Reflections from Meredith Lowry
I would like to share some of what is opening up for me as I am currently participating in The Wise Women Quest Anneloes Smitsman is offering through The Shift Network now.* I feel so blessed by Anneloes’ teachings for I have found them incredibly powerful for transforming some patterns I have been feeling held back by, into opening up a new level of clarity, new level of possibilities and movement forward.
During these past 5 weeks of our 7-week quest, I have been living with the Guardian, Alchemist, Priestess and now with the Queen for only a couple days as I write this. Throughout this quest I am noticing a deepening of my inner connection, awareness and experiential relationship with my Self through engaging with these different archetypes that is leading to transformation and movement in areas of my life that had been challenging. Until this quest, I hadn’t realized I was needing a different leverage point of access so I could perceive a larger dimension of interrelatedness regarding this challenge. This expanded perceptual framework and access within myself to the inherent powers and capacities of each unique archetype allows me reorient from within the greater context and wholeness of a dynamic system perspective from which to access the answers and solutions I have been seeking.
For me, a foundational shift began as Anneloes created a context for her teachings on the Guardian archetype, as a sacred space of love created for each one of us by our Divine Mother as we each enter into earthly life. As I experienced what it felt like to be received into a space created just for me to Be, where my fullness of Being was so warmly welcomed within this loving embrace, and my very existence is more than enough to be worthy of this space created just for me, it felt like my whole system came to a stillpoint, into which all of the parts of my self could more fully come home to the wholeness of my Self as I was reborn into a new and more thriving relationship within my Self and with Life.
As I continue the Guardian practices and meditations, I feel my body relaxing and my nervous system calm more and more. I notice when I feel rushed or stressed at moments in my day, when I may be juggling too many things in the wrong timing or tempo, if I re-enter this sacred space of where all I need is to Be, I immediately begin to sense a “re-membering” and realigning of the parts of my Self, and this experience of calm relaxation fills my being once again. From here I find I am able to move through my day from a consonance within my ground of Being, as well as have greater flow in my access to the many resources within and around me. I also sense myself building new neural pathways around how loved I truly am and the coherence this brings throughout my entire being. From this I notice I have been naturally awakening to new levels of clarity, choice-making and self-care as to who I am, what I am here for, and what is truly mine with more truth of my being, and I know from being a physician that it is in taking steps that create more alignment and coherence that reduces our stress response and enhances our immune system function.
With her teaching regarding the Alchemist archetype, Anneloes helped me see how my tendency to pay attention to cycles, rhythms, and patterns throughout my life is the Alchemist’s specific skill. Since I was a little girl I have seen patterns in nature, in people, in clouds, in sensations, illnesses, and I learned how to read them as a means to interpret and understand the beauty of forms and mysterious ways that Source expresses in its emerging, becoming, and/or disappearing and how it is moving, informing and/or changing as relative to what it is manifesting. So this particular module spoke to me deeply about why I followed the path I have that led to my becoming an integrative physician.
Through Anneloes’s naming, I realized the Alchemist’s leverage point comes from being able to access both the planetary and the cosmic realms and in order to change something that is already physical. The Alchemist transforms towards wholeness any fragmented patterns on a dynamic level, so what then arises from this carries a more coherent pattern of wholeness into its physical manifestation. Anneloes brought this naming so clearly, and it helped me to see how I have used this principle throughout the years of my Osteopathic and homeopathic practice, when I see a cyclical pattern that keeps showing up as a repetitive symptom that a person’s system can’t seem to bring to resolution on its own. By synchronizing with it: the tone, tempo, orientation, timing, etc of whatever this pattern is, the patient’s system engages the pattern, an awakening occurs around it, and it begins to release.
However, it was when Anneloes brought her teachings on The Priestess archetype that something I had been searching to understand my entire life opened up for me. I had two mystical experiences as a child, where I sensed an immense peace, stillness and seamless connection to something that breathed me after I suddenly went down in water. After the second experience I longed to reconnect with This that brought such peace, because everything seemed to pale relative to it. Not having any other clues other than my experience and the pattern of being held and breathed within the center of the vortex that I saw, and was indelibly captured within my memory, I focused on paying attention to, following and exploring wherever and whenever I saw vortexes or spirals, as possibly a signpost to find my way back this connection. For in my child’s way of knowing, I knew that This was always somehow always present where vortexes and spirals existed, and if I couldn’t connect with This directly, I would be as close as I could to This by exploring and learning where this universal ‘signature’ showed up, as well as how I could interact and engage with This transformative and transmutative power that seemed to move through the central stillness of vortexes and spirals. This exploration led me to study physics, botany and medicinal botany, Taoism, homeopathy, meteorology, water dynamics, meditation, Jungian and other forms of mind body psychology, ultimately leading to my going into Osteopathic integrative medicine, as a way to be close to, continue to learn from and work with This in ways to transform more chaotic patterns towards more coherence, wholeness and health.
Anneloes told a story from her own life about the time when she went through her transformation from her the Alchemist capacities to The Priestess. She shared how one goes through a period where the all the Alchemist’s knowledge of patterns and methods of transformation dissolves and is no longer visible or accessible. She shared that when this period of transmutation was complete, a wholly new pattern emerged where all that was previously known through the parts (e.g. patterns) was transformed into capacity for direct connection and interaction with Source, rather than through working through patterns. When I heard this, my entire being resonated with its truth and I felt a renewed possibility for finally developing a means of direct connection with This for me.
Another aspect of The Priestess that I found quite powerful and immensely freeing was during a practice where the Priestess shined the Light of Eternal Life throughout my body, searching out and illuminating any places that are from another time, or a constrictive old pattern that limits full coherence within my system. What was so freeing and transformative for me was that wherever the Priestess’s light shined upon one of these places, her Light almost caressed it with such deep love and compassion, I could feel a warming tingling sensation of my life energy returning as it responded by beginning to transform and release. To have these old patterns sought out and illuminated with such tenderness and love rather than criticism, which many times is what I experienced as a child, was deeply transformative.
This morning I awoke early before dawn and realized the recording for the Queen archetype from yesterday’s module was available so I listened again while lying in my bed without any distractions. Several aspects caught my imagination as I let myself kinesthetically live into my relationship with the Queen. There were several aspects Anneloes brought forth that spoke strongly to me regarding the Queen’s sovereignty, who as with the queen bee, it is her very presence that brings harmonious unity as well as diversity of relationship and collaboration within the hive community. How it is through relationship and union with the Queen’s natural fertility and power to give birth to new forms, that an empowering and an ennobling of the masculine develops, as well as the masculine qualities in each of us. The Queen enables us to have the larger witness perspective on ours and all of life, as well as being the one who knows and opens access for us between our Cosmic to our Earthly selves.
In connecting with these qualities of the Queen archetype during my morning meditation after having listened to Anneloes’s meditation and teachings earlier, even with only having 15 min before I needed to jump into my day, I had quite an amazing shift in awareness around something I had been unable to decide upon for many months professionally. I sat within the Queen’s realm, within her sovereignty and witness perspective above while sensing the interconnection of my cosmic and earthly selves.
I brought into the space my deepest desire and challenge to birth anew professionally what now is more aligned with the truest expression of who I am, from my more feminine orientation. I asked to have clarity around what form, context or structure would best support, provide for and encourage what is currently gestating within me, so these more masculine qualities could foundationally safeguard and encourage what is wanting to be birthed so it can grow, develop and thrive in a way so the unique gifts and capacities I have been given and cultivated throughout my life can best be contributed for the benefit of all.
As I let myself be held within this realm of the Queen’s wisdom, an image and words appeared and resounded through me like a pure tone, almost as though a seed crystal was dropped into a solution primed to receive it. It was one of those “ah-ha moments” that not only rang true, but resonated throughout me with a full body, mind, soul “yes.” As I sat within this consonance throughout my being, I could sense my inquiry had come to a stillpoint. At this point I needed to get up and head into my day, yet I sensed that something had shifted within me in quite a profound way and an inner knowing was beginning to constellate and weave into something that felt more ‘comfortable’ to me and aligned with me to consider professionally.
I could say so much more about how profoundly life-changing Anneloes’s teachings have been for me during The Shift Network Wise Woman Quest, and we are only a little over half way through. It could have been that I was already primed by having done her WOMENwise Quest previously through EARTHwise Centre, however rather than concern myself with why, I intend to incorporate these teachings, practices and meditations as a staple in my life.
I am immensely grateful to you, Anneloes for following what most spoke to you in your life, and sharing with us so generously the abundance of these life enhancing fruits from the depth of your being through your Love, Wisdom and Vision.
Now I look forward to participating in the Leadership Quest to deepen my learning in how to apply these beautiful and powerful principles for the benefit of Mother Earth, to meet, get to know and engage with many others who are making all difference on our planet through Love in Action for the Benefit of All.
With much love and gratitude,
EARTHwise Centre – Founding member of the WOMENwise Custodians Council
*The same teachings of the Shift Network Wise Woman Quest are included in the EARTHwise WOMENwise Quest and will be offered again LIVE by Anneloes via EARTHwise Centre later in the year. If you’d like to enjoy these teachings prior to the beginning of the next live WOMENwise Quest, you can enroll now and get direct access to the previous course recordings and then join us in the WOMENwise Quest live at no additional investment.
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