A couple of weeks ago, on the heels of the New Moon, I promised to share my altar honoring the Divine Feminine when the time was right. Tonight is the Full Moon - and now is the time. I began preparing my altar with a batik cloth depicting images of the Bodhisattva Quan Yin, with my beloved statue of this Chinese Goddess of Compassion centered atop it. Each additional item placed around the altar represents some aspect of the feminine spirit to me, or my current quest to honor my whole self.
The "Bliss" birth goddess art by Maggie Davenport is an image that just sings mother and woman to me. The triad of herbal candles are said to promote healing and wholeness (both goals of mine for this lunar cycle).
Fresh flowers were gathered and cut from my garden and paired with a ceramic lotus flower, a symbol Quan Yin is often pictured holding or sitting upon. The lotus represents purity, wisdom and enlightenment and appears all over my home (can you see the reflection of a lotus painting in the mirror?)
Around Quan Yin's neck I wrapped a necklace which belonged to my maternal grandmother. It features a jade (said to encourage self-realization) fish (the ever-open eyes of a fish are said to represent compassion).
Various stones, crystals and shells also adorn this sacred space, including a gifted cowrie shell - a sacred symbol long associated with the feminine.
Like myself, my altar to the Divine Feminine is a work in progress. I plan to continue adding to it as the moon progresses and as I continue to honor this sacred space inside me.
5 comments:
thank you so much for sharing this!!! it is really inspiring (and so timely) for me!
i was just talking to my best friend yesterday and saying how i've really lost touch with the moon. it was such a big part of my life for a while...especially putting out my intentions on the new moon...and it's just sort of slipped away.
i'm really wanting to get back in the groove and this post just felt so good to read!
thank you for reminding me, yesterday of all days, of my intention and of this timely and relevant exercise. it helped me so much with some important work last night, to stay centered and grounded.
funny, you do that for me also!
what a beautiful and thoughtful altar.
So lovely! I have been planning on building a meditation altar for myself, so this gives me great inspiration!
liz, you always inspire to turn more of my energy inward. your painting-she definitely speaks to me as well.
and i love that quan yin has your grandmother's necklace-did she have a connection to quan yin, too? my mother does, and has a beautiful quan yin sitting in her room where she meditates.
you know, all of your imagery makes me aware of so many things in myself that haven't gotten much tending to lately. thank you so much for that. you always have that effect, and i think that your writing and your connection to the divine feminine is really coming through. thank you thank you. give your quan yin a kiss from new york.
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