22 Days Until England! Cornwall Calls.

Friday morning...my father arrives today for a 10 day visit.

My father is 80 years old, and he is writing a novel.  His first.  The Miner and the Viscount.  And I know it's not his last.  It's become the first in a trilogy, The Cornish Chronicle, a series of historical fiction novels based in 18th and 19th century Cornwall.

My father's family is Cornish, and he grew up in Liskeard, in the eastern half of Cornwall, not far from Plymouth.  My grandfather, "Granfer" was the editor of the Cornish Times.  He then went on to school in Bristol and then onto Oxford University where he read History.  I love that through writing these novels he gets to integrate his Cornish heritage and roots with his love of history and storytelling.

Last fall, he spent several weeks in Cornwall, exploring the sites and settings of his novel, such as the mines, manor homes, and pubs so that he could bring a real life quality to his writing and descriptions.  I had just completed walking the next section of my Celtic Camino walk in France, and timed it so that I could come over to England, meet my husband in London, and then come down to Cornwall to be with my father and stepmother.  While I was there, we visited Lanhydrock, a beautiful estate home south of Bodmin, Lostwithiel and Restormel Castle, Polperro as well as Liskeard, Wadebridge, and Polzeath on the north coast where my father had many of his summer holidays as a child.

He spent this winter re-writing and editing his novel, and including his hands on experiences of these places into his novel.  It should be done this summer, with a view to self publish it at first.  It's a great read, and very interesting and real.  You can hear the miner's deep Cornish accents in their conversations, the homes of the "viscounts" has come to life since the edited descriptions have been included, and best of all, you get an exciting, interesting, dramatic yet real experience of life in 18th century Cornwall.   His dream is for it to become a popular and much loved PBS mini-series, perhaps something like Downton Abbey!

Last October was my first visit to Cornwall in over 30 years.  I spent a little time there when I lived in England for a year back in 1981-82, when I visited my Great Auntie Hilda in Wadebridge, and went to Port Isaac with my dear friend, Diana.  While I knew that I wanted to spend my time in England more in the south where my families are from - Dad's family from Cornwall, and my mother's family from Somerset, I somehow forgot that was what I wanted, and ended up spending most of time in London and up in northwest England with my boyfriend's family.  As I look back, I have to accept that it was all good, and that if I had been ready and able to deeply reconnect with my roots and ancestors, I would have.   Perhaps it is something that I really need to long for and desire that is making it so important and essential for me to claim and own it for myself now.

No more giving it away.   No more grafting myself on to other's roots, dreams, ideas of who I should and can be.

I am going home to walk the sacred and ancient pilgrimage paths of Cornwall and southwest England to reconnect with my roots, my heritage, my ancestors, my people, my land.

I want to have my own deep roots, connected on one end to the core of the Earth through the land of my peoples and connected on the other end into my core.

I am rooted, connected, alive and nourished.  I know who I am.  I trust who I am.  I trust my Self.  I know when I am on my path, and when I am not.  I have the courage, awareness, and strength to know that right now, I am a pilgrim who walks to come home to herself.  

24 Days to England - Matter Matters

It’s not deep pockets that we need in order to manifest, but deep roots. It’s quite simple: The more grounded you are, the more easily you can manifest. Roots have both a masculine and feminine quality. On the masculine side, they penetrate the earth, pushing their way downward between rocks and soil. The feminine aspect of roots is receptive, drawing nourishment and moisture up from the earth to feed the plant. You must be able to do both— to hold your ground, deeply penetrating “what’s so” with your intention to create “what’s possible,” while also receiving support and nourishment from the world.  

- Anodea Judith PhD, ; Lion Goodman, Creating on Purpose (p. 211)

This is why I leave in 24 days to walk in England  - to connect with my deep roots.  I have lived my life and worked really hard to manifest, to act as if "matter matters", but it's like my container for holding and building is like a sieve.  It is filled with holes, so that all comes in leaks out without my fully receiving it and using it to create and manifest.  It feels like I don't actually get to the boiling point of full, complete manifestation.  The energy leaks out before I get to receive the joy of fully completing a project or intention, as though I don't know how to contain or fully receive it.

Today is my daughter's 19th birthday.  Funnily, enough she was born minutes ago - 5:19am - after an intense labor.  I had dilated quickly, but pushed for over 3 hours.  As I woke up this morning and reflected on being in labor, I remembered that I had pushed hard, yet very ineffectively for such a long time that I swelled up in a way that I didn't know was possible.  I could barely close my legs after my daughter was born.

Two aspects of this labor are relevant here.  One is that while I thought I was pushing hard, I was actually working really hard, yet avoiding the kind of pushing that would go deep under the pain and effectively push the baby out.  I worked really hard to avoid the intensity of bringing the baby down into the "ring of fire."  I was terrified of that level of sensation and pain.  I have created many ways to avoid intensity in my life.  How we do anything is how we do everything.  How I birth is how I live.  I would rather drag something on that go into the heart of the matter, get really intense, clear, focused and   committed.  Hmm.  Don't like seeing or revealing that one, at all.  So in this birth, I pushed for a really long time, got painfully swollen and also became very frustrated and felt powerless to push my baby out.  I didn't even know that I could do it another way.  I was doing it the way I knew how, at the time. I didn't even know that there was a place that I was avoiding, a place that I could choose to go.  In my following two births, I got to experience both being aware of this intense "ring of fire", and actually choosing to go there and go through it.

Synchronicity - today is a full solar eclipse, also referred to as the ring of fire.  I experience it as the point at which what wants to be birthed into experience stretches you to the maximum and transmutes you into a bigger, better, version of who you truly are.  It is the moment of transformation when the fire burns through all that no longer serves and creates a pathway to receive and allow the new.

The other aspect of this birth that was so revealing was that after my daughter's head was born, my body stopped pushing.  It was as though all the pushing I had done to get her this far was as far as I could go.  I had to go into "manual" pushing where I literally had to use my mind and will to push here out, with no assistance from my body.  My body quit, and it seemed like an eternity for her body to born.   Subsequently, because my uterus was no longer contracting, I hemorrhaged a lot of blood.  I just leaked out all of the energy from giving birth.  I could not contain it.  It felt as though my life force was just draining out of me.  It was.  My blood pressure went down to 50/0.  I was given drugs so that my uterus would contract and the bleeding would stop.  I was given several bags of saline.  The midwife painfully pinched the soles of my feet to keep me awake and in my body.   And I didn't really notice how drained I felt...I just felt warm and oozy.

I hemmorhaged on some level at each of my births.  I either bled out blood, or bled out energy, or bled out both.  With my first son, I bled out blood and some energy.  With my first daughter, I severely bled out both.  With my second son, I bled out energy and no blood.  With my second daughter, I bled out blood, but no energy.  

I had no container to hold the energy, or to receive the energy from giving birth.  Giving birth is a profound experience.  As birthing women, we get to experience the ancient wisdom and power of our bodies taking over and bringing a baby into this world.  We cannot think our ways through this experience.   We cannot give birth without our bodies, and allowing its wisdom to take over and be in charge of this process.  In this, we also get to experience the Divine and Sacred Feminine moving through us, using our bodies as a vehicle to bring in and birth life.  This is profoundly transformative.

Yet I could not contain or fully receive the energy, power and empowerment from these experiences.  I got to experience a taste of it, only to leak it  out of me, leaving me depleted on a deeply physical and energetic level.  I then didn't have this energy to use and transform myself into a powerful, creative, goddess woman and mother.  I was back in survival mode, using everything I had to take care of my baby, and children, and giving myself just enough to be able to do this.  

Had I been connected to my deep roots, not only would I have not leaked out and hemmorhaged this sacred birthing energy, I also would have had the energy to root even more deeply to fully receive this birthing, feminine energy and would/could been deeply nourished and transformed by its deep wisdom and power. My container would have become stronger, more polished and even more cauldron-like!  I would have believed in my capacity to bring to life and birth my dreams.  

Here I am today, 19 years after the birth of my first daughter, and nearly 12 years after the birth of my last child.  My children are amazing beings, each of them in their unique and beautiful way.  I am so honored and delighted to be their mother.   I firmly believe that my children are not of me, but that they chose to come through me.  

My dreams, longings, and soul's desires are of me, and through me.  Without me, they will not and cannot come through.

"What I desire, desires me"

It desires, and needs me to call it forth, and bring it forth into this world.   It is time. Enough avoiding the intensity, to power, the deep yearnings I feel inside of me.  Enough leaking out my power and my capacity and ability to manifest and create.  I am done with this.  Done.

I go to walk my path to connect with my tap root, to plug it back into the seat of my soul, to plug the leak, and to make my cauldron whole and complete again. 

The time is now for me to reclaim and reconnect with MY roots, my tap root.  I am so deeply desiring to manifest and create in this world, and contribute in a powerful, and meaningful way to the new world that is emerging.  I have to believe that my contribution is necessary and worthy, just as I believe that everyone's is, and to contribute my piece.

I have to be willing to walk my path, root myself, ground myself, contain myself so that I can build my capacity to receive, create, and contain, thereby increasing my ability to make solid and create form, speak my truth, claim for myself, and honor and birth what I truly, deeply long for and desire.  

Walk my Path ~ Weave my Dreams ~ Live MY Purpose.  

Solvitur Ambulando!*

*it is solved through walking

Walk. Embody. Transform.

I have been home from my last Camino, or Chemin in this case, for nearly 3 months - November, December and January.  These months have been full and busy with the holidays, and as January comes to a close this week, I am becoming aware of subtle shifts within me.  Who I am being and how I respond to certain situations and people is different than before.  Is walking the Celtic Camino, this profound pilgrimage of initiation actually contributing to real-life transformation and change within me?!

So, really then, what is changing? What has shifted? How am I different?

I have now completed the journey from Santiago, the first chakra of this journey, to Toulouse, the second chakra.  I began the journey in October of 2010, and completed it two years later in October 2012.   It is a long section of the Celtic Camino, approximately 1000 kilometers.  As I visualize this journey from the first to second chakra on my own body, it also feels like a long journey, from my perineum up and around to my belly, the foundation of core and the trunk of my body.  It also has felt the most weak, split open and unattended area of my body.

When I feel into my lower belly, it feels as though a zipper has been zipped up to my second chakra.  The split I have referred to in past blogs is healing.  What used to feel like a metal sieve - cold, holey, thin, weak, now feels like a warm pottery bowl.   As I write this, I have been holding my hands out in front of me, the tips of my fingers open and facing each other about 6 inches apart.  I then bring my hands and fingers together, and allow my fingers to slide in together.  My fingers naturally fit next to each other, and create a woven, seamless basket made out of my hands being brought together.  Can you imagine what I am describing?  This is what my lower belly feels like - a woven, seamless basket of lovingly held and cohered energy.  Even the basket, or the bowl feels warm, strong and solid in and of itself.  Both the container and the container feel strong, clear, and full of energy and love!

I do not remember ever feeling this before. It's a new experience for me.  I have something in me and of myself that feels different.  I have a base, a place from which to root myself that is about me.  That's it.  My sense of rootedness and belonging now belongs to me, within me.  It is no longer outside of myself.    All of my life  I have looked outside of myself, to my family, friends, school, society, to tell me who to be, how to be, what I want, how I should look...and I worked desperately hard at trying to do it all the way I thought I was supposed to.  Now, my compass can look within and actually have a place to point to!!  And, I can viscerally feel the difference.

I had been told years ago that I had no core, no sense of self.  I couldn't get it...what does that mean?  With no sense of self, I couldn't even understand what having no sense of self meant!  I was given homework to go for a walk by myself in nature 6 days a week for 45 minutes.  I am recognizing that even then, 24 years ago, walking was a huge part of my healing and coming home to myself.  I hadn't even put that together before.  Walking.  In nature.  With myself.  Wow.

Walking has always been in me.  When I was in my early 20's and living in England, I remember saying to myself that I wanted to walk the Devon/Cornwall coast when I was older and retired.  At that point, that meant in my 60's!  But it did mean that I was healthy, strong and vibrant enough - and able to walk - when I was "old"!!  Hehe!  Now, being older looks more like when I am in my 70's and 80's, but isn't it interesting that even then, the one dream I had for myself as an older person was to be able to walk this coastal path?

I have allowed these 3 months of being home to be a time of allowing and integration.  I have learned from past Caminos that it takes time to come home, and for the lessons and gifts of the journey to reveal themselves.  No rushing, no pushing here.  Reminds me of a paragraph from Gifts from the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

But it must not be sought for - heaven forbid! - dug for.  No, no dredging of the sea-bottom here.  That would defeat one's purpose.  The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith.  Patience, patience, patience,  is what the sea teaches.  One should lie empty, open, choiceness as a beach - waiting for a gift from the sea.

So, while waiting for my gifts from the path, I have been fully engaged in my life, with my family, my business, and open to guidance, clarity, and direction.  I have been writing, learning, listening, responding.  I have also been very, very clear about what I want.  I have been allowing and feeling my desires and longings.  I am no longer willing to put them aside and forget about them.  My desires have become my compass, and they are deeply rooted in who I am, what I want, and why I am here on this Earth, at this time, right now.  They are actually the source of my power and my willingness, capacity and ability to create a life a value, meaning and contribution.

What do I want?

I want to live in England.  I want to move back and forth between the US and the UK with grace and ease, and no jet lag!  I want to be paid to live in both countries, to put down roots in both countries, to create my life around both/and.  I was born in England, moved here when I was nearly 3, and have spent my life in the US.  But I feel deeply at home and connected to England.  I wanna go home!

This is my big, deep desire and everything else falls under this, is created out of this.  I see it like an umbrella, containing and giving shape, purpose and direction to everything else that I am about.  

There is something so powerful about allowing myself to truly, deeply want this, desire it, long for it.  In the past, I would want it, then forget about it, be talked out of it, and let it go.  How crazy, impractical, expensive is wanting to live in England. I mean, really.  Why would you want to live in England?  

Because my heart and soul long for it with every cell of my being.  I feel more at home in England than I do anywhere.  The second that I stepped on the soil of England back in 2009, I felt this wave of "at-homeness" wash over me.  I thought "this is crazy" - I'm in a train station in Kent.  My roots aren't even from around here. They're in Cornwall, Somerset and Northumberland...but I'll tell you, this feeling, sensation, experience of being at home was with me the entire time I spent in England that year.  Every moment, every step, every interaction, every shift of the gear with my left hand!!  I may sound American, but I deeply, cellularly English.

No wonder I have experienced a questioning of belonging and fitting in.   One of the gifts of these past 3 months has been to uncover in a very deep way the shadow side of my needing and wanting to belong, and how it has shaped and informed many of my choices and decisions.  Becoming aware of this had actually freed me up from its grip.  And today, I choose to belong to myself, and to be anchored and guided by my desires and longings.

Because this is what I've learned - what we desire, desires us.  Our desires are the yellow arrows of the Camino, directing and guiding us along our life's path.  It is listening to and honoring these arrows of desire that actually point us clearly in the direction of our soul's purpose, the reason we are here and how we most clearly offer and share our gifts, and be of service to this beautiful planet and her people.  It's all right here, in us, in our hearts and souls.  We just have to listen, honor and allow them to be.  Because they will direct and guide us.  They do show us the way, step by step.

I now belong to my Self.  I have come home to myself, and am deeply rooted in my connection to Source, Spirit.  It's not about England or America.  It's not even about my family of origin, or my family by design.  It's about me, and from this core of belonging to me, I no longer have to prove, defend, explain or enroll.  I live my life in alignment with the yellow arrows of my heart and soul, and from this, I am the kind, caring, loving and compassionate person I've always longed to be.  I am at peace within myself, and so am at peace with the world around me.

I knew that longing was somehow transforming my relationship to belonging.  The word "longing" is even inside of "belonging." And then I saw a quote from Tara Brach in Radical Acceptance:

Longing, felt fully, carries us to belonging. 

As I continue to bring full circle the gifts, lesson, invitations, and healing of the pilgrimage of initiation from the first chakra at Santiago to the second chakra at Toulouse, I recognize that it has been a nearly 4 year journey to come home to myself and my desires and longings, to belong to myself.  This is my core.  This is the essence of who I truly am.  And it is from this core, rooted in my feet, my first chakra and my heart, that my life can then spiral out from a deep connection to what is real, true and loving, and how I can most generously, sustainably and authentically be of service and contribution.  It is the paradox of when I am most connected to myself that I can be of the highest service to others.  And as Carolyn Myss says, when "paradox is present, so is the Divine." 

Suseya!

Initiation

Arrived last night after our 4th day of walking from St. Jean Pied de Port. In beginning our pilgrimage in St. Jean and walking east to Toulouse, we actually walked the most difficult 4 days at the very beginning. The Pyrenees have been to our right as we walked a total of about 80 kilometers in distance and through woods, corn fields, farms, villages and towns, and up and over many steep foothills and down into valleys carved out by creeks and rivers.


We have met many vaches (cows), and brebis (sheep) and many wonderful, warm and welcoming local people, yet have encountered only two pilgrims after we left Mauleon, a young retired couple from Ontario whose were originally from Quebec. Even I could tell that their French was different, yet a natural language for them. They were on their way to St. Jean from Toulouse - having walked the path from our destination. Interesting timing of our paths crossing, given that we were wondering if we were actually going to Toulouse at that point, or were perhaps considering another destination of Conques, for its homage to Sainte Foy.

One of my experiences of the Camino, or le Chemin, and perhaps most simply, the path, is that the "path guides and provides every step of the way." This couple from France reminded me that my journey is to Toulouse, despite temptations to go elsewhere! Yet what I also know is that Conques will be on the way from Toulouse to Orleans...She has made that clear!

I already have a major blister on my right pinky toe that I am taking good care of. Just yesterday, I noticed that my legs started to reveal symptoms of "walker's legs" - a rash on my calves, swelling, intense tenderness in my feet. I thought I was just tired and out of walking shape. I did not prepare for this pilgrimage like I have for the others, either with the distance I walked or the weight I carried. I allowed my busy life to dictate my daily activities, rather than center my life around my daily walks. I should know better...walk first, and then else falls into place and alignment...with joy and ease.

We walked into town last night around 6:00, and then walked around town, which here means going up and down many steep hills into the different sections of town, until after 7pm looking for a hotel. There were many "manifestations" happening here last night, but our "Oloron Ange" helped up to find a sweet room with two windows at l'Hotel de France, across from la gare, the train station. He was worried that it would not be nice, as it was only 40 euros (my euro symbol does not work on this portable keyboard), but it is quite fine, and the older woman who owns and runs the hotel is lovely. SHe actually has a scarab on her necklace - I am longing to ask her about it!

Last night I think both Beebe and I were ready to call it complete. My feet hurt so badly, my legs were so tired and I couldn't remember why I was even doing this! Beebe too was questioning whether or not to continue. After a hot shower and delicious dinner, I knew that no matter what that I must walk this journey - by myself, with or without Beebe. I had felt concerns coming up over the past couple of days about walking this by myself and didn't know why I was having them. Now I understand...this is a journey that I must take. It is my soul's journey.

Ultimately I am walking from the first chakra of Santiago, up through all seven chakras to Rosslyn. I walked from Santiago to St. Jean 2 years ago - basically, I have been in between the first and second chakras for the past two years, and yes, this is what has been reflected in my life through my challenges, choices and processes.

I have now embarked on the journey to Toulouse, the second chakra, and quite honestly, I am not surprised that this has been the journey it has been so far for me! This is a challenging chakra for me - relationship with creativity, sexuality, finances, pleasure - and so no wonder, I want to get off and just have it come easy. I don't want it to be hard, grueling or challenging. I just want it!

To begin this journey with the hardest and steepest challenges is perfect. My commitment and will were being tested...how committed are you to receiving the gifts and beauty of this powerful and beautiful chakra? How willing am I to receive, period?

HOW WILLING AM I TO RECEIVE?

As I type these words, they seem to be the gift of this journey, and the question of the initiation...these past 4 days were the initiation, just like O Cebreiro was on my first Camino in 2009. My first day was up this strenuous and beautiful mountain. For most pilgrims who walk to Santiago from St. Jean, the Pyrenees are their initiation. One of the qualities of a true pilgrimage is the "initiation". While we do not know exactly what form it will take or how it will look, we can open ourselves up to receive it and give thanks for its presence, for its gift is the blessing of the pilgrimage itself.

I am so blessed and grateful to be on this pilgrimage of the second chakra.

Thank you.

Suseya!

Sarah,what do you do?

I was asked this question yesterday. Today, as I took a lovely walk in the rain,I found myself stating out loud the answer to the question.

I answered, "I weave women's pelvic/belly wisdom into sacred circle, sacred pilgrimage and sacred commerce. I co-create with women in sacred circles to embrace our worth. I walk with women in sacred pilgrimage to embelly our wisdom. I work with women in sacred commerce to own our wealth.

Together, we embody the divine Feminine, become WEALTHY* women, and transform ourselves and heal the world.
*
Wise
Evolutionary
Abundant and authentic
Loving
Truthful, team player
Heart-centered and healthy
Yourself

Pilgrim of the Sacred and the Wealth Path...part 2.

And then, of course, there is also the other journey, that of the WEALTHY** Woman Enterprises and in particular, the WEALTHY Woman Pilgrimage.  This is the WEALTH path.  This is the journey I have embarked on to on to claim, cultivate, and embody my relationship with wealth, finances, and money.  This is the path where I have to deal with the mundane, the practical, the financial, money - this is the path I had avoided, and had hoped that I could continue to avoid for as long as possible.

Yet, as much as I have tried to avoid, my soul pulls be back to this path.  I am called to claim and embody my WEALTHY woman with the same force and intensity as I am called to the Camino.   The path to claim WEALTH is actually as deeply a spiritual path, if not more so, than the Celtic Camino.  Even as I type that, I know that truthfully, actually, for me, they cannot be separated.  They are reflections of each other, and cannot exist without the other.  As I walk one, I walk the other...they work in tandem, each reinforcing and informing the other.  They are like two sides of the same coin...it is not even an issue of either/or...it only can be both/and.

In fact, I was invited into WOW ~ Women Owning Wealth, as I was preparing to leave on the first leg of the Celtic Camino.  Synchronicity?!  Of course.  While I walked, I questioned Spirit every day about why this path, why this vehicle, why me?  And every day, I worked to understand, to surrender to this path.  I drank Body Balance, the product I would be sharing every day, and as I shook it in my water bottle, I demanded big answers.  All I got was "Drink your Body Balance."   It wasn't until I returned home, and realized how great I felt that I was willing to dive into my business.  And even then it took me a little while to get why this business, this model of doing business, this community, this company - are the sides of the river, the structures and the support for my pilgrimage. (Truthfully, I am still "getting it"!)

My business, exists within this collective called WOW - Women Owning Wealth.  My success and growth, both personally and professionally, is really because I am an intricate part of this amazing community of vibrant, lit up, pleasure-loving beings who believe that a planet full of healthy, alive,  nutritionally sourced, and spiritually supported human beings is what we all need!

In WOW, we practice Sacred Commerce.  In other words, we work together as a community, with our businesses supporting and contributing to each other in powerful ways.  We work inside of a common agreement that everything we do is sacred, an offering to ourselves and each other, and in deep service of the awakening of the planet.  We are partnered with Life Force International, an impeccable, family-owned company that was born out of love, integrity, and a commitment to service.

Life Force manufactures Body Balance, a 100% raw, organic, whole food liquid product made of a blend of 9 seaweeds and aloe vera juice.  Body Balance is ecstasy for the cells, an elixir for the spirit, and an activator of the body’s natural, healthy state.  It is like drinking chi every morning by giving your body the most potent nutritional support there is! And the most beautiful thing about it is that it is just FOOD.  So we source the body the way it was designed to be sourced--with highly absorbable, nutrient dense food.  In WOW, we also claim that Body Balance is "nourishment for spiritual transformation."

So how is my journey with WOW and Life Force related to the Celtic Camino pilgrimage? 

This company chose to market their products using the direct (or network) marketing model, so that people could be generously compensated for sharing a product that they love. Out of the Life Force compensation plan emerges the rank attainments, or milestones that reflect the destinations of the WEALTHY Woman Pilgrimage.  They are labeled with names of the precious metals - Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum, and then as one progresses along the journey, one steps into Diamond, 1-Star Diamond, 2-Star Diamond, 3-Star Diamond, Crown Diamond, and ultimately, Royal Crown Diamond.


In the past year, I walked quickly through Bronze, Silver, and Gold into Platinum.  I compare these rank attainments to Santiago, Leon, Burgos, and Ste. Jean Pied de Port.  Going Bronze felt similar to arriving in Santiago.  This was my initial demonstration of getting on the path and committing to the Pilgrimage.  Walking through Silver and Gold was like walking and arriving in Leon and Burgos, beautiful cities along the Camino with stunning cathedrals of their own.  Wonderful places to visit, rest for a day or two and appreciate the beauty, but not a destination in and of themselves.  Ste. Jean Pied de Port is a little town just inside of France in the foothills of the Pyrenees.  For most pilgrims who walk to Santiago, this is where they embark on their 800 kilometer to Santiago.   As I am walking "al contrairio" or the other way up through France to Scotland, this was a destination in the middle of the first leg.  To walk to Ste. Jean, I had to walk up and over the Pyrenees.  The day I walked over was a very windy, dark, and challenging day. The wind would literally blow me off the path, unless I anchored down and held my ground...just like going Platinum!  And just like I have been hanging out at Platinum since last June, I feel like I have been hanging out between Santiago and Toulouse in Ste. Jean Pied de Port for the past 16 months, wanting to walk on, yet waiting to claim the next leg of the journey to Toulouse. 


It is a journey for me, and I believe many of us, to truly claim and own our WEALTH.  We have been taught to split our spirituality from money, wealth, the material.  One aspect of this journey to heal the split between these two realms, and recognize that they too are two sides of the same coin.  Also, I believe that most women have been taught to separate from their divine feminine strength, wisdom and power.  This is a journey to reclaim all of this.

This is a journey of initiation and embodiment.  I walk to initiate the lessons and healing of the particular chakra, and then I return home to live into those lessons and embody the transformation. As I heal, transform and grow, I then attract the lessons and experiences which reflect the next chakra.  Sometimes the Camino comes first. Other times the WEALTHY Woman pilgrimage is first. Right now I am being called into the second chakra through my experiences of the WEALTHY Woman pilgrimage.  I am also being called back to walk the comparable leg of the Celtic Camino, from Ste. Jean to Toulouse.  Even this week as I have been writing this entry, I had a conversation with a fellow peregrina, or perhaps I should say "pelerina", to explore the possibility to walk together next fall!!

As I wrote above, I walk with one foot on each path, and I cannot walk one without the other.  They are seemingly parallel, but at their core, they are deeply connected and intertwined rooted in the teaching that WE ARE ALL ONE.

Suseya,
Sarah 



(**I capitalize WEALTH because I see WEALTH as an acronym.  Wealth can trigger a lot of reactions in people, just like money can.  From my core, I believe that wealth is a powerful concept that when we expand our understanding of what it truly is, it can become one of the cornerstones in our foundations.

A WEALTHY Woman is:

Wise and intuitive

Evolutionary, Embodied

Abundant and Authentic

Loving and Luminous Leader

Trusting and Truthful; Team player

Healthy and Heart-Centered

YourSelf with outrageous and total acceptance.)

Pilgrim of the Sacred and the Wealth Path...part 1.

I am on a journey, one foot is in the sacred world on the path of the Celtic Camino, a sacred pilgrimage from Santiago up through France to Rosslyn, Scotland; the other foot is in the practical world of the WEALTHY Woman Pilgrimage to claim, cultivate, and own my wealth.

I used to think that they were parallel paths, but have now realized that they are intricately interwoven, like the strands of DNA. These paths embrace and entwine each other to create a beautiful chord that connect us from our root to our divinity, and serves as the bridge between the spiritual and material worlds.

Each of these pilgrimages is a path, with a destination, goals and layovers along the way, as well as a road map with guides, arrows, directions and support along the way. Just like on the Camino, everything you need is on the path. You just need to ask, be open and receptive, and allow yourself to receive the guidance, direction and support.

As I've written before, the Celtic Camino follows a sacred configuration 0f seven pre-Christian sites from Santiago de Compostela, Spain, up through France to Rosslyn, Scotland. This sacred configuration forms the route of a “pilgrimage of initiation” used by the Druids and Christian mystics in their search for true knowledge and enlightenment. These 7 sacred sites actually correspond to the 7 chakras of the human body, the first or root chakra being Santiago and the 7th crown chakra being Rosslyn.

It seems that I live into the issues of the chakra before going on the related leg of the journey.  When I return home, I simultaneously complete and heal the chakra, as I move into the issues of the next chakra.

So, I walked from Santiago to Ste. Jean Pied de Port in the autumn of 2010.  In essence, I have walked from the first chakra part of the way to the second chakra, located in Toulouse, France.  Since returning home in November 2010, I have been completing the issues, challenges and lessons of first chakra issues, and in turn, living into the issues of the second chakra.

In Carolyn Myss's words,

The second chakra is your center of personal power, creativity, sexuality, and finances.  Issues of physical survival, control, and one-on-one relationships are at the core of this energy center...The Sacred Truth (of the second chakra is) "Honor One Another."  Every relationship you develop, from casual to intimate, helps you become more conscious.  No union is without spiritual value."

So what I have been doing these past 16 months?  I have started my own business, WEALTHY Woman Enterprises, and have been growing it steadily over the past year.  I have surrendered to my marriage.  I have been doing deep pelvic floor and bowl massage and healing, both physically and emotionally.   I am part of a beautiful circle of women who are exploring our "wild feminine" together through the book of the same name.  These are the big reflections of the past year.  There are many small reflections of the second chakra journey as well.  Together, they are a profound reflection of my issues and challenges with my personal power, creativity, sexuality and finances, and how I show up in my relationships, whether with my husband, Steve, my mother, my finances and business, and most importantly, with myself.

Next time...my WEALTHY Woman Pilgrimage as the other reflection of the "pilgrimage of initiation"...