Thursday, October 13, 2016

Wise Women Salon, November 6, 2016: Hecate: Goddess of the Triple Crossroads

Wise Women Salon 2016-2017
Journeying with The Goddess Through
The Wheel of the Year


DMC's Wheel of the Year


Many ancient cultures celebrated the changing relationship between the Earth and the Sun, and the Celts celebrated these changes at 8 Gateways of The Wheel of the Year. When we celebrate them today, these rituals become a focus of meditation and inner initiation. If we understand the meaning and purpose of each Gateway, we integrate a deep Earth Wisdom into our lives. As we align ourselves with the life of our planet, we come into alignment with our purpose here on Earth. 
 
The 8 Gateways take us through the journey of the Sun from rebirth to emergence, to growth, to flowering, to mating, to harvest, to seeding, to death and then onto rebirth once again.

Each cycle can bring us more awareness and wisdom if we work with Earth's energies. So once again at Samhain, the Celtic end and also the beginning of the Year, we'll begin our journey developing the Goddess energies as they unfold during the different seasons of the year. While there are also masculine deities whose energies are also evoked at these times, I'm going to concentrate mainly on Goddess images and stories this year.

We'll explore:
1. mythic stories of various goddesses for each Gateway and season
2. The Goddess' energy as psychological manifestation (Brigit grants us creativity and inspiration),
3. meditation to interact with the Goddess energy within ourselves
3. how to integrate the energy into our daily lives
4. which goddess, season and purpose calls to each of us.

The most important part of each Salon is the experience of journeying to the Goddess, going within to connect with, commune with and be blessed by this special Goddess energy. That means learning to interact with the Creative Imagination -- the voice of Wisdom. We'll differentiate the difference between fantasy images, connected to ego desires, and imaginal images, which connect us to another plane of reality where archetypal powers roam. This is the Quantum Field and we shape our reality with what goes on there. 
 
If you've channeled spirits or talked with angels, listened to your guides and always ask within if something is true, you know the shifts that can occur working with these powerful energies. Imagine dedicating yourself to Mother Earth and her manifestations/goddesses for a whole year, working with different energies every 6 weeks as the Earth dances in her yearly round with the Sun.

While each Gateway is separate onto itself, working with all 8 Gateways will initate you into a deeper understanding of your life. And as our first Goddess will teach us, it is our choices which make all the difference.

Samhain: Hecate of the Triple Crossroads
Sunday November 6, 2016
10am PST/ 1pm EST/ 5pm GMT
Cost: $30

Samhain celebrates the end of the Celtic Year, when the veils between the worlds once again thin and the spirits of the dead can pass between worlds. There are many goddesses who can guild us on this underworld journey of Samhain, and this year, because it is such an intense year of change and chaos, we'll ask the great Goddess Hecate to guide us as we shed our old life and make choices about what we want to do next.

Hecate, Goddess of the Crossroads: Scrying the Future in the Dark 

Katlyn Breene  "Hecate" 

The Greek goddess Hecate is ancient, a Titan who was even honored by Zeus and the Olympians. The ancients worshiped her as a Mother and Moon goddess, as Queen of the Night and of the Dead. She is Goddess of the Crossroads, offering us a chance to leave the past behind, releasing what no longer serves us even when it feels safe and familiar.
 
She challenges us to Change, calling us to face our inner Shadows, release their bound up energies and transform them into new awareness. Hecate helps us accept those changes and transitions which nurture our life. As so often happens in our patriarchal culture, we have been left with a stereotype of Hecate's power, for she has come down to us as the Queen of the Witches, the old Crone who is the source of evil magic.

But instead we find that Hecate is the source of new beginnings, for unless we release and honor what is dead, we cannot find re-birth. Hecate is the Wayshower, who supports and guides us on our way through the Dark to the future.

Her far-seeing vision shows us what lies forgotten or hidden within us—old limiting beliefs that sap our courage and self-confidence as well as neglected gifts and talents—and shows us the Crossroads we stand at. When we turn to her as our guide, she shines her torch in the darkness of our dreams, our meditations and our active imaginations to show us the way forward.

We will begin our journey of the Wheel of the Year at Samhain. It is here that Hecate opens the path through which the old year departs and the new enters. We will gather and worship Hecate at her mystical crossroads, where worlds and dimensions meet. Bearing her torch, she will light our way to the future.

Her crossroads await us. She can see where we’ve come from and the choices we have as a result. Her relentless, objective vision demands that we look at our lives from our soul’s point of view. Objectivity is key here. To look at our experiences and know their meaning. (Erishkigal's Eye of Death) To leave behind the emotional turmoil of the experience and understand what it has to teach us. These are Hecate's gifts and lessons.

Hecate is our mid-wife. She appears when big changes are in order and helps facilitate them. Her wise seeing can help us navigate the great Unknown we face so we can find the source of Light within and give birth to it at Winter Solstice.

If you are interested in joining us for this first Wise Women Salon of 2016, please email me to reserve your place at cathy@wisdom-of-astrology.com

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Many of you have written to ask for more information about the Wise Women Salon on November 6th. For those of you who will be taking the journey, I do have some suggestions to prepare you for our Salon. Please notice the practical details at the end of this email.

This Wise Women Salon and the 7 others are an initiation into the energies of the Earth as she dances with the Sun in the round of the year. We'll also incorporate the Moon cycles as well the astrological cycle. While we'll only meet every 6 weeks at the turning of the Wheel of the Year, there will be assignments that will help you integrate what you discover at the Gateways.

As you get ready for the Salon, ask yourself, what needs to die in me? What wants to be born in me? What stops me from letting go? What hope calls me? Meditate a bit everyday so when we're in session you can drop into meditation without any trouble. Practicing will also help you go deeper when we meet Hecate. So, Prepare Yourself!

If you know your astrological natal chart, you can look at it and see if any of your personal planets are being affected by the bigger, outer planets (Neptune, Uranus, Pluto, Saturn, Jupiter). This might give you a clue to what you are ready to release in the Dark. I can send you a copy of your chart if you send me your birth data: date, time, place. I can point out if there are planets involved, but will leave it up to you to research what it means and to see if that's what you want to release.

During the 6 weeks after our Salon, use meditation and imaginal work to discover the meaning of your initial experience. Keep a journal. It is the story of your initiation to the Goddess.

So for the Salon please take notice:

1. The Salon will meet on Google hangouts unless the group gets too big. I'm investigating other platforms.

2. Please notice the time, since everyone lives in a different time zone. Also, November 6th we turn the clocks back 1 hour and end daylight savings time.
So we'll meet at 10am Pacific, 11am Mountain, 12 noon Central and 1pm Eastern. If you live in another time zone, find the time zone converter.

3. The Salon is scheduled for 2 hours, although we can go over if people want to.

4. I need to have a final count for the Salon by November 1st which means I need you to pay by then. You can either pay at PayPal to cathy@wisdom-of-astrology.com or call me and pay via credit card.

5. It will help you to start meditating now as the Moon wans to prepare for the journey during the Salon. If you can drop into the imagination easily it will help facilitate a deeper connection to Hecate.

6. As for the format of the Salon, we'll call in the directions and create sacred space. I'll talk about the astrological energies of the moment and also speak about Hecate, her myths and her powers. We'll have a discussion of your connection to Hecate. We'll also discuss the difference between fantasy and in-depth active imagination, which engages your Higher Self rather than the ego's needs.
Make sure you have room to move around, since we'll do some movement to get our bodies involved. Then we'll do a brain exercise that will balance left and right brains. Finally, we'll journey to the Goddess and come back and share our experiences. While it's up to you to work on what you learned, I'll also give you any feedback on the symbolism of your journey. And then we'll close the circle.

I will also offer discounts for any sessions you might want or need after the Salon.

I hope this helps you make your decision about joining me for the Salon.

Blessings!
Cathy




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