Women’s TempleWomen’s Temple
When a woman becomes the Woman Who Holds Sacred Space, she is changed by that very activity. She begins to step into who she really is, luminous and filled with Divine Pride, radiating out to all beings.
Women's Temple is both a beautiful physical space and a web of consciousness woven with reverence to our Mother Earth, the Elemental and Ancestor Spirits, the Source of all life and the Divine Feminine. It was built in 2003 in response to a dream. In 2002, grief about not having a dedicated space for women to gather in worship of the Divine Mother, led me to ask the dream for guidance.
That night, I dreamt that Quan Yin, who now sits in front of Women’s Temple and is the Goddess of Compassion, came alive and filled with shimmering light. If I adjusted my vision, I could see both her earthen cement form and her luminous light, embodying the wisdom that our true nature is infused throughout the many forms of matter on this planet.
She pointed her right hand to the ground where Women's Temple now stands. After deep deliberation and discussion with my partner, and not without doubt and fear, I realized that I must follow her guidance.
After the cement was poured and floor joists hammered into place by my partner, myself and community women, prayers were inscribed by each person in the foundation. Again, prayers were inscribed in the walls before we installed the sheet rock. I am filled with gratitude for my partner Allan's labor of love in bringing the Temple to completion, and to the women who contributed in whatever way they could, through labor or financial offerings or both.
Since 1992, there have been in the neighborhood of two hundred ceremonies on this land. Women gathering for Seasonal and Full Moon celebrations, Dakini practice, study, shamanic teachings, healing circles, and more. Energy is gathered here through these ceremonies and through our prayers and gratitude.
Many of the women who have gathered on this land for years understand Sacred Space and Intention and the forms of earth based practices. As new women join us in gatherings, I feel moved to offer guidelines for participating at Women's Temple.
One of the beautiful things about Women's Spiritual gatherings is the juicy spontaneity that can arise ~ a song emerges here, a prayer there, sometimes a dance. Women wear bells and laugh. I have found that having ways to make the sacred vessel and to be intentional allows that to happen in a way that is enlivening and sustaining rather than distracting.
So, in the Spirit of Coyote, I offer these guidelines not as rules that you will fear breaking--we've had enough of that, all of us. I offer them as a way, among many ways, to step in. Coyote keeps the balance in the Sacred with her lightness of being. But Coyote pokes holes in false piety. As you move through these words, keep Coyote at your side.
Sacred Space
Sacred space is everywhere. Just as in my dream of Quan Yin, the luminous Ground of Being infuses all of life. Doing the diapers is not elevated over contemplative prayer. And yet, we need places that we honor as Sacred. Set apart from the mundane world, where we can quiet our minds, open ourselves to guidance and gratitude and expand beyond our normal day to day selves. This is the Sacred Circle, the Medicine Wheel, The Grove, the Mandala, The Temple. On the weaving loom, the temple is that which holds the thread to the loom for the weaving. It is my intention and prayer that Women's Temple is a place where we offer gratitude and reverence to Her who holds and weaves us into the tapestry of creation throughout our lives, and that our unique tapestry is meaningful and beautiful. But the temple cannot be held to the loom if the loom is not sustained. Sacred space holds us and we must hold it in return.
Indigenous peoples know that the divine is always in reciprocal relationship with sentient
beings, requiring our prayers, gratitude, and sacred intentions in order to manifest themselves on earth. Out of this understanding emerged ways to be in sacred space, ways to prepare, ways to enter the circle, ways to behave with intention, and practices to ensure the flow and order of the universe. Our disregard of this practice of reciprocity is evidenced everywhere now in the degradation of the planet.
When we come into ceremony with intention, we are saying to the Spirits, the Divine, the Elemental beings, that we are here and open to their guidance, and offer our gratitude not only in our words but in our care and conduct.
On Entering
When you come into Temple, please remove your shoes. Please don't wear them on the white rug, a beautiful and gratefully received gift, and one that requires care. On a very practical level, you save me spot cleaning and vacuuming time and will preserve the carpet for many years. Please be as careful on leaving.
The Charge of the Goddess is on the table next to the red donation bowl. Take one, smudge yourself at the altar, a good time to make a prayer ~ and take your seat. Whoever is holding Temple that day will be drumming or rattling or perhaps there will be music playing or silence. We hold silence until all the women are gathered.
Smudging
We burn dried plants or tree resin as a way of purifying any obstacles that stand between us and Spirit. The smoke carries our prayers to Sprit and sanctifies the space. When you come into Women's Temple, there will usually be a smudge pot on the right side of the altar with sage burning or tree resin on charcoal. I will have smudged the space before we gather and invite you to put a bit of resin on the charcoal and smudge yourself with the feather you will find there. The feather is a vulture feather. From ancient times, the vulture is understood as a Goddess or Dakini who eats death for us and transforms it into new life. The streamers on the feather are white, blue, yellow, red, green, and black, representing different Elemental energies, directions, and the six Dakinis in Tibetan Buddhism. The Dakini is the sky going Goddess, who aids us in transforming inner poisons into medicines. When you use the feather, know who you are with, place it with respect, untangle the ribbons with intention. Be mindful of the burning charcoal in relation to the feather.
The altar is a place of power and beauty. Each object on the altar represents either a Diety or the beings of earth, air, water, and fire, the essential components of life. You will find feathers, bones, rocks, instruments, flowers, plants, statues of deities or animals, ritual implements, and candles on the altar. The three Thankas above the altar are, from left to right, Tara, the Buddha Goddess of healing and compassion, Throma, the fierce black Dakini who assists us in cutting through the really tough stuff that stands between us and our true nature, and Vajrayogini, the Queen of the Dakinis, who is the Passionate Cosmic Female.
The sculptures on the altar and around the Temple are either replicas of ancient Goddesses from the paleolithic through the bronze age eras, or contemporary renderings of Her.
We construct the altar with an attitude of reverence and make it beautiful in both gratitude for all the elements that sustain our lives and as an invitation for Spirit to speak to us. The altar helps us to remember the basic and essential aspects of the life cycle. A way to think of it is that the altar is Spirit's home in the Temple. If we were throwing a party for Spirit it would be the banquet table. It is our responsibility to make a good feast of beauty.
Ceremony
We will ground and then call to the Spirits of the four directions, the ancestors, and Elemental beings. If you are new to this form, simply be present and do what we do. We'll take care of you.
Usually whoever is holding Temple will have selected a reading and Tarot cards are often available for choosing before you sit down. After the reading we sit in silence for several minutes. The silence is opened with a bell and that is the time to either keep your silence or to share blessings, prayers, or needs that need to be spoken in the circle. Often women will ask for healing for loved ones who are facing challenges, or they might share a dream that would be beneficial to the community, or perhaps they will share something personal. There will be a bowl in the center of the circle with a replica of the most ancient Goddess known to us (300,000 BCE) resting in the bowl. If you want to speak, simply take the Goddess and speak. When you hold the Goddess, no one will interrupt your sharing. The tradition of the talking Goddess is that the other women listen. This is both an opportunity to share and be held by the circle, and a respon-sibility to speak from our hearts, using discrimination and mindfulness about sharing the time.
Texts
We usually speak the Charge of the Goddess to form our circle at the beginning of the hour. Many traditions understand that the words we speak as prayer and as liturgy are sacred. Because the actual texts are considered to be as sacred as the teachings, we treat the texts accordingly. After we're finished using the texts, please gather them and put them on the altar for our time together. This goes for any other texts we use as well.
Instruments
When we call to the Wise Ones at the beginning of our circle, we use rattles and drums. They are made of animal skins, clay, wood and contain seeds, stones, crystals. They are the voice of the elements as we call to Spirit. A rattle contains small bits, sometimes broken. When shaken within the wood or skin, the sound is whole and healing, just as our brokenness when contained with love can become healed and whole. The drums resonate with the heart beat of the Mother Earth and our heartbeat. Whatever the instruments are made of, they are Sacred. Use them with care. If there is an accident and one is broken, let me know. We'll figure it out together. When we call together, our intention is to pour our heart's longing and our gratitude into the drum or rattle or voice.
Donations
Making donations to Women's Temple is an important aspect of intention. Your donation not only helps to defray the cost of running the Temple, it is an exchange of energy and an expression of reciprocity which helps to sustain my energy. We in the West have been socialized to consider offerings as products, we pay our money, we get our product. Along with that reasoning goes a tendency for all of us to get the best bargain we can. Women's Temple is not a business and whatever is offered here is not a product.
In Buddhist traditions, teachers ask for Dana (donna) and usually suggest a range as guidance. One isn't paying for a workshop, there is no "fee,"but there is an understanding that the one offering the teaching and holding the space needs to be sustained both in body and spirit. It's a beautiful model.
I ask you to make an offering of $5 - $10 Dana for each Sunday morning gathering. No woman will be turned away for financial reasons. Whatever your monetary offering, bringing flowers from your garden, candles, readings, smudge, labor, and most of all, sacred intention, are all part of what makes Women's Temple.
May any benefit from our gatherings be extended to all beings, everywhere, without one
single exception.
Cover art, drum, and feather by Susan Bradley.