There are a few reasons for this post.
1) The vast majority of interest shown on this blog has been on women's topics, so the focus will be on women as I am a strong advocate of female empowerment to heal the world.
2) The story you're about to read, about a woman's journey of discovery, is amazing, as is she.
3) I never went barefoot before doing Yoga, and I immediately found a profound spiritual connection to the world that was much easier embraced and taken seriously by my female friends. When I see the discoveries that the woman in this story has made, it reminds me of my own discoveries.
I want to honor the women who helped me in my own spiritual discoveries just be being naturally who they are.
Barefoot and Powerful
Discovering Strength
through Life - A Walk with DeAnne
The nerves in the feet
have direct connections to each of our organs and each sensory zone in the
body. It’s no coincidence that our senses come alive when our shoes come off.
DeAnne joins us to
tell how being barefoot helped her in her journey to discover and empower
herself. She has a unique and wonderful occupation she has created for herself that
helps women empower themselves and create positive energy with the goal of
healing the world of the harsh, power-based focus that keeps cultures at odds.
DeAnne is a guide for Sacred Circle Retreats, a
very unique business with this focus: By
Healing Ourselves, We Heal the World. Truly empowered people empower others
through leading by example, through supporting others to empower themselves and
by acknowledging everyone’s positive contributions.
She is also the
founder and facilitator of Conscious Connections Now, a
unique organization that focuses on changing the world through the power of
love, community and collaboration.
The interview questions:
1.
Your own spiritual path is a rich
one. Was it this path that awakened your urge to go barefoot?
My path truly has led me to deep and expansive inner and outer journeys.
In recent years, I’ve come to appreciate an awareness of the union between the
sensual and the sacred, the playful and the prayerful. So therefore YES, my
spiritual path led me to walk more and more of the time with naked feet. Not
only is it sacred and sensual it is also playful. I believe we came into our
earthly experience joyfully and playfully, ready for adventures. All of that is
part of experiencing the life’s journey with bare feet and an open, naked,
compassionate and playful heart.
My barefoot urge also arises from my very important need to ground myself
regularly. As a very feeling creature, it is grounding, soothing and connecting
for me to walk intentionally, placing my bare feet upon the earth when I can.
Becoming more attuned to my body’s messages and its innate wisdom is precious
and important. I believe that is true for all of us. It is an ongoing process
of awareness and discovery listening to our body’s messages. Going barefoot more is a part of that sensual
sacred connection with myself and with the home that we call our beautiful
earth.
I have also recognized for myself personally that grounding and connecting my
body with the earth are especially important. My intuitive and intellectual
essences are stronger than I once knew, as is my empathic compassionate awareness.
Given all of this, I can easily fly off or have my energy scattered out to many
places and people if I don’t lovingly and intentionally tether myself. I find that
my consciousness easily and openly connects with others in various ways;
therefore if I do not nurture myself with quiet, calm and grounded earth
connection, my own balance, center and harmony can get out of whack.
Walking barefoot allows me to own that sacred, sensual, prayerful, and playful
connection in a grounded and present way.
2. You took
a three-week spiritual journey in Europe. I recall your Facebook posts that
came at the times when you had moments of realization-especially when you stood
barefoot in the ancient Chartres Cathedral in France. Tell us why you decided
to go barefoot at those moments and how it tied to your spiritual connections
that you were making.
Before I even departed for what I
realized would be a very life-changing journey, I recognized that I had already
experienced many momentous synchronistic events and strong energies leading up
it. There was a timeless depth and
guidance happening that I couldn’t begin to understand yet knew to trust. It certainly had the stirrings of soul
agreements and ancient promises. I felt
a call, and I said, “Yes.” It would be, for me, a powerful, personal Divine
Feminine heroine’s journey though I came to it with a great open, curious
innocence and playful adventurous essence. I realize that sharing the stories of what led
up to this sacred travel experience would be the beginning of a biographical
spiritual adventure book in and of itself. (I may well write that in time.)
Given what I recognized before I even left home and knowing all the energy I
was feeling, I knew to be very aware and open to guidance. This inner guidance
continually steered my steps and my choices before and during what became my
Divine Feminine journey through Europe.
This trip May 18 – June 11, 2012 brought my life’s mission of Conscious
Connections NOW alive in a myriad of ways. Help was continuously offered and
exchanged before and during the journey. I am truly blessed with remarkable,
generous and insightful people in my circle of friends and colleagues.
One of these extraordinary friends, Melynnda Button,
our Edgy Mystic at the Sacred Circle Retreats forum, had been intuitively
guided to send me some beautiful Magdalene and Jesus posts and other messages
before I set out to literally and physically walk in the steps of Mary
Magdalene in sacred southern France. On one of those beautiful posts, she
lovingly encouraged me to walk barefoot as often as possible. I could feel from
her guidance that this was not only to soak in the ancient wisdom and energies
that were present in these sacred places but also to help keep myself grounded
and stable amidst these potent experiences.
It was important advice.
Bless your journey DeAnne, walk barefoot when you can. >♥<
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3445446487884&set=gm.10150905043189761&type=1&theater
My first barefoot pilgrimage moment came in the
crypt of Mary Magdalene in St. Maxim Basilica.
I had some precious time alone beneath the church gazing upon her skull
held in the golden reliquary and surrounded by two sarcophagi. As I sat on the steps of the crypt gazing at her, I remembered
Melynnda’s advice and removed my sandals. The cold stone awakened my senses and
I felt awash in divine feminine devotion for this woman who had lived through
so very much and yet carved such a path for others. Through my very soles, I
felt this soulful moment of reverence and awareness. Like the Christina Perri
song “Thousand Years” sings, She ‘has died every day waiting for’ us. I had the
realization that we are the women and men of right now living in this
extraordinary time on earth. We are the ones we have waited for and Love is the
absolute guiding force for us all. Following my moment of communing with Mary
Magdalene in her crypt, I quietly placed my shoes back on my feet. Both in shoes and barefoot I would walk where
her own steps had been along the Royal Road to her cavern cathedral in St.
Baum, beside the Mediterranean Sea where she came ashore at Stes
Maries-de-la-Mer and elsewhere. I was
not necessarily a Magdalene devotee though I did and still do feel deep
reverence. The awakening of Divine Feminine truth had pulled me there. What
called me to Sacred France was an awareness of the renewal of the Divine
Feminine and the truth of the Sacred Union of Beloved Love. Each day of walking
in Magdalene’s footsteps across southern France was a further awakening to my
own Divine Feminine essence and to deep stirrings of knowings that I am only now
beginning to be able to articulate.
Yes, the advice to walk barefoot when I could was important. It connected me to
these ancient places in a very sensual, sacred personal way and grounded me in
the present while simultaneously feeling a timeless connection experience as
well. Despite my best intentions, the
immersion in all these new potent places and the energy of the people in our
remarkable Sacred France tour group were wondrously overwhelming. I savored it
all and yet of course felt myself stretched and off balance at times. I had one
moment of stepping off a back porch and twisting my ankle with a sharp cracking
sound as I came down wrong off of a step. I recognized in the moment that my
own energy was too fast and imbalanced. I had an awareness just before it
happened. I wasn’t barefoot then and my thick sandals hadn’t been a help.
Thanks to immediate Reiki, energetic healing, Aleve and my determination, I was
able to move through the piercing pain of the moment, calm the injury, heal
quickly and continue my travels. The
very next day I hiked to the top of the ancient Cathar ruins in the mountains
of Montsegur in flip flops with walking sticks. The day was an illuminated
journey as the sunlight cascaded down lighting our path. In the center of the
ruined fortress, I removed my shoes and felt the energies of this timeless
place devoted to The Way of Love. As my
toes lifted the dirt and tickled the grass, I watched members of our travel
family filled with the peaceful loving presence of this place and we marveled
at its mysteries. Strangely, I did not
feel the heaviness of the hundreds of lives that where lost as the Cathar
people had walked to their deaths in the fires at the base of this very
mountain in 1244 for refusing to recant their faith. What I did feel through my
heart and the soles of my feet was a sense of return and renewal. Many were
gathered that felt a similar ancient stirring. It was the call to walk the path
of life in Love.
From that day at Montsegur on and for the next two weeks as I walked through
Europe, I had a wrapped ankle. I removed the wrapping to walk completely
barefoot on the magnificent ancient labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral, home of
sacred mystery schools and a depth of beautiful and sometimes controversial
history.
Invoking prayer and an open heart, I entered the labyrinth barefoot and
trusting. I knew I would be guided just as I had been in extraordinary ways
throughout this journey. The labyrinth is truly a metaphor for our walk of life
with all its circuitous turns that weave us in wondrous ways. This next passage is one that I wrote and
shared on the first anniversary of my sacred walk.
"IT'S ALL SACRED......"
June 1, 2013 marked the one-year anniversary of this beautiful
blessed moment. The expansive realization I received here ~~ as light from the
cathedral's window cascaded upon me. ~~~ The simple serene revelation was…
"IT'S ALL SACRED......"
I had traveled across the world to walk ancient paths and
experience sacred sites on a Divine Feminine, spirit connecting, heart
expanding and soul-deepening journey....
It was a complete and extraordinary experience in so many vast,
indescribable ways... A year has still not been enough time for me to
understand and assimilate it all... And yet, the sweetness of this moment
stands above and apart from it all...... as it was purely my own inner knowing
and guidance from beyond the veil of this world. My soul spoke to me.
I heard within me the stirrings of a light, amused, wise voice
saying.... "Yes, all these places are wondrous ~ cathedrals, grottos,
pilgrims paths.... Now you know they are all within you. This beauty, this
grace, this connection to oneness.... is always there, and it is everywhere you
will ever be. You needn't seek out marvelous cathedrals of stained glass
windows... You can and you will relish the beauty; but know this..... YOU KNOW
THIS NOW.....
IT'S ALL SACRED."
This moment came after arriving at the center of the labyrinth
at Chartres Cathedral walking its twists and turns with bare feet and a naked
heart. I was filled with reassurance and a deeper sweeter confidence in my own
inner guidance. Indeed I had walked into my own center within. Upon walking out
of the labyrinth, a light had genuinely and physically infused me as the
sunlight shining through the magnificent stained glass window at the front of
the cathedral beamed down upon me, directly on my forehead.
It remains a deeply sacred experience.
My final
remarkable barefoot moment of this European journey took place in Compton
Dundon at the Earth Spirit Center. We had gathered there in the ancient Isle of
Avalon near Glastonbury for a Reiki and Creative Movement Retreat. I shared this
part of the journey with one of my dearest friends of nearly twenty years and
my Reiki Master, Maureen. Before gathering with others at the retreat, we
savored an afternoon in Glastonbury walking among the ruins of the ancient
Glastonbury Abbey. The feeling of homecoming for me was profound. The deep
energies were potent and at one point I felt my body spiraling. I was pleased
to begin our retreat hours later yet saddened to leave Glastonbury after such a
brief stay. Due to the time constraints and rains I wasn’t able to walk up to
the Tor or see Glastonbury’s famous Chalice Well. Those are saved for another
time.
What did transpire at the retreat was another poignant barefoot moment. We began
with a group walk-about experience outdoors. Each of us took a turn as a silent
leader having other adventurous Reiki practitioners wander under trees and
dance on the grass, simply following on impulse. When my turn came, I was so
filled with gratitude and exuberance that I began skipping, completely
forgetting my weakened ankle. I was reminded immediately as it gave way in a
crack of pain once more. I collapsed on the wet grass and held it. Others
mimicked me thinking it was part of our charade but as tears escaped my eyes,
these healers rushed forward in recognition and gathered around me. I will say
that if ever you find yourself hurt there is no better place than in the
company of sixteen longtime Reiki practitioners on an ancient site. I was immediately
surrounded in love and healing. It appears the divine had a plan and my
barefoot self had helped to catalyze it. The retreat leader guided me gently to
the center of a grove of intentionally planted trees, each one placed to form a
Celtic-healing circle. We would all discover that significance later. We all
gathered in a circle with me at the center gently standing barefoot and tears
flowing. Mel, the retreat leader, spontaneously began singing a song about
finding our way home.
“I’ve traveled all day. I’ve traveled all night. I’ve traveled a lifetime to
find my way home…. Home…. To where the heart is…. Home to where the heart is….
Home to where the heart is… I’ve found my way Home.”
Witnessing my brave, open vulnerability and pain while we all gathered in this
circle of love, everyone was initiated spontaneously in an immense healing
experience. Each person in turn to their place at the center of the circle
standing within this healing circle of trees in the once ancient Isle of
Avalon. I and many others where there with bare feet. Beautiful, potent and
powerful it was for each of us. My friend Maureen pointed out to me later, “Look
what you created.” Opening up to my own painful moment allowed each person to
vulnerably do the same and a gorgeous unforgettable healing experience ensued
for each of us.
From the Chartres Cathedral Labyrinth to the grove of trees in the Isle of
Avalon, going barefoot had proved powerful and important for me. I would stand
barefoot one final time on that trip atop a grassy hillside gazing at the
Glastonbury Tor and surrounded by new sacred friends. It was all such a magical experience.
3.
You said later that you ended up
going barefoot for several days. Tell us why it felt so empowering.
Much of the answer
to this is part of what I have already shared yet here is a bit more.
On my Divine Feminine pilgrimage through Sacred Southern France, Paris,
London and finally Glastonbury, I recognized that I was blessed to be walking
on very ancient and sacred ground in many places. Given this heightened
awareness and all the enormous experiences and energies, it was very balancing
and empowering to go barefoot as often as I could. My bare feet upon the ground
allowed me to keep some semblance of balance while I was literally taking an
enormous personal leap on my life’s path. Amidst an incredible array of new
adventures and beautiful barrage of continuously new sensory stimulation, it
was calming and harmonizing to focus upon my naked feet and take intentional
steps. Even more profound was the awareness of all the earth energies, history
and timeless experiences still alive and infused in the ancient soil of places
like the Isle of Avalon in Glastonbury and the stones paths of the labyrinth at
Chartres Cathedral or the ground of Mary Magdalene’s crypt. I knew that I
wanted to allow my body and my entire being to soak up all that it could of the
Divine Feminine, the ancient, the mystical, the heritage and the Sacred Union
Presence that lives on in the ground of these magnificent places. Knowing that
I had invoked that and felt it often was so empowering. Furthermore, I felt
such a heroic sense of adventure through the entire experience. I was aware of
continuous synchronicity and near instantaneous guidance at moments as I
navigated new places and experiences some of it where English wasn’t being
spoken. Again and again, I found that the information or guidance I needed
appeared fluidly for me. I lived a mix of planned travel and synchronously
guided adventure. Trusting that process of inner guidance and myself nearly the
entire time was one of the most empowering experiences of my life.
4.
Did you often go barefoot as a child,
or was it a new thing as an adult?
Being born in New Mexico “The Land of Enchantment” and being raised in the
Mojave Desert of Las Vegas, NV, I have been a woman of the southwestern desert
all my life. Therefore, I didn’t often
go barefoot as I explored around yucca plants and hot rocky soils; however,
around home, playing in the backyard and splashing in the pool I always enjoyed
being barefoot. Simply taking the time to share here with you has given me the
gift of remembering how wondrous it is and has always been to place my bare
feet upon the earth.
Almost Barefoot is especially devoted to supporting women, female
empowerment and feminism as a way to support positive empowerment of beings for
the sake of a better world, and so we ask you questions about being a powerful
woman who has made connections to sincere empowerment through going barefoot.
5.
As a spiritual guide and leader,
you’re a woman who not only has the power of authority also the ability to
empower others. What’s one way you encourage those who seek your guidance to
empower themselves?
Truly we all have
the power of authority. We have authority over ourselves. Since genuine empowerment
arises from within ourselves all true power is inner power. One way to recognize and embolden our own
power is to realize that we have the ultimate power over ourselves through our
choices. I’m not simply referring to our career or relational choices. I mean
ever choice we make in every moment. CHOICE IS OUR POWER. Since we are all made
up of energy and attract through our actions and choices, we can begin to
realize the power we have through every word we speak, thought we think and
action we take. Sit with this
realization. No matter what our circumstances are in this moment, we have the
power of choice. One small choice can create a cascade of empowering changes in
our lives. As we accept responsibility for our lives and recognize the power we
have in choice, we can feel genuine empowerment. Also, we are never alone. The
universe, the invisible world, angels, friends ~ they are all truly there. They
are all conspiring on our behalf if we will only CHOOSE TO BELIEVE it. We do
live in a friendly Universe. I believe that.
6.
The world is slowly rediscovering the
Divine Feminine, the idea that God could be a woman, that God could be
half-woman or that God could have a Goddess wife. What message do you have for women
who find their own self-empowering connection through this idea?
First and foremost, Honor the divine connection you feel however you
personally feel it. There are no limits.
Labels aren’t needed. If you feel genuine love-infused truth in it, allow it to
empower your life.
Many of us are finding empowerment in a connection to Goddess energies, to the
Divine Mother essence and to a Higher Loving Feminine Presence that can be in
tandem to our other belief systems. The work of my dear friend and Sacred
Circle Retreats partner, Joceline Burnel, is something I would recommend very
highly to all who are finding empowerment through HER, the Divine Feminine.
Joceline is writing a book and audio compilation entitled “If God Was a Woman.”
You can find many of her soothing, loving, empowering poetic verses on the
Sacred Circle Retreats Facebook page and Joceline’s own Crowing Crone Woman of
Wisdom page. Her Voice is resonant. As you listen, you will truly feel God as a
Woman speaking to you.
In a time where imbalanced patriarchy has ruled for so long diminishing and
devaluing the feminine essence in our world, it is only fitting that so many of
us are drawn to embody and embolden the Divine Feminine Presence. We crave that
sense of unconditional love that feels closest to a mother’s love.
And yet, as I personally and deeply cherish this divine feminine connection, I
have a pure belief in the importance of the Divine Sacred Union. For me, The
Divine is the harmony of All That Is. It is genderless. To even begin to
describe what IT IS diminishes it. We haven’t words to convey what the
harmonized Totality of God/Goddess truly IS. The closest word is LOVE, pure
unconditional absolute creative Love.
So as we each travel upon our own beautiful unique spiraling spiritual paths,
we must connect with what resonates as truth for us. For me, the truth will
always be the empowering resonant creative force of Love.
7.
We see more than a few men also
connecting with the Divine Feminine. Is there a message you have for them?
Absolutely!! Yes, keep opening
your hearts. Keep recognizing that being vulnerable is a sign of great strength
and authenticity. Harmonize the power of the masculine with the heart wisdom of
the feminine. Continue honoring this balance of the masculine and feminine
aspects within yourself. A full whole and Holy man understands that he holds a Sacred
Union within him. A whole and Holy woman appreciates the same.
Men, Honor your selves. Honor all that you have carried for so long. Reach out
and honor the women in your life. Validate, appreciate, honor and empower your
wife, your daughters, your nieces, your friends, your co-workers, your aunts,
your cousins and your mothers. See how important and valuable they are to this
world. We all arrive here because of a
woman, from the creative womb of the feminine. It is time to truly honor that
once again.
Men, embody the feminine values of compassion, love, creation, community,
cooperation and collaboration in the world. This is the change the world needs.
Remember that as we each honor and heal ourselves, this world will experience a
harmony it has not known in thousands of years. This all happens one person at
a time. It is happening with a loving momentum now. We cannot begin to fathom
how powerful this process is and how lovingly powerful we truly are. Allow
yourself to be the change you wish to see in the world. What the world once was it does not have to
continue being. We are the change, each of us. BE IT!
Personally, I really like so much of what author Jeff Brown (“Ascending with
Both Feet on the Ground” ) has to say about men honoring their feelings and
connecting with the Divine Feminine. There was one particular quote of his that
I shared months ago that really encouraged men to be this presence in women’s
lives. I’ve looked for it and didn’t find it just yet. It will certainly be on
my radar. Explore what he has to say also.
Explore whatever calls to you.
Your soul knows.
You can trust it.
8. What is a
message you have for women and girls to empower themselves?
SHE, the
Divine Feminine ONE, is weaving gorgeous luminous threads through all our lives
right now. She is not separate from you. You are Her. You are an important part
of this Great Awakening that is happening upon our beautiful planet. The time
has truly come. The time is now. We are the ones we have waited for and we are
so ready, more than we have known. WE ARE THE CREATORS. This is our gift and
our power in this world.
Savor the Divine Human you
are. Savor HER touch upon you. You are HER artistic masterpiece, and She is so
very thrilled with the tapestry we all are.
All the power you will ever need comes through you. Trust this. It is so very
true. You are always empowered from withIN yourself. You are all you every
truly need. In loving and empowering yourself, you create the magic of your
life. From there, all that you could ever wish flows to you and You are magic
for others in ways we are only beginning to imagine and recognize. It truly IS
a wonderful life. Now, go live it FULLY!
9.
Add another idea or comment you think
should be sharedJ
Some insights on the vision and mission of Conscious Connections
NOW:
~ So many of us are connecting with others in a deep and
powerful way now... Our tribe is uniting. Humanity is rediscovering human
unity.
As we each own more of our authentic selves, taking
responsibility for our energy and choices, and being aware of all that happens
in our lives, we are walking through the world living from our higher truth. As
each of us strikes our own tuning fork within, we are deepening our
relationships not just with ourselves but with all those in our lives and all
whom we encounter each day. We radiate that inner conscious connection outward
and then consciously connect with others in a truer, more genuine and more
equally empowering and collaborative way.
These ripples of conscious connection move out into our world creating a
more loving experience for everyONE.
I believe so many more of us are truly making Conscious Connections
NOW with others. We find we
KNOW people we have just met as if we have kNOWn them our entire lives. It is
as if we are reUNITING WITH OUR TRIBE. We are connecting to those people, those
souls, with whom we have a sacred bond.
Messages filled with meaning are exchanged. Hearts are touched.
Lives are transformed. Synchronicity and serendipity begin to rule the day. NOW
they are routine rather than novelty. Truth chills run through us and our
hearts swell open. We truly are the ones we have been waiting for.
WELCOME HOME TRIBE. It’s our time to LIVE NOW
I f you can't go barefoot, wear clogs. Kick them off under your desk and when you get to the Yoga studio.
.jpg)