Lisa Lister is a modern day Medicine Woman in every since of the word. She assists women in remembering and returning home to their full power, owning their cycles and celebrating their womanhood in all it’s glory. She’s an author, a mentor, a force, one that has personally helped me in more ways than I can express in words. With books like “Witch” and “Code Red” underneath her belt, I felt like she was the perfect magical, witchy woman to chat with this October. Here, she shares loads of incredible wisdom from the depths of her heart, and she has a huge one!
You have a deep connection with your body and female landscape. For a lot of women, myself included, it’s very easy to checkout of our bodies, becoming very unconscious of it’s needs and desires. What is the best way for us to tune back into our bodies, especially on days when it’s the last place we want to be?
After thousands of years of being told that our bodies are dangerous/dirty/broken/not good enough, we are all carrying the wounds of our foremothers, so trusting our bodies as a safe space to reside will definitely feel like work for many of us, but in a world where we’re being made to feel increasingly unsafe + fearful of…well, just about anything + everything, we HAVE to remember that our power lies in our body – our cyclic nature, our connection to mother earth, the lunar cycles + the cosmos – except our power was/is feared, so those connections were made ‘taboo’ + were put in the dark, and we’ve all been taught to be afraid of the dark.
So my best way to tune in? REMEMBER.
You hold the codes of all the women that have gone before + are yet to come in your body, so take a breath, drop down into your heart + FEEL.
Now, there’s a chance you’ve got REALLY good at NOT feeling.
There’s a chance you don’t feel because it’s all-consuming + painful + so you numb out the pain with drugs/shopping/food/alcohol.
There’s a chance you’ve made disassociating + detaching from your body an art form.
So make the act of coming home to your body + making it your safe space a daily devotion in self-love. Move your body in a way that feels good + true to you, dance, stretch, shake. Then gently tap + shake your body to wake + shake Shakti inside you, then come to a place of stillness + breathe. Deeply. All the way down into your belly + FEEL. Stay with yourself. Don’t try to escape. Witness sensations, the places that feel good, the places that feel stuck + let them all be there without judgement, then give yourself a BIG hug + tell yourself ‘I love you’ at least 9 times.
You are a ritual goddess! Please speak to the power of rituals and share with us one of your favorites?
Yes, I’m OBSESSED with ritual and ceremony because when patriarchy took away our rituals, they took away our power. Rituals bring attention to our intentions.
They create connection + remembrance which, as women, we need on the daily in order to remember that we are a safe space, right?
So my favourite rituals are to honour the phases of the moon. The moon cycle is roughly 29 days, you’ve seen how the moon effects the tides of the sea, and so to it effects the emotional tides of our body, so if we know which phase the moon is in – waxing, full, waning, dark, new – we are able to get a better understanding of our moods + emotions.
At each phase there is an opportunity to create ritual to connect with the energy of that phase. So for example: at the new moon write intentions/plant new seeds for the cycle ahead and as the moon grows full, nurture those seeds and intentions. When the moon is full, let the light of the full moon illuminate any places, people or situations that aren’t serving those intentions + release + let them go.
We get this beautiful opportunity every moon cycle to witness + experience dark + light, death + rebirth – our cyclic nature.
I am very curious about something you and I have touched on briefly in our work together and that is the connection between the throat/jaw and the cervix/hips and how that connection effects our willingness to share our voice and express our truth out in the world.
Yes, there are so many incredible things about the female form that totally blow my mind, but this?
This has been THE most important in my own personal healing.
If as a woman you struggle to speak your truth, or speak out loud – I was mute for some of my younger years, I recently found out Maya Angelou too – it’s because there was a direct connection between my relationship with speaking out loud and my vagina.
It’s not a coincidence that the neck of the vagina is called the cervical spine, and the lower narrow portion of the uterus, the cervix (Latin for neck). In fact, the cervix and vocal fold tissue behave exactly the same way when tested. When the throat is open, this opening is reflected in the throat of the uterus, the cervix – for some of us that can be witnessed when we get vocal during orgasms. But when there is trauma held in either of these places, the other will constrict and tighten too.
I could talk about this ALL DAY.
What is one thing you wish more women knew about their bodies?
That, no matter what you’ve been told, they are a place of power.
That, no matter what you’ve been told, they are a place you are whole.
That, no matter what you’ve been told, they are a place you are safe.
A lot of women have grown up with a ton of shame surrounding sex, our periods, our desires… how do we begin healing this shame and getting back in touch with the power and sensuality that lives inherently within?
Slowly + with fierce compassion. It’s taken thousands of years for the patriarchal constructs to turn us from revered power source to sexual commodities, so it will definitely take some time for us to re-member the parts that they have dismembered. But start small, with a daily devotional to yourself.
Recognise the language you use to speak to yourself and about other women + their bodies, witness the times + places that you disconnect + disassociate from your body + start to ask why? Women do NOT need more sticks to beat ourselves with, but DO dare to get curious, this is self-devotion and it’s NECESSARY in these times.
SOE Spotlight questions
What are you fully DEVOTED to?
I’m devoted to my ever-unfolding experience as a woman who is navigating these ‘interesting’ times. By being in fierce devotion to myself, I can be of BIG service to the collective.
What brings you ultimate JOY?
Joy is one I often dance with, I’ve experienced so much death in my life, that for a while I thought that letting in joy always came at a price, but my ultimate joy is being in a body of water – a bath, a pool, the sea – allowing my body to be held by a force greater than me, always brings me the BIG joy.
If you could shine a SPOTLIGHT on someone who has either inspired you, helped you heal or that you admire, who would that be?
Ohhh I love this question…Id’ have to say my mumma. We had quite the tempestuous relationship in real-life, but being able to hold her in + through the dying process, I feel that we now have a different relationship and she’s able to support + share with me in a much deeper way now than when she was alive. It’s wild really.
What do you love most about your SOUL CASE? (It can be a part of your body or just something you love about yourself)
My trust in myself. This is an ongoing project but witnessing how, the more that I come into a place of trust IN my body, my cycles, my oracular powers, my instinct, the less I need to look OUT for validation or approval. You read about shit like that in self-help books, but the act of really cultivating that trust has been a total daily devotional. I trust myself. I love myself.
When you come down with a case of WANDERLUST, where do you love to travel and explore?
Ohmygoodness, my lineage is Romany Gypsy + Irish traveler, so staying still is REALLY not something I’m good at. I love the Mediterranean; the land vibrates + speaks to me so LOUD there. I also love California + her redwoods, and I really want to go to Egypt + Israel soon as I have some past life situations that I’d like to connect with in this particular timeline.
