Recently I dedicated into the Sisterhood of Rhiannon after training for a year on the Priestess of Rhiannon training with Katinka Soetens, in Glastonbury UK. I decided to embark on this journey after a woman in the Goddess community said to me casually in conversation "I loved the Rhiannon training so much that I think every woman should do it at some point in her life". So I did it!
I’m here to share what my experience was of the first year, without giving away any of the mystery of course, for anyone who is interested or curious, and to explain a little about what the Rhiannon Training is!
The training is learning the “Path of the Priestess” in service to Rhiannon, the Goddess of Love.
She can be found in Celtic mythology and she is usually honoured as a Lover Goddess, especially within our Goddess traditions in Glastonbury. There are two sides to the course – one is more spiritual, learning meditations and practices in dedication to the Goddess. The other side is more self-development and healing of emotional wounds. Through becoming more authentic, more our true selves we can open to serve Her Love in the world with much more dedication and connection, so really the two aspects of the training are vital for each other.
The training is 9 weekends through the year, each focused on one directional archetype of Rhiannon with “homework” in between. The loving energy of the Goddess Rhiannon can be found in the 8 directions of the compass, with the Goddess Rhiannon in the centre. In the directions are the Wild Maiden, Pathfinder, Lover Dakini, Deep Diver, Mother-Midwife, Queen, Wise Woman, and Soul Song Singer as can be seen in the image. This is the Wheel of Rhiannon. I've made a little drawing with the names of the 8 archetypes and what energy I can feel within each direction.
These 8 archetypes flow in the order of the life of a woman, from a young adventurous girl, free and wild, to a teenage or young woman finding her own authentic path, to a Lover who is full and whole in herself, loving herself and others. To the Mother who cares for and nurtures, to the Queen Rhiannon who is not above anyone else but simply Queen of her Realm, non-hierarchical. Finally, all of her wisdom gathered brings her to the Wise Old One, and finally the Soulful, Authentic, deep knowing and expressing of the Soul Song Singer. We can learn from these healthy feminine archetypes what we want to step into to find greater joy, fulfilment, love, expression, celebration, uniqueness, and many other positive things!
...........The catch is, all of us have found ourselves living and acting in “shadows” of these healthy archetypes, instead of embodying the one that would bring us and the rest of the world the most love and joy. This is because of conditioning due to us living in a patriarchal society, childhood wounding, abuse or many other experiences during our lives (or possibly even past lives). Fear, anxiety, bitchiness, insecurity, unhappiness, addictions, lack of faith or trust in ourselves or others, and many other negative feelings and behaviours can arise from the wounded shadow places….. So looking inward and healing these is totally life changing!!! My life has COMPLETELY changed in just 12 months. I am stronger, more aware of myself in many ways, much more confident and deepening a lot into my spiritual development and finding a lot of joy from this.
So……. With *SO MUCH* to learn and understand within each directional archetype of the Goddess Rhiannon, each weekend was pretty intense with often big revelations of sudden understanding or realizing for me. Sometimes I was left feeling completely blissful and ecstatic on the Monday after, elated with joy - other times totally drained after so much deep work and unable to do anything other than sleep and rest. There is always a lot of sharing and in the morning of the Saturday. The sharing circle can take hours but everyone’s story is full of wisdom and reflection for everyone in the group. I can definitely see that I have actually learned just as much from everyone else’s sharing and journey as I have from my own; we are all reflections to one another after all <3 Many women have never had a chance to heard and honoured in their feelings and sharing with such presence and love and it is so beautiful to see your sisters grow and become stronger through the year. In fact, witnessing and being witnessed, and loving and being loved, all within safe held space, have to be one of the two most positive and healing aspects of being on this training.
For me, a big part of the Rhiannon training was to work on an addictive self-destructive behaviour pattern I have had with the masculine, my sexuality and my relationships with men in my life, and through the year I struggled with a lot of tricky emotions, hard feelings around belonging, being held, being loved and wanted. But with the support of Katinka the teacher and my sisters of the training I have managed to make huge shifts and step into a far healthier place with this aspect of myself. It’s milestones like this that make me feel like this year was one of the best choices I ever made. Having been given a safe space to do so I have managed to uncover a lot of really difficult places but making shifts and working through emotions that arise has created opportunity for so much healing and also an awareness within me that this journey doesn’t end but just gets deeper and stronger as time goes on.
Another really life changing aspect of the training has been the opportunity to arrive more fully in my body and really learn to love my body in ways I haven’t before, especially finding connection to Rhiannon within myself. A lot of meditations involving the root of the body, the womb space and yoni, and bodywork in weekends in pairs or groups, have helped me to ground myself and really fall in love with the body I have and feel the Sacredness of my body. Just being able to feel a part of Her Beauty is very healing especially being a young woman constantly projected upon by the media to be a certain way.
I could continue to write more and more about how this training has changed my life for the better! I am more confident – I have grown in my certainty of myself and who I am and what I bring to the world. Age wise, at 23 years old I fit into the "Pathfinder phase" on the wheel of Rhiannon (although of course we all have parts of ourselves that embody all of Her archetypes for our whole life). So I have learned a lot about what it means to be a Healthy Embodiment of the Pathfinder – not a rebel to the system and the patriarchy and not either a conformist, but to explore and adventure through my life at this Pathfinder stage to find what is truly joyful for me! The incredible understanding and manifesting of what healthy sisterhood is is so special and precious and the safe space of trust and love held within the training opens up opportunity to create this beautiful love between women.
The first year is really about finding that connection to the Goddess and deepening that, and deepening into ourselves. There is also a second year, which I am taking of course seeing as I love it all so much! It is 5 weekends long, and at the end of which a ceremonial Initiation as a Priestess of Rhiannon takes place.
I highly recommend this training for any woman who feels drawn. Katinka has all of the information for how to sign up on her website herpathoflove.com ... Check it out <3
Thank you for reading my blog again my beautiful tribe, I love you all very much! If you know this work and would like to share this writing with your friends who may have never heard of the Goddess Path, feel free, lets share the love. And if you have any questions or comments, let me know! <3 Blessed Be!