Movement, Questions and Answers

I've moved!  In the interest of consolidation and creating space on this site for the evolution of Vestal U, I'm now blogging at www.laravesta.com.  Please come visit!  I'm creating anew and have connections and inspirations I'd love to share with this community.

Here's a few other things you might be curious about:

What happened to Moon Divas Certification?

MD Certification still exists, though it is evolving mostly due to a revelation that came my way last month.   In the nine months since the Pilot project was offered, none of the participating Certification students have applied to complete their Certificate.

That's right, none.  

And, I saw how by creating an expert-oriented certificate process, some women became alienated from the work and others were unable to step into it fully without "professional" support.

But, as I wrote in the Guidebook, quoting Pattiann Rogers, "I am not an expert in anything."

I came to Moon Divas through following a deeper impulse, and I believe fully that each and every woman can access this sacred power, this inner knowing.  It is already in you.  I cannot bestow it, only share my story and love in the hopes that you will do the same.  The Guidebook is a template of my journey, a synthesis of tools and art and stories that speak to me.  I made the Guidebook for you, for all women who have hated themselves, who have felt ugly or unloved or powerless or less than enough.  

"Each of you has access to the powerful knowledge of women through time, the natural world and all divinity.  It does not need to be given to you.  There is no purchase or product necessary.  It is already in you, in the wonder you are."  --from The Moon Divas Guidebook

We need each other now, right now.  We need our sisters and daughters and elders and mothers to gather in community and sing ourselves back to fullness today.  I want to be a bridge, a torch, a holy light shining the path for anyone who is brave enough to gather in their community and tap into their bodies and stories with honoring.  I don't want to be a barrier, intimidating, pre-selecting.  This work belongs to all of us, and we need it now.  Not when we are better, smarter, something more.  We need more love.  Together.  Today. The intention of Moon Divas Certification was to attract women who wanted to lead with this work into their communities.  I developed a set of courses and tools to enrich the Guidebook process and that could be used as curriculum for teaching Moon Divas workshops and classes.  Anyone who completes the Certification program is still welcome to do this, but I realized after talking with program participants that I needed to foster more independence and openness, to take the Moon Divas work out of my hands and put it into form for anyone who wishes it without barriers.

Here is how my work is transforming:  I am giving it to love.

I don't want to trick or manipulate you with advertising, I don't want to be on social media unless it is for play, and I don't want to make you feel like you need my approval before you use the Moon Divas Guidebook or any work I've created.

I do want us to weave bright community wherever we are, in real time with our neighbors.  I want to give my work and art and ideas to the creation of this community, as an offering for you to do with and use as you wish.
I want you to feel beautiful, blessed and powerful in the process.  I think there are many ways of doing business in the world and I want to start experimenting with those that align with my heart's desire.  Won't you join me?

So here are the changes to my practice, Moon Divas and Vestal U for now:

1.  I am teaching one final gig in Portland on November 5th at In Other Words Books, then will be writing full-time until further notice.  I will continue to blog, to be active in my local Moon Divas community, and am creating a quarterly Muse-letter of things that truly inspire me and fill me up.  You can sign up here if interested.

2.  I have created a simple, affordable Moon Divas Companion Course from the Certification materials:  twelve modules and a book's worth of supplemental curriculum.  This is a self-study course that may be used in tandem with the Guidebook, and can be investigated alone or with a group.  Believe in yourself.  You have everything you need to do this work, to create the life you want.  Feel the fear, and do it anyway.  You are guided and protected in each and every choice.

3.  The Guidebook E-Book is still free for anyone who wishes it, and is available now for download at www.laravesta.com with no strings attached (you don't have to give me your email address in exchange anymore...).  I have decided to offer it for sale as well, and will donate all proceeds from any e-book sales to a cause supporting the Moon Divas vision of "healing, strength and a potent love".  This quarter, I'll be donating to the Gateway Center for Domestic Violence Services in Portland, OR.

4.  Vestal U is gestating.  There will be news and new beginnings as it unfolds in its unique, non-linear and feminine way.  Stay tuned...

I want to thank all of you who have witnessed my unfolding over the past fifteen months.  My lesson has been trust, my alignment to a deep true calling so hard to hear in the midst of my own fear, the loud world of business advice and personal challenges.  The process of paring away what was unnecessary must look chaotic and undisciplined from the outside, and I've been at times painfully aware of this.  But after years of illness and depression I've learned enough to believe in the moment, to allow the mystery to work its wonder in spirals and nebulas on the mist-filled path.  I leave you with a prayer poem, and hope for new beginnings wherever lands your heart:

Ode to Unmaking

God within me
be not light
this day must come to darkness
the leaf, winter
Grace in decay.
God within me 
be not forgiving
the universe does not
forgive the earth its orbit
the mother does not
forgive the child 
cradled in her womb.
Oh God,
be a great cloud
lichen and
the breath of trees.
For then, what is
may be
and what is holy
may be more holy.
Holy the breaking
Holy the white path
absent any moon.