KEY CONCEPTS FOR CREATING A SAFE CONTAINER
I am excited to report that we are 2 months into our 13 Moons Priestess Cohort and so far, it has been a fascinating journey. These 5 women continue to catalyze me and inform the direction we are taking in this work of Divine Feminine embodiment. This is a very different experience from my years of doing women’s psychotherapy groups. In this group, I am leading and teaching but am doing the work alongside and within the cohort while also receiving teachings from other guest teachers. Here’s a peek at some of the work we are doing to create a culture of belonging, safety, and personal sovereignty.
Key Concepts for Creating a Safe Container
In the priestess cohort, we are creating a culture of safety where we speak our truth and step out of our comfort zone. This means feeling our own resistance, leaning into dissonance, stepping into our power, stretching, and growing past what we thought possible. This could be speaking our needs instead of being afraid that our needs might alienate others or go unmet. It might mean taking a risk led by our intuition or having an uncomfortable conversation instead of avoiding it. If we set ourselves apart from the group, we risk not belonging anymore. We hope to create a culture where we belong and stand in our sovereignty and power.
These are ideals to strive for and we will keep returning to these concepts.
Non-duality
We make room for both/and, light/dark, ecstatic/painful, awakened/unconscious, higher aspects/shadow aspects, etc.
An example of this would be staying out of our tendency to polarize as we are seeing now with blaming the “other”. This is the root of colonization in our culture where we must group together what we see as inferior, wrong, or bad. In a non-dual perspective, there is room for both/and. We may have and accept our differences of opinion without having to blame the other side for our suffering or the suffering in the world.
Openness and Receptivity
This requires us to be able to receive as well as give.
It requires that we enter our space with minimal expectations and with the attitude that we are there to receive and give to one another as we can.
We may call ourselves out for collapsing into a defensive reaction that closes us off from others and prevents us from receiving.
Judgments, triggers, and reactions will come up in any group. We practice noticing, containing, and addressing this first internally. We can ask for support either privately in a session or in the group if we are attacking ourselves with criticism or projecting criticism outward. We will help each other return to the root cause and underlying primary wound so we can stay out of reaction and stay present with the Divine. We practice no cross-talk as a way of containing and refrain from interpreting for others or giving advice.
Maintaining Personal Power & Sovereignty while Staying Relational
This refers to “not doing to or for” in our commitment to values.
Speaking our needs, using our voice
Being aware of the group’s needs and remembering we are part of the whole.
This seems to be a theme arising lately in our community where women are experiencing their sovereignty, which brings up fear of losing our loved ones and no longer belonging. The intensity of this fear can often be as paralyzing as our fear of death.
