The Holy Wild. Danielle Dulsky

me who is living that eleventh-chapter scene?

      Let these words be positive rather than negative. For instance, is the heroine who is living out the eleventh chapter more fearless? Joyous? Autonomous? Financially stable? The words that come to mind now should be akin to what you are looking to invoke. Once you have five to ten words that are also desires, inscribe these around the serpentine shapes, inside the red border of the circle. Use whatever colors feel right. Add any other symbols or sigils you work with, images from dreams that seem pertinent, or design elements that will complete your work of art, your Lilith mandala. Every word here should make you feel powerful, compel you toward sovereignty, and offer you a felt sense of selfhood and high worth. If you have time to move on to the fourth and final part of the spell, do so now and with a strong will and open heart.

       Part 4. Mandala Blessing: Spoken Root Prayer for the Primitive Soul

      During this final part of the spell, you will seal your magick and bless your art. To begin, ask yourself this: Do I believe I have the right to be here, on this Earth? Do you believe that the ancestral inheritance of wisdom you have coming to you, running in your very blood, is your birthright? Deep-seated beliefs about your right to have what you want are buried in the red, raw space of Muladhara, or the root chakra. The spinal cord is one of the first structures to form in the womb, with the root chakra’s physical location situated at the base of the spine and pelvic floor. Here in this round, red house, we contain the beliefs we learn as babes about how much safety and security we deserve, primal messages received from innumerable sources, including but not limited to the birth experience, the level of nurturing received from our primary caregivers, any physical traumas, dark fears and tempting desires from the collective unconscious, and memories from lives long gone. The feminine soul-wound sits here, compromising the very foundation of the chakral system until it is recognized for the beastly medicine that it is.

      This healing practice is a body prayer to your self-worth. Claim your right to have with your whole body. Know yourself as Queen. Refuse to accept the spiritual limits set upon you and infuse your garnet roots with a deeper understanding of who you are and what you, as the Goddess embodied, deserve.

      Stand with your mandala at your feet, and cast a circle, if it is in your practice to do so, calling to all four directions, above, and below, and allow yourself to be the center point of all things right now, in this moment. Lift your pelvic floor up toward your heart by engaging the root muscles. Sink your consciousness low and pull your thinking mind down, down, and down further still until you can visualize your root chakra. Take notice of how the energy is moving, the colors that emanate from that space, and the size of this energetic wellspring. Keep your awareness anchored there at your root, and whisper aloud these prompting phrases, letting the root energy complete them with just a single word, long, verbose answers that seem endless, or any expressions in between. The root speaks in its own language, so listen without blocking any visions that come.

       I have the right to...

       I know for sure that home is...

       What I value most in the world is...

       I am soft skin around hard bones, and I feel...

      These prompts are merely suggestions for giving the root chakra an opportunity to speak. Feel free to write your own introductory words, and tap into your root consciousness as needed. You, as the Priestess of the Wild Earth, house aches sourced not only from the loss of the divine feminine but also from the ailing planet, and giving the root a chance to speak is a step toward healing not only you but the very ills of this world. Raise energy in this way, speaking the red language of the root and tapping into the deepest and most primal part of your feminine soul.

      Allow every word that ascends from the root and spills from your lips to bless the artwork at your feet, to empower you, and to affirm that you have the right to be here on this Earth. You have the right to hold in your hands what is most truly and genuinely yours, and you have the right, an ancestral birthright, to claim the life your soul designed for you before you were born into this body.

      Stay here for as long as you have, and, when ready, place hands firmly on the ground, sending your particular medicine down deep into the bones of the Earth herself. Breathe from the lowest places in your body, and feel a kinship with your bloodlines. In this moment, you belong nowhere else but right here. Open the circle, if you had cast that boundary, offering gratitude to your guides and unseen cosmic energies for supporting you, and place your artwork somewhere precious, somewhere holy.

      And so it is.

PATHWORKING IN THE UNDERWORLD: MEETING THE GODDESS BELOW

      Building a respectful relationship with the Dark Goddesses, these Priestesses of the Underworld who share our wounds, means considering where and how their stories are your stories. The Goddess is not to be used, appropriated, or owned. She is to be met and met well, with a necessary reverence and wholeheart understanding that she is, after all, the embodiment of feminine power.

      In this pathworking experience, I invite you to meet the Goddess of the Underworld as she shows herself to you, to envision her as you read these words, and to consider the lessons she has for you today. Know that were you to envision her tomorrow, she might show up for you much differently than she does at this moment. The messages you receive during pathworking experiences are those you are meant to receive in the moment rather than finite lessons that cannot be revisited. Sit comfortably, breathe, and open yourself to what comes.

      Delve deeply into your wild psyche, my love, and envision these scenes while you read, very slowly, giving your psyche time to catch up with your reading. Imagine this journey with your eyes open and your will strong:

      Begin by descending a dark spiral staircase, your bare feet falling on cold stones and your way illuminated only by the single gently hissing, flickering torch you carry. On the walls you see ancient symbols you do not know and words in a language you do not speak, but there is something of the primal feminine about this place. Falling on your ears now are joyous cackles, guttural sobbing, enraged screaming, and lighthearted love songs — all manner of human emotion — floating up from below. You are not afraid, even as the stairs end and bright firelight glows from the temple space before you.

      Here, holy hellfire stretches in long flames from a pit at the room’s center, a blaze you sense has been burning since the dawn of time. You are not alone here in this fire temple, with women of all ages, from all times and all cultures, moving about the space, some eyeing you with suspicion and others with great knowing compassion. These are the Keepers of the Earth-Fires, and from among these holy Priestesses steps the Goddess of the Underworld. You recognize her as their leader, for she radiates a particular intensity. She has been to hell and back many times over, and she is no flower-crowned Maiden of spring.

      Her skin is scarred, her hair is singed, and yet she remains unruined.

      “There is only one way out of here,” the Goddess tells you.

      You look over your shoulder to find the staircase’s entrance completely sealed with stone. You straighten your spine and hold your breath, waiting for her to gift you with her wisdom.

      “You must leap into the flames and trust you will not burn. You must risk all you have in the name of your soul’s truth.” The Goddess waves her hand to the crowd of women surrounding you. “Many of these women have lived in this underworld for long years, whole lifetimes spent too afraid of letting their old selves die so their more soulful selves can be reborn. How long will you stay, Priestess?”

      The heat of the fire is overwhelming. Sweat runs in salty rivulets into your eyes as you approach the flaming gate, but you are surefooted and committed to your liberation. You can see how you might stay, not only out of trepidation but because the sisterhood bond is strong here. These fallen women were willingly staying in their depths because here, in this particular hell, they have found a kinship of the wounded, a coven of the scarred.

      “Well? How long will you join us here?”

      You answer her, as only you can. What do you say to the Goddess