Reiki and Religion - Goddess Religions with Karen Caig, LRMT

The first of a series of interviews around the religions from the World Peace Grids which states:  "May the followers of all religions and spiritual paths work together to create peace among all people on Earth." https://www.reiki.org/world-peace-grid-project

Goddess Religions
Karen is a practicing Pagan who taught about Goddess/Earth-based religions for years.  Join us to learn about the Divine feminine and Paganism.  Then allow your own Divine feminine energy to ignite as she shares "The Song of the Goddess" with us.

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Karen Caig, Reiki Institute
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Transcript

Pam: 0:00

On this week's podcast, we are starting a new series, which I am so excited about. This is something that started for me. Back in 2017, I received the guidance to write a book called all roads lead home, and the book is meant to be about the religions in the world. Peace grid, the various religions in the world, peace grid in the world, peace grid. We send Reiki to people from. All of the different religions, all of the major religions in the world, native people's religions, Buddhism, Hinduism, independent spiritual paths, Christianity, Judaism, the goddess, religions, Islam, Shintoism, all others, including tics and atheists TISM and Zoroastrianism and Daoism. And the purpose of this book was meant to show people that while we sometimes identify as one particular religion or our background as one particular religion, if we were to learn more about the other religions and the other spiritual paths, But then there would be a lot more understanding and a lot more acceptance. And so the purpose of the podcast, we're going to start a series of podcasts, just going, interviewing people from each of those religions. And I do want to let you know that for some of the religions, such as Buddhism Hinduism, Kris Chi sorry Shintoism Z Astro and doism. I don't have anybody to interview yet. So if you follow that religion and would like to talk with us on the podcast about it, you can email me through a link in the podcast. I'd love to hear from you. Because I really believe that if we understood all of these other religions, we'd realize. How familiar or how similar they are, and even for their differences, that they all come back to the same thing, and that is love and just doing good and being helpful to others. And and, I think that we all follow very similar guiding principles. So on this week's podcast, I'm going to be talking to Karen keg about a very misunderstood religion paganism. And that falls under. The goddess religion. So welcome, Karen. I'm so glad you're here.

Karen: 2:35

Thank you. Thank you for having me. I love to talk about this because as you mentioned, it is misunderstood. And I live in the American south and I, I am frequently reluctant to identify as a pagan because they think I'm worshiping the devil or something.

Pam: 2:51

I know. And, yet nothing could be further from the truth. Yeah. And so I, I really am excited about this series to just help us all understand each other. Now there is a good chance. This could turn into a book, everyone. Stay tuned. I did actually write, I received very specific guidance in 2017 and I did begin writing the first three chapters of the book. So if this does turn into something by the end of these podcasts or even afterward, I will certainly let you know, in the meantime just to let you know a little bit about what we have going on at the farm. If you don't already get our newsletter, go ahead and sign up. There's a direct link in the podcast for that. I'd also like to let you know about some classes that we have coming up in July July 16th to the 22nd are. Classes in an Asian and Europe P friendly time zone. And those are RMA classes, which means those are level one and two in masters. And those are the classes that qualify toward professional membership in the I C R T Reiki membership association. If you're looking if you're interested in that, and we all notice that when you do become a professional member, the Reiki energy just seems to begin working with you a little bit differently, like a little bit more seriously. And so I wanted to offer that for our Asian and European friends. So it is very early mornings in north America. It's evenings for in Asia and it's just regular morning. In Europe and those are online classes. They're a little shorter day. So it's three days for level one and two and four days for the masters. And then I have a class beginning, July 23rd, that I'm incredibly excited about July 23rd and 24th is at level one and two animal Reiki class. It's in person. Although if you do want to attend online, let me know because we can accommodate that. we will be doing that class from Campobello island, which is a, our summer home, a little island off the coast of Maine where we can actually work with the ocean and with the whales and seals and POS, we saw POS from the porch just the other day. And that class is going to be followed by a whale tour. We're going to be going for three hours out onto the water and on the Monday, July 25th. And we're going to be offering animal Reiki to the whales. The whales should. Be arriving by the end of July. So we're, they're not there yet, but we are looking forward to their arrival. They come in July and August and early September in order to feed. So we're excited about that and that's followed by a masterclass and the masterclass begins on the 25th because we are also gonna take the masters out to see the whales then. So I hope you can join us in August. I have some classes in an Australian friendly time zone. I have animal communication and Kaurna Reiki. If you'd like to join us for that class, that is going to be mornings in Australia. Again, there is a day added to each of those classes a little bit shorter day it's mornings in Australia. Evenings in north America and very early mornings in Asia. So would love to have you join us if you can. It's probably not. They're probably not accessible for our European friends though. And in October we have some hybrid classes here at the farm. and just a full lineup of them. Go ahead and check those out if you'd like. And finally, if you'd like to pick up the Reiki business book, which Karen is my editor of that book and helped birth, it helped bring it to light. I do have a link in the podcast of how you can order it from amazon.com or amazon.ca. It can also be ordered from amazon.uk and Australia as well. And it can be ordered from other independent book sellers. You would just. And chapters and places like that, you would just have to go in and ask them to bring it in for you. I do understand it can be a little bit more expensive. The most competitive pricing seems to be on Amazon though. Karen, what have you got coming up? You've got some classes and you've got a wonderful retreat coming up. Tell us a

Karen: 7:41

little bit about that. Yeah. Yeah, so we've got, the retreat is full. That's coming up July 6th through the ninth, but I'm teaching the end after I get back from Wisconsin. I'm teaching one and two on the 16th and 17th. And I'm teaching master during the week 19th through the 21st I'm teaching animal one and two, the 23rd and 24th and animal Reiki master the 28th through the 30th. So I'm gonna miss the whales, but yeah. but that's gonna be incredible. I'm definitely coming up there. Yes. You need to come and

Pam: 8:15

visit and come see the whales. The whale watching tour is actually about where, he picks us up is like a one and a half to two minute walk from my house.

Karen: 8:27

And I, when you were talking about the purposes, I thought there's another book purposes from the porch. we do see purposes from the porch. We, yeah,

Pam: 8:39

I love it. No, it's the most beautiful island it's it was Franklin Roosevelt's summer. Home and Franklin, Dell, or Roosevelt summer home. And so there's an international park there, a golf course, there's whales, beaches, everywhere, and some of the most friendly loveliest people that you've ever seen.

video1628138477: 9:02

So

Karen: 9:02

that sounds like a perfect combination. It's a vacation and you get trained at the same time and it's very cool there.

Pam: 9:11

trying to get away from the summer heat yeah. Of July. It's, always very temperate there by the water. It's quite lovely. So yes, it is a wonderful

Karen: 9:22

retreat.

Pam: 9:26

Karen, before we begin, let's just start with a brief invocation and just invite everybody to bring their Reiki energy in. So I'm just gonna invite people to bring their hands together in Gassho and to close your eyes and take a deep breath. And just allow the Reiki energy to flow through you. And to just open and clear each of your chakras, beginning above your head at your soul star, moving to your crown chakra, your brow, your throat and your heart chakras, your solar plexus, your SACL, your base chakra, and then below your feet into your earth star and just opening the chakras so that they are open to the unification consciousness that exists within holy fire, Reiki, energy. Holy fire has shown. That it contains the unification consciousness. And for those of us who send Reiki to the world, peace grids, we send Reiki to

Karen: 10:46

the following

Pam: 10:48

intention, may the followers of all the world's religions and spiritual paths work together to create peace among all people on earth. And so we just invite the unification consciousness to flow through

Karen: 11:06

us now,

Pam: 11:10

and to just open us to the divine feminine, which exists within every religion or almost every religion and spiritual

Karen: 11:20

path and just

video1628138477: 11:25

breathing

Pam: 11:25

in the Reiki energy. We move to a place of gratitude today. Grateful for the freedom. That exists within our culture today, the opportunity that we have to choose, whichever religion speaks the most to us, this sense of religious freedom, that we have freedom, the freedom to practice, as we wish to be who we are in an age of the inner authority versus the outer authority. We are so grateful to live in this moment in time today, and to be of a lineage of light bringers who are not only creating wellness on the earth today, but who are making it more possible for people to be themselves, to be who they are

Karen: 12:31

and be accepted for that. thank you. Aho

Pam: 12:37

MATOC and Namaste. I never know what's going to come through when I do those. That was

Karen: 12:49

beautiful. Thank you.

Pam: 12:52

I'm feeling just a great sense of excitement from the Reiki energy from source that we are tackling this topic today because it's unusual. I have met some people who don't have religious trauma, but it is unusual to meet people who don't have religious trauma, who haven't been traumatized in some way from their practice of, or connection with. Religion. And so I know William Rand felt so strongly about it, that he created the world peace grids and he created them so beautifully. I know that I was raised Christian, but at one point that religion that I was raised with didn't really define me anymore. It it's almost as if I outgrew it. And one of the things that was really complicated for me is that it didn't address the divine feminine, and I was raised United Protestant and there really, we didn't even have mother Mary. There really was no divine feminine there. And I'm just wondering, what's your history and background and, kind. How did you make your way to paganism? And because certainly paganism is a religion that has been vilified throughout history. So talk to us a little bit about your personal history with it and what brought you there?

Karen: 14:33

I guess I would say I formally dedicated myself to the goddess in 1992 and I was born in 1963. So what is that? That's almost 30 years. I was raised, I was born into a Christian family, if you will. My mother I know, was Episcopalian. I went to the Episcopal church with my brother oh. At my grandfather's funeral and the apostles creed. I don't know if that was part of. No. Oh, and I remember that mom, my aunts, my uncles, they all started saying the apostles creed at the funeral in, unison. And I was like, where did that come from? I didn't know. You knew that because my mother was Christian, but she believed devoutly that, the church was evil and that it was going to be destroyed in the last days. And she would quote from the 17th and 18th chapters of revelation come out of her, my people less U be partakers of her sins. And it, so that's the way I was raised, but she would say, but make your own decision, go to different churches. And when I was growing up, I know that she taught me, she said I used to sing when I was like three, Jesus loves me, as I know, which they thought was really funny, but I was always connected to Jesus. Now this is funny. After my parents divorced and during all the trauma of growing up, I remember missing my father, even though he was a violent alcoholic when he wasn't drunk, he was a, wonderful person, and I remember after we left being so sad and I must have been maybe, I don't know, five, six, probably six. And I remember thinking of Jesus as having really big hands. I was thinking about that last night, Pam, after we decided to, talk about this and I thought isn't that interesting? I associated Jesus with hands being a Reiki man. Wow. Big rape hands. Yeah. But in my. In my mind, Jesus had these really huge hands and Jesus would hold me in his hands and I would feel safe. And that probably even goes back to, I don't remember a lot about the violence, but I know there were times I had to hide, but there were times that were really bad. And I think that maybe that's where that, that came from. That probably my mother planted that seed. Yeah. Jesus loves a little chili, like all the little songs that you learn and that I always felt connected to Jesus as a protector. Now the rest of it. I had, I remember having trouble with, I, I remember being horrified by the story of Noah and the arc. Oh, really? Absolutely horrified. I remember sitting in the, doctor's office. I don't know if you had these in Canada, but we had these like Bible story books. Oh yes, we had those. Is there blue, do you know what I'm talking about? And I can still, in my mind, I can see this drawing of a Ze. Being washed away in the flood that was in the book. And I was completely traumatized by that. I thought, what did the animals do? The animals didn't do anything that's not fair. And I, of course, it's supposed to be about, I remember seeing it was a big theme for baby nurseries for a while. And I thought, oh my God, who would put that in? What a horrible thing to surround your child with. It's supposed to be about the promise of never destroying the earth again and the rainbow and but that was that never, I was terrified by the story of Abraham and Isaac when God asked him to sacrifice. Yes, And I remember thinking like, oh man, I hope God didn't appear to my, mom, wasn't the most stable person. Sometimes I'm like and I'm making light of this, but because that's what I do. Okay. So just to the listeners, I, when things get really deep. Uncomfortable. I laugh. So it's not that I'm making light of it. It's deeply uncomfortable for me. and I laugh with you because you're funny, but just like I say, get by man but um, so there were things about Christianity that I just, I wasn't connecting with and then I had so many issues with my dad, daddy issues that I went through. So my, master's thesis that I wrote in my twenties was feminist literary criticism. I was such a radical feminist in my twenties that because of all the trauma of my, father, that I was a follower of Mary daily and the radical feminist who believed that men were destroying the earth and it wasn't their fault. It's just testosterone. It makes'em that way. And the solution to the world's problems is something called ovular merging. So we can produce, we can reproduce without men by merging the, female, the eggs, it produces only female offspring. So we would have an Amazon system so this is where I was in my twenties. Wow. Yeah. Started thinking, I don't know, like all those PMs women at the same time. I don't know. And life wouldn't be as much fun with, and so how did I get here? This is my path. So let me just I'm trying to succinctly summarize 50, almost 59 years of, my religious path. And like young people today, more and more of them do not identify as religious. They identify as spiritual. And I think that's where all of us are going, cuz everything's opening up what happened to me. Eventually I came off of that, that really strict feminist path. I was really drawn to native American spirituality that made so much sense to me. Yes, it does. And yet we didn't have the word cultural appropriate. Back in the nineties. But I, instinctively knew this isn't right. I'm look at me. I'm, a like white person and I'm not native American, but that, that resonated with me so much. And then, you know how, when you start on a quest, you start asking the questions if not this, then what right. And, then things start to, to show up and I see this. It's funny that I started this 30 years ago, but I see it in young people now, young, European, white looking people in America, like me and they are drawn as I was to the Celtic religions, the north religions, the it's what's our native white religion. and it's paganism. And now the word pagan and I used to teach this I'm a former English professor. So I band this huge stack of books. Yeah. I used to teach goddess religions in world literature, because world lit one is there is no literature except religious literature. And so when you go back to the beginning, it's goddess. Stuff. One of the books I would recommend to my students is called when God was a woman, the white goddess. But I lost my, train of thought, what was it? Oh, pagan

Pam: 21:38

Because really the goddess religions were the original religion. They were the original. So that's why I wanted to start this series

Karen: 21:44

with and because yeah, I used to tell my students when primitive people ask those existential questions, like where does life come from? The answer they came up with was they pointed to the woman next to'em and said, her, I seen it. Life comes from her I came from her, so they, and then they looked at the earth and they, and we still, him and I were talking about, we still say mother earth, mother nature. Yeah. Life, we see the, plants grow up out of the earth. And so that's, the root of it. And. The primitive peoples worshiped the earth and woman. And normally then it would balance out just the way I did. I thought this is a little off balance. I need a little of the mail in there. After I had healed I, really needed to connect with my own divine, feminine and heal that part of me where I felt like I wasn't good enough to, because I was a girl and that's I'm, old, but not that old. My dad. The name carried down through the sun. Oh yes. And he was always this is my daughter and this is my son, and so I, that existed

Pam: 23:02

when I was

Karen: 23:02

young as well. Yeah. And so I had to heal that and then I came to, to seek a balance. And that's where I ended up in the, in with Wicca. I started with Diana Wicca, which worships only the goddess. And then I thought I need a little bit more. And now I just identify as pagan. Pagan means it comes from the Latin Pagani and it means country dweller. That's just the, it means country dweller. It means the people who follow the old religions and the word he in English, that if you trace back its ethology, it means people of the Heath. Okay. Yeah. People who lived on the heat, same thing, country dwellers, the people who were still out in the country on my parents, Gar is Heatland. So I guess I'm people say it's like, I've got good manners, but but I'm, it means that I'm very connected to the earth and so that's, what Peggy gods religions are. And there's so much to learn and to reconnect. And like you said, in the indication, I love that you said this, we all have the divine feminine, even males Most people, my age are kind going like what's up with this, like transgender and pronouns and all of that, but I'm I'm I love it. I love that

Pam: 24:27

people fluid, who they are and express who they are and that it's, but it's okay.

Karen: 24:34

And yeah. Yeah. It's not it's we do live in the dual world, but there's some gray areas in between there and. and then we, all, as humans have the masculine and the feminine and the, and I think there's someone I follow who on TikTok and Instagram and he says gender is a colonial construct. And I'm like, is because the native Americans, anyway, they have two spirit people. Yes, of course. It's and I've thought about that. And Kelts

Pam: 25:10

used to they loved the person and so they might marry a man. And then if that relationship doesn't work out or, dissolve or whatever, they might marry a woman the next time

Karen: 25:24

yeah, it was hard for me to, teach say I used to teach the I in the Odyssey in world lit one and Achilles the big, bad. If you saw the movie, it was Brad Pitt the killers, the big, bad Greek warrior. The reason he loses his mind is not the way they did it in the movie oh, because he was in love with this woman. No, it's because of his love for Petrolos his, his. man. And I said, if in the Greek society, when you have if women really aren't in the Greek mythology women, woman is created as a bane to man, as a punishment for man, as a punishment for man for stealing fire. That's why all the gods come together and they create Pandora. The first woman. It was a nightmares box. Pandora's box woman is responsible for everything because we're curious. And I was like, yeah I, would open that box. might close it quick, but I would open it. Don't open the box. And so she opens the box and outcomes, plague and death and all the horrible things. It's so woman, and this is what happened to the goddess religions it's the oppression of women and it's, there in the stories. So anyway, I would tell myself, they're in the Ilia of the Odyssey. It's also in the garden of Eden. So your real deep relationship was not with, you had to, in fact, I can point out passages in Greek literature where they say Ugh, if only we didn't have to have women to have our children and have sons to carry on. Their real love was for another man, because a true love is gonna be among equals. Anyway, wow. That's I digressed a little, but I didn't know. That's what happened to the goddess religions. They were demonized. They

Pam: 27:10

definitely were. And I, know Karen that I remember like you, when I realized, oh, okay. This container of my Christian background, I had a very strong Christian background. I was a Sunday school teacher for heaven's sakes. And I had perfect attendance for 18 years in, in church in Sunday school, myself and sang in the choir and all of that. And then when I really started exploring my spirituality, I realized, okay, like I still have that base, but it's no longer enough to contain me or to define me. And like you, I was initially very drawn to native American. Spirituality and then it blossomed into a study of Celtic and, this sort of thing. And I remember reading a book, the mists Avalon. Yeah. And I just remember being devastated at the end of it. And for a little while, like you I always had a conversation with God and, but like you, I had religious trauma because

Karen: 28:17

of the mean, God

Pam: 28:20

that, that, would create floods and pestilence and wars. And I'm like, that's not the guy I'm talking to the guy I'm talking to would not be mean like that. And, I, so I, couldn't reconcile that even as a child. But for a little while I, couldn't talk to God. And I, had to talk to the female aspect of God, the goddess and which in my spiritual upbringing, I didn't know much. or had, and so I had to study and had to, because we didn't

Karen: 28:51

even have mother Mary, we didn't even

Pam: 28:53

have mother Mary as, Protestants. There was no, in

Karen: 28:56

fact I taught, I was taught that was like idol worship and evil and satanic, that Catholicism was satanic.

Pam: 29:02

Oh yes. We were taught that Catholicism was bad as well as, a Protestant. Yes, definitely. And that all, that was all there. And but I remember after reading the myths of Avalon, just falling on my knees and saying this patriarchal society is so broken and it's broken for the men, just as much as broken for the women. It's not one sex over the other. It's the imbalance in the way that we are all proceeding and through, our life. And I, but I remember falling on my knees and going, why have we forgotten about the sacred feminine for 2000 years. And I, the goddess very clearly answered me. Because you had to get to know your father. And she said, everybody already knew me. They already were planting plants in the fields and having chicks, hatch, and cows, having calves and horses, having folds and, pigs having piglets, they were, they all knew the sacred, feminine. You needed to get to know the sacred masculine. And I remember saying, but 2000

Karen: 30:23

years, and the God has said me what's 2000 years and I thought

Pam: 30:30

about it and I realized, oh, I suppose in the scheme of things, 2000 years, isn't very long at all. And so I, feel there's this need for this balance, but tell me a little bit about paganism because really people don't know much about it. And so, tell me about it, about the, traditions, the.

Karen: 30:55

I think it as a Christian, you probably will recognize many of the basic tenets of it because to bring the pagans into the church, the Christian Church adopted many of the. Traditions. It's the perfect metaphor for this is the second time I went to England, I couch surfed with this man. I had couch surfed with before and he said, would you know what JC and Anglosaxon church of course I would. I teach just to tell people what couch

Pam: 31:25

surfing

Karen: 31:25

is. Yeah. Couch surfing.org is how you can join and you can host people or you can stay with people for free. And being a single mom on a teacher salary, I couldn't travel if I didn't couch surf. And you can make friends. My mother said, you're going to be murdered in your sleep. I'm like, no, but anyway, he to this Anglo-Saxon church and he said, look at this. And I said, do they still use it? And he said, just for like special occasions, they don't always have. No, I think they did have Sunday services. I'm sorry. Anyway, it's this tiny little church. And he said, look at this. And he pulled up, there was like a trap door and he lifted it up and there were flowers and coins and all of these beautiful things on this rock. And I was like, what is that? And he said, this is where all the pagans come. And, so the church, this Anglo Saxon church in 900 ad or so was built on the pagan sacred site. All of the churches, all of the churches were built sacred sites. Sometimes you can go down and there'll be like a well in the basement of the church, like a sacred but anyway, And I said isn't that interesting? And, I said, so there, he said, oh yeah, they still come make their offerings here. It's just, it's inside the church. and it's this little track door. And I thought isn't that interesting? It's the, a metaphor for, what has happened, but most pagans, whether they're Wicken or some people identify as like a Norse pagan or a Cal basic, a Celtic pagan all of them in the west cuz you have Shintoism is actually Japanese paganism. You've got like your native native nature, religion. Earth based religions. And of course that's gonna involve the goddess religion. There, there are usually eight holidays. There are four. I just, we just had the solstice and a lot of people celebrate the

Pam: 33:25

solstice. I have been guided to celebrate solstice and equinoxes from the beginning before I even knew what they were because

Karen: 33:36

we don't have anything without the sun. And now that's the masculine aspect. So when you were talking about the, duality there, yeah. You gotta have the earth, but you know what? You gotta have some sun too. Because you've got to have that light and that's like the, penetrating, the fire, and then you've got the earth it's the two together that bring life. So that's pretty much what pagan celebrate. They celebrate four solar holidays and then four in between holiday. And then they usually have what they weekends call SPOs. They're the, monthly moon celebrations. And many traditions associate the moon with the goddess. Cause the moon changes like is like the goddess change it's women. Okay. I remember my doctor, my family doctor, who was Catholic, said something to me because I was struggling with depression and this and that. And he said he said, you women, he said, you have it harder. I said, what do you mean? He said, you change. He said you are, you're always, like he said, men are pretty much, he said not you guys And I, I would've resented that when I was younger. And then of course in my forties, I went. You're right. And I embraced it. We change like the moon, And that's why the moon is, did you know, speaking of menstrual cycles from earlier, did you know that before the invention of artificial light, all women had their periods either on the new moon or the full moon? I did. Did that tied to the moon. It's a 28 day cycle. Yeah. It's a lunar cycle. So women, the goddess is associated with the moon because of the changes that the moon goes through.

Pam: 35:23

And you talk about those changes. My husband's diabetic and we've, and so was my cousin who was unfortunately passed away. But we noticed that with diabetes, you can see the changes because with men, the sugars are like this, but with women because of the hormones, the sugars go. And so diabetes can be more challenging for

Karen: 35:48

women to manage.

Pam: 35:49

Didn't know that and so there's a very visible, sign of the fact that women are not the same and that they, and that we, are constantly cycling or moving. That's

Karen: 36:02

really neat. Karen. Yeah. And so you have a, duality in paganism you have the, goddess and the God, and the goddess is associated with the earth. And the like life giving. And then the God is like the hunter, like the great horned hunter like Kaurna the, yes. Yeah. With the, like the horn he's associated with the animals. So the earth so that maybe the goddess is more associated with, I'm thinking of the, Roman goddess series or DEIT in Greek associated with the grain and the growing of the, crops. And then you've got the, mail is the hunter. Cause I don't wanna anything, honestly if, yeah, if I had to provide my own food, I'd be tree bark in. I'd just yeah, like I'm rabbit though. maybe to feed my son. I could. But that is a different aspect of the goddess. So we'll talk about that in a second, but yeah. But you have your. You're two solstice. So the four solar holidays are huge. They are they're big. So what I celebrated yesterday, it's not my favorite in the Northern hemisphere because I live in the Arkansas USA and it's hot. You guys have had some heat. I did not go out and go, yay son. I cowered in my house with my air conditioning and said, thank you for all your lights. Thank you for my food. Thank you for your burning sun. For me, what in, Irish is called litho. The, what the summer solstice is about is the strong son. In fact, what I call the full moon. In June, the strong sun moon. And what I'm thinking about at this point, cuz I live in the Northern hemisphere. If I moved to Australia, it'd be a complete opposite. I'd be celebrating you all. But the, summer solstice is about intense heat. That's going to bring all the crops up and bring them to right? Yeah. And because it's about like it's about expansion. And so what I, spent time journaling yesterday about what I want to expand. What do I want to reach out into and what am I gonna have to burn up if you will, in the, in this hot sun, why am I gonna have to release in order to expand? So that's for me, that's what the, summer solstice is. On the opposite on which we call UL, my poor son he said, mom, he said, the teacher asked, he was like in third grade, he said, teacher asked about holidays. And I raised my hand and said Yule. And nobody knew what I was talking about. I'm like I said, oh, for heaven's sakes. I said, don't they celebrate the U tied, be gay and all that. And he said, no, but fuel is Christmas. Mule is the winter solstice. And so what we do on mule cuz it's usually December 20th, 21st. Yeah. Is we, get up before Dawn and we, oh the place we went last year. I didn't realize we were in a valley and I timed like when the sunrise comes up. But we were, we had to wait for it to come over the mountain. I like there's oh, it's glowing. It's glowing here. Oh, here comes. There comes. Like the first time my friend went with me to celebrate winter solstice. She said, what do we do? Sacrifice a goat. I'm like no, we just, I said, we're pretty tame pagans. we just, we have hot cocoa. We sit there in the dark and we watch it's incredible. We we choose a word for the upcoming year. The winter solstice is the longest night of the year and the shortest day. So we sit there in the dark and we watch the sun come up and it comes up and we share it's like welcome back sun. And we share a word that we want to take into the new year to help us develop, and that's pretty much all we do. But we have the two solstice and so one is an extreme expansion and the other one is an extreme turning inward And then you have your. Your equinoxes So we have the Vernal Equinox, which I call the star which we get our word Easter from. And that's in the spring. And then we have may bond, which is the harvest for the final harvest, if you want. And then you have quarters, like in between those four, it's called the wheel of the year. There are eight of them. So between, now and the Equinox, August, the first we're gonna celebrate Lama, which comes from the old English loaf mass. It's called Lusa in Ireland. Lusa Merrill street made a movie called dancing at Lusa. Lou is the God of light and it's a harvest festival. It's like the first harvest. If we, yeah. Where I live, everything's burned up by August, but live, I live we're harvesting in. Yeah. So it's a first harvest and it's its one of the more minor ones. The next one between the, Equinox and Yu is a huge one. Most people know cuz we celebrate it here. It's called Sei and it's Halloween. Yeah. And it's about, yeah, it's I call the October moon, the blood moon. So what it symbolizes. The death of the vegetation. God, we call the blood moon and it is that vegetation, God, that is reborn on with the return of the sun. Okay. That's the story. And then, so you can see how easy it was to lay cuz Jesus wasn't born in December. No, he was, probably in the spring. They said June by all. Yeah, it wasn't December like December 25th is that Saturn Alia. That's a Roman holiday and UL is but it's the birth of the sun coming back it's like the longest night, but oh, here comes the sun dog. I never seen the Beatles. And but that's the, so it's like the death of the vegetation, God goes inward, it's reborn on the, on fuel. And then it continues to grow. It's an agricultural cycle. That's all it is. But we have growth cycles. So it's it for me, it's deeply meaningful to me to. To stop at these eight points around the year. Oh, we have Groundhog day. That's another pagan holiday. That's in bulk, right? Yeah. Which in America, I dunno where we got this stupid tradition of pull that poor Groundhog out and see if he sees it shadow. But but it's, a pagan holiday it's in between Yuel and OSA. So it's it's the quickening? Is it spring yet? Is it spring yet? Is it spring yet? I guess that's why we ground hog and go no six and in bulk

Pam: 43:19

is I always have loved because here in February, it's very snowy still February 2nd. And, but it's when the earth is waking up under the snow and under the ice and yeah, she's

Karen: 43:31

waking up. Yeah. And, it just goes. Every year around, And so at each point, say every, couple of months, you're you, are doing like a, kind of a, life inventory, a moral inventory, a what, am I ready to let go of? What am I and it's a spirituality that I practice every day and then a particular moons, so I'm doing that with the sun and then every month I'm like I'm a gardener. And even before I'd found paganism, I always used the farmers. Almanac cuz it worked right plant radishes, carrots when the moon is during like the dark of the moon. Yes. Under, and you plant above ground, crops in the full moon when it's going toward full. Sorry, I can't talk. And then you do that with your life as well. And then each moon has some significance and a lot of people are into setting astrology and all that. There's something to it. Even

Pam: 44:37

though my, parents and my family were, very Christian and anti pagan anti-Catholic like everything else was evil. They still weaned the horses on the full. And because it worked and they still would watch the they would do certain plantings and things in the garden, according to the full or the new moon and, also harvesting because of course, full moon, yes. Often would bring frost. They would often be

Karen: 45:08

colder. Also makes a difference in how, well the vegetables store Yeah. Cause of the water content the moon is so tied to, and us

Pam: 45:19

and us because we're Mo made up mostly of water. And so just the same that I, I had a a native American teacher once who explained that we are mostly water, so our bodies respond to the ebb and the flow. Of the tides and of the moon, the same the same as the tides do the Bo our bodies respond to the moon in the same way.

Karen: 45:43

So yeah, I'd like to flip over and talk about the moon and the goddess. Yeah. So most pagans. And weekends, especially worship it's called the triple goddess. And it's usually symbolized where you have the, you have the waxing moon full moon, and then the waning moon. So it'll be like two Crescent in a circle. Yes. And that's a, symbol for the triple goddess. And what that means when I see that as a pagan, it's it's, really comforting to me because I see change life. The only constant in life is change and that we may be in the dark of the moon now, but it is moving towards something that it's and in my life and as an older. and a person who worships the goddess. It helps me embrace. I'm moving into Myron hood, or maybe I'm in Myron hood. I'm like, dude, I'm Aron I'm, starting to feel that Theron usually is vilified she's the old ha the and in our culture, and I'm sure in Canadian culture and whoever else is listening and most cultures, the older woman is like, is just, is more than useless. She's a burden, right? Even more than an older man. I remember. I just have to trust me on that. I've done a lot of research on it. Because we, are not menstruating. We're not giving birth anymore. We hold all of our wisdom inside and it's been a little difficult for me to embrace that power, but I'm stepping into it. Yeah, I know some stuff I've been through some stuff and I know some stuff, and this is funny that younger women, and I say younger, like women in their forties are coming to me and they, for, I think that's why I'm moving into coaching because people are coming and asking me stuff. And there was a part of me and I'm like I don't know. I don't know anything, but then I'm like, oh no, actually, yeah, I do. I do. I know a lot of stuff.

Pam: 47:56

Tell us about the three cycles

Karen: 47:58

the, mother made. Okay. So you first is the maiden that's and you have a lot of goddesses that are maiden goddesses. My. One of my favorites is Artemis which, she was the hunters. That's funny, but she's independent. It's the Virgin goddesses, Athena. She's another Virgin goddess. She, sprang to life in Greek mythology, straight from Zeus's head, wow. And she was the only one who could carry Zeus's Thunderbolt. She's a real daddy's girl, but but she didn't marry, she caused a lot of trouble, but she's a maiden. Virgin goddess. And the purpose of the maiden is to she's like that innocence. She's the daughter she's per Sei, who becomes the queen of the underworld of Greek mythology. She's the innocent, she's all the things you love about little girls, not the mean ones, but like all the things she's the maiden and she's independent. She's not the mother, that's the middle she's becoming, that's the magic of the maiden or the young man is that they're in the stage of becoming the possibilities, all the directions. They can go that's, the maiden stage. When my son turned 13, cause what, we didn't have anything we in the Jewish culture. And I know you're gonna talk to somebody in Judaism, Disney, there's a Rite of passage. We don't have any rights of okay, now you're an adult. So I had to do some research and I created it's called a spike ceremony. A spike is a little male deer. Who's just starting to get his yes his little antlers, And so when he on his 13th birthday, I invited. Every important adult in his life. His boy scout troop master my stepdad, my brother the important my sister-in-law was men and women. And we did a circle and each one gave him, I asked him to write their best piece of advice for becoming an adult. And they shared that. And I, braided like a cord that I, and it didn't work. I tied around my waist and tied around his waist and I symbolically cut it nice because I needed, that was more for me. Like he was ready to, bolt anyway, but mama needed to cut the cord, like literally. So I, just created this ceremony and I said, you are you're 13 and it's time for you to I'm. I'm distancing myself from you. Love. And And I recognize that you are becoming your own person. I re so it was like a formal recognition. And we should do that with girls when they get their first period. because then when a girl gets her period, she is moving from the maiden into the mother, which is frightening to think of at 12 it's possible, which is why I'm a pro-choice person. I'm not gonna get political, but it's possible that she can become a mother when, so that's when though the mother that's, when you are all about Giving life creating either. If you're not giving birth to children, you're giving birth to businesses and ideas you're creating. And then you're, and you're taking care of things, cuz you're the mother and you've got everything going on. Like I am the mother and the wife. Sometimes you have that, aspect of the goddess, but the mother is more powerful than say the maiden, which is funny because in our culture, it's the maiden we try to, because we try to keep women as little girls in that, that, that need taken care of and blah, blah and anyway, not to get too far into that, there are three aspects. And then the last stage, the stage I'm moving into is Theron. Theron is the wise woman. She's also the destroyer. I wanna talk a little bit about the idea of, Theron. Like Heki like the old woman who stands at the crossroads or. I'm wearing my cared one earrings. This is an Irish goddess. She has her legs wrapped around this huge caldron. She is the, not a destroyer, but everybody who dies goes into this caldron of rebirth. She is the one who stirs the caldron. So it's a different kind of life. Like you don't get life without destroying. What comes before thank God. The Egyptians worship, the dun beetle. Yeah. Thank goodness. We have insects to eat up all the dead stuff. Oh my gosh. She's good. Insects. We'd be in trouble. Yeah. And that's what that aspect of the goddess is like or Cali ma in in India, she's a destroyer goddess sometimes to, okay. I just said I just released stuff. So I could expand into where I'm going. Next. That release is a destruction. Like you have to let you have to destroy it and let it go so you can move forward. That's how. That's how the moon does the moon. Of course, it's just reflecting the scientifically, but symbolically it goes through these faces and you've got to have the darkness and I love the new moon. I love it when the night skies just dark cause it bars and it's and that's part of what the crown represents. I know I'm pretty, but this is the calmest I've ever been in my life. You may be thinking this is the. This is like the, to me dark can be like that comforting. Oh, like you said about, you loved in bulk because of like the snow and, then what's happening under the earth. I love wintertime. I love that deep internal reflection and rest the, destruction dark goddess is about rest. And why would we push that away?

Pam: 54:10

It's interesting though, because I think as light workers sometimes we are so drawn to the light that any reference to darkness

Karen: 54:22

can be

Pam: 54:24

presumed as negative or yeah. Or, whatnot. But I, I feel in some of my horse work, which is much more earth based and probably along the lines of paganism a bit more but in some of my horse work, we talk about the fact that everything still exists in the darkness. It's just our knowledge of it may not be. And I, imagine my yard and the, thing that I might bump my shin on it's there, whether it's light

Karen: 54:58

out or dark out. But

Pam: 55:00

I it's just, it just has to do with with awareness and, that there, there can be tremendous gifts in the dark and you're making me think of it, Karen, about that letting go. That letting go is so important when we, when I led the solstice meditation for this podcast last week that was what I was told. It was about, what are we letting go of so that we can become who we want to become by the end of the year where are we going and what do we need to destroy or let go of. So just, what is your thought on the, word darkness? Because that shoes up what

Karen: 55:43

the goddess religions. So as it relates to the goddess religions, especially when you were speaking, I was thinking, so I feed the birds and sunflower seeds. Sometimes they knock'em down into one of my flower pots, and that seed is in the darkness, in that if you've ever seen something sprout like the sunflower sprout from a sunflower seed, it has to, it sits in the dark. We all have to sit in the dark that's, where all the, potential is, in the darkness. That's why this goddess in this cauldron is important because you have to go into the cauldron of darkness to come out a new that's where creation happens. It's that's where creation happens. Yeah. And when you were talking about that, I thought, yeah. It's you have to sit in the dark inside that seat and then you get that okay. Time. And then I don't know what happens and then it just starts coming out and then it has to cast off. I think of sunflower seeds, cuz those seeds are pretty, those holes are really cumbersome. Somehow it gets it off and grows pretty fast. And that's what to me, the darkness is. And I've stopped thinking about darkness is evil and bad. I've fact I've really kind stopped thinking about evil. With Reiki, when we talk about when we in our lineage, we do the healing spirit attachments and I, emphasize to my student that you, the power of God's love is so powerful. You've charged yourself up with, holy fire Reiki and you are releasing it with, you're not like casting it out, get out your evil. you're releasing it with love. And I don't even, I don't think even of like spiritual, like discarded spirit things as evil, maybe heavy and negative or but I know that it can be dispelled with the light, or like you said, like you may, your stump is always out there in the dark it's there, whether you bump into it or not you shine a light on it. And I don't know, I'm really in my old age starting to just go it just is when you talk to somebody with Daoism and that yin young symbol which is constantly moving, it's actually a tourist term okay. Into two dimensions. You have that little, black inside the white, and then you have the little white inside the black it's constantly the white inside, the black is gonna get bigger and the blacks and it's turning and it's, it always has one. You can't have one without the other, and it's always doing this balance. So, you have, so in a Godes religion you, embrace all, three. All three of them, right? Maiden, the mother, the Chrome, everything I do. And you break the light and the dark. It sounds like the light and the dark, because it's all part of life. It's all part of the

Pam: 58:49

cycle. If it seems like it's

Karen: 58:52

around an animal Reiki. Oh, I was. So I love that course. It's my favorite course to teach because because we talk about nature and we talk about how animals view things differently. Animals being paid as being more like an animal trying to pull back and they see a bigger picture. They see it's not, so this is good. This is bad. This really, I, now I am open to any. Any spiritual path or any religion? The only ones I shy away from are the ones who, wanna hurt me. or the ones, any, anything that says this is the way. And the only way that, that'll be a red flag for me. But other than that, for me too, more than anything, I'm curious, like, how do you do it? How do you celebrate this thing called life? How do you get through tough times? What do you

Pam: 59:46

do? I've studied religions for a long time and I just find them fascinating. Yes. And the more that you study, the more that you realize wait a minute we're not that different. How remember they showed on hay house, they showed a picture of a pie chart. and they said when we first start learning about spirituality, we're out here on the edge of the pie chart, like out here on the crust. And we say you'd see I'm different from you because I'm Christian and you're Buddhist. And then, but he says, once you get closer and closer to the middle, you get to the center and you go, wait a minute. We're all the same pie. And and that's where the, idea for all roads lead home comes from that. One of the things we talk about in Reiki is Reiki. Isn't a religion. And I asked William about that one day. I said, William, I don't really understand why you say that or why it's important. And he said religions tend to divide. They tend to make us feel separate from one another. Whereas Reiki,

Karen: 1:01:00

first of all,

Pam: 1:01:01

Reiki works with all religion. and it's meant to be inclusive. It's meant to include everyone and, not to be exclusive or, make you feel different from one another. So for that purpose, it's really a spiritual path as opposed to religion. Yes. And he talked about how, regardless of your religion, Reiki can help you experience it more. And religious trauma often comes up in class. Many, people have experienced some form of religious trauma. I actually had one student once who says I had no religious trauma. And I said, wow, you're the first person I ever met. has no religious drama. That's pretty cool. And and she really didn't. She really had been raised in a spiritual tradition that she or religious tradition that was still, that was very comfortable to her in all aspects. And and I found that unusual because so many of us do have some sort of trauma from this lifetime and sometimes even from, other lifetimes. How do paganism and Reiki go together? How do you find that works?

Karen: 1:02:26

It works perfectly for me. the thing about Reiki is when you take the Reiki principles, the Reiki ideals just for today, do not be angry, do not worry, be filled with gratitude, devote yourself to your work and be other people, every living, being starting with yourself that I can't think of a religion that goes against. Yeah. And yeah. I was telling you when I first started with Wicca I, I, watched like on TikTok, some of these younger pagans and I'm like that I've been there, I've done that. And they're very concerned about okay, so for this moon, you have to have this color of a candle and this crystal is good and use these herbs. It's good to and and I, and that's where I was because I was finding my way, like branching out. There's gotta be something else. Oh let me try this. And it was, it reminded me of how. Mrs. Takota taught Reiki before we could, we were ready, say at Reiki master to learn a more intuitive LA ho and like really trust in yourself and trust in that connection to the divine. Before you really learn to trust, you start with, put your hands here, put your hands here. And feel, and that's where, we all start. And so I think that for me, Reiki I, looked at it more as I didn't look at it as a spiritual path at the beginning, but. What happened was the practices, except the major things. I really stick to the wheel of the year because it helps me. And Reiki doesn't interfere with that, but I noticed that the things that I, used to, oh, I need to do this, or I need to that just slid, slid into the background. It's still oh yeah, I know. I can tell you what herb to use for that or whatever, but that kind of slid to the background. And now it's part of my Chron knowledge. I. It's yeah, use a okay. Now I can't think of one but sometimes people ask me like, what can I use to open up, like to open up my sinuses oh, here use some of this min stuff or here use some Artesia I, but that's herbally stuff. I can remember the man I, stayed with in couch surfing. He had, he was a Reiki practitioner and he said, I'm a witch. And so when I got there, I asked him, I said, so I said, what kind of witch are you? And he, I said, are you Wicken? He said, oh God, no. He said those people that go flu in about, in those robes, he said, no, I'm not that he said, I'm a hedge witch. And I don't use the word witch either. That has really negative connotations that has really negative connotations. But he, felt comfortable with that term, which yeah, he said, Karen, I put that on there to scam. Most people away. It didn't work on you. I said, no, I thought, oh, you must be very nice, man. Those witches, I, they are very nice people. They're PE. And the, word, the whoa, whoa, that's, there's kind of some dissension on should we use the witch word or not use the witch word? Witch just means wise woman. I know, but it has such a negative connotation that I don't. I did, you know what? I would not be doing this podcast with you five years ago because my son and because of where I. And you said, I live in the Bible belt and I would not want my son to be punished for or ostracized or even myself. I have stepped into so I've been since 1992 was just oh, I said like I'm in the broom closet. Yeah. I'm a Wicken, but I'm in the broom closet. not

Pam: 1:06:11

just the closet,

Karen: 1:06:12

the broom closet and the broom closet, man. But but I think it, it's hard for me to identify it's one specific thing. That's why I just embrace the term pagan now because I don't, I used to say I'm a solitary, eclectic witch, meaning that I, practice by myself and I draw from many different traditions. And now I'm just like I think I'm just a Reiki master. It's love just, love. That's all. That's all, the religions are, like you said, at the very beginning. It's just different ways of trying to find the love in yourself

Pam: 1:06:51

and to experience it and express it. Isn't it. And yeah, Vidia told me that once she said she, followed different religions and now her religion is Reiki because Reiki is love and she follows the religion of love. And she said, really, every religion has love at its core. And every, person, every animal. Every, being in existence on the planet, we all have love at our core don't we, regardless of how we choose to worship or express it.

Karen: 1:07:26

Yep. Very well said. Ah, thank you. every so often well, Karen,

Pam: 1:07:34

is there anything what would you advise somebody who's and you mentioned to me that you notice a lot of young people are embracing this. Tell

Karen: 1:07:42

me a little bit about that. I think it's because they're traumatized but what they see going on in the name of religion and I have a great deal of faith in young people. I do too. I really, do. I know, like I'm technically a boomer. I think you're gen X, I'm technically a boomer. I'm like just barely the tail end of it. Like whatever boomer, but I'm one of the boomers that I'm looking and I'm, saying like, no, you have figured out the BS. You've gone that we're not doing that anymore. And they're throwing things out and they're. They have so much to deal with, but I think that they're looking at one the planet. Yeah. Way back in the eighties, when I first started teaching Joseph Campbell, which by the way, if you haven't read this, the power of myth, he is the world's foremost, mythologist he died in the eighties. And there's a series with bill Moyers, where he talks about all the different myths and by myth, he means not like it's not true. The stories, right? The religions he puts religion in, in he calls it a myth. Not that it's not true. He said, all religions are true. All religions are true for their time and their place where they are. They're all true because they all go back to love. But I think that young people are looking at the earth and the planet. And where else are you gonna go back to? it's look at what we're doing to the. The planet that sustains us. And so that's, to me is a very natural place to go is, to the, pagan religions too. Let's celebrate the seasons while we still have them. Let's see if we can't get back into balance. It's that call to balance. That's what's drawing'em to that. And they're issuing religions because religions are too, limiting. They're not big enough anymore.

Pam: 1:09:46

I've heard a lot of people say that, when they get into their Reiki journey, that. That they've gone beyond, that's it like, not that they've discarded it necessarily, but that their understanding has gone beyond

Karen: 1:10:01

and there we're creating new stuff. I did a women's retreat. I did a Reiki experience at a women's full moon retreat. The woman who organized it was Jewish. There was a, woman who was big in the Baptist church here. And there were lots of different religions, but these two I think they were both Baptists, but they were, they had left their churches and they were talking about how they, didn't miss the, confining aspects of it. But they said, you know what I miss. And the reason they had come to this women's full moon retreat overnight. I miss the, fellowship. And that is, I think something useful from organized religion. Is that sense of belonging. And when you were just beaten down and just, Ugh, can't move forward. To have a group of people who say, come here, we will love you. Come be part of our group. That's an important part, but we have a long discussion about how that, part is needed. We need the, fellowship, or that's a masculine word, but we need the comradery. Yeah. Which is probably also masculine. All the words of masculine doesn't matter. We need to come together. Not just women, men, all of us. We need a home. And I think for me, that's that is taken by Reiki. Now, you know that's because it's such a mixture. I accidentally scheduled a class on Easter a couple years ago, and then I thought, oh, heavens, nobody's gonna take it Reiki one and two on Easter. And I had a Hindu and a Jewish person that's I'm like, so let's, do this. And it's so beautiful to me that the holy fire, which I was resistant to, I didn't take it until holy fire too. I heard holy fire say Uhuh, I don't wanna do that because,

Pam: 1:12:02

okay. And now I didn't right away. I waited until 2015 to take holy fire Reiki. Yeah.

Karen: 1:12:09

And now I work with Jesus again, Jesus in his hands, Jesus in his hands. So I've come back to Jesus. How could you be pagan? And, and, work with Jesus. I have always worked with Jesus and Jesus says the ultimate healer and he was the one who took care of me that ascended master who figuratively held a little girl in his hands, said, I've come back to working with Jesus mother Mary Coen. yeah, it's just a, that's lovely. Yeah.

Pam: 1:12:41

I love it. Karen, what advice do you have for anybody who's interested in exploring the goddess religions further and learning more about them?

Karen: 1:12:50

I would, because, like I said, I'm seeing a lot out there. A lot of young people, aren't you, a lot of young, people. And I did go to some gatherings and stuff. And, I did come to the conclusion with a lot of like my friend in England. It's but all these people flouting about in robes, it seemed more like a costume dress up like I'm a witch, here's my blonde, and I, so I was like, no, this isn't it. This, is not what I'm looking. These are not the witches I'm looking for. And honestly I would recommend. Going inward. And I get some books Scott Cunningham get you've got a whole stack your Facebook groups. You're gonna have, you're gonna have a lot of people that are looking, I would, as William always says you, go in, you follow the inner authority, always look to an inner authority, not an outer authority because you can get mixed up with some, people who are a little off track, I would say. And that's true in any, religion? Not just paganism. Oh yes. But find some books and you're gonna find, you're gonna be doing a lot of meditating a lot. And, if you find yourself like, okay, get a candle on the full moon by yourself, make a little circle. I did I, did all the things. And you stick to some things you, create your own connection to the divine. And if, they are interested in paganism as, a path most, people who listen are, already on the Reiki path, I would just say, continue use your Reiki principles, and then just start paying attention to your connection to the seasons and to the earth, to the sun and to the moon. That's all paganism is the, pinnacle, the pentagram. That represents earth, air, fire, water, spirit, five elements. It's a sacred symbol. That's another thing that has been demonized turned upside down as a satanic symbol, but it. Back, like when I used to teach Carta and world it too. Do you know the story of Faust? No. Nen the demon who was Fous sells his soul to the devil in order to get something. You probably know that story. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. In the play he says how are able to get in here? And Nen softs says, it's oh, this is the pentagram on your door. He said, it has a broken leg. And my students were always shocked by that. And I'm like, no the, pentagram was a protection symbol. It was to keep the devil out. It's not a symbol of the devil, but when I think of a pentagram, I think of that's the essence of paganism earth, air, fire, water, and spirit. The things that we were made of earth were made of water, were made of air and fire. the electrical impulse is running through our body and spirit it's us. So keep it simple. That's my advice. Keep it simple. Don't get all into yeah. And it's

Pam: 1:16:08

very much like the the earth based native American religions for directions

Karen: 1:16:15

and the exactly for air fire, water, and in exactly and upper I think their, colors are a little yeah. And, the direction. So for me, north is earth and east is air and south is fire and west is water And I think in the native Americans it's, something different, but I can't remember. No, I'm not sure, but that's, my practice.

Pam: 1:16:39

I love it. Is there anything else you wanna add Karen before you're going to lead us in a

Karen: 1:16:45

song of the goddess? Yeah. Song the goddess

Pam: 1:16:47

today. And we're just going to invite people. You don't have to just to, listen to this beautiful goddess prayer, and just, maybe it might be nice to allow it to open up the divine feminine within you, whatever that is and whatever tradition that you

Karen: 1:17:09

yes, because this could be ISIS of Egyptian and it could be, mother Mary, it could be any, goddess you identify with Quyen and it could be your own

Pam: 1:17:26

divine, feminine. Yeah. Awakening as well. So yeah. So Karen, I'm gonna ask you to go ahead.

Karen: 1:17:33

Okay. So just, if you would just, if you've got Reiki, go ahead and activate your Reiki. Place your hands over your heart. Continue taking deep breaths, deep belly breaths, and just listen to the song of the goddess. I am the great mother worshiped by all creation and existent prior to their consciousness. I am the primal female force, boundless and eternal. I am the chased goddess of the moon. The lady of all magic, the winds and moving leaves. Sing my name. I wear the Crescent moon upon my brow and my feet rest among the starry heavens I am mysteries yet unsolved a path newly set upon. I am a field untouched by the plow, rejoice in me and know the fullness of youth. I am the blessed mother. The gracious lady of the harvest. I am closed with the deep cool wonder of the earth and the gold of the fields. Heavy with grain by me, the tides of the earth are ruled. All things come to fruition. According to my season, I am refuge and healing. I am the life giving mother wonderfully fertile worship me as the crone tender of the unbroken cycle of death and rebirth. I am the wheel, the shadow of the moon. I rule the tides of women and men and give release and renewal to weary souls though. The darkness of death is my domain. The joy of birth is my gift. I am the goddess of the moon, the earth, the seas, my names and strengths are manifold. I pour forth magic and power, peace and wisdom. I am the eternal maiden mother of all Andron of darkness, and I send you blessings of limitless love. Bless it. Be bless it be. Thank you, Karen. Thanks so much for thank you for having me conversation

Pam: 1:20:41

with us today and just bringing us back to the original religions. I really appreciate that. Just wanna say thank you to the listeners as well. Thank you for joining us and thank you for the beautiful light that you are spreading in the world. Namaste.

Karen: 1:21:01

Thank you.