Letter from Cressida Pryor
October 30, 2024

As ever, our circle of time has shifted with great speed and we are approaching Samhain, All Saints and All Souls again...

I usually allow nature to lead my thoughts to share with you in this letter...by nature I also mean the natural unfolding of life which can hold a mirror up to the bigger patterns we are all part of...

I’ve noticed this time a reluctance and blurring of clarity which has made it hard to find something to hinge this letter on...that was until I read some pages (I open this at random when I lack direction) from Mirabai Starr’s book ‘Wild Mercy’ on ‘Living the Fierce and Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics)...

The pages I read were written, judging by the content, shortly after the US election results in 2016...she expressed her shock and dismay with the outcome...I write this now just days before the next US election and listen with horror how close it will be this time. And by the time you read this, we will probably know the results...

Mirabai writes of the importance, when facing change, difficult or challenging times, of the importance of building community:

She says; “The way of the feminine is the way of connecting. And the path of the mystic leads form the illusion of separation to the reality of divine union, manifested as interdependence with all that is. To walk as a feminine mystic in this world is to recognise that our lives are interpenetrated with the lives of all sentient beings and the One we love shines from every nexus in the web of interbeing.”

I find this so reassuring; my heart quickly sinks to a low depth of despair when contemplating the possible outcome of the election and the disunity, the entrenched power imbalances that so devalue life, devalue the place of women and devalue the planet’s needs too that could ensue...

This is perhaps the possible death that this time forces us to face. The possible death of so much we hold dear.

This is where we can choose, however the US election pans out, to embody the feminine values our founders articulated in the FOI Manifesto...to open to our interdependence and mutual empowerment, of collaboration together, rooted in love:

Divine Mother; give us the strength to keep going even when life feels so difficult.
Help us remember there is no separation between ourselves and the Eternal Ultimate Reality.
Sweeten our path with moments of awe and beauty
and help us be thankful as we reach out to our friends and neighbours...
May we sing our souls home with songs from the angels and find peace in our hearts.

So may it be Amen, Shalom and Salaam.
Cressida, FOI Steward