Lost or stolen children appear to have been a popular musical and theatrical theme at the end of the 19th century. In Ireland “The Stolen Child “by W.B. Yeats was published in 1889.
The sacred power of the feminine is transmitted through the land and begins to rise at Imbolc. In different times this energy was valued as a gift that could be channelled through human women; the energy was holy and worked within sacred rites. This power still moves through the land and our bodies, how we harness it, and what we do with it are important considerations.
Like the butterfly in the chrysalis, transformation on the deepest level is at work. We are in the alchemical alembic. Just as a fully formed adult butterfly waits in the pupal before emerging, we too may wait until we instinctively know when it is the right time to return to the world. This is the moment of “kairos”, it is the sacred timing of our own soul that will not be prematurely willed by the ego or the demands of “kronos” (clock time). This is a delicate and critical operation.
Are the Callanish Stones of Scotland aligned to the planet Venus? Research suggests that alongside their primary solar and lunar orientations they are. In his
My point is that the cosmic feminine principle known throughout millennia as the goddess is today as likely to be subjected to deep fake counterfeit as anything else. Having already been somewhat demoted to goddess of romantic love, pleasure and material value in many modern astrological interpretations, it is wise to remember that Venus is a far more formidable essence of the feminine principle. It is clear, at least on the surface of today’s society, that eros is undeveloped and repressed.
As Venus begins to leave the underworld she will meet Pluto two days later in an almost exact conjunction. In Sumerian mythology, when Ishtar (Sumerian Inanna) leaves the underworld, she must fulfil a strict law requiring that no one leave the realm of the dead without providing a substitute. Symbolically speaking this speaks to the eternal process of death and rebirth. On a psychological level, once we have retrieved and won back unconscious material from our personal unconscious and the collective unconscious, the processes of transformation, death and rebirth continue Ad infinitum.
At the centre of this enquiry sits the question of whether the individuation process is different for men and women. While the destination may be the same, the journey to get there, I believe, is different. As I dig deeper into this work, I realise that the female psyche has not been fully charted, and that Jung, that great mystic and mediator of the unconscious, for all his extraordinary insights had a somewhat problematic relationship with the feminine. As Jung himself acknowledged, “one understands nothing psychological unless one has experienced it oneself”.
For women, in becoming conscious of not only their personal unconscious but the collective unconscious, recognising the ways in which female energy has been used, often beneath the veil, is necessary. As we enter 2026, a year that many are predicting is a time when uncomfortable truths will emerge, I suspect much of what has been hidden or obscured about the feminine psyche will be unveiled. It is however for women to claim and chart and own their own experiences.
In the reddening, we are called to be in service to something greater than ourselves, the difference is that once we are individuated, we are fully aware of how and to what or whom we are in service to.
By consciously engaging the processes of alchemy and overlaying them onto the process of menopause, there is a natural affinity which places the transformative experience at the centre. What is becoming clear is that while menopause is undoubtedly a time of change, inner change does not necessarily happen unless the Prima Materia, that is the undifferentiated, chaotic, unconscious and raw material of our psyche is known and worked with, at least to some extent.
Yellow is the Threshold Between Shadow and Clarity~ As we journey through our Alchemy of Menopause workshops, we arrive at the citrinitas stage in the alchemical process. This feels
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