Embodying the Goddess: Reclaiming the Body & Dismantling Spiritual Bypassing Ft. Cynthia Abulafia

What happens when spirituality teaches you to transcend your body but doesn't teach you how to return to it?In this episode, Eileen sits down with Cynthia Abulafia, author, educator, yoga therapist, and longtime student of the goddess traditions of Tantra. Cynthia's debut book Embodying the Goddess challenges what she calls the transcendence bias of patriarchal spirituality: the pervasive idea that the body, emotions, and sensory experience are somehow less sacred than stillness, silence, and transcendence. What she offers instead is a path of radical integration. Climbing the ladder both up into transcendence and back down into form.This conversation goes deep, fast. From Kundalini awakening to the bargains we make with our own hearts, from the exploitation hiding inside Neo-Tantra to the surprising power of devotion in a post-religious world, this is one to sit with.In this episode:* The "transcendence bias", why so many spiritual traditions teach us to leave the body rather than inhabit it* What Kundalini awakening actually is, and what a spiritual crisis can teach us* The goddess traditions of Tantra and why most of their sacred texts still aren't translated or publicly available* What the divine feminine is not, and how Cynthia defines it (hint: it's about the capacity to hold opposites)* "Bargaining the heart", the invisible contracts we make without knowing it, and how finishing the sentence "I will be happy when..." is the key* Why 25% of Westerners now identify as spiritual but not religious and what we've thrown out with the bathwater* Curiosity as a spiritual practice, a political act, and a path back into connection* The Celtic thread: how the goddess tradition in Irish mythology shows a radically different relationship between sovereignty and the land"Notice what you notice. Honestly, that's the whole teaching." — Cynthia AbulafiaVisit Cynthia's websiteConnect with Cynthia on InstagramJoin me for the next Wheel of the Year CeremonySubscribe to Eileen on SubstackTake the Which Witch Are You QuizOrder Awaken to the Magic Connect with Eileen on InstagramFollow Eileen on Insight TimerSend Eileen an email