Working with the Divine Feminine

Have you ever wondered how we’ll ever have peace, freedom, justice, SAFETY and equality when half the population has been systematically erased from what most people in this society consider divine?Since hearing from much younger women that the Divine Feminine – such a healing force in my own trauma recovery and life these last 30+ years – has been co-opted to be used against women as “Divine femininity”, this episode shares some self-care, Self care and collective care ideas for people of ALL genders to experiment with.There are SO many Goddess archetypes, from around the world, that have helped me with my trauma recovery and for the graphics for this episode, I chose (to honour my Indian Irish roots):· Kali who reminds me of Divine Detox. Letting go. Diving deeper into life’s crashing waves instead of arguing with reality. Her tongue sticks out to represent her catching drops of blood and absorbing evil in order to transform and heal.· A photo I took at Uisneach of Eiru (for whom Eire, Ireland, was named).· The Greek Goddess archetypes were the first I came across and I adored Persephone’s transformation from traumatised into Queen of the Night and a guide for others. As I’ve learned more over the decades, her mother, Demeter, who fought for her freedom, represents our need to heal in connection. To coregulate.· and a Cosmic Egg with some hopeful looking sperm.With all that’s going on in the world, it’s always worth remembering that none of us choose or do anything to deserve who we happen to be born to, wear, what gender, etc etc etc.We’re all connected. And by connecting to the Divinity (as well as humanity!) in ourselves and others, we can hopefully find more compassion and give ourselves and others more grace.Le grá (with love),EveIf you’re a trauma survivor and AuDHDer like me, or you simply find self-care more of a “should” than a joy, this podcast is for you.I’m Eve Menezes Cunningham, a trauma therapist, AuDHD and self-care coach, senior accredited supervisor, columnist and author of 365 Ways to Feel Better: Self-Care Ideas for Embodied Wellbeing.Each Tuesday I share a mix of solo episodes and conversations with other self-care professionals. From other therapists, coaches, yoga teachers and authors to neuroscientists and medical professionals, many of them neurodivergent themselves and all honest enough to share the gap between their own ideal and their ACTUAL self-care.Find Soles to Soul Care for Trauma and AuDHD with Eve Menezes Cunningham every Tuesday on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, Substack, and wherever you get your podcasts.Learn to love and care for all your parts, from the soles of your feet to your soul.And for bonus content, polyvagal-informed journal prompts and more, sign up for my free newsletter, Míle Buíochas Mondays, plus 100s of free body mind practices, at solestosoul.ieLINKShttps://www.livescience.com/health/fertility-pregnancy-birth/the-choice-of-sperm-is-entirely-up-to-the-egg-so-why-does-the-myth-of-racing-sperm-persistFree Downloads https://solestosoul.ie/free-downloadsPolyvagal Purrs https://solestosoul.ie/felineMeggan Watterson https://www.instagram.com/megganwatterson/Jean Shinoda Bolenhttps://www.jeanbolen.com/Sally Kemptonhttps://www.sallykempton.com/Moon Mnáhttps://moonmna.ie/Laura Dowlinghttps://lauradowlingofficial.com/Dr Karen Wardhttps://drkarenwardtherapist.ie/Clodgah O’Connorhttp://clodaghoconnor.com/Chapters0:00 Systemic oppression and the red thread0:42 Podcast introduction and rebrand1:44 Introducing the Divine Feminine2:56 How Divine Femininity has been hijacked4:53 Reclaiming balance and receptive energy5:42 Personal journey with the Divine Feminine7:33 Erasure of women in spiritual history8:25 The red thread and reconnecting inward9:42 Polyvagal theory and empowerment10:06 Feel. Love. Heal. framework overview10:36 Feel: exploring your relationship with the Divine Feminine13:00 Love: healing, acceptance and reclaiming power15:20 Heal: connection, circles and co-regulation16:33 Closing reflection and inner connectionFULL TRANSCRIPTTo recognise that it is systemic oppression, I got a little thread, a little red thread tattoo a few weeks ago after I had gum surgery and found out I couldn’t swim for an extra week or so, so it’s just my little reminder about that thread that connects us back thousands and thousands of years and that divine love is within all of us, all our genders, like whatever gender we are and that women, we just need to go inwardHi, you’re listening to Soles to Soul Care for Trauma and AuDHD. Learn to love and care for all your parts, including your trauma and AuDHD, from the soles of your feet to your soul. So this was previously the Feel Better Every Day Podcast.I hope you’re enjoying exploring the rebranded site solestosoul.ie, accessing all the free resources at www.solestosoul.ie/free-downloads - finding out how you might work with me.I’m Eve Menezes-Cunningham, I’m your host, I’m a columnist, author, podcast host and producer. I’m a trauma therapist, trauma survivor, AuDHD-er and AuDHD coach and self-care coach, where I integrate all of my offerings from psychosynthesis counselling to crystal therapy, including NLP, EFT, integrative counselling and coaching.I’m forgetting something quite major, life coaching. Let me know if you’ve got any questions and as you listen to today’s episode, I hope that you’ll connect with how you’re feeling.We’re working with Divine Feminine, not Divine Femininity. I recently became aware from some younger women that the Divine Feminine, which I’ve been working with for decades, and increasingly more and more of us are, after thousands and thousands of years of patriarchy and being left out. I was apparently, when I was a small child, when we moved from London to Essex, I asked the priest when I was four, why were there no women priests? And I think because my name is Eve, I took the Bible very to heart. I was raised Catholic and the recognition that women and minorities were systematically erased, that Christianity, Christ consciousness was all about equality and love for all and peace and the way it’s been so hijacked.But that’s not what this is about. Divine Femininity has been hijacked. I came across fairly recently, the idea of the egg and the cosmic egg as Meggan Watterson talks about.And the idea is that it’s this ultimate, kind of in her beautiful card, the Divine Feminine Oracle. The cosmic egg made me think of something I heard through Kate Northrup. So her mother, Christiane Northrup, Dr. Christiane Northrup, did amazing work around wisdom of menopause a long, long time ago, decades ago.And she, Oprah helped her popularise it. Unfortunately, she’s gone quite conspiracy theorist. But one thing that I really remember loving what I heard, we grow up in this patriarchal society, sex education, it’s very much the sperm, the strongest and impregnates and all of that.Whereas apparently, the egg chooses the sperm. And that was my alarm. I’ve got a client in a few minutes.I’m going to just start this again when I have more time. No, I’m not. It’s all good.So it’s very much the language we grew up in with this white supremacist patriarchal society is all about the man, all about the sperm, all about the like the strongest sperm, like impregnates, like kind of fertilises the egg, whereas apparently, the egg chooses the sperm.[There’s a link in the show notes about how this keeps being discovered by scientists, forgotten and rediscovered – much like the Divine Feminine]So where I heard about how Divine Femininity, femininity was being used against women, the idea of being very passive, being very receptive in a way of being very submissive, like we all have masculine energy, we all have feminine energy. And the more imbalanced we are, the more we’re using all of it, the more joyful and lovely our lives are.But if it’s being used against people but at the same time, many women, myself included, have to work on recreating that more receptive egg energy, where we’re able to receive good things where we’re able to not be do.Like for a long time, it was like women can be everything that men can be. And it’s that women end up then typically doing all the things we can step back, we can just be. My introduction to working with the Divine Feminine really helped saved my life in my 20s, my early 20s.So initially reading people like Jean Shinoda Bolen, Goddesses in Everywoman, where she talked about the Greek goddess archetypes. And then Awakening Shakti, Sally Kempton, I was kind of reconnecting with my Indian heritage. I’m Indian Irish, born in London, sound English, look white.But it was lovely learning more about I’m looking up at my bookshelf there. And in case you can see, that’s not a very good way to show you. But that was really gorgeous learning more...