Sheila Foster, M.A.

I have worked primarily with women for many years, and now feel called to offer the work to men who want to explore and directly experience the Samyama practice and/or the Sacred Feminine in Her numerous aspects and dimensions—personal, archetypal, and numinous.  Since my own awakening in the early eighties, I have been guided to support others as they go through Kundalini awakening and the processes of spiritual unfoldment and initiation. 

My spiritul life began when I was a very small girl.  I grew up reading and being inspired by the lives of the saints, especially the mystics who directly experienced the divine.  I wanted what they were having... and was relentless in my search.  Now the search is over. 

In the early nineties, after twenty years of meditating, the practice of Samyama appeared spontaneously in meditation. I was led to work with it as a spiritual practice and integrate it into my healing work, as well as teach others to do the practice and the healing work.  I received an M.A. in Counseling Psychology twenty-five years ago, my deep interest has been Jungian psychology and I especially love to work with shamanic practices, energetic healing, hypnosis, dreams, and expressive arts modalities.  I have a deep love of prayer and exploring altered states of consciousness. 

My teachers have been many: LIFE, my two precious children, family, friends, and professional helpers.  I bow to them with gratitude for all that I have been, and continue to be, given.  I have been deeply influenced by Carl Jung, Toni Wolff, and Nor Hall, who inspired my work with the Feminine, Ram Dass, Jean Houston, Joseph Campbell, Joan Halifax, Milton Ericson, and the poet Rumi.  They were the first of a long lineage of brilliant lights who have guided my way. 

Spiritual unfolding and initiation are the territories in which I live and work.  I am very engaged in the investigation of the structure of consciousness and experience, and the subtle territories of presence, contact, and relationship.  I have been studying nondual wisdom, Advaita, and its application to the therapeutic process for many years. 

Making art, photography, and being taught by nature are also passions of mine.  I have two amazing grown children and a wild poodle/teacher/companion, named Rumi, who travels with me.

I bow in gratitude to all of my teachers, those in human form, in and not in body, as well as those experiences of human life that have brought me here.

Namaste.

Sheila
 

The Temenos, the School, and the Temple of the Sacred Feminine

In 1983, I had a dream in which I was at a beautiful spiritual center in the country.  As I walked around, to my great surprise, I saw my mother, who said she was there to prepare the rooms for the guests.  As I worked with the dream, it became clear that I was to found the Temenos Center for Healing in Maryland.  At the time, I was excited by the possibilities and had no idea that I was accepting the stewardship of an alchemical vessel, a container for initiation.  As it has unfolded, it has been my privilege and honor to steward this precious vessel.  It has been, and continues to be, an amazing Teacher.

Temenos means "sacred space" in Greek, and refers to a particular place within the ancient healing temples.  In The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets (1983), Barbara Walker writes that a parcel of property was a temenos, "land belonging to the moon," i.e., to woman.  I have since come to understand that a temenos is an actual alchemical container where the heaven and earth meet, the spiritual fire is hot, and the archetypal energies are dancing intensely.  It is a place of distilling down to the Essential.  The temenos is where we learn to carry the fire and not get burned.

The temenos is the sacred space where initiation occurs, and is very important for the work.  It is not confined to a physical place, and is always an internal space.  A temenos is a portal to other dimensions and can be invoked wherever it is needed, a magic circle where extraordinary things happen.  People are affected in some way when they enter a the field of the temenos.  They are touched by the holy, or transformed by the particular energies present.  The Temenos Center gave birth to the School for Women Healers when Samyama Healing training became part of the the program.  In 2004, I received guidance that it was time to change the name again to the Temple of the Sacred Feminine, which reflects the essence and the purpose of this temenos.