Welcome to the NEW SISTAHGODDESS!!!

SAYING YES TO LIFE!!!
Welcome to the NEW SistahGoddess Magazine! I am very excited to announce a NEW LOOK and a NEW OUTLOOK! SistahGoddess Magazine is dedicated to the non-oridinary, transformative and powerful lives of everyday Sistahs. I think it is time to share our talents, share our dreams and vision for restoration of the female spirit. Sistahs are a powerful and necessary force in healing the planet - it is through our own personal journey to health and healing that our families and communities will find their own wellness and renewal.

Take a look around and TELL ME what you think! This month starts off a series of inspirational interviews from influential Sistahs who are leaders in healing the whole self - mind, body and soul. Here are just a few who will debut on the NEW SistahGoddess Radio:

Eshe Riviears, the Herb Lady/ Herb Sistah. She is co-founder of the International Fibroid Free Womb Wellness Conference/Tour with Queen Afua. She is one of the most well-respected, results-oriented professionals in the holistic health industry. Known internationally as The Herb Lady, Riviears’ ever present connection to her southern roots inspires her to walk in the way of her Big Momma, and aunt and uncle who dispensed herbal remedies, tonics and creations as Utica, Mississippi’s town herbalists. Riviears’ Legacy Herbal blends, Aunt Henrietta’s Lung Tonic and Uncle Peter’s Azzafizzity Cough Stop, honor those tall-walkers who, to this day, guide her on her healing journey. Multitalented and exceptionally gifted, Riviears has earned a reputation for excellence and is highly sought after to share her expertise. She speaks with Sistah C on health issues concerning Sistahs and the upcoming conference on living Fibroid Free.

Ruth King, MA, is a respected voice on women and rage and has devoted her life to strategies that transform rage. A July 2007 O Magazine Nugget, King is President of Bridges, Branches & Braids—an organization working with negative emotions in positive ways, and author of the best seller Healing Rage—Women Making Inner Peace Possible and the audio CD Soothing the Inner Flames of Rage--Meditations that Educate the Heart & Transform the Mind. King weaves 20+ years in psychology, leadership development, shamanism, metaphysics, systems theory, meditation, and teachings from wisdom traditions to lecture, coach, and facilitate retreats that transform the emotional body and mind. She speaks with Sistah C on healing rage and finding the wisdom in working positively with this energy.

Assata Nzingha Malongo, M.Ed,Doctor of Arts and Humanities Candidate, midwifery scholar, researcher, healer, and mother. She is the director of SunWombs Sacred Birth Alliance, and StarSeed 7 Human Arts Institute for Children. She is the author of the upcoming book " Healing the Black Womb", a book that focuses on Folk Healing Practices for Black Women, and the producer of "From Whenst We Came, a documentary which chronicles the black woman's birthing experiences from Africa to present. She speaks with Sistah C on folk medicine and midwifery.


In addition to our inspirational podcast interviews, SistahGoddess has many new features:

Sistah Media: A place to feature various videos from arts to documentary.

Sistah Picks: A section featuring the work of various artists and favorite products.

Health and Wellness: This section will feature homemade remedies, health products and health news concerning Sistahs.

Sistah Friends: This is a section for our Friends. Do you have a business or a product that you want to let SistahGoddess readers know about? Drop me a email to get your space on Sistah Friends.

Featured Writers: SistahGoddess invites contributors to our magazine every month. A regular writer will be Mama Mbeyu. She will provide an African-centered, spiritually intuitive advice column. You can email your questions to Mama Mbeyu at Sistahgoddess@gmail.com.

News: We have set up a link with Wild Roots Media to get you the latest headlines from an Black perspective.

Sistah Goddess will continue to feature links to some of the best websites, music and books.

Your feedback is important to me! I want to hear your thoughts on what we discuss on SistahGoddess Radio and the posts featured on the blog. Also, if you have information on a Sistah we need to feature please drop me an email.

Lastly, I have a SPECIAL OFFER for banner ads on SistahGoddess. Until November 15th you can feature your 125X125 pixel banner ad with a link to your site in the "Sistah Friends" section for FREE. After the 15th you can decide to sign up for a cost-effective ad agreement or remove your ad. Its that simple! Promote your business, events or project for FREE. *Please note SistahGoddess editorial staff has to approve each ad before placing it on the blog. **Design of the banner is not included with this offer - however our "in house" designer can design your ad for $10.00/per ad. Email me for more information at Sistahgoddess@gmail.com


Thank you for all of your continued support!

Peace,
Sistah C
Editor-n-Goddess

Our Friend The Moon...

Artist: Thalia Took, Ix Chel Mayan Moon Goddess

Ever since my meeting with the circle of midwives, healers and teachers a memory of my wombyn-self has been awakening. I remember that I once followed the cycles of the moon and every year I would get these moon phase cards to chart my cycle. In western society (and some other societies as well) many of us have been taught that our cycles are a curse, a hindrance, an embarrassment but in reality it is the most powerful time of our lives. It is said that a woman's cycle follows the phases of the moon. Imagine we are interconnected with the Moon just like the waves of our Mother Ocean. In many societies it is known that a Sistah is most powerful during her cycle so she is excused from certain ceremonies and duties during this time because nothing is more spiritually important during this time. She is given time away from the everyday mundane to sit with herself, reflect, made plans, divine, create art and commune with other women on their cycles. In some other societies this practice was twisted and women were shunned, banned and considered cursed during this time. Really it all boils down to the fact that WE ARE MOST POWERFUL DURING THIS TIME. The first part in being healthy is self acceptance and self love. You can't love anyone else properly if you believe any part of yourself is unworthy and unlovable - so Sistahs we got to learn to LOVE our Cycles. What if we changed our relationship to our cycles? I think we would see a change in our lives. Here's some Moon Time knowledge I am passing along for your further investigation.

Phases of the Moon:
Yesterday, I got a message from one of the midwives that Saturday (yesterday) was the Dark of the moon and with it comes a time for rest, inner reflections and introspection. Ten-and-a-half to fourteen days after the full moon. The dark moon is a time for ridding oneself of bad habits, for exploring our darkest recesses and understanding our angers and passions. Also a time bringing justice to bear.

Next is the New Moon (today) it is a time for starting new ventures, new beginnings. Also love and romance, health or job hunting.

Seven to fourteen days after the New Moon is the Waxing Moon. A waxing moon is good for growth and development. A time to learn something new, take a class work on relationships, work on yourself.

The next phase is the Full Moon. From fourteen to seventeen-and-a-half days after the new moon. A full moon emphasizes maturity,fertility, and abundance, "full fillment". It is a time to bring forth those things that you want in your life, to manifest.

The Waning Moon is from three-and-a-half to ten-and-a-half days after the full moon. It is a time to rid yourself of unwanted characteristics, a time to weed out what is not working.

More on our Moon Time

You can keep record of your cycle using Lunar phase cards. You can order one from Snake and Snake Productions or get a calendar from Luna Press

Do you know that many conventional products for your cycle are filled with chemicals and are an environmental disaster for the planet? Here are several natural alternatives you may want to consider...

The Diva Cup

Want to use a natural tampon? Try sea sponge.

What about natural washable cloth pads? Check out Luna Pads

Do you know switching to a washable, re-usable product you could save $$$200. to $1000 a year, you also could eliminate the possibility of toxic shock or exposing your sacred womb to chemicals and foreign substances that may effect your fertility. You also save the earth! A cotton pad is said to last anywhere from 3 to 9 years...

Lastly, if you have a girl that is ready to become a woman consider making her first day on her cycle a day of celebration. In some African traditions the new woman's mother would make her waistbeads. The women of the community would spend time with her and tell her about womanhood, teach her ways of women and pass on their wisdom. Today, some mothers (and fathers, too) take time off and spend the day with their daughter, give her jewelry and/or take her out for a special meal. What ever you do, it is a time to celebrate your young Sistah Goddess. Set her on the path of positive self image so that she can grow up loving herself.

Much Peace and Light,
Sistah C

The Truth Needs No Proof, Either It Is OR It Isn't -Sistah India Arie

I think I will be on a music thang this week. There are some powerful Sistah Goddesses that speak truth through music. My friends come in all ages - and my lil' bro and lil sis gave me a wonderful gift this morning - it was India Arie's cd Testimony. I have to say that I missed this one when it first came out - don't know why - maybe it just was not time for me to hear it until now AND it is so beautiful!!!
Sistah India really upholds the image of the Goddess through her thoughtfully written songs...it is as if a your soul is singing to you - talking to you - giving you that pep talk you need to move forward. She is also sooo beautiful and full of light.It is suppose to be that way...We Sistahs are so full of light - we got to finds ways to cultivate our Shelectricity. WE CAN DO WHATEVER, I MEAN WHATEVER WE WANT TO DO! EVERY OUNCE OF US IS SACRED AND BEAUTIFUL!
More Sistah Alchemy
For the rest of this week let music from powerful places uplift you. Let only positive vibrations fill the air of your home, your car and your work space. The music industry knows that music reaches us at the sub-conscious level - this is why they promote music that only stimulates our "root chakra" and while that may have it use from time to time, we really want music that stimulates our universal knowingness - that re-awakens our core light.
Here are a couple of videos from Sistah Goddess India Arie...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5y9A4DKmjM
Have a beautiful and powerful day.
Peace,
Sistah C

Mama OYA Strikes!!

Funny, yesterday I woke up with Mama Oya's energy right in the room. After I wrote my last post she came to me as the picture. Little did I know that it was a message that she was comin' and she was bringin' change. Last night I fell asleep early - it was like a veil of sleepiness came over me around 9pm and just turned in... Today, Atlanta got a warning that even she - this mythical city of far away traveler's dreams - named after a place that is now under water -can change and will be changed.
It is coming to me that if you are reading this early post from me that you should reflect on the energy of Mama OYA. What is she asking you to pay attention to? If she brewed up a storm in your life, what do you picture "blewing" right away? How do you handle situations and conditions that you can NOT control? How do you work with the forces of nature to reclaim your true nature?

www.stevesphotomythology.com/moon.htm

Here some descriptions of Oya I found on the web:

Oya is the powerful Yoruba Goddess of the Winds of Change; the Primeval Mother of Chaos; Queen of the Nine (for the nine tributaries of the Niger River). Using her machete, or sword of truth, she cuts through stagnation and clears the way for new growth. She does what needs to be done. She is the wild woman, the force of change; lightning, fire, tornadoes, earthquakes and storms of all kinds are ruled by Oya. She is also Queen of the Marketplace, a shrewd businesswoman and adept with horses. As the wind, she is the first breath and the last, the one who carries the spirits of the dead to the other world, which is why she is associated with cemeteries.

by Sandra Stanton (Visit her website at www.goddessmyths.com)


Oya-Yansa is the Queen of the Winds of change. She is feared by many people because She brings about sudden structural change in people and things. Oya does not just rearrange the furniture int he house -- She knocks the building to the ground and blows away the floor tiles.

She is the cyclone and the earthquake. Oya fans Her skirts and blows the branches from the trees; should She choose to cry, torrential rains fall on the earth.

She is the Mother of Mind. She can impart genius, restore memory, or slap you with insanity.

Oya opens Her mouth, flicks out Her tongue, and lightning strikes. She has nine heads; She is the River Niger.

No one can be certain of Oya's movement; no one can capture Her smile. She is the mistress of disguises. yesterday Oya was a gentle lamb; today, a buffalo trampling the earth beneath Her feet. Tomorrow She'll be a rainbow -- maybe.

from Jambalaya, by Luisah Teish (Order from Powells!)

To seek adequate words with which to trace her elemental patterns is an act of homage to the goddess of tropical weathers in hopes that her compassion may reciprocally illuminate inner equivalents with which we have struggled in private darkness. It has been a struggle intensified by patriarchal discountenance of powerful emotion -- its problematic relegated to women "in need of help," as the saying goes. In being choaked by compliant mothers to stifle rather than outride our storms, to dam and conceal our floods, to bank our fires and give tinder over to future husbands, the Oya in ourselves froze in its tracks. Yet such ice particles, negatively charged at the heart of mounting storm are the mysterious, generative sources of Oya's lightning. Thus, in other way obstructed, Oya strikes us -- quirking here, cramping there. Soon with our brains, the indefatigable goddess goes jaggedly to work upon our bodies, cutting off circulation, opening sluices, instilling victims who could be votaries with a variety of "female complains," catching them up in mindless swirls of activity, throwing them down into incapacitating vortices, playing havoc with appetite. Stop, Oya, we beg you! We will sound your praises along all rivers from Hudson to Niger. We will hang prayer flags to flutter like laundry stretching from fire escape to fire, continent to continent. We will strive to know your winds the better to reclaim our part of fire.

from Oya, In Praise of the Goddess, by Judith Gleason, 1987

International Women's Day

Did you know that today is International Women's Day??? I don't think they recognize it too much in the US but all over the world it is an important holiday - us Sistahs are very important after all. May we honor all of our Grandmothers, Mothers, Aunts, Sistahs, Girlfrienz and Sistah women all over the world who have survived in a world that has not regularly recognized the huge sacrifices we make for our families and our communities.

CHANGE:EARTHSEED,THE BOOK OF LIVING DAY 38 -40 DAY PROSPERITY PLAN

I think one of the most important books everyone can read is Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler - if not for the story for the concept of the Universe and God, The Creator -which Butler calls in the book Earthseed:
Earthseed: The Books of the Living
All that you touch
You Change.

All that you Change
Changes you.

The only lasting truth
Is Change.

God
Is Change.
(Parable of the Sower, Octavia E. Butler)

The story is of a young Sistah Goddess named Lauren Olamina. She forms her own religion based on her observation that everything in the universe changes. Change is the one constant in life. People can either accept change and work with it for the betterment of themselves and their community, or they can resist it, hoping in vain that things will carry on the way they always have done.

I woke up this morning with a vision of myself outside on a path in the forest. I was wearing white and my feet were bare. I was like a walking tree - my feet able to connect deeply with the earth and if I stood in one place long enough I knew I would become rooted there...I realize that this vision is about being in my true nature about living LIKE NATURE. Nature adapts but it is always clear of its purpose - this is why you will see a tree grow through concrete - you see the concrete's strength is only an illusion- there is no permanency because underneath it all is the earthseed that must grow- that must fulfill its purpose regardless of what man has placed in its path. That is me- I was told clearly today - that my destiny is set- I must fulfill my purpose. I can take as many detours as I want- I can stubble on my path -I can try to take other roads - but all roads lead to my destiny. I was told that Spirit will wait- Spirit is not impatient-human time means little to the SpiritWorld. I was directed this morning to have faith - to KNOW THAT DESTINY HAS BEEN GIVEN ITS DUE. Someone needs to hear this...perhaps it is you?? THERE IS NO POWER GREATER THAN THAT OF OUR CREATOR AND THE CREATOR IS THE ONLY ONE THAT CAN GIVE US OUR DESTINY- all else is illusion - all else is simply a lie.
Peace,
Sistah C

DAY 38 (write it down, meditate on it and journal your thoughts)
38. My consciousness of the Spirit within me as my unlimited Source is the Divine Power to restore the years the locusts have eaten, to make all things new, to lift me up to the High Road of abundant prosperity. This awareness, understanding and knowledge of Spirit appears as every visible form and experience that I could possibly desire.

Travel Alert! Free Trip To Zanzibar!

I was just speaking with my good friend Upsei Mtambuzi from the Oakland area last night and I shared that I was now bloggin' for the sistahs. Out of that conversation came the invitation to sistahs (and brothas) to come to her family's very beautiful beachfront Zanzibar Bed & Breakfast for her February 12-28, 2008 Spiritual and Healing Journey Retreat. I am attaching pictures because many us don't know the paradise that awaits us in our motherland. Upsei and her husband are wonderful Afrikan hosts and they will have guest teachers presenting classes/workshops on spiritual healing and yoga.

SPECIAL FOR SISTAH GODDESS READERS!

EARN A FREE TRIP TO ZANZIBAR!
Get six people to attend the Spiritual and Healing Journey Retreat and go for free!!! OR (the communal way) have seven people pay the price of six to go. Eitherway, it is a savings of $3500. For more information on the Zanzibar retreat and other retreats go to their website at www.enterafrica.net/tours.html

If you can't make the February retreat Upesi has more events happening. You can also just come and enjoy the bed&breakfast for a little R&R. The home/center is located in Bwejuu in Zanzibar (Tanzania). Upesi has a special relationship with the community and on her site you can see a community project she is working on with our East Afrikan Sistahs. Also, support Afrikan owned businesses and travel spots - you may get more out of it than a vacation. Tell her you heard about it on the Sistah Goddess Blog.
Peace,
Sistah C