Messages from Magdalen

for those who have ears to hear

Hi!

I’m inspired to play with form here, and this built itself in my mind over the past few weeks.

Welcome to the version of this space that exists right now!

Here you’ll find an Oracle message, an answered reader question, a passage from a holy text with journal questions to contemplate, a ritual for strengthening your energetic channel, a playlist, and some random channeled odds and ends. This is part vibe check/energy weather report, part instruction, and part random, holy whatevers!

Between now and January when I start with my 2025 Advanced Priestess Students (there are still a few group spots, and two 1:1 spots left), I’ll be sending one of these per week. Two will be free and two will be behind the paywall. I hope you enjoy!

Oracle Message

I pulled a card for this collective from Meggan Watterson’s Divine Feminine Oracle. Welcome SAPPHO into your space, because she has stepped forward.

Sappho was believed to have been born around 630 B.C.E. on the island of Lesbos. She is the Poetess, held as an equal to Homer within Greek lyrical work. She is one of the few acknowledged female poets we have from the ancient world. She performed her poems rhythmically accompanied by music, in her own meter. Sapphic meter.

Sappho was deeply connected to her sexuality and her sensuality, and much of her work is devotion to the female form. Authorities in Constantinople and Rome publicly burned her work in the 11th century. Why? She was a woman who wrote about sex. During her own time, a woman’s love for another woman was considered a natural part of human connection, and “her love for the female form became legendary.”

Sappho’s work was not considered scandalous simply for its subject matter. It is believed that she originally performed for groups of women, inspiring their understanding of their own goddess-like nature. This energetic signature is felt in her work still today, so it is no wonder the system has attempted to destroy, hide, or diminish it over the centuries. Many of her poems are lost to time.

This is a call to remove any fear, comparison, or hatred toward our own holy bodies. She calls us in to ecstatic devotion of the physical vessel we occupy, no matter what it looks or feels like. How can you show your body this devotion right now in this moment? Take a bath, go for a walk, eat good food, run your hands along your torso, your belly, your thighs. Adorn yourself with oil. Dance when the music plays. Do these and anything else that feels natural to you while actively extending the action itself TO your body, as an act of wild, untamed, holy love.

Sappho of Lesbos by John William Godward

Prayer to my lady of Paphos

from “Sappho: A New Translation” by Mary Barnard

Prayer to my lady of Paphos

Dapple-throned Aphrodite,

eternal daughter of God,

snare-knitter! Don’t, I beg you

cow my heart with grief! Come,

as once when you heard my far-

off cry and, listening, stepped

from your father’s house to your

gold car, to yoke the pair whose

beautiful thick-feathered wings

oaring down mid-air from heaven

carried you to light swiftly

on dark earth; then, blissful one,

smiling your immortal smile

you asked, What ailed me now that

made me call you again? What

was it that my distracted

heart most wanted? “Whom has

Persuasion to bring round now

“to your love? Who, Sappho, is

unfair ot you? For, let her

run, she will soon run after;

“if she won’t accept gifts, she

will one day give them; and if

she won’t love you - she soon will

“love, although unwillingly….”

If ever - come now! Relieve

this intolerable pain!

What my heart most hopes will

happen, make happen; you your-

self join forces on my side!

What does this mean to you? Not necessarily the literary interpretation, but what does it mean to you, specifically? Feel free to drop it in the comments here.

Enlighten Up

R. asks,

“Does the divine “test” us?”

Yes and no! It depends on who you ask and how conditioned by fear, patriarchy, capitalism, and white supremacy their perspective is.

This is my understanding at present…

There are periods of time and will be periods of time that feel as though we’re being put through some kind of gauntlet or series of divinely-guided challenges. This doesn’t happen because of an angry, omniscient god with an impossibly high standard for who we must be in order to receive mercy, abundance, ease, grace, love, etc. This isn’t punishment, or an obstacle course we must achieve our way through.

It’s not a “test” we get a score on and that score determines our worthiness. It is a test in that we are given the opportunity to reflect on our own resolve, belief, and willingness to let go of whatever is asking to be shed. We get a sense of where we are on our healing journey, what we’ve mastered, and how we can further sink into support on the path.

The test doesn’t determine worthiness, it creates an understanding of what we NEED, then illuminates the path toward those resources, people, situations, etc. For example, if you have a weird rash, so you go to the Doctor and they decide to do a bunch of allergy tests on your skin, the results of that test don’t decide whether or not you deserve treatment. The results determine what kind of treatment will best support you. Same vibe!

Thank you so much for this question! This is a concept that sometimes becomes a big, complicated monster in people’s heads, when in reality, it’s quite simple. So thank you for asking, R.! And if anyone would like to submit a question for next week’s piece, you can do that here.

Contemplate

from Chapter Five of the Magdalen Manuscript

“The Church would have you believe I was a whore, but I tell you now that the church is the whore, for she would have you believe that woman is tainted and that the sexual passions between [us] are evil. Yet it is here, in the magnetics of passion, that the womb of ascension is created.”

What is your understanding of your own sexual nature? Do you consider your sexuality and your spirituality separate from one another? In what ways do they overlap and in what ways do they feel divorced from one another? Do any aspects of your natural desire induce fear, or the feeling of being unclean? Why? How can you bring holy, loving awareness to these parts of yourself? What do you personally need to get the shame, fear, and guilt the church has used to control our ideas around sex and spirit out of your system?

This week, take a bath, adorn yourself with oil, and wear red.

Ritual to Strengthen the Energetic Channel that is You

This is a practice I’ve been working with in one form or another over the past several years. It is rooted in the power of Aset (Lady Isis) and ancient Egyptian alchemy. I believe I first learned it in a yoga class in Brooklyn. Then, I encountered it with a healer on the Shore, and it pops up in oracle decks, textbooks, and conversations.

Alana Fairchild calls this practice “The Pillar of Light” in her Isis Oracle Deck. I do not recommend sitting in this practice for too long, especially if you’ve never consciously engaged with it before. I also ask that you check in with yourself to see if you really need it in this season of life. Some will, some will not.

We engage with this specific practice when we’re on the precipice of expansion. You feel it coming, and some of the physical aspects have begun arranging themselves around you. This practice strengthens both the channel running through you and your physical body, so that the influx of light you’re asked to carry through the expansion, and on the other side of transformation, will not overwhelm your system.

SO, if all is aligned, or when all is aligned, you can engage with the following to strengthen the body, mind, and spirit’s ability to channel Light:

Sit either crosslegged on the floor or in a chair with your feet flat on the floor. Either way, your spine should be long and straight. Relax your shoulders, the jaw, and the muscles of the body. Take a few breaths here and sink into yourself. Invite your spirit and your mind to settle with the body.

When you feel ready, bring your awareness to your energetic body. If you’re comfortable working with chakras, do that. Bring awareness to your root at the tip of your tailbone, the sacral between the belly button and the womb, the solar plexus just below the sternum, the heart, the throat, the third eye, and the crown. You may also choose to work, as I do, with the three Cauldrons of the Celtic tradition. The Cauldron of Warming sits deep in the belly within the pelvis, the Cauldron of Motion is the center of the chest, and the Cauldron of Wisdom is within the head or just atop it like a crown.

Once you feel these energy centers activated within your awareness, then imagine the Earth Star Chakra sitting just beneath you, six to twelve inches below the dirt. See it begin to swell with Light, the holy frequency provided by the Earth. Next, imagine the Soul Star Chakra floating six to twelve inches above your crown. See it begin to glow with the light of Universal Love.

Now, with the breath, move the light of the Earth Star up through the energy centers until it meets the Soul Star. And then, pull that light back down through the body to the Earth Star. As you do this, you’ll feel the light strengthen and grow, and you’ll feel your physical and energetic muscles strengthen. Do this for 5-10 minutes, 3-4 times per week as long as it feels necessary. You will know when it’s time to cool it and let things integrate physically.

ADVANCED: Once you’ve mastered this practice, after 2 or 3 rounds of working with it (not 2 or 3 individual engagements with it, but 2 or 3 seasons of life it has supported you through), you may choose to add in another element. Call in the light of the star Sirius, our Sun, or the Sun God Ra to infuse the Soul Star Chakra, as the Earth infuses the Earth Star, and move the light between all of it together.

Be gentle with yourself and stop when you feel called to.

Listen to:

Hecate by Wendy Rule

Lavender Burning by Half Waif

You by Maiah Manser

You and I Are Falling, You and I Are Free by Rising Appalachia

Deep End by Holly Humberstone

Secret Dialogue on the Side of a Mountain by Small Fools

Do I Ever Cross Your Mind by Chet Atkins

Happy to Be Here by Julien Baker

The Consequences of Not Sleeping by Little Green Cars

To Be Alone by Hozier

Dead Soldiers by S.G. Goodman

Sludge River Stomp by Tyler Childers

This is the most fun I’ve had making something for substack, so thanks for being here and reading! And if you have any specific requests for types of rituals or energetic dynamics you could use extra support navigating, pop that in the comments here or the Enlighten Up form, and I can work it into the next few!

P.S. I’m helping some Magdalen sisters with a bake sale fundraiser this weekend! All proceeds will go directly to mutual aid disaster relief in Appalachia. If you’re not in Richmond and would like to support, feel free to venmo me a few bucks. I’m @ megmcdermottmusic on there! Thank you!