The Feminine and Social Change: Bringing Feminine Principles Into Action

Jan 6, Sharon Blackie: Dr Sharon Blackie is a writer, a psychologist who has specialised both in neuroscience and narrative, and a mythologist with a specialisation in Celtic Studies. Her unique approach to working with myth, fairy tales and folklore highlights the insights these traditions can offer us into authentic and meaningful ways of being which are founded on a deep sense of belonging to place, a rootedness in the land we inhabit.

Sharon is the founder of EarthLines Magazine. Her most recent book is If Women Rose Rooted, a nonfiction work which offers up a new Heroine’s Journey for this challenging age of social and ecological crisis. Sharon was formerly a crofter on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, but now lives in the hills of Donegal, in Ireland. Her experiences on the westernmost edges of the Celtic fringe give her a unique perspective on the psychology of belonging, and our relationship with place. “All of my work,” she says, “springs from an intense connection to the land, which is rooted as much in the mything and storying of place as it is in a detailed knowledge of the physical environment.” www.sharon.blackie.net

Feb 3, Polly Higgins: Polly Higgins is an international lawyer, UK based barrister, award-winning author and lead Ecocide law expert. Her proposal to expand the remit of the International Criminal Court to include Ecocide as an international crime—to stand alongside genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression—is intended to ensure global governance and protection against State and corporate crime that causes or fails to prevent climate disasters as well as other ecological catastrophes. Polly has been hailed as one of the World’s Top 10 Visionary Thinkers by the Ecologist and celebrated as The Planet’s Lawyer by the 2010 Change Awards. Founder of the Earth Law Alliance and The Earth Community Trust, she has garnered a number of awards for her work advocating for a law of Ecocide. In November 2015 VPRO (Dutch BBC) featured a documentary about her work, Advocate for the Earth. She is ranked as No.35 in Salt magazine’s 2016 Top 100 Inspiring Women of the world list.  www.pollyhiggins.com

Feb 3, Karen Downes: Karen Downes co-created the first international FEMMEQ Summit femmeq.org in Berlin, launched in June 2016. She is an entrepreneur, business consultant and social change activist whose current focus is on helping women and men to recognize and develop their own leadership potential. She is as active in the corporate sphere as she is in social change movements, believing that change needs to come from a shift in values across all sectors. In 2013 she founded of the Flourish Initiative, www.theflourishinitiative.com, a consultancy whose purpose is to ‘support leaders who see themselves as stewards of a positive human future.’

As a consultant she supports business leaders across diverse sectors of industry, as well as engaging with women in the rural villages of India and Bangladesh to transform the marginalisation they face. Karen has facilitated hundreds of programmes to empower women and men to fulfill their potential and align totheir higher purpose. Her work is grounded in the recognition that to lead others, we must first do the inner work necessary to lead ourselves. Her programme, Leading with Grace and Resilience, offers tools for balancing the deep feminine with the deep masculine qualities needed to build a more peaceful world. Her commitment has always been to bring empowerment to those who are marginalised and to restore vision and purpose to those who have lost their way. femmeq.org and www.theflourishinitiative.com

March 4, Hilary Hart: Hilary lives in Taos, New Mexico. Her writing and teaching focus on women’s spiritual power and the role it can play in our global evolution. Her most recent book, Body of Wisdom, brings together dreams and experiences of women with teachings from today’s most visionary spiritual leaders to describe the esoteric foundations of women’s power and its functions in our collective evolution. Born in Boston, Hilary went to Yale University and received a Masters Degree in Philosophy from CU Boulder. She has extensive experience in Sufism and Tibetan Buddhism. www.hilaryhart.org

April 7, Amrita Bhohi: Amrita’s passion is working with emerging young leaders and visionaries who are in service to bringing fourth a future based on values of interconnectedness and reverence for all life. She works at St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace in London, where over the past two years she has helped to launch and embed young adult leadership programmes as part of the centre’s new strategic focus. Amrita currently leads on the Spiritual Ecology area of work, which includes hosting and facilitating a series of public workshops and events. She co-ordinates the Spiritual Ecology Youth Programme, which brings together ten young leaders to explore how spiritual values can be united with practical project development to create social and environmental action for lasting change. Amrita previously worked on the global Eradicating Ecocide campaign and at the think tank, The Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House). In 2013 she organised TEDxWhitechapel, one of the most popular and radical TEDx events in London. She holds a BSc in Biomedical Sciences from King’s College, and an MA in Economics for Transition from Schumacher College. Her broader interests lie in new economics, systems change, and social and environmental regeneration.

April 7, Boe Huntress: Boe Huntress works with young women primarily under the age of 35 to explore the divine feminine, through working with feminine archetypes, movement meditation and group work. Boe trained with shamanic psychotherapist Elisabeth Serra Josephs in an ancient womens dance called the Shiva Shakti dance meditation, and she assisted Elisabeth in running women’s initiations for five years. She has been running her own women’s groups for five years. Boe is also a singer songwriter who explores the wild woman and what it means to be human. www.boehuntress.com

April 7, Georgia May: Georgia is a theologian at Durham University. She lives and works at Rose Castle, a peace & reconciliation centre in Cumbria, overseeing public events and marketing whilst developing educational resources for training young leaders in the principles of ‘disagreeing well’. She is a Churchill Fellow, selected for the Churchill Learn to Lead training programme for outstanding young leaders of the next generation, and served as a Youth Ambassador for the Cambridge Interfaith Programme, convening international faith leaders to take a more active role in peace-keeping. Having mentored and worked with women and young adults on the street, Georgia is now involved with developing the Archbishop’s Ministry for Reconciliation, with a particular interest in seeking how to support women who are not able to have public leadership roles in their communities.

May 5, Sr Lucy Kurien: Sr Lucy is a Catholic nun and founder and director of Maher, a refuge for destitute women and children headquartered in Pune, India. In the Marathi language, Maher means ‘Mother’s Home.’ Founded in principles of compassion and service, Maher is an interfaith community that honours all religions, and whose motto is “There is always room for one more.” Since it was founded in 1997 Maher has welcomed 4,000 women and children through its doors. The organisation currently runs 33 houses and continues to grow.

Sr Lucy is a recipient of several national and international awards, including the Global Women’s Summits 2011 Leadership Award, and has received worldwide recognition for her humanitarian efforts. Her work at Maher is the subject of a documentary titled Sister Heart. www.maherashram.org