The Sacred Feminine is a the term we use for that mysterious source of all life, the wellspring of creation. The Feminine Force that births both male and female forms. The Circle that contains both yin and yang. The portal between the worlds. She is by nature indefinable, yet her presence has been experienced so tangibly by peoples of the Earth from the beginning of time, that She has been honoured and deified in many forms as bringer of life, growth, decline, death and rebirth by many ancient cultures.

What does it mean when someone praises the divine feminine? Or when someone says the divine feminine is the way to healing and enlightenment? Or that the divine feminine is reawakening our world at this time, heralding a return to higher frequencies of light and thought? Is this a Christian concept? Buddhist? Pagan? New Age? Is it tied to religion? Or is it a spiritual concept? What is its history and where are its roots?

The answer is simple. The divine feminine is the goddess is in all traditions, and has been since the beginning of time. These traditions are a mystical, magical, powerful, part of primal Mother Earth. They symbolize balance and healing, renewal and restoration.

Sophia is a very ancient form of the Goddess of Wisdom. She is known in many traditions by different names but she carries the mantle of intuitive intelligence. Sometimes she is Isis, spreading her wings of ascension. Sometimes she is Asherah, the original bread of life. Mary Magdalene is said to have been an incarnation of Sophia.

The Old Testament’s King Solomon had a deep and profound relationship with Sophia. She was revered as the wise bride of Solomon by the Jewish people. In Greek mythology, Athena was the goddess of wisdom and weaving; the owl and the olive tree were sacred to her.The symbol of Sophia is the dove, depicted as the bird descending from the heavens, known in Christianity as the Holy Spirit.

Isis is the Egyptian goddess of magic, fertility, and motherhood. She has gone by many names, such as the Queen of the Heavens, Star of the Sea, Light-Giver of Heaven, Lady of Green Crops, and She Who Knows How To Make Right Use Of The Heart.

She is the Great Mother of fertility, of creation, of life and death. Some see the Mary, the mother of Jesus, as an incarnation of Isis. The exotic and mysterious Black Madonnas have their roots in the pre-Christian goddess traditions. In southern Provencal tradition, the Black Madonna is associated with St. Sara, the patron saint of the gypsies. Many believe the European shrines to the Black Virgin have special healing powers. These energetic places often have a sacred water source and a Celtic foundation. The Black Madonna is another form of the feminine principle.

So what is the feminine principle? Simply put, her principles are ones of nurturing, of love, understanding, compassion, insight, intuition, creativity, forgiveness, healing, and wisdom.

Whatever your beliefs and choice of traditions are, whether She appears to you as Ishtar or Mari, Gaia or Quan Yin, as the great Mother Mary or Magdalene, or as one of the pantheon of goddesses from ancient Egypt or Greece or Rome, to Africa or the Middle East, to the cults of the Black Madonna, or whether she is spun from one of the archetypes of the indigenous tribes, such as Spider Woman, the divine feminine is still the primordial She who creates from a central source.

All women carry within themselves the essence of the divine feminine. It is for this reason, over time women have been subjugated by patriarchal societies. In ancient and pre christian times, women were revered for their natural powers and powerful intuitive connection to the divine. Sadly history has tried to take away that power, by undermining, corrupting and distorting the truly pure and divine source of that feminine energy. Women today, still have to prove they are equal to men in a very patriarchal world. Women are the major caregivers, the nurturer’s and for the most part the ones who succor future generations.

Too many women today lead lives in which they feel dis-empowered, weak, helpless and have no say or control over what they do. I believe, by re-connecting to the divine feminine energy within themselves, they can reclaim the power of their birthright. Embrace it, and use it to lead happy, emotionally rich and fulfilling lives.

Read more: The Divine Feminine

Who am I, is a question many people ask themselves once they begin walking a spiritual path. A strange question when you think about it, as we have known ourselves all our lives. So what is it that makes us start to question ourselves, and why is it when we take the plunge to delve deeper into our own psyche, do we often discover, that we do not really know ourselves at all?

Like peeling back the layers of an onion, once we start the process of self discovery, we discover depths we did not know we had, and also decaying black spots like a the ones you find when you bite into a perfect apple to find it is spoiled. Are you one of those people who will then throw the apple away, or will you take the time to cut the bad part away?

On the stage of life we all play different roles. We are what we need to be to different people in our lives. The mother, the sister, the daughter, the lover and the friend. But who are we to ourselves? How does one get past all the different persona’s to discover our authentic self. Do we have a core, or are we simply made up of a amalgamation of these different aspects.

You would imagine a good place to start would be in childhood. A time when the world was new and we viewed it through Innocent eyes. Unencumbered by expectations, preconceptions or tainted by experience. But I wonder just how far back we would all need to go to rediscover that state. It would seem the awareness of expectation, begins very early.

So let us look at asking ourselves the most simple questions. What makes me happy, and what is it that does not? What do I love about my life, and what is it I do not. You would imagine that this would not be a difficult thing to do. But because our lives are so intimately entwined with others. It can be very difficult to affect change for ourselves without creating changes for others, that they may not like. Indeed they would resist most strenuously. So how does one overcome that?

On a much deeper level, what is it that gives us that sense of spiritual contentment. Is it all connected to balance and harmony to our outer life, or is there some special extra ingredient that we need to discover. Is it something we can discover ourselves through introspection or meditation, or is it something we can only be given from a divine source. If this is the case, is our spiritual growth dependent on our own efforts or ultimately is its timing dependent on whether or not we are deemed as being ready by the divine?

I have asked many questions, as I am sure we all do. I am sure there will be people who will say, that we over complicate things by thinking about them too much. But in truth if we did not think of them, would it not mean that wanting to grow spiritually was not important to us.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this and your insight from what you have discovered yourself when pondering on this age old question. Who am I!

Read more: Who Am I