Reflections on my work with women this past weekend —

Getting to the heart of the matter: Releasing sexual shame & wounds this past weekend with Aphrodite

We may look perfectly fine, but go a level deeper and it becomes apparent that many of us women carry niggling secrets, shame, woundings, and dis-ease when it comes to our yonis (wombs).

In the work women did collectively this past weekend during my daylongs in Canterbury & London in the name of Aphrodite, it was clear that even among the most seemingly happy or conscious among us there is still so much sexual healing for us to do.

On the physical level: fibroids, cysts, STDs, cancers, invasive (and sometimes unneeded) surgeries, rape, incest, increasing pressure to go through painful “de-hairing” (or worse levels of physical mutilation in some cultures) & more.

On the emotional level: feelings of lack of self-worth, a sense of violation, dread over sexual manipulations perpetrated on us or engaged in by us, confusion over what constitutes healthy sexual relating, regrets over what we’ve allowed to happen to our yonis, questions over whether we’ve been empowered… or just used.

Despite all of the liberation, the yoni still remains a contested area.

And precisely because we’re now all supposed to be “free,” the sexual shame, confusion, or lack of ease many of us still deal with has just burrowed further underground –– all the while silently running our lives. There was much sharing this weekend, tears of release, relief at letting out the secrets of our shame & longings. This is the work needed as part of healing Aphrodite, the Great Love Goddess, whose chopping up, distortion, and maligning under the patriarchal program has in very real ways served as the template for our own. This is the work needed as part of healing ourselves, all women, the Feminine.

It became clear to me this weekend: to effectively unite our hearts with our wombs, we need to first go through a healing of each.

It’s also a necessary prerequisite for for the further love work to be done in healing relations among (all) the sexes. Many women around the world are doing this healing for themselves, or are helping others do so. Thank you, women! The work done by the brave women in the UK who heard the call this weekend – and earlier this year in California – is also helping strengthen the energetic field of that healing for all of us. May we once again see Aphrodite in her wholeness, as a being of both sexuality & love! May all women be healed and made whole!

In hearted love,
Marguerite