"Love is an infinite Sea whose skies are a bubble of foam.

Know that it is the waves of Love that turn the wheels of Heaven,

Without Love, nothing in the world would have life.

How is an inorganic thing transformed into a plant?

How are plants sacrificed to become rich with spirit?

How is spirit sacrificed to become Breath,

One scent is potent enough to make Mary pregnant?

Every single atom is drunk on this Perfection and runs towards It

And what does this running secretly say but " Glory be to God."

~Rumi (from Andrew Harvey "Light upon Light")

A beautiful poem. My Goddess of the Stars and the Sea novels resonate with its message. 

I'll share the early meanings of the word 'sea' in my next post. It's quite fascinating!

Return of the Black Madonna - alchemy of the heart

Every archetype has its seasons. They come and go according to the deepest, often unconscious, needs of the psyche both personal and collective. Today the Black Madonna is returning." - Matthew Fox, "Return Of The Black Madonna," 2006

The Black Madonna, a centuries old icon, can be seen in churches throughout Europe and even in North America. She is the representation of the Divine Feminine as the Divine Mother of transformation. She holds human suffering in the alchemy of Her heart. She is in the trenches with humanity - loving, inspiring, nourishing, promoting growth and change in all of us. She is the divinity inherant in our bodies, in all physical matter.

I have visited the sites of many Black Madonnas - in France, Ireland, England, Italy. One of my favorite is the Black Madonna of Oropa, high in the mountains of northern Italy. See a photo of Her, and read more about her here:
http://www.interfaithmarianpilgrimages.com/pages/oropa.htm

free gift- Womb Meditation

I’d like to offer you a free gift.

My Womb Meditation is an introduction to working with the power of your womb space, (the fire in your belly if you are a man), as a profound connection to the Goddess of the Stars and the Sea, the evolutionary force of embodied love. The therapeutic tones of the meditation’s background music resonate specifically with this intention.

Enjoy, and let me know how you like the meditation!

http://bit.ly/iE3spN

The lovely Morgen Bailey interviews Jodine

Morgen: Please tell us something about yourself and how you came to be a writer.

Jodine:  I’ve been writing since I was in elementary school and encouraged to do so by my teachers. Throughout my life I’ve trained in a number of areas in the health care field (Ph.D. nurse, therapist, health educator), but writing has always been my passion. When I became ill in the mid-1990s I took the opportunity to begin writing my novels. I moved to Glastonbury, England, for a year. It’s one of my favorite spots on the planet, a place I became fascinated with after reading Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon. I wanted to immerse myself in the energy there, and do research, because many of my novels are set in Glastonbury. My very first novel was published by Glastonbury Press.

The rest of the interview can be viewed here: http://wp.me/p18Ztn-jI

Authors bleed

I was recently asked if I'd had rejections for my novels...and how did I handle them. This quote by Sports writer "Red Smith" says it - “There's nothing to writing.  All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.” 

My gosh yes, I’ve had my fair share of rejections (I shamelessly admit!). It’s part of the process. Sometimes they hurt, sometimes I feel misunderstood…but I always know I am being given feedback that is important to look at to help my writing craft. I’ve developed a thick skin. It’s necessary in this business. That doesn’t mean rejections don’t affect me. But this is such a highly subjective industry, and knowing that helps. When I found my niche, my readers, my publishers – those people who love and appreciate my work – well, then that just fills my heart with happiness and makes all the tears and upset worthwhile.

So, let it be known that authors do indeed bleed!

Evolution through women

"Because women carry the baton of evolution, through the children they bear, into the next generation, Nature has designed their biology to reflect the critical importance of this role to the survival and evolution of the human race." Annie Meredith

I love this quote. It is about the phenomena of evolution, but it is an embodied perspective, not merely an abstract concept.

In my Goddess of the Stars and the Sea trilogy, the Goddess is the divine feminine force of evolution. She inspires humanity during the turbulent times that precede radical change.The evolution She assists with is that of embodied love. This is the evolution we are called to participate in today, for the sake of our present day as well as our future. It is about love changing how we (both men and women) respond to our world; love emanating from inside us out into our world, into our behaviours, into our interactions with others. Love that is deeply received and generously given. Love that can actually change the very cells of our body. 

Embodied love is an evolution of both men and women, an evolution of the whole of humankind. Yet it is women who represent the physical embodiment of this  force. As Annie says, nature  has designed our biology to reflect this crucial evolutionary role.

Romance excerpt contest

Sunday - contest entry day! Here is my romance scene snippet for the 'Love All Year Long' contest. The scene is excerpted from my Young Adult/Adult fantasy, magical realism novel, Carry on the Flame: Part One, Destiny's Call.


Setting:

Guethyn is sitting in a café in a small coastal village in Wales, U.K.

Okay, he reasoned with himself. First things first. He’d promised himself years ago to never again get involved in grandfather’s magic.

He could still taste Sharay’s lips. Moist, soft.

He shook his head. Refocused. He firmly recalled his vow to never again trust the Goddess he had been taught to revere when he was a small child. 

He could still feel the eagerness of Sharay’s mouth when it met his.

He drank a mouthful of tea, sat up straighter. He’d felt betrayed by the Goddess, by the magic he’d learned as a child. He’d resolutely put that life behind him. It had never given his mother any peace, and his father had still died a tragic death.

He remembered the feel of Sharay’s silken, silver blond hair sliding through his fingers.

He held tightly onto his tea mug and took a steadying breath. Concentrate he told himself. As he’d grown older, he’d found another calling to take the place of the magical one he inherited from his mother and grandfather. He had studied hard at the university, plunged headfirst into the precise science of marine biology.

The memory of Sharay’s kiss flooded his body with heat. Roused him.

He slammed his tea mug down on the table, threw his napkin onto his lap, took a huge bite of his currant cake. It was stale, but he didn’t care.

No time for this nonsense, he murmured defiantly. He forced himself to continue to sort through things. He was close to getting his doctoral degree. It would be his in a few months. His life had made much more sense without the quest of the ancient Celtic Imram, without magic, without the Goddess’s rituals.

His imagination flicked back to an image of Sharay.

Her eyes gazed into his. Searching. Tender. Filled with the same desire he felt.

Guethyn swallowed the rest of the dry cake in one gulp, washed it down with more tea. He’d allowed himself a few relationships over the years, testing the boundaries of his heart. No one had come close to pushing its limits or holding him in captive fascination.

 Until Sharay.

She pressed him up against his resolve to reject magic. She opened his heart in a way he had dreaded and, at the same time, always hoped for. Realization came quickly and it came as a shock. He couldn’t help, and couldn’t stop, his feelings for her. He didn’t want to. He was bound to her. There was a part of him that mysteriously knew he always had been. He rubbed his eyes with his palms, and exhaled sharply.

If Sharay came along with magic, along with the Goddess, well then so be it. Damn it.