Remembering Sheila-Na-Gig
“I am Sheila-Na-Gig, and I offer the invitation of true self-enquiry, so that we can come into accordance with the rhythms of our body, our spirit, our heart, our mind. So that we may each see ourselves clearly as the entry point into the divine, and find our peace in the beginnings, middles and endings of all things.”
Sheila-Na-Gig is the goddess that surprised me the most in the Practical Magic Business Circle. When I knew she was one of our goddesses, I’ll admit that I felt no small degree of trepidation. She’s a shadowy figure. She’s not about delivering clarity. She is a goddess of deep yin. And the way she is so frequently represented is shocking and subversive.
And yet, in every interaction, she surprised me with her gentleness, her sweetness, and her capacity for giving comfort.
When I introduced her last time around, this is how I described her…
Sheila-Na-Gig is an ancient British goddess whose likeness is carved into certain old church buildings. She is pictured as a crone with her legs akimbo, displaying her yoni. Not the kind of carving you would expect to see on a church!
And yet, like she says, she invites us into a beautifully revelatory experience of self-enquiry. As the yoni-displaying crone, she symbolises both the life and death processes, as well as the in between moments, where she offers us comfort in our state of not-knowing, not-seeing.
All of this was true. But Sheila-Na-Gig took us so much further, so much deeper.
Through research and personal enquiry in visualisations, flow-writing, and sacred chocolate ceremony, I came to see Sheila-Na-Gig as a goddess of sanctuary, of the nemeton.
Nemeton is a word used in druidry that speaks to sacred groves, living temples that resonate with magic, places for ritual. However, as Emma Restall Orr describes the nemeton, we can also think of our nemeton as our “intimate space”. And this definition, I feel, speaks directly to that which we receive when we meet Sheila-Na-Gig. She reconnects us to our intimate spaces, and in so doing, delivers us a felt experience of sanctuary.
But how does that connect to business? After all, business is about being out there, isn’t it? It’s about marketing and hustling and the process of exchange between provider and client. Well, yes. And it’s so much more than that too, right?
It’s also about responding to the rhythms, the cycles of nature as they play through your environment, as they spiral through your body. It’s about managing the delicate balance between the call to be out in the world, serving, tending, birthing, and the call to turn inwards, resting, visioning, gestating.
Working closely with Sheila-Na-Gig in my own business has brought me into closer alignment with the cycles of my business, so that I can lean in and respond appropriately, whether this is by producing content, visioning the big picture, or gathering and holding space for others and myself to engage in deep enquiry, as we do in the Practical Magic Business Circle.
I know that as she steps forward to meet this Spring circle, we will discover even more of this goddess’ mystery. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, the Autumn circle was held during the waning part of the annual seasonal cycle in the northern hemisphere. Sheila’s energy helped us to gain awareness of our sanctuary so that we could have a safe and sacred place to hold us through the darkening days, a place where we could dream and feel ourselves restored to our centre.
The next round of the Practical Magic Business Circle will be held in the waxing stage of the cycle, the time of year when the light lengthens, leaves push out from the branches, and chicks hatch from their eggs. Sanctuary takes on a whole new perspective as we approach it at this time of year. And Sheila-Na-Gig is going to support our process as we discover what it means for us, what it means for our business, for all the ways in which our energy seeks expression in the big wide world.
If you’re ready to do business differently, to invite in the extraordinary support of the goddess as business partner, and to deepen your own understanding of your business, your desire, your soul medicine, then the Practical Magic Business Circle is for you. We begin on the 9th March, and you are invited to claim your place now.
Oh, and if you book before the 14th February, you can take advantage of the Early Bird offer…
Tomorrow, it’s Shakti’s turn as we discover the meeting places between the body and the business, and all the ways in which embodiment can support you to cultivate presence, wisdom and energy for yourself, your clients and, of course, your business. Completely delicious…
