An Ongoing Journey with Reverend Shiloh Sophia McCloud
Register to join the tour and participate in the next 12 destinations! 
An Invitation For Women Who are looking for
a creative spiritual community
IF YOU ARE A WOMAN WHO…
Who is tired of the mundane
and wants to call in the sacred and make this the year for a dedicated Creative Spiritual Practice
Who knows there is more to life
and you desire a deeper connection with the divine feminine, Our Blessed Mother
Who wants to use painting as a sacred practice,
start painting a body of work which is
inspired by 12 Madonnas in 12 Months with poems and prayers
Who knows she does not want to face 2012 alone
and who longs to be a part of a Red Thread Circle of support and connection
Who feels the call in her bones and in her heart express herself
and you are hungry to pick up the pen, the prayer shawl, the paintbrush and the possibility…
Then CHOOSE to start
Your Red Madonna Journey
Join Shiloh Sophia for a yearlong journey of the heart unlike any experience you have ever had…
You will discover things about yourself and your journey that you never knew,
because it is SHE who must reveal them to you.
MEMBERSHIP in THE RED MADONNA SISTERHOOD of
Creative Souls, Wild Women, Unreasonable Dreamers,
Poets, Artists & Cosmic Beings
The Red Madonna is a yearlong journey held in the form of a members-only community of
women dedicated to exploring and embracing the Blessed Mother through
connection, creative practice, painting and self expression.
You can choose to join at anytime for a 12 month journey!
Once you join you will receive an invitation to the site!
$97 Per Month for 12 Months
($197 monthly value, you save $100 when you sign up now)
HERE IS JUST SOME OF WHAT YOU WILL EXPERIENCE IN THE RED MADONNA SISTERHOOD
Let the Blessed Mother move through your brush…
- Awaken your heart through soul-stirring conversations, actions and dedicated creative practices.
- Create 12 paintings and 12 prayers or poems – Pick up your paintbrush and experience a profound connection with Her, let her speak to you in color, shape and symbol.
- Light your creative fire through daily and weekly creative spiritual practices.
- Connect with other women on the sacred path of the Red Thread Circle – you are no longer alone.
- Experience connecting and the healing of remothering within the sacred heart of Mother Mary and see how your life becomes transformed from Her presence.
- Study, research and learn about the Blessed Mother throughout the world and her impact on our lives and hearts.
The hidden feminine is coming to light in the world and inside of our hearts…And with Her, She brings all the ways She has never been truly hidden from us. She reveals to us how WE can participate in Her life and and awaken our hearts to truly compassionate love and creative fire.
Find more photos like this on The Red Madonna
An invitation from REVEREND SHILOH SOPHIA
She called me and now I am calling you.
Prayer is a combination of faith,
mystery and unreasonable hope
that keeps the fire on our hearts
connected with the great fire
of the Spirit
Dear One,
I am choosing to start The Red Madonna Journey and you are invited. What that means is that I will work for Her this year – heart, body and soul. This is what I need, and what I know many other women need as well because you have told me yourself. That you long to feel connected to the Sacred Feminine. We have come to a place on our path where living without the inclusion of the feminine in some form is no longer acceptable to us.
And if you are like me, you know that you easily cannot find where you fit it in a church or other communities. She is found in the heart – through conscious creative cultivation of acknowledging her and her presence in your own life. And you don’t have to leave the path you are on to find Her, she is right here waiting for you where you are.
ALL WOMEN from all faiths and paths are welcome to join this journey – the key ingredient is a desire to connect with The Madonna in your own heart and this will be different for each of us.
“She is a tree of life to those that embrace her.” -Proverbs
I am going to tell you all about this journey to the creative soul I have cooked up for you so you might want to get a cup of tea and settle in because you will also learn more about me and my path – and hear about how I was afraid to take this action before. I know this journey is a risk, but it is one worth taking! I know how much richer my life is when I am deeply engaged in a dedicated spiritual practice.
All the details about what is included in the membership can be found below.
Join THE RED MADONNA MEMBERSHIP
Here is some of what is going to happen when you join:
Who is She? First a little context, history and geography. WHO IS THE RED MADONNA? You get to decide who she is for you on your journey. The inspiration is that She is the Archetypal Blessed Mother Mary, Mother of Christ, containing all of Her many colors, skins, countries, messages and symbols. She is inspired by the Black Madonna, Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe who asks us, as She asked Juan Diego almost 500 years ago:“Am I not here, who is your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my fold?”
Her appearance happens in your own heart. Goddesses and their little babies and legends have been with us since the beginning of time…and on record we have evidence over images of feminine deity for over 50,000 years. The Blessed Mother, The Virgin Mary is the one that is with us right now and has been for the past 2000 years – whether She is manifesting as the Black Madonna with the three scars on her face, or Our Lady of Lourdes with gold roses on her shoes, or the Virgin de Guadalupe as the healer of her people on the sacred site of the Goddess Tonantzin – she is showing up in our world. The people have spoken: We will not live without our Mother. No matter what you take from us or how you crush or oppress us, we will find Her and She will find us. Whether the legends be true, or factual, one thing is true..
PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD ARE KEEPING THE MOTHER ALIVE IN THEIR HEARTS THROUGH STORIES AND IMAGES.
Yes, I have been afraid. I admit it.
For years, I have had fear over sharing my love for Her and my work for Her and Jesus – this is due to old patriarchal vestiges, my shroud that make me feel like I am going to get in trouble – for seeking my own Mother, even if she IS the Mother of God. I cast off that shroud of fear and instead, enter the Sanctuary of The Red Madonna, The Mother Mary’s garment of love red woven all around me. Will you come under her mantle with me and explore? This work is not however a rebellion against the patriarchy or organized religion. This is not a political move or a stand. This is a journey to explore something we have lost and will now find for ourselves.
This is an invitation to join a red thread sisterhood in 2012 and journey together – doesn’t that sound GOOD? I obviously think so and so does Artists Mary Schilder who just completed the Black Madonna class.
As most of you know, I walk the path of Christ, although belong to no specific dogma or church, and there is no way for me to do that without The Blessed Mother – She gave birth to Him, and She is also giving birth to us. Through Her love, remothering of our old wounds is possible. Through Her protection, a sense of well being, as we are, comes into view. Through Her compassion a sense of peace comes over you. Through her inspiration, paintings and poems come forth that speak to our hearts. She is the most painted woman in all the world…and now you will paint Her!She is everywhere…
What is your piece of the red thread?
What sacred work is yours to begin in 2012?
We can participate in Her life on earth or not, but the evidence of her LIVING HEALING presence is all over the world. She has appeared in hundreds of places throughout the world in many different skins, outfits (even shoes) symbols and teachings. In Italy she wears blue, in Cuba, yellow in Mexico, green, in France, white. And here in North America – what color does she wear? I say she wears every color, because we are every color. But I also call her The Red Madonna because our geography here is the Red Road, Native American soil – Indian soil. I say she is red because I have followed her red thread to this place right here this road where I invite you to join me and take your part of the red thread.
There is a legend that says Mary was weaving the veil of the temple with red thread when the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Her too announce the big news that she was going to be the Mother of God – what a moment that must have been!
Our Lady of Radiant Grace
THE RED MADONNA MEMBERSHIP
If you choose to walk a sacred path and explore The Blessed Mother with a circle of women and you want to have prayer and writing be your creative spiritual practice then The Red Madonna Membership is for you.
$97 A Month For 12 Months
Then come and receive instruction in creative spiritual practice, painting as sacred practice and participate in monthly telecouncils with Shiloh Sophia, Stella Mac and the Red Madonna community.
The Red Madonna experience is designed as a touchstone to keep us grounded in faith, prayer, possibility, humor, perspective and sisterhood as we navigate one of the most prophesied years as ‘sure to be a wild one!’ You can navigate the changes in grace through choosing HOW you will respond. In many ways saying yes to teaching The Red Madonna this year is about saying yes to my own path – and hearing the 55 women in the BLACK MADONNA class share on circle calls just how important this work is to them – how different it is to be a part of a community exploring the Divine Feminine together. They didn’t want it to end. I didn’t either. Here’s what Susan Rossi from The Black Madonna course shared:
This work has brought me a deep sense of connection to the Holy Mother. I have always felt hesitant about connection with her because of her portrayal as meek, accepting and simply a vessel. Now I feel her strength, her fierce compassion and her love like a rock. I felt her in the room with me the other day – really felt her. Miraculous! And, I have deeply connected with the painting process, allowing intuition and spirit to inform how the process unfolds. I get it, finally!! That feels like a huge breakthrough.
This work is sacred, powerful and self-contained. I felt like I was on retreat with a group of compassionate, spirited women whom I don’t want to leave!! There was a tremendous amount of love, support and giftedness in our circle, and I was blessed to be part of it.
I am looking forward to more information about the Red Madonna workshop – a year long, and a chance to dig more deeply!
The Red Madonna is part mystery school part online community part creative workshop. The way I have connected with Our Lady for over 16 years has sustained me through so much change, financial hardship, loss of my 16 year marriage, business challenges, identity melt downs and so much more… how did She do it sustain me? The slideshow will show you how. And I am inviting you to join me, to take up your paintbrush and paint 12 Madonnas with me next year. I cannot even express the power, the sacred connecting, the feeling of knowing I am held and loved, that comes from painting Her image through my own eyes and hands inspired by images of her in the world and from within my own heart.
Here’s what a recent graduate of
the Black Madonna had to say:
I am so grateful for you, dear Shiloh. My heart swells with thanks and my eyes fill with tears of joy every time I log onto our Black Madonna site. Thank you with all my heart for uniting us across time and space in this beautiful and sacred sisterhood. Thank you for forging this life-saving community, for healing our hearts, for nourishing our creativity, for encouraging our blossoming JOY! Thank you, thank you for embodying the goddess with such love and grace. And thank you for awakening the goddess in all of us. I love you dearly, Beautiful Soul. Many blessings upon you.” -Katherine
DO YOU FEEL CALLED TO PAINT HER IMAGE?
So if you know you would like to join me to paint 12 Madonna’s for a yearlong journey – joining the The RED MADONNA Membership includes PAINTING!! AND no, you don’t have to know how to paint. I will show you.
Here are some questions to see if The Red Madonna is RIGHT for you in 2012
• Do you long for a ‘container’ or form to support you and guide you in your unfolding spiritual practice?
• Do you feel a soul stirring regarding the words – The Black Madonna?
• Have you, like myself, wanted to have a spiritual practice within a community but feel like you don’t fit anywhere?
• Want to connect have a deeper relationship with spirit/source/Creator but still have a hard time doing that just on your own?
• Where you raised in the ‘church’ (any of them) and left for obvious reasons, but still haven’t been able to reconcile not being able to be a part of a community?
• Could you, like the rest of us, use some re-mothering, that you can access on your own?
• Have you tried “doing it on your own” and feel that sense of needing connection with a larger community that is also walking a spiritual path?
• Do you wonder how to weave your existing spiritual views into your evolving consciousness?
• Do you feel that when you create you are connecting with the DIVINE and wonder if there could be more there for you through creativity and the sacred?
• Do you feel that the Blessed Mother Archetype could hold wisdom for you and your journey and you are tired of a male-only paradigm of spirituality?
• If you are in NEED of a spiritual community of women to walk with you on your path, then join The Red Madonna.
The year is going to include all kinds of incredible teachings and teachers….including Caron McCloud, Sue Hoya Sellars, Stella Mac and Elizabeth Gibbons – what a pleasure to get the opportunity to work with these women.
If you have been following my work for a while you know that much of my work is dedicated to the Blessed Mother and Jesus, The Christ. The Red Madonna is an explorational community of women. The focus of the group is to explore the Blessed Mother, specifically in her Marian form. This community is less about a specific teaching from a teacher or leader, and more about a group experience and getting to a part of a women’s spiritual community. This is not a mentorship and due to the number of people I will not be able to mentor people individually unless they are a part of the in-person gatherings which will be announced throughout the year.
golden field – alive, flourishing with enough soul to feed all who come there.
This inextinguishable heart of Love protects life-force essence there,
even while all else stands in ruins.” -Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés
INVITATION to The Red Madonna Sisterhood
All women are invited to apply who are interested in exploring their relationship with the Blessed Mother or who are interested in journeying with me as I share about my own process of connecting with the sacred feminine.
$97 Per Month MEMBERSHIP INCLUDES
- Be a Member of The Red Madonna Sanctuary online – a private social platform
- Awaken your compassion and your knowledge of the world and its peoples: Visit 12 Countries and learn about the Madonna in each location – Her symbols, legends, healings and messages to her people
- Create a true body of work – your own collection of Madonnas: Create 12 Paintings of Madonnas inspired from Marian appearances from around the world.
- Claim your writing practice through writing 12 Poems or Prayers that go with your paintings – everyone will have their own ability to blog and share it with the Sisterhood.
- Receive the basic seven step teaching process from Shiloh Sophia on painting as a sacred practice.
- Transformational Weekly Creative Spiritual Practices: prompts in writing, drawing and thinking dedicated to creating a sacred container for your life with passion, purpose, prayer and power.
- Participate in live monthly Red Thread Circle Calls with Shiloh Sophia and guests dedicated to learning about Our Lady and deepening your practice – and participate in open mics to share your writings
- Rachel’s Bag: Bible Circles with Shiloh Sophia and her Mother, Caron McCloud, a poet and Qabalist – learn about scripture from a feminine lens and learn about the women Sheroes and Shekinah from the text.
- Participate Weekly Discussions about the Divine Feminine: theology, sophiology.
PLUS Plus plus +++ BONUS offerings - Red Madonna TV – live webcasts “Church” with Shiloh Sophia
- Listen to Red Madonna Radio conversations with women experts, teachers, curanderas, scholars
- Connect with other women on the path of exploring the Sacred Feminine
- Blogposts from Our Lady of the Red Thread: Shiloh Sophia’s Blog
- Prayer Circle – for your needs, wants, and requests so you can be held and supported in 2012
- Contribute to the research and writings for our community about Our Lady: songs, writings, images
- Get started immediately: The Black Madonna Painting Video Series
- Be a part of our online Gallery show (and maybe an in-person) with the work created.
- Have your blogs and painting featured throughout the year in our community, and opportunities to lead a discussion or group of your own.
All offerings in The Red Madonna membership are optional and your participation is not monitored or required so the amount of time you spend is up to you. Our only request for membership is that you DO want to deepen in your relationship with the Blessed Mother and desire to be a part of a community of women. For the woman who is ready to paint. No experience is required. This is a most powerful membership because you get to work with HER image.
The Red Madonna Journey is an invitation to voyage to 12 different lands with 12 different Madonnas and paint a painting inspired by each one for you and your own path. Go on a virtual tour with your Red Thread Sisterhood to Cuba, Africa, China, Mexico, Italy, France and Russia to see how Our Lady has appeared to her people over the past 2000 years.
Please Note: Membership is invitation based and self-directed. You will be invited to participate but it is up to you to say yes or no or maybe. There are no assignments ‘due’ as in a traditional class or course – how much or how you play is your choice. The offerings are non-linear in that you can drop in at almost any time to access the teachings for that week.
For women in all phases of life….
“I am still in shock with all that has happened to me during these 4 weeks. Who would think that I would love painting as much as I do! Not only painting but praying and painting together…….I cannot stop. Each time I pass my little canvases – yes plural – cause now my whole family wants a painting, I hear from Our Lady stop, take a look, pray for this one or that one……..or I want this changed just a bit. I hear Her whisper I love this just the way it is leave that alone! 
I am soooooooo on fire now I feel like I am 20 again and found my purpose in life. What is so wonderful is I get to share all I am learning some time in the future with girls who need to feel the same – unconditional love from a Mother – to be on fire to create in their own way……no matter what their beliefs are. I am sure Our Lady has many plans to touch and heal their hearts. (plus I am showing my 6 yr old granddaughter Amaya and she is painting her own little canvases now).
I talk too much to only use 3 adjectives to describe this class but I will try. It has been ground-breaking, unbelievably fulfilling and soul touching (is there such a word as soul-touching)? It is a Divine appointment that I almost missed because I thought who would want to teach me to paint and that negative thought of being too old.” -Marilyn McGinley
Have you heard her voice in your heart?
The hidden feminine is coming to light in the world and inside of us.
And with Her, She brings all the ways She has never been truly hidden from us.
Our work now is to let Her into the cave of our hearts.
Pilgrimage with me to Her sacred lands and broken hearted valleys.
Take up your walking stick and your medicine bag and gather with me
Her symbols and signs of healing, transformation and insight.
The alchemy of Her presence awakens within us and she reweaves
that which has been lost and fragmented with the red threads hem of Her garment
so that we can live in the heart of gold instead of the heart of sorrow.
Journeying with the Red Madonna is pilgrimage home to remothering ourselves.
TESTIMONIALS
With Shiloh and Mary I know that whatever they do it is sacred work and I want to be part of it. I know they walk their talk and they always attract the right women for the right groups. I am loving be part of this circle and am awed by the courage, love and the sharing. The sacred feminine is a palpable presence and I can hear her heart speaking to the world and asking to be invited in. I want to want to learn more, paint more, and write more and be able to share her with women everywhere. We, as women, need her nurturing and support so we don’t deplete ourselves in service to others. I am so in awe of all of you … thus my love note to you. Be wrapped in her love and ask and expect to receive, knock and the door will be opened, seek and you will find her.” -Mary
I am so grateful for you, dear Shiloh. My heart swells with thanks and my eyes fill with tears of joy every time I log onto our Black Madonna site. Thank you with all my heart for uniting us across time and space in this beautiful and sacred sisterhood. Thank you for forging this life-saving community, for healing our hearts, for nourishing our creativity, for encouraging our blossoming JOY! Thank you, thank you for embodying the goddess with such love and grace. And thank you for awakening the goddess in all of us. I love you dearly, Beautiful Soul. Many blessings upon you.” -Katherine
I was also grateful that in the last call, you mentioned the sacrifices you have made to be able to express, authentically and fully, your love for Our Mother. Your courage and your trust are probably hard won (you ARE human, after all…), but your example guides us all. With love from deep in my heart.” -Elaine
The Warning – Jesus will be spoken here
Shiloh’s note continued…
Fourteen years ago I was ordained as a Reverend. I went through 2 years of Priestess training to become a Reverend. It was a mystery school – esoteric independent Catholic and strangely enough, my ordination was the last one they ever did. There were beautiful and strange things about it- like all mystery schools that reside partially inside the veil. Due to pressure from sources outside myself I dropped the title of Reverend from my name. I have missed it and reclaim in this space. My school no longer exists, and the degree I have is not transferable to University or recognized by the State – but what I am is a Reverend, here to be in service to my community and to the Great Spirit of Life. This work, and all the work I do is my ministry – the form my ministry has taken.
I believe in ultimate truth and I also believe that we don’t know what that really is right now. And so I have chosen a story to live my life through and that story is one of a Mother and Child born of the Holy Spirit. I believe the medicine that Christ and His Mother brought and made available on earth is forgiveness. Forgiveness of ourselves, and others, and of God. When we can get off our own case, release our karma, and enter into the living waters of Christ’s love we can shed the skins of where we have been and enter the sanctuary of what is possible for our lives. This year and a half have been the most soul wrenching broken hearted of my life. Keeled over, bent in half, on my knees, sobbing for my life kind of pain from the loss of my 16 year marriage. Only one thing has remained completely constant – my relationship with Christ and Mary and my community of Cosmic Cowgirls.
In all of my work I truly strive to make sure the work is appropriate for women from all paths, because all paths are welcome at the feast tables I set. And this is still true. However, how this course is different is that we are focusing specifically on MARY – The Blessed Mother, Theotokos, Our Lady and Jesus’ own mother. We will be drawing from the scriptures of the Holy Bible, and explore Her role as the Mother of Christ and humanity and the world soul. I am a Christ-centered woman who works with the Blessed Mother. We will not be patriarchy bashing, but instead — finding our way through with grace and non-reactivity to the well of the Sacred Feminine in ourselves, as well as in scripture. IF you have missed Jesus a little…and want to find a context in which to include Him in your heart and don’t know how that can work — come. The topics covered are specifically about Mary, the Mother of God and Her appearances through out the world – and developing your personal relationship with her.
Signed in red thread and rose petals,
