"If you think it’s a load of rubbish, come. If you think it’s exactly what you’re looking for, come. If you’re not sure, come. Just come!" Lisa

 

Programme

Why a women’s programme?

This is a women’s programme developed and staffed by women because we know it is essential that we gather together in this way.  We all still live in cultures that don’t support women’s full self-expression. This framework enables us to leave our everyday lives behind, trust one another, make profound discoveries and know our own true value.  We can then choose to enact this power: to transform ourselves, our relationships and our world with renewed depth, clarity and intention and to bless all that is sacred to us We become part of a diverse, ever-growing community of women who have shared the extraordinary experience of this programme.

What do we mean by power?

For one woman, it could mean the chance to hear her own voice speaking her truth loudly and clearly. For another woman, accessing righteous anger about her life experiences might be a profound step towards developing boundaries that allow her life to blossom and grow. For yet another, it might mean finally showing her vulnerability and allowing herself to be supported.

During the initiation, each woman will be able to explore what it is she needs at this time in her life.

Is this programme for you?

In this initiation we explore the dynamic of predator and prey, perpetrator and victim (those inner and outer critical voices that diminish us or want to criticise others; and the one who feels constantly vulnerable and afraid, who can use power in more indirect ways).

As women, we are intimately familiar with the perpetrators and the victims within ourselves and in our world. We may flip from judging ourselves for being “too weak” or “too strong,” then flog ourselves for being caught in this cycle. In Women in Power, we seek to break the habitual victim/perpetrator cycle and liberate the power held in this dynamic. The instinctive life-taking and life-giving forces live in each of us as both predator and prey.  We know, through many years of exploration of this work, that, once owned and understood, these shamed and damaged places in us can become sources of the energy and power that is our birthright. 

A rich variety of techniques and experiences is explored and used in this programme.

How do predator and prey show up in our lives?

We believe that by understanding and transforming our own inner predators we can access the power to work with many deeply painful and seemingly intractable personal issues:

  • The rampant diagnosis of depression in women
  • The inner critic who always finds your “flaws”
  • The longing to express the powerful self you sense inside or be your own advocate
  • Hiding or distorting your sexual vibrancy
  • Addictions
  • Abuse
  • A sense of overwhelming rage
  • Self-harm

We see the same dynamics leading to many problems on a national and global scale.

For example:

  • The misuse of political power
  • The exploitation and destruction of nature
  • Poverty and inequality
  • Cultures of dishonesty and misrepresentation
  • The unfair distribution of the world’s resources
  • Trafficking, slavery and mass imprisonment
  • Conflicts across the world
  • Widespread depression, anxiety and disillusionment
  • Abuse, violence and neglect
  • The violation of women’s rights and safety, and that of so many other marginalised groups
  • Addiction, over-consumption and unhealthy consumerism

Where are our voices as a force for healing our lives and our world?                                   

What is sacred to you?

Is it your body, your children, your work, your community, our earth or your wildest, craziest, most secret dreams?

What stops you from fully stepping into your power to defend these things? 

We believe that the clear voice of women in their loving power is essential to the healing of our world.

Each one of us is needed at this crucial moment in the life of humanity: what ecologist Joanna Macy calls “The Great Turning – the shift to a life-sustaining civilisation”.

How we hide and restrain our own power

  • Have you ever been called witch or bitch when you showed your strength?
  • Have you ever had your sexuality or attitude towards men questioned when you chose to speak your truth?
  • Have you ever had to choose between a lover or your power?
  • Have you been silenced by your own demons?
  • Have you been shamed by a culture that taught, “nice girls stay small”?
  • Have you been scared away? Overwhelmed? Under-supported?

    When we stay loyal to our solemn promises never to be like the abusers in our lives, many of us choose to wound ourselves long before we would risk wounding another.


What patterns of violence against ourselves persist because we hold to these ancient vows: I’ll never be as brutal as the one who hurt me; good girls hide their fury; real women lead from gentleness? Fearing our own fury (the myth of a woman’s “murderous rage”), we restrain ourselves.

But the tooth and claw of the alpha she-wolf seeking food for her young serve life. She is good, and she lives in us.

 

Reclaiming our wild nature: initiating ourselves into the predator and prey within

A woman in touch with her own inner predator consciously understands the true vulnerability of the prey, the delicacy of life. Standing fully in her power, she can act with love and balance on behalf of life.

Our initiation process stalks, greets, understands, liberates and integrates archetypal predator energies. We find this gold in the depths of our own psyches. We consciously welcome these life forces to give power to our authentic selves.

Why the mystery? The power of this initiation is that you step into the unknown. It cannot work so richly if you know exactly what is going to happen.

It is an invitation to embark on your own mythic journey. In many traditions, people stalk power through ritual, encountering large forces through sacred form. This is the path we will travel, learning from what we fear most.

Together, in Women in Power, we take crucial and radical steps into the shadows of our personal and collective psyches to reclaim the power that lies there in waiting.  We do this in our uniquely shame-free environment where whatever we need to explore can be as it is and where there is no risk of hurting ourselves or others. (Did we mention that it could also be fun too?)

Ours is a highly structured programme in which our facilitators intentionally hold the mystery for the duration of the weekend. We have not encountered other work that explores so many levels at the same time.


Please choose carefully for yourself.
You will know if this is right for you.
You will know if now is the right time.


Donations

We invite you to support a cause which makes an important and lasting impact on women’s lives. Maybe you have time and no money. Maybe you have money and no time. We welcome it all. You can donate at any time.




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