It’s time to change the narrative - and embrace the Feminine and her magic.
- Nicole Barton
We must have the courage to welcome ALL - passionate rebel and imperfections, especially.
- Nicole Barton
I've become a woman who knows how to devote to the life I long for, even amidst the inevitable challenges along the way.
- Nicole Barton
“My point is, it was only the "deep work" of real healing that helped me to own my inner Creatrix and learn to claim my feminine soft-power to create life differently and own my healing gifts. Before that, I felt powerless. Learning to *heal my power* was absolutely VITAL in helping me manifest life differently - and create a magical life as a healer.”
- Nicole Barton
Before I entered 'the work' I was living a busy, chaotic, mundane life, that I felt trapped in. I hear many of the women who feel the call to the 'deep work' of becoming a healer feeling the same, whilst simultaneously feeling that 'the work' is also 'non-essential' and 'self-indulgent". Both ideas which can stop us fully choosing it.
“I no longer suffer with any of the 'incurable' health challenges I had - no paralysed face, no chronic fatigue, no endometriosis, no chronic cystitis, no diabetes, no thyroid issues. Instead, the healing work has me energised, vital, and healthy. To me, that makes this the most *vital* and essential work of all. And the least selfish - because now I'm able to help others walk the same path and heal themselves, and go onto helping others the same way.”
- Nicole Barton
One of the things that came up for me - and that I hear come up for many women feeling - in the call of soul to the 'deep work' of becoming a healer is the idea that it's 'non-essential' and 'self-indulgent". Both ideas which can (innocently) stop us fully choosing it.
"Whatever we choose, in the midst of our MfL, will have a deeper impact. And that's why the deepest work is to stay impeccable in our devotion to soul."
~ Nicole Barton
The journey to Soul isn't an easy one. I say this, time and time again, and still, many times my women don't believe me. And when it gets tough, I often have clients project: "this is so easy for you".
“It is from the tender, powerful and brave place of self love, that we can start to live more fully.”
~ Brigit Anna McNeil
Since my deeper devotion to my own medicine - channelling the Remedies of the Wild - I'm slowly (which is a pace I have to consciously choose, given my Secret Witch's temptation to rush) having more and more revealed…
"I'm seeing how my channelling of the remedies is becoming stronger and stronger. I am increasingly triggering and activating those around me, deeper and deeper, with the energetic medicine they need to be healed, just through my being."
~ Nicole Barton
In the last few weeks I've come to see really clearly how my gift is to be a channel for the Remedies of the Wild.
“Where there is hope there is possibility. Where there is possibility, there is Magic; Where there is Magic there is endless possibility.”
~ Beth Thompson
If there's one thing I've learned, as I've journeyed more deeply into soul, it's that we simply can't do this work from our heads.
From our heads, we desire logic and a step by step plan of how to get there. From our heads, we create from burden and burn out. From our heads, we allow fear to make the choices - even when we think it isn't.
“Tell the truth about your wound, and then you will get a truthful picture of the remedy to apply to it. Don’t pack whatever is easiest or most available into the emptiness. Hold out for the right medicine. You will recognize it because it makes your life stronger rather than weaker.”
~ Clarissa Pinkola Estés
It can be so tempting to plaster over our wounds. I have been there, perhaps more times than I can count, whether it was by directly numbing my emotions, when I was living out of alignment in my old relationship…
"The very essence of the Feminine is LOVE and TRUTH - not aggressive rebellion, or armouring by playing dress up as a Goddess."
~ Nicole Barton
One of the objections I notice in some women drawn to Invoke Your Feminine Mystery is that they've previously felt they've already done a lot of work with Feminine embodiment before.
In fact, often, whilst many of my women come to me dismissing their Feminine body and her signals entirely and not feeling feminine at all, I notice these particular women can often have reached a point where they've done so much work on themselves…
"Every woman who heals herself helps heal all the women who came before her and all those who will come after.”
~ Dr Christiane Northrup
The Feminine calls to women in various Mysterious ways - often, ways that don’t resemble a call to the Feminine at all. You see, the Feminine, on initial glance, feels to be a glamorous path full of roses, beauty, magic, love and softness - and she is in her embodied fullness; but her initial call - well, that’s very different.
Often, my women don’t actually know they’re being called by the Feminine, let alone which archetype is calling them specifically. And so, recently, I have been exploring the various magical, Mysterious Feminine Archetypes of the Witch - and how they might each call to us during the Feminine lifecycle - in a mini series of short videos.
“Nature loves courage. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering it's a feather bed.”
~Terrance McKenna
Stress, fear, doubt and shame were always big things for my Secret Witch, who didn't know her own power. I'd feel frequently overwhelmed, live in fear, and often not see my needs, let alone meet them, leaving me burning out. I often felt trapped in a mundane life, always hoping that one day I'd fix myself.
"The Alchemy available in gathering women to begin to heal wounds and own their power and magic is huge."
~Nicole Barton
There's a deep alchemy in the work we do in circle here at Team Secret Witch - especially in the unique space we are creating, which has a particularly rare flavour of all being welcome, along with an initiation into owning your power and magic. I know this because I am held myself in these sorts of rare spaces, and I feel the potency of this way of being, in comparison to other circles I've...
"It's time, now, to fully honour my devotion, consciously. I don't know what Medicine for my Liberation this will bring, but there's really no other way for me to be."
~Nicole Barton
Last week I was in a Sovereign circle and I was feeling frustrated with myself for not feeling like I was magical (in a very Secret Witch way). As each woman shared, I began to alchemise what was coming up for me in each of their shares, and I began to open to more being revealed.
"Love yourself. Even the most wild and crazy parts."
~Lisa Lister
Incense is such a delight to my body. It actually has none of the healing, therapeutic chemical properties of essential oils, but it definitely stimulates my limbic system and triggers happy, relaxed memories of being in Bali.
As part of my morning ritual, I often have a long bath surrounded by incense and essential oils. That and a mix of yoga, meditation, visualisation, spell casting, energy healing and journalling, depending what my Soul/body needs each day. I'm learning more and more to listen into the call of my body.
“Once you set that spark of hope, possibility and desire alight, there's no stopping the magic it will begin to create.”
~ Nicole Barton
This morning I went to my tree and asked "what do my women need, right now?" And I heard "for you to be with them in hopefulness".
I've been thinking about how the gateway to my work is often "hope." Often when my women first begin to walk the path they will have experienced some depths of darkness that have had them feel deep in hopelessness - ill health…
“That's what this path is all about- learning to love yourself enough to be able to tend these fears and choose your Soul, choose your magic and choose to create life in ways that are in deep alignment for you. And all of it is a choice.”
~ Nicole Barton
Paradoxically, all the fears that have the Secret Witch (who doesn't know her own power and magic) lean away from deepening into the path are #alltheways that it will benefit her in the long run. The first hurdle is usually that my magical women think they're just not even good enough to participate…
"Because I'd not claimed my Feminine power during the various precious initiations I'd been invited into along my path, I'd entered unconsciously - without really considering what it meant to be a woman"
~ Nicole Barton
Mothers' Day a few days ago had me reflecting on how when I became a Mama to my beautiful Lily, I had absolutely no idea that it was going to be the transformational portal it was into the death to old parts of me and an initiation into me reclaiming my power.
"Every word we speak is a spell."
~ Lisa Lister
I've quoted this before and heard it many times - and, at a certain point in life, I came to see and understood this more deeply - especially in my 3P journey as I began to see how powerful thought was in creating our lives. It is so true: we are speaking our lives to life - that makes sense.
"Being soft and open, courageous, vulnerable and allowing our hearts to lead is the exact medicine we need to create magical lives."
~ Nicole Barton
The Secret Witch (aka a woman who doesn't know her power and magic) really beats herself up; she often feels a great shame about her dull-feeling life, and has a really big sense that she is not enough for the life that she dreams about. She doubts herself - and often doesn’t trust others, either, leaving her in protection mode - like an armadillo - more often than not.
“Wild Creatrix's first initiation is into the reminder of woman's power to create. This is the very power we were born with - after all, we have wombs which quite literally birth magic."
~ Nicole Barton
Most Secret Witches arrive here to this path not knowing that they are already creating. "But why would I create this?" they might ask, referring to the way they've been innocently and unconsciously creating everything they *don't* want.
“The benefit of devotion is the full aliveness found in the fullest expression of our Soul. The cost is our discomfort, the benefit is we find ourselves.”
~ Nicole Barton
This morning I went for an early morning walk in my devotion to Soul, Magic and the Feminine. It was raining as I got out of bed. I haven't got a rain mac for this rainy weather that is waterproof. I hadn't thought about what would happen in my devotion to early morning walks if it was raining. And so, I found myself feeling the resistance in my body to going out in the rain. Tension, heaviness, and excuses galore.
