—M.J. Ryan, author of The Happiness Makeover, Trusting Yourself, Attitudes of Gratitude, and many others
Gathering at the Well
I am so excited to be writing The Woman's Book of Spirit. It's a blessing to be given the opportunity to talk about what a majority of us know in the dark and fertile depths of our hearts, but sometimes lose sight of during the glare and whirl of everyday life. And that is: Women are spiritually endowed. This is not to say that men aren't also spiritually gifted, but we women seem to intuitively know how to live from our hearts where the essence of our Spirit resides. From our hearts spring what I refer to as the Sacred Feminine Voice.
To be sure, over the last several hundred years, attempts have been made by society, both consciously and unconsciously, to freeze-dry the feminine voice and spirit, stuff it in a corked jar, and store it on a musty shelf somewhere in a remote and shadowy closet. The attempts certainly were successful on me. For many years as my own sense of spirit seemed to lie dormant, I felt no sense of connection to either a divine being or to the divinity within myself. Although I did what I was raised to do—go to church, have a nice family, be a nice person—underneath it all ran a vague river of discontent and a profound thirst for a sense of an intimate and joyful relationship with God and my own spirit.
The universe has a magical way of responding to our deep longings and it answered mine with a swift kick in the teeth. My husband fell in love with my best friend and left me. I was reduced to a blithering, emotional puddle and could do very little else but stagger into the arms of God and crawl, bleeding, onto a spiritual path. Turns out it was the biggest favor anyone has ever done for me.
Out of that trauma, I eventually became aware that spirituality is simple. Fundamentally, we are spiritual beings with soul as our essence, our most basic quality. We've forgotten. I continue to forget on a daily basis. Consequently, it seems to me that a huge spiritual lesson for most of us is to reremember, to re-evolve into simplicity of spirit, and invite the natural, inherent essence of our Selves back to the fore of our lives, to “become like little children.”
I believe women are being called to birth this all important spirit-memory. In order for our relationships, our lives, and perhaps our very planet to thrive, we must free our spiritual essence from its relegated closet. Only then can love flow continually into our hearts from the Divine and overflow onto others. Women are inherently vessels of love, and through our love and spiritual connection, we can rescue the parched and perishing within and among us.
Countless women are doing this right now. Through tears, rituals, honoring, acknowledging, and learning from each other, we are healing our wounds and opening our hearts. We are remembering and connecting with our own inherent spiritual core and with the core of others. Rising from the ashes of injustice, domination, and fear, we women are reclaiming our heritage as essentially spiritual beings who are learning and growing through human experience. Since you are reading these words, I have no doubt that you're already dipping your chalice into the well of soul, or, if not, that you are intensely aware of your yearning and desire to do so.
Before The Woman's Book of Spirit was even a seed of an idea, the Sacred Feminine Voice whispered in my ear regarding the writing of it. Having just finished Heart Centered Marriage, I was in a typical let-down mood, a creative lull that often follows a period of intense work. Not being overly crazy about the feeling, I decided to ask during meditation what my purpose and goals were now that my current project was completed. I am not a wildly psychic person who regularly receives a lot of “phenomena” but, during this meditation, unexplained yet very clear, a message was delivered: Pour water upon my women.
Because I was already deeply committed to reclaiming the Sacred Feminine Voice in myself, relationships, and the world in general, I felt the message pertained to revitalizing and reintroducing feminine values. But there seemed to be more that I wasn't understanding. I asked to be shown the significance of the enigmatic message. It wasn't until Brenda, one of the wonderful women at Conari Press, said to me, “Why don't you write a third meditation book entitled The Woman's Book of Spirit?” that the message became clear. A resounding “Yes!” careened through my heart and mind, and I fell deeply and passionately in love with the idea of writing about women's thirst for soul.
Although I was immediately riding the crest of a wave toward the creation of this book as soon as the idea was mentioned, by no means do I think I have the answer, or any answers for that matter. To me, Pour water upon my women was an invitation to share with you some of my own, my friends', and my clients' experiences along our very different spiritual paths: to pour the water of our spirits out for you to drink in, relate to, and take comfort in. If our stories are helpful in moistening and revitalizing your heart and creating more balance and harmony in your inner and outer lives, then I will be thrilled.
The Woman's Book of Spirit can be used in a number of ways—as a meditation guide, a daily friend, or the answer to a specific question. You may want to use it as a powerful intuitive exercise by opening it at random after holding it to your heart and asking your inner wisdom to guide you to the perfect, right entry for you at this moment.
Our hearts are the seat of the soul, holding within them the marvelous and mysterious power that spiritual seekers have pondered for ages. Interestingly, the power of the heart is now being measured in scientific laboratories. Recently, I attended a seminar at the Institute of HeartMath in Boulder Creek, California. The Institute's studies are providing compelling evidence that activating heart energy harmonizes the body/mind connection, reduces stress, and increases wellbeing physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. The best news of all is that each of us can choose to activate these healing and reviving heart frequencies. It is my hope that these meditations will help you do just that.
This is a very exciting time in human history. Women everywhere are gathering at the springfed wells of our beings to pour the water of our spirits on each other, to share our hearts, to join hands as we move toward more completely expressing our boundless love, magnificent wisdom, and compassionate intuition. To these limitless wells, each of us carries her own container. Each of us fills her own jar. And, each of us is also called to walk with her sisters along the way providing support, guidance, encouragement, inspiration, and love. All of us, men and women alike, are asked to birth a more soulful way of being, to create a more spiritually harmonious way to live, and to open our hearts in order to spread love, compassion, care, and healing.
Re-Greening Arid Places
It's essential that we understand that taking care of the planet will be done as we take care of ourselves. You know that you can't really make much of a difference in things until you change yourself.
—Alice Walker
THE GREAT ELEVENTH-CENTURY CHRISTIAN mystic, scholar, and physician, Hildegaard of Bingen, defined sin as spiritual dry-rot, aridity, and refusal to grow. She believed that the opposite of sin was to be gloriously and outrageously alive—green and moist, like nature. Water, a common metaphor for both spirit and femininity, is our most obvious greening agent. In order to grow into the beautiful women we were created to be, we must pour the waters of spirit upon our arid places.
All of us have draught-ridden areas within us that need watering and reclamation. The wonderful news is that even a desert wasteland can be turned into a lush oasis when irrigated with enough water and planted with the right seeds. The same is true of us. No matter how dry or barren some aspects of ourselves or our lives may feel, they can be reclaimed when sanctified by the powerful feminine waters of compassion, forgiveness, right thought, acceptance, and gentle guidance.
Paying Attention to Your Soul's Garden