Pop up Goddess Temple Stockport – a reflection

It was on a chilly and damp Sunday in November that myself, Priestess Elder Moon and student Priestess Ally arrived at Orange Bloom Yoga studio in Stockport (Northwest UK) to prepare a Pop up Goddess Temple. To my knowledge the first within the borough since pre Christian times.

I first felt that tap on the shoulder a few years ago now, when I was sitting in a cafe enjoying a cup of coffee and reflecting on the upcoming Goddess Cerridwen Temple in Bala. “I’d like a temple here, over there would be good” What! As I looked across the marketplace to a derelict building. Now I must say that to deity, our practicalities are nothing, they have no concept of our monetary system or anything else to do with local regulations, laws, procedures etc etc.

In short, as a hard up NHS (National Health Service) worker this bar was a bit too high. So it sat on the back burner, until I Melissa’d a pop up Temple in Widnes, about 18 months ago.

(Note: A temple melissa takes care of the temple space). 

It was a simple event, and I witnessed that people needed this simplicity to have somewhere to go and spend time with Goddess. With this in mind, I went back to the drawing board as it were and started to look for a suitable venue for a Pop-up Temple in Stockport. It took over a year to find the right place at a price that was within my now pensioner budget, that had a peaceful energy, and would provide people with a place to rest in the company of Goddess. Plus it had the approval of Cerridwen.

So, a date was chosen and the studio booked. I had already asked Elder Moon for assistance and, as the date grew nearer, more help arrived. I had by this time a Priestess Facebook page and I used this to create the event and promote it to the local Pagan groups. As the day got nearer, I increased my online marketing and prepared for the event, making notes of what Cerridwen  was inspiring me to include, a table with two books one for remembrance and one for Priestess prayers. A last entry time of 15 minutes before closing to allow late arrivals time with the Goddess, and the opportunity for those who were there at the end to witness the Priestesses bidding farewell to the Goddesses. I had decided to make a small charge to cover the costs of the room hire and kept this low, with flexibility for those who genuinely had need and no money.

As the day grew closer the nerves kicked in, the shadow of self doubt “Will anyone come?” The feelings of imposter syndrome “Who do I think I am?”. All perfectly normal anxieties for anyone putting on an event, and one that the Priestess with a deep breath recognises for what it is, before gently tucking away the frightened little rabbit somewhere warm and safe, pulling herself up tall and getting on with it.

As the day dawned so did the realisation that it really didn’t matter how many people came, we were going to honour Goddess and create a Temple for Her and that was the most important thing above all. The space was energetically cleansed, an Altar was simply created, beautifully filled with what we had between us, charity shop finds, pictures, local crystals from the river and herbs fresh from the garden. A table was set away from the Altar with the two books.

This was always planned as a generic Goddess Temple, not only because of the many Pagan paths and Goddesses who are close to the local people, but for all those local Goddesses the ones whose names have been lost to time. I may not be an historian, what I do know is that this area has been inhabited since way back in history, we are only a few miles from where Bronze age Lindow Man was found and many of what are now local suburbs were mentioned in the Domesday book as villages and hamlets. So we called in in an open way; all the Dark Goddesses (of which Cerridwen is the primary goddess for me), all the Goddesses of the North, all the maiden Goddesses, all the fiery Goddesses of the East and so on as we went round the 9 directions, not forgetting to honour the Ancestors and Spirits of place at the centre.

It was a quiet event, there was no queue at the door when we opened. However, those who really needed to be there were. They had time to spend with Goddess, time to unburden all that needed to be unburdened peacefully, and Goddess was present. Before we closed, before we took time to honour the dead and say farewell to the Goddesses, I had a little time myself to sit with Her. She was most definitely there, I could feel Her, sat by the Altar this really was a Temple and what came to me was so profound that I will share it with you. 

As I sat there in Her presence, in this place that has known human habitation for thousands of years, I knew that She had been honoured like this before a long long time ago, and that this was the first time in hundreds if not thousands of years that She had been honoured in this way in Her Temple. And that, my friends, is all that was important, Goddess had asked to be honoured once more and She was pleased.

Blessed be

 

Priestess Flora

I’m a grandmother and I’m retired, living in the Northwest of England. After Goddess my first love is my art.

Facebook Page: She Who Sits With Trees