Energy Work and Ritual, Part 1

Finding My Path to the Goddess

The last few years have been a true journey - ancestral healing, mediumship training, energy work, and finding a group of beautiful, powerful ritual priestesses. All of this was missing in my life until I joined Substack in 2023 and found my people. Before that, I was sort of floating in a non-practicing pagan life. I no longer had a Goddess Temple to practice at, I moved away from my home area and became a parent to a young child.

I found many mystics on Substack and the growth of my spiritual path was the last thing I ever expected. My practice shifted in such a way that everything is being rewritten.

The foundations of my practice are firmly rooted in mostly ceremonial Goddess worship of the Divine Feminine. I joined the temple after a co-worker brought me there as a guest. I fell into it immediately. I felt a deep remembrance stir in me - the ritual, the recognition of spirit in both myself and the beautiful women in attendance. It is difficult to describe the beauty, connection, worship and dedication I developed, but I am going to try my best to recall these moments.

For most of my younger years (through my 20’s), I lived life in a very masculine way. The way I navigated my life had, out of necessity, become reactionary and unemotional. And yet, past trauma created a volatile emotional state that often took me down. I alternated from numb to broken. I became quite the party girl.

I lived out my days in a chaotic, shadowy manner. I did not feel comfortable making friends with feminine women because I didn’t feel I could relate to them. I experienced very real trauma when I was a teenager, and it consequently placed a very big wall around me. My decisions were not sound at times. All shadow. All trauma survivor instincts.

Initiation: The First Visit

A co-worker, Jessie, brought me to a Goddess Temple after a conversation at her desk. Experiencing beautiful ritual and tuning into the Goddess brought me to my knees after the first Sunday Service. I was introduced to a high priestess, Leticia, in the front lobby. I remember her energy being so warm and welcoming - and also absolutely fierce. I was in awe of her. After I introduced myself, she asked me how I liked the first visit to the Temple and I said something to the effect of “I think I am home” in return. Leticia then gathered me into her arms, warm energy of her soul wrapping around me. I remember her saying in my ear, “You have so much power in you”. I remember understanding that her comment was telling me that there was a deep well of something in me, and she could feel it. I didn’t know it then, but she was correct, and the next few years brought it out like a beautiful blooming rosebud.

I have untapped power and she could felt it emanating from me, even then . . .

Writing this down brings tears and emotions to my eyes. It was the moment I knew that I finally answered the call - to the Great Mother, to my ancestors, and most importantly that I had always known all of this. I continued to attend Sunday Service and felt like I was home, soaking in all I could to learn to practice the way of the Devine Feminine.

When I discovered this path and attended the weekly Sunday Services and seasonal rituals, my friend said that I was a witch. I am not sure why I didn’t connect the dots before, and I think that is the case because I didn’t have a clear picture of what a true witch’s practices were. I had only used tarot before finding my path and knew I could channel while giving readings. Why I didn’t connect everything is funny to me - obviously I was a witch! I had absolutely no issue with this - it felt right.

I recalled at the time that I had always been a witch “in the broom closet” - I intuitively made altars on my desks and showed signs of psychic and mediumship abilities as a child. I am fascinated by supernatural stories and the occult. My dad once busted my irresponsible teenage ass when I was using a Ouija board on the regular. My dark little witchy heart was simply waiting for that perfect moment to enter the world.

Finding My Path

I now had a defined path of goddess worship and witchcraft. Both are simultaneously the same and distinctly different paths, depending on who you ask. These paths intertwine beautifully and also take sharp lefts away from each other. Personally, I have always called my path eclectic pagan in conjunction with Divine Feminine Goddess worship. I don’t really include a “God” in my practice. It never felt right.

I grew up Roman Catholic, and received an education at a private school with teacher nuns. I would say I lost my Christian/Catholic faith around 17, agnostic/atheist for my 20’s, and extremely curious about whatever else I could find out in the world. What I knew deep down was that I needed to find the oldest source of belief systems - what started it all? What cultures fed modern religions’ stories and myths? Many myths were echoed forward from civilization to civilization. This was my curiosity and I actively explored it.

Paganism Versus Organized Religion - My Perspective

Ask any pagan if they are “wiccan” and you would not get a “yes” from everyone. Ask any wiccan if they are “divine feminine” or "____ pagan” (fill in any pagan path, such as Dianic, Hecatean, etc), and you would not get a “yes” from everyone. Some worship a God and a Goddess, just the Goddess, or just one chosen deity from an ancient culture of the past. Covens will practice their chosen path as they see fit. It really is that different.

What I will make clear is that the idea that all witches are “satanic” is uniformly false. Satanism is a Christian concept, as Lucifer is a fallen angel originating from that faith. One can define themselves as a Satanic Witch, but the tradition stems from Christianity in an antithetical sense. Blending the two paths happens as well. Not my way, but to each their own.

Organized religion is not right for me, but I do not judge others for their beliefs. In fact, I highly respect them despite the dubious past these religions put upon the world (wars, witch burnings, etc). In the end, what I value in others is that they try to be a good person, take care of their loved ones and community, and encourage positivity. It’s really that simple. Love is the most important force in the world.

Activating the Priestess Path

After attending Sunday Service for a while, I felt the call to join the “circles” of women who chose to be of service. I will always remember a beautiful Crone, Kay, who directed a “Prosperity Circle”. These powerful women stayed in the temple space after services and sealed all of the intentions and energy of the morning, sending prosperity to all members of the Temple. This is the first time I ever felt a direct current of energy flow through me. Standing in circle, eyes closed and concentrating our energy into a “cone of power”, I felt a energetic current flow from the woman to my right’s hand, into my own through to my left hand, and passed it to the women to the woman on my left. All of us humming the “ma” chant (mother) escalating our energy to swirl it in the center, then releasing it at our highest pitch with a release of ecstatic, sacred loud “ma”. It was powerful, and I realized that I have untapped power.

All of us humming the “ma” chant escalating our energy to swirl it in the center, then releasing it at our highest pitch with a release of ecstatic, sacred loud “ma”. It was powerful, and I realized that have untapped power

Soon after this practice became natural, I joined the “Ritual, Liturgy, and Ceremony” circle. This circle of powerful women, in coordination with our head priestess, facilitated Sunday Service and rituals (such a Imbolc, Equinoxes, Solstices, and many more). I trained in proper ritual facilitation, energetically holding the circle sacred for participants, invoking the elements, and closing circles. This training was critical to my practice - it changed my life. I learned to work with women of all types and embrace the divine feminine within me, balancing the divine masculine which had been dominant for too long.

During this time I learned sacred drumming. We were taught by a fellow priestess adept in drumming on frame, djembe, and dumbek drums. I am sure there were more types - I learned how to play them all. We performed during our first ritual after much practice, which focused on trance, connecting to the Goddess, and freeing ourself from negativity. We then integrated our drumming into Sunday Services and future performances at rituals. The Temple held large drum circles in the evenings and I attended those as well. I still have my drums and they are precious to me.

While all of this occurred, I deepened my tarot work. I became adept at reading for others, channeling information from my guide. My friend

SerenDerryth

and I worked together often, discovering we shared a guide - how wonderful is that! She was a much more powerful medium than I at that time. I considered myself an emotional empath but did not know my channeling was form of mediumship. I did not know what clairs were - I simply used my abilities intuitively.

When a spirit living my my home walked right through me, I knew the gender, relative age, and his anger. This is mediumship but I didn’t know about this at that time. He was mischievous and sometimes locked us out of our home when trying to open our front door. His energy was very heavy and did not feel positive in any way. I figured out he was likely a prior tenant who went missing. I also intuitively knew that my bedroom was a safe space in my home and used it as a sanctuary. I saged the house and put salt in the corners of each room. I burned mulberry candles. It calmed down after we started drumming and offered libations to let him know we were taking care of the home. We filled the home with positivity.

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Thank you for reading. I’d love to hear from all of, especially my tarot and mystic friends!

Keep going!