The Return of the Goddess: Why the Goddess is returning at this time.

 

Wise Women Salon: Spring 2022

The Return of the Goddess:

How the Goddess is Returning to Re-Birth Our World

 

A Five Week Online Immersion in Our Feminine Wisdom

5 Sunday’s from March 6 – April 10, 2022

10 am Pacific/1pm Eastern

 

To sign up for the class go to:

https://cathypagano.com/classes 

 

 

As every parent knows, it takes a long, hard labor to bring forth new life. And as every mother knows, when transition starts, there’s no let up until our baby is born.

The last few years have been hard on the world. But necessary for a global spiritual awakening. It seems to me that our world is going through such a labor in hopes of a blessed birth of new life. I feel we might even be in transition, because the pressure won’t stop. At this point in labor, once we’re opened all the way, we’re instructed to push! Push! Push the baby out into the world.

We might be at different stages of giving birth to our new story, but all of us can use some instructions on how to work with this spiritual labor we’re all participating in. Just as lamaze classes about labor can give mothers & fathers tools to deal with the pain and fear, exhaustion and sometimes hopelessness of physical labor, it never hurts to have some wisdom to help us handle this trauma and immense spiritual birth happening within ourselves and in the world.

The truth is, we need Wisdom to deal with what’s going on in our world. Since we all have a connection to Wisdom within us, it makes sense to find out how to access it. The world needs our Wisdom. As our society goes through major upheavels on all levels, women have a chance to shape what comes next. And our choices must be wise for our children’s children’s sake.

So why not learn how to access Wisdom and embody it?

I believe that women must help create the new vision for the future. The Dalai Lama said that “Western Women will change the world.” But first western women have to leave behind patriarchal beliefs and rules and reclaim our own wholeness, which means we have to re-discover our innate gifts and talents that patriarchy has tried to stamp out for over 4,000 years. I believe these past few years have given us an opening to begin to do this.

Learning to listen to Wisdom means to:

1. Leave behind our patriarchal mindset.  Modern women are 'father's daughters' -- daughters of the patriarchy.  We must leave the Father's House and find our understanding of life and our own way of doing things.

2. Free our feminine imagination.

3. Name and understand Earth’s natural laws and the nature of our body's wisdom. We can attune ourselves to Mother Earth's creative genius.

4. Know our spiritual values and what archetypal path we are called to walk.

5. Awaken to our Soul's longing.

We can learn this wisdom working with the stories and images of the ancient Goddesses to understand our own inner experiences. Through learning to use the feminine imagination, we can re-discover our ancient talents and power. The British occultist Dion Fortune said that all women can embody the Goddess because She shows us our natural abilities.

And what are some of those innate abilities that were lost to us during patriarchy? The Archetypal Feminine symbolizes:

the origin of life, all phases of cosmic life, uniting all the elements, both the celestial and earthy; the Queen of Heaven, Mother of God, Opener of the Way; the keeper of the keys of fertility and the gates of birth, death and re-birth. As the Moon Goddess she is perpertual renewal, the measure of time, the weaver of fate. As Queen of Heaven, she is archetypal wholeness, the mother of all wisdom, self-mastery and redemption through illumination and transformation.

Women are the birthers, healers, nurturers, leaders, lovers of the world. Because we know how to change. It is said of the Goddess, “She changes everything She touches, and every thing She touches changes.” If we change, so does the world.

Human beings learn best through stories and symbolic images. If you want to discover why the Great Goddess is returning to world now, and how we can embody her gifts in this time of need, please join me for this introductory course to begin to reclaim your ancient heritage.

Each 2-hour class will comprise of lectures, stories, astrology and a meditative journey. After, we’ll have time for questions.

Sunday, March 6, 2022

Class One: A New Beginning: Leaving the Father’s House – The Archetypal New Feminine

Did you realize that you’re a Father’s Daughter – a good daughter of the patriarchy? If you want to access your feminine Wisdom, you need to leave the Father’s House. We’ll look at the archetypal pattern that can set you free.

March 13, 2022

Class Two: The Moon – Reclaiming Our Creative Imagination

Imagination is more important than knowledge, said Albert Einstein. So today we take a deep dive into how to connect with our imagination.

Sunday, March 20, 2022

Class Three: The Earth – Womb of our Becoming

Today is Spring Equinox. We’ll talk about Sovereignty. We need to give sovereignty to our bodies and to the Earth. Stay tuned for an Equinox surprise.

Sunday, March 27, 2022 Break

Sunday, April 3, 2022

Class Four: The Stars – Our Cosmic Connection

The trip through the zodiac and how the different archetypes call us to the Heroine’s journey

Sunday, April 10, 2022

Class Five: The Solar Feminine – Aphrodite: Embodied Love & Wisdom

We’ll tie it all together through a discussion of the powers of the Goddess of Love, Sex and Wisdom, who initiates our Soul’s awakening.

Recommended Reading:

1. My book, Wisdom’s Daughters: How Women Can Change the World explores the Goddess and her many forms through her Wisdom aspect as The Woman clothed with the Sun, standing on the Moon, crowned with Stars, giving birth to the Savior.

2. Two esoteric novels by Dion Fortune which give you a magical understanding of the energies of the feminine and the masculine.

The Sea Priestess

Moon Magic

3. Christine Downing’s book Goddesses as she writes about her personal experience with different Greek goddesses.

4. Maureen Murdock’s The Heroine’s Journey Describing the feminine journey to wholeness.

The cost for the workshop is $333.00.

Because the Goddess works in 3s.

All sessions will be recorded. 

 For more information and to sign up for this class, go to:

 

https://cathypagano.com/classes 

Scheherazade's Tales to the Harem: Aphrodite, Initiator of Souls.

Today Venus 'kissed' the Sun, joining it to begin a new cycle of transformation.  When she appears on June 9th as the new Morning Star, we will begin a new phase of incarnating the Divine Feminine.

So today I tell the ancient myth of Psyche & Eros, a tale that shows us how to awaken our souls through love and desire.


 

Scheherazade's Tales to the Harem: Aphrodite, Goddess of Sexuality

Today's episode of Scheherazade's Tales to the Harem explores Aphrodite's role as Goddess of Sexuality.

 

Scheherazade's Tales to the Harem: Venus, Goddess of Beauty

Today's episode speaks to the power of Beauty in our lives.  America especially needs a lesson in beauty, since we seem to cover the land with our ugly strip shopping malls and our untamed need to ravish the Earth of her beauty.

Scheherazade's Tales to the Harem: Aphrodite/Venus as Creator Goddess

During this Venus retrograde in Gemini, I'm going to tell stories every Friday -- Venus' Day -- about who she is and what energies she evokes in us.

Here's the first video -- not great technologically since I couldn't get the slide show to work, but it's the first.

I forgot to mention the photo of Aphrodite is by Kersten Zettmar.

Venus Retrograde: Discovering a New Feminine Ideal

Venus Retrograde: May 13-14 to June 24-25, 2020

Listening with the Heart

Aphrodite's Bath

All archetypal images transform over time, although the basic archetype stays the same. When it is no longer relevant, the archetypal image becomes a stereotype, which in turn needs to die so the archetype can be reborn in a new image. This is true of all archetypal energies – they want to be continually moving and transforming.

When planets retrograde, it indicates a time to stop and take a breath and reconsider what we're doing. Retrograde planets give us the opportunity to re-think, re-do, re-novate, re-consider, re-structure and re-view what's been happening. With all the retrogrades this week, we are heading into the real season of transformation. Our isolation was just the setup.

While Saturn and Jupiter speak more to our collective life, Venus is subjective and personal, especially for women. So while we'll talk about the collective energies of Pluto, Jupiter and Saturn challenging Venus retrograde, let's concentrate on Venus first.

Venus goes retrograde when her orbit brings her between the Earth and the Sun. She is closest to us as well as being an Evening Star. Once she disappears into the glare of the Sun, she will emerge about 5 days later as a Morning Star. 9 months later, Venus will slip behind the Sun (furthest away from Earth) and become an Evening Star.

Evening Star Venus

The Morning Star energizes a new feminine experience while the Evening Star gathers the wisdom she has gleaned from the Morning Star and dispenses it to us. Other astrologers say that her Morning Star phase is the Warrior while her Evening Star phase is the Lover. The alternating rhythm is one of extroversion/out-breath and introversion/in-breath.

As you can see, the heavens are always declaring the need for transformation, and this month we'll be experiencing it both personally through Venus and collectively through the Saturn, Pluto and Jupiter retrogrades. The Saturn, Pluto and Jupiter retrogrades will be a time to re-focus on societal issues like power dynamics, social structures, work and opportunity. Through our Venus retrograde, we can work to decide what social structures are valuable to us and which are not. 

Aphrodite & the 9 Muses 

Venus rules the arts and those are suffering under this global shut-down, just when we need them more than ever. Artists everywhere are shut off from the places where they can share their work. This is another issue that Venus in Gemini wants to re-consider.

The planet Venus was always important to the ancient astronomers because of it's consistent orbit around the Sun but especially because it makes a perfect 5-pointed star (a pentagram) every 8 years. This pentagram geometric pattern Venus makes in the heavens evokes feelings of harmony, beauty, love and peace. It is also associated with the 'golden mean' of the Fibonacci Series as Venus moves from a Morning Star to an Evening Star then back to a Morning Star.

Arielle Guttman has written a book on this cycle called Venus Star Rising where she describes the Venus cycle.  In our present cycle, Venus changes from Morning to Evening to Morning Star in these 5 signs beginning with this Gemini (MS), Capricorn (ES), Leo (MS), Aries (ES), Scorpio (MS) then back to Gemini as an Evening Star in 2024.

Venus crossing the face of the Sun

Every 130 years or so, Venus aligns twice in 8 years on the same plane as the Earth and Sun and we see her passing over the face of the Sun, This happened in 2004 and 2012, both in the sign of Gemini, and to me it indicates that we are heading into a new connection with the Divine Feminine, one that wants us to be knowledgeable and wise, socially responsible, confident in our self-expression and creativity, courageous with pioneering new visions and possibilities, and capable of transformation and deep change.

The New Feminine for our times. Open to deep listening and learning, open to courteous conversations using both the left and right brains, open to all possibilities until the one which is our truth comes to live in us.

Mercury will be in Gemini for part of this Venus retrograde cycle, from May 11^th to May 28^th, when Venus disappears into the rays of the Sun before emerging in the morning sky on June 11^th. This can help us communicate the values that Venus is re-considering. Is going back to 'normal' the best thing for Mother Earth and for our health? Is money more important than Love? Do we want partnership relationships rather than hierarchical ones? Can we create a world that embraces the feminine values of love, harmony, equality, peace and community rather than our present society based on war, greed, rampant consumerism, environmental destruction and inequality?

Venus has been traveling through Gemini since April 3, 2020 and will finally go into Cancer on August 7, 2020 – a 4 month stay rather than her usual 4 weeks visit. So what can we learn about the value of love, beauty, wisdom, sexuality and the arts during her stay in Gemini?

Gemini is the sign of the Twins. In Greek mythology, it's about Castor and Pollux. One twin was mortal while the other was immortal. To me this symbolizes the need to balance our intuitive immortal brain with our rational mortal brain, since our right brain picks up our relationship with Mother Earth and life, while our left brain develops separately in each of us.

Mercury is the ruler of Gemini and is considered the Messenger God. So we can say that Gemini is about communicating and delivering messages. With Venus in Gemini, the hope is that we can do it kindly with wit and style, when people are so radically separated by their beliefs, and learn to have conversations with an open mind.

This is the energy of the lunar nodes now being in Gemini-Sagittarius: we need to step away from our limiting beliefs (Sagittarius) and be open-minded about information (Gemini) so we can embrace new beliefs (Sagittarius) that will bring harmony and peace to a fearful society.

This is also a time to look at our relationships. The old patriarchal form of relationship was a patriarchal dominator model – meaning that men had some right of ownership over his wife and children. We say not anymore, but that's not true for so many women around the world.

Gemini is so androgynous that it can help us imagine all sorts of relationships that are partnership based. This is a great time to examine our unconscious behavior regarding our partnerships and our 'obligations' to them.

Dana Gerhardt, a great astrologer, has a 40 day meditation to do during this retrograde.  You can check it out here.

I've decided that during this Venus retrograde cycle, I want to look at the ancient stories of Venus/Aphrodite/Astarte/Isis/Inanna. The Stories of the Archetypal pattern of the divine feminine. The 40 day journey of Venus in the underworld is a quest to reclaim all those parts of the feminine that have been repressed, disregarded and controlled. 

Botticelli's Venus

 

I'll be telling stories about Venus/Aphrodite online every Friday, Venus' own day, through July, which I hope you'll tune into.  I'll be posting them on FaceBook and on this Wisdom blog:

http://ladywisdomchronicles.blogspot.com/

Venus symbolizes the power of connection. With all the social distancing, we still need to stay connected, otherwise we lose the most important part of our humanity. So find new ways to express your love, your hopes and your ideals.

Blessings on us all!

Cathy

What has Happened to our Moral Character?

What has happened to our Moral Character?

School of Athens -- Raphael

As I watch the news, I find myself looking for stories about people's character. How they are responding to the global crisis.

I'm in the middle of a dialogue with an army friend about the Navy commander, Capt. Brett Crozier, who was relieved of his command because he went outside the chain of command to write a letter to the Navy leadership about his men and the coronavirus crisis on his ship. To me, that indicates this captain has a strong moral character, because he went against the rules to save his men. To me, he sacrificed something of his life for his men and that makes him a hero to me.

Having the courage to do what's right, even when it will get you into trouble; using your gifts and strengths to help others; standing up to lies and hypocrisy. These are all gifts of moral character. And having a strong character is part of our soul growth, isn't it? We also have to learn kindness and compassion, responsibility and endurance and many other virtues that we no longer name as important to life when we incarnate each lifetime. When we resonant at these high levels of character, we can change the world.

I believe that our work each lifetime is to build our character. To learn not only how to be human, but to become a conscious human being who has the right and privilege to co-create the world with Source.

As I notice which movies and shows come out each month on Netflix and Amazon, there aren't many which teach us how to develop that moral character. I love THIS IS US for that very reason. It's all about a father's struggle to build character in himself and in his children. And a mother's need to love and protect her children.

And of course there is my favorite moral mentor, Captain Jean-Luc Picard. In the finale of the new series PICARD, Jean-Luc says something that is so important for all of us, but most especially for fathers. When he's asked how he's going to get through to a character who is making a bad choice, he say: By example! By her seeing my actions and then making her own choice.

That's the best example of what builds character – to live it, to own it --- whether it's honor or mercy or freedom of choice. And to pass it on by example. And that's the ancient archetypal purpose of The Father. We don't need to be a father to do this, but that's the archetypal energy behind being an example of moral character. To be an example of a responsible human being. There can be laughter and joy, fun and playfulness as well. But our work is to build into our character the very best of human nature. Loyalty. Honesty. Honor. Respect. Service. Leadership. These are qualities of the Divine Masculine, in both men and women.

Our work is to develop as much of the goodness of the universe as our hearts can hold.