General

Darling,

The seed versus the flower.
I am compelled by the resilience of a seed.
Throw them anywhere that approximates good conditions and you can have yourself an oak tree growing in a sidewalk crack.
On the other hand, some seeds can be stored for years and years—if the conditions are right.
For example, did you know that in 2008, scientists in were able to grow a date palm from a 2,000-year-old seed in the Judean desert?
Another team of scientists, last February, grew a wildflower from a 30,000-year-old seed.
I have always been a researcher of conditions that cause a woman to grow. To encourage her to burst into bloom, wildly, madly, extravagantly.
When I look around the world, I see a culture of women who have been encouraged and educated in maintaining the practice of being a seed, not a flower.
I see a culture that is even less hospitable to the growing conditions called woman, than it is to a sidewalk crack.
It is almost as if the world is skewed to keep a woman small, compacted, and separated from her power.
Why?
Seeds do not make a fuss.
They sit quietly in cold storage, waiting for someone to plant them.
Filled with life, filled with potential.
With nowhere to sink their roots and burst into bloom.
Sometimes they can sit for so long, they rot instead of bloom.
The depth, the breadth, the color of their bloom, the inspiration they generate, will never be known or experienced.

This pisses me off and terrifies me all at the same time.

This is why I created The School of Womanly Arts. I wanted women to have a fertile soil where they could sink their roots and grow wild. To actually learn and experience how big and gorgeous and lush they could get.
Growing conditions here at the SWA have been wonderful.
And everything I have learned about what a woman requires to hit her maximum potential has been carefully and painstakingly collected and placed inside the most extraordinary growing conditions for Woman that have ever existed: The Creation Course.
And the piece that we have recently put in place, and shared on the blog these past few weeks, has been our trip Paris.
Why Paris?
Because the ingredient of Paris, as the final finishing touch in the education of a woman, is a trace element, an ingredient, that does not occur anywhere else in the world. Paris is like placing a single rose in a Baccarat vase, a jewel on a black velvet cushion. It brings a part of the feminine alive, it awakens her to her senses, it fuels her imagination, and invites her to enjoy the gift that she is, just by being a woman.
Paris is ten curtain calls. It is a closet full of gorgeous dresses. It is time to enjoy. It is a place where beauty, in every form, is celebrated.
In this fertile soil of Paris, we tore into our own magnificence with abandon.
We were not just sightseeing.
No how no way.
We were putting ourselves through a series of deliberate practices that were designed to recalibrate, restructure and redefine ourselves as women.

We did not just visit the Musee D’Orsay; we inhabited the light, the art, the architecture.
We did not just cross the footbridge to the Tuileries; we stated our desires on the bridge of locks.
You would not find us wandering idly in the Jardin des Tuileries; we walked feeling the curve of our hips, the grace of our steps, enjoying the privilege of being women, walking the butterscotch stones of the garden, as extraordinary Courtesans have done for hundreds and hundreds of years.
We windowshopped for extravagances, allowing ourselves to be guided by the pleasure of what caught our eye.
We took in the Opera Garnier as if we were a Parisian Courtesan from the Court of the King.
The very last day of our trip, one of my Creationistas was in tears.
Why?
What had gone wrong, I asked?
Nothing, she replied, eyes shining.
It is just that, here, in Paris, I am appreciated.
I am seen.
The men notice me.
The children flirt with me.
I love being alive to my feminine in this way.
I reminded her that once awakened, beauty never need go back to sleep again.
And now, instead of requiring awakening, she will be able to come home and awaken others.


Thank you to every woman who joined me in Paris—the women of Creation, the international Sister Goddesses who met us, to the Parisian women who embraced us, and to those of you who joined us virtually and bore witness to our journey. No more sleeping beauties. Not in this fairy tale.

So, tell me, where have you been not wanting to make a fuss?  What part of you is longing, aching and yearning to grow, blossom and unfurl? Come talk to me in the comments below.

And if you know a woman who is looking for lush fertile soil to bloom in, please share this post with her today.

With so much love and pleasure,
Mama Gena

P.S. If you are a Mastery Grad desiring Creation Course, click here to get all the juicy details when we unveil them soon.

P.P.S. If you missed our Paris photo album last week, we’ve just added even more pictures…

From Paris with love

Darling,

I am writing to you on my last night in Paris. All the women from the Creation Course have just left, and I just had to share that I am so deeply grateful.
Swept away.
So moved.
So astonished by the sheer raw beauty all around us.
And so deeply, deeply touched.
This trip completely exceeded any dream I might have had.
After a year of preparation for the Courtesan’s Tour of Paris, four months of Parisian rain stopped and the sun came out.
Paris opened her arms.
The sisterhood.
The love.
Women stepped into their magnificence, surrounded and supported by a city that honors the magnificence of women.
From boat rides on the Seine, to dancing at the Opera Garnier, strolling the tuilleries, each woman dared to step into her eternal, irrevocable, sacred impenetrable spot.
Where inadequate and merely adequate were no longer a part of the equation.
I have seen it with my own eyes.
Goosebumps everywhere.
The courtesans returned to Paris. 

There’s more…so much more…to tell you, share with you, lay on you, and I promise to deliver that to you next week when I’m home.
For now, just know that your sisters and I had an extraordinary time and we can’t wait to share it with you in delicious detail.

In the meantime, enjoy a few photos that our students have captured…

What inspires your Inner Courtesan? What places, scents, textures, activities connect YOU to your magnificence? Leave your comments below…

And if you want to help another woman who could use a reminder of her magnificence, please share this post.

With so much love and pleasure,
Mama Gena

P.S. A quick shout-out for one of our Sister Goddesses, Dr. Lissa Rankin. She is releasing an amazing book today (cue the dance break!): Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself.

Also, if you’re in NYC, she’s speaking in person this Friday—click here for all the details!

 

From rupture to rapture

Darling,

This is it.
This is the moment I’ve been waiting for since the conception of the Creation Course last year.

Paris.

In just 48 hours we will all be converging at the Warwick Hotel on the Champs Elysees, as we begin our total immersion in the city that was, and is, the engraved invitation that called the Courtesan into existence.

As we’ve been sharing about the upcoming trip, I’ve had people ask me, exactly what IS the Courtesan’s Journey? And what had me build an entire program around it?

Have you ever felt that the Hero’s Journey, the monomyth for how “man does life,” just does not quite fit the woman that you are?  The Courtesan’s Journey is the antidote, the custom-designed monomyth for the feminine, designed to give a woman navigational certainty as she charts her course through every phase of the adventure of life, designed by her desires.  The Courtesan’s Journey is where the human and the divine within take hands and re-create us into the women we were born to become.

I first introduce this to my students in the Mastery classroom. continue reading…

How to ensure your mediocrity

Darling,

There are days, there are times, there are actions that we inhabit that ensure our mediocrity.
You know this feeling. You drag yourself from bed, follow the deep grooves of the tracks you laid the day before, and the day before and the day before. Perhaps “rut” is a better word. You show up at your job, sit in your cube, and perform in the minimum daily way you are required to get the paycheck. Dinners are thawed, the remote control and the couch insulate you from change. Predictable days turn into predictable years, and thus another mediocre life has been spent.

There are ingredients that destroy a woman’s body and soul.
Mediocrity is one of them.
You can feel your life force draining from you when you make that choice.

So let me provoke you with this question: What part of you is eternal?
How do you create a playground, a foundation, a structure for that incandescent, eternal part of you to emerge and take her place in the galaxy?
We have just started to answer that question in Mastery, with the introduction of The Courtesan’s Journey curriculum. The Courtesan’s Journey is the feminine version of The Hero’s Journey—a map, a frame, a formula that a woman can follow when she wants to learn how to unleash her destiny and live her divinity as a way of life.
This journey is not for every woman. continue reading…

Have you met your inner courtesan?

Darling,

In exactly 16 days, a group of 65 women will board a plane and land in Paris.
These women are part of my intimate inner circle called The Creation Course.
Our purpose?
For each of us to ignite and inspire and re-consecrate our Inner Courtesan, in the city that gave birth to her.
We are headed on a “Courtesan’s Tour of Paris.”

There are certain words that reach off the page and tug you awake.
“Paris” is one of those words.
“Courtesan” is another.

Why Paris?
Well, if we are going to study something, anything, at the School of Womanly Arts, we head straight for the top, the best, the most iconic.
And Paris? She is unsurpassable.
Paris presses you right up against a gorgeous limestone wall, like a hungry lover, and forces you to remember a forgotten part of yourself. continue reading…