The Awakening of the Divine Feminine
A mandala for meditation, inspiration and contemplation.
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Something is waking up inside of me. Or someone I should say. And it’s been a long time coming.
For too long I have subtly carried the angst and heaviness of shame that comes with being a woman in this world. I was born into a family and culture that saw and treated women as inferior beings, with a woman’s only goal in life to be married off. Despite anything else she had achieved or become, without that marriage certificate, she was nothing.
I never saw a woman in my family happy, thriving and being authentically herself. I observed women stuck in unhappy marriages, slaving away hour after hour, day after day without any acknowledgement or word of thanks, as if this is what they were created for. I watched as the women around me nitpicked their bodies and every perceived flaw while projecting that same self-hatred onto every other woman they came across too. I saw how they hid their sanitary towels, deemed themselves impure and unholy during menstruation and after childbirth, and never allowed themselves a moment of rest.
And as a British-born Pakistani, I saw the same outside of my family and in wider society too, despite how ‘free’ that society claims to be. It’s the same widely ingrained belief playing out in different ways, that women are second-class citizens; that women must sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice in a desperate bid to be considered enough.
It’s no wonder that this conditioning seeped its way into my psyche too, despite my awareness, curiosity and questioning as a child and my increasing self-awareness growing up. Somehow its tar-like stickiness found its way around and into my heart, holding it down just under the surface while it desperately tried to breathe. It made a home somewhere deep within me, coating my worth, self-belief and true self-love with a darkness that held me down, despite the illusion I had created of being free.
Only now, in my mid-30s, am I becoming truly aware of just how deeply these unholy beliefs have enmeshed themselves within me. And that awareness is only increasing as the Divine Feminine within me, buried underneath all of that noise, is stirring and stretching and finally beginning to wake up.
I wrote this piece for my other publication recently that explains where I am in the process of that awakening. It emphasises that the liberation of women is needed for the liberation of the whole of humanity. If you feel called to, please have a read.
The Mandala
This mandala began to call me at the beginning of summer this year. The colours, the flow of the background, the words that it needed within it to truly come to life.
As I sat back after creating my guidelines, I knew that the centre needed to represent the Divine Feminine without words; a symbol that embraced everything that the Divine Feminine was beginning to mean to me. Soft, Divine, healing, powerful, subtle, nurturing, loving, strong…
I took pencil to canvas and in a matter of moments this freehand design flowed through. A representation of the womb, the opening to the sacred space within, and the Love that a woman is created from and can create on this earth.
And it went on from there. The central motif was filled with liquid gold and copper-bronze, created using a mixture of acrylic paints and pouring medium in a paint cone. The words were painted over in the same copper-bronze, and I was beginning to fall in love with this piece and all that it represented.
I captured the below photograph at this stage during golden hour one evening when the light struck the canvas and brought it to life before my eyes. This photo has a really special place in my heart - it takes my breath away.
And then bit by bit the rest of the mandala began to come together, too. For once, this was not about how pretty it was or how it looked. It was about how it made me feel and the energy infused within the piece.
Although the canvas is small, she took her time to fully emerge. That says a lot about the Divine Feminine within each of us, too. Perhaps we need to trust her process and allow her to emerge bit by bit until she is fully ready to reveal herself.
Mid-summer I added the finishing touches… and here she is in all her glory✨
She wasn’t complete without the spoken word element to accompany her, however, so past midnight one night when the kids were all asleep and I finally got a moment to myself, I enabled the space for the words to flow through me and put the below video together.
This is the full visual and auditory experience of The Awakening of the Divine Feminine Mandala, as a gift from my heart to the heart of every human being who may have forgotten just how magical the feminine is. I hope she touches your heart the way she touched mine.
This Divine Feminine Mandala is open to being welcomed into the life of the woman who can be inspired by her energy. If that woman is you or someone you love, you can make her yours.
You can also commission your own magical mandala artwork by shooting me an email on mycreativemeditation@gmail.com
Wherever you are on your own journey, this is just a reminder that the Divine Feminine knows the way. Wake her up, give her your trust and let her lead you towards the life that you truly deserve. She is ready whenever you are.
With Light, Love, Peace & Creativity,
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Oh goodness yes to all of this—And funny thing I’ve been thinking about mandalas and seeing them in my mind for days…
“Although the canvas is small, she took her time to fully emerge. That says a lot about the Divine Feminine within each of us, too. Perhaps we need to trust her process and allow her to emerge bit by bit until she is fully ready to reveal herself.”
This post really spoke to me, but especially these lines. Perhaps because I feel the awakening, too, and I have a feeling so many other women are, as well. But who is emerging, I’m still not fully sure. Perhaps it IS a slow process. But it helps to be in the company of strong, passionate, artistic, soulful, resilient, and beautiful women like yourself.
Thank you for choosing to share your artistic expression with the world. We are badly in need of it. This mandala is breathtaking. I want one, too, but I’m waiting for the image of what I want to emerge fully in my mind, just like I’m waiting for my Divine Feminine alter ego to arrive.❤️