INANNA: The Queen of Heaven and Earth: I have nothing to hide. I see and accept all that I am.
Inanna goes into the depths of her own unconsciousness to merge with her twin-sister-self. She becomes more powerful because she is no longer using conscious, psychic energy to keep her shadow or negative attributes hidden deep underground. She courageously descends and faces the aspects of herself that are hard to get to when she’s “fully dressed” or cloaked heavenly in the ego.
Inanna is an invitation to get naked. She wants us to drop our defenses. She wants us to see how holy and sacred it is to be vulnerable.
As above so below: this is an alchemical adage that suggests heaven and earth are not so separate. It suggests that within us, deep down in the dark cages where we place parts of ourselves, the truths that exit there also exist right here on the surface of our everyday lives. So, if we are exerting great amounts of energy to keep from seeing our shadow, it is actually playing a large role in our conscious life.
When we can face what we think is dark or negative about us – I mean really embrace it and see it for what it is (a beautiful broken place that’s a call for love) – then we can emerge more whole. We can marry the light and dark aspects of our being. And in uniting with our twin sister from the depths, we can stop projecting her onto other women. We can see and own the hot mess we often are and not get sabotage by it. The light must cast a shadow. And the high priestess is the one who gets called to love them both.
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SAINT BRIGID: Our Lady of Exalted Light: I give endlessly because the light is without end. My soul is all I need.
Saint Brigid lived in alignment with the highest, most exalted aspect of her being. She was born a slave, and yet legend relates that she gave away anything she possibly could to help those in need. Her generosity was an indication of the tremendous inner wealth she received from her connection to spirit.
Her message to us is to reconnect to that inner fire, that eternal flame that feeds us more than anything external to us ever could. Read poetry, or whatever feels like sacred scripture to your soul. Let your soul-voice surface through some uncensored automatic writing. Or let your soul guide your body through movement.
Your answers right now are in releasing any attachments to personal possessions, clearing space, uncluttering your home, giving away what you don’t need or someone else needs more than you do. So that you have sacred space to remember just how much you have when your soul is loud and ever present within you.
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AKHILANDA: The Goddess of Never Not Broken: Everything happens for my liberation. I choose to become only more love.
Many of us exert a tremendous amount of effort not to break or fall apart. We resist our grief. Our heartbreak. Or we deny the need to change until the choice no longer feels like it’s ours. Something sideswipes us in our ordinary life and shatters who we think we are and how we identify ourselves. Here’s what Akhilanda reminds us: Vulnerability is our greatest strength. If we are always broken, we can never break.
Akhilanda is the most intimate and personally powerful goddess because she meets us in those moments when we can feel most alone, most exposed, and most afraid. She models how to thrive in the midst of change; she uses pain to joyfully and purposefully transform. She sees everything as an opportunity to release what isn’t serving her. And she knows that being broken isn’t a failure, or something we should avoid; it’s actually the whole point.
We are here to let our ideas of ourselves go up in flames, so that beneath the ashes, the soft core of who we truly are arises. And so that we remember that it’s not the heart that ever breaks; it’s the ego. The heart only ever expands.
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