For over 2000 years the world in which we live has been dominated by the energy of the Divine Masculine, by the God Force. This has been made manifested most obviously through our religions and societies being led, orchestrated and ordered by patriarchal ideals. This age of the world has come to be known in the spiritual community as the Age of Pisces. This Age of human spiritual development gathered greater momentum largely due to the emergence and widespread effect of the Christian Church. The Divine Feminine, the Goddess was eclipsed, almost forgotten and almost eradicated from our everyday consciousness and our everyday lives. Yet this was part of the plan, part of the every revolving cycle of our spiritual evolution and journey back to Source.

To remember the Goddess, the Divine Feminine we had to forget what She meant to us. The purpose of this was so that a more refined vibration of Her could come into evolution. She is our creation and our creative energy and so reflected in her re-emergence humanity also have been given the chance to create themselves anew.

Before this age, the Great Goddess was worshiped and venerated in almost every culture upon every continent and it is to this ancient past we travel to find out about her so we can awaken the memories of her in the present day.

The Goddess is one with many faces. She has many names and many expressions. She is Maiden, Lover, Mother and Crone, Giver of Life and Bringer in of Death, Weaver of the Web of Life, Creatrix and Great Goddess of All Life. She is the descending light we call the Shekinah, She is the Bath Kol, the Dove of Peace, She is Sophia, Wisdom and Isis the Great Egyptian Mother. She is the Feminine being who oversees life on our planet Gaia, she is Amaya the Galactic Mother, she is the Star Goddess and Goddess of Moon, Earth and the Elements. And these are but a few of the many names by which we know Goddess.

As with all manifestation the Goddess's many names represent her energy reflected in our limited 3D world of duality. Ultimately she is Love. The Goddess is in everything and of everything, she is the underlying fabric of all Life and it is She who encourages all evolution. She is the paint and the canvas of all Life in limited Space and Time, the Great Mother that birthed all of our realities seen and unseen, the dream of reality, the dream which was instigated by the Great Father, by God. God and Goddess are one in the same, the Divine Source of all Life, yet it is the Goddess who continues to encourage manifest life and evolution.

All of manifestation works through reflection and the reflection is diluted the closer it gets to the physical World. So at the most high the Goddess is the Divine Source and as her energy is reflected through the dimensions she becomes diluted into many names and many faces which is why we have so many representations of her.

The Goddess is reflected at her lowest level (and by lowest we mean closest to our physical world and not "worst"), on Earth through a fourfold cycle that can be seen in our seasons of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Where in Winter she is the Crone, at the first coming of Spring she is the Maiden, as Spring flourishes and draws nearer to summer She is the Lover, and at high summer she is the Mother. Then when Autumn and Winter come she once again becomes the Crone.

So we will look at these aspects of the Goddess and learn a little of their myth and meaning.

As the Crone Goddess is the Bringer in of Death, the coming of winter and the destroyer. Her names are many in this aspect, She is Kerridwen, Hecate, Kali and Sheila-na-Gig.

By Bringer in of Death we mean that the Goddess is seen as the one who takes us out of physical life and allows us to return to her primordial womb for regeneration before we are reborn. Our bodies are made of Her body, and all physical matter degenerate, dies and is reborn anew. And so our bodies deteriorate, and are given back to the Earth so that our souls can be free of the limitations of matter. She is the wise old woman who can lead us into death so that our soul may rest and rejuvenate before choosing our next life adventure.

The Crone Goddess is also the destroyer, the one who clears the path in Winter so that new growth may appear in Spring. She is also the destroyer of our illusions and helps us to see past the illusion of separation into oneness into the highest spiritual part of ourselves.

The Crone or Hag Goddess is a powerful and compelling representation of this destroyer energy and She has long been demonised by patriarchy because of her wisdom and power. Still today we call old women hag's or crone's and use the term in a detrimental way, to put down and to dismiss. We also have images of bent over, hooked nose witches, with evil and bitter dispositions. Here we have a taste of the conditioning we are subject to in relation to this powerful femanine image. The true wisdom of the old woman who has lived her life and experienced much; the Crone who no longer relies on her sexual appeal to win favour, are aspects of the Goddess women would do well to understand and re-claim. Do not be offended if a Priestess of the Goddess calls you a crone, it is the highest compliment!

Even today we see reflections of how we undervalue the Old Crone. Older women are often refered to as "old bag's" and the elders of our society are some of the most vulnerable. We have lost respect for their wisdom and experience of life, we leave them to degenerate in retirement homes and think their contribution to society is over. All this because our patriarchal society values youth, because to be young and productive is the only valuable commodity a human can offer its society in this material world. But where is the wisdom in this? We have much to correct in our hearts and minds.

And so, the Great Goddess in the Crone aspect is the energy of Bardo or the stillness of the state between death and rebirth into the physical. As the Crone assists us in passing over to the unseen realms at the death of the physical body, she also assists us in regeneration so we are eventually reborn just as sure as Spring comes after Winter.

It is in Spring that we meet the Goddess as Maiden, as she brings in new life and fresh growth. She is the Virgin - a word that actually means a woman unto herself, needing no-one else, and not a person who has not known sexual communion.

The new Goddess as Maiden is awoken at Springtime in the Northern Hemisphere where we can see the first of the spring flowers, the lambs are being born and the sun begins to grow in strength, causing the first shoots to sprout up from the Earth. At springtime the Goddess is known as Brigit, a name you must all know gives us the route of the name of these British or Bridgits Isles.

And as the Wheel of the year turns, we meet the Goddess as Lover, the aspect of the Great Goddess who holds in place the mysteries and sacredness of sexual union and our sexual energy, one of the most potent and misused forces available to us. This energy truly allows the merging of the spiritual and the physical and is a true path to your soul if used and respected with honour and reverence it deserves.

If we reflect we can see in our times how sexual energy has been marginalised and made petty. Contrary to our moder attitude, in the past we have been encouraged to repress our sexual energy due to our moral stance on its use and expression. But when we repress our natural energies, we create unnatural blockages. What we forget is that the energy has too flow somewhere, it doesn't just go away, this why we have such distortions of the sexual energy prevalent in our society.

And so it is time for us to remember the beauty and sacredness of Divine Union, the great empowerment and surrender to the Divine that sexual union can lead to. It is time for us to honour our lovers and ourselves and the very act of making love. This aspect of the Goddess responds only to Love and She is called amongst many names Rhiannon, Aphrodite and Venus.

And so a word here about masculine and feminine energy and a little lesson for men and women on how our sexual energy works. Let me stress here when I speak of masculine and feminine I do not mean male and female.

The masculine energy within us all - for we all without fail possess both masculine and feminine energy - works by moving from the Earth towards Heaven, whilst the feminine energy works the opposite way, from the Heaven towards the Earth. And so the way to open your beloved's heart, if your beloved is female is to start with the head, to begin at the top and work your way down. Begin in the Head, with romance and pleasure and woo-ing her. Then the energy will move down into the heart, and when a woman's heart opens so do other things! You must remember this if you are in love with a woman, that her energy works in this way and is to be honoured and respected as such to make the most of your love making.

The masculine energy in all of us works opposite to this, whoever said the way to a man's heart wad though the stomach was aiming a bit too high. Yes, masculine energy works from the ground up so to open his heart you have to start a little lower. It is time to remember the sacredness of our unions to show love and respect for one another by taking time over one another and giving rather than just taking. We need to educate one another to open our hearts to this love and the act of making love rather than just having sex. The return of the Goddess means a return to the wonders of making love in sacred union, in divine bliss. These are all a part of Her mysteries and the mysteries of understanding the Goddess as Lover within ourselves.

And so as the Sun begins to grow strong in Summer the Great Goddess becomes the High Fruitful Mother, the great nurturer and guide of our lives. She is the bountiful one always providing for us that which we need for growth and development. She is the abundance in our lives, she is our creative passion and flow, she is the comforter and the one who we approach for counsel. This aspect of the Goddess can be seen manifest on Earth at high summer when all of life is bountiful and vast. Her names are many, Demeter, Isis, Danu and Banbha are just some of the names given to this aspect of the Goddess.

And so these are the earthly representations of the Great Goddess and how she becomes manifest in our everyday lives through the seasons of the year. I can't express enough how working with the wheel of the year and continually flowing through the cycles of the planet we live upon can bring about a real appreciation of the energies which manifest throughout the seasons. Most people suffer in winter when the sun doesn't shine and I have found personally that celebrating the seasons and learning about the energy each one brings is a real healer in terms of correcting such conditions as S.A.D. and the Winter Blues.

So from this point we can begin to remember the energy of the Great Goddess, to awaken her lifeforce within us for we all carry her spark, she is the great spiritual being of which we are all a part. We are Her children, Her offspring and She is one way back to wholeness and balance.

So women, remember you are the Goddess and hold the power of creation within you, create your dreams, manifest your desires. It is time to stand your ground and be who you were born to be. Allow that suppressed creative person inside some space to create, give her permission to come out. Become the Virgin unto Herself, the one who is strong and committed to her own development and life. It is time to take your place in the world of patriarchy and to use your power and energy to rebirth the Goddess through your higest aspirations for the good of the many.

(An interesting tip for those of you still of menstruating age, at the time of your period you are less likely to accept those things in your life you do not want, desire or agree with, you are less likely to accept anything that is not your truth. Some people call this PMT but I call this a gift from your body to your mind because it shows you the things in your life that annoy and that you have no patience for. So next time you have PMT have a look at what it is what is making you loose your rag and see if this aspect of your life is the one that needs your attention.)

Men, it is time to nurture yourselves, to see that to feel emotion is a strength not a weakness, to see the feminine within you as a gift, your creative gift. The Goddess in you is your power to make things in your life and in your world happen. It is your power for change which I know some of you find difficult. Do not fear your tears, crying is a natural expression of the body, it is a way in which we release our emotions so that they do not eat us up and create disease and disharmony within us. Do not fear to soul search and go against the status-quo, do not fear opening your heart up to others especially those to whom you are closest. Learn the arts of seduction and romance so you may know how to pleasure the feminine in your partner. Honour and respect all women of the Earth as equal to you and a source of great wisdom.

Together then, we shall rekindle the light of the Goddess within us. We shall learn to respect the Divine Feminine and not ridicule it as being less or weaker than the masculine within us. Acknowledge that Goddess as well as God exist in our world and exist within us.

To create change in our world we must first create change within ourselves. Show yourself honour and respect, honour and respect the feminine within you, then extend this to everyone you meet, to the planet upon which you live and the people you come into contact with, always aim for your highest good and highest expression of love.
The consciousness of the Great Goddess is returning to us. It is manifesting through our hearts and our creation, She is bringing humanity back into balance through us all.

End.