When I tried the first meditation from Womanspirit: A Guide to Women's Wisdom
I came across an old copy of Womanspirit: A Guide to Women's Wisdom by Hallie Austen Iglehart in Second Story Books at Dupont Circle. Published in 1983, it was one of the early works to integrate feminist spirituality with the feminist movement, after the author had been involved in both spiritual yoga and feminism and felt torn between them-- because in her experience all the yoga institutions were male-dominated and even downright misogynistic, while feminist groups in the '60s and '70s had no place for spirituality or mysticism. Iglehart spent years feeling "torn, physically and psychically, between my feminist and spiritual selves." By the time she published this book, she must have found a receptive audience, since that era was being invigorated by books like When God Was a Woman and The Spiral Dance. Nowadays, third-wave feminism is naturally more attuned to this integration with women's spirituality, thanks to the groundwork laid by books like these.
So when I rode downtown on the Metro recently, I brought along this book and began reading. It eschews theory and abstraction, focusing instead on personal narrative and immediate experience-- the latter in the form of guided meditations for the reader. So I practiced the first one (p. 14) while riding.
By the time it was done, I was in tears. It went:
Take a few minutes when you can be quiet and undisturbed. Sit or lie down, making sure that you are comfortable, your clothes are not binding, and your breathing is unconstricted. When you are settled, take a few deep breaths to relax. Go over the events of the day in your mind. Then, begin to imagine what your daily life would be like from the time you got up in the morning, throughout the work of the day, until you went to bed at night, if you lived in a world where:
* your family name were passed down from mother to daughter
(How I long for a more direct connection to my maternal line of ancestors. In women's circles conducted by Carol Christ, she has women list their mother's mother's mothers as far back as they know their genealogy. In my case, I know their names only four generations back. When my mother researched our genealogy, she found the male lines better recorded than the female lines. So... this is all we know: I am Joanna, daughter of Ann, daughter of Anna, daughter of Margaret, daughter of Anastasia, who came from Ireland.
You know how Arabic names use patronyms, based on the father's name? When I gave myself an Arabic name, I defied patriarchal convention and made it a matronymic, naming myself the daughter of my mother, for a long-overdue change.)
* the decision makers and organizers of your community were women
(That's what I love about SpiralHeart: the most powerful and respected individual in the community is Raven, who is seniormost of the Crones with her wisdom so respected by the whole community, and thanks to her the Crones form the most influential and cohesive core group of the whole community)
*the religious leaders of your community were women
(Again, SpiralHeart and the whole Reclaiming tradition in general owe more to the work of powerful wise women than any other community I've ever been in... so I'm thankful I've known a taste of what this feels like in real life. Likewise, all four of the progressive Muslim groups I'm with are led by women, which to me is an especially powerful development in the intensely overbearing Muslim patriarchy that has taken itself for granted as normative for far too long now. This is why Muslim feminism is so vital to the fabric of my existence, and I feel so blessed to see this new vision of possibility being born into reality before my eyes.)
*the women in your family and community were looked up to as the wise ones, the carriers of the most important knowledge, and the keepers of the mysteries of life
(SpiralHeart has given me so much to fulfill this deeply aching need in my life... my family is sadly a long way from this... thank Goddess for SpiralHeart...)
*when you are sick you went to the healing women for help
(For many years now, I have been going only to women doctors, dentists, psychotherapists, acupuncture, Reiki, etc. as far as possible... I swear, just being in the care of competent women is enough for me to feel that healing is already underway.)
*when a special event came up, the women of your community gathered together to decide what to do
(I would feel so much more secure and reassured than I do now, knowing the community's life was getting the care it needed.)
When you are finished imagining these situations, note what emotions, fantasies, and other reactions came up to you. You may want to express your responses in writing, drawing or dancing.
It is a well-known psychic axiom that if you begin to act as if something were true, it becomes more possible. Are there ways that you can begin to express the powers you felt in the meditation in your everyday life?
(I was so overwhelmed by the beauty of the vision this meditation brought me, I could not hold back my tears even though I was surrounded by people. I felt loved and blessed that, to some extent, I've already begun to manifest this in my life... I felt deep pangs of longing and yearning for the many ways it hasn't manifested yet... but I want this to be the world my daughters come to know someday. I'm expressing the power of this meditation by writing this in my journal... but I will dance it too.)
So when I rode downtown on the Metro recently, I brought along this book and began reading. It eschews theory and abstraction, focusing instead on personal narrative and immediate experience-- the latter in the form of guided meditations for the reader. So I practiced the first one (p. 14) while riding.
By the time it was done, I was in tears. It went:
Take a few minutes when you can be quiet and undisturbed. Sit or lie down, making sure that you are comfortable, your clothes are not binding, and your breathing is unconstricted. When you are settled, take a few deep breaths to relax. Go over the events of the day in your mind. Then, begin to imagine what your daily life would be like from the time you got up in the morning, throughout the work of the day, until you went to bed at night, if you lived in a world where:
* your family name were passed down from mother to daughter
(How I long for a more direct connection to my maternal line of ancestors. In women's circles conducted by Carol Christ, she has women list their mother's mother's mothers as far back as they know their genealogy. In my case, I know their names only four generations back. When my mother researched our genealogy, she found the male lines better recorded than the female lines. So... this is all we know: I am Joanna, daughter of Ann, daughter of Anna, daughter of Margaret, daughter of Anastasia, who came from Ireland.
You know how Arabic names use patronyms, based on the father's name? When I gave myself an Arabic name, I defied patriarchal convention and made it a matronymic, naming myself the daughter of my mother, for a long-overdue change.)
* the decision makers and organizers of your community were women
(That's what I love about SpiralHeart: the most powerful and respected individual in the community is Raven, who is seniormost of the Crones with her wisdom so respected by the whole community, and thanks to her the Crones form the most influential and cohesive core group of the whole community)
*the religious leaders of your community were women
(Again, SpiralHeart and the whole Reclaiming tradition in general owe more to the work of powerful wise women than any other community I've ever been in... so I'm thankful I've known a taste of what this feels like in real life. Likewise, all four of the progressive Muslim groups I'm with are led by women, which to me is an especially powerful development in the intensely overbearing Muslim patriarchy that has taken itself for granted as normative for far too long now. This is why Muslim feminism is so vital to the fabric of my existence, and I feel so blessed to see this new vision of possibility being born into reality before my eyes.)
*the women in your family and community were looked up to as the wise ones, the carriers of the most important knowledge, and the keepers of the mysteries of life
(SpiralHeart has given me so much to fulfill this deeply aching need in my life... my family is sadly a long way from this... thank Goddess for SpiralHeart...)
*when you are sick you went to the healing women for help
(For many years now, I have been going only to women doctors, dentists, psychotherapists, acupuncture, Reiki, etc. as far as possible... I swear, just being in the care of competent women is enough for me to feel that healing is already underway.)
*when a special event came up, the women of your community gathered together to decide what to do
(I would feel so much more secure and reassured than I do now, knowing the community's life was getting the care it needed.)
When you are finished imagining these situations, note what emotions, fantasies, and other reactions came up to you. You may want to express your responses in writing, drawing or dancing.
It is a well-known psychic axiom that if you begin to act as if something were true, it becomes more possible. Are there ways that you can begin to express the powers you felt in the meditation in your everyday life?
(I was so overwhelmed by the beauty of the vision this meditation brought me, I could not hold back my tears even though I was surrounded by people. I felt loved and blessed that, to some extent, I've already begun to manifest this in my life... I felt deep pangs of longing and yearning for the many ways it hasn't manifested yet... but I want this to be the world my daughters come to know someday. I'm expressing the power of this meditation by writing this in my journal... but I will dance it too.)