Two Guided Imageries to allow your inner wisdom to come forward: Meeting your Wisdom Goddesses and Experiencing the Sacred Feminine Archetype
Here are two guided imageries that can help you get in touch with your inner wisdom by tapping into your intuitive knowing, very much a quality of the feminine principle that grows stronger with use. In a group, a leader can read the script slowly to others, pausing to allow time for inner wisdom to come forward. You can also do this with a friend or record it for yourself and just listen. It is like creating a “waking dream” for yourself or others.
Meeting Your Wisdom Goddesses
( Read slowly and pause often.)
Sit comfortably where you are and take several deep cleansing breaths from your belly as I read the words that will bring you in touch with your inner wisdom goddesses….
“The archetype of the Goddess has come in to activate on all levels, the long-buried yearnings in women for the Sacred Feminine.” (Jean Shinoda Bolen).
As you allow your breathing to bring you to your center, think in terms of having an inner collection of archetypes or subpersonalities of the sacred feminine…..We are now calling a meeting of these divine feminine wisdom counselors to enable us to come home to ourselves…..to be in touch with our wisdom within.
Use this moment to move inward, following the rhythm of your breath, leaving behind all distracting thoughts in order to listen deeply to the archetypal wisewoman that resides within you………...PAUSE
We will first call upon the wisdom goddess, Metis. Her energy may present itself as a shape, a color, a scene, a feeling or an image. Receive whatever comes to you for this is your inner goddess of practical wisdom--wisdom that is applied and has an intelligence of mastery of a skill that is evident through your work, whatever that work may be. Allow her energy to come forward in whatever form she takes and acknowledge her as a part of yourself, with gratitude and appreciation, for what we focus on, we energize within ourselves. Focus on this Metis energy and give her space, hearing whatever message she brings to you….PAUSE
Now with your breath, release this Metis energy image, thanking her for the knowing she has brought to you and give space to our second wisdom goddess whose name is Sophia and her wisdom resides within us as well. Call her to you and welcome her presence in your life. She is eager to arise because she has been all but forgotten for five thousand years…..
Sophia’s wisdom comes from her quest for spiritual meaning and the experience of mystical insight. Take a few moments to hear her reminder of how she is and has been present in your life. Welcome this opportunity to connect with her and just listen………..PAUSE
Now gradually release this inner experience with gratitude and when you are ready, call forward Hecate, our third wisdom goddess. Call her forward from your wisdom goddess council. She embodies intuitive wisdom that is honed by observation and enhanced by diffuse awareness. She is the dark goddess of discernment and decision making, often named goddess of the crossroads of life, who is present when difficult decisions need to be made. She may share some of her experiences with you….Take time to hear what she has to say…..PAUSE
Time to now bid Hecate farewell for the present moment in order to be ready to move into an encounter with your fourth wisdom goddess, Hestia, a wise, calm presence. We call forward your inner serenity that translates into outer harmony and a comfort with everyday things. Experience her presence, recognizing the sense of peace that brings…...Hestia makes a house a home, creates sanctuaries and sacred spaces. Her energy can quietly transform a group of strangers into a community….be with her now and listen to her message….PAUSE
Now take time to thank these wisdom goddesses that you have been brought forward from within yourself. They are a part of you, your wise counselors. Know with certainty that they reside within you and are available for consultation at any time. Take a moment to affirm this knowing and then gradually, gradually bring yourself back to waking consciousness…. When you are ready, move your body and be fully present, bringing with you this knowing of your own wisdom.
A Second Guided Imagery: Experiencing the Sacred Feminine
(Read slowly and pause often.)
“There was a time when to be a woman was to be directly in the image of the Divine; There was a time when God was a Woman and Her spaciousness filled the vision and touched the hearts of every man, woman and child who worshiped Her. She was called Goddess, Lady, Mother of All, Great Mother. Her manifestations were many: Huntress, Queen of Heaven and Earth, Mistress of the Animals, Lady of the Plants, Creator, Sustainer, Destroyer. It was She who created life and nourished it and She who deprived it and took it away. All things were subject to the Great Mother who was the origin and resource of every living thing and of the inanimate world as well.”
Take a few deep, cleansing breaths, breathing from your very center and allowing the wind awareness of this process to bring you more deeply within yourself. Let each breath remind you that it is your center which nourishes you and it is your breathing that takes you there. Letting yourself sink deeper and deeper into relaxation, feel each breath you take as a source of energy as well as relaxation, allowing your breathing to move you deeper and deeper into yourself.
PAUSE
Relax, deepen and protect yourself with a circle of white light. Your breath is becoming slower and slower, moving lower and lower into your place of “being”....And now become aware of the wind, hear the rush and hum of the wind...Feel the breezes sweep over your body. Let the wind sweep through your mind, clearing it of all thoughts, sweeping away all fears, all pain, all anger, all doubt. Let the strong, clean wind sweep over you and carry you deep into the recesses of your soul, deep, deep into the recesses of your psyche. Let the wind carry away all of your strain, all of your tension, all of your confusion…..
Now, feeling clean and clear, feeling very light as you float down and down, protected as always by the circle of light that surrounds you and keeps you from harm. You now enter a dream-like sleep during which you will experience, like ancient women, a ritual of healing, a ritual of regeneration, a ritual or remembering, regeneration, and rebirth……...
You have arrived in the most sacred place found within your center. This is the domain of the Great Mother Goddess. This is her “home” within you. Spend a few moments opening and creating this space within you to allow her entrance, joyful that you are able to return once again, honoring, accepting whatever comes, the mixture of radiance and darkness that the Great Goddess embraces.
PAUSE
The Great Goddess is transformative energy. Promoting growth through guidance toward autonomy or through challenge and stimulation--ever encouraging you to “be” who you are.
It is She who inspires and entrances, bringing about positive changes of consciousness as well as physical well-being. You are giving yourself time to create and bring to you the energy of the Great Mother, just as women throughout the ages have always done……..
Form a picture of her in your mind’s eye, using all of your senses, seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling and Knowing……..What is she like? How does she feel about you?....How is she like others you know?
Create a vivid composite of her qualities, giving her the fullness of both light and dark, the positive and the negative. What are her nourishing, supportive qualities?....Her destructive, unsettling attributes? Take this time for yourself to experience Her as fully as possible, creating her energy and image using every sense that is available to you.
PAUSE
Now feel yourself being wrapped in all of these qualities as though you are being held in Her arms, perceiving and receiving the healing She brings to a women when she is seen, felt, heard, touched, and sensed in her totality. As you luxuriate in this powerful feminine energy, enveloped completely by this wonderous feeling, allow your own personal symbol or symbols of Her to emerge, rising and coming to you as an indication of her presence within you. Create this symbol for yourself now.
PAUSE
Now allow your experience of the sacred feminine to gradually become less intense, slowly bringing yourself back yet still allowing this energy you have discovered within yourself to replenish, restore and inspire you. Bring back Her symbol or symbols with you as evidence of her presence and Her ability to offer a vision of being female that extends far beyond the limits of our cultural images…….Return gently to the room and feel your body, knowing that through it you will always remain connected to this deep emotional, caring center, your deep feminine center, the home of your sacred feminine energy……..Gradually become aware of your breathing once again…...your body…. And in your own time, stretch and be fully present once again in the room.