Pleasure as Prayer: Rituals to Celebrate Beltane

How much pleasure have you experienced this week?

We find ourselves at Beltane - the midpoint between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice. All you need to do is go outside and you'll feel that this Earth holiday is all about pleasure. 

The feminine wisdom of nature teaches us that our pleasure isn’t frivolous, it's the very mechanism by which life creates.

I’ve slept outside for the last three weeks… and I feel amazing.

Three weeks ago, I bought my first home - a sweet little fixer upper just outside Sedona, Arizona. I had no idea how all consuming the renovation would be. I’m averaging 2 trips/day to Home Depot and I'm now on a first name basis with the entire paint department.

I never thought I’d be grateful to wood dust, icky paint smell and carpet off-gassing yet, these daily realities have me camping out each night in my new backyard, celebrating spring by sleeping under the stars next to blooming roses and waking to a melodic symphony of bird songs.

While I’m feeling grateful to my human tribe (including you) for their love on this wild initiation, the most dramatic support has been from Spring herself.

Even with this seemingly never ending project, Spring reminds me that pleasure is medicine.

The sensual caress of sun on bare shoulders, the dripping nectar scent of the jasmine and the obscene purple radiance of yoni shaped flowers is solid competition for my never ending task list….

Pleasure is a natural psychedelic that opens a pharmacopeia of delicious hormones connecting us to the direct experience of our true nature as unity, love and joy.

Ancient tantric and feminine spirituality teaches us that deeply embodied living is the pathway to self realization.

Yet, we live in a culture that subtly (and not so subtly) situates pleasure in opposition not only to productivity but to morality.

Our collective nervous system has been conditioned to associate pleasure with shame.

Yet, shame occurs nowhere in nature except the human psyche.

Children and animals don’t experience shame yet they do experience an abundance of pleasure. Shame isn’t organic.

When we talk about feminine empowerment + embodied liberation - 

what are we liberating?

Ultimately, we’re liberating ourselves from shame, fear + unworthiness.

Why?

On the other side of shame lives love, peace, connection, authenticity, service.

Shame thrives in secrecy and it heals when we share those painful places.

Despite feeling blessed, unleveled and abundant with my new home purchase I’ve also witnessed financial shame arising.

Every time we uplevel, our nervous system seeks to rebalance by contracting back into the “old normal.” Fortunately, I knew to expect this!

I’ve been witnessing shame pop up around needing endless help with my never ending list and a deep, primal and ancient fear of not having enough resources to sustain this new level of responsibility.

Gratefully, I’m deeply resourced with a strong foundation in the sacred feminine mystery teachings that remind me that I, just like you, am worthy of feeling pleasure, comfort, safety.

One of the powerfully transformative elements of Body Temple Women’s Mystery School is the profound healing that occurs when we prioritize the world transforming power of feminine sensuality, joy connection and play as a healing practice.

Again and again through this process I watch the women I serve shed layers of ancestral shame around their worthiness, their bodies, emotions and desires.

✨ By lightning their load, they cut the hustle and instead, start magnetizing their dreams. 

✨ They regain a sense of vibrancy instead of exhaustion. 

✨ They step into a deeper level of feminine leadership in their families, careers and communities. 

Like Sarah, who, after 6 months of working together, went from 60 to 35 hour work weeks all while almost doubling her income + prioritizing her self care, joy and reclaiming her sexual connection to herself and her partner, which opened her to sex magic ~ manifestation that harnesses the incomparable potency of sexual energy to create our reality. 

Her biggest win in all of this?

In her words “I'm such a better mother to my children now what I'm not constantly stressed and frazzled. the more present and relaxed I become, the more my family and my employees directly mirror that back to me.”

Yet, in a culture with strong puritanical underpinnings, pleasure as medicine can be a hard sell.

We’re programmed to think of pleasure as the reward - the thing we get after we’ve “done the work” of healing. But, actually, from a neurobiological perspective, pleasure literally rewires our brain so that we experience the world as a safer, more friendly place. 

Pleasure balances our nervous system and a balanced nervous system ultimately just makes us happier and more pleasant to be around.

How can you harness the medicine of pleasure this week?

Beltane is all about claiming nature as your lover and allowing the innocence of your sensual experience to be a prayer. 

Get outside and let yourself be inspired by the way that the bee makes love to the flower, the way the flower relishes in her irresistibly attractive potency, the way a gentle wind blows softly on your neck - teasing. 

Allow the suggestive “come hither” of the rose to make you blush. Flirt with her in return, finally giving in by burying your nose into her softness.

Let yourself be penetrated by the full sensory experience of your back yard.

Find any excuse to sleep out under the stars. 



I have two upcoming events to connect you to the healing Spring medicine of pleasure including a rare in person ritual in Sedona.

Come.

Join women from around the world in this LIVE 2 Day Virtual Ceremonial Activation to reclaim 6 ancient secrets of Divine Feminine embodiment that are the keys to unlock your feminine leadership and claim the Shakti-filled life you crave. Together, we'll map out your next aligned steps for the Shakti-filled life you crave.

Day 1: Unmask Your Divine Feminine Power 
Ancient Secrets of Your Personal Shakti

May 28th, 10a-12:30p PT/ 1a-3p ET (2.5 hours)

Day 2: Unleash Your Divine Feminine Power 
Craft Your Personal Roadmap to Power, Pleasure + Purpose

May 30th, 10a-12:30p PT/ 1a-3p ET (2.5 hours)