Since the beginning of time, women have gathered in circle for prayer, dance, ceremony and rejuvenation. Throughout all ages, women have kept this torch of wisdom alive, passing it from generation to generation, and with the help of technology, we can now recognize and support each other across the world.
The Living Goddess Path
Most spiritual paths and religions have their roots in ancient Goddess-centered traditions—even those that directly or indirectly reject and condemn the feminine. Though we seldom made it in the scriptures or history books, women have traditionally held the seat of the yogini, wisdom keeper, shaman, healer, seiðkona, medicine woman and priestess.
In Awakening Women’s Wisdom School, we study Goddess mythology, sacred texts and embodied awakening to reclaim our direct relationship to Source and revive our spiritual lineage rooted in the Great Mother.
Here, spiritual awakening is not approached as an endless self-improvement project or forever elusive carrot-on-the stick. Our practice roots us in the vastness of the universal nature of Goddess here and now. Awake to the luminous spaciousness of presence, we learn to meet the inevitable ups and downs of life with creativity, compassion and authentic power. We cultivate our capacity to embody the free flow of Shakti—divine intelligence— because we care deeply and long to leave this Earth a better place for future generations.
We gather to practice, to hold and mirror each other as we stand here at the edge of evolution, birthing a humanity rooted in the Mother. We remind each other that no, we are not crazy for feeling the way we feel, and no, we don’t have to do it alone.
We use the word Yogini* as a way of naming our particular path. Yogini is a Sanskrit word describing a female spiritual practitioner and wisdom keeper, a woman who vows to place her connection to spirit at the center of her life while fully engaged in family, work, rest, creativity and social justice.
*The word Yogini is also traditionally used to describe an accomplished wise woman with a mystical mastery of energy, as well as deities and energetic centers in the yogic maps.
We gather to practice, to hold and mirror each other as we stand here at the edge of evolution, birthing a humanity rooted in the Mother. We remind each other that no, we are not crazy for feeling the way we feel, and no, we don’t have to do it alone.
We use the word Yogini* as a way of naming our particular path. Yogini is a Sanskrit word describing a female spiritual practitioner and wisdom keeper, a woman who vows to place her connection to spirit at the center of her life while fully engaged in family, work, rest, creativity and social justice.
*The word Yogini is also traditionally used to describe an accomplished wise woman with a mystical mastery of energy, as well as deities and energetic centers in the yogic maps.
About Our Practice
Goddess Mythology ~ Our path and lineage is rooted in the Goddess, and we enter our practices and direct relationship with Her through the universal maps found in Goddess mythology and sacred texts from all over the world.
Embodiment ~ We cannot fully engage with Goddess wisdom by only reading about it; it is at its core highly experiential. The fierce challenge and loving invitation of the Goddess path is to awaken and experience her wisdom through our bodies. Although we spend time in silence, contemplation and meditation, most of the practices we do are are dynamic and interactive, incorporating expression, movement, and respectful touch.
Ritual ~ We enter the timeless portal of ceremony and ritual to invoke and honor accumulated wisdom gathered since the beginning of time. We regularly perform rituals of worship, of initiation, rites of passage, and rituals for blessing and healing.
Devotion ~ The Yogini path is a devotional, non-dual path; the Goddess is viewed as the wholeness of totality, never separate from or outside us—yet relating to Her with reverence and devotion expands and aligns our consciousness, awakening us from the limited soap opera we usually take ourselves to be. We sing mantras, we dance and we pray as direct portals into the vast freedom of the heart.
Presence ~ All our practices lead us back to our own presence, a source of energy and love always available. Through silence, subtle body awakening, meditation and rest, we cultivate the capacity to stay rooted in the spaciousness of presence, to stay awake and creatively responsive in our lives.
Although we include inner yoga and movement in our practices, we use the words yogini and yoga in their broader meaning as “spiritual practitioner” and “spiritual practice”. Many yoga teachers study with us to explore tantric-yoga philosophy on women terms, but our approach is not focused on the yoga asanas you find in yoga studios.
Devotion ~ The Yogini path is a devotional, non-dual path; the Goddess is viewed as the wholeness of totality, never separate from or outside us—yet relating to Her with reverence and devotion expands and aligns our consciousness, awakening us from the limited soap opera we usually take ourselves to be. We sing mantras, we dance and we pray as direct portals into the vast freedom of the heart.
Presence ~ All our practices lead us back to our own presence, a source of energy and love always available. Through silence, subtle body awakening, meditation and rest, we cultivate the capacity to stay rooted in the spaciousness of presence, to stay awake and creatively responsive in our lives.
Although we include inner yoga and movement in our practices, we use the words yogini and yoga in their broader meaning as “spiritual practitioner” and “spiritual practice”. Many yoga teachers study with us to explore tantric-yoga philosophy on women terms, but our approach is not focused on the yoga asanas you find in yoga studios.
To read more about the embodiment practices and the Women’s Wisdom School, go to the Yogini Library.
The Circle is the Teacher
The Women’s Wisdom Path is not a chase for liberation for the chosen few. Here we are initiated into a primordial belonging and responsibility for the whole, and the circle is a powerful place to explore how the unique expression of each one of us weaves like colorful threads into the vast tapestry of the world that is the Goddess Herself.
We relate to the women’s circle as a teacher, an alive archetype, a field with an intelligence of its own. Since the beginning of time women have gathered to honor the sacred, offering the fruits of their practice back into the circle, as we do now. Just by each one of us showing up fully in our seat, as we are, willing to practice, we co-create this timeless web of healing and awakening weaving through space, through all dimensions, surrounding our Earth and beyond. Every time we practice, we access and feed this well of wisdom for our ancestors, for ourselves and for generations to come.
A Spiritual Path for Women
The practice in the yogini circle is a portal to spiritual awakening where we root in a sense of Self that is vast, eternal and not defined by gender. Yet our path is also one of embodiment, where we explore how universal consciousness expresses itself through the female body. All those who identify as women of all colors, age, ability, sexual orientation and backgrounds are welcome to practice with us. We celebrate the increasing freedom, curiosity and fluidity around gender identity and we are both in ongoing inquiry of how to be actively inclusive and loyal to our role as facilitators of women’s embodiment practice and women’s circles.
Although our programs are specifically for women, we hold the utmost respect for men, and the importance of healing between all genders. When we gather to practice in the women’s wisdom circle, we connect with and bring forth a source of rejuvenation, wisdom and healing that is of benefit to all beings.
The Global Sisterhood Manifesto
In our modern culture many feel isolated and uprooted from community and belonging. Some have also experienced the pain of giving away our power or trading in our uniqueness in order to belong.
We have experimented for more than 15 years with building a healthy, kind and awake women’s culture. We share a clear intention for why we come together and basic agreements of how we communicate and show up in our practice. These clear river banks create a safe and spacious container in which each woman can feel free, honored and celebrated in her unique expression.
We take a stand for a conscious way of being together: with respect, compassion and personal responsibility, being fully aware of, yet not run by the petty dramas that so many of us have painfully experienced among women.
We also believe spiritual awakening goes hand in hand with social justice and care for mother earth and all beings here. We are committed to the dismantling of racism, sexism, homophobia and bigotry of all kinds. We hold ourselves to the Awakening Women Global Sisterhood Manifesto, a set of guidelines for our community.
You are welcome to share this manifesto as long as you credit Awakening Women
as the source and keep our website credit on the bottom.
We meet globally online in 21 Day Sadhana Immersions, in live weekend intensives, trainings and month long Ashram retreats in India and Greece. Many women have also created their own Women’s Temple group in their area, as well as Women’s Temple Facilitator Trainings.
In the day-to-day, we meet on our Yogini Sadhana Facebook Group, where thousands of us have a safe space to witness and support each other through the phases and experiences of our daily practice and lives. We support, share and pray for each other and for the world, together.
Online Courses
Online, we offer two annual 21 Day Sadhana Immersions. You practice from your own home and connect to a powerful field of Shakti created when hundreds of women around the world come together with a shared dedication to embodied awakening. We also offer 21 day self study courses, which you can start anytime. Visit our Online Ashram here.
We have a vibrantly alive online FB group where we inspire and support each other in life and practice. Everyone who joins the group has participated in at least one sadhana. More than 300,000 people follow our Facebook page for daily inspiration.
Weekend Intensives
Goddess mythology, dharma talks and Women’s Temple practices. An Awakening Women weekend is an embodied exploration of a goddess and how her shakti and qualities can awaken and inspire your life as woman in the modern world. Our practices are dynamic and interactive, incorporating movement, expression and respectful touch. See the event calendar for upcoming weekend intensives in Europe and the US.
Yogini Ashram Retreats
Corfu Summer Ashram
India Winter Ashram
A 21 day silent retreat and deep inner pilgrimage in the foothills of the Himalayas. Our most advanced retreat primarily for long-time practitioners.
The reverberations will be felt for a long time to come! Chameli creates such a strong circle, a community of sisters who nurture and support each other. This circle builds such strong bonds with all yogini sisters past, present and future.
Debra Reeves
Professional Intuitive
DebraReeves.com
I experience a profound level of trust and commitment amongst my sisters that is unlike any other circle. I’m carried into an ancient yet familiar heart wisdom that cracks open a river of love within me and flowers the depth of my creative force in the world.
Flora Aube
Founder, Art of Allowing Academy
ArtofAllowingAcademy.com
No one has invited me to step more deeply into the living mystery than Chameli. Every cell in my body felt the imprint the first time—and the last—I heard her voice: ‘Welcome to this moment,’ she said. No part of me was excluded from the invitation to know myself as an embodied miracle.
Marcia Wade
Founder of Star Sister Astrology
StarSisterAstrology.com
Lineage and Influence
We offer thanks and great honor to our ancestors, guides and all the teachers on our way that has inspired, activated and blessed our practices in indescribable ways.
Chameli, founder of Awakening Women, has since 1991 undergone intensive initiations and studies in India and in Shakti tantra wisdom. In deep honor of the teachers, sadhus, yoginis, animals and rivers of India as well as the precious Amazon rain forest, we give thanks. Chameli is also the tantric shamanic paths of her Nordic ancestry. We give honor and thanks for the ancestors and mystic in the north.
Through the work of scholars like Miranda Shaw, Douglas Brooks, Marija Gimbutas and Monica Sjöö, we are able to trace and reconnect with ancient Goddess-centered spirituality, which infuses our highly experiential and current practices with roots and historical context. We offer our deepest gratitude to them, to the countless number of yogis and yoginis who have guarded and transmitted the medicine of the Goddess.