“If we can shed a little light on our own darkness, it will remove some of the larger darkness from the world”
Eternal Love painting by Eva Maria Hunt
“The only way we can heal this imbalance within ourselves is to bring the light of consciousness into the darkness.”
“The challenge for each of us is not one of conquest but acceptance, or our Divine feminine and masculine shadow which have become tyrannical because we refuse to acknowledge them.
The nameless, unloved parts that have become tyrannical because we’ve left them unchecked.
We can’t go through life blindly. We have to examine all of the conflicting parts of ourselves. Each one of us has dragons lurking in the shadows.”
“The challenge according to Edward Whitmont, requires ‘the strength to sustain awareness and the suffering of conflict and to be able to surrender oneself to it.”
Do not be afraid of the LIGHT illuminating the darkness. We can no longer allow aspects of ourselves to live in the shadows, for in order to be whole we need to embrace ourselves in all of our totality, we must love those unloved parts that have been keep in darkness. It is the only way to move forward, with gentleness.
We all have the Divine Masculine and Feminine within our psyche. How they come out in our thoughts and behaviours are indicative of their strength, and often shapes our personalities.
With ongoing and consistent self-awareness of our tendencies, weaker or stronger aspects are brought more into balance.
Please remember that it is normal human behaviour to be naturally stronger in some aspects and weaker in others.
The goal is not to be in perfect balance all the time or to master all positive aspects of each energy – that is not always appropriate. There are times in life where it is necessary to be less flexible or more emotional.
Honour where you are and work towards first finding an understanding why you react, think and behave the way you do, and then make applicable changes to move into more balance.
Think of the energies as:
Feminine - Receiving Being Allowing Intuitive Mind - Fluid, Flowing, Feeling, Empathetic, Vulnerable
Masculine - Creating Doing Allowing Intellectual Mind - Projective, Focused Achieving Confident Driven
Divine Feminine Shadow Side: Divine Masculine Shadow Side:
Victim Persecutor
Co-dependent Cold detachment
Insecure Controlling
Manipulative Egotistical
Passive Aggressive
Overly emotional Emotionally numb
Acquiesce Dominate
Inauthentic Abusive
Cruel Ruthless
Open-minded Non-judgmental
Tenacious Courageous
Sensual Sexual
Instinctual Intellectual
Considerate Impartial
Spontaneous Strategic
Adaptable Grounded
Will to love Will to power
Sacred Text
From Daniel 2:22:
He reveals the deep and hidden things; He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with Him.
Poem: Breath of Joy by Danna Faulds
May grace abound, and ecstasy, too. In the fray of everyday life, may you embody your true nature.
May you breathe in love and breathe out love until love is your only reality, even in the midst of challenge.
May you not deny difficulties or the shadow side of life, but find divine Presence inside even the hardest times.
May miracles come your way often - and especially today.
Story: Madam C.J. Walker (1867-1919)
By Debra Michals, PhD | 2015
Entrepreneur, philanthropist, and activist, Madam C.J. Walker rose from poverty in the South to become one of the wealthiest African American women of her time. She used her position to advocate for the advancement of black Americans and for an end to lynching.
Born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867, on a plantation in Delta, Louisiana, one of six children of Owen and Minerva Anderson Breedlove, former slaves-turned sharecroppers after the Civil War. Orphaned at age seven, Walker lived with her older sister Louvenia, and the two worked in the cotton fields. Partly to escape her abusive brother-in-law, at age 14 Walker married Moses McWilliams. When her husband died in 1887, Walker became a single parent of two-year old daughter Lelia (later known as A’Lelia).
Seeking a way out of poverty, in 1889, Walker moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where her four brothers were barbers. There, she worked as a laundress and cook. She joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church, where she met leading black men and women, whose education and success likewise inspired her. In 1894, she married John Davis, but the marriage was troubled, and the couple later divorced.
Struggling financially, facing hair loss, and feeling the strain of years of physical labor, Walker’s life took a dramatic turn in 1904. That year, she not only began using African American businesswoman Annie Turbo Malone’s "The Great Wonderful Hair Grower,” but she also joined Malone’s team of black women sales agents. A year later, Walker moved to Denver, Colorado, where she married ad-man Charles Joseph Walker, renamed herself “Madam C.J. Walker,” and with $1.25, launched her own line of hair products and straighteners for African American women, “Madam Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower.”
Initially, Walker’s husband helped with advertising and establishing a mail order business. After the pair divorced in 1910, she relocated to Indianapolis and built a factory for her Walker Manufacturing Company. An advocate of black women’s economic independence, she opened training programs in the “Walker System” for her national network of licensed sales agents who earned healthy commissions. Ultimately, Walker employed 40,000 African American women and men in the US, Central America, and the Caribbean. She also founded the National Negro Cosmetics Manufacturers Association in 1917.
Walker’s business grew rapidly, with sales exceeding $500,000 in the final year of her life. Her total worth topped $1 million dollars, and included a mansion in Irvington, New York dubbed “Villa Lewaro;” and properties in Harlem, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis.
As her wealth increased, so did her philanthropic and political outreach. Walker contributed to the YMCA, covered tuition for six African American students at Tuskegee Institute, and became active in the anti-lynching movement, donating $5,000 to the NAACP’s efforts.
Walker additionally used her philanthropy to employ and educate people of color through her business. "Employment as a Walker agent created a philanthropic opportunity for thousands of black women to support themselves, their families, and communities in spite of Jim Crow's restrictive laws and customs that deliberately locked them out of labor markets,"
Just prior to dying of kidney failure, Walker revised her will, bequeathing two-thirds of future net profits to charity, as well as thousands of dollars to various individuals and schools.
Science of Mind Reading
In Guinness book of records as the first self made female millionaire in the US. Walker currently holds the Guinness World Record as the first-ever self-made millionairess. According to Guinness, her assets were worth over $1 million, which is equal to $14.9 million today.
Meditation
The following is an exercise to help integrate both our masculine and feminine energies, which should be done daily at least. (there is a recorded version for those who wish to listen)
Clench both fists and cross your arms over your heart with the dominant hand being on top and then cross your legs at your ankles again with the dominant side on top. This create equipoise in your body integrating both the Masculine and Feminine
We’ll begin by taking 7 deep breaths in counting backwards
Inhale - This is my breath as I breathe in Deeper x 7
Exhale This is my breath as I breathe in Slower x 7
Repeat the entire set 7 x and then exchange both arms and legs to less dominant side and repeat a further 7 x.
Inhale, “I am strong.”
Exhale, “I am flexible.”
Inhale, “I am balanced.”
Exhale, “I am strong.”
Inhale, “I am flexible.”
Exhale, “I am balanced.”
SUNDAY SOUL CONNECTION PRAYER
Please follow this link.
MOVEMENT PRAYER
Please click here to be taken to my Movement Prayer’s page.
BUDDHIST REFLECTION
Please click here to be taken to my Buddhist Reflection’s page.
Rumination
Both light and shadow are the dance of Love.
Rumi
Women’s History Month
Rosalind Franklin knew she wanted to be a scientist at the age of 15. Enrolling in college, despite her father’s protests, she eventually received her doctorate in chemistry. She spent three years studying X-ray techniques, returning to England to lead a research team to study the structure of DNA–all at a time when women weren’t even allowed to eat in her college’s cafeteria.
Heading up another DNA research team was Maurice Wilkins, who ultimately betrayed Franklin when he showed scientists James Watson and Francis Crick Franklin’s ground-breaking X-ray image of DNA, known as Photo 51. Photo 51 enabled Watson, Crick and Wilkins to determine the structure of DNA.
Benediction
Beloved Mother Father God
“May Love and Light prevail. May Divine Wisdom reign supreme. May it transform the darkness; and heal the realms where shadows dwell.”
“You who are the Source of all Light in this world, whose rays illuminate the Earth, enlighten also our hearts and minds, so that we too can do your work.”
Anthon St. Maarten.
Song
Tasha Layton, Love Lifting Me: