Reclaiming Sacred Power
A Two-Day Sheela Na Gig Pilgrimage and Intuitive Art Retreat
ON BOOKING - Look out for an email with the details you need to know. Lisa will contact you directly if you reserve your place with a deposit to arrange a date for the balance payment two weeks before the retreat or a payment plan.
Who Is Sheela Na Gig?
You can find Sheela Na Gig’s stone carvings from around the 10th to 12th Century found all over Ireland, England, some parts of Scotland, Wales, France, and Spain. Many have been destroyed over the years and those that remain now are in differing states. She is found at entrances to churches, holy places and in some cases in the entrances used for bringing through the dead. She is often described as a Hag or Crone, a grotesque image holding open and displaying her large vulva. She is seen as being sinful, and unholy representing the ugliness of lust and immorality in the Christian and Catholic religions. Apparently chiselled in stone as a warning to all of the grotesque, disturbing, untrustworthy nature of women and their monstrous swollen vulvas to show a woman’s sexual shame.
Ancient Sacred Symbol
We live in a world dominated by phallic imagery to the point that humanities first sacred symbol has pretty much been completely obscured. The vulva is the oldest and most common symbolic object in prehistoric art going back 40,000 years. I mean just take that in for moment… 40,000 years. All these artworks are found deep inside caves where the darkness of the womb, tomb would have been used for a sacred rite of passage and a ritual bearing enactment of the truth of the Great Mother.
The image of the vulva is so deeply rooted in our psyches whether we are consciously aware of it or not. This exhibitionism of the vulva echoes throughout the ages as a regenerative principal and wasn’t deemed unholy, or unclean, or sinister which is what we are left with today. in our own culture today the remains of the Sheela-na-Gig figures perched over doorways in all their so called ‘hideousness’ shows even through more recent history the vulva as a symbol was still hard to get rid of. So the script around these ‘demonic’ figures was changed to represent the evil of women and of sexuality which could consume a man.
The reality is this ancient symbol of the Great Goddess represented Her sacred power and connection to the cosmic portal of life, death, and regeneration. Through thousands of years of patriarchy, the veneration of the Feminine has been systemically wiped out while women have been demonised for their natural qualities, feminine consciousness, creative power and natural way of being that does not fit the mind made world of linear progression we find ourselves in today.
Yet in many ancient cultures female sexuality was symbolised by the vulva – for example in the Mesopotamia civilisation 7000 years ago and its Sumer religion. Many rites within the Inanna Mysteries all show the reverence for the vulva and for feminine sexual power. In one of the earliest hymns the Goddess Inanna celebrates the beauty of her genitals.
“When Inanna leaned against the apple tree, her vulva was wonderous to behold. Rejoicing at her wonderous vulva, the young woman applauded herself.”
Who is Sheela Na Gig? Is She a Goddess? That we lost the understanding and connection too?
My first connection with a Sheela Na Gig was in Ireland which must be about 12 years or more ago. Yet my experience with Sheela Na Gig rose in my life strongly as peri-menopause started to move deeper in towards menopause. She became my guide and teacher in this Gateway to new life.
She is representative of the gateway of the Feminine, she is contradiction, the death of what was whilst anointing you in new life and new beginnings. She teaches you not to fear, She offers you safe passage, She provides shelter and She returns you to the Source of the Feminine and the next state, the next phase of womanhood, through Her primal powers. She shows you the sacred juice of your evolving womanhood and the secret seeds of your new life as you shed the skin of old.
She takes you beyond societies image of woman as she passes through the seasons of life and reinvigorates your sense of sacred connection, creativity and value. She communes with you Her Cosmic Connection and calls you to a higher creativity. You become a new woman. Whole and Holy - initiated into a deeper mystery of the Feminine.
What to expect on the two-day Retreat
Artwork: Shelter - 2018
Day 1 – Pilgrimage to Shropshire’s Sheela Na Gigs
We will visit three sites with Sheela Na Gigs in Shropshire. Meeting at 11am at the first of our Sheela Na Gig sites in the Church Stretton area. As we absorb the energies of each location and lean in with curiosity to what is being opened and revealed inside of you, I will share some of the history around the rise of Sheela’s in our culture, the ancient veneration of the vulva and the patriachal impact on woman’s sexuality as well as touching on other Goddesses from cultures around the world that are known for exposing their vulvas and why.
As we go round you will be engaged in Ritual Creativity as you will also be creating a journal of your pilgrimage in which to express, sketch, and write your insights, poems or what captures you and your imagination. What opens, rises, and illumes will inform your artwork the next day.
Cacao Ceremony Included. (Bring your own lunch )
Day 2 – In the Studio 10am to 4pm
A full day of working intuitively in mixed media to create an artwork that speaks to you of Reclaiming Sacred Power and your sensual, sexual creative essence. I guide you to drop deep into the intuitive realms within you and navigate any boundaries and limitations that reveal and limit your opening of the creative, sensual power. Transforming limiting self-beliefs and any shame around your beautiful female body.
You will draw on your musings the day before, Sheela Na Gig and the Vulva to create your meanignful artwork full of the power of your sensual, creative awakening
No prior art experience is needed to take part. Guidance and technical support at each step as you open Reclaiming Sacred Power as a dialogue through paint and mixed media. All art materials included.
Bring your own lunch.
Snacks, teas, coffee all provided.
NOTE:
ACCOMMODATION IS NOT INCLUDED. DO LET ME KNOW IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN SHARING ACCOMMODATION WITH OTHER PARTICIPANTS.
ON BOOKING - Look out for an email with the details you need to know. Lisa will contact you directly if you reserve your place with a deposit to arrange a date for the balance payment two weeks before the retreat.
Gateway of Menopause Art Day 20219 - Connecting with Sheela Na Gig