Walking a Sacred Path in Red Madonna 2016 – A 13 Moon Journey to Reveal the Hidden Feminine
Dear Ones,
You might now know this about me and I don’t share it very often. Somehow I feel, at 45, old enough to share it!
More then 20 years of moons ago I was ordained in an independent Catholic sacramental mystical church through Holy Orders and received my degree from seminary! Can’t you just see me in my white robe, my 25 year old blonde head poking out. Building altars – and yes, creating art for the altar.
Although I do not continue with the mantle of Reverend that I carried until just a few years ago, it was a powerful experience that shaped the way I work in the world with women, the feminine, art, ritual and the sacraments. That, combined with my call to serve and my desire since childhood to heal others through laying on of hands has resulted in an interesting dynamic combination for my life that keeps me hopping between worlds as if my feet are on fire – and certainly my heart. And my paintbrush is singed with the fire of that sacred happening on my path.
I am rarely at peace on my path with Spirit, although my heart is peaceful, my process is very much one of wrestling 
with the Angel. I am in a constant inquiry – moving through layers of illusion and piercing veils of deception – especially regarding the feminine. And, I dare to invite women along with me for the journey. Part of my work is to confront directly in scripture the misconceptions of the feminine and Christ. The stories have been being told one way for a long time, I see them in a different light, that of Christ liberating the feminine. Like so much of my other work it continues to be dangerous territory. I walk a fine line that is drawn around me by the hand of Christ in the sand – as if He has said: You can go to this line, but don’t step too far over. Stay here with me and rest awhile and I will show you what you cannot see and how to walk a sacred path with me.
And so I stayed. Despite my protestations and issues with the church and patriarchy and the lies about women and the feminine. I am one who works inside the sphere instead of outside the sphere. I am on a dedicated spiritual path INSIDE the church, while working with many outside…but who feel a longing for a deeper connection with the sacred – which each of us approaches in this work with intentional creativity. Does the circle define me or confine me? Yes and I have extreme freedom and faith that I am somehow held in all of this, close to the heart of the Divine. For being one who works with the feminine, has a wild spirit and dances on the edge, my ministry has a distinctly vital alive frequency for myself and the women I serve. We never know what is going to happen but continue on in the path anyway…and allow what needs to be revealed to show up through painting and prayer and possibility on each full moon. Yes, howling in the red tent and the breaking of bread and wine over candlelight and stories happens here.
For 5 years over 100-200 women a month have sat together in red thread circle with both my Mother Caron McCloud and Havi Mandell to create and explore our spiritual path in the great company of one another and the great Divine Mother. Each year has different themes and inquiries that have an emphasis on the Blessed Mother Mary in one of her many skins and costumes and medicines from around the world. This year we are working with love, as it manifests in the context of the Cathedral of the Heart, this infinite space that is held both within our physical hearts, the domain of love for others and self as manifested out in the world and with the Divine. The image above is a combination of the Cosmic Heart of Sue Hoya Sellars, my painting from last year, Queen of the Cosmos and the window at Notra Dame in Paris.
We as a community are choosing, and I mean powerfully choosing, to walk the sacred path of the year in LOVE while working with revealing the hidden feminine, both as Divine, and as ourselves. The parts of us that are still in hiding. From a context of living from and through and with heart. This isn’t some fluffy context of all we need is love, and or love is the only way and or don’t watch the suffering, give love to it. Those are threads in the weave of the tent, but rather this is the challenge to choose love at the center of ALL OF OUR CHOICES. Good idea right? Not so easy to do, as we together shall discover. We will bring our journey to the canvas. We each will be painting our own version of the Cathedral of our heart, She who is the Lady of Love for us personally.
I don’t come from a space of knowing — rather from a place of curiosity on the spiritual path – and being open to the adventure of what that means.
I look forward to the adventure this brings,
Shiloh Sophia
To learn more about joining us for 2016 you can check it out HERE. Doors open December 12 with a free class on the Virgin Guadalupe to get you started. Enrollment is through the end of January. We will work on one painting all year, with 13 distinct steps and dares and inquiries to bring love into your life
