Dear Reader,
August asked a lot of us.
Lion’s Gate. Two intense eclipses. Big emotions. Big realizations. Big releases.
And last night at my Durga Goddess Gathering, it became abundantly clear that I wasn’t the only one who felt it.
There was a real sense in the room that something had been stirred up.
And now that we’re stepping into September, I don’t think the invitation is to immediately fill all the space again.
I think it’s to use it.
This is not the month to go back to business as usual.
Transformation can happen in an instant.
A realization. A release. A moment of courage. A boundary. A truth you can no longer unsee.
But if we don’t integrate what changed, it can slowly dissipate as the demands of ordinary life rush back in.
September feels like a month to create enough rhythm and spaciousness that all the insight and movement of August can actually change how we live.
To notice what keeps tugging us backward.
To get curious about the old patterns that still want to pull us into familiar territory.
And to listen for the part of us that says:
Holy no. I’m choosing a new way.
Spaciousness is not emptiness.
The morning after the lunar eclipse, I sat outside and watched the sunrise.
And I could feel the shift.
More space.
Not space that needed to be filled.
Space to integrate.
Somehow, in the middle of my extraordinarily full life, I ended up with a quiet, cool, rainy weekend at home with my 17-year-old.
I played my harmonium.
I meditated.
I practiced a little yoga.
I prepared for and led my Durga Goddess Gathering.
I picked elderberries and made jam.
And I started writing my Goddess book again.
Of course, after a month of Durga moving through my life, it was the Durga chapter waiting for me. 😏
At the end of my writing time, this came through:
Thank you Ma for giving me space in my very compacted life to write today. I sang to you this morning. I journaled. I rested. I gave myself space and you arrived.
And then the deeper truth underneath it:
Not because I forced myself to be productive. Because I became available.
Sometimes we call the Goddess in through effort, ritual, mantra and devotion.
And sometimes we simply stop filling every available space long enough to notice she is already there.
Durga taught me something I had been writing about all along:
Rest did not take me away from what mattered. It returned me to it.
There’s almost a whole practice inside that:
Devotion → Listening → Rest → Emergence → Action
Not action first.
Not push harder.
Not fill every gap.
Make contact with what matters. Listen. Create room. Let what is true emerge. Then move.
From Durga to Radha
Durga helped us reclaim our power in August.
She asked us to notice where fear was still choosing for us and where courage, discernment and self-trust were ready to take the lead.
Now Radha arrives.
And her invitation feels different.
Not less powerful.
More relational.
How do we live that reclaimed power through love?
Through compassion.
Through openness.
Through generosity.
Through connection.
Through a deeper trust in ourselves and in the path we are walking.
How do we stay in relationship with life rather than trying to escape it?
How do we notice where our sacred practices truly support us — and where we tend to forget them the moment life gets busy?
How do we let our spiritual lives actually shape our regular lives?
That is what I want to explore this month.
One protected hour each week
Shakti Rising Circle has openings for new members.
And if August shifted something in you, September is such a beautiful time to join us.
Not because you need more to do.
Because you may need one place in your week where you deliberately become available to yourself.
One protected hour each week.
A place to stop reacting.
A place to listen.
A place to remember what you know.
A place to stay connected to the woman you are becoming instead of slipping unconsciously back into who you have always been.
Insight is powerful.
But integration is what changes a life.
And that is what we practice together.
We meet Tuesdays from 7:30–8:30 PM MT on Zoom, and if you ever need to miss a live gathering, the replay is there for you.
But there is something deeply nourishing about knowing that every week, this space exists.
A place to return.
A little more spaciousness. A little more trust.
That’s what I’m carrying into September.
Not a need to become more.
Not a rush to figure everything out.
Just a willingness to stay present to what August revealed and let it keep working on me.
To stay curious.
To stay in relationship with life.
To keep choosing what feels true.
And to leave enough room for something new to emerge.
With love,
Mindy
Guided by Shakti. Rooted in You.
