in which girls are encouraged to grow into their sovereignty, where women’s bodies are trusted and honored; where the Sacred Feminine is valued and cultivated. And while there is not such a place on Earth at this moment in time, we can connect with the energetic vibration of such a reality by creating a collective vision of what it would look like, and perhaps more importantly, what it would feel like. When we tap into the wild and wise potential of the Sacred Feminine, we come home to our deepest truth.”
Amy Bammel Wilding, “Wild & Wise: Sacred Feminine Meditations for Women's Circles & Personal Awakening”
Grace Within
Still enough
brave enough
and willing enough
I dive within
past the waves
through the currents
noticing
the many schools
swimming and swirling around me
Still
I dive deeper
and finally
I exhale
as I remember
the ocean within provides infinite breath
A voice beckons me
to go deeper
and I go
to where there is only stillness
I feel a warm embrace
and my body melts
into the arms of
the One
who knows me,
guides me,
carries me,
breathes me
She whispers,
“I am here, I never left you”
and my True Self remembers
She is Me.
I am Grace.
- Patti Wardlaw