Returning from the Retreat: The Descent of Inanna....

I feel so inspired and energized by the August retreat, Women, Creativity and the Journey of the Soul, Embracing the Gift of the Shadow. Just returned a week ago.

In trying to express what happened on the retreat, a word and an image come to mind.

The word is "co-creation." More than my leading the retreat, we journeyed together. Every woman in the circle was an integral part of the magnificent unfolding that felt choreographed by unseen hands! And although we descended to the underworld with Inanna, we also played as only women who love and trust can play together. Intense work, but our laughter resonates like a song.

The image that comes to mind is a flower opening. As I was writing this, the flower took the form of a lotus. "Why?" I wondered. True, lotus holds spiritual significance, but I never gave thought as to why. So I went online and googled "lotus." This is what I found:

"Lotus flowers are amazing and have strong symbolic ties to many Asian religions especially throughout India. The lotus flower starts as a small flower down at the bottom of a pond in the mud and muck. It slowly grows up towards the waters surface continually moving towards the light. Once it comes to the surface of the water, the lotus flower begins to blossom and turns into a beautiful flower." And this: "The lotus flower or 'Lien Hua' in Chinese, is regarded as a spiritual flower, with elegant beauty, a mystery that inspires a person taking root in muddy, murky water, the darkest of places, where he or she rises above to bloom beautiful, powerful on the surface. The lotus inspires the person, that whenever faced with trouble, no matter how dark the waters may get, he or she will rise above and let the beautiful flower in them bloom as long as they have a pure and sincere heart." What perfect descriptions for our journeys!