Joy Herbst, and the Sophia Sanctuary

05/17/2026

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I’m going to keep a little reminder at the top here for a while. If you plan to purchase the new 25th anniversary edition of Isis Magic, you can save 25% with the code ISIS25 at checkout from the p…

05/13/2026

Dancing Maenads, Roman, 1st century CE

04/30/2026

Such a beautiful gallery of artful and wise women to learn about!

Changing Woman GalleryWelcome to my photography gallery, Changing Woman: Contemporary Faces of the Goddess . This photographic essay grew out of my interest in the rise in consciousness about the goddess in the 1980s and how she figured in the lives of contemporary women. I wanted to know how the wo...

04/27/2026

Imagine a time when women were holy. Revered. Honoured. Sacred. Once we were warriors. And healers. And guides. And the embodied voice of the goddess. Once we were priestesses.

We served in grand temples built in honour of the goddesses and in the simplest of dwellings in our local community. We called upon our oracular skills and intuition in service to royalty and our neighbour.

We led powerful ceremonies and rituals watched by hundreds and seen by none. We gathered women in circles, honouring the moon and seasons and cycles of the Great Mother Goddess. We wove magic with herbs, wounds and deep longings of the soul.

While people had a birth mother—that they may or may not have known, just as it is today—their spiritual Mother, life provider and protector was the greatest and most honoured goddess of all.

She was, and still is, known as the Great Mother, Mother Nature, Mother Earth, the Great Goddess, the Great Mother Goddess, Gaia, Pachamama, Papatūānuku, Akna, Papahānaumoku and so many more names according to time and one’s culture and spiritual beliefs. I honour all Her names but call Her the Great Mother.

We were joyous songstresses, seamstresses, dancers and poets. We were fierce fighters on bloody battlefields and powerful political influencers behind velvet curtains. We were honoured and known by name for thousands of years into the future and passed through the veil to the underground unknown. We were of and for the people and we were both known and unknown.

We are all holy when seen through the eyes of love. All leaders when led by compassion. All priestesses when a decision is made to live in deep spiritual service to oneself and others.

We are creators of hope. Conduits of spirit. Holders of magic. Messengers of love. Priestesses. Priestesses of past and now of present too. We were. We are. We always will be.

Image - High Priestess by She Who Is
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04/21/2026

dear hearts~

the intensifying energies that have been building towards our NEW MOON in ARIES on April 17th have been palpable…

we are in a time where things are unraveling so that we might be able to gaze behind the veil to understand what has shaped us and what we’ve needed to see and understand about ourselves and our own true nature…

within this process of unraveling we could be coming up against disillusionment or disappointment and are being called to reach for our higher spiritual vision with faith in the cosmic unfoldment of things and trust in what we cannot control…

we can deepen our faith as we practice patience, specially during this time where there is a sense of heightened urgency in the air…

for when we are in high stake stressful situations, it can really ratchet everything up and overwhelm our nervous systems, so it is vital to listen to our bodies and take good care of ourselves…

acceptance of what is allows us to return to homeostasis and a parasympathetic state, calming our nervous systems and bringing us back into that place of safety within…

in this way we return to Self, which is one of the key messages that this ARIES NEW MOON is bringing us…

this is the first NEW MOON of the astrological year in the first house of ARIES and so this is a highly potent time to plant seeds and align with those deeply held dreams that our SOUL has been carrying inside…

there are certain things we came here to do, experience and to create and this is that next level activation that is spurring us onto the next ring on our spiralying helical journey…

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join us
inside
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with all my heart~
Mijanou
MM

ART: BEHIND THE VEIL, 2026. MYSTIC MAMMA | MIJANOU MONTEALEGRE LIMITED EDITION PRINTS + more www.MYSTICMAMMAshop.com

+ peace in all directions +

04/05/2026

Death, resurrection an rebirth

Egyptian Goddess Hathor with her
vulture headdress playing a frame drum.

The oldest hieroglyph for the goddess of Upper Egypt

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The first historical cultures worship many female deities representing the Paleolithic goddesses fundamental aspects of creation preservation and regeneration.

She gives birth, she protects, she consumes and resurrects.

The vulture goddess represents one of the oldest mythologies of death and resurrection . One that lies at the heart of initiation rites.

As vulture, the goddess does not kill .
She consumes the dead in order to transmute the soul once again to life in the form of an egg.

The sacredness of the egg as a symbol of regeneration goes back further in time than we can trace.

Birds are twice born.
First the mother lays the eggs then the chick breaks out of its shell, in effect giving birth to itself.
The second birth enables it to soar into higher realms as a winged being.

The ancient mythological path of the bird goddess is a process of breaking forth from outgrown structures of personality and behavior just as the chick breaks out of the outgrown shell.

This is the basic metaphor of initiation.

Until that shell is broken what lies outside must remain unknown.
Once broken the shell can never be put together again.

It is the wisdom of no return, the womb cracked open lost forever in the initiates rebirth as a winged being whose spirit can fly through the three realms of heaven, earth and underworld.

And music, particularly drumming is always present in the rituals of initiation.
~ When the Drummers Were Women by Layne Redmond

04/05/2026

“The waiting is the hardest part — but also the holiest.”
– Caroline Myss

She sits veiled in white beside the tomb, because she has “nowhere else to go”. There is no map for what happens next. How many times have we been in that place, where one thing leaves, the next has not yet come and we are feeling lost and a bit hopeless? Knowing so much, we can’t possibly go back, but the fog is thick and moving up the mountain could find us in absolute disaster.

And so we sit, and we wait. This is the threshold.

Key Principles:
Liminality, holy waiting, surrender, sacred unknowing, faith beyond vision

Context:
This card is Magdalene at the empty tomb, the moment before revelation. She doesn’t yet know resurrection is near. She is suspended between loss and miracle, between what has died and what will rise. In this image, her back is turned to us, but we instinctively know how she feels. She has nowhere else to go but into the stillness.

Jungian/Alchemical Insight:
The threshold is the nigredo, the dark stage of the soul's alchemy. It is the moment when we have lost our bearings but not our essence. Magdalene here represents the sacred state of “not knowing,” which opens us to divine transformation. The ego cannot resurrect what it has not surrendered.

Artwork Description:
Magdalene is seen from behind, cloaked in white, seated before a barren, abstract tomb space. The simplicity is intentional: it reflects how the sacred often appears as absence, and serves to remind us that waiting consciously is a holy act. She is still, but the image carries a charge — something is about to happen. It is a reminder that all is not lost, that Love is not gone.

Card Meaning:
You are in a holy pause. There may be no answers, no direction; only stillness. But beneath the silence, something is quickening. Do not try to rush across this threshold. Wait, listen, trust. You are being transfigured.

Mantra:
I remain at the tomb, not because I have certainty — but because I have love. And there is nowhere else on this earth for me to go, so I shall wait.

“Awaiting the Gardener (Magdalena)”, from the upcoming “SheWhoIs” oracle
Mixed Media
2025

Prints:
8X10 Matted & Signed: https://shewhoisart.etsy.com/listing/4326021602
4X6 Altar Art: https://shewhoisart.etsy.com/listing/4326016439

04/02/2026

The joy in this movement, and in those sharing it with me.

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

10/30/2025

How exciting!! In NY!

10/16/2025

Live, community experiences of art are deeply meaningful & their beauty is so deeply needed, now more than ever! Our Veil & Ember fusion dance concert has been carefully curated with hardworking local artists as a labor of love.

We cannot wait to present our spellbinding evening of fusion belly dance to you THIS Sunday, October 19th 4-6pm at the Bijou Theatre in Bridgeport. Please come & support our event!

Movement, magic, and mystery await.

Tickets: bitly/4oaGbVT or joyherbst.com