We arrive in bodies that are not our own
Enslaved by the ideas of who and what we are, who and what we should be, and how we should express ourselves via the vehicle of our flesh
What is acceptable, what is allowed, in our bodies.
Who is acceptable, who is allowed, in our bodies
Time and time again we perform the greatest act of betrayal in our bodies.
We starve them, throw up our nourishment – anorexic, bulimic – trying to fit into the shape our world wants our bodies to be. We diet, we cut, and we remove our “too muchness” then we add in – silicone, and Botox, our “not enoughness”
We think this makes us beautiful, but we are never satisfied. We always need more. Our bodies never fully yield to becoming the “other” that is asked of us, the “not us” and we know deep down we have failed in our performance of pleasing. We are not who they want us to be and we do not know who we are – in our bodies – and so, we try harder.
We arrive in bodies that are not our own
Our physicality is demonized when sexualized
The sensual celebration of life -sacred energy of creation – of God, of Goddess
Tamed out of us – Shamed from us
Until we are quiet – We are good
We say please, thank you and yes of course I will suck your dick, thank you for asking.
Whatever YOU want.
Our bodies are not our own
We arrive in bodies that are not our own
But this isn’t what happened first.
Once upon a time they belonged to us.
And we belonged to them.
It all changed back in the garden of Eden, with Eves quest for knowledge and the shaming of her curiosity
In Jerusalem when Mary Magdalene was vilified, and removed from her rightful place as Christ’s bride
In France when Joan of Arc was burned as a witch, after all – they thought – how could divine visions come through the body of a woman?
And it happened again and again and again
Until we learned pre-conception, pre-birth
That when we got here
Our bodies were not our own
We arrived here in bodies that are not our own
And we are not safe
We know this
It is no secret
Don’t walk at night
Don’t wear that outfit
Don’t entice or solicit attention
Men can’t control themselves
We are taught to believe this lie, and we do.
We remove the sway from our hips, the sigh from our lips
We get smaller, we compartmentalize, and we diminish.
Until we do not fit into our bodies and we have no home.
Our bodies are not our own.
We arrived here in bodies that are not our own.
And we are told we are free.
You can be whoever you want
Just make sure you fit into my idea
Says the over culture, the male patriarchal over culture.
The wild has been intentionally eradicated, erased from our society’s norms, from our own bodies
But a faint murmur is found in the odd few
Memory of Crone, of Hecate and Ereshkigal.
Whispers of Inanna, Isis, and Dianna.
They come to us in Dreams.
Calling us into our bodies to hear
Her-story
To feel the texture of our blood and bone calling us home to claim ourselves and our bodies as our own.
To break free from the prison of domination and take our bodies back.
We arrived here in bodies that were not our own
And we are changing this.
We are waking up and calling forth our Grandmothers.
Eve, Mary, and Joan – validating, acknowledging, reclaiming, and remembering
Our bodies, their bodies
Governed by another for so many centuries, we will never fit the mould.
Our struggle – our fight against ourselves – to be who we are not, must end.
Our fear of being seen, using our voice and being present in our bodies must go.
We must arrive in our bodies, land where we are right now in this moment and tend to this Holy ground.
Our bodies – the Pachamama
Our bodies – Gaia
Our bodies – the Great Mother
Our bodies, our bodies, our bodies, our own.
When we stake the territory of our existence in our bodies
We heal our planet
We heal our soil
We heal ourselves
We heal each other
We heal our bodies.