A Grrrl Moon Rising

a new womens blog

2008-03-02T08:26:00.002-05:00

check out this site, where one brave woman lays out many different aspects of women and menstruation....

i feel somewhat uncomfortable with this post, as i try not to make this group about periods but more about finding space to create intention and reclaim our natural intuitive ways of taking the world in, and not having to cow to the "give me scientific proof" way when approaching emotion and understanding the world, but i think, as i watch the way the society rips on hillary clinton, accepting it when people call her a bitch, or focusing on her history as the "presidents wife" instead of a senator, etc...that it is an importantthing to bring out of the shadows

brooke medicine eagle was pretty much disowned by the crow nation, they claim she is afalse profit only interested in personal gain and that she teaches false history....but i think that its more the nations discomfort with her trying to find and then bringing forward how women in the society were treated, and the importance of their monthly sacrifice to the earth....the time of the ,moon lodge and vision

energy or intuition

2008-01-23T07:25:00.000-05:00

so this past weekend was a wolf creek weekend for me (and i have provided a link, but what is written is not really the structure anymore, so if it spikes interest in you, please contact the facilitator and ask questions) and i have to say that it was a very relevant expereience for me

all my mishigas over the whole "intuition" issue, and i think i learned this weekend that it isnt about intuition at all, but instead about energy. i started thinking about where i feel things, and how i decide which is intuition and which i think are my own projections onto others, and realized that what i call intuition actually feels like it comes from outside of muself, which is in exact conflict with the definition of intuition

i am not sure what i will do with this new knowledge yet, beyond asking you....how do you experience your intuition, your unspoken knowing of the world?

sunday's meeting

2007-12-10T19:16:00.000-05:00

so a woman wrote me and pointed out i didnt mention what was discussed in our meeting on sunday among the three of us...

the most figural topic was the difference among feminism in generations and how to carry across generations, as the current field shows a turn away from abortion rights, fightinf for equal pay, and such...

intuition came up as well, and i hope to have a friend of mine come in and do a piece of visual imagry someitme once its warm, so we can be outside for it...its how brooke medicine eagle structured things when i was at her workshop, and i felt it helpful for leading me toward a purpose, as opposed to doing the vision on my own, which involved alot of distrust of self

i didnt mean to leave this stuff out, but please understnad, i never thought i woul run groups, and the low turn out surprised me from this new place of organization and leadership, but im sure i will gropw betond my doubt

i also will be addressing the plight of women around the world, continued female mutilation, the use of rape as a terror tactic of governments.....we as women, women of fortune and freedom, what is our responsibility to women elsewhere in the world

peace, love and estrogen, my beautiful ladies
molly kathierne

risk taking

2007-12-10T08:26:00.001-05:00

so i think the next step for me in my life is not being too attached to an outcome when i take risks

...its funny, because i wouldnt really consider myself a risk taker, hate extreme sports and even roller coasters, but this year, i took a huge risk in taking the job at beech brook and it didnt work out for me, and now i have taken a huge risk in starting a women's group....and while the outcome was not what i wanted this month (two women showed up out of the 11 who said they were going to try and make it), it is no where near the disaster beech brook was...its just a start
i have commited to running this group through september, and that is a commitment i will keep.

but one thing i am realizing, is that i had depended more on the women who are my personal friends, the ones who i have known for years, to find the space to support me, but it didnt really work that way (and i am not talking about you, alex)

so now i will look at how i support them, what important moments have i missed in their lives and for what reasons, as i definitly believe in karma....and as i have an internal locus of control (too much so at times), it is how i can best support myself through this, and maybe create a differnt outcome in the future

i give thanks for the abundance that has yet to come (such as the twelth moon of the year has brought forward), i believe that i have an important intention in starting this group- and a first time low turn out will not keep me from trying to change the way society has tried to push women further and further from eachother and themselves

Song of the day: i am woman- helen reddy

oops, sorry, its only the twelfth moon

2007-12-05T20:02:00.000-05:00

so there will definitly be a thirteenth moon next year, but this year, we will only reach the twelfth moon, so returning to jamie's sams 13 original clan mothers, and look at the twelfth moon, gives praise

Gives Praise is the Mother of All Acts of Thanksgiving and Encouragement, Keeper of Abundance, Guardian of Ceremony and Ritual, and the Wisdom Keeper of the Art of Giving and Receiving. She teaches us how to return thanks for the abundance we need before it arrives, how to make space to receive in our lives, how to celebrate every victory in life with joy (our own and those of others), how to use right attitudes to create change in Self and how to create abundance through praise, giving, and receiving.

and so we meditate on how to be the change we intend to create (as i am being taught)

the thirteenth moon

2007-11-30T11:22:00.000-05:00

some food for thought, coming into our first meeting, i was made aware that this is actually the thirteenth moon of 2007, and is a little different, since it isnt an always occurance. thanks to rose, i did a little more research on "the new moon", and there was much information. most interesting for me, as i start this experiment, is that the 13th moon is about seeing the outcome of dreaming and action as this is a definite step for me toward what i want to create in the world

from jamie sams' book "the 13 original clan mothers"

Becomes Her Vision is the Mother of the Alchemical Changes and Rites of Passage into Wholeness, Keeper of Emergence of Spirit into Physical Form, Guardian of Transformation, Transmutation, and Personal History. She teaches us how to become our visions and own our wholeness, how to release the old Self and step into the realized dream, how to honor the process that brought us through our transformation, how to mark a Rite of Passage into Wholeness and Celebrate the vision we have become.

thank you for embarking on this journey with me

space for women's intuition

2007-11-10T07:14:00.000-05:00

I've always considered myself a storyteller-i write poetry, and impressive term papers, i put heart into research articles and soul into emails- i often am visited by spiders- considered the animal totem of communcation, especially written communication, by more than one culture- so I find it surprising that as I sit here, getting ready to compose my first post on the first day of the new moon, I have no idea how to structure this narrative....

I guess this story can start at a workshop I took at the beginning of October with a woman named Brooke Medicine Eagle. It was kind of circumstantial that I was there, I signed up for a five weekend camping program, but the first weekend was cancelled and to replace it, the regular facilitator opted to reschedule us for the weekend Brooke was in town, combining our program in with this other program.... I guess killing two birds with one stone, or because of time restraints.....but what ever the reason, I ended up experiencing an entire weekend learning about the "ancient women ways" , mostly looking at our bodies' natural cycles, and intuiting the ways it was handled by tribal peoples in america, as the women's ways are often not protected to bring forward to future generations. For the first time ever, I heard that many of the prophecies we hear about from native american cultures actually came from the women, when they were in the women's lodge....but I will come back to this. I want to give a little history of myself before we really get into this tale.

I myself am at an interesting place in life. I have always been highly intuitive, but in my experience it was something meant to be secretive, it was shameful....my mother always said to me "Molly, take in the world as you do, but dont tell anyone...I'm like that too-can feel all those things you feel, but it only gets you in trouble"...that is as far as the conversation really went, and i dont really ever remember my mother sharing any of her intuitions with me, except when she felt emotionally threatened by something....my step-mother was worse than that. she was an alcoholic, and had a violent temper, and sometimes these truths would just slip right out of mouth when I was with her, and the outcome of that was much worse then being told to hide, I have to say....it was real hard to start talking about intuition, im in a professional training program currently, and at the last session, well, intuition was very figural that weekend, and my ingrained fears, all the work i need around intuition and trusting myself came floating right to the surface....I learned that many of the women I know were also taught shame and fear to be the appropriate response to their intuitions.

In the fall of 2005 I had a grad school class called "social work with groups". I have never much been involved with groups, one aspect of my intuition is that i really pick up on whats going on for the people around me, and all the dynamics overwhelm me sometimes,, so i tend to keep on the outskirts, never really committing- I struggle to shut off my awareness of these dynamics, and so for the sake of my sanity, i keep that distance.... But this was school, after all, and in my internship, I was spending the semester doing intensive group therapy- I was of course going to have to work with groups in my life, so it was time to bite the bullet and learn about working with larger systems.

So there I am, thinking that the purpose of the class was to talk about the dynamics that run a group-that understanding these dynamics is part of working with the larger system, and became very verbal about all my intuitions- something I had never done before. Sometimes, just as when I was a kid, things would just slip out, things said that, while not meant to be, were kind of hurtful (sorry Brad) but it was just the truth as I saw it....and the professor (who is also the facilitaor of the camping program I am in) the professor saw me "seeing people", she appreciated my awareness of what was going on in the room!! what a novel feeling that was.....my life is a disaster right now,making a lot of mistakes in trying to learn what intuitions i put out in the world and which to hold in, but i know that in the long tem, this will be a phase, one day i will have a much better sense of how to use my intuition....but its gonna take a lot of practice, i think.

Anyhow, jump way, way up to the future, to the beginning of October again, if you can. It was Indian Summer, warm and sunny-yet the wind blew strong and loud, and we spent the whole weekend talking about the moon cycle, all aspects of it, we shared our first period stories (though it was referred to as our "moon time" the whole way through), were led on a vision through guided imagery on moving from the childrens lodge to the womens lodge(the change in responsibilities that were given to us in the imagery was amazing to me, as no one expected me to take on new responsibilities just cause i had my period finally-and i was the last of my friends to get there), we had a croning ceremony down by the river- but the best part was how much room there was to just be myself with women at many different points in their lives, getting to share with each other, reaching across generations and social norms to connect at this instinctual level....we talked about how most of us wish there was more opportunity for this type of gathering, but it is also time consuming, and can be expensive-full camping weekends and country locations, etc. etc..

i was at my coffee shop a few months ago, and ended up talking to a woman, a stranger, about women...i think it started with something on hillary clinton, and polotics, but it kind of moved away from there. she was in her earlier fifties, and she talked about how hard it can be to connect with her nineteen year old daughter, that its hard to find room to share her experiences- and we talked about finding a way to make space for women to talk about these kind of things together, regardless of age, race, religion etc...a friends father died about a month ago, and i offered to set up the shiva for her, only, i didnt know how to make shiva, i'd never even lost someone at that point (my own father figure died just two weeks ago, its been a heavy season)....my mother was able to give me some advice on being responsible in this space of mourning, and there were two friends of the deceased that also were coming back to the house, and i was so greatful. my mother had said to me "now molly, dont let your feelings get hurt by these people, theyre just mean" or something like that.....but they were nice, they guided me through the situation, while giving me space to take care of my friends house the way i knew she would want it cared for...i wonder what my mothers experience was, that she thought they would be mean, and i asked her, but she said it was a joke.

there is something very powerful about having room to learn from other women, room that women once had, across culture, once upon a time before artificial light and the unclear lines in gender relationship (were women seperated due to respect or chauvinism?), back in the time of the new moon.

so i start this cyberspace as a women's gathering place, and intend to meet in person with any interested women on the first day of the new moon each month. since i am in cleveland ohio, it will obviously be in that neighborhood to create a space for sharing vision and giving support to others, and all thats needed is the willingness to make space for the self to have visions and then to find the time to give once a month at the new moon- the time when the veils (i can see salome dancing) are at their thinnest and vision (suspending our discomfort with intuition) is the closest to grasp

it is not to talk about our periods, that is just the background, its to talk about the many ways in which we wish to connect and be fertile (and i say that holding the intention of never having kids, that is not what i mean by fertility), a way to hold on to that sacred women's space....

i look forward to seeing what comes of this intention

thanks for you time and attention
molly katherine