The Priestess Life
It may seem exotic to contemplate stepping onto the path of the Priestess. The word itself conjures up a long-forgotten time when women held the most holy role in society of serving as spiritual leaders, as conduits between the human and divine realms. History is replete with examples of cultures with Temples run by high priestesses. But it seems in our time of forgetting, the role of the feminine in all levels of spiritual pursuit got lost.
Fortunately, we are seeing a resurgence of female leadership as many main-stream Christian denominations are now ordaining women. But we have yet to reclaim the title “priestess,” opting instead for “female priest” or the neutral terms “celebrant” or “spiritual leader.” It’s curious isn’t it, how we resist this word.
I resisted it for a long time. Just like I resisted the word witch. Now I have no problem with either word. What changed? I allowed myself to reclaim these words by shifting these two things:
First, I let go of the childhood fears of anything that smacked of “occult” instilled in me by my Catholic upbringing. This wasn’t easy. I had to face the fears head on and see if there was anything real there. I discovered a sort of reflexive response to all sorts of symbols and words. But as I researched the meanings of those symbols (moons, circles, spirals, serpents, cauldrons, pentagrams, etc.) I discovered a world connected to the divine feminine. These symbols were echoing the womb chamber, the cycles of life, the movement of stars, and the rhythms of the moon. They were all related to womanhood and I had been taught to fear it, and even worse, think of it as evil. I was being asked to fear and reject myself. Once I saw that, I could not unsee it. I revoked my consent to participate in any religious or cultural tradition that purposefully obscured the meaning of the symbols and sought to cast them as evil.
Second, I began to have mystical experiences where I was in direct contact with what I can only call The Divine, the Mystery, The All That There Is. Eventually I began sharing the metaphysical understandings I was having and supporting women on their own quest for and with The Divine. In having these experiences, I realized that I did not need to enroll in and graduate from seminary to serve as a guide for others and be an emissary of the Divine on Earth. None of us do. Oddly enough, I did eventually pursue a doctorate in Transformational Psychology and a Graduate Seminary and was ordained as a Reverend Doctor. But my truest sense of my place as a priestess does not come from the title that work conferred upon it. It comes from my regular interaction with the unseen realms.
Any of us can walk this path and find ourselves claiming, or re-claiming, our role as a spiritual leader. It begins by leading ourselves first. There are a few guideposts to watch for along the way.
You begin to create space in your day to commune directly with the Divine. This communion is not based on petitioning prayer only, but also includes listening for guidance.
You develop the discipline of following that guidance, even when it can seem illogical to do so.
You have confirmative experiences and synchronicities that let you know you are on the right path
You feel called to share your experiences with others and the feedback you receive after sharing confirms that it has universal value and is helpful to others
You find yourself feeling increased levels of relaxation and confidence and decreased levels of fear or a desire to control
You notice you move more slowly and intentionally throughout your day, and at the same time things seem to manifest more quickly in your life.
You find yourself unwilling to sacrifice your spiritual practice time even if the outside world is pressuring you to do so.
You begin following your intuition like a breadcrumb trail that leads you to new teachers, books, classes and other resources to help you deepen your own practice.
You have intense or vivid dreams, visions, or what seem like past life remembrances that give you detailed information about spiritual practices.
You find yourself guided to use crystals, oils, divination tools, card decks, etc. to support your growing connection to your intuition and guidance.
Wherever you are in your journey to reclaim and embody the priestess archetype, stay the course. It is worth it. It will lead you to a beautiful and authentic life that moves from the inside out – one intimately connected to the unseen realms of the Divine.
Rima shares her most vulnerable peak into her own reclaiming of the title “Priestess of Isis” in the raw 3-part transmission called: The Egypt Alchemy Codes recorded upon her return from Egypt in March 2020.