Reflections on 10 Years in Spiritual Service
Back in 2012, when I started Seven Sisters Mystery School, who knew that “professional priestess” could be a real thing? Yet, over time, I guess you could say that’s what I’ve become. I’ve always hesitated to use the word “priestess,” preferring “sacred woman,” “holy woman,” “spiritual entrepreneur,” “spiritual teacher,” or what have you. Partly because “priestess” felt presumptuous to me, and who was I to call myself that.
It’s taken all this time to finally claim the role. Not just of priestess. But of professional priestess. Someone who actually makes a living doing spiritual work.
This blog is one of several I intend to offer you during our Seven Sisters 10th birthday YEAR, as I reflect on my decade serving as the founding director of the school. I plan to talk about what it takes to run an enterprise of this nature, key elements of being a sacred entrepreneur, some retrospectives of what we’ve accomplished this past decade, and more.
Today I want to focus on the priestess path aspect of my journey.
Where I Started
Back in 2012, when I began offering 3-month programs that marked the inauguration of the school (teachings on divine birth as a real practice of holy women), I still had one foot in academia. Not only was I an adjunct faculty member at various institutions ~ like the California Institute of Integral Studies and Dominican University of CA ~ but I was much more scholar than priestess.
As I rolled out this mystery school, a wise friend said to me “You want to give people an experience of themselves.” Heeding that advice, I allowed myself to move from being a spiritual academic, to a scholarly spiritualist. I moved from “lecturer” to true teacher, helping people go deeper within. This took some adjusting on my part, some digging deeper within myself. And that growth path has led me to my own stronger connections with Spirit and the embrace of the holy woman road.
I haven’t LOST that scholarly vibe ~ and it’s something people say they really like about my courses with Seven Sisters, in fact, because it makes it feel grounded and less woo. But that energy is much more integrated with the experiential and the lived experience of the esoteric in all I do and teach.
Taking on the Mantle
Ten years ago, in my first public ritual as director of Seven Sisters, I had the audacity to head my own December 2012 Solstice ritual in the San Francisco Bay Area. Students and colleagues played supportive roles as I led people through the portal into the New Era via a grand guided journey. It was also the start of my work as a public oracle.
What did I know from oracle? I’d been trained in a psychic school for several years, but that training wasn’t about being an oracle.
Earlier in the year, on my 50th birthday on July 7 (7/7… power number also associated with virginity!), I had sat on the Pythia’s rock (what I identified as the correct rock, right in front of Apollo’s temple). There I had an unusual mystical experience in which thunder and lightning commenced, and the hot Greek summer turned to winter (it was almost unheard of to have rain there in summer). I ended up running to the side of the temple and clinging there as water poured all over me. The electricity went out in the town, and I ended up being the only person on the site.
It was some kind of activation.
Clearly this had inspired me, so on the December 2012 night I was all about being the Holy Woman Delphic Pythia sitting on the tripod. I was basically recreating the role. There I was, white priestess gown I’d had custom made, a staff with a snake would around it that I’d had commissioned, and a bit of cannabis that I (illegally then, shhhh, don’t tell!) had in my system. Two priestess colleagues flanked me, and I sat in front of about 100 people and answered audience questions. I was scared and nervous, but when did that ever stop me?
I pulled it off. I answered the questions from the wise place. It took ovaries.
Over the years, I’ve come to feel more comfortable and confident in the public oracle role. It’s been a matter of developing that openness through practice in my client sessions, practice in my classes, and practice in the various public zoom meetings and ceremonies that I’ve held.
I’ve led many other kinds of public rituals since my first in 2012, some of which have involved me serving as the oracle, some not. Subsequent Winter Solstice ceremonies (5 more) focused on working with teams to bring healing energies to participants in soothing rituals through sacred sound, meditative journeys, hands on healing, and more. Each year I’d just follow my intuition as to what was needed for the community that season.
One year, I was inspired to offer a San Quentin Healing Ceremony, to send healing salutations across the bay from Ring Mountain to the incarcerated men in that prison. And I’ve participated in other people’s rituals, like numerous Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene ceremonies held at sacred times of the year in the San Francisco Bay Area.
In the past few years, as I’ve transitioned to mainly online work, I’ve begun offering sacred cacao ceremonies. These truly help people experience connection with Spirt more deeply, and they have been a rewarding place where I can open up as oracle again. Same goes for my Monthly Mother Mary Love & Empowerments Circle, which is the culmination thus far of my personal work with the Blessed Mother and my own growth as a sacred conduit.
The Challenge of Being a Pioneer
This journey has been overall thrilling. It has expanded my inner landscape and helped me cultivate my soul. It has taken me to the halls of Amenti to greet the Shining Ones. It has led me to meet and assist hundreds of spiritually awakening people, either in person or around the world.
It’s been everything I wanted and more.
And it’s been WORK.
What I’ve been teaching and talking about, whether in academia or now through Seven Sisters, has always been out there. And over the years it’s becoming INCREASINGLY so.
This has been amplified by my work as a sacred medicine cosmonaut, which has involved me receiving information in monthly personal ceremonies I’ve conducted for nearly the past 15 years with cannabis at first, and, since 2020, exclusively cacao. In one of those cannabis journeys, I was point blank shown that whatever I say is 20 to 35 years ahead of its time.
This has had its ups and downs, to say the least. As Matt Kahn has noted, being ahead of the curve is overrated. There’s a LOT of pushback from others, including non-embodied “others,” and a lot of sacrifice involved.
One of the “out there” things is that a number of years ago, as I was walking in the redwood forest after a cannabis ceremony, I was “reminded” that I was a Pleiadian ambassador. For me, this has meant serving as an emissary for unity consciousness and the awakening of the womb powers of women. Along with that has gone my unveiling of the mysteries of divine birth and the true role of Mother Mary as a female who ascended to Goddesshood. (See the Mastering Mary’s Holy Womb Mysteries package program for an excellent consolidation of those teachings, available to you.)
And I’ve also come to understand my connection with the Andromeda Galaxy as a priestess who alerts planet earth to the plans laid out by the forces of Artificial Intelligence. “Intelligence” that is not organic, not of the realms of matter, not of the realms of love. Intelligence that is not intelligent, but rather intent, intent on swallowing worlds.
The sense of sacrifice continues today, as I carry information about the “current situation” that is rejected by the majority of the earth’s population. Which has meant rejection by my family in a bigger and sadder way than I could have ever imagined. You may be able to relate.
I harbor the hope that this alienation will turn into ALIEN-NATON, as the awakening to our starry kin unfolds through various disclosures that are truly heard by the general population. Then people carrying messages like I do may finally be able to fully be heard and be able to carry out our ministries of service in even bigger ways!
Surprising Ramifications
Since I’ve started the school and stepped into my public ministry, there have been many women and also some wonderful men who have cheered me on as friends and spiritual colleagues, offering support, guidance, collaboration, pep talks, honoring, and more. For that I am continually grateful!
But another sobering aspect of this journey is that as I began stepping up as a priestess who offered her services in exchange for money, I noticed that some of my academic and priestess colleagues began to act in ways that were less than enthusiastic.
Yes, I hit up against people’s insecurities, which stimulated at times a sense of competition and downright jealousy. There was criticism, sometimes to my face and, I know, behind my back. There were weird vibes being sent my way.
I had my own reactivity when seeing others succeeding in even bigger ways than I was, so I understood this. But it wasn’t comfortable. In fact, it was saddening and maddening.
Then, there was the psychic backlash. For long stretches these past 10 years I was in a state of acute distress. I felt I was an early battering ram on the psychic realm by forces that did not want information of the kind I was offering to get out there. A common hazard of the trade, and not fun.
These forces were able to operate because I was still dealing with a lot of my inner healing, and they would latch onto my wounds and insecurities. Worries over finances plagued me, along with an acute and deep loneliness lingering from early losses.
I was working out a lot. Represented astrologically, over the past ten years ~ the decade of my 50s ~ I’ve gone through a Chiron return, Saturn on my moon, transiting Pluto opposing my sun, a Saturn return, and goddess knows what else. For the non-astrologer that means: At times, it’s been hell.
This passage has taken me through various ego deaths as I’ve confronted the griefs of my tormented childhood, my Shadow, and my karma.
Part of my Shadow includes working out lives in which I was a queen who abused her power. So I’ve always grappled with the question of when is it OK to be big, to just go full-throttle? When is it OK to take stage, take the throne, and when do I need to share the space with others?
While it’s been difficult, though, it’s also been POWERFUL. I’ve done a major clean out of what has ailed me from many lives. Still a work in progress, but I’m on it.
The power part is that I’ve been granted deeper and broader access to hidden truths about the nature of reality and our world, information for humanity, and prophecy, even. That means I’m coming into my own as an oracle, a teacher, a public speaker, and a mentor.
The Heart of the Matter
The biggest spiritual shift for me is that over the last few years my work has taken me more and more to the heart. My heart. Your heart. The heart of Gaia. The Heart of the Mother. I’ve come to realize that love is the cause, the journey, the purpose, the reason, and the end game. Love is the alpha and the omega.
My spiritual explorations have also led me to awaken to the Faery realms. Beings I once thought were just fictions have now become my friends, guides, co-teachers. (See the Awakening to Our Fairy Kin course for more on that HERE). This has been a great source of fascination and joy in my life!
No, I have not had children. And that may fall into the sacrifice part, but I’ve never really been called to the sacred work of bringing children to this world and raising them. My work has been with the the mystical aspects of divine birth and the Holy Womb, with Mother Earth, and with the Stars. Who will take care of me when I’m at the end of the road in this particular body remains an open question, but I for sure continue to do what Joseph Campbell advised years ago: Follow your bliss.
Now, as I get ready to turn 60 this year, and as I look back at this passage since 2012, I realize that I’ve gone through a huge initiation. I’m grateful in that sober and grounded way that comes from travail. And I’m looking forward to the next decade in service… perhaps with a bit more fun in my life, too.