It is now safe for me to step into my power in all
its potency and share my soul’s voice authentically
and freely without fear or persecution.
I call upon the sacred masculine and Shiva
to protect me and my work.
In the highest good of all beings I trust this to be carried
out with joy now and in all aspects of existence.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
And so it is. And so it is. And so it is.’
After you have completed the invocation, don’t blow out the candles, rather let them burn down and extinguish naturally. Keep them in place or put them on your altar or window ledge.
SOUL STORIES
We all have them. And many of us repeat them over and over again, lifetime after lifetime. The good girl, the martyr, the judge, the victim, the persecuted, the persecutor, the black sheep, the hermit, the mistreated, the cast aside, the one who is afraid to be seen, the one who is afraid to speak.
It doesn’t serve us to keep living the same soul story over and over again. It is time to set ourselves free from the roles we have been playing even after we have learned the lesson. The thing about past lives is that they don’t just exist in the past. If we don’t release them, they exist in reality right now, and we end up living the same story over and over again.
So what’s your soul story? What role are you playing in your life that you just can’t seem to shake? What emotion or feeling or way of being is controlling your life?
May this be the lifetime that you say no to the pattern, to reliving the same thing over and over again. May this be the life that you shake it all off, liberate yourself from the stories of the past, and step into a new once upon a time.
RISE SISTER RISE
Ask the part of you that knows… Think about the
greatest fear that holds you back in your current
life. If you had to guess, what soul story or role
have you been reliving over and over again?
PAST LIVES AND UNSHACKLING YOUR SOUL
You have incarnated more than once. Most likely lives over many eras. Perhaps you have even incarnated in ancient periods such as Egypt, Troy, Mesopotamia, or even ancient lands such as Avalon, Atlantis, Shambala, and Lemuria? There is so much that we don’t know and so much we are still to uncover.
Significant past-life memories, particularly the traumatic ones, can be imprinted into our unconscious mind along with traumatic experiences from this life. It is from our unconscious mind that our beliefs, behaviors, and habits are formed. Therefore, traumas from past lives have the potential to influence who you are today if they are not processed and released.
Collectively many of us are healing past-life trauma due to living in the shadow of 5,000 years of patriarchy, while many other women hope for a future when they can do the same. Lifetimes where it was not safe for us to choose our own faith, where our bodies were not our own, where we were seen as second-class citizens and often the property of a husband, where it was not safe for us to speak out, share our truth, where open expression of our sexuality and passion was considered a sin.
It is time that we stop carrying around these ancient
wounds and free ourselves to be who we truly
are, not be bound by who we are afraid to be.
Our intention when working with past lives should always be to notice without attachment. If you were mistreated or experienced something traumatic, allow yourself to feel it and everything that comes with it, but resist the urge to carry on playing that role and living that story in this life. Take the wisdom, take the lessons, take the strength, but don’t lose yourself in the drama of the story that you stop living this life you have now. Don’t let your ego get in the way of unshackling your soul. Don’t get stuck in the romance and drama of it. Resist the urge to let your ego get in the way saying, ‘I was this famous person from history’… ‘I was a queen’… or wallowing in the martyrdom of the suffering.
It is also important to remember that most of us have played the roles of both victim and villain. We have been the accused and so too the accuser. The persecuted and the persecutor. Keep your mind open and cast judgment aside. We all are made of light and shadow. Refrain from the urge to want to see only the light, for the shadow is often the thing that binds you tightest.
As we know better we do better. It is through making ‘bad’ decisions and becoming more conscious of our actions that we are able to become more aligned and certainly more free.
Recently I had a past-life experience where I actively journeyed into the shadow of my incarnation experiences. In other words, the lives you wouldn’t want other people to know about. We all have them. I was inquiring over a pattern I had with a particular type of authority figure that no matter how experienced I got, I just could not shake. During this journey I experienced a past life where I turned on one of my teachers. It was only a matter of time until they found out and the waiting game was excruciating. As I watched the story play out I could feel myself crying. The tears released an ancient guilt and fear and I saw how holding on to it had resulted in me having this niggling feeling in my current life that I was always going to be caught out. I finally understood the feeling, this thing that was binding me and I was finally able to set myself free, releasing the previously unshakable pattern in my current life. What a relief it was.
Every past life I have journeyed to I have called back or released something that either frees or strengthens me. The artist and the healer. The adventurer and the initiate. The Chinese man who worked himself into the ground. The Isis Priestess and the Essene mystic who whispers in my ear ‘unbound, unbound, forever unbound.’ There are jewels and wisdom from times past waiting for you to uncover. As well as parts of you that yearn to be unchained so your freest self can be found.
My intention in looking at past lives is so that we can free ourselves from the way these past experiences are keeping us bound in our current lives. In looking at the shadow and the light we are able to release the chains that bind us, just as we are also able to call upon the skills and power that we have embodied before.
RISE SISTER RISE
Ask the part of you that knows:
If I had to guess, I’d say that a past life that binds me is…
What happened that your soul wants you to remember?
What advice does this part of you have for you today?
If I had to guess, I’d say one of my past
lives that strengthens me is…
What happened that your soul wants you to remember?
What advice does this part of you have for you today?
If you feel called to go deeper on your past lives, you may like
to try my ‘Past Lives Journey’ at www.risesisterrise.com.
YOU CAN BE SCARED AND STILL BE SAFE
It’s OK to be scared. In fact, when it comes to rising, feeling scared or unsure is really quite normal. Especially when doing the work that your soul is calling you to do. Especially if you are called to forge a new way of doing things and transforming yourself. If you didn’t feel a little bit unsure, that would be odd.
I’ve got a quote on my wall by Joan of Arc, which reads,
‘I’m not afraid. I was born to do this.’
For so long I looked at Joan’s fierceness and wondered how she could stand with such conviction. However, she is known for courage and courage isn’t the absence of fear; it’s facing what you are afraid of. When I feel into that quote now, I feel it is almost a mantra, assuring herself that she can do it, regardless of the fear. If you are afraid to transform, rise or pave a new path, that’s my heart’s deepest prayer for you. To find the courage to rise despite, and perhaps especially because of, the fear.
We are in a constant state of change. Each new moment is unknown. We do not know what is coming and we do not know what we are transforming into. The thing that makes it harder is resisting it. Like standing at the edge of th
e highest diving board and looking down. Stopping and taking in the sheer height and all the space between you and the water. The longer you wait, the more excruciating it gets. But if you move in one big sweeping motion, by the time you come up for air you say, ‘That wasn’t so bad, let’s do it all again.’
This is the constant process of rising, of moving with Life. The longer you resist, the harder it gets. But if you allow the rhythm of the motion to take you, you start seeing it as a ride.
#RISESISTERRISE MANTRA
It’s possible for me to feel scared and still be safe.
It’s safe for me to open the back of my heart.
Every moment of every day we are to some degree standing at the edge of that diving board. The more you think about it and resist the inevitable, the scarier it gets. But if you allow the fear by breathing into it deeply and then leaping into the constant state of surrender, you begin swimming with Source. You become Source in motion. And when the water catches you, you discover that it is possible to feel scared and still be safe.
RISE SISTER RISE
What are you afraid to do that you have been avoiding?
LET SHAKTI SING YOU (THE POWER OF CHANTING)
When you share your voice you unlock something in the Universe and call a missing piece of you home. Our individual voice is the most powerful sound current on the planet. If you have kept your soul’s voice silenced or held back, chanting could be truly life changing for you. As we chant we don’t just chant to free or heal ourselves, we also chant for all those who do not have a voice and the healing of all. In John (1:1) it says that ‘sound or vibration is the most powerful force in the universe.’ I couldn’t agree more.
Chanting is the practice of singing divine names in repetition. It is a form of vibrational healing, as the sound current reverberates through your physical body bringing it back to harmony. The repetition of chanting causes our minds to get bored and rest, allowing another voice, our true voice, our soul’s voice, to sing through us. If you have ever chanted or attended one of my workshops perhaps you know what I’m talking about. There comes a point in most chants where your voice actually changes. A resistance has been cleared away and created space for something sacred. Many times when I chant it feels like I both lose and find myself, my true self. For me, there is no other modality that has this same powerful effect.
There are 84 meridian points on the top of the mouth that are stimulated when we chant. These stimulate the hypothalamus, which stimulates the pineal gland, which stimulates the entire glandular system – which is why it makes you feel so damn good.
But more subtly, my favorite thing about chanting is the unified field that opens when we begin singing. It’s as if the chant exists in that field on its own, and when we begin chanting we are instantly connected to it. And by being in that field through chanting along, you are also connecting yourself to all of the people who have ever chanted that chant throughout the past, present and future. That’s a lot of divine support and holding.
Chants are more than just songs; they are invocations. We can direct them at specific ascended masters, Gods and Goddesses. All you need in order to call in their support is to put your intention into your singing. To invite their guidance, their presence. To open up and receive them walking beside you. Holding you. Loving you. Supporting you.
THE MOST POWERFUL SOUND CURRENT
‘I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.’
MAYA ANGELOU
The following exercise is likely to make you uncomfortable. That’s a good thing. In fact, the more uncomfortable it makes you, the more important it is to your rising.
These days we are bombarded with information from society telling us what we should look like, how we should feel about ourselves, where we should be, and even how to behave. Our bodies, our jobs, our wealth, our families, our career…
With so much noise coming at us, it’s fairly impossible not to measure our value from these external forces.
However, as Maya Angelou so beautifully expresses in her poem Phenomenal Woman, there is a phenomenal woman ready to rise within each and every one of us. She doesn’t need to change anything; She just needs to claim her magnificence in full radiance now.
There is nothing more powerful than your own voice. No authority has more sway. And the only way to be witnessed and celebrated by others is first to truly see, acknowledge, celebrate, and voice what is phenomenal about you right now.
PRACTICE: PHENOMENAL WOMAN
Write a three-page letter to yourself explaining why you
are such an amazing woman. Why you admire yourself.
What you are proud of. What have been your greatest
achievements. Why you are a good person. What you have
managed to overcome, to let go of, to rise above. Your
greatest qualities and just generally why you are so amazing.
Record yourself reading your letter out loud on
your phone or computer. This is the important bit.
Do not wait for others to tell you you’re good.
Tell it to yourself and tell it to yourself now.
Listen to the recording every day for the next 21 days,
and notice the significant change in your confidence.
RISE SISTER RISE
Do the ‘phenomenal woman exercise’ above.
Do not overlook the power of this one.
TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR LIFE
‘What would happen if one woman told the truth
about her life? The world would split open.’
MURIEL RUKEYSER
If you feel a certain way, rest assured that there are millions who feel the same. When I was young I thought I was alone in my desire to bring about this shift in consciousness and felt petrified to do it. I tried everything I could to overcome this fear before sharing my writing and voice. Then eventually I realized that my fear was part of my story and that if I felt this way, then others did too.
Slowing dipping my little toe in the water I began to share my writing. Eventually the words turned into chapters and chapters into books. When you tell the truth about your life, the good and the bad, you no longer have anything to hide. You free yourself. You show the world who you really are and ‘your people’ flock to you. The more honestly you share your voice and embrace your weirdness, the easier it is for your sisters to find you. If you keep your voice hidden, waiting for the fear to subside, your people won’t be able to find you.
When you are honest about your life you give someone else permission to be honest about theirs. You give up the exhausting act of pretending you have it all together (which none of us actually do). When you share your story you set yourself and others free. When you are honest about your life you give yourself more space to enjoy it. Messy bits and all. And the messy bits are actually the most interesting bits anyway.
RISE SISTER RISE
How can you be more honest about your life?
YOUR LIFE IS YOUR MESSAGE
We are all connected. The only way to heal others is by first healing yourself. In my Work Your Light™ online course, I take my students through a process called ‘Your Life Is Your Message,’ where we look at key moments of their story and the things they needed to hear at those moments. It never ceases to amaze me how much this process works. Our life really is our message. And it is in letting the healing happen through us that we are able to have a healing impact on the world
Your message is the thing you most needed to hear.
When we devote our lives to rising, we are really committing to being the person we wish we had to guide us. When I write my books, I am not writing to convince someone else of a certain way but to the part of me that needed to hear what I now have to say. And, because we are all connected, there are others out there who will resonate with that too.
PRACTICE: YOUR LIFE IS YOUR MESSAGE
Get an A4 piece of paper an
d place it horizontally. Draw a
line from left to right. This is your timeline. The far left is
the day you were born and the far right is current time.
Plot out significant moments in your life. Moments that stand
out. They can be little, perhaps a happy day with your family
at the beach or huge, such as the death of your mother.
Go through each moment and ask yourself, what did
you need to hear at that moment? And write it down.
Once you have completed all the moments, look back over
your notes and see if you can find a common thread.
WHAT IS YOURS TO DO?
Often the path that is yours to walk is the exact
one that you do not feel prepared to walk.
Walk it anyway.
Often what is rising in us feels far bigger than
we feel we could possibly hold.
Be a container for it anyway.
Often our creations seem to have a wild
uncontrollable consciousness of their own.
Birth them anyway.
Often what is ours to do feels more like a challenge than a choice.
Choose it anyway.
Often what is ours to do is the very thing that intimidates us the most.
Be courageous and do it anyway.
YOU ARE BOUNDLESS
You are boundless. There is no end to what you are capable of. You are not your parents, you are not your civilization, you are not your sex or your sexual partners, you are not your story, you are not what others say you are, and you are not your mistakes.
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