By Eve Annecke
We launch on 21 March 2023, autumn equinox for some, spring equinox for others. 21 women, a nine-month journey, one translator. Four countries: Brasil, South Africa, Lebanon, United Kingdom.
Equinox is a time of season change. Equal day and night. And, being one with nature, we too enter a new season. Time to feel the changes in the air. The changes in daylight hours. The shifts in the night skies. The way our bodies feel in the different seasons. What do we let go as we move into this new season? In autumn we begin to notice the end of summer, the dying off of leaves and flowers. In spring, we spot new life arriving - tiny buds, bulbs from the earth pushing through the soil.
Equal light on the face of Earth, and equal shadow. Just like us. We are invited to bring all of ourselves on this journey: our light and our shadow.
We honour our young Aura heritage. Arising from three years of Aura women’s circles: Aura World and Aura Valley, Facilitating the Feminine is an exploration, not a recipe. Our experience with activists, single mothers and women deeply involved in the world bring us to a point where we know we do not understand the immense power of the feminine. We experience it daily, and still we do not pretend to understand it.
We are in awe of the magnificence and joy in women. And we offer Facilitating the Feminine without knowing if the feminine can actually be facilitated. But we would like to try, with this unique circle, to experiment together in being different in the world. And to see if indeed we may learn to hold steady this rich potency with others.
Like an infant in the womb, we are never really sure of who it is that will arrive. It is a certain trust and faith in the process, a soft honesty and tender beauty that keep us making the path as we walk it.
As a way of creating the circle, we say our name, our place and a single word of what we feel. We listen to the outline of the nine-months ahead. Simple milestones each module, guides along the way. To experience in joy - without worry, without anxiety. Commitment without demand. Our ritual is to make mandalas in our launch - each of us our own spiral. Flowers, seeds, nuts, shells, leaves, pebbles, colours, candles and infinite love. Ancient spirals, symbolising each woman’s own journey within our circle. A journey of expanding consciousness, knowledge and wisdom. Making, using our head, heart and hands to express an inner voice, whispering the courage to be our fullest selves.
And, we eat. A time-tested way of being together, through food! We close with simple words: what we bring to the circle, and what we dream to receive. We know this journey will require commitment - a strong spine and a soft, open heart. In a world steeped in stories of progress, speed, competition, not-enough-time, efficiency, stress and exploitation, we see it as a deeply political and radical act to explore the strength in being and knowing differently.
To be present and open to the strange power of the feminine.
May our adventure ahead be blessed by our ancestors, and guided by an infinite cosmos holding us in her loving arms.
Til next time when we meet in Module 1: Circle of Women.