My dad is dying of cancer at home right now, and I get the feeling that today or tomorrow will be his last day in physical form :/ If any of you gyns feel like it, please send any good energy/intentions my, his and/or my family’s way. 🥺 This is the worst pain I’ve been through out of a very painful life and I wish it was me dying instead of him. I don’t feel a lot of hope right now but I’m trying. :(

Thankfully, my spirituality has been helpful getting me through this so far, but it’s been a rough year. Idk how much more of life I can handle. I wish I had made it to that solstice thing but I had totally forgotten about it! I took Feminist Witchcraft in the Dianic Tradition from Ruth Barrett earlier this year and it was wonderful; I’m eager to take more of her classes as soon as I can. Hopefully 2025 will be a healing year for us all 😭

@butchplease @MascaraRunsFree @Mafdet @Supervagine @sealwomyn @camino_medio @Hedge_Witcheroo @TheSimbul @Feministunderyrbed @Iota_Aurigae @befana @faerieclaire @NotEnoughPages @mish @kuzcos_poison @Committing_Tervery @LocalDworkinist @PracticalMagic @TheChaliceIsMightier @Evileine @PeakyLen @LunarWolf @LadyLabrys @Novemberinthechair @Redmage @LapisLazuli

I’m not terribly into spirituality, but I did think a few mythical women deserved to be paid their dues. I made constellations representing them, such as Pandora out of stars from Sagittarius, and Athena and biblical Eve (“Sorores Sapientae”) out of stars from Gemini. The latter of those is visible for northern hemisphere stargazers at this time of year - I’ll have to post an image sometime.

I have no rituals, but I do meditate - both sitting and walking outside. When my Dad was in hospice last year, I coped with a tonglen meditation as described in Pema Chodron's 'When Things Fall Apart'. The idea is to breathe in the suffering and pain, then breathe out the peace and relief. You do it for yourself, and then you can extend those thoughts to everyone else who is also experiencing pain. Thoughts of peace and healing for everyone suffering. As long as I have my breath, I can focus on only that and breathe out peace and relief, not just for myself but for others. This idea I think is the cornerstone of my spirituality and faith. Nothing else gives me hope like this concept. I'm kind of working on branching out from there, but that's where I'm at currently.

Lately I've been inspired by fire rainbows and poles of inaccessibility, like Point Nemo, the most remote point on earth in the middle of the ocean.

I'm thinking a lot about Hekate, who keeps Persephone company in the underworld and returns her to her mother in spring. I feel the light of her torch a lot these dark days 💛

Sometime in the past few days or weeks, I can't quite remember, I was laying on my couch and looking out at the night sky. There is a lot of light pollution where I am at, so normally if I see anything in the sky, it's usually an airplane. But this time when I waited for the flashing tail lights to resolve on the dot of light, they didn't. So I concluded it must be an actual star. Then I wondered which one it was, so I fetched out my SkyView app and pointed it up. Turns out it's the planet Venus.

I vaguely remember that Venus is a goddess, though I've had to search just now of what. I wrote some poetry about her light and... I don't know, directed some thoughts towards her.

My cat that I posted about last week passed away on Sunday morning. One of the other women here says that she's had the spirits of her passed animals come back to visit her, quickly adding that she doesn't care who doesn't believe her about it. A difficulty I'm having with dealing with his loss is that back in the day, I would've prayed to the male-deity about it, and now I find myself instead wondering what a manifestation of his spirit would be like, and feeling like I've lost the plot for considering something that is so looked-down upon by both sides of patriarchy that I was raised in, science and male deity worship. But I mean, I just recently directed thoughts towards a planet?

It's all very difficult to navigate, and going against the conditioning of two systems at once to consider goddesses and spirituality in a new light feels like having to learn everything all over again.

I've also written a bunch about the theoretical Scribe to the High Priestess of Inertia.

Thankyou for this please add me to the list!

I practice Dianic Wicca and have been lucky enough to study with many wise women, including Ruth and Falcon, who are just lovely fwiw. I have been participating for several years now in Dianic community, both online and more rarely when possible in person. I have a local friend who is a dianic and we try to get together for the solar holidays. This year I am hoping to complete my Year and Day with a dianic affiliated coven to be formally initiated. I'm super excited for that.

My solitary practices include but are not limited too; breathwork, movement (yoga and qigong), trancework (mostly yoga nidra), deep and consistent moon observation, talking to my cats and plants, daily gratitude/hope spells before bed. I keep a drawer full of crystals/tarot decks/candles/string next to the bed and can get my full hippy on with whatever strikes my fancy that day.

Historically my Goddess practices have been more... hmmm archetypal I guess... as I have leaned more panthiestic/atheistic than theistic but that has shifted in more recent years as some Goddesses have become more tangible to me. Some of the ones that I have a more personal relationship with are; the Moon, Guan Yin, the Cailleach, a personal goddess I call "the Deathless Dancer", and most recently the modern goddess "Elen of the Ways". Their sense of presence has shown up for me in my practice and life in ways that though intangible have been deeply encouraging and comforting. I don't really know what that means just that I am grateful for it.

I also like to go to special places and collect natural things to incorporate into my practice. Interesting stones I find on hikes, twigs from the yew tree where my grandmother was raised, water from holy wells, sea salt from the secret beach near me. Then I use them in my practice. For example when I am setting up my alter I feel like I have tangible connections to the elements I am setting out, like for water/west I can pick from several bottles of water collected on different days and different sites with different emotions connected to them. And same for the other elements. So my alter then becomes layered in meaning, a personal experiential meaning deeply connected to me and my life an memories.

I've been wanting to do something to celebrate winter solstice. I will probably pull some tarot cards and do some journaling.

A lot of my spirituality anymore is listening to my own inner wisdom and the cycles of my body. I also like to pay attention to the moon to remind me of the cyclical nature of everything. Plus, my own cycle has lined up really closely with the moon for the last couple of years, so it makes it more noticable to me.

I was recently trying to learn more about Sophia in Gnosticism but it was kind of confusing. I'm also intrigued by Dianic Wicca but I'm not where to start on that, I wish there was a circle I could join nearby and start learning. I wish there was more female spiritual mentorship available to me. I've been reading Women's Rites, Women's Mysteries and I've found it very thought-provoking. I wish I had a circle of women I could meet with in person once a month or more to organize rituals for our lives or even bond over female literature.

I have celebrated the solstice. I had a few very strange dreams about baphomet...one would think those would be scary, but one was incredibly comforting. The other was terrifying, I can’t lie. My husband works with baphomet though, not me particularly.

In terms of goddesses to work with I still feel novice and a little unsure of myself so have done research on several who resonate ... specifically Danu, Yemaya and Itzpapalotl (of course) Bastet and tentatively Hecate.

The story of medusa resonates hugely on a personal scale but she isn’t a deity many consider. I have a lot of (real and dream) interactions with cats as well as birds. Tried nursing an injured crow back to health this week but she sadly passed. I dream of cats almost every night - husband says this could be Lilith? Have a lot of bird dreams too. Idk.

Which deities do you work with or have an interest in?

Diana Paxson wrote articles about different goddesses for Sagewoman magazine back in the 90s. I wish she or Sagewoman would collect them all.

A classic work to check out is Merlin Stone's When God Was A Woman. Right now it's listed as available on Audible with a free trial.

I’m on Ruth Barrett’s email list but have not yet attended anything. Nice to know you had a positive experience.

This solstice I’ve been up against a very painful tail bone injury. I’m taking it as an insistence that I slow down and rest into the void of this time of the year. I feel like the slowness of the darkest time of the year is meant to be a sacred turning inward but that we tend to rush through it with holidays doings. So this year I’m kinda forced to because I can’t do much else.

One of the main goddesses I learn from is Inanna. And the underworld can be seen as anytime where we are not in control, where our best efforts are simply not enough to get the result we are after. It is the direct confrontation with Reality. It teaches you that life is so much bigger than you, and sometimes all we can do is surrender to what is happening.

So the spiritual challenge im working with right now is can I still praise life, even from this place of pain? Even when all my plans just crashed and burned? Can I still find the thread of love?

Blessed Be. My solstice ritual this year was participating in a ritual organized by a bff who has been a high priestess and teacher of Wicca for decades, about 20 people attended, some I've known in the pagan community for years and some for the first time. Raising energy and acknowledging the turn of the wheel of the year with the simple chant 'Out of the Darkness and into the Light' was very grounding and stabilizing, and brought the goddess Cerridwen to my mind and I've been reflecting on her for several days now.

Hi everyone. I wanted to testify about my goddess, if that is permitted.

I consider myself a witch. Before now, I mostly worked with angels and the mother of angels, Hecate. I even got desperate and tried working with demons, though that backfired horribly.

In 2021, I became homeless during the tail-end of COVID. I tried all sorts of magick to get out of the situation but most of my spells resulted in protection from harm rather than changing my situation. The angels didn't seem interested in helping me get out of homelessness but rather keeping me safe while I was homeless, and the demon I accidentally set loose (stared at a sigil too long) delighted in tormenting me (I asked the angels to remove the demon and they did).

As a last resort, I prayed to Santa Muerte. I had no idea she was the goddess of last resort at the time, but I prayed to her in desperation. I begged her to get me out of homelessness because I just couldn't live like that anymore. I was ready to die.

Death answered the very next day. I'm not even kidding. Next day I found myself in the hospital (for physical injuries), then the psych ward (for depression), and from there a crisis house, then a homeless shelter, and finally a home. She answered so fast! And she was with me through the process, calling me "little daughter" and telling me to be brave.

I'm not even Mexican, but she is the only goddess who ever stepped up for me like that. Before her, I was working mostly with angels, and angels won't do things for you like that. Not the ones I worked with anyway. They will protect you from harm and many did, but I never had an angel change my life like this. And Hecate will tell you how to do something but she won't do it for you -- that has been my experience with her.

Santa Muerte has always given me everything that I have asked for. She is the mother I never had, looking after me, catching me when I fall. She has a bad rap because she's an Aztec death goddess (she will work with some shady people) but she's actually very kind and loving.

A year later, I have a little altar to her in my apartment. I'm not as consistent of a devotee as I probably should be, but I leave her offerings regularly, even if I don't always pray. I think I will always love her for what she did for me. And after this experience, no one can tell me the gods, angels, demons, and spirits aren't real.

I have seen some serious sh!t.

The only thing Santa Muerte hasn't given me is a partner to share my life with. I have to trust her wisdom and assume that I'm simply not ready. In all honesty, I don't think I am. I am still battling depression and struggling to get back on my feet after years and years of abuse and misfortune. Right now I should be focused on me and my healing journey, and she has shown me that.

Hail Santa Muerte, the dark mother who comes for us all.

Thank you for sharing!

Currently my body put me to a stop as I'm having my period and this one is a bit heavy.

However, the Great Mother has blessed me as my two girls (cats) are getting along better and better while Firecracker is with us less than two weeks. They are also both very cuddly with me.

So it's a very, very relaxed Yule this year but it's ok.

I'm not apart of one of these spiritual traditions and I won't intrude in later weeks, but I just wanted to take a moment in the first one to cheer y'all on! I'm so glad you have a weekly thread. It's well needed and deserved. ❤️

This is such a nice idea for a thread. I delved into goddess spirituality after an encounter with Freya. I have rather drifted away from it this past year though. I’m not sure whether I’ll get back to it but I’ll definitely follow these discussions.

Sign me up, please! Edited: thanks for the link to the wonderful songs!