DAUGHTERS OF VENUS
A JOURNEY IN THE HEART OF FEMININE MYSTERIES
May 25th-June 22nd
ONLINE
For centuries now, our world and our consciousness have been shaped and dominated by a masculine force, a system that has separated matter from spirit, mind from body, that values the visible over the invisible, logic over intuition. Such consciousness has defined not only our social structures, but also our own psyches and our relationship to life and the sacred. Even God, the ultimate symbol of creation and divinity, has largely been imagined, named, and worshipped as “He".
However, this was not always the case. There was a time when the Feminine principle was alive, revered, and recognised as the very source of life.
She was not separate from creation, she was creation. Her wisdom was carried through the voices and lives of women, mothers, priestesses, healers, and oracles.
In ancient times and early spiritual traditions, the Feminine was not hidden or diminished, nor were her attributes. She was the great womb of existence, the intelligence that moves all things, the dark and fertile void from which life emerges and to which it returns. She was both gentle and fierce, nurturing and destructive, sensual and wise, she was whole, unfragmented, and deeply respected.
But over time, her presence was silenced, her stories and symbols distorted, her power feared and, therefore, oppressed. What once was sacred became taboo. What once was honored became belittled. And slowly, the Feminine was pushed into the shadows.
Yet her voice was never truly lost.
O Shekinah,
yours is the feminine face of the Holy,
the luminous moon who lights up the night
as we travel from captivity to liberation,
the pillar of fire who guides our way home,
the cloud hovering over the mountain peaks,
living sign that the drought is over.
Mirabai Starr
Venus is the most luminous planet visible in our sky, calling our attention, as humans, for thousands of years through her radiance and luminosity. Filled with volcanic fire and intense heat, although often representing beauty and grace, she carries the hidden paradox of the alchemy of love and reminds us of how fire is necessary to burn away all falsities and allow the truth to emerge.
Unlike most planets, Venus rotates in a retrograde direction, opposite to the Earth’s rotation. Esoterically, this movement has been understood as symbol of Venus's rebellious nature and invitation to follow a different path from the one commonly treaded. Her celestial dance is one of veiling and unveiling. She appears and disappears cyclically, shifting from Evening Star to Morning Star, moving between visibility and invisibility, teaching us about death and rebirth. As she moves through our cosmos she forms a five-petaled flower that has been known as the "celestial rose". In ancient times she was also known as Lucifer, "the light bearer" - before it became associated with evil and darkness.
Many more are her teachings, which we will explore through five meetings during which we dive into many of her forgotten stories and resurrect her within our hearts.
Daughters of Venus is more than a course. It is an embodied and initiatory journey into the heart and mystery teachings of the Feminine and her ways. We gather to remember, reclaim and restore. We bring to the surface what was forgotten, we invite healing to the old inherited narratives around power, love, sexuality, worth and spirituality. We reveal what has been numbed, we acknowledge where we have given our power away, ask when we have hidden out of fear and not out of an empowered choice, why we denied ourselves the possibility to desire and be desired back by life.
We let her story speak to us through five different expressions of her: Eve, Lilith, Mary Magdalene, Mother Mary and Sophia.
Each of these expressions of her helps us understand ourselves better, gives us permission to access parts of our selves that were exiled not only in our minds but also in our bodies. Through our time together we explore what it means to reconstruct a sense of what a feminine spirituality and the embodiment of its essence might look and feel like in our modern day.
Each of these stories are gateways, keys to a memory that is hidden within and that is longing to be remembered. The essences of these archetypal forces reside within the map of our own body and psyches. They all represent a stage of our human experience and expression of feminine power, wisdom and love. To retell these stories is to heal. It means finding our voices once again. Making ourselves available for new narratives to be birthed in our lives.
Together, they form a path back home. Together they represent the vision of wholeness of her many and one face.They teach us what is means to live in relationship with beauty and truth, with death and rebirth, and they guide us back into the heart of the Feminine as as a living and primordial force.
She, as a matter of fact, longs for our bodies to be filled with her presence. She wants us to speak our truth. She is pure eros. She is our compassionate heart. She is wisdom. She is pure aliveness.
WEEK 1 | EVE
I choose life
Eve is the initiator, she speaks of our own genesis, she is the one who chooses knowledge over oblivion, awakening us to the courage to step into incarnated life, through her we reclaim our yes to life and our place here on earth
WEEK 2 | LILITH
I reclaim my sovereignty
Lilith is she who cannot be tamed, she refuses to submit and guides us towards truth, freedom and unapologetic self expression, we contact the places of exile and shame and radically refuse betraying ourselves
WEEK 3 | MYRIAM
I am love
Mary Magdalene is the holy Bride, the priestess of love, eros and fierce devotion to the path of intimacy and the alchemy of the heart, she unites spirit and matter, she is the flame that burns inside and the one that unites opposites in love
WEEK 4 | MARIA
I am the vessel
Mary, the mother of all mothers than can hold the mysteries of life, death and rebirth and teaches us how to surrender to the life's will unconditionally, even through grief and loss, accepting how to offer our sacred vessels so that life may move and be birthed through us
WEEK 5 | SOPHIA
I carry wisdom
She is the beginning and the end, she is the union of all the faces, she is the indwelling presence of the Divine here on earth plane, she reminds us of the holiness of all life, she guides us back into our own sacredness, uniting all ways
How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!
SONG OF SONGS
HOW IT WORKS?
We meet every week for 2 hrs for five Mondays starting from the 25th of May at 6pm GMT | 1 PM EST | 10 AM PST.
Each session is devoted to one archetype that we will meet by both through the retelling of the story and then through subtle body practices, ritual, meditations, activations and group sharing so that we can reawaken within us these archetypal and cosmic codes that exist in our bodies and souls.
In between sessions you will be given simple yet powerful practices and reflections to help you sustain the inquiry and integrate that essence/aspect of self in your life.
This is a space for ALL WOMEN, from all walks of life and spiritual traditions because this is the way of the feminine, it unites all differences and it sees beauty in diversity.
The times have come when finally her true story is ready to be told and her path walked again.
Although directed towards womb-holders, this course is not gender based, rather it is an invitation to restore right harmony in our world and times and let the forces of duality come into union.
We reclaim the Feminine as a way to awaken our desire, restore our life force, open our hearts and clear our vision.
We do this work so that Love can come to prevail over hatred, fear and greed.
We do this so that the sacred can be resurrected and acknowledged in all living beings.
Then Mary stood up. She
greeted them all, addressing her brothers and sisters, "Do not weep and be distressed nor let your hearts be irresolute. (..) for (s)he has prepared us and made us true Human beings."
When Mary had said these
things, she turned their heart toward the Good.
GOSPEL OF MARY MAGDALENE