Women's Circles

A women’s circle is a gathering of women of all ages and cultures to celebrate and reconnect with their feminine essence, at specific moments of the year, around a particular intention.

Part of healing the wounded feminine and reclaiming feminine wisdom is for women to reconnect, to come together as sisters with a common purpose rather than remaining isolated and reinforcing a division that disempowers us all and weakens our efforts.

— Jane Hardwicke Collings

Since the dawn of time, women have gathered to share, to connect and to pass on. In the West, with the frenzy of working life, this transmission has often disappeared; many women find themselves isolated and disconnected from this ancestral wisdom. At the same time, we have to sort through the burden of limiting beliefs we were born with — handed down generation after generation — which have nothing to do with that intrinsic wisdom.

Sisterhood is the key word.

— Chloé Delaume

While women’s circles have always existed, the word “sorority” appeared in French in the Middle Ages. It comes from the Latin word “soror”, sister. In medieval language, sorority referred to the intimate, deep bond that can exist between women of the same religious community. Sisterhood was thus born around a spiritual bond. Sorority then grew significantly in society. In the 16th century, the words sorority and fraternity were used as equals.

But several centuries of constraints on feminine power and limiting beliefs weakened sisterhood, while its masculine equivalent (fraternity) flourished.

The word reappeared a little before 1940 around a campfire, in a girls’ scouting group. Since then it has been experiencing a new renaissance, as each woman takes hold of it and brings it to life.

So how do we bring sisterhood to life?

Sisterhood is about coming together and creating communities of sisters. It is about forming circles in order to feel fully free and true in our feminine essence.

Sisterhood therefore begins with kindness and with gentleness in the way we look upon one another. Creating a space able to welcome each woman’s truth without judgement makes it possible to counter the limiting beliefs and patterns that have been instilled in us generation after generation.

It is also about building bonds, a relationship of trust, that allows each of the women in the circle to radiate her own femininity. It is about sharing and passing on within a community, a group, a tribe of sisters. It is about being sisters.

Sisterhood is also about creating new chains of transmission, away from the world, to recover the wisdom and ancestral strength of women, and then carry them outward.

If nonviolence is the law of humanity, the future belongs to women.

— Gandhi

Why a circle?

A woman is the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture and transform.

— Diane Mariechild

Together we create a space where we can reflect, celebrate, inspire and strengthen one another. We can drop our masks and be seen in the beauty of our true being, in all its glory and pain, its passion and vulnerability.

Each of us takes responsibility for co-creating this space that fosters awareness, awakening and healing. All women are on the same level. In this way we can bring the light of awareness to what is shared. We listen with all our senses, feeling within us the resonance of what is expressed. There is nothing to change about anyone’s experience. This is not the place for judgement or advice — only to be a witness, and to trust that the person speaking already holds within her all the resources to meet what she is living.

The benefits of women’s circles

Human beings need social contact. Especially when we are going through challenging times, like the year that has just passed.

Being part of a women’s circle is a little like belonging to a tribe. And this tribe is present in the highs as well as the lows of our experience. When we feel fragile and at a loss, and someone looks at us knowing that we hold within us all the resources to meet our experience, it allows us to reconnect with that wisdom inside us.

And when we feel connected to life and to the world around us in all our power, then the women’s circle is there to celebrate with us! It allows us to anchor that experience even more deeply within us, and to multiply it.

We feel reassured: we are not alone in living this experience. Our sacred essence can keep unfolding.

The women’s circles around us weave invisible nets of love that carry us when we are weak, and sing with us when we are strong.

— SARK

When do women’s circles take place?

Women’s circles usually take place every month. Traditionally, women gather according to the moon — full or new. For example, the new moon is favourable for setting intentions.

The timing of the circle’s gathering depends on its purpose or theme — it can be, for instance, at the new moon or the full moon.

It is also possible to go on a retreat to dive even more deeply into the benefits of the circle… and come out of it entirely renewed!

What are the themes of women’s circles?

Some circles may centre on a particular goddess or deity, or on a feminine archetype. It can also be a general theme such as the feminine lineage, or sexuality.

Other circles are set up and held according to the lunar phases. For example, as mentioned above, the new moon is favourable for circles of manifestation, in which we set one or more intentions for the month ahead.

How does a women’s circle unfold?

It usually lasts between 2 and 3 hours. It can take place in person or online.

It may begin with a ritual marking the entry into the circle, such as the smudging of white sage. In this way, you leave the past outside, to focus on the here and now.

Speaking follows the principle of the talking stick. Each woman speaks without being interrupted. Each takes responsibility for what she feels — whether speaking or listening. It is not about giving advice or judging one another, but about co-creating a kind, respectful space where everything said in the circle… stays in the circle.

Why do I hold women’s circles?

More than fifteen years ago, I had the incredible good fortune to take part in my first women’s retreat. Before that, if someone had told me I would spend three days with only about fifty women… and that I would love it… I would never have believed it! And yet it was one of the most memorable retreats for me. I finally felt able to fully take my place in life, to be connected with my lineage of women, and also with the sacred feminine within me. I could at last fully accept myself — in my sensitivity as well as in my power.

And since then, the women’s circle has been an absolute must for me, every month, to regenerate in the company of my sisters!