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One hour. That's it. Not nine days removed from ordinary life. Not a spiritual boot camp. And definitely not another worthy commitment that leaves you wondering how on earth you're going to fit it in. 😄 One hour a day for nine days. We meet on Zoom. We chant the names of the Goddess together. We meet one of the Nine Faces of Durga Ma. We will share her myth. We talk a little about what this particular face of the Goddess shows up in our own lives. There'll be a short medita

There is something rather delicious about a group of intelligent, capable women deciding to spend one hour a day for nine days invoking and honouring the Goddess in her many forms.. Women who run businesses. Manage families. Meet deadlines. Pay mortgages. Make difficult decisions. Know how to get things done. And yet, somewhere underneath all that competence, perhaps there is another knowing. A quiet sense that we are more mysterious than our CVs would suggest. That undernea

You do not need to know Sanskrit. You do not need to understand Hinduism. You do not need to own white linen. You do not need to sit cross-legged for 45 minutes with a beatific expression on your face while thinking about absolutely nothing. (I have never quite mastered that last one myself. 😄) And you certainly don't need to know what a Nine-Faced Durga might possibly have to do with your life. Curiosity will do nicely. I think we sometimes make spiritual practice far too i

Sometimes there is a wonderful moment when you finally admit: “I have absolutely no idea what to do about this.” The ego hates this, of course. 😄 It would much rather analyse. Make lists. Ask six people for advice. Wake us up at 3.17am with a brilliant new solution. Then replace it with another one at 3.42. Anything rather than admit: I don't know. But what if not knowing isn't such a terrible place to be? What if it's actually the moment we become humble enough to ask for h

I sometimes call Durga the “pull your sox up” Goddess. Not especially elegant, perhaps. But accurate. Durga is really the reason for Navaratri. Her story begins when things have gone seriously off course. The gods and celestial beings have tried everything they know, but nothing is working. Finally, they come together and call upon the great feminine power for help. And Durga shimmers into being. Magnificent. Powerful. Riding her lion, exquisitely adorned and, of course, ravi

What if Navaratri wasn't about becoming a better version of yourself? What a relief. 😄 No spiritual renovation project. No nine-day plan to finally eradicate procrastination, people-pleasing, resentment, fear, self-doubt and every other pesky little human foible we've accumulated along the way. Because, frankly... We don't get rid of ourselves. And perhaps we don't need to. One of the things I love about Navaratri is the opportunity to look at these familiar patterns with a

The first time I experienced Navaratri, I thought it was simply a beautiful Indian festival celebrating the Goddess. I had no idea it would become one of the most transformative practices of my life. Over nine days we journey with the Nine Faces of Durga. Each Goddess reveals a different quality of strength, wisdom and compassion already living within us. At the same time, she gently shines a light on the habits, assumptions and patterns that may be quietly limiting our lives

When I was younger, I thought myths were entertaining stories about gods, goddesses and impossible events that had little relevance to my everyday life. That all changed when I first heard the ancient stories of the Hindu Goddesses. The more I listened, the more I realised these myths weren't asking me to believe the impossible. They were inviting me to recognise something deeply possible within myself. Ancient myths were never simply stories. They were maps of human consciou

Navaratri is an ancient festival celebrating the Goddess and the many forms of feminine power. This presents a rather different perspective from the one many of us encountered growing up in Western culture, where the Divine was usually imagined as masculine and the visible, measurable world was often treated as the only reality that could be trusted. I first visited India when I was 24 years old. I was immediately struck by the contrast between the world in which I had been r

There is something that happens when women gather with intention. Not to perform.Not to compete.Not to fix one another. Simply to meet. To listen.To share.To reflect.To witness. Again and again throughout history, women have gathered around stories, around fires, around kitchen tables, around sacred texts and creative practices. They have come together to make meaning of their lives, to celebrate, to grieve, to learn, and to remember who they are. When this happens regularly,

First of all, let’s clear up some of the misconceptions surrounding the word Guru. Many people — particularly in the West — feel uncomfortable with the concept. But according to my understanding through years of studying Yoga, the true Guru is not outside of you. Ultimately, the Guru points you back to your own divine nature. The word Guru is often translated as “dispeller of darkness” — the darkness of ignorance, forgetfulness and disconnection from our true Self. In the yog

Lately I’ve been noticing how little space many of us truly have in our lives. Space to pause.Space to breathe.Space to feel.Space to hear ourselves clearly. I’m writing this from India — a place I once associated deeply with inner silence, contemplation and spiritual spaciousness. And yet being here again, I’ve been struck by how intensely loud, busy and overstimulating it has become. Constant horns from the steep increase in vehicles. Screens everywhere. Music playing loudl

There comes a point where surface-level connection just doesn’t cut it anymore. We start craving something deeper—spaces where we can be honest, seen, and held without performance. Spaces where vulnerability isn’t risky, but welcomed. Where sharing what’s really happening beneath the surface doesn’t lead to judgement, but to connection. This is where emotional and spiritual safety begins. Why Safety Matters More Than Ever For many of us, shame has lived quietly in the backgro

There’s often a quiet hesitation when beginning a journal. A blank page… a moment of pause… and the question gently arises: What do I actually write? It can feel like there should be a right way. A structure to follow. Something to “get right.” But a sadhana journal isn’t something you perform. It’s something you return to. This Is Not About Writing Well A sadhana journal isn’t about beautiful words or perfect thoughts. It isn’t something to curate or refine. It is a space to

There is a rhythm already living your life. You can feel it in the way your morning begins… in the small habits you return to without thinking… in the moments where something in you softens, even briefly. Most of us already live by ritual. We just don’t call it sacred. We reach for our phone. We move through the same routines. We repeat patterns of thought, emotion, action—day after day. This is ritual… but unconscious. And over time, it can leave us feeling scattered. Discon

There’s a quiet feeling many of us carry. It shows up in the middle of a busy day… or in the silence after everything is finally done. A sense that something isn’t quite right. Not broken. Not wrong. Just… missing. You might not have had words for it. But you’ve felt it. This is often where the journey back to the sacred feminine begins. What Is Sacred Feminine Energy? Sacred feminine energy isn’t something outside of you. It’s not a belief system. It’s not something you need

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A magic bush retreat in outback Queensland Chinchiila 2015 was my first adventure out West in over a decade. My darling friend and...