What was the catalyst that truly began my journey beyond alcohol?
In this two part series on the podcast, you will meet the woman who has had the most profound impact on my personal journey of awakening to the divine feminine within. This episode is truly a full circle moment for me and I couldn't be more honored to share it with you.
Join me for a crucial conversation with my personal spiritual Mentor, Achintya Devi, founder of the Goddess Rising Mystery School and Global Sisterhood, as we traverse what it means to embrace the sacred Priestess Path.
In this 2 part series you will:
Make sure to tune in to part 2 next week!
Transform your relationship with alcohol by focusing on yourself. Discover how to fulfill your needs without alcohol's help. Understand your body's signals, leverage your emotions, and expand your desires for real, lasting pleasure.
Join "The Naturally Sober Woman" self-study course, where you'll learn everything I teach my clients in a compact, affordable, lifetime access package.
Awakened sobriety! Discover how to fulfill your needs without alcohol's help, labels or missing out! Expand your desires for real, lasting pleasure.
Join The Awakened Sobriety Self Study Course, where you'll learn everything I teach my clients in a compact, affordable, lifetime access package.
What was the catalyst that truly began my journey beyond alcohol?
In this two part series on the podcast, you will meet the woman who has had the most profound impact on my personal journey of awakening to the divine feminine within. This episode is truly a full circle moment for me and I couldn't be more honored to share it with you.
Join me for a crucial conversation with my personal spiritual Mentor, Achintya Devi, founder of the Goddess Rising Mystery School and Global Sisterhood, as we traverse what it means to embrace the sacred Priestess Path.
In this 2 part series you will:
Make sure to tune in to part 2 next week!
Transform your relationship with alcohol by focusing on yourself. Discover how to fulfill your needs without alcohol's help. Understand your body's signals, leverage your emotions, and expand your desires for real, lasting pleasure.
Join "The Naturally Sober Woman" self-study course, where you'll learn everything I teach my clients in a compact, affordable, lifetime access package.
Awakened sobriety! Discover how to fulfill your needs without alcohol's help, labels or missing out! Expand your desires for real, lasting pleasure.
Join The Awakened Sobriety Self Study Course, where you'll learn everything I teach my clients in a compact, affordable, lifetime access package.
Do you ever feel like you're out growing alcohol, that you are longing for a deeper connection to life? If alcohol is keeping you playing small and feels like the one area you just can't figure out, you are in the right place. Hi, my name is Mary Wagstaff. I'm a holistic alcohol coach who ended a 20-year relationship to alcohol without labels, counting days or ever making excuses. Now I help powerful women just like you eliminate their desire to drink on their own terms. In this podcast, we will explore the revolutionary approach of my proven five-shifts process that gets alcohol out of your way by breaking all of the rules, and the profound experience that it is to rediscover who you are on the other side of alcohol. I am so thrilled to be your guide. Welcome to your journey of awakening. Welcome back to the show. My beautiful listeners. Today's guest is literally the reason that this podcast even exists. They may have made it here some other way, but I don't know of any other way. Five and a half years ago, I bravely made my way to the Pacific Coast of Mexico to participate in something called the Goddess Yoga Arts Retreat. I was at a crossroads in my life and I knew something needed to change After becoming a mother, something inside of me awoke that I could no longer ignore. I didn't know what I would find, but I was curious and ready to find out what I didn't know. When I met our guest for the first time, she spoke the words I never knew by name, but remembered by heart and soul. When I heard the word priestess uttered for the first time, it was like the gates of heaven. It was like the gates of heaven parted and I knew right then everything I had been searching for was the divine feminine that was alive inside of me, and nothing would ever be the same again. Our guest, achintia Devi, is the founder of Goddess Rising Mystery School and Global Sisterhood. She's dedicated to supporting women reclaim their ancient feminine power and sovereignty and embody their soul essence. Achintia is a priestess of Avalon, ordained in the Temple of Isis and the Rose Lineage of the Magdalen. Through extensive alchemical and somatic training, archetypal Goddess embodiment, oracle gifts, moon wisdom and her priestess path, achintia expertly guides women through light and shadow home to their innate wisdom, truth and power. She journeys to her priestess homes of Avalon and Egypt nearly yearly for rededication offerings and communion. She has received the blessings from these sacred lands and the Rose Mystica High Council to share these mystical teachings and oracle transmissions in her offerings through Goddess Rising Mystery School, and to me, she is the living embodiment of devotion to the reclamation of the divine feminine. Achintia, you gracefully weave esoteric and spiritual traditions, mysticism, astrology and history into your offerings in a way that allows your students to awaken to our own deep intuition, wisdom and interconnectedness. You are a fearless leader and an example of what it means to live in alignment with nature, the cosmos and the in our own womb mysteries as women. Without further ado, achintia Devi, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 2:Mary, I am so deeply honored to be here, to feel these words reverberate from the depths of my heart and I thank you. I thank you for that glorious introduction and really honoring the depth of your share and your tears that speak volumes to the heart connection that we share and to what is alive and is a potential really of living in devotion. You said that about me and I feel that reflection for you as well, so I have tears that are coming from my eyes that I offer to you in your devotion and I see you and I honor you and I thank you.
Speaker 1:Wow, thank you so much. My heart is pounding so fast that I can't when I think about this path, that it's just like it's a miracle, and I do believe it was my divine path, my divine appointment. But it is so deeply moving because it's just, it is the essence of the truth, of who we are, and that it has kept hidden from us is, I think, why we're doing this work. Obviously, why you're doing this work is to spread this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and in this moment I feel it's like you are the proof, you are the living embodiment of really my prayers in action to be able, from the depths of my heart, to offer and to serve and to create impact, so that there's a nourishing of that seed of your truth, of your wisdom, of your power, that has been inside of you all along, that gets tended to, that gets to reawaken and be rediscovered for your own self. That's unique for each woman and for you as you have come into this incredible flowering and blossoming of your path and of your life's work, in your devotion to then also create impact and that beautiful ripple effect where, you know I think of that beautiful quote from Ram Dass we're all just walking each other home.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I see that and recognize that I'm so grateful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, it really is the impact of, you know, goddess rising and just in deep sisterhood connection, right, sacred sisterhood connection, and that that grid of anchoring to the truth, to sovereignty, is it literally is like the most profound thing in my life. I mean, I don't know of anything else that connects me more deeply to the truth of why we're here than that reflection, you know, of one another, but in us, you know, in that deeply sacred way and where we get to heal the sisterhood wound and we get to reclaim ourselves as community. And you've really, you know, you've really curated the environment to, to, to really be able to exemplify that and and give permission for others to to be able to do that in their own communities too. So I do like to start on just a little personal note, and then we'll get into all the priestessing things. What are you doing right now for that's just for you, that you are really delighting in in life?
Speaker 2:Well, I just want to honor the question in and of itself because I think that and I will answer this, of course that I want to say that it is so important what you're what you're pointing to, because in a world, especially for women, where one of the shadows that we can carry is over giving, it's so important to give to ourselves, and so that is really the replenishing of the chalice, the replenishing of the cup, so that we can continue to offer and serve from a place of feeling full, from a place of feeling that that joy filled, that we do have energy to actually give. So a couple of things for me that's always been a non-negotiable really in my life is communing with nature. So whether that's walking it on our property in the rain or attending to the garden or, you know, taking the compost out and having some moments where I'm just lying in the sun or I have my feet or hands on the earth, to really be in a place of, like non-logical thinking, just presence being but being with presence, that's always something for me, that's I have to and it's not even doing, it's kind of funny, but it's the being, this part really get out of that, that momentum of the constant doing that our society globally really pushes at this time. So that's, you know, that's one of the things I love to take when we don't have a drought. I love to take baths and really immerse myself in water, so I'll go from hot bath to the cold plunge back and forth. That's something that I love to do. That is really good for my body, for my nervous system. That gives me a really powerful reset. And then my meditation practice, and that does look differently. It doesn't necessarily happen in the way of just sitting cross-legged and breathing, you know, although, yes, absolutely breathwork. But sometimes that comes for me like five minutes a day where I'm moving to music, like I just created a playlist today and it's really too, and it's called solace. You're welcome to check it out for anybody that's listening. Music is one of the ways that I love to really bring my own emotions and whatever I'm moving through, either personally or collectively, to have the music be a sanctuary, to dance or to move or to journal or to just or to stretch or to cry, and so music for me, whether it's listening on playlist, creating a playlist, or actually for myself, like I have a handpan, that's right, two of them right in front of me. So I love to play music and that's something that I do, I will say, weekly, like not necessarily every day, but just getting my hands on the piano, utilizing my hands to create music in that way. Those are some of the things that I just I love. I mean, there's tons more, but those are the things I feel like I'm actively doing, right now.
Speaker 1:Yes, Thank you for that, and it's such, and what I'm hearing is it's embodiment, right, it's like in bringing it all through the body and experiencing it through your senses, through the body, because we do. We live in this world where we, you know, if you're online, as your business is, you have to engage in this way, and so it just sounds like this really beautiful, beautiful balance to just kind of bring you home to the, because we only experience life through the body, right? And so if we're disconnected from that and you know, so many of our listeners here are here because, you know, maybe they have kind of lost the way on their, on their path through dissociation, and I love that you're offering, you know, just all these different ways of coming to presence that are beautiful and fun, and, yes, Chintia's playlists are amazing, so we will make sure that you can download those and have access to those because they're so good. We listen to them all the time. And the other question I was going to ask you and I have a feeling it's like some of these similar practices are what do you do to tend to? You know your when things aren't feeling great, like your emotional needs, but I have a feeling that it's some of the same things I think you're right on with that.
Speaker 2:I wonder if there's anything else additionally that I could think of. Well, I think this really just opens up a powerful aspect of emotion that I would love to speak to, because Everything that I just shared previously about embodying inner ways to get into the body feel so deeply interwoven with the power of emotion and the body and where we can disassociate and then where we have the opportunity to also come home to within our own self, so that we are embodied. And that really does come to the place of emotion, where there's emotions that we judge as bad or that feel uncomfortable or that we don't like, and when that happens, we are conditioned to go towards comfort. So, go to the comfort, go to the comfort when we're faced with emotions that are uncomfortable, oftentimes, that can bring into freeze, into fight or into flight, and that's when our nervous system is, of course, in a state of panic or feeling attack or threat, etc. And so when we can bring our body back into a place of presence where there's coherence with the nervous system, and be present to our emotions and have a the recognition that our emotions don't need to be fixed, they don't need to be healed, they just need to be felt. This is one of the greatest cycle breakers that I believe we as human beings can very much attune with. That is a turning inward instead of away from where there can be great inner transformation. So, giving a few examples, so if we're feeling and I say we meaning like the collective of humanity, because the common denominator is we all feel, and so of course this is going to be different for each person, but let's just say, for example for me, that I am feeling simultaneous grief and rage, and so it's important to recognize that we, as human beings, we can feel multiple feelings and emotions at the same time. It does not need to be either, or it's really both, and that's really one of the powers of priestess, of the great mother, to hold sometimes even opposing views or quote unquote opposing emotions at the same time. So with, for example, just the global events that are taking the world right now, there's a part of me that is raging and there's a part of me that is grieving, and then there's a part of me that holds that sacred center in the midst of all of it, and that's really that place of soul. And because I'm human and we're all human, we also have that experience of feeling our emotions, and that's one of our greatest gifts. And so, instead of pushing away grief, instead of pushing away rage, the invitation that I always bring to myself or anybody is how about we feel that and when we feel the emotion, it's not about creating a re traumatization of things that have happened within the vicinity or sphere of that emotion, but it's giving the body permission to be in its natural state, which is of feeling. So, just with the example of music or dance, like bringing that emotion where I can then just cry and cry and grieve along with the thousands, millions of other people in the world who are grieving right now, I can then also rage, I can scream, I can utilize my body in a way that's not to harm anybody, but to bring that anger out in a way to move it in a healthy way, like, whether that's like pounding my hands or arms to the ground or screaming, this is about moving energy. And when we do that in a healthy way, and especially I just want to reiterate this with the anger piece, it's not about using this emotion to create harm or it's not about using grief to play the victim. It's just about allowing ourselves to actually feel and give ourselves permission to feel, and when we do that, it's just like water. So this analogy of how water always transitions Water goes from the rain to, let's say, a river that is then making its way down to the ocean, and then that, from the ocean, that water evaporates again into the rain clouds and comes back down as rain. So it's not like one of those parts of the cycle is bad right, just like our emotions. So it's like when we feel our emotions, to the extent, what's going to happen is just like water they're going to shift, and so it's where we have gotten stuck in an emotion that can create this looping of, or just it's a stuckness, it's a stagnancy. And so I feel that, just by bringing this part up about emotion or how I'm feeling, it's like there's the personal feelings and then there's like there's the collective. And so this is where, on the priestess path, it's like it's not about saying you know, of being empathetic and feeling everything that everybody else is feeling, because actually that's a real sign that you know, even though that can be a gift of oracular nature, it's actually really important to have those boundaries so that you can contain your own self-preservation, but it is a recognition that we are individual human spirits and we are also a part of our collective humanity and because we're a part of our collective right now that, yeah, these are the ways in which you know our emotions are universal. It's a common language that we all speak, regardless of where we are in the world, and so when we have that language of emotion and are able to express in a healthy way, there's so much healing that can happen to come home, to wow what's really underneath that and what's underneath or we're also appointing to where there needs to be reconciliation or repair within our own selves or within others, and really ultimately coming home to self so that we're not abandoning ourselves anymore, right? Not abandoning that little girl inside that is sad. Not abandoning that warrioress inside of us that is raging. So that's an example and I definitely like extended upon that, but it feels really important to share that, given the context of your question. So I'll pause there.
Speaker 1:It's brilliant and it's so important and I it's the most important conversation, not for just our conversation today and the work that I do and the work that you do, but emotions. I could say so much, but I always feel like emotions are the most human thing about us. First of all, and one of the things that I teach and I probably shared on the show is and what I'm hearing you say is, it's not so much about the story behind it, it's about the sensation as the experience of the emotion itself, as a first hand embodied experience. I mean, and there can be the story, but it's like we getting out of your head and into your body is how we can process that. And then what we do is make space for something new to arise, right, a new understanding, a new perspective. And what need do I have that's not being met right.
Speaker 2:So that voices can be made so that there can be a different experience in life.
Speaker 1:Exactly, yeah, so we don't have to keep reliving these same karmic imprints, past life patterns, all the things. And it literally is the most important part of the work that I do and I think you know it is kind of where we have to go in humanity, or, at this tipping point, where we can't be less emotionally available, is, I do believe it's the next phase of human evolution, as our deeply embodied emotional experience that it's not a problem, it's an experience and it's a portal for transformation and so much wisdom and insight and all of the things. And I love that you spoke about to the both and that we get to be these multifaceted beings. Because I find, with so many women, there's and this is a general statement, but it's my first hand experience is there's just so much guilt for, like you started this conversation with, wanting my space, wanting my me time, wanting to be a sovereign, just woman unto myself, without all the labels, without all the rules, and there's like guilt. You know I have this desire, but then there's this guilt of the shoulds, the doing, the all of that, and then that is why a lot of people turn to alcohol, because it's like they can kind of check out and have this little party of one while they're still attending to not fully present some most of the time, and then they find themselves in this, you know, stuck in this, this rut, where nothing's really being fully attended to in so many ways. And so, yes, the permission to be able to be all of it, that that is. It is the nature of our humanity, I believe, and the archetypal energies that hopefully speak to, sure, yeah, so I did. I was curious if we can backtrack in your own journey a little bit, because I just feel like that take, the emotional takeaway, is just like, yes, it's everything that our audience needs to know, but how did you come to know yourself as priestess in a world that doesn't really mirror that? I mean, at least in my experience, I grew up in a Catholic church. I saw men as priests at the altar. The nuns, the sisters were sitting to the side, and that's why, in the introduction, I said like I didn't even know that this you know in my logical mind, in this lifetime I didn't know.
Speaker 2:It's such a powerful question. You know, I feel like One of the yeah, there's a few poignant parts in my life journey where I could point to, I think, the time where I recognized specifically with the word priceless. I was 17. And maybe I was younger, maybe there was something I mean something else, but I can really distinctly remember this time where I was 17 and then soon turning 18. And there was a couple of things that began to happen for me at that time. I had just begun university, at this really incredible school where you don't have grades, you create your own degree, you have self evaluations, do create your own independent studies, and that's really where I decided to travel the world and do my own independent studies and that's like a whole other branch. But it was at that time where I began to have some past life recognitions of times in Avalon and when. I heard the word priestess, I just it instantly clicked for me and I knew that that was what I was, what I had always been and was here to remember and so, and then it was around that time that I first read the Myths of Avalon and that book. When I read that book as a teenager, I felt like I was literally reading about a past life that I had had, and it was so visceral for me. I actually transported through time and space and had a whole experience where I would be reading for five hours but not really realizing I was reading. I surpassed that part of the brain and really went into a time of visceral and visual experiences and began to really remember those times. So it was really at that time that I just began to really remember. And when I say remember, that is the real bringing. It's not just a logical thing of, like the intellectual remembering, it's literally the part of remembering, bringing parts of self home that had either forgotten or exiled. That happened in this human journey. When we come, when we're born right, when we come from spirit, through the veil of spirit, into matter, we agree to some sort of amnesia that we're going to forget some things, and we're here to spark each other's remembrance and certain things are going to happen in our lives that are going to ignite and have that remembrance again. So that's the timing piece for me.
Speaker 1:Were you like. What do I do with this? Or did you know?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like that was just sort of my awareness at that time that that's what I was and that became the center of my being so much that, when I think of it right now, it's like when we choose a priestess path, or it chooses us really, it's that that is the foundation for everything else in life, which is a path of devotion. Yes, a priestess, I would say, isn't just, it's not just a title, it's not as a person, it's really an oath. That's what makes a priestess a priestess is her devotion and her oath to love. And so, from an even younger age, I used to go to a camp on Vancouver Island and one of the experiences that I had there when I was in a what's it called it's like a leadership development immersion that was three weeks and one of the days we had gone up to do this huge hike and it was time for our solo time and during that time we were each needed to go, choose a path and just be with ourselves for a lot of the amount of time until we heard the bell ring. Of course, this is before cell phones and all of the things. And I found myself finding this path that opened up to a grand vista of the Pacific Ocean, high up on this mountain, and I had this experience where in because of but I believe of all of the physical exertion and going into that state of breathwork and going into that state of communion with nature, that I did enter into a state beyond the human personality, and I would say that this was probably the first time where I really opened up into a state of communion with nature, with God, goddess, with source. And this huge raven began encircling me and stayed with me for a long time and I knew then oh, this is the medicine of magic, and I was new in this moment that I was being initiated into the mystery. I could cry, and the powerful experience that I had within me with this raven who was, like you know, a messenger of source, was basically giving me a energetic download and foretelling of what my future would be, but without necessarily knowing everything. But it was in that moment that I knew that, wow, there's something so big for this life, that's more than just me in my life, and that I just knew in that moment it was magic, it was love, it was eternal, it was real and I'm here for it. And so I made a vow in that moment to always follow this, wherever it would lead, because I knew that it was the path of love. And so that's really where I feel like being a priestess is that it's that choosing love and sometimes you know that really tough choices or that really becomes, you know, or indeed become the foundation for everything in my life. And so that's how I could basically say like okay, or like with your question, like well, what did you know? What are you going to do with this? It was that that I just knew that there was an unfolding and it's been an unfolding ever since. Yeah, there are so many ways, unexpected and vast and small, and through the body, through spirit, through pain, through pleasure, through peace, through trial, through, you know, fires of initiation, through, you know, holy waters of beauty and the whole spectrum.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm so feeling and trust right, Like when you have this moment from source, from the goddess, and knowing like that you will know, you will know the next thing, following your heart, following through the journey of love, and it doesn't. It's not always easy. There could be a lot of risk. I know for me there's resistance. Sometimes it's like yeah, it's like okay, let's go.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, that resistance is so powerful to note and to lean into, because whenever there is, there's like there's two kinds of resistances. There's the resistance from a place of a clear boundary, that's a clear no Right, like that is not for me. But then there's the resistance that's like, oh yeah, that is something I have to do, or that is is something I have to face, or this is a conversation I need to have, or this is an initiation that must be experienced. And, yeah, it's that edge where there can be excitement and fear and being at that threshold of knowing that, well, this is going to change me and I may go through uncomfortability, but ultimately, on the other side, is going to be well, liberation, or there's going to be relief and there's going to be beauty. And, yeah, I think that resistance is a really powerful energy that you've just brought forward, because it's something that we all experience in this life. And then it's what, yeah, what do you do with that? What do you do with the?
Speaker 1:resistance and, I think, being embodied enough or at least working towards that. You know, the knowing of what is my sacred yes and no right, and when you know, like, okay, I signed up for this versus no, this isn't like you said, and that's a practice. And I think it's a practice in trusting ourselves because we're not really given that tool to trust ourselves. You know, it's like every which way, it's like it's this is the path to follow, right? There's all of these things that we're sold and marketed to, that. That's everything but trust yourself.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, that's one of the primary imprinting that we have in our world at this juncture in time and space is that? I would say, obviously not the entire population, because there's incredible indigenous populations that I don't believe have been indoctrinated into this, but there is an indoctrination for a mass part of the population on the planet. That is the belief I could say, quote power or spirit in what you want. God goddess is outside of yourself and that is something that then you need to seek external, fill in the blank to attain. So when we go into that word, you know priest or priestess, in the realms of what priest has been, is that it's like, oh, only God you can only experience, like, as a quote, priest, let's say you could only experience God through me, whereas like priestess and I would say true, priest, you know in the sense, is the complete opposite of that. It's really a part of priest. Priestess in its authentic form and title and role and devotion is to be a support or a guiding force of reflection, to realize that God goddess is inside each and every one of us and to seek that from the inside, not from the outside. So when you speak to that part of the, you know resistance and following that path and trusting. This is where I feel like the trust piece is. So it's not the word I want to use as controversial, but it go. We go into an arena when we think of trust because there's so many imprints that we have around trust from our cultural global conditioning to trust inside, oh, but the power is outside of me, or I need to trust this person because they're more knowledge filled, or they have the connection to God, or they da, da, da, da, da da. And when we give our power away in that, then we're abandoning ourselves and that leads to just continued suffering, and so that that exact sort of portal there when we think of trust is or speak about trust is that invitation to always becoming home to ourselves, to our gut knowing, because our bodies do know, our intuition does know. When we exercise that quote muscle, when we exercise that intuitive muscle and I think each of us in life we know this we have that voice inside of ourselves, that gut feeling, and we don't listen to that. What's like I knew it, I knew it and so, yes, when we know it, but will we act on that? And so that's like that's the muscle we got to train and reprogram ourselves into really following.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh my gosh, it's. I mean, that really is is everything. And I was wanting you to speak a little bit more to our audience because, if you know, I've talked about being, I've talked about the priestess path and in my own experience, but I do think there's probably some questions of what that is and how one would know and yes, this was the introduction that I had to how to connect to source, to the divine was through going to church, right, and kind of always deferring to expert energy, right, the doctor, teachers, parents, even it's like all the authority outside of us. And I think I started my kind of my other side of my spiritual journey because I really did love church and that was kind of there was an, there was definitely a connection. I really loved the ritual and the ceremony and I hear this often from people who, you know, kind of make it to the, the gnosis part of it and that deeply connected spirit. But through my journey with the practice and science of yoga at 18 was when I started to really tune more into that expert energy within and becoming my own best teacher, my own best, you know, doctor, and I'm not saying like don't go get other people's opinions, but you know, so, starting to tap into that, that knowing for myself, so it's like I think so many people, including myself, have been on this path for a long time and there's these little glimpses of it, but just but there's like still this little missing piece. And yeah, I would just love to hear you speak a little bit more to what is priestess. What is the priestess path? I mean, I know you spoke to love and devotion and I think you know a lot of it is the divine feminine too.
Speaker 2:So whatever you want to offer in there, Sure, I would love to, and I would love to begin with actually, how you just spoke and shared about this place of you said the inner expert, so that what I could also say would be the inner authority yes, there's those authority figures outside and then becoming our own inner author, and so I love to bring this and this is really where the cleaning code that comes in is the inner authority is how are you going to be the author of your life? You are the one with the pen, you're the one with the paper, you're the writer, you're the director, you're the producer, you're the star. It's like this is your life. You know all the roles, all of that, and so that inner authority is simultaneously for me on the priestess path, where that is sovereignty met with communion or community. And so when we think of that inner authority that being sovereign, meaning that you are, no one can say I am, I am whole and holy unto myself. That's actually what virgin means. Virgin doesn't, in its origin, mean about you know, a woman who has never had sex before. Of course we could go down that road into, but in origin, you know, it's that she is she who is whole and holy unto herself, she's complete, and so that's really our nature. You know, it's like we are complete. We are complete as a human and we are complete as fully divine. That's bringing both of those together. That, I believe, is the priestess path. We are saying yes to our full humanity and we are saying yes to our full divinity, and the journey of that is to know thyself, and so thyself as human, thyself as divine, thyself as whoa on this earth, the both and of them together. So literally being that symbol, if you can imagine your mind's eyes you're following my words here that there's a sphere or a circle, okay, and that can represent the earth, and then there's another circle that's interwoven with that, that's just, you know, halfway through that circle, so that creates that vesica Pisces, and inside of those two circles together there's that almond shape, and so that's the meeting place, that's the meeting place of spirit and humanity. And how can we live from that place so that we're not denying our humanity and we're not denying our divinity? So that's really, I believe, the, the, the sovereignty piece, and then also comes the, the recognition that, yeah, it's not just also about me, it is about the we. And so there is that concept of communion, right communion, which this kind of ties into, as I was sharing about the humanity and the divinity part. But the communion is that I am in common union. I'm in common union with the earth, with the elements, with the cycles of life, I'm in communion with spirit and I'm in communion with other humans. That makes the community so. This is really where there's the priestessing. That's the personal path which is absolutely needed and is necessary and is each of our own individual journey. And then there's the recognition within along the priestess path where oftentimes it can begin like that on a personal level, but it opens up to where the priestess becomes planetary and our roles as being torches, lighthouses, beacons, light and shadow workers who are here for the collective. We're here to be a part of the planet. We are here to be a part of community, so that we can really remember Again. This is bringing parts of what has been exiled or forgotten, bringing that aspect home again. We are not creatures who have lived for tens of thousands of years in a home with a white picket fence and not knowing our neighbors. We've lived in community and have had matriarchal communities. We've had different ways of where we've been living, with a common vision, with common goals, and so that's really has always been. Pastimes have been, since the ancient times, foundational in a society, because it's from that place of the collective wisdom and the collective devotion and being, oracles and warrioresses and wisdom keepers who come together in council to then support the creation of, you know, and implementing what will happen in society that is really for the benefit of all beings, not for the benefit of one being. So that's where I can pause right there. There's a lot more, but those are two aspects that feel important to recognize as priestess. Priestess is personal and planetary. Yeah, priestess, that we are in our sovereignty and we're also in communion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that and I think that that is it's, it is the union, and I think that that's where some people can struggle a little bit at least that I've worked with, where they have this awareness, they have this awakening of you know, know thyself, I can, I see that I am the author of my own life, and then a lot of the story that they've bought into you know starts to fade away and they're like what the hell was I buy it into? This, Like this doesn't even make sense, it doesn't have as much meaning anymore because they see that they are the author. They get to choose, and it is that merging of how do I now, now, knowing what I know, how do I now go out and still be in society and do all the things that seem like? I won't say meaningless, of course, but just you know that I've kind of bought into something that has that's taking on a new shape with this awakening, with this awareness.
Speaker 2:I mean that becomes the priestess path, right there, it's the living inquiry and the living embodiment of being a vessel, being fully human and fully divine, being in exaltation, being in sacred service, right being. And so this is, you know, another big aspect of that, with the planetary piece I didn't expand on, becomes that place of sacred service. And so, again, as women, sometimes this is where we can overextend a shadow default of overgiving and really giving from a place of fullness and needing to give ourselves that nourishment, to be able to offer nourishment. But when you're saying that about you know, being out in the world, yeah, there's the, well, okay, two things. One is, yeah, it can be kind of intense and recognizing and seeing wow, I'm really different from a lot of people in this world or from mainstream society, and a that that's okay and that more and more people are waking up, in their own unique ways, you know, to the truth of who they always really have been. And worse, we, as we wake up, it means that we're waking up from well, wow, so much, so much indoctrination that has been taking place, you know, on our planet for thousands and thousands of years. We're waking up from self limiting beliefs. We're waking up from you know, the beliefs that maybe we've carried from ancestral trauma. We're waking up to how we can be responsible beings living in a world where there has been a lot of trauma and colonization, and that extractive mindset to recognizing, wow, there's a lot of work that needs to happen in our world right now and the specific phase that we're at, you know, in this grander cycle of time of the Kali, you get, we're not living in a golden age and so many of us, I could cry have remembrances of living as priestess in harmony, living in the temples, living in a way where there was harmony, where we were serving in a way that was creating, you know, impact in the world at a great exaltation we can say, of, you know, love and beauty of harmony on the planet. But priestessing at that time is very different to priestessing in this age. And so when we can recognize that we are in a time we're saying of the Kali Yuga, so just recognizing that there's many, many, many cycles of time and we're in a time of what I could call, if I liken it to, the moon phases, this is really a time of the waning moon, where there's a lot of destruction and there's a lot of release and before there's the actual newness, and at the same time it's a new moon. So it's sort of like we can attune to the frequency of love which is the foundation of who we are, and that, being fully divine, we're also recognizing to not exile the part of being fully human right now and what's taking place in our world. But, wow, priestessing right now does not necessarily just mean being in a temple. In fact, you know, there's, there's, there's. There's not necessarily that in the physical, in the ways that we would maybe want, but there are, like, for example, with Goddess Rising Mystery School. It's like this is a temple, it's all of us around the world and it's through our sisterhood and it's through our connection. But, gosh, if we, you know we're all living in just one place, right, we wouldn't actually be having the impact of what we're having by us being, you know, in different parts all over the world. And so this is that recognition of when you're saying what do we do being out in the world? Well, that you're, you're, you're not alone, and the more, and there's the power of resonance is so powerful, we will, we do find each other, we do find one another. It's inevitable. That's part of you know the laws of the universe and, yeah, I feel like I could go on in so many different ways, but just that recognizing that being on a priestess path at this time, wow, it's some. It's an act of revelation, of revolution and revelation where we were really here to utilize the power of the sword and the shield, and I can just like speak to that for a moment here, so that there's a recognition that the sword stands for truth, and so it's not necessarily a sword that is, you know, facing upward and here to create harm or to wage war, but it is sometimes facing up in a way of being the warrior ass, of standing up and being the voice for love when there has been betrayal, when there is injustice in the world, which is happening right now. And so how can we be and choose, with even the like trembling of our voices, to be the voice of love, to say being a priestess, being the voice of the great goddess in all of her different faces, which can be like enough is enough, right, the priestess isn't just the in the way of love and devotion, about creating beauty that always looks pretty or feels divine. Oftentimes that can be really uncomfortable, or to have the uncomfortable conversations or to be willing to utilize that sword to speak up for ourselves or when you see somebody else being betrayed or somebody else being harmed, that you be that voice of love for justice. But then and so there's that aspect with the sword then there's the aspect of the sword, where you can imagine holding the sword and it's facing down towards the earth or it's at your heart, and that in the same, in the same way, the sword represents truth. And so, being the defender of truth, being the preserver of truth, being then with this sword facing down towards the earth and at your heart, listening to your truth, listening to the voice of love within you and always, always, dedicating yourself to listening to what that is and then acting from that place. So that feels really important to share, along with, then, the shield and the shield. We can often think of that, as you know, the protection piece, right when we think of battle or whatever. You know, we have that, the shield that is there to protect. And sometimes I really like to just give that analogy of when we are really opening to our spirituality, when we're opening and deepening into self. It's a very sensitive and tender process, and so having the practices and the shield isn't a way of saying, oh, I'm going to be attacked and I have to protect myself, because I really do believe that love is the greatest form of protection. But when we are experiencing, let's say, if we're more empathic or we're experiencing energies that are taking place globally, that we're feeling that, ah, I don't know what's mine, I don't know what's not mine, then that's a sign of okay, yeah, I do need to have a shield here, which is to have some self containment, so that I can have my inner authority and I know what's mine and I know what's not, so I can actually navigate and function in my life. And so then that shield part also really is I can think of that as our energy body, or that shield that's just creating a containment for you to really strengthen and thrive in your energy system and your nervous system, in your own truth, so that you're not being infiltrated by the swaying of other people's words or beliefs or what they may be trying to tell you. This is the way or this is your path. That it's like. That shield is like the filter, so you're really listening to that truth, that is your sword.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh my gosh, there's so much, so powerful, and, yeah, and having these, you know, when you were talking about like there's not necessarily a temple for us to be in right now, before it's like. That's why we, you know, we started this conversation is about this embodiment, about the nature of who you are as a human, because I think so much of this, this intertwining of soul and humanity, people often view themselves, and myself included, through the reflection of culture versus nature, right, and so there's like that overlay. And when we start to do the deeper dive inward and recognizing all of the different energies that you're speaking of as the warrior, as you know, as I always think of too, is like the fierce, the fierce mother, like the fierce motherly love, right, that is part of her.
Speaker 2:It is really coming back to the real essence of our humanity, beyond the cultural overlay, and I mean there's so much there too, but like the societal imprints, yes, well, absolutely, because what you've just shared, oh, it touches on something that is so deeply profound Because, again, if there's, if we're seeking, we as humans are all we, we, oh, this is so big. Okay, so we all have a deep down desire to belong. That's one of our core needs as humans is to belong, and it's a great long journey we can just like cut right into. The resolution is like we belong to each other and yet it is out of that core need to belong that we look to the outside society of how we can then fit in. But when we're in a society that is stick, that is broken, that is unjust, then the ways that we can seek to fit in are actually just propelling a continuation of exactly that of toxicity and so many things over to my brain, so many you know imprints and falsities, when so I love what you said when it's like, when we can look to nature, like that is where she is, that's where the goddess is and all of her faces, and so being priestess is really a part being a woman, being a human, like. Go beyond even any word, right, for the sake of just you know, any potential swaying of distortion to us, just we when we can attune to nature. That's truth, that's our cyclical or cyclical energy is our blueprint. And so, wow, we look to nature. Oh, my goodness, there's the leaves that are falling. Right now, this is the time of going inward wintertime. Okay, so if I'm trying to fit into a society that is go, go, go, go, go by, by by by by, do, do, do, do, do, do, which is like very much the solar energy, where we have, we're validated, when there's accomplishment and where things can be quantified and we just solely go in that direction, then that's actually going to continue to perpetuate the sickness in this world, because there's a whole other half, which is the nighttime, which is the dark, which is the feminine. And at this time when the leaves are falling and it's becoming quieter and there's longer darkness instead of daylight, well, what happens? We need more rest. What happens when we rest? We go into a regulation of our nervous system, we go into the dream time, we go into the realm of the dark mother, we go into the realm where we can grieve, where we can release, where we can cry, where we can then come into that spaciousness or the potentiality of new seeds to be planted, to then gestate, to then birth, to then tend to. So that is really what I will say. For me in my life and as priestess, that is how I follow, or what I follow in that sense is nature. And for me, specifically as a rose priestess, I'm following the path of Venus, which is a whole other, deeper conversation. But because it's a path that's beyond, you know, just the year, the wheel of the year, which is the sun and then the moon phases, is actually a specific, as you know, pattern that takes place within the sky, that's reflected on earth and our own journeys. But I will just go to the moon part, you know, and the wheel of the year, with the sun, is that when we attune to these rhythms, yes, with their energy, outwardly, and we bring that into our own bodies, then we are creating healing we are creating harmony and that validation, it comes from that attunement, that trust. Oh, yeah, I can trust it's okay, it's really cold out, it's a time of me being inward? Yeah, I can trust that that's what nature's doing. And then the same when the spring comes. Oh my gosh, yeah, I can trust to bring my seeds out into the world. I can trust to use my voice a little bit more. I can trust. Okay, if nature can shine, then I can shine too. So these are just analogies and there's so many deeper layers to each of these. But just touching on that because you brought that forward and it's really one of the most foundational pieces that does never get old, just like this aspect of emotions that we spoke about right of all the cycles of water, of all of the seasons, of all of the moon phases. These are the gifts that we have within us. When we attune to those phases, we get to rediscover parts of ourselves and recognize oh, I'm not just this one woman, I've actually got four phases. Or I've got nine phases, oh, I've got 13. And to really love all those facets of ourselves and when we bring those out and when they're needed and when they're not.
Speaker 1:I'm so glad that we got to that piece of it and I do have just I know, I know we have limited time here. We could talk forever. But one thing I do just want to say to that is I mean, of course, if you're listening and you feel out of balance, you feel a dissonance in your life. It's exactly what we're speaking to, we're trying to. Something I've been saying a lot lately is the society that values, like you said, this linear achievement model versus the nature of who we are, which is cyclical authenticity. Like well, yes, like that is really is what we are. It is the truth. If, if we can't look outside, like you said, in all of these other things that reflect phases and changes, but we think we're supposed to be different than that, of course there's an imbalance, of course you feel disconnected, of course you don't know where to turn. So this is the answer, and everyone knows when they step into a forest or when they gaze at the horizon or at the moon shining on them, there is that de-calms the nervous system, that regulates the nervous system. There's that wonder and awe that has just felt beyond words, and that's the only thing that you need to know is the embodied response of your being, and to continue to trust and follow that thread. And I think that this is what the priestess path does. And so we talked about community. I would love for you to share about goddess rising mystery school and what is going on and how. Because the Venetian mysteries. I feel like I know nothing, like I do, but I don't. You know, it's so, it's so deep. Yes, so tell us how we can find out more about Venetian mysteries and connect with a bigger community.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so let's see. So there's a few ways. Well, one on our mailing list. I always send out full moon rituals and a blog and insight, so that's one way to really begin to attune to those natural rhythms which are so I think it's just so beautiful, like, oh, having time if you can devote, it's like, yes, I'm going to be with a full moon and I'm going to give time and space to myself to tend to myself. It's a beautiful way I can give playlists, so that's free, that's for the entire community. So that happens on our mailing list. We have a Facebook group and then there's different offerings that have come and have their cyclical times as well, and so we have that does happen within the specific evening star phase for Venus, as our queen codes, and the queen codes is a leadership program for women to really attune to the power of the queen, within which we're speaking about the inner authority, and it's a weaving of mythology and astrology and herstory of the different queens, mostly whom are from ancient Egypt, to really offer this journey that is linked. You can imagine this journey up the Nile River, which do, which really overlays to our own body a journey of consciousness within our own bodies, so that you can be living from a place of inner authority, and then how you can be filling your cup and accessing these aspects of consciousness within you and different aspects of queen within you and your own leadership in your life. And so, by leadership, this is in your life, this is your livelihood, whatever leadership is in this, you know in life for you right now. And then I co-guide priestesses of the rose with my dear sister Amaya Cohen, and that is a year in a day. Priestess path spiral specifically through the lensing of the rose lineage, and so it's through there that we work with the Rosamistica High Council, different guides through eight different rose temples throughout the wheel of the year and through the ascent and descent of Venus's cycles to really come home to know thyself. And so both of those goddess rising mystery school is in the lineage of the dragon and the rose, and that always starts every spring equinox, and then, kind of sprinkled throughout the wheel of the year, are different pilgrimages, and so they don't all necessarily happen every year, but we have pilgrimages to Avalon and to Egypt, as Mary has been, and to southern France, and so those are some of the current offerings. We've had our wheel of the year membership in past years. That's on pause for right now, but when that comes about again, that's a really wonderful way to also create ceremony and ritual in your life. That's connected to the high holy days of the wheel of the year, so that's what's happening right now.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, and you know, when we these offerings, it's the goddess offering us, ritual embodied, I mean, it's just there for the taking, it's right here and we don't have to do when you learn about it, and you know, you know, and it's like you don't even have to know, like the deeper meanings or significance. But when we know there are these markers of time that are just inviting us like you spoke with the moon, you know and just inviting us in for that pause, it's, it feels so natural when we just kind of shift our attention to like, oh wow, this is happening, right, like absolutely Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, some of the foundational pieces within our goddess rising mystery school are very much the community, the sisterhood, the ceremony and then this aspect of the mystery teachings that are embodied, and so bringing that all together for you to really truly remember and know thyself. And this is woven with mythology, it's woven with astrology because it's happening in real time. It's not and this isn't something that's again, it's outside of ourselves, just to learn from a brain perspective although that's there too, because I really love the, the knowledge piece as well, like my brain and like I love that but it's really useless without the embodiment, and so it's really about bringing that into a lived experience. So we've merged the knowledge into the body that becomes the wisdom, and so those three magdalen flames really are the part of the tenants to this path of the womb of creation, which is your flame of power. And then we have the flame at the heart, which is the flame of truth, and then the flame that lives at the brow or the crown, which is your flame of wisdom. So it's about tending to these three flames of true creative power, of truth and wisdom, that are the flames of love, to walk the way of love.
Speaker 1:That's such a great place to end, and it is. It is a profound journey that is never ending, that will spiral again and again, and again through this lifetime and the next, until we meet again. Atchintia Devi, thank you so much for gracing us with your presence, and to the goddess in all of her forms for allowing us to take place today and just work, and to all of our beautiful listeners for their presence today, and there are. You know something that you spoke to earlier about this frequency match. Like we do find each other, and that's what I always say when you come into this circle we are a frequency match and, yeah, we continue to spread that grid throughout. So it's been such an honor.
Speaker 2:Thank you, mary, so much for having me here. It's been such an honor and a true delight. And, for all of you that are listening, thank you for your open ears and just want to say take what resonates for you, leave what doesn't. And you know, feeling that we're in this space really is one of the many temples that are here on this earth as we come together in sisterhood again to really uplift and support, empower and inspire one another. So thank you so much from my heart to all of you, to you, mary, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, and I feel like it's still just the beginning, and so it is, so it is. Thank you so much for being a part of our circle here on the podcast, and if you are really resonating with this work and it's starting to open up and shift new perspectives and possibilities for you, I want to invite you to come on over to check out the Stop Drinking, start Living Portal of Empowerment. It is where we take all of the concepts from the show and not quit alcohol, but commit to a new lifestyle and learning a new way, so that you can develop a new self concept that goes beyond alcohol, so that you can create a life that does not need alteration. We take a deeper look at the concepts here and then you actually start to apply them to your life, showing up confident and proud as an example of what's possible. Visit my website, marywagstaffcoachcom, and learn how you can become a lifetime member of the Portal of Empowerment today. I'll see you there.