The Wise Woman SHEro Pilgrimage

Archetypes

Rhythm. When we are connected to our rhythm we can connect more deeply with ourselves, others and the world around us.

There is a beauty in rhythm. A trust in the pattern of the rhythm.

Our lives are guided by these patterns.

The seasons keeping rhythm, and the sun and the moon keeping time.

Internal body clocks and monthly menstrual cycles.

There’s a majesty in patterns.

They are dependable and bring structure, routine and order to our lives.

When you feel out of synch, disconnected or overwhelmed, you can be sure that you have lost the pattern of your rhythm.

We must re-discover our natural rhythms, as we rarely set our own pace, instead being governed by alarm clocks and the expected schedules of others.

Working with the wheel of the year connects us back into the natural rhythm of the world around us.

The seasons set the pace, all around us reminding us what energies are flowing in and around us.

Spring brings with it the energy of growth.

Summer brings fruition.

Autumn brings reflection and release.

And winter, the rest and renewal.

These natural cycles remind us that we live in circular and spiral patterns, and not the linear timescales we try to squish ourselves into.

The SHEro Pilgrimages are designed to re-connect you to your own inner rhythms, by remembering what we instinctively know, that there are greater rhythms with a greater intelligence to guide us through our lives.

As John O’Donohue said in his book Divine Beauty:

“The ancient rhythms of the earth have insinuated themselves into the rhythms of the human heart. The earth is not outside us; it is within: the clay from where the tree of the body grows.”

When you find your own natural rhythm, you can relax into it, knowing that you are part of the sacred wholeness of life, leaving your energy to expand into other levels of awareness.

To celebrate the Winter Solstice I held the very first SHEro Pilgrimage with Clare Barnes of Artemis Rising.

The Winter Solstice is the celebration of the return of the sun, as the days began to gradually get longer again.

On the SHEro’s Journey the Wise Woman embodies the energy of the Winter Solstice, and her landscape is the sacred space of the Red Tent.

The Wise Woman SHEro has become all that she was meant to be. She doesn’t need to prove herself to anyone else, because she knows who she is and her work is done.

She embodies the energy of wholeness, sacredness and mystery.

For this SHEro Pilgrimage we held it as a virtual event, as I know that many people would LOVE to come to my Red Tent in Herefordshire, but just can’t make the trip, and I didn’t want that to stop people having a wonderful experience.

So I set up a video conference via zoom and invited people in my Sacred Grove community to join us for the full experience of being held in the sacred space of the Red Tent.

During the pilgrimage we explored the energy of the Wise-Woman, and did a journey meditation guided by drumming.

It was amazing, here’s some of the feedback:

“I had somehow gotton away from myself again. Thank you for coming to get me – Now I’m bringing me back”.

“Thank you for creating such as amazing, safe and healing space. That spiralling with the drumming… Wow that felt amazing! I could feel my womb space pulsing under my hands. An excellent first pilgrimage. So much gratitude for this group.”

“Amazing amazing! I felt so much joy and peace listening to the replay”.

One woman even shared with me that she felt like she was going to orgasm listening to the journey mediation – obviously that wasn’t the intention, but we will certainly embrace that!!

Re-connecting to the wisdom of the rhythms can bring you back into deep connection with yourself, and pilgrimages literally walk yourself back home to yourself.

When I was completing my Priestess of Cerridwen Training, in Glastonbury, there was a song that we used to chant:

“Every step I take is a sacred step,

Every step I take is a healing step,

Healing, healing, healing my body,

Healing, healing, healing the land.”

Every step we take on these SHEro Pilgrimages is a sacred step, it is a healing step, as we heal ourselves, and connect more deeply with ourselves and the land around us.

Your Sacred Power

Archetypes, Inspiration

Over the last few years it’s become more and more obvious to me that the seat of a woman’s power is in her Womb.

And when I say ‘Womb’ I’m not referring to the physical body part, but the energetic space.

After two years of study in Glastonbury, I dedicated as a priestess of Cerridwen on the shores of Lake Bala in Wales.

Then a month after that I was with Miranda Gray, training to be a Moon Mother and being initiated into Awakening the Feminine Energy with Womb Healing and the Womb Blessing.

During this time I bought a yurt and turned it into a Red Tent – a place for women to come and be held, nourished, nurtured and restored – it’s literally like being held in a red cauldron or sacred Womb.

Of course I’d never logically planned this, but it’s funny how things weave themselves together…

The goddess Cerridwen is the Keeper of the Cauldron.

Symbolically the cauldron is the Womb. The space of darkness, where things come to be transformed. The place of creation.

Although Cerridwen is often depicted as a Crone due to her wisdom, her story is all about her children, she is very much a Mother (Creatrix) Goddess.

When you look at my Cerridwen training and the Womb work with Miranda, I think it’s fair to say that the Womb energy has been calling me for quite some time…

This is also reflected in my clients.

Over the last couple of years, more and more of the clients that come to see me on a one-to-one basis have had imbalances in them owning their own power. They’ve had a deep desire to fully believe in themselves and their dreams, to confidently own who they are and unaplogetically express their truth in all areas of their life. They’ve wanted own and embody their (often hidden) power!

In a world that benefits from woman staying small, values them looking young and pretty and have them not make a fuss, it can be incredibly hard to break free and do things differently.

So let’s talk about this and why your Womb energy aka Womb Story is so important.

The womb is the female centre of power.

And as I mentioned at the beginning, but is worth mentioning again, whether you have a physical womb or not, is irrelevant, we’re talking about Womb with a capital ‘W’, your Womb energy, this is the seat of your female power.

When you’re disconnected from your Womb space, that energetic space, you also become disconnected from your own power.

When you are disconnected from your own power the most damaging thing that happens is that you can lose your sense of self.

You can literally disconnect from who you are and lose touch with your own truth.

You can be so busy putting everyone else’s needs before your own you end up frustrated, feeling empty and resentful.

As I’ve been working with the SHEro Archetypes over the years, they’ve revealed to me a very important aspect of their work, and that’s their energetic connection to the Earth Energies and the energy of your energetic Womb space.

There are many reasons that women can become disconnected from their power, and these reasons can be explored in the SHEro Archetypes and their associated Earth energy celebration/Sabbat.

Imbolc and The Innocent SHEro: The Individual Womb Energy

Spring Equinox and The Intuitive SHEro: The Sacred Womb Energy

Beltane and The Rebel SHEro: The Suppressed Womb Energy

Summer Solstice and The Passionate SHEro: The Expressive Womb Energy

Lammas and Creatrix SHEro: The Creatrix Womb Energy

Autumn Equinox and The Teacher SHEro: The Physical Womb Energy

Samhain and The Change-Maker SHEro: The Ancestral Womb Energy

Winter Solstice and The Wise-Woman SHEro: The Collective Womb Energy

Connecting with the SHEroes and the earth energy activates the Womb energy so that you can clear, rebalance and rejuvenate the energies.

February:
Imbolc and The Innocent

Your Individual Womb Energy

Freedom – Optimism – Trust

The individual womb energy is any energetic patterns or grief that is a result of any rejection you feel for yourself, any judgement you have towards yourself, or any lack of self-worth that you feel.

Any time that you dismiss your feelings, your experience or your intuition, you create dis-harmony in your Womb space.

March:
Spring Equinox and The Intuitive SHEro

The Sacred Womb Energy

Awakening – Growth – Insight

A woman’s power is in her energetic Womb.

Any time you deny or suppress your own power you actively disempower yourself.

When you look to others for the answers because you don’t believe of trust yourself, or as a way of not having to take responsibility, when you turn a blind eye to something that you know is wrong, when you say ‘Yes’ to everyone but yourself, you drain your own source of power.

Each time you think that you can’t do something, or that you ‘should’ do something else. Each time you don’t follow your heart because you feel you’re expected to do something else, or make up an excuse not to start something you really desire, you continue to drain your own reserves.

May:
Beltane and The Rebel SHEro

Your Suppressed Womb Energy

Wild – Sexuality – Expansion

And of course we’re dealing with womb energy so it wouldn’t be complete without working with the physical and energetic pain and grief caused by sexual trauma, from misuse or abuse.

As well as the collective grief from the use and misuse of women and girls in all of it forms.

The emotions of shame, guilt and blame around sex and sexuality can be suppressed and held in the womb.

Often these feelings can leave it hard for a woman to be intimate with herself and to connect with your body fully, leaving her feeling frustrated and ashamed.

June:
Summer Solstice and The Passionate SHEro

Expressive Womb Energy

Passion – Desire – Fulfilment

The expressive energy of the Womb is a woman’s ability to take up space physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Women are taught to be quiet, to keep their emotions in check lest they be called ‘irrational’ or ‘high-maintenance’, and this can lead to a fear of expressing your own unique and vibrant power.

If you ever find yourself playing smaller than you know is possible for yourself, if you ever find yourself not expressing your true thoughts and feelings, or suppressing your emotions – especially anger, then know that your Expressive Womb energy is out of balance.

August:
Lammas and The Creatrix SHEro

Womb Energy

Creation – Self-Love – Connected

As you can imagine, Creatrix is literally about creating from your Womb space. That might be projects or ideas, or of course children.

If you ever find yourself sabotaging yourself, having great ideas, but not being able to birth them, this is for you. But also, it’s about the mother energy. You as a mother receiving and also receiving that mother energy.

It’s about your own children, it’s about birth. If you have any stories of trauma, mistrust, maybe your own mother was emotionally distant, maybe you felt emotionally distant to your own children. This is the energy for you.

The Creatrix also holds the energy of having babies, not having babies, losing babies; from having miscarriages, abortions or adoption.

September:
Autumn Equinox and the Teacher SHEro

Internal Womb Energy

Knowledge – Trust – Inner-Knowing

The Internal Womb energy is all to do with the stress, intervention and the energetic trauma caused by symptoms of dis-ease that typically show up within the reproductive system and pelvic area.

If you’ve had to undergo medical procedures such as a hysterectomy or a C-section, or you’ve had/have cysts, or fibroids – which may or may not have had removed, this is one that you’ll want to attend.

October:
Samhain and The Change-Maker SHEro

Ancestral Womb Energy

Support – Confidence- Liberation

The ancestral energy that we carry through our mother line and is passed down through the DNA has a very significant effect on us.

This Sacred Pause will be of benefit to you when you keep repeating patterns that you can’t logically explain, yet you feel that you’re being held back by something bigger than your own experiences.

If you look at your the women in your mother line, and feel that they did not live the lives that they wanted, that they sacrificed and became resentful, or that they experienced trauma and grief in their lives, you’ll want to free yourself (and your family) from these energetic Blueprints, and we will start this process in the Sacred Pause.

December:
Yule and The Wise Woman SHEro

The Collective Womb Energy

Wisdom – Sacred – Mystery

The collective womb energy is the energy you learn from society.

From the history you’re taught, events that shaped the world, fairytales, books, films and our surrounding culture.

You might have heard the term the ‘witch wound’ before, the unconscious understanding and experience that if you stand in our power, and if you speak your truth, you’re going to be persecuted, as so many millions have been before you, and that still are still today.

The Edge-Walker SHEro

As you walk this path on Your SHEro’s Journey, you are held in the spiral labyrinth of the Edge-walker who brings you what you need, when you need it.

You can learn more about the SHEro Archetypes in my book:

The SHEro Archetypes: Take the journey within to awaken your inner power.

Available on Amazon and Kindle.

The Evolution of The Feminine Archetypes

Archetypes

I love working with the archetypes. There’s something comforting about drawing on the wisdom of these patterns that have come before us, and that will continue on after us.

They help us to see universal patterns, and to make sense of the word and our experiences.

Working with women, the archetype of The Triple Goddess, The Maiden – Mother – Crone often comes up.

I love this archetype, it values the Maiden, Mother and Crone equally. This is particularly important today, as so much value is placed on the youth of the Maiden in our culture, it can be hard to remember the value that the Mother and the Crone have to offer.

However, the idea of the Maiden – Mother – Crone comes from a time when we had babies at the age of 14, were grandmothers at the age of 30, and didn’t live much past 45.

Not only have we changed biologically, but our choices have also changed, leaving many women feeling that these three traditional concepts no longer truly represent their life experience.

Many women are choosing not to be mothers, and those that do, feel that there’s something more to experience before they enter their Crone years.

There’s a growing feeling that the traditional view of the Maiden – Mother – Crone no longer fully represents the complexity, and length, of our modern day life experiences.

Yet there’s so much wisdom to be discovered and savoured in these powerful archetypes, so I’ve expanded on them to make them increasingly relevant for today.

When looking at archetypes it’s important to remember that they are not linear energies. They are spiralling energies that are used to explain a concept or pattern of behaviour, they are not boxes to keep you confined in.
The Archetypes that I am going to use to explore and expand on the traditional Triple Goddess are the:

The Innocent
The Creatrix
The SHEro
The Crone

I love working with these four energies as, for me, they connect the seasons of a woman’s life to the seasons of nature, the four main stages of the moon cycle, and the four stages of our menstrual cycle.

For me, it becomes easier to see how the archetypal energy I experience on an individual level, connects me to the universal patterns of life. This then gives me knowledge and a roadmap to make the most out of the energies, or to support me navigate life’s challenges with more confidence and ease.

The Archetypal Spiral

Often when women hear the concept of The Maiden – Mother – Crone, they feel limited by the idea of connecting the energy to an age or experience, such as thinking they are too old to be a Maiden, too young to be a Crone, or to avoid The Mother as they don’t have children.

However, I feel that the archetypal energies spiral through the entire cycle, moving up and down (note that neither moving ‘up’ or ‘down’ is better than the other, the words are just used to explore the movement of the energies).

The energy may start with The Innocent, but then can spiral up to The Crone, and back again. The energies can do this many, many times throughout your lifetime, regardless of your age.

The energies are a reflection of your current life experience, and not dictated by your biological age, although each archetypal energy is more prominent during the four main blood mysteries experienced by women:

Innocent – Menarche

Creatrix – Pregnancy

SHEro – Peri- Menopause

Crone – Menopause

They are also connected to your monthly menstrual cycle, and the phases of the moon. This gives you the chance to explore the archetypal energies each month, and use their qualities to support you and your activities, throughout the month, helping you to plan and get the most out of your own cycles.

Innocent – Follicular phase – Waxing Moon

Creatrix – Ovulation phase – Full Moon

SHEro – Luteal phase – Waning Moon

Crone – Menstrual phase – Dark and New Moon

Sometimes your experience will only move through one or two of the archetypal energies before they return to the ‘beginning’ with The Innocent, or you may jump from Mother to Crone, or Crone to Innocent. Remember just like women, their energy spirals, it’s not lineal.

The Archetypes

Each archetype has two expressions. A fully expressed version, where all aspects of it are embraced, and a hidden expression where some of the traits may be judged or repressed by the person experiencing it, and therefore not fully expressed.

As you move through the archetypal energies there is a natural ebb and flow in their movement. The Innocent and SHEro are expressed externally, they look outside of themselves and share their energy. The Mother and Crone are more of an inward, selectively focused, energy, where they rely on more of their own internal resources.

The Innocent

New Beginnings | Explorations | Spring |Menarche | Waxing Moon

Initially the archetypal energies are awakened as The Innocent.

When we are children The Innocent energy is awakened by the biological and physical changes that occur in our bodies. When we are adults, the energy is awakened by our curiosity, inspiration, or our need to respond to a situation and try something new.

Once The Innocent energy has awakened, you can choose to explore this energy to dream, to follow your passions and curiosity, and to try new things.

You can then allow your dreams and passions to move into the next archetypal energy where they will be nurtured and brought into reality.

The Innocent energy is an outward expression, as you explore new ways of doing things and look externally for support, guidance and resources.

The energy of The Innocent is of curiosity, excitement and exploration.

The Creatrix

Creating | Nurturing | Spring |Pregnancy | Full Moon

The Creatrix energy transforms The Innocent energy of dreams and passions into something more tangible, this could range from art and poetry, decorating your home, or to consciously creating a life experience.

When you use this energy, you use your skills and resources to create, nurture and learn.

Once you are in The Creatrix energy and are using it to build or sustain your creations, you have two further choices.

You can spiral back to The Innocent, where you will find another idea, at its extreme this becomes the shiny object syndrome where you can get stuck in a looped spiral of creation and new ideas. Or you can spiral through the initiation, and into the next archetypal energy where you will share your creations, and experience of growth with the wider community.

Although The Creatrix energy appears to be an outward expression, it is an introverted energy, as you are using your own skill and resources to create. You don’t have to share your creations with anyone else, you can create purely for your own pleasure.

The energy of The Creatrix is of fulfilment, abundance and growth.

The SHEro

Independent |Teacher | Autumn | Peri-Menopause | Waning Moon

The SHEro energy transforms the nurturing Creatrix energy of learning and growth into something to share with your wider community.

It’s a time of reflection, but also a time of externally expressing the truth of who you are in the world. You have more life experience, and have lived through situations where you have been challenged. You’ve grown as a person and are now more confident in who you are.

You share your life lessons with your community and act as a mentor to those who are ready to learn from you.

From here you can spiral back to towards The Creatrix energy, to retreat and create something new, or to refine a previous creation. Or you can spiral up and move to the next archetypal energy where you will surrender and integrate the wisdom of the Universal lessons and the cycles life.

The energy of The SHEro is of reflection, self-confidence and freedom.

The Crone

Wise | Endings and Beginnings | Winter | Menopause | Dark and New Moon

As you move towards The Crone, the energy wanes once more. You become introspective as you assimilate your knowledge and life experiences, and you begin to own your wisdom.

As you experience the Crone energy you have a deep understanding of the cycles of life and are ready to let go of what no longer serves you.

During this stage something dies, often the illusions, fears and patterns that have played out throughout your life. You no longer feel constrained by societal pressure, you are your own woman, defined only by yourself.

You feel at peace with yourself, your life, and the world,

The energy of The Crone is of wisdom, leadership and fearlessness.

Defining Yourself

In the traditional Maiden – Mother – Crone archetype, two of the three patterns define a woman by her relation to another. The Maiden as the daughter and The Mother in her role of caregiver. It is only the Crone that is defined in terms of herself (maybe the reason she has been so feared?)

With the Innocent – Creatrix – SHEro – Crone, each stage is defined by the woman’s relationship to herself and her own experiences. She is not being defined by her relationship to another, making it easier for you to honour the ebb and flow of your own unique life path.

This gives you the freedom to dance between each archetypal energy as and when you like, to call upon its wisdom and experience when you need it, rather than being defined by it.