Leading circles can be hard. It makes you hyper-aware of your ego, since it’s usually all riding on you. Doubts race through my mind:  Am I doing this right?  Am I doing enough?  Am I doing too much?’ Will I attract enough women to attend?  I believe this is the hardest part of leading circles and why there aren’t more women doing them. As with public speaking -- one of our biggest fears, -- we are afraid what people will think of us!

A certain amount of fear, or healthy stress, is a good thing. It motivates you to always try better. The challenge is to not obsess about our ego and let it block us from moving forward. Sisters, it’s time to get out of our comfort zones. We need each other to step up and have more women lead circles. Coming together in circle is so healing and empowering. Jean Shinoda Bolen, a writer, analyst, and teacher who has long been a leader in the women's empowerment movement, believes there will be a planetary shift in psycho-spiritual consciousness when we have a million circles happening around the globe. She shares this view in her book, The Millionth Circle: How to Change Ourselves and The World.

One thing that can help us with the ego dilemma is remembering to connect to our bigger, or higher selves, and with the intention behind leading circles. We know we are coming into this experience with the intention of healing and empowering women. We understand it’s for the greater good. This is the most important thing. The rest is a lot more inconsequential.

Another way to look at it is through the lens of the chakra system. Ego operates out of the third chakra. When we refocus our intentions of getting a group of women together to deeply connect and grow, it brings us back up into our fourth or heart chakra. This is where we mainly want to operate from.  Love resides in the heart chakra. Coming from love is the best way to help heal ourselves and the planet.
If you are interested in leading circles, I can help. I can also direct you to other resources that can assist you. In the permanent brick-and-mortar Red Tent, we’re going to need more women leading circles! May we all be strong enough and aware enough to recognize interference by the ego and refocus our energy into our heart chakras.

Image credit goes to Sara Maude. Read more about the ego and how to best deal with it in her blog post, Let Go of The Ego to Find Happiness.
 
 
 
 

As women, we often wrestle with a lot of self-doubt. How can I possibly manage building a start-up while I still run and operate a business and have a family?  My first response is, ‘But men do it all the time. If they can do it, so can I!’ But how can I do it in a balanced, healthy way? Men often neglect their health and families for work.
I have to accept the fact that Moondays will continue to consume my time and my psyche. It’s a juggling act between that, my family and my business of 28 years, The Fossil Cartel. My teenagers are getting older very quickly it seems. I want to be as present as I can and cherish our time together before they fly the coop. How do I stay balanced among the competing loves of my life? They each require my time and attention. This is one of the reasons I chose the word FLOW for 2018.
I know from my metaphysical studies that in order to maximize the law of attraction, one must “let go,” “be open to receive” and at the same time take steps towards the desired outcome. But in our masculinized society, we are expected to push ultra-hard and sacrifice enormously to achieve, skewing an ideal balanced lifestyle. “You’re not doing enough, and you are not enough,” is the insipid self-talk of this paradigm. Excessive toiling and sacrificing often leads to illness, depression and regret. Luckily, we are learning that feminine principles such as allowing, being, receiving, stillness and mindfulness are necessary to create maximum flow and a more fulfilling life. We are learning to embrace these principles and incorporate them into our lives. Take for example the mushrooming popularity of yoga and meditation in the past 20 years.
I learned the lesson of contraction (pushing) and expansion (allowing) years ago. In my 20’s, I had been living on the road with my psychic boyfriend, Mark. We did beadwork for a living and sold it in stores and at fairs and flea markets. We lived hand-to-mouth and never knew where our next dollar was coming from. One particularly meager time, Mark and I noticed how contracted we felt as fear and worry took over. We decided to try and let that all go and enjoy our time at this particular flea market, to trust that “the Universe provides,” Mark’s favorite mantra. We began to relax and accept our situation. Sure enough, within a few minutes, people began buying our jewelry! We wound up doing very well that day and noticed the correlation between how we were originally feeling and our altered perspective. This principle of expansion (letting go) and contraction (pushing,) is eloquently discussed in the book The Attraction Distraction by Sonia Miller. It is also expanded upon in The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist, who teaches us that money is in a constant state of flow, coming in and going out. She advises us to relax into being aware of this, to be constantly reminded that it always comes back in. This principle is the same magnetic dynamic of the moon to the oceans, the ebb and flow. The earth is in constant flux between the two. As we become more in tune with our womanhood being inherently aligned with the moon, it will be easier to be mindful of this occurrence and how it plays out in our lives.  
As a woman who wants to honor and celebrate her womanhood and encourage others to do the same, I am embracing my life and my businesses mindful of this dynamic. It’s not easy. Reading Kaya Singer’s book, Wiser and Wilder, A Soulful Path for Visionary Women Entrepreneur was helpful. In it she discusses how women are often held back from taking action in their businesses because of cultural conditioning. Not taking action is indicative of too much yin or the pull side of the ‘push/pull’.  And on the flip side of that is women who push too hard because we were taught growing up that if we want to be equal to men (at least in business), we need to dress and act like them and work even harder! Luckily, we are finally learning to embrace and use our feminine strengths to our benefit in balancing out the ‘push/pull’ seesaw.  It is a constant challenge of taking steps versus letting go and allowing.
Initially, sitting down to write this post, I got sidetracked putting interior design pics onto my Moondays’ Pinterest boards. Dreaming and visualizing the brick and mortar Red Tent is so fun. Any work I do is not worth it to me unless it is: (a) fun, and (b) beneficial to humankind, myself and my family. I believe the key to successfully balancing the ‘push/pull’ experienced daily is to operate from the foundation that my primary intention is that of service and fun. It’s a matter of coming from the higher self as opposed to the ego.
Speaking of ego… next blog post will be about the experience of leading a circle.

It’s no secret that as women, we carry certain wounds, sometimes called the “mother wound” or “sister wound.” Whatever you want to call it, it’s there -- in ourselves, in our culture and on the planet. Sadly, it is universal and pervasive.
Happily, women and the divine feminine are rising up. The call for sisterhood is getting stronger. Together, we are more powerful. For the healing of the Earth (which in itself is the perfect metaphor for the “mother wound” as she is the Great Mother of us all) and for the healing of humanity, we are aware it starts with us. This includes coming together in sisterhood.
Coming together can take many forms. One potent form is coming together in circle: a Red Tent, a Sister Circle, a knitting circle, a political meetup, etc. Somewhere we can relate on a substantive level. On that note, I am looking forward to our next Red Tent, the last one for 2017, with our theme of sisterhood.
This will be a chance for us to take a look at the mother wounds and help heal them so we can increase the velocity of the shift that is occurring. Some of these wounds include hurt via other women that have been occurring for many, many years and to a degree, continue to happen today. These hurts can result from comparing, judging and competing with one another.
How can we really show up in our light and in our dark, fully claiming and celebrating the power of sisterhood? How can we embrace our sisters as allies, instead of as enemies or outsiders, and move towards healing, forgiveness and letting go of past hurts and wounds? And how can we honor ourselves, and our uniqueness that brings value to this world, including our sisters? How can we graciously receive connectedness and love from our sisters? The answer is with our selves: peace, healing and connection begin with each of us.
This means we must take full ownership of our journey; that things don’t happen to us, they happen for us. And if they did happen to us, we turn it around and use it as a force for change. Either way, it takes awareness that we are each in charge of our own ship -- and in partnership with Spirit. It takes a commitment to finding peace within ourselves, and trusting as the process unfolds.  This last Red Tent of 2017 will celebrate sisterhood as a force for the unfolding of change – come join the sisterhood!

It’s been three years since I kicked off my Red Tent journey by screening the movie, “Things We Don’t Talk About: Women's Stories from The Red Tent,” with filmmaker Isadora Leidenfrost at Tabor Space.  I’ve learned so much over the course of that time. The experience and information I’ve garnered will help me a great deal in moving forward with my brick and mortar plans. 2018 is the year I plan to crowd source for the capital.

• Because this will require a lot of my time and energy, I might not be able to hold as many gatherings.
• I will be holding some of the Red Tents at my house to save on rental expenses. I will be putting all financial resources into the crowd sourcing program.
• I will be asking some women to step up and help facilitate the circles. When the brick and mortar gets going, we will need to have facilitators. We’ll be offering regular Red Tent Circles as well as Mother-Daughter Red Tents, Blessingways and Crone Ceremonies and I can’t do it all myself!
• I will be publishing parts of my business plan and my journey on the website throughout the process so you can follow along.

 
I am so grateful for all of you who have been coming to the Red Tents and other events. I am also grateful for those who support me energetically and help spread the word! Manifesting this baby will be a group effort and I look forward to seeing all who will be joining us on the road to female empowerment!
Below is a pic of me and Isadora Leidenfrost at the Portland Nursery Apple Festival, the day after our Red Tent. She stayed at our house and we got to know each other. We had such a great time! It was the perfect kick off for my Red Tent journey.

Last Saturday was our 4th Mother-Daughter Red Tent. I learn and observe new things with each one. I am grateful to be building experience and making a positive impact on girls’ lives, even if they might not be aware of it. Here’s the crux of the challenge: how to make it cool enough for girls to not only want to experience these kinds of rituals and ceremonies, but to also promote it to their friends and other girls. From my experience, including my relationship with my 15-year-old daughter with her minimal level of buy-in, most of the girls are only coming to the event at their mothers’ requests. Because we moms didn’t have good experiences with our own first moons and/or coming into our womanhood, we all want it for our daughters.
Native Americans have this beautiful saying:
“When a girl first gets her moon, she meets her power.
During a woman’s menstruating years, she practices her power.
When a woman stops bleeding, she becomes her power.”
 
Thinking of this week’s headlines about sexual assault, if we hunger for change in our cultural norms, we have to realize it starts with us. We can only get so far trying to get a government made up of predominantly white men to change some laws. It starts with us redefining what a modern woman is and taking back our inherent powers. A great deal of our powers come from our blood mysteries. The patriarchal system has demonized and capitalized on menstruation for too long. They have turned a beautiful huge part of who we are into a disgusting thing to be ashamed of. It’s time we take it back and train our daughters to embrace our cycles for their own source of sovereignty. So, how do we make it cool? For one thing, it’s time we start dialoguing with our daughters and asking them for advice.

Being a woman is hard enough at this point in time, (thankfully, not quite as hard as in the past,) it would be even more fretful if we didn’t have supportive men in our lives. I think it’s important to take notice and be grateful for them. After all, “What you think about, you bring about.” We want a world filled with more loving, supportive, nurturing men and fewer sexist, raping bastards.  In the future, I’d like to create a Red Tent event celebrating feminist, supportive men. When I meet guys like that, my confidence in humanity is renewed. Seeing a room full of them would help bolster our outlook on life! Plus they might dig the acknowledgement and then want to be even more supportive!

It's important who you surround yourself with:
I am fortunate to have such a man in my life. My husband and life partner for 18 years has been our homemaker and stay-at-home dad ever since our first child was born. We have been so blessed to have one of us be able to stay home to help raise the kids. My husband has been completely supportive of my goals and dreams -- something that is often taken away from women by their husbands. Despite his fears of feeling “less of a man” for taking on this role, and abandoning his own career aspirations, he has persisted and provides a great life for our family with his many talents.

Noticing other supportive men and appreciating them:
Throughout my life, I’ve met men that have been pro-women’s empowerment, but never have I met a man as feminist as Mojo Mustapha.  I also don’t think I’ve ever met a man who majored in Women’s Studies in college like Mojo did. Since 2004, Mojo has been building an Eco Feminist Tourism business called Hedonisia in Hawaii where besides empowering women to manage the land, the community manages web projects that focus on women’s reproductive, economic, physical and intellectual empowerment. If you are ever looking to take a vacation in Hawaii on a limited budget, you might want to look into volunteering there in trade for lodging.

• Here is a portfolio of their EcoFeminist Entrepreneur Web Projects. Interns can work on these sites as part of their duties. Tasks would include editing, writing, research or creating micro-documentaries for our Feminist Entrepreneur projects.
• Or if you'd rather trade for physical labor and tending the earth, here is a link to their Jungle Queen program.
• And if you’re not on a limited budget and this sounds intriguing and you want to support it, I highly recommend staying in one of Hedonisia’s eclectic lodging spaces.

I can’t wait to go myself! Please visit their website and explore all they have to offer: https://www.hedonisia.com/.  They even have a Moon Garden in a gigantic crater where you can pay homage to your cycle and connect with nature while feeling like you’re in mother earth’s womb. Needless to say, I am quite impressed with the work Mojo is doing and I think you’ll be too. We need more men like this in our world.

Supporting organizations that encourage men to respect women:
Also, check out the He For She campaign for the advancement of women initiated by UN Women. Its goal is to engage men and boys as agents of change by encouraging them to take action against negative inequalities faced by women and girls.

 June Red Tent
We started summer by paying tribute to the season’s associated element fire, and how it plays out as passion and sexual energy in our lives.

• Sophia Treyger, a Radical Pleasurist and Intimacy Coach, was our special guest. During the circle part of the evening, she walked us through an exercise, taking us on a journey within. The experience allowed us to tap into and become more aware of our pleasure centers. Sophia is a wonderful woman to work with if you’re feeling blocked in that regard or want to take your pleasure further. Visit her website.
• During the sharing part of the circle, we started to hear a commotion outside. Someone reminded me that it was the evening of the Naked Bike Ride. We paused the circle and ran over to the windows and watched for a while as a bunch of naked people rode by on NE Broadway. It was the perfect addition to our evening! J
• After the circle, we scarf danced to “That’s The Way I Like It,” by KC and the Sunshine Band.
• Powerful sister goddess Arkady Brown joined us for our June Red Tent as well.  Arkady is a Fine Art Boudoir photographer and talked a little about her yoni project. Her work was very fitting for the theme of our Tent! Check out her beautiful photography on her website and FB.

 
Pop-Up Red Tent Fundraiser
Taking steps towards my vision, I created this event to get a taste of what a future brick and mortar could be and look like, and to help raise funds towards the manifestation of it. There were massage and body workers; various readers such as tarot, astrology, hand analysis, intuitive, etc.; henna tattoo, treats, prizes and entertainment: belly dancing with The Gypsy Caravan, stand-up comedy with Barbara Holm, and live music with one of our Red Tent sisters, Sara Michelle Taylor. We had games where women could earn more raffle tickets and many participated. One of the games involved being a little creative and now I have a folder of awesome drawings and poems the women created! (See pics below.)
It was so much fun! The event not only raised money, it gave me valuable experience and info to help build a successful business.
 
2nd Annual Goddess Swim Fun Raiser
Remember when you were in high school and you just hung out with a bunch of girlfriends doing fun summer stuff? That’s the main reason I created this event. The second reason is to raise funds for various things. Last year it was for a scholarship fund for Moondays Red Tent tickets. This year it was for furthering the advancement of the brick and mortar.

• The weather cooperated again this year! The swim happened to be during one of the weeks we had record breaking heat, so the evening was the perfect temperature for swimming.
• We had a blast playing volleyball in the pool.
• When it got dark, we made a fire in the fire pit and some of us went skinny dipping.
• The moon was almost full and when it got dark, it had come up over the horizon. You could see it if you were in the pool and looked up over the fire pit and between the branches of the sumac tree. It was magical being in the water, gazing at the fire and the moon.
• We had some yummy treats including fresh bruschetta, toasted ravioli and Bloody Marys.
• Everyone seemed to be deeply connecting with one another, relaxing and enjoying themselves.

The next event this summer is the August Red Tent. It falls on Women’s Equality Day! Hope to see you there.

Wondering what to expect at the Pop-Up Red Tent this Saturday? Watch Susan explain it in her goofy way.

So many women business owners have been phenomenally supportive! Check out all of the amazing prizes they have donated to give away at the Pop-Up Red Tent! Remember, you can't win if you don't come this Saturday. Here's a list. (There's one I forgot to mention in the video: art prints and card set from Suzanne Elizabeth.)
You can earn more raffle tickets by sharing the Pop-Up Red Tent event by posting on your social media accounts!
All you have to do is share the event on any of your social media walls before July 27th, take a screen shot and email it to me at susan@moondays.com with your name and phone number. I will automatically enter an extra raffle ticket per post for you, towards winning one of our fabulous prizes!
Link to event webpage: http://www.moondays.com/events.html
Link to Facebook event page: http://bit.ly/2gTfaca
Thank you so much for your support and help in spreading the word!