In this two part series you will meet the woman who has had the most profound impact on my personal journey of awakening beyond alcohol. This episode means everything to me. 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:
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.
In this two part series you will meet the woman who has had the most profound impact on my personal journey of awakening beyond alcohol. This episode means everything to me. 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:
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, you are so in for a treat. This is the second part of the two-part series of embracing the path of the priestess with my personal spiritual mentor, achintia Devi. If you have not listened to part one of this series, you are going to want to go back right now and listen to that to make a cohesive understanding of what we are talking about, about reclamation. Right, the priestess path is a journey of reclamation and really going beyond all of the conditioning of our minds and really stepping into awareness of things that we might just not have known about through mind but have known deeply by heart. So, without further ado, enjoy this second part of the series of embracing the path of the priestess with my mentor, achintia Devi, of Goddess Rising Mystery School. Yes, oh my gosh, that really is everything and I was wanting you to speak a little bit more to our audience, because 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 definitely a connection. I really loved the ritual and the ceremony and I hear this often from people who kind of make it to 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 doctor, and I was saying, like, don't go get other people's opinions, but you know, 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.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So the quote, 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 codes 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 a 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. It'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 Bessica 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 priestess scene. 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. 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 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 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 memories 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 pre-sticing at that time is very different to pre-sticing 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 excel, the part of being fully human right now and what's taking place in our world. That, wow, christosine, right now does not necessarily just mean being in a temple. In fact, there's not necessarily that in the physical, in the ways that we would maybe want, but there are, 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 were all living in just one place, we wouldn't actually be having the impact of what we're having by us being in different parts all over the world. This is that recognition of when you're saying what do we do, being out in the world, that you're not alone. The power of resonance is so powerful. We do find each other, we do find one another. It's inevitable. That's part of the laws of the universe. I feel like I could go on in so many different ways, but just recognizing that being on a priestess path at this time. Wow, it's an act of revolution and revelation where we're really here to utilize the power of the sword and the shield and I can just 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 facing upward and here to create harm or to wage war, but it is sometimes facing up in a way of being the warrioress, 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 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 enough, is enough. The priestess isn't just, 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. 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 in the same way, the sword represents truth. And so being the defender of truth, being the preserver of truth, then with the 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 then 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. No, so you're really listening to that, that truth, that 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 have 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 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 s, 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've. 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 too, it's just we when we can attune to nature. That's truth, that's our cyclical, 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, go, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, 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 for the potentiality of new seeds to be planted, to then gestate, to then birth, to then tend to, and 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 through me, specifically as a rose priestess, I'm following the path of Venus, which is a whole other, deeper conversation, because it's a path that's beyond just 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 is doing. And then the same when the spring comes, oh my gosh. Yeah, I can, 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 gets old, just like this aspect of emotions that we spoke about right, of all the cycles of water, all of the seasons, of all of the moon phases. These are the gifts that we have within us and 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, you know, if you're listening and if 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, you know, the society that values, like you said, this linear achievement model versus the nature of who we are, which is cyclical authenticity. Well, yes, like that is really is what we are. It is the truth. 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. 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. I think that this is what the priestess path does. 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. It's so deep. Yes, tell us how we can find out more about Venetian mysteries and connect with a bigger community.
Speaker 2:Let's see. There's a few ways. One on our mailing list I always send out full moon rituals and a blog and insight. That's one way to really begin to attune to those natural rhythms, which I think is just so beautiful 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 always give playlists. That's free, that's for the entire community. 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. That does happen within the specific evening star phase for Venus as our Queen Codes. 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. It's 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 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 Then how you can be filling your cup and accessing these aspects of consciousness within you and different aspects of Queen within you, in your own leadership in your life, by leadership. This is in your life, this is your livelihood, whatever leadership is in life for you right now. Then I co-guide Priestesses of the Rose with my dear sister Amaya Cohen, and that is a year and a day. Priestess Bath spiral specifically through the lensing of the rose lineage. 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' cycles to really come home to know thyself. Both of those goddess rising mystery school is in the lineage of the dragon and the rose. That always starts every spring equinox and then kind of sprinkled throughout the wheel of the year are different pilgrimages. 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. 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 it's just 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, 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 feels so natural when we just kind of shift our attention to like, oh wow, this is happening.
Speaker 2:Right, absolutely, absolutely. 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 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 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 this to take place today and just work, and to all of our beautiful listeners for their presence today and their. 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 wanna 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. Oh, it is. Thank you so much for being a part of our circle here on the show and making it what it is, and if this show is starting to really resonate deeply with you and open up new perspectives of possibility, I want to invite you to come on over to my website to check out the Stop Drinking and Start Living course. It truly is the next step in your journey to start to apply these tools and principles to your life. This is a sacred portal where you can go in as a sanctuary to get support whenever you need it before, during and after your journey of awakening beyond alcohol. These are all of the tools that I teach my private one-on-one clients, but they are available to you on demand, with no renewals and lifetime access membership. So visit my website, marywagstaffcoachcom, or follow the link here in the show notes, and I can't wait to support you inside of the Stop Drinking and Start Living portal of empowerment.