This week is Friday the 13^th: Women’s Power Day.

That’s right. Not bad luck at all. That whole idea was made up by guys in the Middle Ages who feared the “witches” – those pagan wise women, who would get together on the 13^th of the month to celebrate the female aspect of the Divine. (1 for the Goddess, standing equally beside the 3 of the male Holy Trinity.)

Friday became the unlucky day in Christian tradition as a reflection of Good Friday, the day that Jesus was crucified. Hmm, and that was the day that the 3 Marys, the 3 aspects of the Feminine, gathered at his cross to support him in his journey.

My intention wasn’t to give a lesson in Christian mythology, but it seems a good place to start.

Because today, I want to tell you about my belief in the strength of female community.

Here’s the story:

My favourite social activity is a dinner party. It’s one of the most lyrical ways my husband and I get creative together. Even the book club I belong to is more like a literary supper club. Fresh out of university, my roommates & I discovered that a dinner party was the cheapest way to have fun – especially if someone else brings the wine!

13 years ago (there’s that number again), when I was on the verge of divorce, I threw my own birthday party: supper with my best women friends. I cooked yummy food for, and surrounded myself with, the ladies who would become my regular guests, and my support system to this very day. I have a girls’ night at least 3 times a year. It’s the most grounded way I spend with my girlfriends.

These women are the people that I would choose to have with me on a deserted island. They cheer me on, they hold me up. They’ve seen me at my best, they’ve loved me at my worst. When they come over, I celebrate their beauty, their passion for life, their dedication to work and family. They inspire me to bring the best manifestation of myself forward. They are the safety net I can rely on, no matter what.

I couldn’t imagine a fulfilled life without them.

Little did I know that this tradition was nothing more than part of the natural evolution of my soul & its yearnings.

Flashback to 1979: Flipping through my parents’ copy of Time, I came across a column about an art exhibition that had opened in San Francisco. Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party, the iconic feminist installation, that honours over 1,000 women in history. The triangular table holds 39 place settings (3 x13); each one represents a pivotal character in the herstory of the Feminine, starting with the Primordial Goddess and ending with Georgia O’Keefe.

The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago

I had no idea who most of the women/goddesses were. I had no overt interest in the feminist movement. My love of drawing & art hadn’t yet gelled into anything more than occasional sketches and lots of crafts.

Yet I was fascinated.

Being 12 (yup, I was in my 13^th year – I’m not makin’ this shit up!), other things quickly veiled that fascination, until maybe 7-8 years ago. Working in an art school, I came across an article about the piece. It had been bought by the Brooklyn Museum and would be permanently installed there. By this time, my own dinner party ritual was deeply established, I’d discovered my creativity, I was studying holistic health with the aim of serving women.

This time it felt like fate.

It took until 2010, but on a trip to NYC with my husband, I made a beeline to Brooklyn and spent a morning in utter adoration of this altar to the Feminine.

Inspired by Judy Chicago, I’m creating my own virtual dinner party.

Part of my blog will be dedicated to celebrating women who I want to share my table. It will be a way of expanding my soul’s community and sharing it with the rest of you.

So, I’ll write the occasional post about a woman I want to celebrate. They may be famous or fictional characters. They may be women I know or women I’d like to know. They will all have personal meaning for me, yet their significance carries weight for you, for us.

Each woman at my virtual table will have a lesson to teach, even if it’s simply to inspire with her ability to hold greater aspirations for ourselves than we’d ever thought possible.

Each one will be a manifestation of the Goddess, a Wise Woman, a pilgrim on the road of the Sacred Feminine. I want to share the wisdom of these women as part of a community of support. Because, that’s what we do for each other.

This circle serves me daily: Whenever I hold the space for a woman, be it personally or professionally, my capacity to provide support expands into a glowing container of Love because I tap into the energy of the whole community.

Welcome to my table!

Leave a Reply and tell me who you’d invite to your dinner party.

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