On reclaiming the deep wisdom of our embodied selves, on this Earth-mother.
“In the myth of Gaia’s oracle, we learn how the priestesses at Delphi were exiled and robbed of their direct connection with Gaia, how the male god hero claimed to be the authority of wisdom, and how a relationship to earth based on conquering and control came to be the foundation for modern western society.”
~ Chameli Ardagh
When I visited the Sanctuaries of Apollo, Athena and Co. at Delphi in Greece, last summer,
I felt my curiosity drawn to what had been honoured there, even before this layer of ancient Greek culture…
There was brief mention in some places that the sacred sites were originally places of worship to Gaia – Mother Earth.
The womb-like natural surroundings held such a powerful, awe-inspiring energy. Always hungry for deeper truth, I could feel that an original connection had been severed, and superimposed with various deities and archetypes.
These gods and goddesses carry huge wisdom too, of course, and I was fascinated by the different aspects they activated in me. BUT, the original root connection – the Earth foundation – had largely been covered over.
Sound familar? Sigh… This severing of our connection with our selves, our intuition, our body, and our Earth, is so wide and deep, that at times it feels exhausting even to name it.
It takes courage and strength to go there, and feel able to create anything anew.
🌿
This wisdom and energy is inside all of us, if we listen and nourish it, and it’s in the messages the Earth is screaming at us. But in doing so, we must encounter other truths too…
Reconnecting to ourselves and the Earth means feeling all the anger and grief, at the aeons of violation. Violation of the Earth, animals and men, women and children.
No-one benefits from patriarchal pillaging and power-mongering. No one really wins, when our collective human needs and desires are bulldozed over, for the very temporary benefit of the few. Material gains and external victories don’t heal the wounded hearts of the antagonisers.
And so, we have to first remember who we are, the kind of life we truly want to live, and to grieve how that has been covered over for way too long, before moving forward in any kind of different way.
Sometimes it feels easier to respond with denial or blaming. Or we let the ‘tree-huggers and healers and hippies’, those victimised by abuses of power, or those currently affected by natural disasters, hold the fears and feelings and responsiblity that we are not yet ready to face up to as a collective.
Other times it’s an impatient ‘yes, yes, we know it’s all messed up, now can we focus on solutions please?’ to gloss over the pain. Or we feel confusion and despair at not knowing where to start…
🌿
Yet nothing will change really, if we don’t stop, slow down, and tune in. Acknowlege the deep wounds. Listen to our most fundamental needs, and start honouring them, bit by bit, and steadfastly.
And nothing will change if we don’t learn how to respond in collaboration and respect of one another. We know that now.
We need a wiser, more grounded foundation to move forward from, or we’ll keep playing out the old worn-out script that cleary does not work. We need to feel the deep impact, and own the problem, to move past it.
And we need to really FEEL and KNOW our true selves, to know what we want to create next.
Now I feel a longing to come home. Home to my own inner ground and intuition, as well as coming home to the Earth I live on. No longer pretending I don’t know what’s really going on.
To really hear and incorpoate the wisdom of the Earth’s seasons and cycles, as well as my own, in a practical way.
Not just as an abstract idea, but as an embodied, felt experience of nourishment, self-respect and enoughness. To be a steward of precious resources, rather than a bystander as horror ensues. To thrive, rather than survive, as part of a collective.
Our bodies – the Earth’s and ours – are one and the same lifeforce energy, one web of connectivity, we need each other.
🌿
A bright spotlight is being shone on all that is unsustainable – at all levels of our lives. All that is inauthentic. Work, activity, consumption, resources, practices, painful habits, relationship patterns and ways of being…
I’m not sure what that looks like yet for me, but there’s no avoiding it. And it helps that it feels like a coming home deep within, even if my mind and ego will have to let go a lot.
My heart and body are calling out for yet more refinement of my life, to align with what is sustainable, nourishing, equitable. What is generative, and builds healthy families and community. What actually feels good, and right.
While in Greece, I found myself enacting rituals that held deep meaning for me. They offered a sense of grounding and anchoring, and reminded me of who I am at a deeper level. The sacredness and ancient-ness of the place made it so natural and effortless to listen to my intuition, and to do such things.
Now, here in Dublin city, I am grateful to still have some access to the Earth, within a 2km radius, while many people’s movements are much more restricted. And nowadays I have a precious connection with myself, my mind, heart and body.
I feel very grateful for my rituals, that weave into ordinary life, and offer me grounding and anchoring to who I really am, as well as connection to the web of life.
Having focused my energy on tending to core needs of stability, safety and security of income, food, etc., I am now tending to my need to be held in even deeper ritual, connected in circle with like-hearted women.
This feels like an important doorway into holding space for women myself, as I contemplate my desire to establish a group space for learning and sharing together, in the coming weeks…
Chameli Ardagh and other Awakening Women teachers are offering a sacred container for going within, over the next 21 days, interwoven with daily life in the real world.
So that when we emerge from this chapter, we do so with clarity and honouring the needs of this planet and its people.
We can be our own Oracles, guided by the deeper wisdom of Earth, alongside our own wisdom and wants and desires.
https://awakeningwomen.com/gaias_oracle/
“In ancient Greece, the Oracle at Delphi was where truth and guidance was transmitted from Gaia herself. Gaia’s Priestesses, deeply rooted in service to earth and all her creatures, were the ones who were trained in the art of Listening and giving voice to the oracle. Through them, the instructions from Gaia could be offered to the people.”
It’s time to reclaim this deep knowing, in service of ourselves, each other, and the Earth.
