International Women's Day - Reclaiming the Wise Ways

Kay Nielson, East of the Sun West of the Moon 1914

Happy International Women's Day everyone! Why do we celebrate such a day? I celebrate because not so very longer ago our sisters were bound and locked away from education, did not have the right to vote, often had marriages arranged for them and most importantly were punished for using the Wise Women Ways  - naturally intuitive gifts and tools passed from grandmother to mother to daughter. 
This morning I was thinking of the word 'witch' and it's potency and demonisation. What is it about the Witch that we find so frightening? What is the energetic binding around this name that makes us want to turn away? What if the word Witch could simply be another name for our natural intuition as woman, and our innate knowing of Mother Nature and her teachings? What if the word Witch meant: Sacred Feminine, Healer, Shamaness, Seer, Diviner, Medicine Woman? 
A Visit to the Witch: Edward Frederick Brewtnall (1846-1902)
I would ask you to look at this typical image of the archetypal Witch given to us. What is it that we fear? Examine this image beyond the binding of past beliefs and the brain-washing of a society that has for centuries been deeply afraid to honour the natural wisdom of the Sacred Feminine. What do you choose to see? I would love to share with you what I see.
  • A Crone who is beyond the limitations of appearance and belief of worthiness measured on her physical beauty.
  • An Elder who has lived a long life with many experiences of love, death and rebirth.
  • A woman who has chosen to live close to nature, to hear the Mother clearly, to know her creatures and her plants.
  • A woman who knows how to live sustainably and in harmony with the earth.
  • A woman who knows the value of each element: earth, water, air and fire - because these are all she needs to care for her body and LIVE.
  • Two women who must step out of the busy-ness of the mundane world and journey to the wild forest. Women who need to sit with someone with clear eyes, one who has not been influenced by outside forces and trusts her own authority. 
  • Two women who have forgotten how to communicate with their own spirit and to know what is sick, what is needing nourishment, to know what wise gifts they each carry and how to share them. 
Today I will celebrate International Women's Day by engaging in a practice so ancient and natural to women - the reading of oracles. I will give thanks for having the freedom to not only engage and come to know my own spirit in this way but also the freedom to share my ancestral wisdom with other sisters in open classes, workshops and consultations.  Today I  celebrate all of the beautiful sisters who have shared circles with me and sat with me to open their hearts and in doing so have helped me to open mine. 
This morning I created a Tarot spread to speak with your own Wise Woman WIthin: 
Wise Woman Tarot Spread:

Card 1: What is my own unique wise way?
Card 2: What is unconscious about this gift?
Card 3: What action will help me to bring what is unconscious into my conscious world?
Card 4: What binding beliefs of the past do I need to release to reclaim my intuitive gifts?
Card 5: What do I need to embrace to express these gifts with fearless love?
Card 6: The way forward.
Every woman is Wise Woman. We each carry our own unique essence and we are all valuable, worthy and have a purpose. We are growing Wise Sisters and we are many. Now we are being asked to begin to gather and share our wisdom, to help others who are afraid or sick, to ask for help from the Elders, the Ancestors.  And in this deep love and knowing of Self we will also create equal and respectful relationships, work and sharing with our Brothers and we will remember again how to live in harmony with Mother Earth.

Bee Well! Bee Wild! Love, Julia