Theme: Magicians Reporting for Duty

Week 23: in which we consider the radical differences between devotion and worship.

BIG NOTICE

I was not able to send a newsletter last Sunday. My phone and email were hacked by a guy in Sumatra (!) and I've done nothing since then but deal with the outfall. It's been stressful. But at last, thanks to incredible help from technicians and friends, I am able to communicate with you again.

NEW EMAIL

Please put my domain email in your address book
janet@janetconner.com

All newsletters will come from this email address from now on. The old one with tampabay.rr in the address is dead and gone. So don't even try!

Now, on to today's Notes from the Field letter

Beautiful Magicians,

We have been talking about the demise of patriarchy and the return of Her Garden of Reverence for several years now. And right now, it feels like it's happening. Not overnight, of course, but the chaos and violence and animosity exploding around the world is a pretty clear, if awful, symptom that the patient is sick and not going to get better.

Tarot wisdom says the Tower 16 is falling

You can choose to look at that card as frightening. Or you can choose to see that the new structure cannot be built until the old one is gone.

In 2024, I talked about my own experience with having my bathroom "demolished". That's the word contractors use. Demolition. Before they can create a beautiful new bathroom, they must demolish the old. The demolish stage was painful to see and to hear. But once everything was gone, the new bathroom was delicious and delightful. I love it. And am thankful for it every day.

Astrological wisdom points to massive change

Astrological data accumulated over hundreds of years points to our time as a time of massive change. Change that has indicated major revolutions in the past. But beyond that, change that has not been seen in thousands of years.

Astrologers seem to agree that all these changes are coming together this summer.

The time of religion is coming to an end

Jim Palmer was the lead pastor in the largest evangelical christian church in America. Slowly, he began to realize he didn't believe what he was preaching. And worse, the ideas weren't helping people.

So he walked away. And paid a massive price. Publishing contracts cancelled. Colleagues denounced him. Income plummeted.

But he was clear that religion, not just christianity but all religions do more harm than good. Thousands of people began coming to him for help detoxing from religion. Slowly Jim developed a philosophy and practice of Deconstructing Religion. I highly recommend following Jim Palmer on Facebook and subscribing to his Substack and reading his new books.

There is another mystical teacher who totally blew me away when she clearly stated that the time of religion is over. Caroline Myss. What's astonishing about this is Caroline Myss is a practicing Catholic! Although her form of Catholicism must be more like liberation theology or Pope Leo's take on Catholicism.

In a speech in Canada a couple years ago Caroline said "We are living at the end of a human epoch as the Abrahamic religions come to an end." During the 5,000 year stranglehold of these religions, she said, "God was tribal and male, and the central story of each religion was about a god-man savior, and the emissaries to petition that male god were all male." In short, Caroline Myss said, "For 5,000 years, females had no god but a man."

Wow.

I had never heard anyone speak so clearly, so succinctly, and so powerfully about the demise of patriarchal religion.

When i heard her say this my heart practically soared out of my body with joy. I am not crazy! And I am not alone!

Everything I have created, starting with Writing Down Your Soul in 2009, has been built on this foundational truth:

Everyone has direct and immediate access to a voice of wisdom and truth within.

Even before Writing Down Your Soul came out, I began to teach people how to use writing to drop into mystical theta and activate that voice. All my events since then incorporate deep soul writing as well as several other powerful ways to access your internal knowing.

Over the last 17 years of writing and teaching, I've discovered a few other foundational truths:

• There is no one all powerful male god
  Never was, never will be. But under patriarchy different religions worship their one god and go to war with peoples who worship a different male god. This isn't ancient tribal history; it's happening right now in the Middle East.Angry male sky gods demand WORSHIP
• Male gods can't give birth
  Life comes through the feminine. Always has, always will. Zeus, for example, did not and could not birth Athena out of his forehead! It's actually a comical idea if you stop to think about it. For confirmation, consider Meister Eckhart, a wildly popular Dominican priest in the 14th century, who preached that there is a Godhead above the trinity. And, he said, that Godhead does nothing all day but lie on the birthing table giving birth!As you might imagine, the Inquisition came for Eckhart, but he had the good sense to die first.

  To make sure no one ever talked about the feminine Godhead again, the church banned Meister Eckhart's teaching completely. Even priests never heard of Eckhart until Mathew Fox, a Dominican priest, brought Eckart's writings to light and began to teach Creation Spirituality in 1976.

  Can you guess what happened to Fox? The church reinstated the Inquisition to go after him!

• Humanity was devoted to the Goddess, the feminine force in life, for tens of thousands of years before patriarchy
  Humans revered the life force in the Earth, Mother Gaia, and in all her creatures and in mountains and trees. And in one another, especially women who create and sustain life.This isn't my opinion. Today, science, brain science, archeology, anthropology, and art history clearly demonstrate that we humans lived in a state of DEVOTION for 35,000 years throughout the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras until the Bronze age, when humans began to make weapons.
• Male sky gods were invented by warring Bronze age tribes around 5,000 years ago
  Sky gods are totally disconnected from the Earth. They demand worship, sacrifice, obedience. They impose countless laws and punishments for breaking them. Right to the ultimate punishment of eternal damnation.Our matrilineal ancestors must think we have lost our minds if we think any divinity would torture people for eternity. Like Zeus giving birth out of his forehead, it is a crazy idea once you stop to think about it.
• The purpose of patriarchy is control
  Patriarchy controls through fear. Fear of punishment. Fear of one another. Fear of violence. Fear of being ostracized. Fear.
• Patriarchy has committed five crimes against humanity, especially women

Here is a little peek at a section of the beautiful timeline of the story of our world that inspired this prayer practice.

We called the timeline The Story of the Song of the Morning of the World and we loved the name so much, that we named the new rosary the same thing.

The whole first section of the timeline before patriarchy bursts with life and devotion. Here's a section with Isis. The plaque at the entrance to Her temple in Sais Egypt quotes Her as saying: I am all that was, all that is, all that ever shall be.

section of The Song of the Morning of the World by Cathy Stevens Pratt

And we, at this fulcrum moment between the horrors and suffering of patriarchy and the return of a sense of reverence for all life are going to do something precious and important to support that transition. And hold one another as we move through it together. It's hard to watch the explosion of suffering as patriarchs desperately try to hold on to control.

We are going to pray.

We are going to pray a radical new rosary practice called The Song of the Morning of the World.

Cathy Stevens Pratt and Tony Goncalves and I are creating this radical and delightful and powerful prayer practice.

It's called Praying in the Dark.

Praying in the Dark

Praying in the Dark will be a 4-week prayer intensive starting Tuesday July 14 at 6pm with a follow up watch party on Thursdays for friends in other timezones.

Cathy, Tony, and I are spending all next week developing the details and the graphics and the content for a beautiful landing page where you can read all about it.

But here are a few things you might like to know about it while you wait:

1. This is the first rosary totally unplugged from religion. It has nothing to do with theology or creeds or any religious stories or figures
2. Our guides are Hecate because she sees in the dark, Minotaur, the original holy masculine, and the Corn plant, the only plant that has both the masculine and feminine parts
3. This rosary will look completely different and include radically different masculine and feminine prayers
4. This is the first rosary to heal the wedge between the masculine and feminine that has been forced upon us under patriarchy
5. You do not need to have ever prayed a rosary; this is totally new, no religious background is necessary
6. This rosary is a practice of DEVOTION not worship
7. The church consciously removed the transcendental power of the rosary by imposing creeds and theology. This is the first rosary to restore its transcendental power
8. This is the first rosary ever to heal the five crimes of patriarchy

And more, much more, but I wanted to give you something to look forward to. And a few ideas for you to ponder.

Here, for example, are a few powerful questions to explore all next week:

• What is the difference between worship and devotion?
• Have I experienced real devotion, not worship, devotion? When. Where. How. How did it feel?
• What were my experiences with worship? Was I required to worship a god growing up? When. Where. How. How did it feel?

As a prayer artist, I cannot contain my joy about creating a radical new rosary that actually helps us move through the demise of patriarchy into a whole and holy way of life. As we hold our beads and one another's hands.

Life is fragile, handle with reverence

And beautiful, holy, mystical prayer

Janet

PS: If you want to refresh or learn deep soul writing, you can purchase the book

And you can watch my most recent deep soul writing intensive, Deep Soul Writing with Friends, available on demand. Order it now and you have plenty of time to watch it and enjoy activating your divine voice before Praying in the Dark opens.

I've written six newsletters about the crimes of patriarchy. Here's the first one that lists the crimes
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