There is a Goddess that lives inside each and every woman.
In some women, the Goddess is obscured by thick, heavy clouds of fear.
Posture is weighted, cramped and hunched. Skin is pale. Eyes dart.
In other women, the Goddess has been laquered over with a mask of perfection.
Glitz, glamour and gloss strut their stuff, leaving no time nor room for the sensual, knowing, easy delight of a Goddess.
Then there are those women who fear for the safety of their Goddess in this (apparently) male-dominated violent world.
These Goddesses are hidden away beneath armour – armour of body, armour of intellect, armour of emotions.
I see all of these women. They are all of us, and they are none of us.
They are the masks we assume in order to feel safe in this world, not knowing that to feel unsafe is to be alive.
To feel unsafe is to learn to live fearlessly.
They are the masks we wear because we believe that if we don’t assume a mask then no-one will love us.
A mask of perfection. A mask of expectation. A mask of wannabe. A mask of should be.
They are the masks we wear because we tried them on for size once upon a time and have worn them for so long we have forgotten that these masks of ours are not who we are.
Our masks are not Us.
And we are not them.
Have you ever seen a Goddess?
I do – all the time. I see flashes in other women.
And many of our greatest female entertainers show aspects of their Goddess Selves, even while clinging tightly to their masks in other aspects of their lives.
I see Goddesses in my yoga classes all the time too.
At first, shy, hidden, forgotten, doubting.
But as the yoga begins to work it’s magic, the Goddesses come out to play.
And play we do.
Headstands and handstands.
Prana flow and prana yama.
Music and mantra.
Bandha and asana.
Twisting and turning, opening and lengthening, building and strengthening.
In the concentration and exhilaration of a yoga class, the masks are forgotten and discarded.
Cast aside as fears of not being enough or fears of being too much are left behind in the joy of the moment.
In the joy of being.
Of being… who we truly are.
And every time we cast aside our masks.
Every time we dare bring our Goddesses out to play.
She grows a little stronger within us, and We grow stronger within her.
Moving always towards Union.
Towards Yoga.
Towards the Goddesses we truly are.
And as we yogis connect with and unmask our inner Goddess.
We begin to see the Goddesses in the women around us.
The checkout chick at the supermarket.
The bus driver on our morning commute.
The barista who makes our morning coffee.
We smile at their Goddess, and she smiles back at us.
Another light seen, another Goddess who wants to come out and play.
The world is full of Goddesses.
If only we dared let them out.
If only we dared.
Jai Ma – Shine on sistas!