Priestess Brandi Auset - The Goddess Guide: Exploring the Attributes and Correspondences of the Divine Feminine

Priestess Brandi Auset (California) is a High Priestess of the Goddess, as well as an interfaith minister, spiritual counselor, and Reiki Master Teacher. She has been working with Goddess energy for most of her life, and she teaches private workshops to women on many topics, including techniques for infusing the Goddess and Her power and mystery into daily life and spiritual practice. Please visit Priestess Brandi's website at www.redspirit.net. If you wish to contact the author or would like more information about this book, please write to the author in care of Llewellyn Worldwide and we will forward your request. Both the author and publisher appreciate hearing from you and learning of your enjoyment of this book and how it has helped you. Llewellyn Worldwide cannot guarantee that every letter written to the author can be answered, but all will be forwarded.

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xi The study of the Goddess, and the integration of Her wisdom and glory into daily life, is a spiritual path-one of faith, love, and dedication. Each step along this winding, twisting trail leads to greater wonders; each question answered leads to twenty more inquiries; and in every face of the Goddess discovered, we find a reflection of our own souls.

All things are Goddess, and all goddesses are one Goddess. Like a large, well-cut diamond, each facet of the Goddess is a new face, a fresh aspect; but ultimately, every side is a shining, sparkling part of the whole. We as humans, with these minds in these bodies, existing on this plane in a world so full of grief and suffering, find it difficult to ascertain the greatness of the Goddess. She is, after all, the Wondrous Divine, the Unexplainable, the Unknowable, the All and the Nothing. People can only have faith in that which they identify with, whether it is an idea for their future or the Divine Presence. So how do we make the unfathomable, fathomable? Each culture throughout the world has infinite lists of goddesses, for endless purposes, for exactly this reason.

We need something to connect us to the Divine Presence, and the breaking down of the Goddess's powers and aspects helps us to identify and connect to that presence. We study Her, breaking down the Goddess like a complicated algebra problem; we divide Her into pieces we can understand, categories we can relate to, and name that chapter Lakshmi, or Kuan Yin, or countless others, in order to claim Her as our own. I am a Goddess woman-always have been, even before I knew who the Goddess was. For as long as I can remember, I've always wanted a life outside of the ordinary. In my early teens, the discovery of a local New Age store called Good Scents started me on that path. As soon I as walked in, the scents of sage and Nag Champa captured my senses; and upon seeing the smiling, wise faces of the women inside, I knew I was home.

The shelves were filled with crystals I had never seen, herbs I had never smelled, and books I had never heard of-but nevertheless, I felt a humming inside my heart, and the voices I had heard since I was a child said softly, "This is it, you found it, this is where you are supposed to be!" I talked to Donna, the owner of the store and a "Witch extraordinaire." I remember feeling sheepish and embarrassed, asking her question after question: "What exactly is a Witch? What does Wicca mean? How come I've never heard of the Goddess? Why would anyone want to wear patchouli oil? It stinks!" Donna was patient and complete in her answers, though a little distant. She kept staring at me with this slight grin on her face, which made it seem as though she was trying not to laugh in my face. Just as I started to feel even more self-conscious, she said, "The Goddess speaks to you." "Huh?" "The voices you hear. You do hear them, don't you?" "Uh, yeah..." "Well, that's the Goddess. One voice for each face that speaks to you. "Usually I'm in some long robe, in a forest or something, dancing and talking to a group of women. "Usually I'm in some long robe, in a forest or something, dancing and talking to a group of women.

Sometimes, I'm running around like Xena, Warrior Princess, kicking a lot of ass." She laughed and said, "Yeah, most of us think we're crazy, at first. You're not crazy. You have a gift, and if you came in here you're ready to start learning about Donna then led me on a tour through her store, recommending books and magazines, and referring me to various lightworkers and practitioners. From that day on, "professional Witch" was my dream job. I imagined myself spending leisurely days on an island compound, being fanned with palm leaves by well-oiled men in thongs, feared and revered by the natives for my "magickal powers"; other days I saw myself dressed to the nines in the middle of a New Orleans cemetery, scaring the tourists with tales of how I made the dead walk as I held flames in my hands and laughed like a lunatic. I admit I had an overactive imagination, as well as a blatant misunderstanding of what my path was.

My next few years were spent learning about the Goddess, devouring any book I could get my hands on, and studying various feminine traditions under anyone who would teach me. My connection to Her was fierce and loyal. I spoke to Her daily, as a trusted friend, a mother, a teacher, my Creatrix. I found the more I spoke to Her, the more I believed She was there, listening and caring for me; the more I believed, the louder Her answers became-first, in whispers of the wind and in subtle dreams, then in voice, as my clairaudient abilities began to unfold. Now, fifteen years later, my dream is being realized, but in a completely different way than I ever imagined. Maybe it was the responsibility of adulthood-bills, relationships, morality, and so on-that grounded and centered me.

Or perhaps it was the swift kick in the butt my mother gave me after I turned eighteen. (To quote her: "You are grown and you've got to get a job, because if you think I'm going to continue to pay for all these black clothes and candles, you are out of your mind!") But I think it was the development of my connection to Spirit, the realization of what walking the path of "professional Witch" really means. Those are definitely things my teenage mind couldn't process at the time. The harder I pushed to be dark, tragic, and dramatic, the harder the Goddess pushed me into accepting the light of happiness. The more I tried to just take care of me, the more I was placed in a position to help others. I was so caught up in me, and what I thought I wanted, that I kept missing my true calling-as a teacher, a healer, and a woman.