Lauren Walsh, Founder of Global Sisterhood:
What does it mean to be truly free?
If you identify as a woman, you are no stranger to oppression.
It’s likely that as you’ve grown older, you learned that oppression takes many forms.
It’s felt in the painfully loud silence of wives who are not seen or heard.
It’s laced in the denial of equal pay and lack of energy exchange causing a lesser sense of worth.
It comes in the form of a woman of color walking down the street and not knowing if the stares are because she is a woman, or because of her color her skin, or both.
Oppression is the reason that many of us don’t have a connection to earth-based rituals and practices.
The reason why so many of us have been stripped from our ancestral roots.
It’s the reason why so many of us have lost touch with the Great Mother or the Goddess.
It’s the reason why we carry such deep ancestral trauma and why so many are rising today.
It’s truly an extraordinary time in history, and I believe we are in the midst of deep global healing.
Progress is being made. The revival of The Great Mother is a part of the reason we are making progress.
I’ve shared my own experiences of healing from oppression before, and as a fair warning, it’s a triggering story.
However, it is one of healing and hope because this is how I reconnected with the Goddess and how she changed my life.
At the age of 13, a really hard sexual event took place in my life.
The experience was excruciating, and at far too young an age, my eyes awoke from the bliss of innocence to the very real struggle of being a woman.
The suffering it caused within me forced me to question everything:
My worth.
My community.
My spirituality.
And, initially, this awakening did not free me.
But it did do something I never would have expected.
It fueled the seeker in me.
I searched to understand the darkness I felt within myself.
I wanted to be free of my pain.
This path was not linear. At first, my seeking led straight to what I was needing to escape.
By the time I turned 21, I was trapped in an abusive relationship, without sisterhood, and with zero self-esteem.
But one day, my seeking led me to pray to the “Mother”. I didn’t know if I believed in the Goddess, but something deep within compelled me to Her.
It was here, tangled in a mess of ancestral wounding and wounds of my own making, that I looked to the moon and prayed with every ounce of my being for help.
“I don’t know if you’re real, but if there really is some powerful omnipresent force of love in this world, I could really use your help,” I pleaded.
This is where liberation began…
Shortly after my prayer, my family helped me escape my abusive relationship.
Free from the emotional nightmare, I left my life as I knew it to seek healing in the magic of the Amazon Rainforest.
It was there that I had an “awakening ” that did free me. I was touched so deeply by the presence of the Great Mother that I was now ready to put in the work to transform my life.
When I returned from the Amazon, I sought out everything I could to help me continue to heal. I dove in deep.
As I walked my path, I soon realized that my healing journey was helping those around me heal as well.
That’s when I began holding space for myself and other women on the new and full moons.
This journey was the initiation into leading Women’s Circles.
Once I began facilitating circles, my entire self-identity began to change.
It’s been 14 years now, and in every circle, I still strip away old patterns of oppressive conditioning and reclaim who I truly am.
I now believe with all my heart, that women gathering together in circle will heal the world. I’ve seen thousands of women transform.
I believe it is the Goddess consciousness within all of us that compels us to gather in this way.
It is an act of ancient remembrance that reconnects us to our roots, our truth, and our power.
I share my story with you in hopes that it acts as a mirror to show you that the pain you may be experiencing or have experienced, is only the beginning of the journey.
Whatever oppression life has placed upon your shoulders doesn’t have to be where your story ends.
If I had the support of a circle of women from the beginning, my liberation would have come much sooner, but I don’t regret my journey.
Instead, I am grateful that it has led me to where I am today, and even more grateful that I can share it with you.
So I leave you with this question:
Do you feel called to strip away oppressive conditioning and reclaim your deep femininity and power?
Do you feel inspired to be a part of a movement of women awakening and rising to pave a new way for ourselves and the future generations?
Do you feel the Great Mother calling you forth into greater service and joy?
If so, Are you willing to open yourself to a new era of your life and hold space for other women to go on this journey with you?
Go ahead and take a moment to journal to this prompt….
How do I feel called to rise?
In devotion to the Goddess and to Her Presence within us all,
Lauren Walsh
Founder of Global Sisterhood
P.S. Sometimes liberation from oppression requires guiding others out of their own dark spaces and therefore guiding yourself. We are all mirrors for one another. Facilitating circles allows you to create a powerful container for this type of healing. Circle Initiation is a program that will guide you there. Click here to learn how.
