Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. starting on your journey Hail and welcome! May your path to the Goddess lead you where you need to go. This book, Goddess Alive!, is a celebration of the many faces of the Goddess, focusing exclusively on the Irish, Welsh, and Norse cultures. Through ritual, invocation, guided meditation, and hands -on activities, you will welcome these goddesses into your life, allowing their lessons to guide you and their energies to transform you. The heart of your experience with each goddess will be the guided meditation, during which you will meet, get to know, and talk to her. Guided meditation is a relatively easy activity that everyone can enjoy. You do not need to have any prior meditation knowledge or skill in order to experience a wonderful, fulfilling, and magical journey. In fact, I believe that guided meditation is one of the best ways to introduce the body, mind, and spirit to meditation as a life practice. All you need to do is sit back (or lie down), relax, and allow me to guide you through the labyrinthine passages of your mind and heart to the center of the universe, to the center of the earth, to the divine energy as manifested in the Great Goddess. Throughout time, ancient peoples have worshiped the image of the Goddess, as protector, provider, and creator. She is the grain that feeds our bellies, the midwife who helps us birth, and the water that sustains our lives. She is the sun, the moon, the earth beneath our feet. She nurtures animals and babies, giving of her warmth and love. Yet the Goddess, like us, is not one -dimensional. When provoked or wronged, displays of her power can be as violent as lightning and as wrathful as a woman scorned. She has gone to war and returned, covered in mud, the blood of her enemy on her spear tip. She has rejected society's rules, to live as a woman alone, without husband or fealty, dominant in her own right. She has learned and excelled at skills considered to be “manly” or “masculine.” She is herself-caring, powerful, loving, strong, determined, nurturing. The duality of the Goddess allows us to look into our deeper selves and know that there is both darkness and light within us. We learn, through her example, that both are equally important to achieve balance in ourselves, in nature, and in the universe. In this book, you will meet thirteen different goddesses from the ancient Irish, Welsh, and Norse pantheons. Some people view these culturally specific goddesses as facets of the all -powerful Great Goddess, who, along with the Great God, is the energy of the divine. Others see these goddesses as separate entities, complete and whole unto themselves. Whatever your beliefs, know that each goddess has a different energy and has a specific lesson to teach you. Be open to that lesson, to the teaching of the divine female spirit. This knowledge will lead you closer to your true self and the path you are supposed to walk. Do not run from it, but embrace it and begin. in the beginning In order to truly experience the guided meditations in this book, you must be able to perform and master a few necessary skills. Just as you cannot run without first learning to crawl and then to walk, you cannot pathwork without accepting into yourself several abilities that are indispensable for the journey. So take out your magical, meditative backpack and prepare for the trip! The first activity of extreme importance when meditating is grounding. Grounding focuses your mind, body, and spirit on exactly where you are in the world. It helps you connect to the energies around you and to the energies of Mother Earth, on whose body we live and breathe. Grounding helps you tap into her power, allowing it to buoy and strengthen your own innate energy. There are many different ways to ground. Perhaps you've grounded without even knowing it. When your day at work has been awful or you're feeling a little sad or depressed, have you ever reached
