Lady Olivia's Visit

The Temple of Isis/Los Angeles
and the local Iseums/Lyceums of The Fellowship of Isis
are celebrating the 2007 visit to Southern California
(and the 90th Birthday)
of
Olivia Robertson, FOI co-founder

Join us in Celebration
Saturday, September 29th 2007, 11AM
in a
Blessings of the Goddesses Ritual
at the
Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach
5450 Atherton, Long Beach CA 90815

Bring a small gift of Celebration to exchange
(Flower, Stone, Shell, Candle, Apple, Herbs…
use your imagination…and tie a ribbon around it!)

This event will be outdoors

Contact toila_lbws@yahoo. com for additional information

(TOI/LA events at UUCLB are co-sponsored by the Spiritual Practices Committee of UUCLB)

Fall Equinox Ritual

The GODDESS TEMPLE of Orange County

“Women of The Sacred Feminine Priestessing the Earth towards Peace and Prosperity”

Saturday, September 22

“ENTER the GATES of STARLIGHTon AUTUMN EQUINOX”
(for women)

with Priestesses of The TEMPLE of ISIS, Los Angeles

LAURA JANESDAUGHTER,DENISE ALLEN, ANNITRA RAVENMOON, and GLORY VERNON

Doors open at 6:00 pm, Ritual begins 7pm-8:30pm. Dinner to follow; please bring something to share. $10 love offering

The Temple of Isis invites you to …

“Celebrate the Turning of the Dance of the Earth and Sun, where the Light and the Dark are in Balance, with the Cosmic Goddesses Aset/Isis, Nebhet/Nephthys, and Their Mother Nut/Nuit. Enter the Gates of Starlight through the Body of Nut, the Milky Way, and envision the Cosmos in Its many Mysteries, where Dark and Light are different than we might imagine. Remember! …We are Stardust Walking."

Women’s ritual and women’s spiritual authority on Earth is what The TEMPLE is all about. We have been blessed to experience ritual led by The Temple of Isis priestesses, and we know this Autumn Equinox will be another fresh and beautiful offering from these Holy Women … You are warmly invited to join your Sisters in the Goddess for this season’s ritual of Autumn Equinox, light and dark, balance and beauty. Let us enter the Gates of Starlight together as Sisters to Each Other and Daughters of the Goddess … Blessed be.

INFORMATION: 949/651-0564

No woman turned away for lack of funds. To attend free of charge, call 949/51-0564 two weeks before the ritual to have your name put on the list for free attendance. In exchange, you must arrive at the Temple at 4:30 pm the day of the ritual to clean and set up and must stay afterward one hour to clean and break down. You must make these arrangements in adavance to attend free. There are no exceptions. Physically challenged women will be given jobs within their capability.

Trust

Yesterday, I had a conversation with someone who is a relative newcomer to AA and is struggling with the Second and Third Steps:

1. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
2. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

This person has been an atheist for many years, although he has an interest in quantum physics and metaphysics. I didn't ask him what his understanding of God was. Maybe he needs to rethink that.

He said that he is struggling with gaining Faith.

I replied that often it is not Faith that we struggle with, but Trust. Trusting that not only is there a Power greater than ourselves out there, but that if we turn our lives over to that Power, our lives will improve.

I've been thinking about the concept of Trust in that Power ever since.

In my understanding, that Power is Goddess. I don't struggle with Faith; I know that She is there. I do struggle with Trust: trusting that all will be well, trusting that She will be there when I need Her, trusting enough to let go of my need to control my life even while knowing that I cannot control it, no matter how hard I try. There are too many things beyond my control. And I have struggled through the Dark Night of the Soul, when there has been no response to my prayers to Her, no sense of Her presence, for months at a time.

It is hard to Trust that which you cannot see when you cannot trust those whom you can. How do you learn trust when the adults in your life did not protect you when you were a child? when people around you have proven themselves untrustworthy? How can you trust that everything happens for a reason when you cannot determine what that reason might be?

We get stuck in fear and forget to use what little faith we may have. We get stuck in our woundedness and forget to trust in the process of healing. We get stuck in that which is known and therefore comfortable, and choose not to move forward into the Unknown where healing and wholeness can be found.

Sometimes, the first step is to ask for the willingness to Trust.

Then you have to just close your eyes and step into the dark chasm and Trust that She will teach you how to fly.