Laura Plato & Denise Sheehan

Last Saturday, Laura Plato and I shared our ceremony, “Walking the Shamanic Reiki Way: A Wise Woman Ceremony.” What a delight-filled day full of goddess empowerment, joy, love, fun, peace, expansion, faith, harmony, ease and so much more! We had so many takeaways that I wish to share, but first I will offer just a wee bit of my process leading up to our big event.

Imagine… feeling the deepest stirrings of change and transformation deep in the bones, a sense of all that’s comfortable and safe being stripped away, along with a sense of slipping-foundation where I thought I may build…. where all confidence and self-esteem seem to fly away… where all that I’ve lovingly created over many years feels as if it’s mutating beyond recognition with each breath. Well, that’s a pretty dramatic description, but there you have a sense of the last several weeks for me!

What I found in that journey – well beyond doubting my right to be a wise woman – is the core of me, my essence, the one who is willing to be daring, take risks, BE even more authentic in each moment. I found my willingness to be seen, to be relevant. I thought I had all that. I truly did. And then I found another layer of BEing. Then yet another. All that felt lost to me returned many times over, and then again… so amazingly profound! 

Prior to this lovely journey, a wonderful sister-from-another-life and one of our Reiki students loaned me a book, which I finished reading during my preparation process, Anna, Grandmother of Jesus: A Message of Wisdom and Love by Claire Heartsong. This book, conveying the mystical principles behind the Yeshua, or Jesus, story, spoke to my heart, literally, in such big ways! I found myself undergoing a higher-heart attunement, as I explored deeper into the story. Much of the process above I attribute to the burning away of all within me that is not Love (especially the barriers to self-love), as a cherished gift of my attunement. I am sure that the synchronicity of this book’s arrival, congruent with the preparation for the ceremony, was divinely orchestrated. Aho!

Our ceremony included many components, including shamanic and Reiki practices, creating goddess crowns, going on a shamanic journey to embrace our as-yet un-manifested wise woman, taking our intentions to fire ceremony, and so much more. We co-created the ceremony specifically for us, our process, our needs and desires so that it felt deeply significant and personal.

So what does it mean to me, to be a wise woman? This was my meditation beneath the fullish moon prior to the ceremony. I feel more prepared and willing to lead with my heart and intuitive knowing, being more balanced and harmonious with my intellect. I feel a deeper bond with the energies of the moon and earth, that I may freely exchange energy and knowing with them. I allow myself to feel at-least-as or more “productive” in the empty spaces of discovery within than I do in the state of checking things off of my to-do list. I feel myself more in alignment and oneness with the wisdom keepers of the Sacred Mountains, able to borrow and share the wisdom of the ages. I surrender my life more deeply to the Divine, walking in faith. I think of the beauty way, of aligning my life more synchronistically with shamanism and Reiki, as expressions of the Divine, pathways leading me bit by bit, step by step. I am willing to allow the journey to be one of discovery, a blessing, an evolution – often more in motion when I am in stillness. I feel called into a deeper, truer way of being, to allow enough stillness into my life that mythic-me may be born anew. I feel a new way of creating coming into BEing, using alchemy along with or rather than practical strategies. I feel a bigger dharma/destiny dancing into my awareness. Bring it ~ with ease!

Here are just a few more random takeaways which you may find useful on your own journey:

1. We stepped into this awareness: “I dwell in Love. I am Love. I serve Love.” We illuminate and activate this by pondering, “What would Love have me do?”
2. Remember as a child, riding in the back seat, with sing-song voice, inquiring, “Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” This knowing feels like part of our divinity: We may never be “evolved,” and yet we are. We may never be “enlightened,” and yet we are. We may never feel “ready,” and yet we are. GO!
3. All wisdom is worthy.

What does the archetype of wise woman mean to you?

In what ways to you embody that, whatever gender you identify with?

In what ways can you more deeply honor your wisdom?

In what ways can you more meaningfully honor the divine feminine?

What ceremony or ritual calls to you this day, this week, or this month?

If you are interested in experiencing this kind of transformation and ceremony, I welcome your thoughts and ideas. This feels too yummy not to explore much more deeply! Again and again! Perhaps with you!