I’m fresh off a retreat of Divine Alchemy in Rennes le Chateau, a small village perched on a hilltop near Couiza in the Aude département. Divine alchemy of the blessed Divine Self integrating with the blessed physical vehicle. I am so incredibly blessed and grateful that I gifted myself this healing retreat and now to be sharing some of my insights on this website with so many extraordinary people truly willing to make a shift from a disconnected worldview to one of connection and collaboration. During this week I had the strong awareness that everything shifts when you consider that a worldview of connection, collaboration and mutual aid changes your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, motives etc. In short this changes everything. The world in which we create our reality radically shifts at the level of our intentions for a loving and inspired life. And so it is! Oh yes!!!

A calling

At this moment I am having a hard time putting pen to paper (so to speak) and share my experiences. I am still so in the zone of beingness that doing anything seems like a huge task at the moment. Also expressing experiences never quite do justice to the actual experience. I feel light and expansive and am so so loving it. I feel like I released so much control and guilt. Anyways I do want to share a little about my travels and time spent reveling in Mary Magdalene’s beautiful loving energy. Only a few years ago I never thought about working with Mary Magdalene. The Magdalene has been making herself known in my life for the past years and she has called on me very strongly for the past year, especially after the passing of my mother. Mary’s call is now so strong, I have no choice but to listen. Hers is the call of awakened feminine power, to live with a strong, open and loving heart. In order to fully love myself and others again and tap into my feminine energy, I need to regain my energy and I need to follow the call of Mary Magdalene to allow more of the Feminine Energy to become me. She is a strong, but very loving energy. Very empowering. I call her a kick-ass goddess. She sets boundaries in a loving way. She is unconditional love. Loving, but never a doormat. Full of self love and care. Many lessons on my path right now, so no wonder she is showing up. I have lost the balance to my male side. Male energy is not bad, not at all! We all, male and female, need to have our male and female energies balanced. Most of us in the Western world have lost way too much of our feminine strength and a lot of males could really do with more male energy. This world seems upside down and inside out. It is all about balance!

I’ve got the power

A lot of women block their own power, afraid of taking up too much space and they find it difficult to stand for themselves (and yes I am also speaking for myself). This makes the expression of our talents and gifts very difficult. And this expression is so important for living a full and joyful life. It is important to be aware of this self denial and heal this. To discover how we can step into our power and where our potential pitfalls are. With power, force, I mean to be grounded, to be able to set boundaries, to have balance in giving and receiving and to be in contact with Source/Creator and your Higher Self for inspiration.

Feminine Power

In the past I have done workshops with the Magdalene energy with teachers such as Judy Satori and Judith Moore. And this Summer I felt strongly drawn to travel Rennes le Chateau, so I started searching the web for the combination Rennes and Mary Magdalene. And the retreat with DEVINUS, called “Feminine Power” spoke to me most. This retreat is all about the love of being a woman, the embodiment of femininity in heart and soul. For the woman in us is naturally powerful, intuitive, unconditional and free. She can receive, dares to be vulnerable and soft. She protects her boundaries from the power of her heart. Her biggest power is to be, not to do. The woman in us is pure, playful and free. Unconditional love is the ultimate goal for humanity. The more we accept our inner selves, the more we can tap into this true expression of love. To be who we are, no masks and shame and allow ourselves to learn, make mistakes and walk our authentic path. Unconditional love is to become free from the inside out, so to seek love, acknowledgement, acceptance inside ourselves.

Sacred Union

So I signed up and travelled to southern France with a beautiful group of women. It was a long drive (15 hours) but it was well worth it. This week we stayed at Les Labadous in small gites sharing with other women (we shared with four). This full week we worked on trusting our inner knowing and resolving our fears and limiting thoughts and beliefs. The coaches worked with Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ energies (Sacred Union of Divine Feminine & Divine Masculine) and the Sacred Flames/Rays. We worked on accepting fully who we are without setting up any expectations and conditions, we opened up to independence and freedom from within not from external factors and we relaxed in the beingness of us and let go of the need to do. Living from our feminine strength is all about taking responsibility for our own life and happiness and connecting to our hearts, to be open en vulnerable without fear or judgement.

Purging old fears

The energy in Rennes, and the place we stayed at Les Labadous, is very strong. Les Labadous is a powerful place. It has also been called a place of purging. And purging is what we did this week! There is an unusually strong energy of love, healing and power here. It is so clearly tangible. Mary Magdalene is said to have lived here. A woman with so much love for humanity, who shared so much love and wisdom. She taught with great compassion about the importance of forgiveness and she is now helping many women to free themselves and purge all energies that are not loving. This special place helps open up to this energy of love in our own hearts, heal our old wounds and activate our inner guidance. The energy here is said to amplify our feelings, it amplifies our love and light but also our fears and limiting beliefs. I was surprised to feel old, and I thought resolved, themes (such as motherhood, children) trigger me. And old fears, such as a fear of groups, not belonging (I have a past of being severely bullied), fear of failure, of not being good enough and guilt, coming up so strong. I felt very sad and tired. And angry and frustrated as I felt so stuck and useless for having these old patterns come up yet again. But I had a good scream and cry and opened up to the pain. I noted how much easier it is now, in this time, to feel pain and let go, it is no longer so intense. Digging and analysing is no longer needed, the healing is so much quicker and softer. After my initial struggle and discomfort I surrendered and let go in trust and full faith. I feel so much lighter and rested now. There is so much more room for love and peace. A calmness and comfort washed over me and is still with me.

Highlights

I would like to share a few of my personal highlights with you.

  • The group, such a lovely and loving group of women! Thank you for making me feel safe and accepted.
  • Our Refuge… La Source -Les Labadous is a very special place and is run by two beautiful people; Aafke and Johan. It means washing place or cleansing place in the Occitan language. A place with a special energy. A healing energy and a creative energy. The energy of Mary Magdalene, they say, who lived here and preached here. La Source is now a “Domaine des Amis”, a house for friends. It is situated in the valley south of Rennes-le-Chateau, along the River of Colors, bordered by huge black poplar trees.
  • The birth cave. This cave, resembling a vagina, made us experience the strong energies to reflect upon and honor The Divine Feminine in our lives. We set new intentions to be reborn in full freedom and were provided a brand new start when disembarking the cave (like being born)
  • In the neighboring cave of Marie Madeleine (her name in French) I pledged love and loyalty to myself in a sacred marriage ceremony to honor Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine within myself. To open my heart and love myself, to totally accept and forgive myself, to stand in my power and to live from my heart and inner/higher self guidance.
  • A baptism in Rennes le Bains, hot springs. Rennes les Bains’ thermal Roman springs, Fontaine des Amours, Source Madeleine, Magdalene’s well, is a Knights Templar initiation site and considered the Seat of Isis.this area is surrounded by magical earth energies. Here we experienced the special thermal healing waters for an initiation of Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine into Sacred Union and honored the eternal Priestess and Goddess who gather, dreams and births worlds into existence. We honored She who facilitates the sacredness of nature and all life. Together we surrendered to the sacred waters and we ceremonially received an invitation to drop the final veils of our hearts and trust our inner selves. To surrender to our hearts.
  • The abudant nature of Cathar country. Breathtaking! And the beautiful weather, I so needed sunshine and warmth!!
  • The visit to the Church of Mary in Rennes le Chateau (the soothing and strong energy)
  • A super beautiful, intense, and profound 2+ hour sound healing (OMG! Heaven!)
  • Two magical and beautiful performances by David Bailey at Les Labadous and in the cellar of Mary’s church on her birthday, 22 July
  • A visit to the city of Carcassonne (strong Dragon energies!!). The modern city is build around two medieval cities, the original hill top Cité of Carcassonne on the north side of the river Aude, and the thirteenth century Bastide of Carcassonne on the South side of the River Aude. The older Cité is a spectacular walled town – the largest medieval town in Europe with its city walls intact. The Cité of Carcassonne is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the setting for many films featuring medieval castles. It is one of the few sights in the world that genuinely justifies the epithet “breath taking”.
  • The Sunday market at Esperanza, with great atmosphere and witnessing an inspiring female African tribal dance
  • The starry nights (in Amsterdam we don’t get night skies like this!!) and strong star family energies at Rennes le Chateau/Les Labadous
  • The empowering and supportive full moon of 19 July. This moon asks us to work with the earth, a time to ground and anchor new truth, new personal practices, new intentions, new resolutions, new relationships and new ideas (PERFECT TIMING!)
  • And last but not least, the rekindling and reconnection to me… with all that has happened lately I felt a bit ungrounded and lost. But I feel in full strength again and very clear. I am so grateful.

Have courage

Mary Magdalene calls us to rise up into our power, open our hearts and speak our truths. She calls us to have courage and be our true loving selves and free ourselves from fear, shame and guilt. We are the ones to lead the way, first healing our core wounds so we can step up to be leaders, healers, teachers and live the life of our dreams. Let us now permanently elevate our conscious ability to create and BE the LOVE that WE really are.

Thank you Mary!

We have the divine capabilities to create the life we desire.
In Joy & Expansiveness,
I AM Charissa