Our earth is calling on us to rise up, to be active, to do our part in making the world a better place. Perhaps our world has always asked this of us, but the call to serve seems more dire and poignant these days.
When we think of activism, we tend to think of the extroverted forms of direct political activism: picketing, protesting, writing and signing letters. These are excellent ways to serve, and I’m in awe of people who use their lives – especially those with a large platform – in this way.
But there are many ways to serve, and for those of us who aren’t called to the path of extroverted activism, we must find and validate the more subtle and less obvious ways that we contribute to the world’s healing. We must recognize the ways in which art, poetry, and inner work help heal the world. We must recognize that following one’s passion, even if it doesn’t seem to directly impact the planet, is a form of service. The comedians who keep us laughing, the magicians who spark amazement, the writers who help us make sense of our lives… these are essential forms of activism.
Inner work is also activism, especially when our private healing allows us to serve in more outward ways. When we think about Buddhist practitioners like the Dalai Lama or Thich Nhat Hanh we see that a devoted meditation practice invariably leads to more traditional activism for when we arrive at the inner heart of compassion we have no choice but to do everything we can to bring more compassion to the world. We do healing work not to stay stuck in our healing work but to eventually free up space to serve in the ways we can serve, which ultimately means bringing more love and joy to our world as friends, partners, parents, and through whatever work vessel we’ve chosen or landed in.
There is a sub-category of activism that receives less public attention, what Francis Weller calls “sacred activism”. When we learn how to have a relationship with grief, when we learn how to wrestle with fear and choose love, when we learn how to trust ourselves so that we can bring ourselves into the world we are engaging in sacred activism. This is much of what I teach through my work.
As Weller writes in The Wild Edge of Sorrow:
“It is grief, our sorrow that wets the hardened places within us, allowing them to open again and freeing us to once again feel our kinship with the world. This is deep activism, soul activism that actually encourages us to connect with the tears of the world. Grief is capable of keeping the edges of the heart pliable, flexible, fluid and open to the world and as such becomes a potent support for any form of activism we may intend to take.”
Along these lines, anything that opens our hearts and bodies, reduces shame, and realigns us with our birthright of creativity and aliveness is sacred activism. I include sacred sexuality in this category. Here’s why:
We have a tragically myopic view of sexuality in our culture. We think it’s about being naked and going through certain motions or techniques with another human being. As I’ve shared in many posts, we’re narrowly conditioned to think it’s about intercourse and orgasms. This isn’t true! Sacred sexuality is about reconnecting with the aliveness and creativity that simmer in the core of your being. It’s about shining the gems that may have gone dormant or dusty from growing up in a culture that seeks to dampen your fire and quell the sparks that are rightfully yours.
It’s no secret that the dominant patriarchal model has been threatened by women’s power for thousands of years (it’s part of the reason why we’re in the global the mess we’re in). The patriarchy – and this isn’t about gender; it’s a model that we’re all operating under – conditions us to tamp down not only on our true sexuality (not the image-based, pornographic kind) but also on our innate desire for LIFE. It squelches creativity and expects us to live under a pall of mediocrity.
We are meant for so much more than this.
That’s why reclaiming your sexuality and sensuality, your aliveness and creativity, is part of reclaiming your power. And in this sense, it’s an act of rebellion and activism, for every time a woman rises up and says, “I am here and I deserve to be here with my entire being. I am alive and on fire! I create and I love fully. My body in every shape and form is a gorgeous miracle” – every time a woman steps into the fullness of her being and refuses to play it small, every time she reestablishes her birthright relationship with the Great Mother and the divine feminine, tapping into the energy current that pulses through her veins which is the same as the one that curves hills into hips and rounds her belly into moon, she takes back what has been stolen from her.
When you reclaim what is yours you are contributing to the turning of the tide, the wave we’re in right now that says, “The feminine in all genders will no longer stay silent. The feminine is here to roar and sing and create and speak and it will not back down.”
You are a part of this wave, and when you take the steps that help you reclaim your sexuality and aliveness, you contribute to the healing of the whole.
You were born to shine.
You were born to shimmer and dance and shimmy and be in love with your sacred, magnificent body.
You were born to soar to great heights, to express the gems that live in your womb, to cherish your blood and reestablish your relationship with the moon, who carries one secret to your desire and aliveness.
There is a roadmap that can help you reclaim this fire and aliveness, that can guide you gently into the forgotten and shame-ridden regions, that can help you re-spark the flint that longs to dance you into ecstasy. And I’m not only referring to sexual ecstasy here but also the ecstasy that stems from the joy of being fully in your body and alighting your inner fire, the one that reminds you of your creative gifts and your birthright for being here. The one radiates your voice in full song. This is the roadmap I teach in my Sacred Sexuality course, which starts live on January 9, 2021. I look forward to meeting you there.
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Call 2: Thursday January 21 at 1:15pm ET
Call 3: Thursday January 28 at 3:30pm ET
