022 | The Call of the Goddess with Achintya Devi
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On the first day of 2016 I took off my clothes and jumped into a freezing cold body of water.
For so long I had avoided cold water, knowing that my body already runs on the cold side and I wanted to do everything I could to stay comfortable. But on New Year's Day, when I was on a hike with a group of friends and we came upon a gorgeous pond, I just knew I had to do it.
I felt amazing afterwards.
But a week ago I went up to Orr Hotsprings with my partner and found myself avoiding the cold plunge at all costs.
I watched as my partner jumped in the icy cold pool on the first night and wondered how he could do it when it was already so cold outside. Even though I knew I would feel amazing afterwards, I was still avoiding it.
Until one moment I just knew I needed to jump in. It was time to stop procrastinating and just go for it.
So I did.
And what I noticed as I jumped out was that I could suddenly fully sustain being in the cold air outside. My body was warming up more quickly from the inside.
Suddenly I stood a little taller, spread my collarbones a little wider and walked with confidence upon the cool, hard Earth.
So often in life, we do everything we can to avoid the "cold plunge." Those things that scare us, those things that feel difficult or challenging. We procrastinate and put them off...
But the thing is, as soon as we stop avoiding it, we feel bigger and stronger than ever before.
This is what the past year has been like for me - continuously jumping into a cold pool of water. It has not always been easy, and at times it has felt like too much...
But as I sat interviewing Achintya Devi for the Rising Women Leaders podcast and hearing her speak of finding the gifts in our challenges and difficulties in life, and how relieved and powerful we feel when we face them head on, I knew it has all been worth it.
Achintya spoke:
"It is the medicine of your pain or fear to walk towards it. If we keep turning away from it, it's going to keep perpetuating in our lives...and when we can look that challenge in the mirror...and when it is fully felt through the body, something shifts, energetically, in our DNA in our brain structure, in our cells and in our hearts and we understand there is a deeper truth that lies underneath it. "
As we close out 2016, I knew this was the perfect episode to leave you with.
Achintya speaks so powerfully of what is happening in our world right now, how women are being called to embody their divine feminine sovereign power and how we can fully activate and align on our path.
For this episode especially, I urge you to listen all the way to the end.
About three quarters of the way through we touch on some deeply meaningful topics that I think you will want to hear. You may want to have a tissue on hand.
From Achintya:
"We really need you right now...
Every single one of us is completely unique. There is a grand tapestry being woven right now and each and every one of us has a unique color and frequency... it is going to be incomplete without your thread...
I invite you to trust that your presence matters. You chose to come to this earth for a reason. You are holding a particular frequency that is medicine for someone or something..."
And we need you.
In this episode we discuss:
Achintya's recent visit with the spiritual teacher Amma
Rising above times of darkness and challenge - how to see the gifts in our difficulties
The call of the goddess and what is happening at this pivotal time
How Achintya left a relationship that was no longer serving her, followed the call of her heart to move to Maui and create her dream business and partnership
The advice Achintya has for YOU if you feel the calling of the feminine rising but ever find yourself held back by fear or self-doubt from fully stepping into your power
Moon Temple Offerings in 2017! More info here
Tomorrow I will be entering ten days of silence at a Vipassana meditation retreat with my friend Karen.
I know there may be some challenge and difficulty that arises with meditating for ten hours a day, ten days straight, but I am willing to embrace it to invite a deeper state of peace and equanimity.
I welcome any good thoughts coming my way (I will be in silence and away from all technology December 20 - 31).
Know that I am wishing you an empowered and loving end of 2016 and I deeply look forward to connecting and sharing more inspiring content with you in the New Year.
With love,
Meredith
Achintya Devi is the Founder of Goddess Rising, a Global Sisterhood and School of Women’s Wisdom & Moon Mysteries, dedicated to activating and empowering the Wild Sacred Feminine within women worldwide through Moon Priestess Trainings and Leadership Certifications, Wild Sacred Women Retreats, a HerStory Rising Publication and an Online Global Moon Sisters Temple.
As a Women’s Wisdom Guide & Teacher, Ordained Priestess, Wholistic Health Practitioner, Acupressure Therapist and Kundalini Yoga & Meditation Teacher, she is especially passionate about women reclaiming and embodying the rhythm of their Womb Moon Wisdom and rising together in sisterhood to reawaken the collective Feminine Power for lasting transformation within and to serve as Sacred Feminine Leaders in this era of great Planetary Awakening.
Achintya is from British Colombia, teaches and travels internationally and is based on the island of Maui.
Read the Transcript:
Meredith Rom:
Welcome to the Rising Women Leaders Podcast. We are a sisterhood of women stepping into courage, self love and feminine leadership. I'm your host, Meredith Rom, and here I'll be sharing personal insights, as well as interviews, with inspiring leaders and entrepreneurs, so you can create more daily magic in your life and also grow your business without losing sight of spiritual values as a rising woman leader. If you like this podcast, use our hashtag, #risingwomenleaders. Follow me on Instagram, @MeredithRom, and sign up for email updates at RisingWomenLeaders.com. You'll receive all the new and inspiring content, including insights I only share on email. Now get cozy with a cup of tea, light a candle, and grab a journal to listen to this week's magical radio podcast.
Hi everyone, it's Meredith. I wanted to premise this episode by just letting you know that there are some really powerful insights and wisdom that come through about what's happening in the state of the world, and with women in particular and listening to the Call of the Goddess and coming into there rising. I just really want to encourage you to listen to this episode all the way to the end, especially around three quarters of the way in when Achintya starts speaking of some really powerful wisdom. She has a beautiful invitation for you as well, to take into your heart, as we end this year and begin again in 2017. I'm about to go into a 10 day Vipassana silent mediation retreat where I will be in meditation for up to 10 hours a day, leaving. You might even be listening to this while I'm there, so you can think good thoughts for me. I thought this was just the perfect episode to share with you, to close out this year, to come into your heart and your intentions for what is ahead. I am sending you all so much love.
I can't wait to share all the episodes that I have waiting for you in 2017. Have a beautiful day and enjoy the show. Namaste.
Hi everyone, I'm here today with Achintya Devi, who is the founder of Goddess Rising, a global sisterhood and school of women's wisdom and moon mysteries, dedicated to activating and empowering the wild sacred feminine within women worldwide. As a women's wisdom guide, and teacher, ordained priestess, holistic health practitioner, acupressure therapist, and kundalini yoga and meditation teacher. She is especially passionate about women reclaiming and embodying the rhythm of their womb moon wisdom and rising together in sisterhood to reawaken the collective feminine power for lasting transformation and to serve as sacred feminine leaders in this era of great planetary awakening. Thank you for being here Achintya.
Achintya Devi:
Thank you for having me, Meredith, and for everyone listening. I'm so honored to be with you in this space at this time.
Meredith Rom:
Yeah. I know that. You live on the great island of Maui, right?
Achintya Devi:
Yes.
Meredith Rom:
Yes. You were just spending some time in California, where I live. I would love to just start off by hearing about your travels and what was happening for you there.
Achintya Devi:
I did used to live in Northern California as well, just further north of you. I lived there for a long time. I first moved to California to go to the Heartwood Institute, in 2000. That's up in Humboldt County. That was a gateway for me to really have a lot of years, a lot of chapters in my life, in Northern California. I'm really familiar with the landscape there and the energy there. That is another home for me. I'm in California at least twice a year with friends and reconnecting to the land and also for work, for hosting trainings and for Moon Temples, Red Tents, and for being with Alma, as well. As which we were just touching on before our recording here. Yeah, this past journey was a quick one. One of which I wasn't quite sure if it would lead me home to Maui or to North Dakota, at Standing Rock, which is still sort of up for the spirit, for the guidance, to be there.
It's a powerful time right now and just returning home, settling in, from really some deep feeling of my well, I feel, with Alma, who's been my spiritual teacher since I was 19 years old. It's part of that six month trajectory to always be with her and in her presence. That was a big part of my journey and spending time with my beloved, [inaudible 00:06:06], and him and I reconnecting with his family and some of our dear friends. Being with my dear sister, Amaya, who I co-teach Priestesses of the Moon with at our Wild Sacred Women Retreat. It was a full time being with nature, being with Alma, being with friends, being with family and in creation of some goodies that will come out in the new year as well.
Meredith Rom:
Yeah. It's so good and so important to take those times of self reflection and retreat, especially as women who hold a lot of space. I find that it is really important for us to take that time for ourselves to, like you said, fill up your own well spring. I'd love to hear more about Alma. I feel like we've connected through the Instagram world a little bit, and then I had listened to an interview of you where you talked a bit about Alma, and I just felt my heart open. Anyone, I feel, that has a heart connection with Alma, there is just something special there for me, as she was a teacher that really helped me in a time when I was at the very beginning of my spiritual path and discovery and led me to travel to India and have a lot of openings. I'd love to hear about your time with her and also just how you came to find her.
Achintya Devi:
There is so much, I feel, I could share about my time being with Alma. For those of you that don't know, she is the form of the divine feminine incarnate, great mother, alive on the planet, who's truly here as the embodiment of love and is with us. Being in her presence truly, I can become speechless, and at the same time I feel like I can share a lot. My journey first began with her, as you were asking Meredith, when I was 19. My aunt and uncle, who had been with her previously, invited me to this meditation retreat. Little did I know that that weekend would for sure change the course of my life, or alter and enhance, the journey of my path. I had some of the most profound experiences in my meditations with her. It became very clear to me that she was for real and that I was meant to really continue to connect with her, even though I didn't fully understand it on a mental level at that time. My experiences of God or Goddess had really been through nature.
It did take a little bit of time for my mind to understand that, yes, this is happening through the form of a person as well. Which, after years and years, I feel really, truly, it still correlates to energy. Nature, being the momma goddess, Alma being the mother goddess in human form. Just that this is truly about connecting with the presence of unconditional love, which essentially is all of our nature. Yeah, really I feel like her presence has been a huge guiding force and light in my life, as I felt really inspired after a couple years of, "Being with her," or, "Having sense met her," where I felt the large pull to go to India.
I first went there, 2002, and have had about eight different journeys to India to go to her Ashram and be on her travels, on her tours, the North India Tours, the South India Tours where she is in full force giving blessings and her programs and her teachings in addition to all of the incredible humanitarian charities that happen through her. It's so amazing to me because really, she is such the icon for me of leadership, where she is sourcing herself from the infinite source, which she is completely connected to. She is offering this to the world. She's offering her presence, and suffering, is offering her work, too, and poverty, is giving of this infinite well to benefit others.
It's absolutely, to me, still after 21 years, absolutely, completely jaw dropping, inspiring, to see how she is with every individual with full presence and how she is utilizing every single breath of her life to enhance humanity and to shift the things that need to be shifted on the planet so that people are not suffering, so that we are truly walking as leaders in the world rooted from a place of spirit within, having spirituality be the force of which all of this has derived from. People ask her all the time, and I feel the same too, it's like, "What's your religion?" She shares, "Love and service." There's a little window.
Meredith Rom:
Yeah. It's inspiring and that's beautiful to hear that this is one of your guiding lights, someone that you look to as an example in leadership.
Achintya Devi:
Yeah, it was really actually her that, through being with her, that Goddess Rising was birthed. I had an experience of being in her Ashram in 2012 where I really wanted to give forth a new years resolution workshop, because this was a big year, the Mayan calendar ending. I had this experience within that time, and it was just for women, that that's really where it all coalesced for me. I had a really strong experience of her presence coming through me where I had this, almost, revealing of the path in front of me, and that everything from this lifetime, and perhaps other, had come and arrived at this moment. Where, I knew clearly, without a doubt, that I was now meant to really serve women, to serve my sisters, to utilize all of my gifts in support of women rising together in remembrance of themselves, of their power of the goddess.
It was really through my experience with her, then, that she was like, "All right, you've done enough of serving in the Ashram and doing this certain work in your life. Now it's time to go do this." My time at her Ashram has been less and less and less, since then, because I feel as she does with so many of her children, is say, "Okay, now it's time to go and fulfill this mission. This is why you're here." In that way I feel like we're, as woman, I feel that are committed to awakening on the path and serving in leadership, that we are essentially all working for the Queen Bee, that Queen Bee of the goddess, of the mother. We're really all under her divine wings that are here for the same purpose and utilizing our gifts to serve that purpose, to walk our purpose.
Meredith Rom:
Yeah. Our work can really reach new levels when we approach it from that place. Honestly, just really wanting to give and to serve and watch, to be of help to other people in their path. I can just think of that shift when I became a yoga teacher. It was that first big shift of, "Wow." At first I thought I was going to this training to do something for myself, and to learn. Then, suddenly it's like that shift into, "No, there are actually really a lot of people who need this right now, and if I can just be a vehicle of that."
Achintya Devi:
I love that. I really feel that it's this constant place of always being a student of life and serving and teaching and leading, that we really can't have that leadership without continually being a student, of having that attitude of humility and the welcoming in of the next level of what we can expand or what we can deepen into, what we can learn. We're human and we are constantly having the opportunity to come to another place of embodiment within our own selves to be able to share that with others. That's my experience, anyways.
Meredith Rom:
I agree. I'm curious what you were holding in your heart, in particular, this recent time being with Alma. Any wisdom or insights that came to you from just this past visit?
Achintya Devi:
This is something. I feel this Autumn has been a huge time of great impact, where there's so much uncertainty in the collective and there's a lot of celebration and there's a lot of empowerment and there's a lot to be grateful for, and simultaneously there is a great uncertainty in the unknown in the direction of our planet. Some of this was brought forth, I guess, for me and my heart, it was many things. One of them being in my commitment to serve and to serve out of love and to truly share teachings and wisdom and embodiment for women to rise in the empowerment of their selves, and really informed by the rhythms of the moon, the power that lies within the wisdom of the womb, and to really be connected to the earth and leading from this place.
I took it upon myself to really have one of my intentions to have some of this time be for me to fill up. I am holding deep space for a lot of women at this point in my journey and I know that for me it's really important to be able to just surrender to the goddess and be her daughter and to just be in her presence. That was, I was saying, part of filling up my well. Also, at the same time, is really this place from the perspective of being committed to this path for my own self, and being a priestess on this path of serving love and serving the goddess and walking in a way that I can be of best service. I have had the inquiries and the holding of the collective in my heart of feeling how, with the recent elections, and all that's happening at Standing Rock, as two of our most strong events that have taken place recently, that this place of the future and how do we move forward in this unknown and where there's a lot of collective fear.
One of the things that took place is that that was actually vocalized by a dear brother of mine in his questions. Alma's response was really profound. It really was so simplified by this story, which I think is just we can all relate to. I think that's what's so powerful about Alma is that she shares these stories in which we can all relate to to learn through them, where there was two boys in a pool and there was no lifeguard. One of them didn't know that he could swim. He started to drown, but he didn't have any fear. The other boy that was there said, "Aren't you scared? You're about to drown." He said, "No, I'm not scared because I know that my mother's here with me."
I felt like the whole room just had this sigh of understanding that even in these times where we feel like we're drowning or we feel despair for the collective, for our own selves, for what is out of our control, that when we have faith, when we have the great mother, when we have God, when we have Goddess, when we understand, or feel, more importantly, feel that we are actually being guided by spirit and that we aren't alone that the fear dissipates. For me, this isn't to say that we don't act. This isn't to say that we just give that responsibility over to the divine and we don't do anything. It's that it's informing how we act and how we serve, knowing that, at least for me I can say that I know that there is a grander purpose.
I believe that all that's happening right now on the planet is happening in divine order, even though I don't like a lot of what I'm seeing. I understand that it's a part of the shadows that have been hidden away that are now coming to such a great light for us to no longer hide them, but for us to really see them, so that we can take action for healing or for peace, or for justice. I'm seeing that. I'm seeing that with our collective coming together at Standing Rock and around the world, to make a difference and say, "No longer are we going to stand for our native peoples of this land and lands all around the world to be perpetrated in this way. No longer are we willing to allow for the pollution of our waters. No longer are we allowing for corporate greed." In this larger sphere, I see how this is the Kali Yuga. Kali, being the goddess that is taking out her sword to cut away the ego.
Part of that is for it to be exposed. We have this opportunity, I feel, to do this beautiful and often can be challenging, inquiry, of like, "Where have we perpetrated? Where have we been disrespectful to the earth? Where can we be accountable for our own selves and move forward from there?" The other piece being that, which I have felt for years and years, and I feel like it's finally there's more of us, I feel, who are seeing this and believing this too, or experiencing that, this trust in the government, speaking of apparent leadership. Yes, there are incredible things about the governments around the world, and there are ways in which clearly we can see that the way that they currently are in bed with larger corporations are truly destroying the earth because they have their bottom line of top dollar over the preservation of mother earth and all of her peoples.
It feels this incredible time right now where we're all rising and calling bullshit on the things that are the lies that we've been fed for so long. To say, "Nobody else is going to lead us out of this but ourselves," and truly that we are the ones we've been waiting for. There is no one here that we can just be our savior. It's like, "No, it's time to mobilize on mass, together, to make a shift." That's why I believe those that are listening right now and those that are our in our spheres of people that we connect with have a similar resonance with this. We recognize that we are all here to serve as change agents, as change makers, to truly catalyze this shift and be the solutions and to implement these in the world, from the inside out. Okay, that was lengthy, but there you go.
Meredith Rom:
Wow. It's so powerful and such, just potent wisdom that is really needed at this time. Wow. I'm just thinking about all this, and you holding this space. I'm curious, did you always feel this calling? Growing up and coming in to more of your power and holding that space, what did it look like for you? Was there a moment of awakening? Was it always a part of you? I'm curious around that aspect of your journey.
Achintya Devi:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, I feel like it's both. I feel like for us to have come into this world choosing the family that is on the spectrum, pretty much on the path of awakening and a really loving family, large family. Not necessarily like my nuclear family, but my greater family who I'm really close with. I feel like I have had great support from my family from a very young age, which has truly made a huge impact for me. Of course, we all have chosen our challenges to catalyze us through different rights of passages to bring forth our strength, for us to see ourselves, and in these times of great challenge to forge ahead. I've definitely had a few of those, for sure.
One of them being in my early twenties where I was experiencing severe menstrual cramping, which I relate to. This is sort of two-fold, which is really interesting to think about the earth right now, what we're speaking about of leadership and the earth's resources, and how our bodies are representations of the earth as well and how there's pollution to the earth and how there has been pollution to our bodies. I was preparing to go for a journey to Ecuador and Peru and I was on the fence about getting certain inoculations, which I ended up doing, and really was a poisoning of my body.
That effected me in great ways. I had severe menstrual cramping for years. Shortly after that, and also really intense acne. Those two things really were great teachers for me. I see this now, it's like how we take in the poison, that of the snake's poison, or being the medicine ... Wait, I'm going to reframe that. Having the medicine of the serpent, like taking poison and transmuting it into something else. Which, is gold. Transmuting it into gold, to a gift. This is definitely part of what I can see now that really assisted my journey into being in the leadership that I'm in now and the empowerment that I'm in now, from that. I had no idea at the time that those inoculations were vaccines. They were rabies shots, actually, among other things that were going to really alter my body in significant ways.
The cramping really was so intense for me that I had to journey deep, deep, within. It's like going into the deep underworld of pain and of apparent separation, and to the places where I then understood and felt the greater, global cramp, the cramping of how women are really manipulated into feeling disempowered by advertising, by the collective, by society. The ways in which we stuff ourselves away from feeling our pain and our anger and our emotions. All of these greater epidemics that I see on the planet of how women are challenged and are struggling, I experienced through this great physical pain in my early twenties. That really catalyzed me into the deepening of the blood mysteries and healing and my lineage and of both blood and the cosmic lineages, and always have felt this understanding of walking the path of the priestess that I felt since a very young age where I started to feel like this is the deepening of that. Sort of didn't understand at the time where it was going to lead.
It was sort of like following those bread crumbs of the great mystery. The second part being, having really intense acne at a young age, or not a young age. This is the thing is I had it later in life because of the rabies shots in my body completely reacting and trying to get this poison out of me. That was extremely challenging to have to then go into deep vow to myself to be completely authentic from my heart without judging or criticizing the way that I looked, that I didn't like the way that I looked. I think that that's truly another epidemic that's on this planet. I think most women on the planet, in some way, don't like something about them. They can easily say, "I don't like my thighs, I don't like my eyebrows, I don't like this." Depending on how deep that is or how ingrained that is, can be so detrimental to our precious hearts, to us as women and as human beings.
That really was a great catalyst for me to be able to have deep self love and compassion. Those are definitely a couple things that come to mind in relation to this greater conversation that were sort of my underworld journeys and to rise from that. This is something each and every one of us have. We each have something no matter how much grace and love is in our lives. We've chosen to have certain challenges to bring us into greater remembrance and reclamation of ourselves and what our dharma is in the world, how we are chosen or how we choose, to then serve. To take that poison and offer it now as gold.
I feel like I've come greatly full circle and risen from that to be able to really be in this space to catalyze.
Meredith Rom:
A lot of my work is around connecting that self love, to allow ourselves to just be exactly as we are and to go deeper into that self love. I'd love to hear just a little of how you began to connect to that self love. For anyone that may be listening that is going through a challenge or a hard time or a difficult relationship to their body, what do you have to offer for them? What wisdom do you have to share around that?
Achintya Devi:
Isn't that just like the whole journey of this life, right? That's a really powerful question. I really feel that everyone's deep journey with this is so unique and different. Yet, at the same time it's so interwoven because when we come down to our innate nature as human beings, spirit living inside this body, our nature is love. That is who we are. Whatever ways have come forth on each of our paths that have challenged us are, in a way, truly the the things that test us to still come home to the love within ourselves. I know that there are so many of us on the planet that have ... Everyone has experienced pain on some level. For some of us, it's been more traumatic than others. I feel it really is the pain and the joy or the pain and the love, or the fear and the love, are truly all just two sides of the same coin.
There's such an opportunity to have this lens to integrate because when you're experiencing really deep pain or a continual chronic, negative, self talk and beliefs that are really pulling you towards fear and away from love, when there is at least some sort of recognition of this and the choice that we all need to make. I think this is the wisdom piece. Nobody can do this except for yourself. It's to say, "I'm going to choose something else." Then, when that is there, when there's that moment of really empowered choice, it's been my experience, and I've witnessed so many women as well, where there's this opening to go deeper into the pain. When we go deeper into the pain and fully feel it for what it is, then naturally it shifts. There is truly, I feel, it is the doorway to the things that we feel in our lives that are uncomfortable or that are painful or that are super challenging. We've been so conditioned to turn away from them that it's not pleasurable. It doesn't feel good.
It's really the medicine of that pain to actually walk towards it, or the fear, and walk towards it. If we keep turning away from it it's going to keep perpetuating in our lives and the same patterns are going to be repeating themselves and this endless cycle, like a hamster wheel, of some sort of level of dissatisfaction or continued chronic fear, or self doubt, and on and on, and on and on. When we really can look that challenge in the mirror, if it is anxiety or if that is feeling scared or beliefs of not being good enough, or whatever that is, it's truly that part of the pain when fully felt through the body, something shifts. Energetically, in our DNA, in our brain structure, in our cells, and truly in our hearts. Recognize, "There's actually a deeper truth that lies underneath this."
For every person, that's going to be slightly different. Yet, at the same time, it's, "Yes, I am love. I am the embodiment of love. I am not separate from God, Goddess. I am not separate from the spirit. I am not separate from my fellow human beings on this planet." There's such this incredible healing and opportunity that arises from this. It's my belief that it's so important for us to continually in our lives walk towards what feels uncomfortable because there's truly medicine that is there for each and every one of us. Deep insight and powerful revelation that can only be had when we do turn to face that.
Meredith Rom:
Yes. It's so true. This makes me think of two things. One is that I'm about to go into a 10 day Vipassana meditation course.
Meredith Rom:
Yes. 10 days of silence. 10 hours a day of meditation. I've done it once before a few years ago and it's potent medicine. Everything comes up from the pain in the body to some tense, past emotional pains. The practice is about becoming the witness to it all. Not being in a place of aversion or craving, but rather just watching it and letting it be, feeling it, going deeper into it and watching that it isn't permanent and there is something that it transforms into.
Achintya Devi:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Meredith Rom:
The other thing that reminded me, I just went to a hot springs and there is the cold plunge at this hot springs I went to. Orr Hot Springs? Maybe you've been there?
Achintya Devi:
Yes, many times. I used to live near there.
Meredith Rom:
Yeah. Yeah. The whole time I was avoiding the cold plunge. At first I was like, "No way. No way. I'm not going near the cold water. Can we go in the hot water, get really cozy in here?" At the same time, every time I got out of the hot water I would just be so cold and it was really uncomfortable. As soon as I was like, "I'm going to go for the cold plunge." I just went for it. I got out and I felt invincible. I felt like my body [inaudible 00:40:54] myself up and suddenly I could stand in the cold air because I was willing to go deep into that cold water.
Achintya Devi:
Yes. Oh my gosh, I love that because what the cold does is it pushes the heat in you. In that same way, it's like, when I go into my resistances, as I go into my aversions, it actually pushes the truth and the love back into me. Yeah, that's powerful. I love that and I love Orr. I love that place.
Meredith Rom:
It is such good wisdom. I'd love to hear your insight and take on what is happening right now in the world and what is happening with women and coming into their power and this idea around Goddess Rising and what is happening with women right now.
Achintya Devi:
Right to the core. Here we go. Yeah, wow. The great Goddess Kali comes direct in this moment. For those of you that are listening, I know that you have either heard about Kali, this goddess, and if you haven't, definitely read up about her. We're embodying her right now. We're actually in, in the great cycles of time, and we have the cycles of the moon and the cycles of the sun and the cycle of the seasons and these greater cycles of time. We are in this great Kali Yuga. Kali is a goddess who is about destruction. She is here coming forth onto the planet in her essence, rising through us, as women, to destroy our egos, to destroy all that is keeping us from our power.
Kali is this goddess, when you look at her and how she's depicted with the skulls around her neck and she's slaying all these demos with her sword. She looks super fierce and scary from the outside, but from the inside she has the biggest heart and is the great mother in the form of this incredible compassion. She loves her children and us so much that she comes forth to strip away, to cut away, anything that is truly not serving to be on our path, that is not serving our upliftment, that is really here to destroy the beliefs that we carry, that we have been taught, that we've been conditioned, into that keep us in patriarchal subservience, that keep us from loving each other, that keep us from uniting as sisters, as brothers and sisters, as a family on this planet.
All of this destruction that we see that's taking place all around us in Aleppo right now, at Standing Rock, as the earth has been raped and is being raped, that is being pillaged out of greed and out of fear. This is where Kali comes to the earth and is like, "I am here to cut all of this fucking bullshit away to realize and recognize who you truly are and what is really important." All of that, which I see around, that's taking place on the planet, and all that can be challenging to look at, I believe does serve this greater picture and this greater dance that we're in that can be so hard for us, for women that are on this path right now of awakening to their power. It's like, "Okay, what is power?" When we look around and we see big corporations and the governments that claim to be of service and of power, that's actually not power. That's manipulation and control. This is where Kali comes to cut this away.
She's putting this all in our face so that we can make that choice and say, "I want to choose another way. I know there is another way." It's like, everything that's happening on the outside is truly what's happening on the inside of our global human consciousness that we're all connected with. The feelings that we may feel that are anger and sadness and despair and grief and maybe start crying out of nowhere, we, as women, we feel and we are true and we are intuitive, we are made of water. The same water that runs around the globe that is being polluted, and the pollution that's inside of us that's now getting extracted, it's like, we are tapping into, not only our own personal story and how that weaves with a larger collective, but we're tuning into the transpersonal, where sometimes it can get a little murky. We're like, "Is this mine or is this that of the collective?"
We're all connected, I think that that's another piece that we get to really refine ourselves and our own boundaries and say, "That's something else, but yet I'm feeling it." That's because we are midwives and we are midwifing. We're midwifing the [inaudible 00:47:43] the planet. I know that this is truly why we are gathering together as women, that we're not only just midwifing love back to the planet but we're midwifing the return of the divine feminine of the goddess to come and unite with the masculine and where the masculine is going through its own rebirth, in men and in women. The goddess, there is so many specific goddesses from countless cultures and places on this beautiful earth. In essence, the goddess, the divine feminine, has been repressed, has been shamed, has been hidden. At the same time, she's chosen to go underground for some time and now she's choosing because it is time to return. She doesn't return just outside of us, she's coming through us.
Kali is pushing out all that that is within us that is keeping us from truly being in freedom and being in our sovereignty and being in our divinity and being in our unity and this is the journey of the modern woman right now that no longer can ... We live our lives just for ourselves but that we're living this life in remembrance of truly what it means to be a human being to serve on the planet, to live our dreams and make the necessary steps to offer what we can and our gifts to work and to change the world for truly how we wish to live, for ourselves and for our future generations. This is no joke. This is why we're here.
I feel I could go on and on, and it truly feels like it's like this is why I do the work that I do. I feel that for so many other women, but just speaking for myself in this moment, it's like this is why I choose to get on the computer every day to show up, to be accountable, to act with integrity, to truly be the best that I can be in devotion to love and service, to midwife, Goddess Rising again on the planet, in her true, powerful, beautiful essence, that is really the nature of each and every woman on this planet and encompasses all beings.
Meredith Rom:
Yeah.
Achintya Devi:
Thanks for bringing that forth Meredith.
Meredith Rom:
Yeah. I'm going to breathe that in. It makes me think about how, because Kali is wild and messy.
Achintya Devi:
Yeah.
Meredith Rom:
Transformational. It's not all always going to be easy. There are going to be some real things we have to face within ourselves and around fully stepping into power and our greatness and of being that high lights and beacons to be of service. I imagine for you, I imagine connecting deeply to this why and connecting to what it is that you are really here to do and why you're here to do it. It has helped you to work through fears and challenges and doubts that come up along the way. I wondered if you could speak directly to imagining there is a woman out there right now, and I know are many of them who are doubting themselves in stepping into their power, what you would say to her. What you would say to those women?
Achintya Devi:
That we really need you right now. That the gifts that you were born with, the gifts that you may have repressed or have said goodbye to a long time ago, that which has really given you great joy and pleasure as a young child, the talents that you have, the ways of being that truly are the essence of uniquely who you are, we need that right now. Every single one of us is like a snowflake that is completely unique. If we imagine in the same way that there's this grand tapestry that's being woven right now, and each and every one of us has a specific color or energy or frequency to creating that tapestry, it's going to be incomplete without your threat. I really invite you to trust and to open to the great potential and possibility that your presence matters, that your gifts do make a difference. These voices, like, "Who? Me? It's just this," and how we can put ourselves down in that way.
If you are feeling this right now, just really inviting that invitation that on a really deep level that you chose to come to this earth for a reason. You are holding a particular frequency that, yes, there actually is medicine for someone for something. It's so helpful sometimes to understand that or feel that because when we, as women, offer ourselves in service, there's a bigger draw where we have our purpose. I believe that this self doubt from this place of being scared to step into your power is also an invitation to really redefine what power is for you. Power isn't control and power isn't always leading in a particular way. Power is not domination. I know that in these feelings, like scared of being seen. Scared of being seen and feelings of rejection or what are people going to say because I don't want to feel what I felt before when I felt pain in this way.
At this time, it's like, there is no more time, in a way. It's like now is the time to make that choice of mustering that deep love, the essence that's really inside of you and trusting that and saying yes to that, because that is your power. That power is the thread that we need in this great tapestry. I ask of you to take a step in this next week, whenever you're listening to this. To take a step in this next week to do something that scares you, to do something that's going to challenge your courage and to take a baby step on that razor's edge. There's a lot of, I believe, that is coming for us on this planet, so much that maybe you really unexpected and it's already here. At the same time, we really need each other. We need each other's gifts and we need each other's support and we need to be fully present with each other.
It's my request to you, as a sister on this planet, for you to take that step and to take your place into this great orchestra and this great sisterhood that has been coming to the planet for however long and that we've been together for lifetimes. We're remembering each other once again. We need you. We need each other. That is my request, and knowing that you're totally supported and that you do have women around this globe that are walking this path with you alongside of you. Some in front of you, some behind you, to assist each other as we all really are here to catalyze remembrance with each other and to uplift one another and rise together. That is this other aspect of the goddess that's rising. She's rising through our sisterhood to truly remember what that is so that we can unite and move away from separation and competition and jealousy and come into celebration and come into collaboration and honoring of one another.
This is a place that I would love to meet you in.
Meredith Rom:
Yes. Yes. I wondered if you could share a fear that you have faced recently? Anything that you have overcome or worked through or been really loving to yourself with? What has that been like? What have you learned? How did you do it?
Achintya Devi:
That's a really good question. I can't think of something that's super recent, but I could say in this last chapter of my life, or I guess it feels like more chapters now. I think this is something that a lot of women can relate to also, you may have experienced. It was, I don't even know how many years ago now. I just feel like this is what's coming through. It was this fear or challenge of letting go of a relationship that lasted and lingered for quite some time. Actually, in hindsight, was my final saying no to that and saying yes to myself was truly what catapulted me forth into creating Goddess Rising Sisterhood and our Mystery School. That's a really powerful piece for me on my path. I would say that I really had challenge of saying goodbye. I'm like, "Okay," because I want to work through this challenge or to truly be in this catalyzation of creating another way of being together.
After quite some time of these challenges of looking at my own fear of the future. Okay, what's this going to look like if I leave and everything coming up of full spectrum of leaving the home, not having anything, really detaching fully and listening. Really, through this, it's like listening to my deep intuition, listening to my voice. It's time to go. It's time to complete. I am cutting these chords. It's time to say goodbye. It's time to move forward, and doing that. When I did I had a transition time of actually being a hospice for my dear angel dog, spirit guide, passed him on to the other side. Then, I moved to Maui. It was this great call that I had received, truly from the goddess, very specifically to come to Maui. Everything really has, from that time, catalyzed into my deeper sense of purpose and my deeper path of service and as priestess and deeper alignment with relationship.
Now I am living with, and just bought a home with, truly the king of my dreams. He is freaking amazing. He is truly my beloved and my best friend. It's something that I have felt. I had desired and wanted since a very young age, knowing that there was someone that I really, truly, was meant to be in this life with in that way. It's happening now. That's happening from me having the courage to be like, "No. I am saying no to this and I'm saying yes to this." I'm really following my heart and I'm following the guidance that I'm receiving from within myself. I think that that is a continual test for all of us, as women. It's like, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of years ago when we were trained to really be exercising our intuition and our gifts in this way, it was a lot easier to navigate. We're dealing with so much in this modern world that challenges us to be in our heads all the time and not so much in our bodies and in our intuition.
We're constantly needing to tune into our truth and our intuition in this way, to really listen to what's there, because that is our compass. That is our guide. That is the goddess living inside of us. This is our soul guiding us inside. I think that that really comes down to this great learning and this opportunity to constantly be tuning within to listen and no seeking the answers outside of ourselves. When we do that, that we are truly guided and that we're guided into living our dreams. I was guided into being here and walking the sacred path, right now, in this particular way. Yeah, that's what comes up right now when I think about that and the importance really of saying yes to the voice and the feelings, the gut intuition that lies inside of us.
Meredith Rom:
Following your heart, and from that place you had to take the leap. You had to really trust in the universe that your next step was going to lead you into something even greater than you could have ever imagined.
Achintya Devi:
Yeah, absolutely. On an emotional level, on a financial level, on a spirit level, in every way. It's like, "Okay, here we go. Here come the wings as I leap." We each have to take that leap. That truly, it's called the leap of faith for a reason. We've got to change that. That's when the wings sprout.
Meredith Rom:
Yes. Such amazing work and wisdom that you've done and that you've shared. I wondered what you were excited about in your business, now? What is happening for you and if there is anything offerings, things that you're doing now, that you'd like to share with the women listening?
Achintya Devi:
I really, first and foremost, want to share that we welcome any woman here to come into this deeper recognition of her own power to the power of our body and the power of our cycles. There is a free moon charting map that I invite all women to have by their bedside table to be charting and to have this be a sacred ritual to do once a day or once every couple days besides your bed, to get to know your rhythms, get to know your body and the way that it connects with the moon phases and your emotions and your sexual cycles. It's truly, I feel, this 101 of the modern woman right now. It's coming home to, "What are my cycles?" How our power comes from that. It is cyclical. That's what I'm super passionate about is this cyclical power that we have as women.
You can download that for free on the website. We have free rituals for you to come to at the High Holy Days on the wheel of the year to celebrate your connection with the earth and sisterhood and your own journey of empowerment and awakening and healing. Those are just really heart offerings for any woman at any time. In terms of going deeper with the mystery school and things that require tuition, we are about to ... I think we're doing this in February, right? This is a February?
Meredith Rom:
I'm feeling pretty inspired to share it sooner.
Achintya Devi:
Okay. Whenever this is going out, just stay connected. There's two things for 2017. It's all timeless. We're beginning the next year of our Moon Sisters Temple. That is truly a global Moon Sisters Temple that's a membership for you to step into a quarter or step into as long as you want, leave whenever you want. It's truly a temple space of living by the moon. It's like your living guide to what is happening in the cosmos and bringing this down to earth and how this is impacting us. Really, it's an invitation to join in global moon rituals to truly be in a reawakening of and remembrance of and empowerment of your feminine wisdom for your life, for your love and for your leadership. 2017 is lunar power for us to recreate as the revolutionary, for us to join as the priestess and for us to step into the reawakening as the medicine woman. That's what's in store for the first quarter of January, or of 2017, which is January, February and March.
Then, in February, my dear, beloved, priestess sister, Joanne Ameya Cohen, her and I, are going to offer our fourth round of our Priestesses of the Moon initiation training and Goddess Rising Moon Temple facilitation training. This is really a next level deepening into the moon mysteries and the womanly arts and for all the women that wish to bring this power and wisdom of the moon into their communities to be a part of our Goddess Rising Moon Temple collective. Our next facilitation training is happening in 2017. Priestess of the Moon is the first step that's required before that training. It feels like a really big year. I'm excited because I can feel the momentum of us, as a sisterhood rising, and how when each and every woman who feels this call to deepen into her power, there is this innate connection to our hearts, to the moon, to nature, to rhythm, where we realize that we're really not separate from that.
Let's remember all of these cycles that live inside of us and how we get to, then, embody all of these different phases for our lives, to live our dreams for our own love and all of our relationships, and to truly rise in our leadership. That's what we're being asked to do as a global sisterhood. I see it. I see it all around me. I see it within you, Meredith. I see it within our mutual web of women entrepreneurs and sisters and I'm seeing it around the world. This is what I'm offering for 2017 and truly welcome you to jump on in because it is time for us to rise. It's time for us to shine and to do so from a place of being really nourished and feeling really howled and supported.
Meredith Rom:
Yeah. I'd like to express my gratitude for you being here today and sharing with us. I wondered if you would do the honors of sharing a closing prayer?
Achintya Devi:
Thank you. I want to really honor you, Meredith. Thank you for holding this space and for guiding me into some potent questions to journey into, really in service for our sisters. Feeling the sacred space and the power and the seat that you're holding, I really appreciate you.
Meredith Rom:
Yeah.
Achintya Devi:
Yeah. Okay. Let us close all together. I would love to invite you to place a hand upon your own heart and a hand upon your womb space. To give yourself three deep breaths. As you feel this heart beat underneath your hand, this rise and fall of your womb space of your belly with your breath, for you to know and to feel in this moment that that is the beating of the one heart, the one pulse of life that is here holding and supporting you. That is the heartbeat of the goddess. That is the heartbeat of love. As you feel the rise and the fall of your womb space, your belly, that you offer into this belly, this womb, this portal of your creation, this true center of your creative power, for you to plant in a quality or a desire of how you wish to feel in these coming cycles that are changing into this new year. To plant in, maybe that's courage. Maybe that's self nourishment. Maybe it's connection.
Maybe it's completion or boundaries. Whatever, right now, from this conversation, from this transmission, that you feel you could really need or that you could use or what would feel like medicine for you to plant that into your womb space. As we do this all together, no matter when you're listening, because animals of time are truly seamless, that we honor all that we're each planting in this sacred womb, this deep web, where we're all connected. Where we meet to celebrate, to witness, to affirm, and support all of the medicine in which we need. To know that it is in its own timing, coming forth, and for you to receive that as a blessing. To feel the love that's coming from your heart, breathing that in and giving that to your womb. To that intention, whatever medicine that is, that you need, that you water it with a deep breath of your love.
From the heart space that is generating this, for you to feel this flame of true connection here in this one heart, as well. The truth that lives here, that your voice matters, that your presence matters, that you are valued, that you are supported and you rest in to the rhythms of your body when you rest into the earth, when you rest into the goddess, that you are truly howled and supported. From this place of support, asking you to take your next steps to truly rise and the incredible woman that you are and the goddess within her. I would love to close, to seal this all up with a mantra that I know you know too, Meredith, if you want to sing it with me. The mantra of , and in this way, this ancient sand script prayer, that I first heard years and years ago from Alma, that we extend out our heart for all being and all the worlds to be happy and at peace. That our presence and our actions can attribute to this. We can do one ohm and chant it three times.
I'm inviting you, if you know this, to chant with us as we truly are connected to all of creation and offer this transmission and this conversation and this podcast to benefit all sentient beings. May this be support for that.
Inhaling. Exhaling. Inhale for the prayer to close.
Peace, peace, peace, within and all around. Where the reverberations and all of the soundings we offer this. Thank you for your listening sisters and joining us in this sacred time with your presence. I'm so honored to be here with you, Meredith. Thank you so much. I'm handing it back to you.
Meredith Rom:
Thank you Achintya. I'm going to just bring my hands to my heart and bow in gratitude. Namaste.
Achintya Devi:
Namaste.
