She Who Stands Tall in the Center of Her Life Grounded in the Wisdom of Her Head (Intelligence), Heart (Intuition), Gut (Safety and Connection) And Womb (Earth-informed Spirituality).
WHO IS WOM(B)AN.
Wom(b)an = Human Female = Womb.
The word Wom(b)an in She Stands Tall Project is used to distinguish the Human Female - She who is born in the Biology of the Womb. She who is (was) ovulating and menstruating, has ovulated and menstruated, or will ovulate and menstruate in her time. She is in-formed in the Cosmic Biology of Living Nature though her womb's ability to birth human life. In fact, Every human life exists in organic life Rhythm because a Wom(b)an housed and birthed that life through her. She was taken in service of Nature in the rhythm of life - death. She walks a distinct footprint on Earth. She is Wom(b)an.
Wom(b)an = Womb = Mother = Home = Rest.
Mother as Womb and Wom(b)an is our first experience of Home - Rest. Hers is the first Love. She is the first Other - My Other - Mother. In her womb is our first experience of Unity (Oneness) and Pleasure. From and Through Her is also, our first experience of Separation and Pain. Any interruption, neglect, and break in this early bonding can result in dissociation, adaptations, and addictions into Adulthood. She lays the foundation of our Human map of relationships. She is irreplaceable, and unforgettable. She in-forms all longing. She is Wom(b)an.
Wom(b)an = Womb = Earth = Nature.
Being Wom(b)an is a Subjective Phenomenological experience of Being in a Rhythmic Womb body. Her Womb is entrained in the Cosmic Biological Rhythm of Earth - Nature. This rhythm informs a Wom(b)an's interconnection with the Earth and also, other Wom(b)en. Going backwards her womb is connected to her mother, mother's mother, mother's mother's mother, and so on. Going forward her womb is connected to her daughter, daughter's daughter, daughter's daughter's daughter, and so on. Horizontally, Her womb is also, connected to every other Wom(b)en through Lunar Entrainment. She is the foundation of Relational life. She is Wom(b)an.
THE CORE TENETS OF SSTP
1. SHE IS A CHANGING WOM(B)AN.
In the biology, a Wom(b)an is forever navigating change.
From the onset of her first ovulation to the sighting of her first Blood to the waning of her blood in menopause, Wom(b)an is navigating the biological ebbs and flows of her Womb in cyclic rhythm with the daily circadian, monthly lunar, and annual seasonal rhythms of the Earth while attuning with her own changing life cycle.
Her physiology is cyclic - not linear.
Her vulnerability is cyclic - not linear.
Her gut health is cyclic - not linear.
Her intelligence is cyclic - not linear.
Her intuition is cyclic - not linear.
Her processing is cyclic - not linear.
In this Linear Out-formed Masculine Male-Driven rhythm of the world, a Wom(b)an needs to recover her self-autonomy and self-authority to Choose, and Consent in the world at her own pace, and in her own way in attunement with her Inner Womb Navigational Compass. When Wom(b)an re-covers, re-pairs, and re-attunes with her embodied sense of Home and chooses its knowing over that of the World, every human life that comes through her is also, able to locate and receive from this Embodied Home. She is the foundation.
2. HER BODY IS SACRED.
Wom(b)an's body and sexuality is deeply connected to her menstrual blood, her breasts, genitals, and her ability to create and sustain life. It gives her the innate ability to connect, feel, and emotionally relate to other life effortlessly in her various relationships as daughter, sister, lover, friend, mother, grandmother, and partner. She wears her body and sexuality in every aspect of her daily engagements.
Her body is her connection to nature - to life itself. It gives her the ability to sync with and respond to nature’s vast intelligence.
Within her body is embedded the power of intuition, intention, and knowing. From ancient times, Indigenous tribal societies have acknowledged Wom(b)an's autonomy in navigating this relationship with her body and sexuality. It was held within women's sacred circle and entered in through female-centered rituals, practices, and ceremonies. Girls "blossomed" (not grow) into womanhood in the witnessing eyes of many women - mothers, sisters, grandmothers. She was the custodian of the Dark Feminine Cyclic Earth Wisdom. In time, she was able to transfer this wisdom to her sons and daughters. This step was essential. Hers was the final word.
3. AWAKEN THE MOTHER MIND
The Mother-Mind is the non-linear, cyclic, organic, intuitive, interconnected, emoting, nurturing, feminine mind that has the capacity to feel the life within and without, inside and out, near and far, up and around, and deep down below in ways unimaginable to the linear masculine mind. Mother-centered Indigenous civilizations around the world recognized the mother-mind and its immanence in the bodies and sexuality of women, and girls.
The various life-cycle transitions that a Wom(b)an experiences in her lifetime - menstruation, ovulation, conception, pregnancy, childbirth, menopause, crone years - are powerful gateways of receiving and transmitting energies, catapulting healing into wholeness, and awakening the Mother mind in a natural way. Her path of renewal and growth involves meeting Death. It is a Dark Slow Path of Getting Pregnant, Dying, and being Reborn.
4. FEMININE POWER AND LEADERSHIP
Imagine standing in front of a Mountain, a Tree, a Waterfall, or an Animal in the Wild. Tune into your experience.
You will know Shakti - the innate pulsating presence-full rested alert Feminine Power of Nature. It permeates and weaves all of life within its spacious folds. It is in-formed by the unseen Order of Nature. In it, the Masculine Will rises, directs, exerts, and subsides. In this work, we distinguish this Nature-rooted Power from the man-made, man-enforced, man-dated power-over called Force. The term Force is based on the work of David Hawkins. Force is reactive, linear, divisive, split, and forever rooted in incompleteness. It is centered outside - in the known perception. In comparison, Power is Whole, Complete, and centered inside - in knowing. It is Here. It is available in the Now for everyone - equally. Power is Parasympathetic. Force is Sympathetic in its purpose. Power is anchored in Feminine Mother Mind, and Force in the Masculine Ego Mind. Most Leadership models of the world are founded on Force. That is what we see modeled as Power.
Through the living rhythms of her womb, a Wom(b)an can locate and embody this Feminine Power. Our work supports a Wom(b)an to explore this Feminine model of leadership within her life, in her family, in her community, and in the world.
5. ACKNOWLEDGING RAMPANCY OF TRAUMA
Trauma is Everywhere. Trauma is in Everyone.
It informs the modern human nervous system.
Trauma births Force.
If you are raised within a civilized structural society, and its learning models, then in some form or the other you have inherited and also, developed imprints of Trauma. Trauma limits our ability to see the complete truth of people, situations and things in the here and now. It either distorts our ability to respond to a situation or incapacitates us in responding, or our response is out of proportion to what is in front of us.
Trauma is often masked through adaptation, coping strategies, personality traits, addictions, cultural - spiritual norms, ideation, etc. This unconscious trauma drives, directs and determines most movements if not all of modern societies unless we consciously enter into the process of re-pair, and re-story.
Wom(b)en have an exhaustive trauma map that emerges in her insurmountable shame, rage and grief, irregular / linear / absences / disconnect in and from her menstruation - womb rhythm, psychosomatic illnesses, chronic pain, autoimmune, and other dis-eases.
6. INTEGRATING WOM(B)AN IN SISTERHOOD
Women's knowing is complex, layered, cyclic, systemic, rhythmic, and interconnected.
It is objective, subjective, and includes the inbetween.
It is material, spiritual, and includes the inbetween.
It is changing, still, and includes the in between.
It is ancient, fresh, and includes the inbetween.
Inhabiting Wom(b)an requires the inclusion and Integration of
- The Knowing inherent in her Cyclic Womb,
- held and protected by the guidance of her Gut,
- In-formed in the Intuitive wisdom of her interconnected Heart, and
- supported by her punctilious intelligence (head).
This process needs time, space, solitude, and the nourishing companionship of Womb Sisterhood. In other words, women need alone time and she also, needs a consciously created intentional sisterhood space to mend, to heal, to awaken, to create, to let go, to vision, to dream, to nurture, to support, to learn, to understand, to re-member, to remember, to see, to be seen and acknowledged. Then the magic of Being Wom(b)an comes alive in her and she is able to offer it in relationships within her family, her community, and the world.
7. SPHERE OF INFLUENCE
This Sphere of influence is a maturation movement in our inside that supports us to receive the gift of our biological maleness or femaleness.
To blossom into a Sexually Mature Wom(b)an requires a Wom(b)an to step out of the "Father's daughter", or "Daddy's girl" image. She needs to move toward her mother while honouring and acknowledging her father's place in her life. She needs to energetically locate herself in the Sphere of influence of her Mother and Wom(b)en. Then the gift of Being Female, the Feminine, and the Mother mind flows to her. It asks of the Adult Wom(b)en to remember, agree, and fully include her Connection to and with her Mother, her Matriliny, and her Matilineal ancestors just the way she received it in her life. The absence of this movement is often felt as a cyclic raging inside, and a rejection of all aspects of the feminine and femaleness in a woman. This movement is also, essential for a Wom(b)an to enter into a relationship with a man (or the masculine) in a healthy way, and to receive from his maleness (or the masculine) in a healthy way. A conscious mature father facilitates this movement towards the mother, and a conscious mature mother makes room to welcome her daughter as a Wom(b)an. In its absence, a woman needs to facilitate this for herself.
OUR WORK RESTS ON SIX FOUNDATIONAL PILLARS
SISTERHOOD
RITUAL & RITES
HER-STORIES
Sisterhood is Essential in Women's Work. Women need to gather in safe inclusive ritual-community to unmask, regulate vulnerability, attune womb health, mirror authenticity, and share, reflect, and talk about things they would otherwise never talk about.
HER-STORIES
RITUAL & RITES
HER-STORIES
Wom(b)en need to consciously show up in the stories of life - their own and also, of others. They need to tell stories in the way they saw it, felt it, sensed it, and experienced it.
Her way, view, knowing, and telling of the story matters. Her absence, silence, and inaction impacts and imbalances the stories that are told.
RITUAL & RITES
RITUAL & RITES
EMBODIED EXPRESSION
Everything in nature is informed in Rhythm. Rhythm informs Ritual. Every species in nature partakes in the act of giving and taking in life and relationships through Nature-informed Rituals. So Making Rituals and Ceremonies is vital to inhabit the Magic of the Changing Wom(b)an. It revitalizes and resources autonomy.
EMBODIED EXPRESSION
RESPONSIBILITY THROUGH ARTIVISM
EMBODIED EXPRESSION
Wom(b)en need to make room to explore, engage, embody ad express their primal instinctual feminine power in the daily everyday expressions of life be it cooking, ritual making, decorating, art-making, or anything. It is vital to regulate her sanity, sensitivity, and sensibiity.
RESPONSIBILITY THROUGH ARTIVISM
RESPONSIBILITY THROUGH ARTIVISM
RESPONSIBILITY THROUGH ARTIVISM
Wom(b)en need to weave Art and Action in sacred ritual community to Respond and Give expression to the Absent, the Missing, the Feared, the UnSpoken, the UnHeard, the UnProcessed, and the UnExpressed stories, voices, expressions, and beliefs in her own way.
WOM(B)EN'S SPIRITUALITY
RESPONSIBILITY THROUGH ARTIVISM
RESPONSIBILITY THROUGH ARTIVISM
Wom(b)en Spirituality informs the living of a cyclic non-linear rhythmic knowing that includes every part, aspect, and point on the continuum of life and death. It in-forms the trust that every life has its own fate, and within that every life is also, supported with the ability to respond in its own unique authentic way.