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The
Goddess Speaks ...
The Goddess
Ungirdled: Encounters with the Sacred Feminine
by Lisa Sarasohn
author of The
Woman's Belly Book
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The Goddess Ungirdled: Encounters
with the Sacred Feminine
I came home the other night to find the Black Madonna
in my kitchen. She’s inspecting my oven.
“Hello,” I say.
“Your oven’s a mess.”
“I know, I—”
“Don’t bother with excuses, I’ve heard
them all.” She takes a carrot out of her pocket
and holds it up to the light. “By the way, where
are your pearls?”
“They’re upstairs.”
“Go get them.”
She’s munching the carrot as I climb the stairs.
Kali of India, Isis of Egypt, Mexico’s Virgin
of Guadalupe, Yemaya of Africa, the Black Madonna. The
Dark Goddess is an image of the Power of Being—the
force creating, sustaining, and regenerating the world.
An icon of the Sacred Feminine, she’s Mother of
the Universe, Star of the Sea. She elbows her way into
our awareness these days through story, image, dream.
Who is she? She’s matter infused with spirit,
the holy immersed in and shining through the everyday.
She’s the nourishment our souls are craving. She’s
the satisfaction we spend our whole lives seeking.
Upstairs, I open my dresser drawer, lift the lid of
my jewelry box. Nothing. I search the whole room. Nothing.
Empty handed, I return to the kitchen.
“Of course you can’t find your pearls,”
she says. “You hid them.”
“Where?” I ask. “I don’t remember.”
She sighs. “Last time, you pawned them for a television.
I had to go all the way to 59th Street to get them back
for you. Time before that, you gave them away to the
window blind salesman ringing your doorbell. I had to
visit with his mama to get them back for you.
“You know, girl, those pearls didn’t come
cheap. They didn’t come from the dollar store
or out of a mail-order catalog. Your mama gave you those
pearls.” I wince, she nods. “Yes, your mama
gave them to you when you were born. They were her mother’s,
and her mother’s mother’s before that, going
all the way back to when they were mine, when I was
Ocean Woman, deep-sea diver, at home in the African
tides.
“Now you’ve hidden your pearls and you don’t
remember where. Can’t say I’m surprised.
You hid them in a place you’re too ashamed to
look.”
“Where’s that?”
She puts her hands on her hips. “Would you believe
me if I told you?”
I take a glass down from the cabinet and pour myself
a drink of water from the pitcher on the counter. When
I turn back to reply, she’s gone.
What do you want? What are your dreams and desires?
Something along the lines of vitality, sexual pleasure,
confidence? Loving relationships, creative expression,
intuitive knowing? Sense of purpose, enduring self-respect,
a sense of wholeness?
Although our consumer culture would like us to believe
otherwise, these words name qualities of the soul, not
products we can buy.
These words name qualities of the soul. We don’t
find them upstairs in the intellect. We find them as
we live in the center of our lives, at the hearth, in
the kitchen, the fire of our passion burning a clean
flame. We find them in our bodies, in the place we may
be too ashamed to look.
I eat my dinner in front of the television, wash the
dishes, go upstairs to get ready for bed. And there
she is, the Black Madonna, rifling through my drawers.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“Look at this!” She’s waving my newest
“tummy shaper,” a slenderizing spandex panty
I wear so my stomach won’t bulge out of my skirts
and slacks. She holds it up, one edge between her thumb
and index finger as if any more contact would contaminate
her. “Can you breathe when you wear this thing?”
“Not very well. But at least my belly doesn’t
pooch out of my clothes.”
“Well, that’s convenient, I suppose. When
you don’t breathe deeply, you don’t feel.
When you don’t allow yourself to feel, you cut
yourself off from what you know, your instincts, your
soul-power. Put this band around your belly and you
abandon yourself. The place where you’ve hidden
your pearls? You wipe it off the map.”
Women and men through time and across the globe have
known the body’s center, the belly, to be the
site of our soul-power. They’ve developed traditions
of dance, spiritual practice, and healing rites to cultivate
the Source Energy concentrated in our body’s core.
They’ve honored the body’s center and its
pro-creative power with names such as Sea of Vitality,
Throne of the Creator, Energy Garden, and Gate of the
Mysterious Female. In ancient myth, ritual, and sacred
image woman’s belly is a goddess.
I gasp. “I can’t let people see me with
my belly round rather than flat. Look at the fashion
magazines! The movie stars! The ads for diet plans and
fitness equipment! I grew up playing dress-up with Barbie.
Women aren’t supposed to let our stomachs show.
It’s embarrassing!”
“Honey, take it from me, your belly is sacred,
not shameful. It’s where I live. It’s where
you’ve hidden your pearls.
“You sign yourself over to several multi-million
dollar industries every time you look in the mirror
and try to suck your belly in, wishing it would go away.
Your “tummy-shaper”? It’s an instrument
of social control. Wear it and you’re cooperating
with your own oppression. If you want to find your pearls
again, you’ll ungirdle yourself and give yourself
room to breathe.”
I lay myself down to sleep. The Black Madonna comes
to my bedside, places her right hand on my belly. Her
hand feels warm, radiates tenderness. Tension melts
away. Breath goes deep into my body. My belly rises
and falls like an ocean wave. Now I feel her left hand
resting on my heart, golden light circles through my
body in the orbit between her hands. I feel at peace,
at home. I dream of deep-sea diving, finding treasure.
Honor your belly!!
Discover your treasure with in with Lisa
Sarasohn
Woman's Belly Book:
Finding Your True Center for More Energy, Confidence, and Pleasure
by Lisa Sarasohn ~~ Your body's center, your belly, is home to your core life force. It's the site of your soul power, the source of your passion and creativity, your intuition and sense of purpose, your courage and confidence. The Woman's Belly Book presents inspiring information, playful activities, and power-centering exercises to kindle the life energy concentrated in your body's core. Are you ready? Honor your belly and activate your Source Energy.
Enjoy!
Retails for $15.95
Online:
http://www.herbalmedicinehealing.com/store/item_view.asp?estore_itemid=1000035
Honoring
Your Belly DVD Video
This fun and instructional DVD video with Lisa
Sarasohn is much more than a set of conventional
stomach exercises. This dynamic sequence of belly-energizing
moves draws from the wisdom of yoga and other
healing arts. Use this 35-minute DVD video to
learn these moves, enacting a rite for reconsecrating
our womanhood and animating ancient symbols of
the Sacred Feminine. Price: $19.95 plus shipping
Online:
www.herbalmedicinehealing.com/store/item_view.asp?estore_itemid=1000196
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WEED
WANDERINGS HERBAL EZINE - TABLE OF CONTENTS
HEALING WISE | CHILDBEARING
& MOTHERING | YOUR INTUITIVE DREAMS
EMPOWER YOURSELF | WISE
WOMAN WISDOM | ANTI-CANCER LIFESTYLE
THE GODDESS SPEAKS | FEATURED
LINKS | EZINE
INDEX | EZINE
ARCHIVE
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