A couple of months ago I launched a bookclub for my Ser mujer global community on Facebook in an effort to get all members on a similar learning path.
After noticing women were experiencing distrusts issues with one another – even among feminists, entrepreneurs and academics working for the same causes -, I wanted to do something different for this 2020: give the bookclub a yearly calendar.
And which better way to start than talking about why women coming together mattered.
Our January – February selection was The millionth circle by Jean Shinoda Bolen.
Though the title was not the latest bestseller its content was so simple, so powerful, so needed for our community to have a common ground.
Circles are geometric figures found in the organization of ancient cultures, scriptures and lands.
Circles are non-hierarchical, inspire horizontal communication and helps us connect with one another in a safe space and unique time.
Circles help us reflect ourselves in the eyes of an Other and in the archetypes we all embody or reject inside and outside.
Circles help heal.
Women’s circles help us heal.
On August 2019, before I got certified as a red tent facilitator, I thought women’s circles power was just on the gathering and the chit chat.
Clueless of me for what I found in the training was a beautiful treasure: not all women’s circles are red tents but all red tents have women’s circles.
A red tent can harbor a circle and bring us all to cherish the womb, our matrix of creation, and the sure bodily memory of our lineage, identity, transformation and gifts of life.
Did you know the uterus has its own memory? Spiritually and scientifically.
I didn’t know that. I came to that realization when I went to my first red tent.
It shook me because I’ve been organizing women’s circles all my life. When I was a kid with my aunts, at university with my friends, during my first enterprise years with my female team members at lunch, dinner and special occasions.
We spoke about various topics not only romance and not only gossip.
But we never went too…deep.
During my red tent facilitator training I found answers I didn’t knew I had questions for.
One thing was to go to a safe space and express yourself freely and another was to willingly open yourself to feel, connect, explore sides of yourself and others you didn’t know existed.
Women who run with wolves stories, goddesses archetypes embodiment, the lunar woman, inner child healing, lineage and ancestral healing… a whole new world awaited inside.
A world so new, so mystic, so incredibly real and so precious to guard.
And for me it was so meaningful to choose Bolen’s work to start this new year because for most of my life I felt that the Western world was developing the latest apps, the latest reasonings on how to be «feminine» and how to «be well» tying it to high levels of «fitness», «sexyness» and «youth» while, in the meantime, losing touch with our feelings, our nature and what truly makes us women (and humans!).
“I believe that the thought that women together can change the world is emerging into the minds and hearts of many of us, and that the vessel for personal and planetary evolution is the circle with a spiritual center”, Bolen said.
Bolen encouraged us to cherish the power of the circle and I want to add, if possible, cherish as well the power of the red tent for it provides a wholesome approach to healing among others, in front each others, as individuals and as a collective.
If you are wondering benefits of joining a women’s circle here are some:
- Connecting or re-connecting with one’s own femininity
- Freedom of expression in a safe and respectful space
- No hierarchic structure which allows for equal ground connection
- Self-esteem and intuition growth
- Healing limiting beliefs and emotional wounds
- Meeting women from all walks of life with similar or different paths than yours
- Receiving support
If you want to explore the power of the red tent, I invite you to seek facilitators in your community and experience one live for yourself.
There is little I can say to accurately describe the magic, the support and the love you will only feel once you enter those four red walls.
The film series The Red Tent (2014) based on Anita Diamant’s novel is a beautiful and compelling story on the rites of passage lived inside and the lessons we carry with each other on our chosen life’s journey. I recommend you both. The movie, for me, was spectacular.
Lastly, I want to thank all of you who joined this cycle of the bookclub for reading, sharing and opening up to this forgotten knowledge and so easy to apply on our daily lives.
I salute you and I thank you with all my heart for being here and for seeking to understand how healing and honoring our own womanhood and holding space for others to cross their own path can create a positive ripple effect for the health of our families, communities, nations and Humankind.
Natalia
P.S. If you are joining us for our bookclub, our March-April selection is: Women & Power by Mary Beard.
Lumina Magazine 