Shakti Goddess Work

I am almost finished with the rough draft of my goddess book, and have begun to teach classes and workshops on the goddess.  We are calling this work SHAKTI GODDESS work, Opening to Angels because we integrate subtle energy workings with the goddess archetypes.  We also include movement, chakra work, and psychological processing.

Within the Shakti Goddess work, my co-worker, Rebecca Finnoff and I are teaching a SHAKTI CHAKRA GODDESS series.  In this series we are working with each chakra individually. We invoke the appropriate goddesses and move the divine feminine energy deep into our being. This delicious experience of the goddess brings clearing, healing, balancing and divine nourishment. Please enquire about our current schedule of Shakti Chakra work.


SHAKTI GODDESS PLAYSHOP: GODDESS OF PASSION
- Sunday, March 4, 1-5 pm

Rebecca Finnoff and Willow Arlenea would like to invite you to another SHAKTI GODDESS PLAYSHOP on Sunday March 4th from 1-5pm. The theme of this gathering is GODDESS OF PASSION, where we will explore our relationship with the life-force energy, sensuality and sexuality. The shakti energy practice and a "beholding the goddess" puja will awaken our creative energy and bring us into authentic connection with self, other and the divine. This gathering will culminate in a celebration of our embodied power through chanting and dance in a sacred circle of women.

VAJRAYOGINI is a tantric Buddhist goddess who is fully enlightened, fully sexual and fully passionate. She was depicted naked and striding, with firm breasts. Opening to Angels Her red color illuminates the brilliant life-force shakti energy flowing through her, and her wild hair flames upward. Vajrayogini is sometimes depicted with a vajra in her hand, a symbol of the power of thunder and lightening. At times she was depicted with a long staff, which represented her phallic consort. She is sometimes called Nadidakini because her intense spiritual practice has opened all of her subtle energy channels, called Nadis in the Hindu tradition.

AINE was an Irish triple goddess. In her maiden aspect she presided over love and fertility. Her main responsibility was to encourage human love, and the fertility of the land. On Midsummer's Night Eve when the people of the village would make love in the fields, Aine was invoked for her blessing.


Past Playshops:

Jan 22, 2012: Shakti Goddess GESTATING CREATIVITY Playshop
- Gestating Our Intentions For The New Year In The Second Chakra

In this playshop, we explored and embodied the Divine Feminine through movement, energy awareness, Goddess archetypes, and creative arts practices in a healing circle of women.

Opening to AngelsQUAN YIN is the Chinese goddess of compassion who emerged from Neolithic times as a great mother ocean goddess. She is depicted riding a sea-serpent dragon or a sea snail. It is said that Quan-Yin perpetually contemplated her own womb, which produced the entire world and all beings in it.

TIEN is the Chinese bird goddess that drops an egg into the primordial waters. It hatches the first man.

SULIS is the Celtic goddess associated with the warm springs in Bath, England. Have you ever wondered where our word "bath" came from? In these warm healing waters the egg of creativity can be nourished.

FRAU HOLLE the German mother goddess appeared as a frog with an apple in its mouth in early spring. The apple had fallen from the Tree-of-Life into the underworld pool.

Solar Plexus Chakra and The Nourishing Mothers

Welcome to the Solar Plexus chakra, which is in the belly right above the navel. As we explore this chakra, we are going to look at how we receive and give nurturing and nourishing energy. The goddesses we will invoke are Nurturing Mother Goddesses. This workshop is presented around the time of Lammas, the ancient celebration of the ripening of the grain, so we will invoke goddesses of the grain and other mother goddesses that provide nourishment.

After invoking the image of the goddess we will partake in a movement based, energy based experience of the goddess. This will include sending some loving energy into our bellies! In this workshop our goal is to invoke the goddess, embody the goddess, and let the healing Shakti energy move through us.

Solar Plexus Chakra Goddesses

SHAKTI: Shakti is a Hindu goddess that represents the life force energy. She was not pictured in human form but was know as the energy that moves through life. Sometimes she was represented as the primal serpent residing in the underworld pool. Her serpent energy would rise as the sap of a tree, or as the kundilini serpent energy in our bodies. Opening to AngelsShe also had a cosmic aspect. Her energy would swirl around in the galaxy and come pouring down into our bodies through our crown chakra.

BRIGIT: Brigit was an all-encompassing mother goddess of the Celtic lands. She was the deep primordial underworld pool that nourishes all of life. She was the green mantle cloak of the earth, the mother of all green and growing things. She was also the golden sun that warmed the earth and ripened the fruits and grains.

ANNAPURNA is a Hindu goddess of nourishment. "Anna" means food and grain, while "Purna" means full, complete and perfect. She is a form of Paravati. Annapurna is sometimes depicted with a "vase of plenty" pouring forth an abundance of flowers, fruits, grains and gemstones.

There is an interesting story about her and her consort Shiva. In this myth, Shiva told her that the world was an illusion and food was a part of the illusion. This angered her, so she left this world. Of course the earth became barren and the people suffered from hunger. Out of compassion, she returns and sets up a kitchen. Shiva comes with his begging bowl, saying, "Now I realizes the material world, like spirit, cannot be dismissed as an illusion".

ABUNDANTIA is a Pan-European goddess of abundance. From Italy all the way up through the Celtic lands she was honored for her life-giving properties. Her Roman image depicted her carrying a cornucopia of golden coins, bringing abundance and prosperity to all. We must not forget that all wealth ultimately comes from the abundance of the earth and sun.

In her Northern manifestation she was mother and consort to the sun god. In the Lammas festival a woman representing the goddess would be seated upon a sacred throne. All the people of the village would gather the fruits and nuts from the forest, and grain from the fields and place them upon her lap, representing the abundance that comes from the goddess.

There are "Corn Mother" goddesses in numerous cultures around the world. In the western hemisphere "corn" refers to the indigenous maize plant, while in the old world it refers to any grain. These many corn mothers are often depicted with a basket full of corn.

CHICOMECOATL is an Aztec corn mother goddess and mother of all nourishment. As mother she was the warm golden sun that ripened the grain, and the grain itself that nourishes us.

SELU is the Cherokee name for the Corn Mother Goddess. In one myth of her, she is the mother of two sons that are always hungry. Every day she would take her basket to a magical hut and birth ears of corn into it.

To review, we have the vase of plenty from Annapurna, the cornicopia from Abunditia, and the basket of corn from the Corn Mother.

DEMETER is an ancient earth mother goddess of Greece. It was her energy that caused the green shoots to rise up in the spring, and ripen into grain for the harvest. She is often depicted with a sheaf of grain. Many of us are familiar with the story about her daughter Kore/Persophone, which represents the cycle of the seasons and the cycle of death and rebirth. When her daughter is in the underworld, Demeter is grief stricken, and the world is barren. In the town of Eleusis in Sicily all the woman of the village would participate in a great enactment of Demeter's journey to the underworld to find her daughter. They would journey into a cave, and journey into themselves to experience the darkness and reconnect with the source of nourishment.


ARCHETYPAL ENERGY PSYCHOTHERAPY
ENERGY PSYCHOLOGY
BOULDER THERAPIST * BOULDER PSYCHOTHERAPY