We have been experiencing collectively the theme of grief and suffering of the feminine, which in its biggest and deepest expression is the grief and suffering of our entire planet. Our home, our roots, our birthplace, our fellow companions.

The suffering of the feminine may also be felt as a grief within yourself on a personal level, or connected to the suffering of women, the perpetration of abuse against women, or issues of female inequality.

You may be experiencing this deep grief as you watch the news of environmental disaster and ecocide.

Whatever your perspective(s) on this suffering, wounding and abuse of the feminine, it is part of a greater thread that is active at this time in our collective consciousness.

As people, and particularly women, rise up around the world in grief, and anger, and protest, they rise up with the fierce strength of the feminine that protects what is most sacred: life.

To reach into this fierce and supreme strength that holds, nourishes and protects life, we first are required to deeply feel and know the grief that we individually hold on behalf of the collective.

At a personal level, we need to feel deeply into the experience of grief and allow the emotion to rise up within us - to be felt, seen and acknowledged. To fall to the ground in mourning. To wail and cry the extraordinary depths of grief. To allow the tears to pour out from us like rivers.

It is in this grief that we find our true connection to ourselves, to our roots, to the gift of life, to our homes and to our ultimate home, Mother Earth.

And when we find that connection - the original mother connection that gifted us life - we have the possibility of accessing this extraordinary strength.

We embody this strength and find our way back to harmony through practices which promote embodiment, connection and positive expression.

We sing and we dance our way back - to ourselves, to our communities, to right balance with the Earth.

NB You can see singing and dancing as literal (and I think some is always good for the soul!) or metaphorical too - whatever makes your soul sing and your body dance.

We sing and dance as the Earth, with the Earth and to the Earth - a wild, embodied expression of beauty and soul that says NO MORE. No more destruction, no more domination, no more oppression, no more contamination, no more pollution.

Our hopelessness finds restoration as our legs begin to move, and the energy of life encourages us to rise up, to take action, to dance our way back into harmony.

Our sorrow finds compassion as our voices speak out, sing out. Our souls are given expression, singing us back to each other and to ourselves.

Through singing and dancing, we reclaim and harness our individual and collective power to affect positive change.

When the people dance and sing together from this place of true connection, then we have the opportunity for a collective change to take place. We do this work together, for ourselves, for each other, and for the descendants.

For the sacred feminine.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

• Know and feel all of your grief - your own, your sisters’ and the Earth

• Join a circle of sharing such as a personal development group, women’s circle or activist sharing like this one in Oxford: Eco-Listening Space, Fridays 12.30-1.30 at Oxford Quaker Meeting House

• Connect with TreeSisters through their online community (women only) here

• Come into close connection with nature and the Earth - the ultimate expression of the feminine (one idea is Equine Therapy - see my blog here)

• Get singing - breathing life into all the spaces within you that have known death, loss and grief. Join a group for collective song.

• Get dancing through something like 5Elements or 5Rhythms to activate different emotional states and embody feminine strength

• Join the October rebellion with Extinction Rebellion - find out more here https://rebellion.earth/

• Encourage your sisters and brothers to rise up through seeing your own passion and commitment to yourself, the Earth and equality - sing your song and dance your dance!

For support in connecting to your grief and your strength, email bryony@creativesoultherapies.com