Divinely Feminine Events to Change the World by Caryn MacGrandle

In the bathroom at 4am in the morning, I hear the birds start to sing.  Instantly, I am transported back to my tent at Midwest Herbal Conference in Wisconsin to the excitement of starting a new day with the feeling of being in nature with fellow conmadres, amazed at the knowledge and wisdom the women around me hold.  Watching them go into the forest, bend down to see a plant, put it in their mouths and eat it.

It was there that I first came to the realization that it does not have to be processed by a facility, put in a box and transported to a grocery store to nourish us.  The idea that nature is already there at our feet waiting to sustain us.  Learning to trust our knowledge and inner wisdom about what is good for you, not only in regards to plants but what is good for you mentally as well.

These past nine years, I have had an app that has helped (mainly) women find events, circles and resources like these.  It has allowed me the opportunity to not only attend some incredible, life changing events but also to learn how to differentiate between these events and ones that are more social in nature.

ALisa Starkweather’s Daughters of the Earth gatherings were watershed moments for me.  I still speak of these events, how they opened my eyes to another way to live, how to hold power as a woman and how to come together across culture and color lines.

I remember waiting for my return flight at the Boston airport after the first one in utter amazement and shock, watching each woman pass me by, thinking to myself, ‘do you even know what you are capable of?’

I remember sitting in my tent feeling this community of women around me and thinking to myself that I could live there forever.

Finding the deliciousness of community that is sorely lacking in most of our lives.

The ripples that ALisa has sent out around the world.  I still often meet women who in the course of our conversations I discover they traveled ALisa’s Priestess Path route.  I nod my head, our eyes lock and I honor them. 

Because I know they have descended and risen.

ALisa gave me a deer antler rattle that when I take into circle, I take part of that connection as well.

Gather the Women yearly gatherings.  I was amazed at the first one to find out the small size of these gatherings, only about fifty women.  But I discovered this allowed a deep connection over the weekend. 

Standing around a labyrinth in the desert of Arizona, the wind on my skin, greeting the morning while Tu Bears, an indigenous woman led us in a morning chant.  “We n’ de ya ho”.  I am of the Great Spirit.

I attended several of the Gather the Women annual gatherings each held in a different location but all following the same format of breaking apart into smaller Circles then coming together in a larger one. 

I remember the climax of those large Circles a couple of days into the gathering where after doing the necessary work, the room was filled with this indescribable feeling of love and connection. 

If only the whole world had the opportunity to feel like this.

Surely we could change the world.

Surely we could heal the world.

I have done a lot of thinking about what sets apart these events from other more social events I have attended over the years.

Intention.  The setting of Sacred space.  A coming together at the beginning, and a coming together at the end.  A connection to nature.  A connection to each other. 

The establishment of a container in which to find your own power and do your own healing.

This.  This is a divinely feminine event.

This.  This is what is needed at this time.

I would love to hear in the comments about life changing events and gatherings that you have attended.