Awakening the Priestess Within
You may be wondering, “What’s a Priestess anyway??” My own experience with the Priestess has been about rising to the occasion of my own life and adopting a willingness to Be Me. Here are a few of the golden bits I’ve learned along the way that have supported me in that rising. From my heart to yours…
Your Priestess Self is the part of you that is fully empowered, knows her worth and courageously steps in the direction of her wildest dreams. You may or may not have tapped into that kind of power within yet. Either way, she awaits your arrival, patiently standing in the shadows until you are ready to claim your worth as a daughter/divine being of this beautiful Earth – Alive, Awake, Aware and ON FIRE with life.
Awakening your powerful Priestess within isn’t a job for the faint of heart. It requires a heart that is willing to be vulnerable and a fierce knowing where your boundaries lie and how to stand firmly in that knowing. Fierce love, Fierce YES to life, fierce awareness of the Self – these are the steps. And to meet these aspects of Self full-on you must be willing to face the dark, hidden parts within you – the resentment, jealousy, hatred, rage, self-loathing. All of it.
By now you might be thinking, “well that’s just too much for me!” I’m going to break it down here and give you a few tiny pieces to begin/continue this journey.
There’s a necessity to bring all of you home again, to embrace it all (not only the fluffy, happy, good parts) in order to walk as a Priestess and empowered person in the world. I don’t believe in the ‘focus-only-on-the-good’ movement that is swarming the New Thought community. Using affirmations and changing your thinking to positive thoughts, only go so far when there’s an underlining current of self-hatred or depression or anxiety running beneath the surface. Those methods end up being a Band-Aid at best. Often times they end up fueling an over-active inner perfectionist or inner critic that believes you’re ‘less than’ if you’re getting the positive thinking routine just right.
SO here’s a thought – scrap the affirmations and get real with your inner self! This means listening to the voice of the critic or the judge or the part that’s afraid or angry and HEARING THEM OUT. We all have an inner critic that takes us down with self-deprecating words at times. The difference between a person who’s embraced her/ their inner Priestess and one who hasn’t, is in the awareness to listen to the critic within and NOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR. A part of you may be thinking these thoughts but a greater part of you is aware of the critic and the inner child and the pusher and perfectionist and can rise beyond all of these voices.
Beyond all the shadows and voices lies an Aware Self that knows exactly why the anger is flaring up. It knows there’s been a boundary crossed and knows just how to communicate that boundary to those around you, and knows what action step to take to stand in the truth of who you are.
Your Aware Self knows how to allow the grief to pour from you and be gentle with the process, learning how to lean on others around you and trust in the flow and the process of life itself.
The practice here is to learn how to separate the All of You or the Aware Self from those individual voices, the ones who have a big reaction to a situation. Address the voice with some conscious inner dialogue, such as, “Hi there Critic. I hear you criticizing those around me. Thank-you for your input. What is it you want me to know about myself in this situation? What do I need to do differently right here and now that aligns with who I really am?
And Listen. Be open to what comes. Be gentle with yourself as you learn this new way of interacting with your inner world. It may seem clunky at first but the more you practice, the less of a reaction each voice will have when they’re triggered. Eventually you will recognize each voice, be able to address it in the moment and peacefully move your way through the situation in full integrity with all of you. The voices begin to lessen their hold on you as you take the time to acknowledge their presence in your life.
Stepping forward in life as your fully empowered Priestess Self naturally emerges from the journey of calling all of you home and honoring every story and every experience as your medicine. As you do, you begin integrating it all into a complex, elaborate, intricate tapestry of Who You Really Are. You are so much more than your anger or your grief. You are a being of perfection, with dreams and hopes and passion. The Priestess within knows this to be true.
Nathalie Jackson- is a graduate from the Priestess Path Apprenticeship program and Women In Power Initiation. She is a Certified ShadowWork® Facilitator. She is the founder of the Woman Unveiled School of Women’s Mysteries, including The Doorway, The Deeper Journey and The Apprenticeship. She is also co-founder of StoneHedge Ecovillage. Nathalie has been facilitating transformative circles for over 14 years & been on a journey of personal transformation and growth for over 21 years. She is a mother, engineer, daughter of the earth, lover, partner, friend, holistic practitioner, creator of her dreams, and fully dedicated to supporting men and women on their journey of unfolding. www.nathaliejackson.com
