We are all familiar with the story of Adam and Eve and the “fall of humanity.” Beginning with the writings of Paul of Tarsus (or maybe before even this), Eve has been cast in the role of temptress and the cause and origin of “original sin.” It was through Eve and her act of disobedience that evil entered our world. Since then, Eve, and all of humanity, especially women, have been condemned, forever seeking after the redemption from humanity’s “fall.”
What if humanity never fell and the “disobedience” of Eve was not disobedience at all? What if Eve’s actions were all for the purpose of awakening humanity out of our unconscious state to one in which we know the difference between good and evil and through which we are able to discern our own path in our journey home to our true nature? What if Eve was meant to eat of the fruit so that humanity could become “like gods,” conscious of our own separation and the spark within which beckons us home? What if Eve was not the source of original sin, but was instead, the cause of our awakening and by that awakening, the Mother of all the Living?
In this mini-course, you will have an opportunity to explore the story of Adam and Eve, its true origins, and the deeper message beyond the patriarchal overlay. Freed from the lens of fear, power and control, Eve is no longer “sinner” or “temptress” but is the Awakener of Humanity and the Mother of all the Loving. Here, Eve is the model of the empowered feminine – awakening to our true nature as fully Human and fully Divine.
I have spent my lifetime coming to know myself. As an educator and counselor, writing has always come easy, but art has come as a great surprise.
When asked by a friend if I could do any kind of art, what would it be. The answer was easy: ICONS! If you came to my home you would understand why. My walls are plastered with sacred images of holy (and not so holy) people. I collect religious icons and the icon-esque work of Kelly Rae Roberts. I also have a collection of tarot and oracle decks – one of my favorites featuring the art of Robert M. Place and another with the iconography of Shiloh Sophia McCloud,
After responding to my friend’s collection, I suddenly found myself “writing” icons. But these were different – spiritual art with a universal message transcending the perceived separation of religion and belief.
Thanks to a butt kicking from a couple dear friends, I am now making my sacred art available to the public in a wide range of media – greeting cards, prints, apparel, journals, mugs and more. My art comes from my heart and has its own message for those for whom the message is intended.
Images below available as prints, on canvas, t-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, laptop and cellphone skins, journal covers, and more!
As I was awakening this morning, Eve came to me. She revealed herself to me as a black woman with a magnificent afro and with eyes which gleamed with a brilliant blue light. She was accompanied by the tools of her trade – specifically the light of the Soul which awakens each of us to our true nature and which compels us on the search and fulfillment of our life mission and purpose. This light of the Soul has been depicted by the ancients in the form of a serpent of fire (more on that later). Eve came to remind me of her purpose so that I could remind humanity. Eve was not the temptress; neither was she the source of original sin! Eve was the awakener – awakening humanity out of its fearful nature into the truth of love. But don’t take my word for it. Below are Eve’s words meant to speak directly to your Soul:
Eve Speaks Part 1
First of all….you know I’m a myth, right!? I am a myth. There was no literal Adam and Eve. And….we are all Adam and Eve. This is the mystery of myth. My story…our story…is the human story and it might interest some of you to know that the version of our story that you find in the book of Genesis isn’t even original. Instead, your Jewish ancestors borrowed this story from their captors in Babylon because it helped them make sense of their own situation – plucked out of the home they had come to love and away from the god they had come to know in the temple into virtual slavery and having to find a new god and a new way of relating to their god while exiled in the land of Persia under the rule of the Chaldean king, Nebuchadnezzar II. (Google it if you don’t believe me!)
But just because my story didn’t actually happen, doesn’t mean it isn’t true. In fact, as is the case of all myth, my story communicates deep and profound truths – truths that are found in layers depending on the reader’s current state in life and their own unique perspective on life, love and God. To some, my story represents disobedience and punishment. To others, the subjugation of the Divine Feminine by warring hoards of patriarchal men. To others I represent the dawn of creation. And to others I represent the source of original sin and the danger of feminine wiles. None of these interpretations are wrong, but none are complete or absolute truth either.
All that being said, today I want to share with you my favorite version of my (our) story. It goes like this…..
Once upon a time, we knew nothing but God. We knew nothing but the infinite, all-encompassing, overwhelming, unconditional love of God. In this state of knowing, we also knew ourselves to be this love for in this knowing we were one with God and knew nothing other than this oneness. Then one day, God wanted us to understand ourselves as seemingly separate from God – still overwhelmingly encompassed in God’s love, but separate. In this separateness, God created infinite expressions of God’s self. Together, we represented the prototypes of what human beings would one day become. In this state, we lived in complete harmony and peace – knowing ourselves as nothing but love and in this love, still intimately connected with God. This was paradise – what the scripture writers have called “Eden.” For an eternity we basked in this state of Divine Love – seemingly separate in this love but intimately connected with the fullest expression of this Love which is God.
Then one day, God, (who is really just a child at play), decided to try something new. God said, “I have this idea of a human being – a creature that would be made in our image, but will be in physical form.” As expressions of the Divine, we jumped at the chance to participate in God’s creation, so we volunteered, “Let us be this new creation – let us become human beings.” But then God dropped the bomb – “Thank you for wanting to participate in my play. But I must warn you, if you should accept this task, if you should become human, you will forget. You will forget the love that you now know yourselves to be. More importantly, you will forget me. You will forget your origin as One with me and the peace and harmony that comes with that knowing.” We had to think about this for awhile. What would it be like to forget love? What would it be like to forget God? What would it be like to forget who we really are? As we pondered this opportunity, God remembered, “You know, you won’t really forget all of it. In fact, we can never truly forget our original nature. We can never truly forget love. Because as part of me, we are never really separate, it will just seem that way. And what if I help you out a bit by planting a seed within your human heart of remembrance – something that will help you to remember and guide your way back to me? Would that help?” We thought about it some more and then we agreed, “Yes, we would participate in God’s play and try out this thing of being human.” And so we did. We agreed to become human and came down into the world as human beings – seemingly separate from God, but always one just the same. This is how it began.
Hello my dear children, I have spoken to you once before about my (our) Divine origins and how I (we) were created in the image and likeness of Divine Love and freely chose to engage in God’s play at being human, how we chose the perceived separation from our Divine Source in Love and Oneness so that we could experience ourselves as individual and unique so that God could experience Godself in all if Her infinite number of expressions. Now you all know the story that has been told of this separation, how the human experience in all its pain and suffering is actually punishment for disobeying God by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. While some may find comfort in this interpretation of the ancient tale, there is another perspective and an even deeper truth that lies hidden within this story for those who have eyes to see.
As I mentioned in the first telling, the story of “the fall of man” is not even original to the Hebrew people who in the latter days approaching the Common Era, placed this story in their scriptures. Instead, this is a Babylonian story borrowed by the Hebrews from the popular Gilgamesh Epic as it helped to explain their plight as conquered and indentured slaves of the Babylonians. Once a thriving and powerful nation, Israel had been conquered, their temple destroyed, and all people of value deported to Babylon to live as slaves to their conquerors. They had lost their home. They had lost their God. Believing in a punitive and jealous god, it made sense to them that they were being punished for something terrible they had done. They then chose women, and all that had been associated with feminine power – the serpent, the fruit, knowledge and wisdom – as scapegoats for their suffering and pain. This battle between the warring patriarchal god and the peace of the divine feminine had been going on for ages, but the Babylonian captivity cemented this divide.
This is the historical perspective on my tale. But, for those who have eyes to see, there is an even deeper truth – one that resonates beyond history and speaks to the Soul of the human race – a people that long to be freed from the pain and suffering of the human condition and returned to their original state in Oneness with LOVE in God. This is the story of EVE as awakener. But even more than this, this is the story of WOMEN (or the Divine Feminine within us) as the Awakeners – those sent to become awakened themselves and then through their own awakening, to become awakeners for others – most especially the men (the Divine Masculine within each of us). Here is how it goes in the book of Genesis:
Now the snake was the most wise (usually translated “cunning”) of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He asked the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat from any of the trees in the garden’?” The woman answered the snake: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, or else you will die.’” But the snake said to the woman: “You certainly will not die! God knows well that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, who know good and evil.” The woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and the tree was desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened… The man gave his wife the name “Eve,” because she was the mother of all the living.
Genesis 3: 1-7, 20
This is the largest, widest, deepest truth of the Genesis tale – WOMEN are the AWAKENERS of the human experience. To state this in more universal terms, apart from the human temptation to divide by gender, the DIVINE FEMININE is the awakener of the human condition as it is embodied in people of all genders. THIS is the task of the Divine Feminine as it is embodied in human form – to WAKE US UP. Specifically, to wake us up out of the illusion of separation – the illusion that is the cause of our fear, the cause of our “sin” and the cause of the suffering and pain in the human experience. The Divine Feminine within us is that which REMEMBERS our ONENESS with Love, with God and with all of Creation. The Divine Feminine within us is that which awakens us to this remembrance and then calls us to return to our origin in Unity and Wholeness. As it plays out in our masculine/feminine roles, (I use these terms as they relate to energy, not gender. Masculine being the active, protective, provider energy and Feminine being the energy of receptivity, allowing, and receiving) it is the feminine which is called to awaken and in its awakening, to guide and support the awakening of the masculine.
EVE was not a disobedient sinner who through her “sin” brought punishment to the whole human race. EVE is the AWAKENER who calls us all to awaken out of the sleep of ignorance into the knowledge of THE TRUTH – that LOVE is our original nature. She then shows us how to return to that LOVE – right here in the human experience, thus returning us all to the Garden where we will experience heaven on earth.
How have you experienced the presence and energy of the awakener within you? How has she led your to the truth of your Soul?
Image Source: Pixabay
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For the past several years, I have been operating two distinct and separate businesses: Authentic Freedom Academy and Temple of the Magdalene. While there has been much overlap between these two aspects of my offering to the world, they individually represent two aspects of my own being. Authentic Freedom Academy represents the more linear, pragmatic, academic and therefore masculine aspects of whom I am. Temple of the Magdalene has become the platform through which I have channeled the more interior, inner, shadowy, esoteric, and therefore feminine parts of whom I am. I have bounced back and forth between these two poles depending on where I am in my personal journey and what aspect of myself needed attention. I have always felt a little divided as I have nurtured both of these offerings and confused as I have tried to navigate how best to share these offerings in the world. The question has always been, “Who am I and where do I want to focus my attention?”
Not anymore. As will always be the case when we enter fully into the dance of the masculine (active) and feminine (receptive) within us, the Holy Child will be born. Authentic Freedom (dot) Love is that child – born out of the full integration of the masculine and feminine within me, a new life has come forth – one that reflects all that I am and all I wish to offer in the world – the kind, the fierce, the courageous, the vulnerable, the self-righteous, the compassionate, the empathic, the steel-clad boundaries, etc. etc. etc.
This integration of the Divine Masculine and the Divine Feminine and the Love Child produced out of that union is the highest/deepest/most profound/ lesson and truth of every spiritual tradition that exists – whether it be Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Pagan, Indigenous, etc. etc. etc. As it relates to my own Catholic-Christian tradition, this is the most hidden of all of Jesus’ teachings…
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Authentic Freedom (dot) Love is my Holy Child. What is yours?
As a child, I was granted a vision. The vision was the herald of “the end of the world,” along with the promise that this ending was not set in stone, but could be thwarted, or rather, re-directed through the accomplishment of one simple task. The task, however, proved not to be so simple. In the dream, this task was symbolized by the command to “gather your friends, dig up Lincoln’s bones (as in former President), and restore them to their rightful place.”
As I reflect on this dream in light of what we, as an American culture, and as a world, have undergone in the dreadful year of 2016, the dream makes total sense. If we, as a culture, and a world, continue to stray from the nobility, integrity, authenticity, honesty, and righteousness symbolized by our 16th President, we shall certainly manifest our own demise. For me, the dream becomes especially potent as we approach the passing of the baton from President Barack Obama, (who for me, more than any recent president has represented the Lincoln archetype) to Donald Trump. To say that this is a volatile time in our history would be an understatement. In my lifetime, it has never been more critical that we “gather our friends” and “restore Lincoln’s bones” to their rightful place.
But what does THAT mean? This is where the 40+ years since the vision prove to be helpful, especially those since 1993 when the red brick flew through the air and hit be between the eyeballs – waking me up to my mission and purpose in this life. This mission is nothing short of bringing heaven to earth! (No small goals here!)
What does THAT mean? In short, it is doing what Jesus did – discovering my own Oneness with the Divine and in that Oneness finding my unique gifts and call, and through these gifts and call, finding meaning and purpose in my life. Then, showing others how to do the same. Abraham Maslow called this process self-actualization. Carl Jung called it individuation. New-agers call it ascension. By whatever name you call it, the process is the same – asking and then finding the answer to the questions:
Who am I?
Where do I find that place of inner peace, connection and contentment?
What are my gifts and how am I being called to use them?
What does this have to do with Lincoln’s bones and the end of the world? It’s simple really and it is the other part of the vision that has been given to me in adulthood:
A gathering of friends who have and continue to do for themselves what Jesus did (becoming self-actualized), who know what their gifts are, and who are finding fulfillment in the use of these gifts for their own sake, and (as it relates to Lincoln’s bones) for the sake of the betterment of the world. It is through this gathering of friends that:
Hospice will be offered for the dying world.
Support will be found for those who are grieving the loss of what they have known and for the anxiety they will be feeling in the face of a great unknown.
Prayer will be offered for the sake of healing and wholing our world.
Resources will be made available for those who are hurting and in need of healing – spiritual, emotional, mental and physical healing.
Rituals will be done for the sake of restoring our world to its natural state in love.
Peaceful, non-violent activism will take place to help raise awareness to all the places in our world in need of love and then working toward being that love.
Education, formation and empowerment will be made available for those who wish to be a part of birthing a better world – ie: heaven on earth.
For nearly 50 years, this vision has been with me and the weight of this call. For the past 23 years, I have worked diligently toward this call. I have risked much for the sake of this call and have been called insane for believing such a call. In the face of what is unfolding in our world, I find that I can no longer question, doubt or challenge this call because I know it to be true. Whatever the cost, and without a safety net, this is what I am here for and what I am called to do. If we do not work on changing our own hearts from fear to love and if we do not work toward supporting others in doing the same, the consequences are nothing short of our own lives and the lives of our planet…and you don’t need to be a prophet to figure this out. It is right here before our eyes, if we take the time to look. We can no longer afford to bury our heads in the sand, unless of course, we are happy to see our world end.
Toward this end, I have put out the clarion call and gathered a group of friends to envision a better world and to dream about how we are called to be loving vehicles for change. If you feel so-called, join us on Monday, January 2, 2017 at 6:30 pm for our next Gathering of the Tribe. Here you will find community, support, inspiration and empowerment. If you are not in the Oshkosh area, join us by intention, or better yet, call together your own group of friends.
As I pondered this call at the juncture between 2016 and 2017, for myself and for those I have gathered, who should come to me but Mother Mary with the following words:
Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.
I offer these words to all of those I know and love who envision a better world, or rather, who KNOW the world they came to live in and are now being called to create! Thank you for heeding this call and thank you for all you will do to restore our world to the Love it was meant to be.
Amen! Amen! Hallelujah! and Amen! Amen! So Mote it Be!
It is no longer about building the new world. It is about BEING the new world.
– Lauri Ann Lumby
For those of us who came here to be leaders in bringing forth the new world – in helping others to see the new world that is already here in our midst, we each have our own unique task , our own unique portion of “the new” we are here to help others see hidden within “the old.”
Some are called to be leaders of revealing the new world in the fields of education, others in medicine, others in banking and finance, others in governance, others in what was formerly called “the military,” and others in marketing, commerce, industry, manufacturing, agriculture, etc.
The specific field in which I am called to reveal the “new” is in what has formerly been called “church.”
In the old world, “church” became the intermediary between the people and their “god” and the outside perceived authority charged with telling the people what to do. “Church” ruled through fear and manipulated with threats of eternal punishment and damnation.
This was never what God intended. Neither was this what Jesus worked for. Even Paul would have cringed if he’d seen what would become of his “Body of Christ.”
While this model of church continues to serve the needs of those who choose to remain in the old world – the world ruled by fear; for those choosing to live in a world of and for the purpose of Love, a different experience of what has formerly been called “church” seeks to be made known.
For those who in the old world were raised in one of the many Christian traditions, or who resonate with the person of Jesus, the “new” that is being revealed, and that I am called to help others see, starts with him.
What did Jesus do?
While we cannot recognize as authoritative or historically accurate, when we look past 2000 years of orthodox interpretation and through centuries of redaction and political maneuvering, and allow the Divine to speak to us directly, many truths can be gleaned:
Jesus prayed. And he prayed often, and he taught his disciples how to pray.
It was through prayer that Jesus experienced a deeply intimate, loving and even parental relationship with God (which he called “Abwoon”).
It was also through prayer that Jesus eventually came to realize his Oneness with God.
Through prayer, Jesus came to know God as Love and in this Oneness, came to know himself as Love.
It was in this Love that Jesus came to experience “heaven on earth” or as Jesus explained it: “the kingdom of God within.”
THIS is the kingdom Jesus proclaimed – LOVE.
Jesus lived and taught two commandments: Love God. Love Neighbor. And Jesus considered EVERYONE to be his neighbor, especially those the outside perceived authority called “sinners” or “unclean.”
In the words of Isaiah, Jesus:
Brought glad tidings to the lowly,
Proclaimed liberty to captives,
Gave sight to the blind,
Freed the imprisoned and oppressed,
Healed the brokenhearted,
Comforted those who mourned
And proclaimed a year acceptable to the Lord.
IS 61: 1-2
Jesus invited “those who had ears to hear” to move beyond the fears created by the outside perceived authority that served to separate them from “God” to the love that had been there all along – the love through which they were empowered to remember their Oneness with God (each other and all of creation) and that in this Oneness, they would know peace.
THIS is how Jesus healed the sick and set captives free.
THIS is what Jesus taught and then empowered his disciples to do.
THIS is what we too are called to do.
THIS is what I am called to reveal as the “new” model of what we formerly called “church”
As Jesus himself taught that we are all ONE and that there is indeed no separation; in the new world this proves to be true:
Here we are no longer
Jew or Greek
Slave or Free
Male or Female
For we are all ONE.
Gal 3: 28
Here, the truth within all traditions is sought and love becomes the measure of that truth.
As I am called to reveal “the new” in what has formerly been called “church,” the Catholic faith in which I was raised in my starting point.
The Church:
That taught me about Jesus.
Who called me to do what Jesus did.
That taught me the value of ritual and the transformative power of contemplative prayer.
Where I learned that scripture is indeed the Word of God when we allow God to speak to us through and beyond the imperfection of human words.
Who gave me the angels, saints, mystics and all souls as my companions and guides.
Who gave me a God who is both Mother and Father and a God who as Spirit is beyond gender, name or form and who is both outside and within.
And the “Church” that taught me that we are here to know ourselves as the Temple of God and that as the Temple of God we have each been uniquely gifted and that it is through these gifts that we find fulfillment in our lives as we serve ourselves and others through the use of these gifts.
This is the starting point, but certainly not the end. For if we are all truly One, then it is our job to seek this Oneness – especially where we have most often fought for the sake of our perceived separation – in that which has formerly been called faith, religion or belief.
This is the “new” that I am called to reveal as we move more and more into the new world of Love – a “new” way of being what we formerly called “church.” And in this, we will learn that the “new” isn’t new after all, for it has always been here, right in our very midst, when we have had the eyes to see and the ears to hear.
If this this is the kind of “new” experience of what has formerly been called “church” that calls to you, please join us for our weekly gathering: “Being the New World”
Mondays 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Tuesdays 9:00 – 11:00 am
Authentic Freedom Academy
1103 School Ave.
Oshkosh, WI
Suggested Donation $10 – $20
If you are not in the Fox Valley and are interested in participating in these gatherings, please begin by subscribing to our weekly Empowerment Newsletter.
If you are interested in recorded sessions of our weekly gathering and in becoming part of our online community, please email Lauri at lauri@authenticfreedom.love. If there is enough of an interest, these will be made available for a small monthly subscription fee.
Today is the New Moon in Libra, and because it is the second new moon in the month of September, it is considered a “Black Moon.” With this black moon, we celebrate a powerful time of endings (the ending of the past 9 year cycle) and a powerful time of beginnings. The Dark Goddess is she who accompanies us in this time of ending so as to enter into our new beginnings. In celebration of the Dark Goddess, and in celebration of my favorite month, October, I am offering my Dark Goddess course at a discounted price. Learn more and redeem your discount HERE.
My Beloved Children, the time of reckoning is here. For centuries, I have appeared to the innocent and the faithful to deliver a message of peace. Now is no different than all the other times – to Bernadette at Lourdes, Juan Diego at Guadalupe, and the children at Fatima and Medjugorje. My words are the same. Your world yearns for peace, it longs for peace, it pines for peace. And still, there are those who only want fear and who take their power by manipulating you through fear.
This is the energy of what has been called “Satan” or the “Anti-Christ,” yet it resides not outside of you, but dwells within. The fear you see “out there” is merely a reflection of the fear you harbor within yourselves which finds its way out sideways when unacknowledged, untended, unhealed.
After centuries of this fear holding sway, critical mass has been reached, and now it is time for you to choose.
A new world is being born in the midst of the fear that has held sway and this new world is made of love – for those who are willing to make the choice. The choice is yours – love or fear.
The time for reckoning is here. If you think the world is getting worse, more violent, more divisive, more fearful, it is; but not because this is the path of the future or the path of your doom. Instead, think of it as being in a centrifuge – any and all fears that have not yet been healed are coming up to be healed and released – or not. It is your choice.
If you’ve been doing this work all along, the work will be “easy.” You will feel the fear, get drawn into it, perhaps even act on it. Then you will see it for what it is – another fear asking for release. If you haven’t been doing the work of confronting, transforming and healing your fears, it will feel excruciating, overwhelming and perhaps hopeless. The purpose in this is so that you are sure not to miss it – to give you one more opportunity to take responsibility for your fears and the behaviors they drive, then surrender them to your Divine Self for healing and release.
To those who choose this path of self-love, you will soon find yourself in a new world – a world made of love.
To those who will continue to choose fear, you will remain in the world made of fear until you decide to choose otherwise. The choice is yours.
No matter your choice, I am here to remind you that you are loved without condition – in fact, it is of love and for the purpose of love that you were made, and for this you will always have my blessing now and forever.
I am holding you in love.
Your Beloved Mother,
Mary
To support being healed of our fears and to receive the special blessing of Our Blessed Mother, join in proclaiming her prayer:
Hail Mary, full of Grace.
The Source of Love is with and within you.
Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
Click on image above to learn more and to register.
Every culture and religious/spiritual tradition has its dark goddess. There is Kali in the Hindu religion, Pele in the Hawaiian culture, the Celts have the Morrigan, the Sumerian’s had their goddess Erishkegal who ruled over the Underworld. Each of these dark goddesses had their own unique gifts and purposes within the mythologies of these ancient cultures. Some were creators, others destroyers, some held sway over dark magic and others presided over the transformational journey – both in life and in the time between. Whatever her gifts and her purpose, the dark goddesses’ presence was integral to the health and wellbeing of the culture.
The same can be said of the dark goddesses within the Judeo-Christian tradition, but unlike the pre-Christian cultures who speak openly about their dark goddesses, building altars in their honor, performing rituals and celebrations on their behalf, marking their feast days as an integral part of the cycle of the year, the Judeo-Christian dark goddesses remain in the shadows. She is known only by those (mostly) women who have dared to risk condemnation and banishment by acknowledging the presence of the dark goddess and speaking her names; for unlike her pre-Christian counterparts, the dark goddess of the Judeo-Christian tradition has been suppressed, even demonized, in favor of the patriarchal, hierarchical god.
The Goddess, whether of darkness or light, however, cannot remain in the shadows and will find her way out, making herself known in whatever way she wishes. As the Goddess in her light form has found her way out in the Christian Mother Mary, so too has the dark goddess made herself known in the pseudo-historical/mythological women who have played pivotal roles in Judeo-Christian his/herstory. These are the women who suffered condemnation under patriarchal rule and who were made scapegoat for the sins of the men who ruled. These were the women who were leaders in their own right, but were later condemned as witches, harlots or whores. These were the women who played the role of transformer, but were later judged as evil. These were the Goddesses who ruled as equal beside their masculine counterpart but who were later set aside in favor of a god who is only man.
Lilith – Adam’s “first wife,” made of the same substance as Adam.
Eve – The Mother of the Living
The Witch of Endor – Counsel to the King
Bathsheba – Mother of Wisdom
Asherah – Co-ruler with Yahweh
Jezebel – Priestess of Asherah
Chokhmah – Holy Wisdom
Mary Magdalene – Co-equal with Christ
Salome – Making the Way for Christ
The Whore of Babylon – Catalyst for Change
In all her forms, the Dark Goddess of the Judeo-Christian tradition performs one task, she presides over the process of transformation. In this role, she is the harbinger of death, a catalyst for change, the witness to the dying and midwife to new life. As is true of all Dark Goddesses, the Dark Goddess of the Judeo-Christian tradition in fierce. She dares the darkness of loss, suffers the unknown of the time in between and endures the pain that always comes in bringing forth new life. These are the gifts promised to those who give their allegiance to the Dark Goddess and the blessing imparted on those who simply find their way into her embrace through the challenges of their own life experience. For those with eyes to see, the Dark Goddess is alive and well in the Judeo-Christian tradition and lying in wait for those who seek after her blessings.
In this online course, you will have an opportunity to meet each of these Dark Goddesses of the Judeo-Christian tradition and through learning, meditation, creativity exercises and ritual, become attuned to their presence. With the support of the Dark Goddess, you will find the courage to move through the trials of life and be empowered, like her, to be a vehicle for transformative change.
In the past several years, I have become more and more aware of my call to be a “shadow worker” (read my blog about shadow workers HERE). Having been raised Catholic and receiving the majority of my ministerial and counseling training through the Catholic Church, “shadow worker” was a phrase foreign to me, and admittedly brought up images of demons, the devil, and other evil things lurking in the shadows. What I have come to understand that shadow work is the Goddesses work, specifically, that of the Goddess in her “Dark” forms.
To me, the Dark Goddess is that which supports us in being present with that which others might avoid – fear, depression, melancholy, loneliness, evil, violence, disease and death. The Dark Goddess supports us in being present in and through these areas of “darkness” in our lives and this work is no less holy than holding someone in the light…in fact, it might be more holy. As I have reflected on this very real “shadow” experience in my life, I have come to understand that the Dark Goddess is not absent from the Catholic/Christian tradition in which I was raised, but is in fact, quite present. She is present for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear her voice which whispers to us through the words of the patriarchal agenda and the men who wrote the scriptural text. The Dark Goddess is where she should be found – hiding in plain sight….when we have the courage to look.
For over 2000 years, the bible has been interpreted through the lens of the patriarchal, hierarchical male. Not anymore! Through this course, Discovering the Goddess through Biblical Women, Lauri Ann Lumby, OM, MATS, peels back the veil of patriarchy, revealing the presence of the Goddess in the archetypal roles played by biblical women throughout HERstory.
Each day, through the duration of the course, you will receive a brief history of a great woman of biblical history, along with reflections on how these women provide powerful examples and models for each of us to follow. You will meet and spend time with thirty different women of the Judeo-Christian scripture, beginning with Eve – Mother of All the Living and concluding with Mary Magdalene – Priestess and Beloved of Christ. These are women who have endured struggle, tragedy, violence, heartbreak, and who have been victors in the end. Whether they died for their cause (Lot’s wife) or became a queen (Esther), they were powerful women who reveal the face of the Goddess. Through these biblical women, we see the Goddess, in seeing the Goddess, we begin to see ourselves. In viewing the biblical women in this way, we have an opportunity to rescue these women from HIStory and shed new light on their stories, this time, as Goddesses in their own right.
No matter your choice, I am here to remind you that you are loved without condition – in fact, it is of love and for the purpose of love that you were made, and for this you will always have my blessing now and forever.
