Maternal Gift Economy: Breaking Through -
Ongoing Salons
Every two weeks
Maternal Gift Economy Movement - Salon #26 - The Gift in Personal Relationships
February 12, 2022
Featuring Vicki Noble and Rev. Areeya Marie Sharpe
Moderated by Letecia Layson
Rev. Areeya Marie Sharpe
Presentation Topic: The gift in personal relationships: elements of relational nourishing
A discussion of the infinite gifts within the the elemental directions and the 8 forms of Qi(energy) that promotes relational nourishing. We will look into the wellspring of The Arts of Sanctuary, which explores some of those creative and sacred art expressions, that offer the sanctuary of sustainable and compassionate living methods. Discovering reciprocity and mindfulness practices from within and around the world.
We’ll explore sacred art forms that foster self nurturing, in particular, that in turn strengthen our abilities to connect with all our relations with a mother’s love. Some of the Arts of Sanctuary that will be covered are from Areeya’s S.H.E. (Spirit Haven Essentials) workshops offering daily ritual activities including Song, Sacred Scent and gentle QiGong movement.
Rev. Areeya Marie Sharpe is an Interfaith Minister, Artist, Chef and Ceremonialist that has worked in large scale Themed Prop Construction and Fabrication, Visual/SacredSound Art and Private Chef venues for over a decade, serving Las Vegas and several other locales around the world. Creating recipes of visual/sound art, prayerFull cuisine and sacred scent honoring the earth, sacred sites and ceremonies. Gratitude for 25yrs of education, nourishment and encouragement provided in Las Vegas community art projects, music, song, group ceremony and woman's circles. Living and perpetuating the " Arts of Sanctuary", *** Those creative and sacred art expressions that offer the sanctuary of sustainable and compassionate, mindful living methods... body, speech and mind."*** "that space, that place of all love and grace". Honoring rites of passage and practices that offer sanctuary of essence in reciprocity with all our relations. Thank you for every day, in every way life gifts opportunities to share LunaSol Salutations, that union of heaven and earth in our hearts... here in the Mojave desert, in and around the world. Thank you beloved teachers, guides, friends, family and the divine essence that guides for the best good of all beings, in this life, throughout all lives.
Home nested in the desert over a couple decades, Areeya lives between Nevada, Western Mass, CT, Oregon, NC and Costa Rica while Interfaith Ministering and Priestessing. A Devotee of Sekhmet she is also a Lohan Shaolin Ngakmo practitioner and Medical Qigong student. Areeya enjoys studying, documenting and perpetuating the "Arts of Sanctuary" while visiting and serving Buddhist Sangha, Earth Centered Goddess Temples and sacred art communities established and yet to be established, around the world. Blessed to guide folks for 18yrs with Journeys to the Temple of Goddess Spirituality Dedicated to Sekhmet, in Cactus Springs, NV. Currently a co-care tender at the Temple since Jan 2021, living in an experiment of Maternal Gifting, honoring Genevieve Vaughn's wondrous offering to the world, a Temple perpetuating Goddess Spirituality, Peace Activism and the Maternal Gift Economy. You can find Areeya most often singing, co-creating ceremony, playing an instrument, creating altars and practicing Qigong!
Vicki Noble
Presentation Topic: The Gift of Mothering: Entering the Stream of Life
I got pregnant and married to an Air Force Officer at the age of 19 and had two daughters by the time I was 21. Obviously, I had not given the matter much thought and I divorced their father when they were 3 and 5 years old because feminism opened the door of my mind and presented options. Motherhood and the rearing of my children have been of central importance in my life, but never in a scripted or normal way. I got out of the box early and the children had no choice but to come along on my wild ride. I loved them fiercely and they have grown into their own beautiful, unique people, choosing to live with a lot more stability than I ever had. In my late 30s I married and had another (special) child, the subject of my 1994 book, Down is Up for Aaron Eagle. Although I have been devoted to the development of my career from my early twenties until now—and I’m about to turn 75—being a mother has been at the center of my identity all the time that I was co-creating the Motherpeace Cards, writing books, teaching and traveling, running a school for women healers, publishing a magazine, teaching in a graduate program, and more.
I’m not preaching that all women should be mothers or saying that motherhood is necessary for female identity; I don’t believe that at all. But I have come to understand that my longtime interest in Matriarchy and in more recent decades, the Maternal Gift Economy, is related to (as well as challenging to) my identity as a mother. We don’t live in Matriarchy here in the western patriarchal world. I moved far away from my parents as soon as I could and never really went back home in any significant way. But matriarchal values have permeated my improvisational journey at every turn and I have been a part of the contemporary community of feminist women (and men) attempting to live peaceful, egalitarian lives in alignment with nature and the rhythms of natural law. I have done my best to transmit these values to my children and their children, without trying to make them be just like me (an impossible task to say the least).
I recently had a kind of vision of the stream of generations moving out away from me—children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren—within all the various family configurations we have moved in and out of over the years. It is this fluid ever-changing and creative extended family structure that has provided me with stability, attachment, and an ongoing sense of being in right relationship. That to me is a gift of matriarchy and I would like to share it in this presentation.
Vicki Noble is a feminist artist, writer, healer, and wisdom teacher, author of eight books, including Shakti Woman: Feeling Our Fire, Healing Our World and The Double Goddess: Women Sharing Power. In the late 1970s, Noble co-created, with Karen Vogel, the round feminist Motherpeace tarot cards revising both divination and world history to include women. In the late 1980s, she founded and directed the Motherpeace Institute in California, and published an award-winning quarterly journal, SnakePower: A Journal of Ancient and Contemporary Female Shamanism.
Vicki has traveled and taught internationally, leading pilgrimage groups to sacred Goddess sites around the world and facilitating workshops and seminars; her books are published in numerous languages. She is retired from the Women’s Spirituality Masters Programs at CIIS (California Institute of Integral Studies) and New College of California in San Francisco, and Sofia University in Palo Alto (formerly called ITP). She adapts Tibetan Buddhist Dakini practices for her women students, holding private intensives in Santa Cruz, as well as Motherpeace Certification programs.
More @ www.vickinoble.com
