Lisa Marie Rankin [00:00:00]:

In this episode of the God of School podcast, I'm sharing a deeply personal reflection on what it means to winter, not just seasonally, but soulfully. We'll explore how the winter invites us to slow down, descend and compost our grief and pain. We'll draw from mythic stories like Persephone's descent, Inanna's initiation, and the underworld is a place of sacred transformation. I'll also share how I'm navigating the season after the loss of my mom when I what wintering looks like in my own life. So if you're feeling the call to retreat, restore and remember who you really are, this one's for you. Let's dive in. Hello beautiful women, and welcome back to the Goddess School Podcast. I am your host, Lisa Marie Rankin.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:00:51]:

This podcast is going to be released right at the beginning of December. So today I want to talk to you about something my soul has been craving. To slow down, to pause, meander, be less productive, really, to winter. So if you've been feeling that too, this episode is for you. As many of you might know, my mom passed suddenly this summer and it was truly the most traumatic experience of my life. I had seen her almost daily. She was my best friend and she was really a pillar, a center point of my everyday. And even though I've heard people talk about grief and as you know, I've talked a lot about the life, death, life cycle, especially in women who run with the wolves, many of you have been part of that book club with me.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:01:44]:

That is a major theme that Dr. Clarissa Pencola Estes talks about. And yet when it actually happens, I felt very ill prepared. I never experienced grief before, definitely not to this extent. And in fact, I couldn't even imagine it. People talk about it and I would try to sympathize, but I couldn't empathize because I have never felt it. And the grief that I've experienced has been so much more than just a psychic weight. It was literally a physical weight too.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:02:23]:

It was like I was wearing a 20 pound weight vest, just walking. Or maybe it felt more like wading through the muck of life. And I was also just exhausted. I felt like I could spend a year in bed and I still would not have been able to rest enough, still wouldn't have been able to restore my energy. Fortunately, I have a really great support system. I have my amazing partner, my kids, my stepdad, aunts and cousins. And that has felt really great. And in some ways, some of those relationships have even become closer.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:03:04]:

And I've Also had to be a support system for them. So I am moving through this to the best of my ability. And some days are better than others. One of the interesting things was usually I would say that the summer is my favorite season. I love walking around in little clothes and flip flops and I just seem to have so much more energy because the days are longer. But this summer, I couldn't wait for it to be over. The heat, the nice weather, they just weren't aligned with my mood or my energy. And I've really been craving a change.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:03:41]:

I wanted a reason to slow down, read books, watch movies and make soups. Also just to meander without any set agenda, whether it's meandering the aisles of the grocery store or even Target without a clear objective. Now, for many of us, you might start to feel that way too, especially as the days get shorter after the fall equinox and the weather starts to get cooler. But for me, with my mom's passing, that desire to slow down has been amplified even more. And now that it's December, at least it will be December. When you're listening to this, it's right before Thanksgiving as I'm recording, feels that nature is taking my hand, brewing me some tea and leading the way. So despite a lot of the holiday noise, all of the gatherings and parties, and the never ending to do list, I'm using this winter as a descent of sorts. Not to collapse, but to compost.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:04:51]:

If you've been in my world for a bit or in one of my communities, you might have heard me share that I'm retiring my enlivened membership at the end of December. This membership is over three years old and it truly has the most amazing community of women inside. And it's bittersweet because I love the community we've built and of course the woman who had been a part of it with all my heart. But as a teacher, I want to practice what I preach and honor that soft voice, that sense of inner wisdom that is really calling me to slow down and make more space. So I wanted to talk a little bit about what wintering will look like for me. And by wintering I mean that time to slow down, really indulge in the darkness and the cold. And maybe it will inspire you as well too, for how you see your winter unfolding. So some of the things that I would like to do are just to add more white space to my days.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:06:02]:

My days are pretty packed between the dog, the kids, my business, my household responsibilities, and just giving myself the option to Be able to putt around a bit without. Without an agenda, without a to do list. I also wanna embody more of the wife and the mother archetype through cooking, decorating, decluttering, you know, supporting my partner and helping my son. He's a junior this year in high school and he's gonna have a lot of college applications coming up starting this summer, so help him can prepare for that. I want to nourish my body through daily movement like yoga, strength training, daily walks with the dog, writing and exploring some concepts that have been really coming to mind. I'm also looking to learn the craft of fiction. I have a creative idea for a book that I'm really excited to explore and to develop. And of course there's grieving.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:07:04]:

I've allowed myself to grieve, but I've also been pretty busy as well. Trying to keep. Keep the ball rolling is the phrase that comes to mind. So I do want to allow myself to really feel the ache of my mom's passing. I'm planning the Celebration of Life party in early January and there are just mountains of photos, both the old school physical photos and boxes, and also just the thousands of digital photos that I want to go through. I want to print them out, I want to organize. And perhaps also one of the most significant parts of this winter is to reconnect with the divine. Now more than ever.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:07:46]:

I think that we all need to prioritize our spiritual practice and protect our consciousness. And that's really whatever that looks like for you. For me, it's meditation, prayer, spending time, writing, walking in nature. I truly feel that there's a shift that is in the collective right now. And it's asking us to get rooted in self energy so that we can weather the inevitable shifts that seem to be coming. So this winter is really my sacred pause and it's also my personal descent to the underworld. And you know, we talk a lot about the underworld, whether you're part of enlivened women who run with the wolves, or even if you're part of my substack community. And the underworld is the descent.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:08:31]:

And we see heroines for modern fiction, but we also see goddesses in ancient mythology. Descending to the underworld is an essential part of this journey. We can look at the goddess Persephone. She spends half the year in the underworld, where she's transformed from the goddess of spring, that's who she is, up on the topside world, to the queen of the underworld. Now when Persephone goes to the Underworld, it's also a Time when she's no longer with her mother, Demeter, the goddess of green harvest and fertility. And that's why we have the seasons. We have the fall and winter when we're no longer growing crops, the leaves are falling to the ground. I am very much feeling that I am in a Persephone story right now.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:09:20]:

And in some ways I always have because I very much felt like the maiden. With my mom around, I was somewhat carefree. I could just go pick flowers in the meadow. Of course, I'm speaking metaphorically here, not literally, although picking flowers in the meadow does sound nice. And now that she's no longer here, I feel I'm being asked to take on more responsibility and to step into the role of the queen. And that's what Persephone does in the underworld. I'll definitely be exploring this myth further and you'll be hearing more about it because it has taken on a whole new meaning for me. And there's also the Sumerian goddess Agnana, who travels through the seven gates to the underworld to meet her sister Ereshkigal.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:10:06]:

And at each gate she is stripped off an item of clothing, some of her beautiful regalia, which represents the various Personas we use to protect ourselves, to interact with the world. So when she finally meets her sister, she's stripped naked, she's bare, she's vulnerable. Ereshkigal gives Inanna the stare of death, killing her on the spot. She then unceremoniously hangs her corpse on a meat hook. Inanna, a thorough goddess who has planned for this scenario, is fortunately revived in three days when she restores her place as quickly Queen of heaven on earth. And she is stronger than ever. These myths show us that descent is a necessary part of the journey. It's where we can alchemize our grief and pain into our power, into wisdom.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:11:00]:

It's also where we find magic, mystery and meaning. One of the other things that I've been contemplating a lot lately, and we'll get an opportunity to explore more this winter, is the call to come back to long form content. Like well thought out essays, epic movies, page turning fiction. I do, I think long form content is really going to be our salvation. Because to be honest, I believe short form content, and this is like the YouTube shorts, Instagram reels, or just social media in general, is destroying our brains and killing our souls. That's really, really no hyperbole. It seems no one can focus their attention anymore. I think there was a study years ago.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:11:45]:

I mean, it was probably about 10 years ago, so it couldn't be even worse. Now that said that humans had less of an attention span than a goldfish. It was less than 9 seconds. And I think that might really be true. I can't tell you how many women in my communities tell me they have add. I believe that at social media, these quick hits, these dopamine dings have rewired our brain so we can no longer see, sit and focus. And with all of this attention focused outward, we've also become disconnected from self energy. Now self energy is this never changing aspect of you.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:12:24]:

It's the curious, confident, calm and creative essence of you. It's who you are at your core without all of this noise clouding you. So short form content. It's my hypothesis that it has rewired our brain so we have less attention. It has disconnected us from our sense of self because our attention is always focused outward on what others are doing. It gives us this sense of comparison. If we're looking at news on social media or really looking at news anywhere, it's the sensationalized fear mongering that it has disconnected us from self and it's also disconnected from the divine. I would also say when we are connected to ourself, we are connected to the divine.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:13:12]:

With that in mind, it's my intent to help offer a life draft back to the self and to the numinous. And not through a self help program or personal growth framework. Because you've likely already heard me talk about the shadow side of self help. And if you haven't, you can go back and listen to episode 29, aptly named the shadow side of self help. Because I don't think women need more fixing, healing or diagnosis. We've all had enough of that. We need more imagination, more creativity, more connection to self energy. And that's really the medicine that I want to offer.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:13:51]:

So if that sounds like how you might want to spend some of your winter, I would also love to invite you to come over to my substack this Enchanted Life where we're exploring epic stories, inspiring archetypes, great movies and so much more. Inside, we have a monthly archetypal movie club. We also have a book club. We're going to be reading Awakening Shakti. This is a journey to investigate explore the Hindu goddesses this winter. And there's quarterly masterclasses like Young in Romantasy, Psyche and Arrows and exploring your inner king and queen. And of course, though we will also continue to explore some of these themes with fascinating guest right here on this podcast, the Goddess School. So I wanted to share this personal solo episode just to share a little bit about what is on my mind, how I'm going to be approaching the winter, what it is that I'm exploring, and what I would like to invite you to consider moving forward.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:14:56]:

So thank you for joining me today and thank you for listening. May this winter bring you closer to yourself and also may you remember that mystery lives in the darkness and magic is invoked in the stillness. Happy Winter. Until next time. Thank you for joining me for this episode of the Goddess School Podcast. I hope it sparked your imagination and expanded your vision for what's possible. If you're ready to explore these concepts more deeply, reclaim your personal myth and live with grace, greater creativity and enchantment, I invite you to join me inside enlivened my Divine Feminine Mystery School and Sacred community where we bring these teachings to life through ritual, story coaching and of course, real world action. You can find the link to learn more in the show notes.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:15:48]:

And remember, the Goddess isn't a deity outside of yourself. She's an aspect of your highest self. You are the God Goddess. Until next time.