Hi Prajna, this post is so powerful and reinforces why l love being a woman. Women’s Circles hold a magic about them. I think my soul preferences a woman’s experience as a human, it is just a feeling l get and in the few past life memories that have been revealed, l have always been a woman. Thank you for sharing the vibe and loving those smiles from you and your girls 😊🙏🏼❤️
I love this essay, Salty Crone. You have expressed how women's bodies and rhythm are different from men's and the dominant patriarchal culture. I resonate with this a great deal. Since childhood, I felt a great sense of unease about the culture of competition and speed... I felt rushed and the feelings in my body did not get any tender attention. I have recently learned to live in an embodied way, aligning my circle (spirit/soul/consciousness) with my body through slowing down, feeling in and listening to my body's subtle signs and messages. I wrote about this epiphany here:
I also find your description of the 4 seasons with the circle of life super interesting. According to that, I'm in a phase where I can learn to be a healer, mentor, etc. I feel that I've just stepped into this phase with a new-found confidence. (In fact, if it wasn't for the prohibitive costs of studying medicine, and the sick way our healthcare system is run, I could've gone into medicine.)
Hello Lily, thank you for reading and thank you for this very rich comment. I’m so happy to hear this: you are awareness and not letting yourself be. Rushed yourself to slow down to live in a more embodied way, that is beautiful.
I’m going to read your essay. I’m really looking forward to it.
What I love about the seasons, as well as that they are cyclical as we are cyclical, and each time we go through a season, we learn more, we deep in we heal, and we gather more of who we are as whole.
Maybe you’ve been spared by not studying western medicine and doing what you’re doing. We’ll chat again soon. 🌹💚🌹
I just loved this. As a woman who is also extremely passionate about restoring the balance of the masculine and feminine on the earth, this was incredibly cathartic, inspiring and settling to me.
Lately my best cyclical work is following the triggers into dysregulation of my nervous system. Sometimes the scientific can seem at odds with the philosophical or spiritual focus of masculine-feminine balance, yet I find that focusing on this internal system of calm or activation keeps me more attuned to myself and to nature outside of me. I get more present in a reliable way. I build capacity to be with what is.
Anyway, hope that adds value. Loved the article! I love hearing my own internal desires and strivings echoed and mirrored in another woman out there! It’s calming and comforting that I’m not the only one, when I come from a culture that is so patriarchal (super Christianity ). Thanks again. Would love to collaborate at any time. I’m not quite Crone yet but feeling the transition start as I just had my last baby 18 months ago. 🥰
You are not necessarily wrong in this assertion that feminity is desecrated by many avenues across the world. I specifically work to re-found these Things upon women, by The Divine Feminine, as serviced to be an Oracle. Do you consider yourself open to learning new themes within this subject?
Hello Valentina, thank you for stopping by and for reading. I worked with an Oracle in my early 20s, which introduced me to so many ideas. I will forever be grateful. I am always learning, especially about the mysteries of being a woman as they are never ending. I just started following you, thank you
Lovely post Prajna - my husband thinks I'm a wild old sage for often repeating the line, "what's for you won't pass you." I credit my mum for those wise Irish words!
Hey C. Elyse, it’s taking me a while to land in the west north but the more that I do, the stronger I feel and you are absolutely right we become dangerous in a very good way and completely unwilling to take any shit. Thank you for joining us. I am cheering you on. 🌹👏🌹👏
Yes, and while I loathe stereotypes, I have to own being an angry black woman... however if there is justification for my attitude, it's that I've earned it!
I can only imagine. I’m not holding a stereotype. I am accepting stage of life and you are absolutely right again. I am sure you have more than earned it.
You're welcome, this is a great piece, lots to consider and helping me to accept that I'm not angry re: being in the West/North sector of life, but no longer willing to subscribe to all the bs i was conditioned to believe during all prior sectors.
Hello SHARON, I agree with your husband. You are a wild old Sage it comes through when you’re writing very strongly. Because you know how to make life meaningful and fun. Now that’s true wisdom born of lived experience.
Oh gosh Prajna. This blesses me in so many ways. My love of words arranged in such a way that the message becomes a transmission. Well done! This is so beautifully written.
Over the last few weeks I have come face to face with the dangerous old woman in me. She has unleashed in me what is worth guarding! What is worth standing up for! What is worth valuing! What is worth protecting!
I feel anchored in myself in a way I never dreamed possible. My legs feel strong and thick and sturdy. My heart wider! My mind more sharp! My courage and compassion more expanded.
The barbs of the patriarchy are being forced out of my being by the sheer unshakeable strength of The Dangerous Old Woman.
It is through the power of women’s circles that this initation has taken place within me. And I want to thank all those women who have stood with me through seasons of doubt, fear, confusion…all which seem to be necessary rites of package to reclaim this most essential aspect of our psyches. An aspect that masculine spirituality does not and cannot give us.
I’m so grateful for you all. So grateful for the rest which comes from our journeying arm in arm. I belong to you. You belong to me. How utterly blessed we are. Tears of gratitude glisten my face! ❤️❤️❤️
Thank you, Lila, I love this space you are occupying in your body, in your power, clearing out for new delights. And these words, "The barbs of the patriarchy are being forced out of my being by the sheer unshakeable strength of The Dangerous Old Woman....So grateful for the rest which comes from our journeying arm in arm. I belong to you. You belong to me. How utterly blessed we are. Tears of gratitude glisten my face!" You are a wonderful friend for the wintertime—oddly my favorite season but I'm in California-ha-there is a deep quiet in the wood.
In Nothern VA, the winds have been brutal, making time outside not so favorable, even when bundled up. Awaiting a big snow storm which thrills me. Can’t wait to build that Snow Woman who, like me, winters well!
Personally, in my West to North croneness, I’ve never felt better, more grounded or surer of myself.
This post reminding me of something I found deeply disappointing. Years ago, I was friendly with a Lakota chieftain, a medicine man who invited me to the Sundance on the reservation, with the caveat that I couldn’t assist on sacred grounds during the ritual of if I was menstruating. I couldn’t be allowed on the ritual site at all because…(and this was where I called bullshit and misogyny masquerading as something spiritual) the power of a menstruating woman/ her connection to the Earth was *too* strong.
He also told me that women weren’t allowed to participate in the ritual piercing because they already had transformation and transcendence through the pains of childbirth.
But not all women go through childbirth. And wouldn’t the extra power of a menstruating woman support the ritual? Energize the rite?
He had no answers. I was very surprised and disappointed to find the same fears and sleight of hand in the Native community, or at least that one, that I find in the white European community.
Jodi, Thank you so much for tuning in with this horrendous story. Yes, it is the great amnesia of the feminine soul—feared greatly—misunderstood thus hated as our moon is power that a male body does not have. I do not imagine a female medicine woman behaving this way unless she was colluding, coerced, or weaponized already by the chieftains. Misogyny crosses all cultures. To go through childbirth does not matter, a woman is a woman with a womb regardless—this is her power to give birth in any way she pleases. Many of the medicine women I know in South America have not had children and they are dangerously wise, not able to be fooled—eyes and heart wide open.
Yes, he had no answers, as he had no understanding. A man can not understand a woman's body by gazing at it. Yes, moon energizes. So many myths that have depleted women of their power.
I've been on a deep journey with this and need to listen to women directly. I saw a short video the other day of a "famous influencer doctor" who has to be the 'best' in all areas of health, wellness, trauma, addiction etc. Now he is mansplaining what a woman needs. I want to barf when I hear him and feel sad that so many woman are blind to their internalized misogeny and will center the male voice. It's criminal and not good for any of us.
Thank you so much for chiming in.
I could say much more but I'll stop for now— the 2 books I reference written by women are good resources.
This spoke to me. I especially loved your correlation between the moon and the stages of life. I look forward to reading more about your connection to your roots!
Thank you so much Lyns for reading and chiming in. I love this uncovering for women, we have so much value that has gone unnoticed, forgotten, suppressed, and/or weaponized. Thank you for sharing as well.
I feel this post very much. It is an interesting journey to balance both. I am more solar/stellar by nature and as a child I lost trust in my mother before my father, so I developed my analytical mind and rejected a lot of the gooey feminine - including the blood as much has I could. My mothers wounds came out as very hurtful behavior related to her PMS, as well as overall all wounded feminine, so I really rejected ALL she had to offer in thew way of new age stuff. Alot of it I'm glad I rejected as it was co-opted forms that I both intuitively saw through and have as an adult seen proven to be so when I've followed my intuition and researched. On the other hand, I have fallen in love with the earth and figure my time with my menses is probably at least someone limited so this cycle I really tried to embrace it is a new way. When I first bled, I cried for hours and was in non stop pain. As a female athlete (figure skating) I made my period go away after I got it. Later, I got PCOS as a thin tiny woman. Yet, I was also told my the woman I mentored with when I first fell in love with the earth that I have stars in my belly. The star connection actually helped me WANT to enter into that space beyond the wounds it holds generationally. Lots of love and thank you for the yummy presence!
Oh, Alicia, this is so beautiful and the feeling of that early pain—is so common. I am sorry your mother was not resourced properly in her own moon to support you. I had the same—we passed right over it in the Catholic way. I learned to hide everything about being a woman. I was an addict and a professional swimmer—I could hide in the water. Body issues galore until I met a woman mentor as well.
This makes me so happy "Yet, I was also told my the woman I mentored with when I first fell in love with the earth that I have stars in my belly. The star connection actually helped me WANT to enter into that space beyond the wounds it holds generationally."
I savor these words and will let them rest in my body.
Thank you so much for all of your words and for reading mine.
The amnesia of the feminine soul really hits home right now, as I feel more aware of it than I ever have. What I felt in my heart the most was the circle and the four directions with their correlating phases. This was new to me and pours golden, ancient wisdom over my heart. Your words light me up. Thank you!
Thank you, Tricia. This is my passion. I've been working on reclaiming my deep feminine soul and healing predatorial injuries for years in myself and supporting others. The damage to women's bodies as you know is horrendous! It impacts our relations including earth, children, creativity, and bloodlines — everything. So much power to unpack here. I am glad you resonate and feel the fire of truth about women. Yes, the amnesia. And we are waking up. Glad you are in this circle. I love your fire.
Beautiful writing Prajna. It takes me into the timeless and a soul level of my being, where I prefer to reside. It feels so inclusive of all women. As I said in our circle I feel a resurrection, a renewing, and a releasing of patriarchy from my system, slowly. I am curious what words will come out. Thank you for being a leader.
That slipped away too quick. It was really wonderful to have you in our meeting. You feel so familiar to me and happy to meet you as close to in person as possible for now.
Thank you for the timeless reminder about the necessity for the restoration of the feminine soul in the world through the vessel of women being medicine together
The sentence ‘decolonizing our bodies’ gives me shivers!
So much gratitude for the depth of your work and for being part of your hoop ❤️🙏
This "Thank you for the timeless reminder about the necessity for the restoration of the feminine soul in the world through the vessel of women being medicine together
The sentence ‘decolonizing our bodies’ gives me shivers!" YES!
Hello Valerie, Thank you so much for reading and your comment. This is a continuation of our hoop, the one you had to miss. We reflected on some of this for deepening our embodiment and YES decolonizing our minds and bodies! Sending love. I received your email, enjoy your company.
Hi Prajna, this post is so powerful and reinforces why l love being a woman. Women’s Circles hold a magic about them. I think my soul preferences a woman’s experience as a human, it is just a feeling l get and in the few past life memories that have been revealed, l have always been a woman. Thank you for sharing the vibe and loving those smiles from you and your girls 😊🙏🏼❤️
I love this essay, Salty Crone. You have expressed how women's bodies and rhythm are different from men's and the dominant patriarchal culture. I resonate with this a great deal. Since childhood, I felt a great sense of unease about the culture of competition and speed... I felt rushed and the feelings in my body did not get any tender attention. I have recently learned to live in an embodied way, aligning my circle (spirit/soul/consciousness) with my body through slowing down, feeling in and listening to my body's subtle signs and messages. I wrote about this epiphany here:
https://lilypond.substack.com/p/grounded-present-and-mindful
I also find your description of the 4 seasons with the circle of life super interesting. According to that, I'm in a phase where I can learn to be a healer, mentor, etc. I feel that I've just stepped into this phase with a new-found confidence. (In fact, if it wasn't for the prohibitive costs of studying medicine, and the sick way our healthcare system is run, I could've gone into medicine.)
Hello Lily, thank you for reading and thank you for this very rich comment. I’m so happy to hear this: you are awareness and not letting yourself be. Rushed yourself to slow down to live in a more embodied way, that is beautiful.
I’m going to read your essay. I’m really looking forward to it.
What I love about the seasons, as well as that they are cyclical as we are cyclical, and each time we go through a season, we learn more, we deep in we heal, and we gather more of who we are as whole.
Maybe you’ve been spared by not studying western medicine and doing what you’re doing. We’ll chat again soon. 🌹💚🌹
I just loved this. As a woman who is also extremely passionate about restoring the balance of the masculine and feminine on the earth, this was incredibly cathartic, inspiring and settling to me.
Lately my best cyclical work is following the triggers into dysregulation of my nervous system. Sometimes the scientific can seem at odds with the philosophical or spiritual focus of masculine-feminine balance, yet I find that focusing on this internal system of calm or activation keeps me more attuned to myself and to nature outside of me. I get more present in a reliable way. I build capacity to be with what is.
Anyway, hope that adds value. Loved the article! I love hearing my own internal desires and strivings echoed and mirrored in another woman out there! It’s calming and comforting that I’m not the only one, when I come from a culture that is so patriarchal (super Christianity ). Thanks again. Would love to collaborate at any time. I’m not quite Crone yet but feeling the transition start as I just had my last baby 18 months ago. 🥰
Hello Elizabeth,
What a beautiful response to to this essay. I love your attunement and your listening to your own internal rhythms.
How wonderful
Thank you for chiming in for reading and for sharing
I look forward to circling with you
💚🌹🔥
You are not necessarily wrong in this assertion that feminity is desecrated by many avenues across the world. I specifically work to re-found these Things upon women, by The Divine Feminine, as serviced to be an Oracle. Do you consider yourself open to learning new themes within this subject?
Hello Valentina, thank you for stopping by and for reading. I worked with an Oracle in my early 20s, which introduced me to so many ideas. I will forever be grateful. I am always learning, especially about the mysteries of being a woman as they are never ending. I just started following you, thank you
Lovely post Prajna - my husband thinks I'm a wild old sage for often repeating the line, "what's for you won't pass you." I credit my mum for those wise Irish words!
My mother would tell me to remember what is for you, is yours, be patient God want you on the scenic route.
Yes, lovely and thank you for stopping by to read. Best wishes
Hey C. Elyse, it’s taking me a while to land in the west north but the more that I do, the stronger I feel and you are absolutely right we become dangerous in a very good way and completely unwilling to take any shit. Thank you for joining us. I am cheering you on. 🌹👏🌹👏
Yes, and while I loathe stereotypes, I have to own being an angry black woman... however if there is justification for my attitude, it's that I've earned it!
I can only imagine. I’m not holding a stereotype. I am accepting stage of life and you are absolutely right again. I am sure you have more than earned it.
I can only imagine. Thank you for chiming in.
You're welcome, this is a great piece, lots to consider and helping me to accept that I'm not angry re: being in the West/North sector of life, but no longer willing to subscribe to all the bs i was conditioned to believe during all prior sectors.
Hello SHARON, I agree with your husband. You are a wild old Sage it comes through when you’re writing very strongly. Because you know how to make life meaningful and fun. Now that’s true wisdom born of lived experience.
Thank you
What a lovely thing to say. Thanks Prajna for those kind words.
Oh gosh Prajna. This blesses me in so many ways. My love of words arranged in such a way that the message becomes a transmission. Well done! This is so beautifully written.
Over the last few weeks I have come face to face with the dangerous old woman in me. She has unleashed in me what is worth guarding! What is worth standing up for! What is worth valuing! What is worth protecting!
I feel anchored in myself in a way I never dreamed possible. My legs feel strong and thick and sturdy. My heart wider! My mind more sharp! My courage and compassion more expanded.
The barbs of the patriarchy are being forced out of my being by the sheer unshakeable strength of The Dangerous Old Woman.
It is through the power of women’s circles that this initation has taken place within me. And I want to thank all those women who have stood with me through seasons of doubt, fear, confusion…all which seem to be necessary rites of package to reclaim this most essential aspect of our psyches. An aspect that masculine spirituality does not and cannot give us.
I’m so grateful for you all. So grateful for the rest which comes from our journeying arm in arm. I belong to you. You belong to me. How utterly blessed we are. Tears of gratitude glisten my face! ❤️❤️❤️
Thank you, Lila, I love this space you are occupying in your body, in your power, clearing out for new delights. And these words, "The barbs of the patriarchy are being forced out of my being by the sheer unshakeable strength of The Dangerous Old Woman....So grateful for the rest which comes from our journeying arm in arm. I belong to you. You belong to me. How utterly blessed we are. Tears of gratitude glisten my face!" You are a wonderful friend for the wintertime—oddly my favorite season but I'm in California-ha-there is a deep quiet in the wood.
I receive the sweet nectar of your words, Prajna.
In Nothern VA, the winds have been brutal, making time outside not so favorable, even when bundled up. Awaiting a big snow storm which thrills me. Can’t wait to build that Snow Woman who, like me, winters well!
❤️
I am happy Lila that you are wintering well. Stay warm and take a photo of that snow woman—yes. I want to see the wide sensuous curves.
Personally, in my West to North croneness, I’ve never felt better, more grounded or surer of myself.
This post reminding me of something I found deeply disappointing. Years ago, I was friendly with a Lakota chieftain, a medicine man who invited me to the Sundance on the reservation, with the caveat that I couldn’t assist on sacred grounds during the ritual of if I was menstruating. I couldn’t be allowed on the ritual site at all because…(and this was where I called bullshit and misogyny masquerading as something spiritual) the power of a menstruating woman/ her connection to the Earth was *too* strong.
He also told me that women weren’t allowed to participate in the ritual piercing because they already had transformation and transcendence through the pains of childbirth.
But not all women go through childbirth. And wouldn’t the extra power of a menstruating woman support the ritual? Energize the rite?
He had no answers. I was very surprised and disappointed to find the same fears and sleight of hand in the Native community, or at least that one, that I find in the white European community.
Jodi, Thank you so much for tuning in with this horrendous story. Yes, it is the great amnesia of the feminine soul—feared greatly—misunderstood thus hated as our moon is power that a male body does not have. I do not imagine a female medicine woman behaving this way unless she was colluding, coerced, or weaponized already by the chieftains. Misogyny crosses all cultures. To go through childbirth does not matter, a woman is a woman with a womb regardless—this is her power to give birth in any way she pleases. Many of the medicine women I know in South America have not had children and they are dangerously wise, not able to be fooled—eyes and heart wide open.
Yes, he had no answers, as he had no understanding. A man can not understand a woman's body by gazing at it. Yes, moon energizes. So many myths that have depleted women of their power.
I've been on a deep journey with this and need to listen to women directly. I saw a short video the other day of a "famous influencer doctor" who has to be the 'best' in all areas of health, wellness, trauma, addiction etc. Now he is mansplaining what a woman needs. I want to barf when I hear him and feel sad that so many woman are blind to their internalized misogeny and will center the male voice. It's criminal and not good for any of us.
Thank you so much for chiming in.
I could say much more but I'll stop for now— the 2 books I reference written by women are good resources.
This spoke to me. I especially loved your correlation between the moon and the stages of life. I look forward to reading more about your connection to your roots!
Thank you so much Lyns for reading and chiming in. I love this uncovering for women, we have so much value that has gone unnoticed, forgotten, suppressed, and/or weaponized. Thank you for sharing as well.
I feel this post very much. It is an interesting journey to balance both. I am more solar/stellar by nature and as a child I lost trust in my mother before my father, so I developed my analytical mind and rejected a lot of the gooey feminine - including the blood as much has I could. My mothers wounds came out as very hurtful behavior related to her PMS, as well as overall all wounded feminine, so I really rejected ALL she had to offer in thew way of new age stuff. Alot of it I'm glad I rejected as it was co-opted forms that I both intuitively saw through and have as an adult seen proven to be so when I've followed my intuition and researched. On the other hand, I have fallen in love with the earth and figure my time with my menses is probably at least someone limited so this cycle I really tried to embrace it is a new way. When I first bled, I cried for hours and was in non stop pain. As a female athlete (figure skating) I made my period go away after I got it. Later, I got PCOS as a thin tiny woman. Yet, I was also told my the woman I mentored with when I first fell in love with the earth that I have stars in my belly. The star connection actually helped me WANT to enter into that space beyond the wounds it holds generationally. Lots of love and thank you for the yummy presence!
Oh, Alicia, this is so beautiful and the feeling of that early pain—is so common. I am sorry your mother was not resourced properly in her own moon to support you. I had the same—we passed right over it in the Catholic way. I learned to hide everything about being a woman. I was an addict and a professional swimmer—I could hide in the water. Body issues galore until I met a woman mentor as well.
This makes me so happy "Yet, I was also told my the woman I mentored with when I first fell in love with the earth that I have stars in my belly. The star connection actually helped me WANT to enter into that space beyond the wounds it holds generationally."
I savor these words and will let them rest in my body.
Thank you so much for all of your words and for reading mine.
So much love and gratitude for you!!
Same sister. Big hug.
Hugs <3!!
You're speaking directly to my inner landscape right now. Thank you for helping me get grounded. Big love to you. ✨️
Dear Tricia, I thank you so much for reading and for your resonance. Is that a part that really hits home? I’m curious. Thank you again. Big hug 🌹
The amnesia of the feminine soul really hits home right now, as I feel more aware of it than I ever have. What I felt in my heart the most was the circle and the four directions with their correlating phases. This was new to me and pours golden, ancient wisdom over my heart. Your words light me up. Thank you!
Thank you, Tricia. This is my passion. I've been working on reclaiming my deep feminine soul and healing predatorial injuries for years in myself and supporting others. The damage to women's bodies as you know is horrendous! It impacts our relations including earth, children, creativity, and bloodlines — everything. So much power to unpack here. I am glad you resonate and feel the fire of truth about women. Yes, the amnesia. And we are waking up. Glad you are in this circle. I love your fire.
💚 xx
Thank you for reading Marianne! Glad you are here. Is there anything in particular that stands out for you? I would love to hear.
Beautiful writing Prajna. It takes me into the timeless and a soul level of my being, where I prefer to reside. It feels so inclusive of all women. As I said in our circle I feel a resurrection, a renewing, and a releasing of patriarchy from my system, slowly. I am curious what words will come out. Thank you for being a leader.
That slipped away too quick. It was really wonderful to have you in our meeting. You feel so familiar to me and happy to meet you as close to in person as possible for now.
Thank you for reading and commenting
🌹👏🌹
Hello Jenna,
I love this. I am also very curious to see what unfolds next for you and all of us.
I’m embracing being a dangerous older woman! So rich and lovely. Thank you.
Hello Susan,
Wonderful. I feel empowered hearing that from you. Thank you all of us benefit from your dangerousness.
Yay
Thank you 🌹💚🌹
Dear Prajna
Thank you for the timeless reminder about the necessity for the restoration of the feminine soul in the world through the vessel of women being medicine together
The sentence ‘decolonizing our bodies’ gives me shivers!
So much gratitude for the depth of your work and for being part of your hoop ❤️🙏
This "Thank you for the timeless reminder about the necessity for the restoration of the feminine soul in the world through the vessel of women being medicine together
The sentence ‘decolonizing our bodies’ gives me shivers!" YES!
Hello Valerie, Thank you so much for reading and your comment. This is a continuation of our hoop, the one you had to miss. We reflected on some of this for deepening our embodiment and YES decolonizing our minds and bodies! Sending love. I received your email, enjoy your company.
Sorry to have missed it, and glad it happened as I can feel its ripples 🥰
We missed you sister! Next time. I also see you became a paid subscriber thank you so very much. 🌹💚🌹
Dear Rebecca, thank you so much for sharing. I appreciate you and would love to hear your reflections in the comments, if you like!