Ministry of Maåt, Inc.Winter Solstice Newsletter

January 2010

News, writings, poetry, photography, art and wisdom

from the women of the Ministry.

Dear Women:I have been deeply inspired by our community this season. Green Dragon and Memory, Secrets and Immortality workshops in Park Slope have been very special gatherings for spiritual and creative support. Our Woman of the Duat Retreat at Lifebridge was a potent preparation for Winter Solstice this year as 15 women communed deeply with each other with our dreams, our voices, our child selves, our ancestors and with the stars. We made beautiful and quirky Spirit Dolls with Jacque-line and absorbed the essence of Sadee’s paintings (Cosmic Daughters) as we moved through the rooms and hallways of Lifebridge Sanctuary. On December 21st, 10 women connected via tele-conference call at the moment of Solstice with sounding and prayers and a message from my guide, Imhotep.

We look forward to our Mystery /Dream workshop: Dreams of Light in Paris January 16 & 17 at Erika’s house, Dream TV show on January 31st, and Woman of Flame-honoring the principle of Udjit at Per Ankh in Kingston February 20, 21. Upcoming: stay tuned for more Ministry of Maåt Virtual University goodies with Rev.Lisa Barnard Kelley, our faithful Scribe, with Revs Andrea Goodman, Rachel Koenig and Julia White. And of course there will be more European fun to be had!

The Light is Returning! Hotep! IONE

The Ministry encourages the study of ancient systems of belief, particularly those related to Egyptian Cosmology and principles of other

early cultures. Congregational members of the Ministry seek to live in Maåt, for Maåt and by Maåt. In ancient Egytian cosmology, Maåt is the principle of harmony and balance in the universe. The Ministry of Maåt, Inc. is an

international spiritual and educational organiza-tion nurturing the ideal of a harmonious and

balanced world community through the support of women’s holistic well-being. The Ministry is a 501C 3 Not- for Profit Organization Incor-

porated in New York State.

Ione at Olso Opera House Photo by Pauline Oliveros

Life

brid

ge W

indo

w P

hoto

by

Ione

The Ministry of MaåtSANCTUARY FOR SPIRITUAL AND CREATIVE RESEARCH (SSCR) The Sanctuary for Spiritual and Creative Research con-sists of a building or complex of buildings in a temper-ate bucolic location suitable for study, meditation and individual or group self-restoration. Intended as a retreat center for ordained Ministers of Maåt, their colleagues and students, the Sanctuary can accommodate up to 25 residents and is open periodically to the public for teach-ings, exhibits, performances and concerts. SSCR Featuring:

*Creating ongoing educational programs and trainings in the intuitive and healing arts* Supporting mental and physical well-being of women and men* Teaching tolerance and compassion experientially through community building workshops and retreats* Honoring ancestral roots as a source of individual strength.* Conducting ongoing research in healing processes for women and men, including meditation processes and oracular forms.* Providing Teachings and Programs in Women’s History, Women’s Spirituality & Women’s Wellness* Supporting Creative Processes in all the arts as a means of enhancing spiritual well-being* Developing International Exchange Programs with women artists, scholars and mothers throughout the world.

We thank you for your generous attention to the Ministry.

YOU CAN HELP BRING THE VISION FORWARD:A generous anonymous donor has offered us

$10,000 if we can match that amount by May 1, 2010

To join our email group, email WomensMysteries-subscribe@yahoogroups.comMinisters may be reached through contacting:

Ministry of Maåt, Inc., Per Ankh, 156 Hunter St, Kingston NY, 12401 iodreams@deeplistening.org www.ministryofmaat.org

Solstice Arriving Photo by Ione

Journal entry, Andrea Gale Goodman December 17, 2009

Twilight already. Soon I’ll need lamplight to see. These darkest days are sa-cred, whatever they contain. I do feel at the edge of the world here—a hermit, especially now that I am past mothering and fully Crone, holding a lamp for any who come this far, a guide for some. But I do feel baffled and sad to find myself so alone here. Why am I here?

Dear One, you are not here or there. You simply are, wherever you happen to perceive yourself to be. You can make up stories about the reason you are sitting alone (with a feline companion) in one of the most beautiful places anyone could wish to live on Earth. You have desired this experience and it has desired you. You are to drink it in deeply, allow the vibrations to work through you, allow yourself to be moved and altered and realigned by them.

When you are sad, it’s because you are disappointed by what is—you expected some other experience and are rejecting this one. You long for another soul beside you who fits you perfectly and who could fill all the empty places. It is time to set aside the stress and torture of that longing. It has ruled you and driven you to diminish yourself, to make yourself fit an image, to adjust in order to create a story of relationship. This has been a karmic pattern. You can release it now.

The view is gone from the window and another long cold night begins. What can you sense in the dark? What do the stars tell you? All the years of reading the sky are within you. All your midnight walks in every season of starlight and moonlight are within you. You have come to a still point where the turn is made—three more days and then the light begins its ascent. Empty yourself once more, more completely this year in solitude. Cherish the gift of quiet, dark, alone, still.

Feel my presence here in your room, wrapped around your house to protect you as the wind howls, feeding you soup and bread like a mother, illuminating your sacred spaces as candle, wood fire, and electricity. I am always here with you, always speaking, always singing, always loving.

You are. I am. It is the same. We are not alone in this. And yet we are only one. It is not a riddle. It is as clear as a winter night. We bring the stars, impossibly distant, very close to you. That is why you are here.

New Year’s Eve Photo by Lisa Kelley

For Ruby Throated Spirit schedules & events:

www.rubythroatedspirit.com

As the light of the seasons ebb and flow I am filled with gratitude for the changes. They are reminders that the Duat is never-ending. There will be dark. But there are many dawns. And when we cycle through we spiral deeper.

I give thanks for the Ministry...a beacon in the dark, a guide into the deep. Thank you for “be-ing” an inspiring circle of women, who give continuous support. My dream of Cosmic Daughters would not have come to fruition if not for your individual sparks of divinity.

Many blessings,Sadee

The day after the Lifebridge retreat, I dreamt that I went to my door and the water from the ocean was washing right up to it! Oh my! I felt a surge of excitement, “What is happening?” I thought (weather-wise). “What should I do?” I thought (to take care of the house or possessions). While pondering what should happen next, I looked out beyond the water at my feet and saw all kinds of children playing. “Oooo! I want to play!” I thought/felt irresistibly. Without a second thought, I went out. I stepped into the water, and watched it wash over me. It made me happy. I waded to the higher ground.. I felt giddy, free, ready to play. I danced around, acted funny, laughed, met some of the kids. I am having so much fun. I am so happy. …in a certain moment I think, “I’m getting too silly.” But no one else seems to think so I realize. AND I realize, “I’m having fun, isn’t this fun?” and I look back to the house, and somehow I know that this is what I should do, play in this body, have fun, be happy. “My last dream word-nugget of the retreat was ‘responsibility.’ I am enormously curious how I will marry

these two concepts in this time ahead.” -Jane Solorzano

Images are from the Nanas Speak By Shirley Parker-Benjaminleft: Nana’s Hands right: Nana Hard as Nails opposite page: Nana Hard as Nails

GROUND GIVES WAYfor Rose, August 24, 2009by Andrea Goodman

I’m looking out my window—mass of yellow flowers,late summer blooms thatcarry into autumn:school-starting timefor all my childhoodand all yours.

This year, you’re leaving—leaving childhoodleaving this houseleaving me.Perhaps I’ve been clumsybut it was my best I gave youand somehow good enoughthat you are ready to go,ready to begin your lifewithout me, our house, the rock of Maineunder you.

If the house, even after 200-odd years,were to fall down and blow away,the rock that supports it would still be rock.If we were to abandon this solid, cozy house,sell it, move away,it would still be a housethough not quite the samewithout your artwork or my piano,curtains I sewed for the kitchentwenty years ago,or the sounds of our feet and voices.It would miss us,yet still be a house,happy to shelter another family.What am Iwhen you lift off?I don’t sense the gravityto hold my form steady.Without the daily bearing of youI can’t sayI am here.

You have no ideahow I treasureyour rare smiles, the honey color of your hair,the luminosity of your skin.The mother-heart burstsimpossiblyfor a gesture, a word!

And maybe it’s best you don’t knowOr how could you move freely?

A Green Fairy visits with Ione and Andrea at Woman of the Duat Photo by Michele Lunt

Continued on pg 6...

RULES OF THE GAMEby Gilah aka Trudy Morse

The All is MindThe Universe is mental Nothing restsEverything movesEverything vibrates Everything is dualEverything has polesEverything has its pairs of opposites Identical in natureBut different in degree Everything flows, out and inEverything has its tidesAll things rise and fall The measure of the swing to the rightIs the measure of the swing to the left Every cause has its effectEvery effect has its causeEverything happens according to lawChange is a name for cause not recognizedThere are many planes of causationBut nothing escapes the Law Gender is in everythingEverything has itsMasculine and feminine principlesGender manifests on all planes Mind may be transmutedFrom state to stateDegree to degreeCondition to conditionPole to poleVibration to vibrations TransmutationIs a real mental art From: HE PLUS SHEAn Algorith for Peak ExperienceHermes Press Copyright 1991 Trudy MorseAll Rights Reserved

Lifebridge Farewell: Andrea, Lisa & Michele Photo by Ione

Image by Pilar

Contined from pg 4...

Ah, that’s why you hide—always out or behind a door—you do know and can’t move,knowing I am feeling everynuance and ripplefrom my place under your footsteps.

Just consider that when we began,I carried you inside me,and then always in my armsclose to my heart,and then in my lapif I sat down!I learned to be availablewhenever possible.Yes, it was long ago,but then rememberwhen Daddy moved outleaving just me here with you,I used all my forcesand many beyond meto give you solid ground and space to grow,and how to balancesolid with spacious?Groping blindly, listening hard,as you pushedto separate.

I don’t expect you to imagine your mother.Or to think of me at a time like this.Who thinks of what the Earth feelsas we walk and travel,meet and part?Do we ever imaginehow much She is lovingeach creaturedrawing sustenancefrom her breast?Perhaps our rare gratitudeis to her as for meyour smile.

I bless your going,Precious Daughter,and trust you knowI will alwayseternally behere.

Knowerby Sadee BrathwaiteOil, Galkyd on Canvas48 x 34 in.

cold morning poem

brisk walk down to duck shed.

i unlatch duck shed door,

and fasten to remain open.

muscovy ducks waddle out,

turn…

greet me with quivering beaks-

feed me.

jacqueline vogel11-24-08

Dream Joke

Knock knock!who’s there?

YouYou who?

yes

love,anne hemenway

Amy Myers Upcoming Exhibitions - AmyMyersDrawings.comByron Cohen Gallery, Kansas city MO - MarchHudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill NY Feb- JulyAtlanta Center for Contemporary Art, GA - June- August

Upcoming Winter/Spring 2010 EventsFor more information: www.ministryofmaat.org

Dreams of Light Workshop with IoneParis France

January 16 & 17

Woman of Flame Retreat Udjit/Auset TeachingsPer Ankh, Kingston NY

February 20-21

Women of the Stars Healing CircleSesheta/Satet Teachings

Ruby Throated Spirit, MaineApril 30-May 3

www.rubythroatedspirit.com

Green Dragon Circle with IoneAurora Healing Arts, Park Slope NY

January 12February 16

Memory, Secrets & ImmortalitySupport, Inspiration & Discussion

Enjoying all forms of the creative- existing projects and new workAurora Healing Arts, Park Slope NY

January 26February 23

Dream TV with Ionewww.ustream.tv/channel/deep-listening-institute-presents

January 31 at 3pm ESTFebruary 28 at 3 pm EST

Intuitive Crystal Gazingwith Lisa Barnard Kelley

Aurora Healing Arts, Park Slope NYMarch 2

Other EventsFebruary 13 Ione Reading

with Memoir Quartet at Woodstock Writers’ FestivalWoodstock NY

www.woodstockwritersfestival.com

April 8 Women and Identity Festival Launches with Memory, Secrets & Immortality Reading

Emily Harvey Foundation, NYC

May 14 Ione Reading with Memoir Quartet

Stone Ridge Center, Stone Ridge NY

MINISTER PRIESTESSESOF MAÅT

The Reverends:IONE, DMS, RH

Andrea Goodman, MMSAnne BourneToni Thomas

KaSha Unger, PhDShirley Parker-Benjamin

Laura Biagi, PhDRachel Koenig, L.Ac, CH

Judy RobilottiJulia White

Lisa Barnard KelleyJacqueline VogelSadee BrathwaiteJane Solorzano

Honorary Minister Priests/PriestessesDr. Pauline Oliveros

Dr. Amy MindellDr. Arnold MindellRev. Mary Thunder

Dominique Lambilliotte

Activities of the Ministry include marriage ceremonies, new born welcoming ceremonies, croning and menarch ceremony and end of life ceremonies. In addition, we conduct cutting cord ceremonies for marking new life levels and are available to devise special rituals and ceremonies as needed. Ministers, depending upon

their individual specialities, may offer ongoing Pastoral Counseling and the opportunity to embark upon ap-

prenticeships and Ministerial Studies.