Of Escondido (San Diego) California, USA

IMAGINE!  A Real Goddess Temple!

A LARGE, permanent facility with beautiful indoor and outdoor sanctuaries—safe, spacious areas to gather, dance, drum, celebrate, educate and meditate!

The intention of the Center of the Sacred Feminine is to provide the opportunities and indoor/outdoor sanctuary spaces for any individual or group to gather for celebrations, ceremony, devotional artistic expression, educational forums, emotional healing, and meditation.  Our goal is to benefit all people regardless of gender or religious affiliation and we are particularly dedicated to empowering women of all ages spiritually and creatively.

The Spiritual Vision:

 

We envision the temple to be a non-profit, healing center facility dedicated to the Sacred Feminine Principle—the other half of the Divine Essence within all life.  The overall mission is to inspire appreciation, respect, awareness, understanding and devotion of the Sacred Feminine and to empower women of all ages spiritually and creatively.

 

Although the center will support women's spiritual needs in particular it will also serve the community and engender respect for all life, the earth, and all people through a diverse array of independent programs, ceremonies, and workshops.

 

The Center will have a variety of indoor and outdoor spiritual environments including a large Temple facility plus smaller ceremony rooms, “moon-lodges”, meditation places, and treatment rooms.  Our intention is to create safe, nurturing spaces which can be rented by anyone or any group with loving and respectful intentions for activities such as rituals, weddings, movement classes, educational workshops, art instruction or presentations, dance or music performances, meditation, private ceremonies, body-work services, or counseling and other therapeutic practices.

 

The Center will be a place of serenity for any person to come for private meditation and solitude as well.  It will inspire inner peace, relaxation, freedom, acceptance, and a feeling of connection to the inner self, to each other, the earth and the community. 

 

It will be a place that supports all sacred arts—dance, music, literary, performance and visual arts—and a place that promotes the healing arts—body work, counseling, and other alternative holistic therapies. The center will also be an organization that gives to the local community through philanthropic services—such as perhaps offering educational/art/music or dance programs for girls.  And as the center evolves, we further envision a unique educational program to train women as priestesses or spiritual leaders.

 

 

The Physical Vision:

 

Initially, the first stage is to find or build a Temple space—a structure that evokes a softer, natural, organic, more feminine effect and which is harmonious with its environment and earth friendly.  We envision the facility to initially provide areas to serve as lobby, lounge, kitchen and buffet spaces, as well as the main temple space. 

 

The main temple room we envision as round or octagonal in design to enclose a large, open, uninterrupted space, with wood floor, suitable for a circle formation of 200 people or a gathering of perhaps 500.  The walls could be painted with frescos, and have niches for altars, and we envision windows and skylights to give natural light and fresh air.  One segment of wall could have mirrors suitable for movement workshops.  The space would be equipped with professional sound system, lighting and a stage. The prevailing theme in décor would present images of Goddesses, the Holy Mother, and other inspiring, sacred images that are especially empowering to women and honoring of the Sacred Feminine and mother earth.

 

The location of the temple would be someplace in the San Diego, California area that is convenient for daily classes or events yet separate enough from the city to have spacious gardens and privacy for outdoor celebrations, and convenient parking.

 

Later stages of development would include facilities for: full kitchen, administration offices, library/book store/networking center, art gallery, café, smaller meditation or ceremony rooms, therapy rooms and maybe even classrooms and a child play room.  Also, there could be other facilities/spaces/rooms perhaps that could be leased to small, private businesses which offer services that are directly related to the Center's exempt purposes.

 

The outdoor facilities and gardens will offer beautiful vistas and have a large flat area for circle ceremonies, performances, and weddings; and could include gazebos, fountains, statuary, Maypole, peace pole, prayer flags, fire pit, labyrinths, hot baths, natural water ponds, and herb and vegetable garden.  Perhaps even a small amphitheater and outdoor stage would be a unique attribute of the center too!

 

We want to create a beautiful, safe, nurturing, peaceful environment that welcomes all people for gatherings of ceremony, education, meditation, celebration, joy, and healing.

Our mission is to inspire appreciation, respect, awareness, understanding and devotion of the Sacred Feminine principle.

Appreciating the “Sacred Feminine" in the spiritual sense means valuing the feminine principle, along with the masculine principle, as equal and fundamental aspects of the Divine.  From a planetary level, it means respecting and healing our Mother Earth.  From a cultural standpoint, it means revivifying the archetype of the Goddess through entertainment and the arts. In the societal sense, it means honoring the contribution of women in business, science, art and politics, as well as the home and community.  In a religious view, it means creating ceremony that reaffirms our connection to the divine, the Goddess, the earth and each other. In the human sense, respecting the Sacred Feminine, means especially valuing the innate worth of woman's mind, body and soul, as well as appreciating the "feminine" qualities in the male character.

 

The Goddess Studio is a small beautiful sanctuary space, but we still hold a vision for a much larger and gander temple complex! Thus we put forth the vision for a Center of the Sacred Feminine!

 

The Sacred Feminine...

is the nurturing, welcoming, accessible,

kind, gentle yet assertive, compassionate,

accepting, forgiving, patient and wise attitude

of the Loving Mother Essence.

 

For further reading….click:

“What is the Sacred Feminine?”

An Essay by Amy Peck

We are simply holding the vision as we build community, look at properties, and develop a clearer perspective of the logistics of building such a facility. We welcome legal advice, fund raising, financial advice, and grant writing assistance.

 

Your input, ideas, suggestions are always appreciated. Contact Amalya to share what you may know! Thank you!

Temple of Aphrodite, Aphrodiasias, Turkey. Photo by Karen Tate