Jane Meredith’s Blog www.janemeredith.com

I’m off to the Australian Goddess Conference, on the Gold Coast, to deliver a workshop titled ‘The Role of the Feminine in Sacred Marriage’ - and then on Sunday I am conducting a whole-conference ritual titled ‘Priestess of Light, Priestess of Dark’.

The thing about Sacred Marriage, I think, is that it’s about the Gods, not primarily about humans. I think Sacred Marriage means the marriage/union between the Goddess and the God. And then that humans can - sometimes - experience/relate to this - either within themselves, or in union with God/Goddess. As for human relationships - I think they can also, sometimes, participate in this union, but it is not a constant within a relationship. It can be practsied, though, and I prefer it as a verb (for humans) than a noun. So that it is something we participate in, rather than a static state, or a state to be achieved.

As for the role of the feminine - it seems obvious to me that the feminine needs to be half of Sacred Marriage - whether it is carried by one party (unlikely) or both/all parties, in different percentages. But how to get the feminine up there at 50%? We’re not trained to do that, at all. What even is the deep feminine, in regards to sacred marriage? I more think we have glimpses of it than anything else. Does it have words, for instance? Thought forms?

So I’m going off to explore these concepts with a whole lot of other women - what is it, what we think of it and how to do it… I’ll let you know!

Rain! Last night - hours of it! We’ve been waiting for rain for months - already had to buy water once and were getting really low again… Then yesterday afternoon a brief, heavy shower when I went and actually WATCHED the water pouring into the tank, though it didn’t make any discernable difference to the level of water… And then last night it started raining, and kept raining - and raining and raining and raining. I went to sleep listening to it with a mental note to stay aware of it - so I dreamt of floods, for several hours, it felt like.

Now the tank is more than half full and the world looks wet again. The cats are so unused to things being wet they refused to go further than the paving, directly outside the kitchen, and just looked at the rest of Outside. We had just put some new plants in the ground on the weekend, so it is a great welcome for them and I’m sure everyone is breathing sighs of relief. Somehow, running low on water (even though it’s possible to buy more) sends an alarm message through the body… a scarcity issue. And that’s even knowing that at some stage, sooner or later, it would rain… which I think a lot of places can’t even imagine.

Walking on Brunswick Heads beach yesterday I saw a low-flying pelican, crusing along about 4 metres above the beach. It looked massive but effortless - that huge wingspan. They have been one of my favourite birds for a long time and for me, they are the animal totem of that particular place.

It was a low tide, with the water still retreating and I noticed first one, then another, then dozens and finally hundreds of ladybugs, washed onto a tideline. They were alive, but struggling a little and seemed to have a long journey, back over the expanse of beach, before they would get to the heathland. I kept walking and they were spread out over about 500 metres - 100s of them, perhaps 1000s. But how did they get there? Do ladybugs come in pods? How did they end up in the ocean in the first place??

Any answers gratefully received.