Practices to stay in touch with the Divine Feminine

Kathleen Schmitt is the author of Seasons of the Feminine Divine: Christian Feminist Prayers for the Liturgical Cycle in three volumes.

From as early as I can remember I have known the kind, feminine spirit that permeates all nature and all life. As a tiny child I loved a little flower we called a ¨wine cup,¨ which I later identified as a sign, an image of the divine womb. I know the Divine Feminine in remembering experiences, events and people who have touched me with kindness, understanding and affirmation. I take time to remember those times and moments.

I remember and honour women who have meant much to me over time: my mother, my aunts and great-aunts Eleanor, Mary, Juanita, Nona, Treasure and Betty; childhood friends Martha, Elaine and Deirdre, and follow the line of communion down to the present time.

I have learned not to fear the darkness but to value it as fertile soil, and we are the seeds lying beneath that begin to move and sprout into being. I have learned to trust in the desert where the wash of rain startles with the sudden blossoms that burst into being and give me the courage to continue the journey.

I seek out images that give me a sense of the feminine divine in nature, in the depths of my own imagination and that of others, in scriptures of my own and other faiths, and I write: stories of women’s experiences, poems that seek ecological healing, and narrative prayers in the context of my own faith. I seek to keep aware that She is with me in all things and in all ways. I seek to open my heart to others and to embody her graciousness as I relate to them.

Root of Wisdom,

from whom light and understanding sprout,

You ground us in the warm soil of your discipline and love.

Expand throughout all that is hidden from your grace;

that, by your healing touch, all things become transformed

and joy flourish in every human heart;

For you are Mother of All

Child of the New Dawn,

the Heavenly Dove.

Amen.

(‘Root of Wisdom’, Cycle B, page 60)

A “wine cup” flower