Sharon: Welcome to our December Online Teaching, with the Great Council of the Grandmothers. We meet today, as we always do, connected within the Net of Light. We will ask the Grandmothers to speak, hear, think, and love through us as we spend our time together. All of us who are a part of this work are living the Grandmothers’ message, and we learn a great deal from one another as we go.
I will do a short meditation with the Net of Light, so it draws us together as one heart beating.
Sharon: Net of Light Meditation
Sharon: Notice how you feel, as peace penetrates your being more fully. Begin to soak in that great peace, of which you are a part. As you think of receiving, you allow the space for all beings to receive. We are all part of the Net of Light. As we fill with peace, everything around us fills with peace: the plants, the others near us, the spaces, areas etc.. Peace, peace, peace.
We have a few men who are involved with the Grandmothers’ work, and today is the first time we’ve come together on Zoom with a man with us. Paul has been with us for a long time, right Paul?
Paul: Yes, it will be 6 years.
Sharon: Yes. Emily has been with us for a long time too. And Jane is the greatest veteran here, she and I went off to Lithuania in 2006, pioneering the work there.
So, what we would like to talk about today is how this work with the Net of Light and the Grandmothers has informed your way of relating to the opposite sex. There has been a lot of disharmony, distrust, and confusion between the sexes generally, and that has been going on for a long time. The controversy about patriarchy has been going on for a long time. With the Grandmothers it’s fairly simple the way things work out. It is never the way we think it will work out. I am going to read a little bit from the Grandmothers 4th book, The Return of the Mother.
“For many years,” the Grandmothers said, “woman has lived cut off from her position of power on earth. Long ago when she was removed from her station in life, she became separated from her essence. Deprived then of her inherent power, woman, who had been the hub of life’s wheel, was forced to live offset from her center. Forced to live without power. Women were pushed to the side so-to-speak,” they said, “and although the denigration of the Feminine Principle occurred thousands of years ago, its effects are still felt today. From that long-ago time until now, woman has been unable to sustain a position of power in human life.
It is the female of the species that anchors life on earth; the female gives birth, tends to the young, nurses the sick and cares for the dying. The human female supports life through all its stages — birth through death. She is the natural hub of the wheel for the human family. But, when patriarchy supplanted her and claimed this position for itself, it removed the hub.”
So, what the Grandmothers say is that the problems and painful reactions that we experience now in our lives relating to the opposite sex all relate back to that removal of women from the hub of the family of life. Where she lost her sense of who she really was, and her sense of power. From that come all the resentments, angers, fears, for both male and female.
Considering this, how do you relate to this? And what have you learned from the Grandmothers, and the Net of Light, that has helped you?
Paul: Thank you for this opportunity to share my story and what I’ve learned, which has been transformative. Looking back, my sense of who I was and how I related with others, especially women, was skewed by patriarchy to such an extent that I was operating from over-abundant yang energy. That meant controlling, having “power over,” and expecting others to meet my needs. I was hurt very much by that patriarchy as a way of operating, and it caused a lot of pain and hurt, especially to women, my spouse, my children, as well as the women I supervised at my work. I came to the first gathering 6 years ago because I was drawn for healing within myself. I saw that the path for doing so was to cultivate feminine energy in myself, and to reach some sort of balance. The message of the Grandmothers has been integral to that work, and I feel called by the Grandmothers to make amends for the harm that I caused by my imbalance.
I feel renewed and transformed by this personal work directed by the Grandmothers. I’ve allowed their divine light to shine to all the dark places within myself and replace that darkness with light. From that place I can relate very differently in all my relationships, and move forward in a new way of relating. I can practice accepting people for who they are, and I can experience the connection that I have with everyone. I can celebrate women reestablishing their power and rightful place in the world.
Sharon: Thank you Paul. Sounds like you got the big wake up.
Paul: Yes. It’s never too late.
Jane: Thank you Paul.
The message from the Grandmothers that is very poignant to me is the feminine’s lack of reverence for herself, and looking outside of herself for affirmation. To do that means that you have to look into the culture that tells you who you are. And it is not a welcoming culture to the feminine. I love the image that the Grandmothers have of symbolizing the masculine energy as the bull slathering back and forth in a frantic expenditure of raw energy. We have seen this recently in our own culture. In that, patriarchy is “power over” something.
If we can find a way — and I think the Grandmothers give us that way —of having a gentle reverence for ourselves as the feminine, understanding that we cannot be defined by the larger culture. Because that comes from a patriarchal perspective, and we think and respond differently. This lack of reverence by the masculine towards those qualities that define the feminine has led to an enormous imbalance. I think that the imbalance is within the feminine herself. When the Grandmothers welcome us into the circle and laugh at our sense of inadequacies, they are giving us an opportunity to regain that “knowing” that we still have, even though it is very distant.
In having a reverence for ourselves as the feminine, we are not waiting for the masculine to give us permission to be who we are. We are giving ourselves permission to celebrate our differences. So, then the masculine understands what it is to be in partnership. We have not understood partnership within ourselves. What an enormous burden we place on the masculine to define us as cute enough, sweet enough, or giving enough! It becomes exhausting for both genders. I’ve been married for 55 years, and I can tell you it’s just exhausting. Finally, I am at a place where I allow myself to be quiet. I allow myself permission to really ask myself “what do I want to do in the next five minutes?” When I really want to ask myself “What puts me in a place of accepting other people’s perceptions of who I am, and even acting on them!” Instead of listening to myself and understanding that I am connected to the Grandmothers because of who I am: I occupy this space. Nobody else occupies it, it is my space. And how do I choose to acknowledge that? There is a sense of gratitude and humility, understanding that I am unique, as is the next person. There is a great difference between humility, and humiliation.
If we look within ourselves through our connection with the Grandmothers, there is only the humility of being one of many on a common path. That gets the masculine off of the hook. So, they don’t have to decide whether we are okay or not. They need to do that with themselves, and we cannot put that work on them. There is a great deal of cherishing and celebration when there is the possibility of true partnership. It’s humorous when one realizes how much one has accepted bad behavior from oneself or the other as a reality.
Emily: I am so deeply moved by what you two have shared. Through the Grandmothers’ framework of understanding, it’s an imbalance that is at the root of all the great suffering we see in our world, that has existed under this patriarchal construct. The Grandmothers tell us they have come to bring us back into balance. Having come to this work with the Grandmothers over a decade ago, and giving myself ever more to the Great Love which the Grandmothers bring into our heart, I have felt the imbalances within myself shift. I have become able to see that no one has been served by patriarchy.
One of the early messages from the Grandmothers is that the yang is wildly out of balance. And in order to come back into balance, Yin must reclaim her place of power. Only those who are the deep holding reservoirs of yin can initiate that. When the yang energy, which occurs in each of us, is fully supported by yin, the yang will always reach out in support of life. There is the greatest comfort in understanding that I don’t have to do anything more than address what is within me, in order to play the most powerful role in ushering in these changes that the Grandmothers have told us are coming. By allowing the Grandmothers to love and help me, I’ve slowly watched myself come to the center of me. The strength that has come from that has changed the way that I relate with others, both men and women. My relationship with my father has completely transformed. Instead of needing validation from my father, I have been able to communicate and reveal myself and my deepest pain to him with the courage I have cultivated.
Sharon: I am struck with the commitment, and understanding of the Grandmothers’ teachings, from all of you. I am wondering what helps you — in practical terms — stay on this path of truth?
Emily: In any situation, bringing it back to myself, and asking the Grandmothers to hold me, and to remind me of who I am. And often that helps me shift how I am seeing a situation, and interactions that may be contentious.
Sharon: *Sings* “Remind me Grandmothers, remind me Grandmothers , remind me again who I am.”
Jane: I would say my favorite book in my library is “The Grandmother’s Speak”(Book 1), because it forms a wonderful foundation for anyone beginning this work. It makes it very accessible to connect with the Grandmothers. We don’t talk about spirituality and our souls in our society, so this is a tangible way for connecting to the Grandmothers and therefore with yourself. If I’m in a challenging space I find myself singing “Oh Grandmothers hear my calling, we are seeking your healing.” When I get in a bad place, all of a sudden I start humming that song.
Sharon: Thank you. I always refer back to the books. I open one and say “give me my marching orders for today!” And the songs run in my mind all the time.
Jane: What also helps me is the innate humor that the Grandmothers display. To me that helps, when faced with things that are absurd.
Paul: There are so many tools that help keep me grounded and living with intention. I read a few inspirational quotes in the morning when I wake up, with a focus on how I want to live. Throughout the day I check in with myself as things happen. Rather than reacting, I ask for divine guidance on how to respond. I also engage in the Grandmothers online community, gatherings, and retreats throughout the year, to help feed my soul, and develop my way on that path.
Jane: Being 80 years old I have despair about our world. And when that happens the Grandmothers come to me, and their message is that our job right now is to take a stand like a tree. Plant your feet in the earth and understand your job at this point is to become completely present as the feminine. So that when the time comes that the earth is interested in what that means, you are there as resource. Understand yourself so that you are ready.
Sharon: That’s lovely, thank you.
Let’s end by thinking of yourself as a tree. Some of you may feel like you’re a sapling. We are linked this way like the trees who connect Heaven and Earth, as we have our head in the sky and feet on the ground. Feel that now. And as you are planted, the Grandmothers are coming in and encircling you, loving, caring and nurturing you. Giving that tree everything it needs; water, food, aeration, everything. You are precious. In the great scheme you are infinitely precious in this world. You are at one with the Great Love. You are Divine, you are perfect as you are. Let yourself bloom. Feel how it feels to be so cared for, planted, here and now. As the Grandmothers hold you, through my voice they will sing to you:
“Oh how we love you, oh how we love you, Oh how we love you, oh how we love you.”
Truer words have never been spoken.
Let yourself receive and continue to receive.
We will meet again on the first Sunday in January. You can go to our website grandmothersspeak.com or netoflight.org to connect with us. See you next month.