Unleashing the Lioness

Unleashing the Lioness

In a dream on the new moon I saw her. In the blackness of the night sky, the moon suspended like a pale sliver, she ambled slowly across the heavens. The stars dimmed to make way for her immense shadow. I watched in awe as she took each deliberate step. Then she turned her golden head towards me. A moment passed between us. But in that moment, I knew she'd been awakened and her power was palpable. The Lioness had been unleashed! 

Out of the dream state I could still feel the presence of the Lioness. But what was the dream about? I began a day of research to investigate the outer interpretations of the dream symbolism. The image of the new moon holding the old moon in its arms was prophetic. The darkness upon the earth was actually illumined by a phenomenon called "Earthshine" where the earth's light is reflected back onto the dark side of the moon. The new moon was opening an energetic doorway for new ideas to emerge in consciousness. 

The Numerology of the dream was also an indication of its significance.  It occurred on January 23, 2017.  January is a "1" month.  It signifies a strong assertive leader, a pioneer. The fact that the number 1 occurred twice, in the month and the year was doubly significant. The date was a "5" number - the number associated with the Goddess through the pentagram, and relates to freedom for all people.  When all the numbers are added together they equal 7 or Spiritual Wisdom.  These were huge messages.

I thought about the Inauguration Meditation where we opened the door for the values of the Divine Feminine to flood the earth. Women and men spoke eloquently of unity, of wisdom, of justice, of fairness, of right action, and of hope, love, peace and laughter. The altar was set with a tall white statue of Lady Liberty holding her torch aloft, reminding us in Emma Lazarus' words, that she is "A mighty woman with a torch whose flame is the imprisoned lightning ... and from her beacon-hand glows world-wide welcome." 

With these symbols in mind, I needed to better understand the world of the Lioness. She is the feminine aspect of solar power. She is the mother who provides for and protects the pride. She is fierce, righteous, benevolent and courageous. She is Sekmet the great hunter goddess of Egypt whose very breath created the deserts. She is the Goddess of war and retribution, one who could ignite epidemics as well as cure them. Her myths say "she would slay the
 disagreeable men on earth." This was potent imagery! But it was not the whole story.

Behind every external presentation is the esoteric or inner meaning. The Lioness also had one. Stalking across the cosmos she kindled a movement of women across the globe. It began small enough then swelled to the millions in what has been called "the largest movement in history." Women emerged from their comfort zones to make themselves visible. They marched with their mothers, daughters and grand-daughters. Women in their 90's marched alongside toddlers on their father's shoulders. They came from all across the country traveling by buses, trains, planes and cars. Those who could not go to Washington, went to marches in their home-towns. Husbands joined in as one said, to "stop talking and listen to what the women had to say."  The march was peaceful and filled with hope, calling out the same values we did locally on Inauguration night.

The Lioness unleashed a new pattern of behavior. Her power is now awakened in every woman whether they acknowledge it or not. It is a subtle power though it burns intensely when needed. The Lioness is the symbol of the Divine Feminine rising up and summoning others of like mind to right action. For when each woman rises, all women rise. When each woman lights a torch all women see and embrace the flame. Hope is ignited with Wisdom.  When equality and justice is called out, all women benefit. That is the immense power of the Unleashed Lioness in all of us.

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                                                                                           Jo Mooy - February 2017  

Sarah, Susan & Alice

Sarah, Susan & Alice

No, you can't go to school! It's not a place for girls. I'm sorry, your husband is the only one who can own that property. Yes, Mr. Smith makes more money than you because he has a family to provide for. You don't. Lady, if you want that credit card you'll need your husband's signature. Don't worry your pretty head about politics, I'll take care of it. You can't be a manager, you're a woman! The military is for men only. Women have lived with statements like these for centuries.

Then there was a revolution in the 1700's that created a nation. But along the way, the founders forgot about women. Volumes have been written about the new nation. It's essential truth was "all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights." It went on that, "to secure these rights, Governments are instituted by men who get their powers from those governed." What did that really mean? Only men were created equal? If men were the Government did their powers only come from other men? Did freedom and liberty and justice for all apply only to them? My questions weren't so unusual. Others long before me had asked them. Especially Sarah, Susan and Alice!

In South Carolina, Sarah Grimke and her sister Angelina(1792-1879) were the first American female advocates for abolition and women's rights. Sarah's father, Chief Judge of the Supreme Court, refused to send her to law school deeming it only fit for his son Tom. Nonetheless she studied every book in her father's library excelling in the law. Judge Grimke, later said she would have been the greatest lawyer in South Carolina if she were not a woman. In violation of that law, Sarah taught her personal slave to read. And later freed her. Then the sisters went on another improper activity for women - a national speaking tour against slavery and for the rights of women. Angelina wrote "Women were not created for the possession of men. But rather as unique, intelligent, capable creatures deserving equal regard, rights and responsibilities with men." It was inflammatory and incited riots.  (Read their remarkable story in Sue Monk Kidd's book, The Invention of Wings.)

Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) is the most famous reformer of the suffragette movement in America. She too was an abolitionist but later was more focused on women's rights. As headmistress of a female academy she was enraged to learn she was paid much less than a male headmaster. It caused her to ease into the role of voting rights for women, saying "I didn't want to vote but I did want equal pay for equal work." That changed when she met the women of Senaca Falls who were lobbying for a woman's right to vote. For over fifty years she and her closest collaborator, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, worked tirelessly. They marched, petitioned congress and endured public humiliations. She and many of her friends were imprisoned in horrible conditions for illegally voting in an election. Not until August, 1920 did women get the right to vote in the 19th amendment to the US Constitution. It changed things.

Then there was Alice. No, not Roosevelt.  This was Alice Paul from Mt. Laurel NJ. She was the architect, activist, strategist and leader of the campaign for the 19th Amendment. She dedicated her life to securing a woman's right to vote. She mobilized women as "Silent Sentinels" to stand outside the White House during WWI incurring the wrath of angry mobs and the disdain of the President. They were imprisoned in filthy rat-infested cells. They were beaten
and left out in the cold with no coats. They went on hunger strikes and were force fed. Government officials removed Alice to a sanitarium in hopes she'd be declared insane. The doctor said no she wasn't. When the press found out about their treatment the public responded in favor of the women. It went to Congress with the deciding vote in the hands of a 24 year old from Tennessee who intended to vote "no." Until his mother sent him a telegram saying "support the women." Ninety-seven years later, a statue honoring his mother and the Tennessee Suffragettes was just installed in Nashville's Centennial Park.

Thank you Sarah, Susan and Alice. You were vilified and humiliated. You were imprisoned and tortured. You were spat upon and urinated on. You were chained and beaten. Yet you persevered and endured. You struggled for hundreds of years, finally getting women the right to vote. In November, at Thanksgiving, in an election year where the first woman in history is running for office, we thank you for your valiant courage in the face of unimaginable discrimination and horror. Because of you we can vote without facing those horrors. Thank you Sarah, Susan and Alice!

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                                                                                           Jo Mooy - November 2016  

13 Clanmothers

The 13 Clanmothers

In many ancient cultures the role of mother and medicine woman is honored, butmore specifically, in the northern Native American tribes, the Mothers of the Clans were held in sacred reverence.  These Clanmothers were the historians, the faith-keepers, spiritual advisors, and the ones who chose tribal leaders.  They served in rituals, ceremonies, medicine and spiritual events.  As life-givers, their role was keeper of the culture and history of the tribe. 

The Clan Mother was a leadership hereditary role, passed down from grandmother to mother to daughter.  In a sacred ritual, the baton was passed, impressing each woman with the importance of just rule, honoring the spirit, animal and earth kingdoms, keeping the stories of the lineage alive, and insuring the tribal leaders were functioning in alignment with the great laws of spirit and earth.  Because they were responsible for selecting the chief of the tribe so too would they remove the chief if he was not serving for the good of all.

Solar-Lunar Cycles

The Clanmothers like the Druids, Incas, Maya and other cultures dating back 5,500 years, honored the sacred rhythms and cycles of earth.  It was a natural process for them to follow the moon's rotation every 28 days because 28 days was also the female biological cycle.  This explanation led to a more harmonious indigenous calendar of 13 moons in a solar year.  In time, a specific Clanmother with a distinct role and message was assigned to each moon.

Clanmothers 

Each Clanmother has a purpose and a moon month.  The Clanmothers beginning with January are:  She who Talks With Relations, Wisdom Keeper, She Who Weighs The Truth, Looks Far Woman, Listening Woman, Storyteller, She Who Loves All Things, She Who Heals, Setting Sun Woman, She Who Weaves the Web, Walks Tall Woman, She Who Gives Praise, and the 13th and last one, She who Becomes Her Vision.

Each Clanmother has a specific color associated with her role and her mission.  That color holds a vibration that represents the month of that moon.  The Clanmother also brings a teaching message to men and women who wish to heal themselves and to prepare their own personal cycle for the coming new earth.

Equinox March 20, 2012 

In 2012, every one of the seasonal cycles becomes more refined, especially by the intentions we are setting forth for the year.  We are part of the great awakening of human consciousness.  On the Spring Equinox of March 20th, the rebirth begins in earnest.

Join in this sacred ceremony at South Lido Beach State Park at 7 pm.  Hear and take into your hearts the message from each of the Clanmothers.  It is the season of renewal, one that calls to us and to all we aspire to be. 

   

Jo Mooy - March 2012