The Inner Goddess Workshop
This month, Sinéad Nua has brought me to The Inner Goddess Workshop at the Bristol Folk House. I thought, "Ey up (evidently I've turned Yorkshire all of a sudden), haven't heard of this before" so what better reason to try it out? I had no idea what to expect but, boy, was I surprised....pleasantly.
This month, Sinéad Nua has brought me to The Inner Goddess Workshop at the Bristol Folk House. I thought, "Ey up (evidently I've turned Yorkshire all of a sudden), haven't heard of this before" so what better reason to try it out? I had no idea what to expect but, boy, was I surprised....pleasantly.
I arrived on a meltingly hot Saturday morning to be greeted by a cheery lady, we'll call her C. 10am arrived along with all of the 13 people booked in, it's a popular workshop so even the 27 degree heat didn't keep them away. I figured this was a positive sign. We began by introducing ourselves and C explained The Great Goddess in Neolithic culture. I'll spare you the details and my typing fingers by giving you the brief run down...
In neolithic times the feminine was revered, women were very powerful, eg giving life & holding intuitive knowledge (without the accusation of being dramatic and emotional, sounds flippin' wonderful doesn't it?!) These matriarchal societies had no weapons, they were peaceful and rational (yes, that's right boys, rational). However the warlike invasion of the modern religions changed all that. The Goddess culture was overthrown, women were vilified and regarded as unclean. Male Gods were worshipped and the rest is (bloody) history.
Some believe that the Goddesses exist in all of us, we each have a Goddess type but not all of us acknowledge her. I can sense the tuts and eyes being raised to heaven as I type but stay with me for a moment. You've heard of personality types right? Well, this is similar. There are four Goddess archetypes and we each have one or more of them in our personalities - Lover, Mystic Maiden, Warrior & Queen. The weakest Goddess in us is called the Missing Goddess and she must not remain neglected! Depending on the archetype and the qualities of the Missing Goddess, there are ways to call her forth. If you're still not with me, they sound like a fun girly night in at least.
So, back in the room, C distributed a Goddess Type Indicator Quiz (© Sharon Turnbull). Some were surprised to see the results. For the record I'm equally Mystic Maiden & Queen and a little bit Warrior. I'm working on the Lover ;)
It was an interesting exercise in recognising qualities in ourselves that we should be proud of, and also, the ones we need to improve on to be more balanced and fulfilled. I'm still to be educated on the spiritual side of this but the personality type bits really rang through for me. It was a wonderful way to get to know myself a bit more. I may or may not find the answers to life's questions by burning incense and candles but referring to this quiz every now and then will surely point out what side of me is being neglected and we all deserve time spent on ourselves right?
Whether or not you think this is hippy nonsense you can't deny there's something there we can all take from it. So I'll leave you with this, "Achieving psychological maturity requires that we reclaim this missing Goddess. To be whole - and thus fulfilled - we must acknowledge those traits we rejected and integrate them into our lives." (C. Campbell). See you at Glastonbury Tor for the next full moon?
http://www.bristolfolkhouse.co.uk/
Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Swifnf.jpg
