My Year with Erzulie – A Guest Post From Heather Cox

This guest post by Heather Cox is part of a series celebrating the My Word Goddess Readings by honouring the gifts of the goddesses that stepped forward in 2014….

 
I’d never heard of Erzulie when I received her as my goddess for 2014, and at first I was hesitant because of that. Also the end of 2013 had brought a sort of traumatic change in my job situation and the realization that I was completely burned out. I was at a crossroads and I expected some sort of kick ass warrior goddess intervention – not this soft, voluptuous Voodun goddess of love.

A couple of my suggested words for the year to accompany her were: luxury and pleasure. I quickly rejected them. Then asked myself why? Why did I feel that luxury and pleasure weren’t for me? So I decided to just live with these questions, just invite them in. I wrote them down in my sketchbook and asked Erzulie to guide me.

She always met me on a warm tropical beach. I never really saw her, I just always found myself barefoot in the sand, the salt sea smell filling my lungs, the thrum of the waves coming in to shore to greet me, wind in my hair, the hot sun caressing my bare shoulders. Always with a feeling of being completely, utterly loved, completely, utterly beautiful. And somehow unbroken.

She didn’t talk much either. But during my year of walking with Erzulie, all my senses awakened again. Everything I ate was a feast to be savored. The desert sky was a gorgeous blaze of colors and shapes every morning and every night. And when I painted the colors came alive and each smear of paint on my skin was a sensuous experience in and of itself. I went on dates again. I wore all my old hippie girl twirly skirts again and the fabric was luscious against my legs. I climbed mountains again and it felt so incredibly good to be sore and sunburnt afterward. And I fell in love again and again – with people, with thousand-year-old bristlecone pines, with music that reverberated in my bones, with Hansa yellow and Napthol red and phthalo blue. And even a little bit with myself. Because somehow I’d forgotten who I really was and it was such a delight to finally meet myself again there, out in the sunshine, enjoying life.

With her presence beside me, I remembered how to trust to my own desires again, how to laugh with my whole body again, how to allow myself to be soft and feminine again, how to open up and receive again. How luxury and pleasure don’t have to cost a penny. And I saw through her eyes how my own soft voluptuousness and lovingkindness are really treasures and not liabilities.

I am healed again. I am alive again. I am whole again. And life is delicious.

Heather Cox is a mother, social worker and artist who paints inner landscapes, abstract goddesses and circles, lots of circles. You can find her at heatherlcoxart.com or on Instagram or Facebook. 

Are you ready to meet your goddess of 2015? Do you long to know which goddess will be guiding you throughout the coming months? To find out, book your reading now –2015 My Word Goddess Readings. Available for a limited time only.