The Deciduous Dance of Death and Rebirth

As we head toward the dark half of the year, I ponder death and rebirth; that which cycles on the earth, and that which is cycling in my own life. This particular time of year is special to me, being my birth time (October 30); this year in particular, as I turn 50. I’ve know for decades that I would turn 50 in 2012, and it’s proven to be an interesting time. As I reflect on the past year, I feel so much gratitude for all the abundance around me: my beloved husband and teaching partner; my sweet home on the slopes of Haleakala crater; the opportunity to live my passion and purpose; incredible health and fitness; not to mention the loss of 35 lbs of excess weight in the past year and a half.

I’m also really grateful for the hard, painful stuff. I see it as a tempering process, a polishing of my inner diamond so that it shines with ever more clarity. I’ve moved through massive amounts of internal shadow material this year, and gotten really clear about how I want to go forward with my work. That process alone has been quite challenging and has fundamentally changed my connections with several people I have been close to over the past several years. As I step into my full power and sovereignty and the need for approval drops away, I claim even more of my core essence to bring forth for the greater good. And that circles me right back into gratitude for all the gifts, the sweet ones and the “growth opportunities.”

I have been so deeply served by my time with Divine Feminine Institute these past 7+ years. I would not be where I am now without the training, the practices, the teachings, and the experiences of pulling myself up the side of the mountain, from student to administrator to facilitator. Having received these gifts and combined them with my own, something new has emerged that is purely and perfectly mine. As Divine Feminine winds to a close by the end of 2012, Reclaiming Aphrodite will continue to arise and be expressed more and more fully. I will always appreciate my lineages, my teachers, and those who have modeled expansive possibilities to me and held a space for me to transform myself from sexually wounded to sexually empowered and whole.

Deciduous means the dropping of a part that is no longer needed, or falling away after its purpose is finished. It’s such a perfect example of the constancy of change. Completing with Divine Feminine has been one of the hardest as well as one of the easiest things I have ever done; and yet it has shown itself to be complete in its cycle and ready to die, perhaps to be reborn in a new form down the road… with someone else at the helm.

There is a time to live, and a time to die. A time to hold on and a time to let go. The divine perfection is in being able to distinguish between those times, and to embrace the changes with grace, courage, and fearlessness, grieving the losses and celebrating the gains. More than forty of us will gather in early November 2012 at Haramara Retreat in Sayulita, Mexico, for Divine Feminine’s final week-long retreat, Spirit & Shadow. It promises to be the best of the best, as we give it our all and embrace all the sadness, celebration, relief, disappointment, and, no doubt, shock that this body of work is ending in its current form. What I know for sure is that the Divine Feminine never dies, She just changes shape and and dances into new form. Sometimes we just have to let the old structures go and see what arises in their place. We’ll be sending Her off in style.

Love & blessings, Amrita