Forging Your Own Path!

“May the path unfold before you, even as you walk upon it!”

                                                 Sophia, embroidered on a blue jeans patch, 1976

 

As we step forward in our lives we are continually faced with decisions, the outcome of which 

is never fully and consciously known.  It is only when we look back that we see that there was a path. And that somehow, miraculously, we walked it. 

 

Perhaps we created it. Or maybe we simply allowed it to unfold.

 

When I came to Canada 10 ½ years ago, following my heart and some unnamed impulse that one might call The Goddess, I imagined that I would continue landscaping.

Instead I created myself anew. I leaned into the skills that I had assembled through formal education, trainings and mentoring, and decades of lived experience, and stepped into the role of Guide, Mentor, Counsellor and Teacher.  What had once been a sideline now took centre stage.

 

The first iteration, Priestessing Your Life, a 13 month training in personal and spiritual empowerment, has now run for 9 Cycles!

 

I love the term ‘Priestessing’. To me it means the practice of holding the ‘big picture’ while attending to the details. I think of it as a non-gendered role, and I have experienced people of many gender identities stepping into Priestessing both in their lives and within their communities.

 

But not everyone experiences the term Priestessing as non-gendered. Some people saw it as a female-associated word, label and role. And so I was troubled. 

 

Over the years I searched for a new name for this training. To no avail. Then, as Cycle 9 began, I sensed that this would be the final offering of Priestessing Your Life. I was both surprised and satisfied. After all, it had had a great run.

 

But, as Cycle 9 unfolded, I again found it deeply satisfying to teach the group of people who had answered the Cycle’s call.  I felt confused. Where had this sense of finality come from? How would I find balance between that sense of ending and the excitement I felt moving forward, in the present, with this teaching?

 

Then, mid-Cycle and in the midst of my questioning, came COVID-19, and the world changed. In an instant.  The challenge now was to discover how to move forward with the in-person model that had worked so well all these years. The work is powerful and deep. The container that held the group stretched, and it stretched well, holding participants from diverse locations and communities.

 

And then it didn’t.

 

Zoom fatigue set in.

 

With the advent of summer, and a flattened curve, a smaller, tighter group met in person again, in the garden. Held within the abundance of the gardens we recharged our container and the work deepened.

 

But COVID-19 isn’t going away although summer will.  And what was to follow Cycle 9?

 

Some of you know that there are unseen allies, Mysterious Ones, with whom I work. Back in February, at Imbolc, Bridhe (Brighid to some) had whispered in my ear, “Forging Your Own Path”.  I had put this concept at the back of my mind while I muddled my way from the ‘old normal’ (B.C., before COVID) through lockdown into now and the new normal.

 

OK, I thought. ‘Forging Your Own Path’. I began to run with it even though I still didn’t fully understand.  COVID-19had changed everything, and suddenly, after years of resistance, I recognized that my work could be and needed to be online.

 

Forging Your Own Path emerged as the new incarnation of Priestessing Your Life! 

 

Like Priestessing Your Life, Forging Your Own Path will focus on the four Powers: To Know, To Will, To Dare, To Choose Silence – (or Not!)  Although the framework for the program resembles its predecessor, this is a model that constantly changes and shifts, taking each group and each person face to face with their individual journey within the context of the group container.

The group will remain small with a maximum of 12 participants to support intimacy and trust. 

We will meet twice monthly on Zoom. I will continue to offer one optional individual session monthly to support you in the Work.

 

Life continues to move us along and our path continues to unfold. I invite you to step onto your path as it unfold beneath your feet. Forging Your Own Path begins at the Samhain season. I will be sending out invitations to join us, um, soon.....

 

Painting by Margaret Rossiter