The taboo of Feminine & Female spirituality

by Lian Brook-Tyler

The taboo of Feminine & Female spirituality

I sense this is the last time I will be speaking about the archetype of the Temple Priestess, at least this side of The Rose Quest… The circle of women is all but complete and we are readying ourselves for the descent into the very heart of the Rose.

But I’ve realised there’s something I have to speak about first.

As I've been in the somaticontemplation of the Rose, and as I'm talking to the women called to Her, something has become clearer than ever before.

Although I’ve so far focused on the way the Temple Priestess is medicine for the sensual, bodily aspects of the Feminine, there’s an aspect of her that’s perhaps even more taboo.

She’s the medicine for healing and opening us to the wild, earthy, mysterious, and hidden forms of spiritual connection and expression, one of breath, blood, belly, breasts, and bone, one of the sacred waters within and without, one that actively includes and honours a woman’s body, one that is in devotion to the Goddess (which means devotion the God too), and one that is uniquely star-printed into each woman called to her.

Can you feel how that is as taboo as the other, more obviously taboo, side of her?

So taboo… it is why the witches were burned, the priestesses were dragged from the temples, and the Goddess was all but buried and forgotten.

All of us called to the deepest work of the Rose, whether it's in The Rose Quest, or in other ways, have a soul that’s here for and called to a natural, profound openness to Spirit, that lies beyond the bounds of most spiritual traditions or religions, and that may well be something that we’ve dismissed or dimmed for much of our lives.

And it’s no wonder… When adjusted for the influence and size, the vast majority of today’s spiritual traditions focus on male figures and deities (around 90%), and/or are led by men (approaching 100%)… male-dominated spiritual leadership is the air we do our best to survive on, half-suffocating because our lungs were created to draw in Her too.

It’s hard to believe there was a time when it was different… times in which we breathed in the rose-scented incense in the temples devoted to the Goddess… even if we lived lifetimes in those ancient days.

And so we might…

Look to others - especially men in positions of spiritual authority - to validate, define or dictate our spiritual beliefs, practices, and worthiness.

Suppress our natural spiritual gifts, intuition, or mystical experiences, fearing that they are too dangerous or unworthy compared to more socially accepted (often masculine) forms of spirituality.

Feel that our longing for an emergent, intimate, embodied, and soulful connection with the Divine is somehow wrong, inappropriate, or even sinful, leading to guilt and shame around exploring our own spiritual path.

Dismiss our natural, cyclical, and intuitive ways of connecting with the divine, and instead may adhere rigidly to structured spiritual practices that prioritise logic, order, and discipline.

Attempt to stay within the box of our family's religion, or it might be that we've tried to fit ourselves into a spiritual tradition that we found as an adult, that for a while felt like home, until we realised that it too has limitations that strangle the fullest expression of our spiritual self.

But there comes a point at which a woman realises… “I can't fit the enormity of this spiritual aspect of myself into any particular type of tradition, teaching or religion that I know of. And I am no longer willing to try. I am ready to open to my own soul’s knowing of the Divine.”

(And yet, maybe there's still doubt and shame, a sense of “I’m doing something wrong. I haven't got this right. I don't know enough. I'm not anointed enough. I haven’t been given permission. Who am I to think that I can go my own way with this?”)

This is where the Temple Priestess can show us the way to…

Open to a direct and intimate connection with the Divine, free from intermediaries or dogma, allowing us to discover and walk our own embodied path to Spirit. Whilst we might still choose the guidance of teachers and teachings, they are ones that wholeheartedly support our spiritual sovereignty.

Alchemise Eve’s shame into sacredness, reclaiming suppressed aspects of ourselves, nothing needs to be left out, everything can be laid upon the altar of our relationship to the Divine.

Heal generational feminine wounds, liberating ourselves and our lineage from millennia of spiritual exile, reclaiming our lost heritage of feminine spirituality.

Open the heart as a portal to divine love, experiencing spirituality as an act of devotion and compassion, restoring sacred reciprocity and receptivity.

Become a vessel for the Goddess, channelling profound healing, grace and transformation for ourselves and others, embodying the mysteries of the Feminine as a living expression of sacred service.

And so, whether you join us for The Rose Quest or not, if you know I’m talking to you… that you’re “that kind of woman”… I hope that one way or another, you can receive her medicine and live into the taboo that your soul came here for.

♥️

Art: The Rider-Waite High Priestess… my beloved guide and teacher since I was seven years old when my father painted her and the Magician, floor to ceiling on our wall. Back then I learned my left from her (the Magician, my right), and then a whole lot more…

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