Sacred Feminine Archetypes, Samyama Meditation, Spiritual Awakening : Temple of the Sacred Feminine

What Are Your Least Accessible, Least Known, or Unloved Shadow Feminine Archetypes?

also a Teleconference with Sheila Foster
4 sessions ~ April 8, 15, 22, 29
7-8:30 pm ET; 5-6:30 pm MT

We each have all of the four essential archetypal feminine energies, and one, maybe two, are dominant, more accessible, well-practiced and expressed in the brightest ways. The other tow or three are in shadow, which means that they are less known, perhaps were unwelcomed in our families of origin, unloved or simply not accessed in any meaningful way.

These shadow archetypes hold the gold—they are the portals to our untapped creativity and the path to our psychological healing and our spiritual emergence. Each archetype is a portal into our precious, human heart to the Great Heart that holds everything.
I have developed a quiz that will help you discover what your most and least accessible feminine archetypal energies are. Please take the quiz before the teleconference, as you will be bringing your questions, discoveries, revelations to the tele-temple meetings.

Twenty-five years ago, I began my study of Jungian psychology, archetypes, and the Feminine, and took what I was learning into my women's groups and workshops. I was inspired by a short article by Toni Wolff, Jung's mistress, colleague, and inspiration for much of his work. It was called, called "Structural Forms of the Feminine" (1956). In it she described four universal patterns or "archetypes" of feminine experience: the Mother, the Amazon (warrior), the Hetaira (lover and companion to man) and the Medial Woman (mystic/healer). Her view was that all women fit into one of these personality "types" and the other three were more or less in shadow, unknown.

How do we be present, in the ‘now’ in the midst of our conditioned human lives? How do we experience true freedom in the midst of our human experiences, no matter what they are? What is, and how do we access, pure unconditioned awareness, that which some call Presence, Emptiness, Buddha Mind, Radiant Mind, Nondual Awareness, Great Heart, THIS, THAT, Beingness, Isness, the Tao that cannot be named?

And what happens when we do? What is the impact of awakening on us and our lives? How do we directly experience that which wants nothing, needs nothing, is attached to nothing, rejects nothing, embraces everything, and is the essence of us and of everything in form?

These are download mp3 versions which means upon payment you will be sent a link from which you will download an mp3 recording to your computer. You can listen to it on your computer, burn it onto a CD or transfer it to your mp3 player. We ask that you make only one copy per download. It is your payment for these meditations that makes them possible and supports the creation of new ones.

Are you called to leave your known reality for a time and descend into the Shadow Lands to discover and encounter parts of you that are unknown, unwanted, unwelcomed, unloved? These parts of us are not all dark and frightening, they sometimes appear that way because they have not been allowed to live in the light. Sometimes what appears is a luminous, beautiful aspect of ourselves, often in the form of a child or being we would never imagine.

Are you feeling the need for healing of body, heart, or relationships? This is a soothing journey to meet your own inter-dimensional Guides and Beings who are available foryou, here to serve you with their unique transmissions of healing energy, the evocation of multi-dimensional transmutation, transformation, and quickening of awkened consciousness. Anything is possible. You can ask…and discover what happens for you.

A couple of months before my 59th birthday this last May, i dreamed that i was driving down the middle of a dark road, following the white line which seemed very white and clear, going the Middle Way. Abruptly, the road came to an end and i was looking into the Vast Dark Nothingness. I woke up.

Upon awakening and reflection upon the dream, i experienced this nothingness as both a terrifying and compelling Beloved beckoning me into the Great Unknown. {as i write this i hear poet David Whyte passionately reciting: "Leave everything you know behind, everything, leave everything you know behind..."}

The Call was irresistible, undeniable, inevitable. Did i have choice? I don't feel it was a choice, it was more of an evolutionary unfoldment. My egoic mind, which sometimes thinks it can choose, offered no resistance. Mythically it was a great Call to Adventure, so eloquently spoken of by Joseph Campbell. Spiritually, it was, for me, the next big Surrender, the next initiation, the next death of all of my ideas and constructions about me and my life and my i~dentity.

Life as i had known it was over and i had no idea, no images, no vision, no plan, for what was coming. I felt ready for something and did not want to manifest or manufacture anything out of egoic need or fear. I wanted to surrender fully.

Not knowing felt good to me most of the time, often exciting, except for those Monday mornings at 4 am when i would awaken with jolts of energy that i named "terror" running through my body. Mostly i gave it no story and just worked with the energies that were downloading. I was in the field of my second Saturn return, a time when shadow, what has been unlived, unexpressed, unknown, or unloved so far, was ready and needing to come forth. I was willing

Last fall i knew it was time to sell my house and began the process of preparing the house for that. Deep snows and icy cold had me huddled by the fire for weeks in winter, and then one Sunday morning in March I woke up knowing clearly it was time to put the house on the market that week. The same day, to my surprise, i went with a friend to look at RV's and bought one a week later. Things kept falling into place effortlessly, the gates kept opening. It all seemed to 'happen' effortlessly without me and without any quibbling, wondering, what-ifs. I had no sense of 'doing' any of this and wondered 'who' bought the RV and what was unfolding.

I got a contract on my house within two weeks, which fell through a few weeks later--to my advantage. The buyer reneged on the deal, so the earnest money helped with expenses, and i got very ill and had surgery in July. Had the first deal gone through, I would have been too sick to pack and move by the agreed upon date, July 3. Another buyer appeared and i had three more weeks to get everything done. I felt the presence of Grace weaving through all of this.

This new life was launched officially when i announced two years ago (2005) that i was closing my women's mystery school in Maryland. Since the actual closing of the school in April 2006, the process was accelerating and taking me through the next portals of initiation. It was an intense year from the last school gathering of community up to the actual moving from my home into my Shaggy Pony (RV).

I am amazed, still somwhat in shock, that i sold the house, stored my furniture, put my plants and some artwork in 'foster care' with friends, and am now writing this in my Shaggy Pony. It all happened Grace-fully, though not without its challenges and gatekeepers along the way. I am deeply grateful for the boundless generosity, hands-on help, and other modes of support from my son, my dear friends, my students and community in Maryland, fellow shaggy pony riders, and my health practitioners, both in Boulder and beyond. I felt held by all kinds of human and spiritual help, including help from the ancestors and devas.

From this side of it, i can see and say it was probably one of the most difficult passages of my life in certain ways. We long for awakening, we say we want (re)birth and often forget (mercifully) that the labor can be very intense, much more than we expected. I have worked with women's initiations for 25 years and we never get the initiation that the ego wants-- we get the initiation the ego doesn't want. That's the point. In initiation, we are called to face the fears that hold the egoic constructions in place. It can be excruciating and we can feel as though we are hanging on that meathook interminably.

There is no changing our minds once we are in the waves and contractions of labor. My ego got taken down to the marrow in numerous ways, especially through my body this time. I had to ask for lots and lots of help due to the illness and surgery, and the old i~dentity of "I can do it myself" had to go. I could not do it myself...it took a village. It was very humbling at times.

This past May, I finished up guiding a year-long women's initiation into the Mysteries of the Sacred Marriage. The road ending in my dream and facing/falling into the Great Emptiness felt like the culmination of that journey, my inner marriage to the Beloved, to the Mystery, the Great Unknowable. Getting the RV, with all of the possibilities it represented, felt like the honeymoon was just around the corner.

I began to call this journey, for which i had no plan, a Shaggy Pony Ride because it was all so unknown, not based upon anything familiar or experienced on the outer levels of my three dimensional life. I could not --still can't-- relate it to any past life experiences since most of my big 'adventures' have been in the inner worlds. I have not traveled extensively, lived on a boat, gone dog sledding in Alaska, or lived in a teepee. If there was no place to take a hot shower and plug in my hairdryer, it didn't come up on my radar. I have lived in or near cities and I like my comforts.

On the other hand, i feel as though i have been preparing and been prepared for this journey, as i move from my heart, that is my North Star, my guide, my inner gps that lets me know where i am, what i am to do or not, and that's what moves me. I don't move until i am moved by That. It works perfectly, on a need-to-know basis, in the NOW and is not particularly future-oriented, at least not the way the mind is always planning ahead. It requires that i give up all ideas about everything, give up imagining that i know anything, and be willing to surrender to what unfolds.

For me, the Shaggy Pony is an endearingly sweet way of naming the divine Beloved, That which is everything, omnipresent Presence, Pure Awareness, All-That-Is. It is That which is and moves everything: me, you, all that happens. To live a life of surrender to That is my purpose. Now i get to live this in a new way, very simply, with my little dog, Rumi, as i travel around and meet each moment, each day, each 'adventure', each 'stranger' who crosses my path.

There are friends to visit here and there all over the country, great natural beauty to see, people to meet. The Beloved wears many disguises. I have just begun to look at maps, measure miles, find the RV stops along the way, knowing that a sudden turn down the left hand path could happen in any moment. I got a portable CB radio i have yet to learn, and plenty of art supplies, recording equipment, and extra hard drives for the writing and recording. And a good supply of chocolate.

I also have deep friends holding a circle of support for me, available to call or email when my courage collapses or i feel lonely or need a witness to be with me while i grieve. I don't know who is here now, who is in this body that has changed somewhat due to the illness and surgery. I don't really know where i am going first when i leave Gunnison, and i don't yet know the route or where i will stay along the way. Yet to be revealed. I do have to go back to Boulder for some medical follow-up this week.

I have much to learn about traveling the outer realms, about this RV, about being HOME - Here NOW - without actually owning a home. Another time i will write about what home has meant to mean--it's BIG for me not to be owning a home, having a place of my own tied to the land. My home is withink, and my outer home is on wheels now. I actually love living in my small, space, having just what i need, nothing extra. {I am still sorting out the 'extras' for storage when i return to Boulder.}

I don't know much of anything at this moment except that my heart is full, beginning to feel the grief that is now here--finally. I grieved a lot while i was packing, putting my hands on everything i own, remembering so many people and parts of myself and my life. I am now also feeling the first shimmerings of excitement as i ride into the Unknown. Giddyup!

Lastly, I found this photo of myself on a shaggy pony, about age 5 - see it on my blog. It took me back to remembering that little girl, how she - I - loved being outdoors, loved walking alone in the mysterious woods, feeling myself to be on an adventure. I lived on Narragansett Bay in Newport, R.I., and spent my summers until i was 12 beachcombing, collecting green and blue sea glass, all kinds of shells, starfish, horseshoe crab armor. I fished on a pier and watched the thunder and lightning storms from the 'poopdeck' on the roof of our house. I was an outdoor girl, happy to be in and explore the natural world. As i remembered these things, i could feel that little girl within me, feel her excitement whenever i got in the Shaggy Pony to outfit it or drive it. That little Pony Girl is on this adventure, too.

The short answer to this question is that it is the Mystery unfolding, i.e., I don’t really know. I can’t know what the Mystery is. I can only experience it. Initiation is such an intimate encounter and conversation with the Mystery, the Divine Mother, the Kundalini Shakti, that it cannot really be put into words. This is why there has always been so much secrecy about initiation rites. We can say what we do but that does not even get near what actually happens. While there are experiences and patterns that seem to be common to all of us on this path, the sights, sounds, colors and flavors of each woman’s experiences are unique.

I can more easily speak about what initiation does and how it unfolds. I had the following dream in the early days of my investigation of the Feminine. At the time of the dream, I was in graduate school, and at the beginning of my Jungian analysis. I was aching for some connection to, or understanding of, the Feminine, even though I really did not know what it was, at least not experientially. I was studying Jungian psychology and exploring my dreams, doing research papers on the Feminine in my graduate program, and giving women’s workshops about it. My longing to know was a relentless burning, and at that time, the way I knew how to go about this was to go after it intellectually, through my dream analysis, and by teaching what I was learning.

The practice of Samyama is one way to meet what is, to feel what we fear or don’t want to feel, in order to experience the Grace that is inherent in all situations, even the worst, most heart-breaking ones. Every experience, no matter how awful, can open to grace, to love, to peace, if we are willing to feel what is. We don‘t have to like or condone it-- we simply must feel it.

Life is an extraordinary adventure full of love and joy as well as heartbreak and horror. We live with the ongoing realization that everything is impermanent, what is born will die, including everyone and everything we love, as well as our own bodies. It does not help our hearts, our beloveds, or serve the awakening of consciousness in ourselves or on the planet to deny, avoid, cut off, go numb, go into addiction, or get bitter and trapped in stories of misery or victimization. Yet, we become lovers of leaving, masters of disappearing, Houdinis in the face of what is. Click here for the full text

What are you longing for? Can you feel that longing in your heart? What happens in your body as you feel that? Breathe into it... allow... feel... Where do you feel longing in your body? Notice what happens when you focus on your longing in your heart, rather than on the object of your longing. Take some time to sit with your longing, feel it in your heart, take your attention from the object of your longing, and keep coming back to the longing itself…just be with this…feel it in your heart… give it breath… and discover what happens…

Who is Snake? For the patriarchy, snake has been associated with Eve, and both have been the symbols of evil and the “Fall of Man.” Eve was identified with the Snake by the “church fathers,” and they both have received the fearful projections of all that isn't known or understood about the Feminine, the Great Mystery, and that which lies beyond the comprehension of the rational, egoic, mind. The snake was one of the most widely used symbols associated with the goddess in many cultures of the Near East, where the Eve mythology had its roots. Ancient maps often depicted great serpents at the outer edges of the oceans, warning men not to dare to sail their ships beyond the known, lest they meet with a terrible serpent and succumb to certain death. It is interesting that ancient men used the same symbol as the symbol for the goddess to depict death, the unknown, and the uncharted.