circles | The Happy Womb

I find myself yearning at this my moon time, for woman-space, for the rhythm of women, the flow. For rhythm. I find myself drawn to spirals and circles and bright colours.

I dream of a red tent, a yurt – a circle space of ornate decoration and luxuriant fabrics.Touching the earth, out in the night air. The owls hooting beyond. It is a primitive experience, a tribal memory that I have never had – one which modern day campsites or large festivals awaken but cannot fulfill.

A space where the women can gather. And sing together. And dance – silk scarves flowing in the air. Beating the drums, shaking the rattles as we shimmy our hips.

Lying on soft cushions, drinking tea. Laughing, crying. Colouring mandalas. Reading aloud to each other passages that inspire us. A fire flickering. A voice begins to sing. A sad song, of lost love and yearning. A poem is spoken and

breaths are held.

Candle light, fairy lights, tea lights – soft, gentle, magical. Showing the softness of each face, each body. Their beauty and sensitivity.
Painting bellies, hands and feet with flowing henna designs.

Here we can howl like wolves, dance naked in the moonlight.

And be, just be. Connected, beautiful, complete.

Have you ever had the experience of reading a book at “the wrong time”. You put it aside, untouched by its message. Then a few years later, by chance, you pick it up again and it literally sings off the pages to your soul.

This just happened to me today.

Judith Duerk’s first book Circle of Stones (for my review see here) introduced me to the world of sacred women’s work and women’s circles. Her book shifted my world perceptibly. So I rushed out to order her second book, I Sit Listening to the Wind: Woman’s Encounter Within Herself, and raced through it untouched.

It is only now four years later that I am in the place to hear her words, to understand what she means about the balancing of the male (animus/ yang) and female (anima/ yin) energies within ourselves.

I would like to share a little from the introduction with you:

I feel the pathos of women today with our overdeveloped animus, confronted with the eternal paradox: The nature of the Yin is receptive, to yield… the nature of the Yang is to dominate. The two are forever equal and necesary to the fulfillment of the cosmic cycle. We modern women, with our powerfully developed inner Masculine side, are faced with a new dilemma: whether to ground ourselves in the vibrant receptivity of the Yin, or to give over to our dynamic and compelling animus mode.

This is what I have been struggling with in my own life at the moment (for details see my post The Confessions of a Domesticated Wild Woman). And I see that in the art of woman craft, this fine balancing of these two sides is vital.

Until a woman consciously engages with the Masculine energy within, she remains under its domination. She does not emerge as an individual… but espouses the common patterns and practices of the society around her, She is cut off from her womanly subjectivity, risks losing the underlying guidance of the Self.

…Modern woman has no idea how profoundly she is needed. The world is crying out for a developed Feminine voice, a voice that can mediate, once again, the ancient values of the Feminine… values of interiority, of the sacredness of matter… values that honour the privacy of individual process.

That dear women is why we are here. That is the purpose of this site. To provide (in time) a forum, a storehouse of riches to support you in your woman’s journey.You are needed, dearest woman, more than you can possibly know: by the world at large, those close to you, and yourself. You are precious.