She Sees a Warrior: The Rise of the Sacred Feminine, Awakening the Goddess Within

When I first heard the words “She Sees a Warrior,” something about them resonated deep in my being, yet I found it odd because I had always thought a warrior was one who fights ruthlessly. But something about those words rang true to me. So, I wrote them down, knowing I would be using them one day for something. Little did I know they would be the title of my contributing chapter in this Soul Love book. 

I know it seems like an oxymoron, as a warrior, sacred, and goddess just don’t seem to fit. But if you were to Google the definition of this, you would find that a spiritual warrior is one who has so many beautiful, sacred qualities that are worthy of mastering.

For instance, did you know that a spiritual warrior:

·      Exhibits strength and courage in the face of adversity.

How many of you can think of moments when you exhibited these traits? My guess is that all of you can, as we are innately wired with these qualities.

·      A spiritual warrior knows when to let go and knows that forgiveness is key.  

This is much more challenging because the personal self holds onto animosity. The personal self (a.k.a. ego or protective personality) cannot comprehend that forgiving and letting go isn’t what we think. Forgiveness is never about the other person. Rather, it is about releasing that lower vibrational energy that keeps you trapped so that you can begin to open to expansive, life-enhancing energies.      

·      A spiritual warrior recognizes that a much bigger picture is unfolding.

Our personal self does not remember that our soul is the one who signed up for this journey. But the spiritual warrior recognizes that EVERYTHING is unfolding just as it should be.  

·      A spiritual warrior is on the path of liberating oneself from all fears, doubts, and limiting beliefs.

The soul longs for liberation and has incarnated many, many, MANY lifetimes working towards this.  As one limiting belief or emotion is released, new ones are exposed for healing. Since life mirrors things that we, the soul, are here to work on, it is helpful to recognize that these things often appear when triggered by someone or something.  Once we have healed our personal selves, we begin clearing past life, ancestral, and even collective trauma.    

·      A spiritual warrior gives generously BUT also allows themselves opportunities to receive.

My guess is that most of you reading this would fall into the giving category, along with the false belief that giving is better than receiving. So many of us are currently working on this limiting, false belief that has been culturally and religiously ingrained into the very fabric of our being.  But a spiritual warrior understands that to be in balance and harmony, one must give and allow oneself the opportunity to receive.

·      A spiritual warrior is continually ever-expanding and evolving their mind-body-spirit.  

The spiritual warrior knows that each part is integral to the evolution of the sacred soul journey and understands that by doing his or her inner work and healing, it ripples out like a wave that touches the ones they love, engage with, and even those they will never meet.

·      And lastly, a spiritual warrior serves LOVE and humanity.

The spiritual warrior knows it is here to be part of the great awakening in humanity - to hold the vibration of LOVE in their heart and service in their soul - leading all beings back to the remembrance of their divinity. 

As I read through the list of these noble qualities, I couldn’t help but think of my journey of transformation and healing. After years of everything collapsing - like dominos tumbling down around me - everything I thought to be true in my life dissolved completely.  My codependent, emotionally abusive, toxic marriage finally came to an end. I lost my job, experienced major anxiety and health problems, and lost my father. As if that wasn’t enough, there was still more for me as I witnessed someone I love dearly go through her dark night of the soul, which felt unbearable to me.  

I remember the beginning of each new year, thinking that this is the year that would be better for me.  But no… that did not happen - and couldn’t, at least from the soul’s perspective - as I believe it was in my sacred contract to ‘remember the truth of my divinity’ in this lifetime so that I could assist others in remembering this, too.  Which could never happen until everything that made my ego feel safe was stripped away, which took years.  

How many of you can relate to this, where everything you knew and trusted was no longer?  

We are given tremendous opportunities to expand our consciousness and evolve as souls, yet many of these opportunities seem to occur during our darkest days. So, it is within these moments that it gets tricky.

When we are stuck in our stories and limiting beliefs, it is almost impossible to rise above them. This is why anyone who has ever done a 12-step program understands that in order to heal, we MUST surrender to a Higher Power.  But most of us are terrified of this as the ego does not like uncertainty and, therefore, likes to control things. Yet that is hardly ever the case, and each one of us will begin to see through this at some point in our journey. This is why it feels like peace when we finally learn to surrender.

My acronym for H.E.A.L. became healthy, emotions, affirm, life or living. And for me, that’s what I needed most was an overhaul of my faulty thinking. So, life gave me plenty of opportunities.   

After making the most difficult decision of my life, I decided to move 10 hours away from my family. Little did I know that a massive wildfire would sweep through the community five-and-a-half weeks after moving here. And let me tell you, it was terrifying! What made this even more traumatic was that there was (and still is) only one highway in this community, which was crazy!

I’m unsure of the exact count, but I believe 80,000-90,000 people were trying to flee, with only one highway leading through a huge part of the city. Traffic was so backed up we literally could have been crawling.  What normally would have taken just under five hours was thirteen hours with two adults, two cats, and a dog in a very small car. It broke my heart and was devastating!

People had to leave their pets behind because they couldn’t return home due to the fire burning rampantly through certain communities, and there would be no rescue for many, many days.  

Many children at school were separated from their parents and sent to another location by bus. Some people were being sent north, and some were going south, so some kids did not reunite with their parents for days.  Patients from the hospital and senior homes all had to be evacuated. It was pure chaos as flames engulfed this community.

I remember it took us well over an hour to get to the nearest main intersection, only a few blocks away, and we sat helpless and in a state of shock, watching helicopters dropping fire repellant repeatedly. The smoke in the air - and the trauma in our bodies - quickly overtook thousands of people and pets in the city.    

Honestly, I am not sure why I came back here (as this is a real threat every summer). But I must have unconsciously known something was here waiting for me – and that something was ME! To be honest, this community is not the typical place one would expect to discover their inner divinity, but I have learned that Spirit works in the most mystical and magical ways.  

I eventually understood that my Higher Self was orchestrating this sacred soul journey. Or, as Maureen Murdock calls it, The Heroine’s Journey: Woman’s Quest for Wholeness. Her book was adapted to capture the journey women go through that Joseph Campbell’s book detailing the Hero’s Journey did not cover - as Campbell did not believe women needed to take the journey. He felt that women were always a part of that mythological journey and that all they needed to do was recognize that they were the place people were trying to get to.

Although that sounds wonderful, I hardly think any woman would agree with his theory. There is a journey that all women need to take in order to awaken the Divine Feminine Goddess repressed deep within. I know for me that was certainly the case.

Without going into too much detail about Maureen’s book, I would like to examine these ten stages of the journey and share my interpretation and how they applied to my transformation and healing. As I do, I invite you to consider where you might be on your own heroine’s journey.   

1.   Separation from the Feminine – I believe this is a sacred wound for all beings as we have all been conditioned to devalue the beautiful qualities of the feminine. I also believe this sacred wound occurred the moment we were born, as very few individuals were ever taught about the love of the Divine Mother.  

It has taken me 59 years to discover that the Divine Mother never left us. She is the aspect of the divine we can connect to easily as she is within you - and if you pay attention, you will notice the signs that she has left for you.

2.   Identification with the Masculine – I am almost certain you can identify with this, even if you embody more feminine qualities: most cultures value drive, directness, strength, and purpose-driven traits. As wonderful as these are, when only focusing on the masculine way of being, we leave out essential things such as intuition, free flow, creativity, compassion and nurturing, and so many other wonderful things. This causes an imbalance in us and, more importantly, a separation from our spirit.   

3.   The Road of Trials –Not one of us escapes these moments, and most of us splat when faced with them. This is where we forget that we are the soul on this journey of remembering. When facing these trials, many of us revert to the protective self and personality. 

Once we move through these moments - which can take years - we realize that these trials were opportunities, especially for our soul evolving, and that some of these trials turn out to be initiations to the sacred.  

4.   The Illusory Boon of Success – I can honestly say that this part was the hardest for me, as I thought I had found my true calling.  

In Murdock's book, the fourth stage is about the heroine overcoming her trials (or so she thinks). This is where she will temporarily experience success, a change in title, wealth, or something that feels very exciting.  

Although I hadn't maintained success or wealth, I thought I had finally found my calling. So, when my world no longer made sense to me because of an experience with my eyes - it

felt like I was living in the house of mirrors or looking through a fishbowl - I felt deflated and defeated and didn't understand why.

5.   Awakening to the Spiritual Emptiness – Although this may feel like a very empty and lonely time to the personality, it is a very exciting time for the soul. As your Higher Self knows, there is so much more to this sacred soul journey. This is the stage where you feel your soul's inner calling. You realize you are being prompted to examine your choices, relationships, jobs, and everything in life more carefully. This is also the stage where you deeply desire to connect with the sacred.  This is the path of the seeker.    

6.   Initiation and descent to the Goddess – According to Murdock, this is where we withdraw from our friends and family. This is where we often experience the dark night of the soul.  I know for me, that was the case. I went a step further and withdrew from news, media, and eventually TV altogether.

As a highly sensitive person or empath, it had to be that way, at least for me. This freed me from absorbing all that was coming at me through subliminal messaging and made it so much easier to begin to discern what was mine versus someone else’s. On an unconscious level, my divine I AM presence knew that my true nature, essence, and sacred Self awaited me. Still, I needed to let go of the protective personality to fully integrate and embody more and more aspects of my soul. 

7.   Yearning to Reconnect to the Feminine – This was another unexpected phase. Suddenly, these powerful archetypal energies of the Divine Feminine were activating within me, and I longed to know more about them as I knew they were beckoning my soul.  

Unexpectedly, the lure of Mary Magdalene, Isis, Quan Yin, and Mother Mary spoke to me, but on a level that did not make sense to my conscious mind. This was coming from a place deep within my heart. Eventually, I realized their presence wasn’t outside but activating within me. 

In Caroline Myss’s program, Sacred Contracts, she teaches that there is a third phase that many of us will enter, known as our destiny or dharmic stage. This is where new archetypal energies are activated within us that feel like superpowers. These archetypal energies support us in taking our gifts and true calling out into the world to serve humanity.

For instance, you may encounter the energy of the Goddess, the wise woman, the mystic, the healer, the visionary, the leader, the advocate, and more.

8.   Healing the Mother/Daughter Split – According to Maureen, this is where the heroine reconnects with her roots and finds strength in the past. Now, for me, this one was huge as it is literally in my Vedic astrological chart that I was cut off from the mother’s breast, which is exactly what it felt like for me.

Although my mom was (and still is very loving), many things happened in her life that drew her attention away from me. And as a young infant, toddler, and child, I had no way of comprehending this. So, I spent my whole life looking for love in all the wrong places. It took me many, many, many years to finally realize that the love I sought was always within me.

To be honest, I think this is where SOUL LOVE begins. I wholeheartedly believe that soul love begins with the Divine, Cosmic Mother, nurturing and guiding us back to our divinity. 

9.   Healing the Wounded Masculine – Here is where the patriarchal version of the masculine has led us astray and away from truly understanding how noble the masculine energies can be. These energies are meant to support us in the planning stages and in taking all necessary action steps to fulfill our soul’s calling.   

10.           Integrating the Masculine and Feminine – All creation is about balance and harmony. This is why we feel so much conflict when we do not understand the vital role of masculine and feminine energies.

Life is truly a dance between these energies, and when they are fully integrated, they become the Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine mindfully embodied. This IS the liberating, awe-inspiring, magical, and mystical union with the Divine that our soul has been seeking.   

I can honestly say that once I realized my personal self needed to let go to make room for the soul, I began to understand the beauty and wisdom in life’s unfolding. I finally understood that pain Is a doorway to the sacred.

So, I sincerely wish that each of you remembers that you are the divine being on this Soul Love journey, and whenever you feel that disconnect from your spirit, remember that pain is always a doorway leading you back home and is the voice of your soul.   

From my heart to yours, I send you love, peace and blessings,

Sherry Lynn (Sadaya)