The Portal of the Divine Feminine with Sophie Strand

On the latest episode, I embark upon a wild conversational romp with writer Sophie Strand. Sophie’s writing focuses on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and ecology. But, as she says, it would probably be more authentic to call her a neo-troubadour animist with a propensity to spin yarns that inevitably turn into love stories. Sophie’s first book of essays, "The Flowering Wand: Rewilding the Sacred Masculine" is newly released from Inner Traditions. Her eco-feminist historical fiction reimagining of the gospels The Madonna Secret will also be published by Inner Traditions in 2023.
On today’s episode, we discuss:
* Sophie’s “spiritual compost heap” background, and how it’s contributed to her worldview today
* Her understanding of the Sacred Feminine, including the limitations she sees with this language and why she sees it not as a destination, but as a portal away from more predominant male, monotheist traditions and towards what she writes about as the “Animate Everything”
* The problem with seeking one linear narrative to explain how we’ve arrived where we are
* What it means to re-examine and re-imagine the myths we’ve been handed about the Sacred Masculine
* Getting to know Jesus not as a white, docile savior but as the radical, storytelling itinerant teacher that he was - and Mary Magdalene as his teaching counterpart
* And so much more !
See audio episode home at www.hometoher.com/podcast for full show notes.

[@fcbdstyle_with_Kathy]

One of the most intellectually stimulating conversations ever about the concept of the Divine Feminine. Fascinating, thought provoking, and socially relevant for today.

[@hometoher]

Thank you for this wonderful feedback. I really loved this conversation as well. And I'm super grateful for Sophie's reflections on this subject, which have helped my own views evolve.

[@randyjohnson6073]

wow. thank you.

[@hometoher]

Thanks for tuning in! Really glad it spoke to you.

[@Sophie-kl3hd]

👍👍

[@robertgallegos1161]

My goodness! What an amazing experience listening to both of you. Refreshing, stimulating, honest. Thank you!

[@hometoher]

So glad you enjoyed it! Sophie Strand is an incredible writer and conversationalist. I loved talking to her.

[@theageofgoddess]

Great, thought provoking conversation, thank you 🙏🏼

[@hometoher]

Thank you for the feedback! I thought so too.

[@blackthornsloe8049]

Really great talk . 🌻

[@hometoher]

Thank you for listening in! I really loved this one, too.

[@mpress469]

Spiritually speaking (gender aside), matriarchy can begin with an understanding of the cyclical nature of reality (God). Represented by the snake in many creation myths, the living cycle has a trinity of a beginning (head), a middle and end (tail). As above so below, the sexes were created in the image of God's cyclical nature where Mother is the head and opening to all beginnings and Father holds the tail to all endings (through which the sowing of seeds allow for the next great matriarchal rebirth).The joining of the two (symbolized by the Ouroborus or the marriage ring) is the sacred union needed in assuring the creation and continuation of new life cycles. To speak of the present day God as "Our Father" is simply an admission to our collective positioning within the bigger cycle. As all mothers have direct experience with the creator quality of birthing, so is the direct experience of rebirthing the divinity within (baptism) belong to that which is spiritually matriarchal. (John 3, verse 3-8). Sekhmet statues (ancient Egyptian) carry most of their weight in symbolic memory of what was a mother culture dedicated to the direct experience of baptism. As the leg shaped hairlocks extend from maternal breasts to the womb of rebirth, the lioness's head proportions are such that they highlight the bust of a second animal figure. The Lioness's ears as eyes and eyes as nose (nostrils) brings to life the figure of a reptile. 'Neath the halo headress of the solar egg, the lioness's egg fertilization process being internal (Set) and the reptile's egg fertilization process being external (Setting), such being key components to the safety of entering the trans-egoic or "born again" state. The life threatening fear associated with the predatory nature of a lion and/or crocodile encounter are reflective of the intense ego death experiences associated with the transpersonal awakening process. In spiritually matriarchal times, illumination could be seen as wearing the false beard (ancient Egyptian funerary ego death mask) as the high state of cyclical self knowing; high cyclical awareness of both our upper matriarchal half and our lower (later) patriarchal half (compared with a mini lower body replica, an "as above so below" tail end beard extension); in full recognition of her civilizational Underworld; her inevitable cyclical destiny. The male pharaoh wears his beard tapered in reverse, indicating a pointing upwards towards the patriarchal head, divine representative of God's tail end cycle. Mary's anointing and wiping of Jesus's feet with her hair can then be seen as "Head to tail" (toe) imagery as she descends her matriarchal head to his patriarchal feet, thus reenacting the high understanding of the divine cyclical process. (John 12, verse 3) To carry the Ankh (now the female symbol ♀️) was perhaps to symbolically carry that upper and lower understanding. As the upper matriarchal womb symbolised the fertile birthing of civilization, below, the now Christian cross is carried to place emphasis on the lower (later) "End Times" Father principle of the great cycle. Ganesha, the elephant headed Hindu diety, displays a cyclical head to trunk symbolism and points to the Mother head of his matriarchal elephant society. Ganesha (like the elephant) wears God's cyclical nature on his face. A whole temple was dedicated to the ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor, who is the matriarchal "Uterus" personified. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gGHQYa2AiKp5gZI "See all women as mothers, serve them as your mother. when you see the entire world as the mother, the ego falls away. See everything as Mother and you will know God." - Neem Karoli Baba "My son, keep thy father's commandment and forsake not the law of thy mother" - Proverbs 6 : 20