At this time of the year, called Candlemas or Imbolc by some, when the circle is turning once again and the light is returning, we begin to let go of the darkness, the time of pondering, gestating and going within, and now begin to embrace a more active role, making this a great time to take action and speak to the ideas and attitudes associated with hope and fearlessness.

Just what is hope? According to Webster’s dictionary, hope can be described in many ways....

1) The feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.
2) A particular instance of this feeling - i.e., the hope of winning
3) A person or thing in which expectation is centered
4) Something that is hoped for
5) To look forward to with desire and confidence
6) To believe, desire or trust
7) To feel that something desired may happen.

Or finally, one can strive for the seemingly impossible and hope against hope.

Perhaps you may be aware that for years now, we have all been living in a climate of fear which brings about feelings of hopelessness, insecurity and vulnerability. We constantly hear about global warming, war, terrorism, economic uncertainty, corruption of our political and religious leaders, corporate fascism, disaster exploitation, super viruses, the lack of health care. It goes on and on ad nauseam.

You know fear. We’ve all been there. At a minimum, it is a feeling of “otherness” that isolates us and causes us to doubt ourselves. Or it can elevate way beyond that causing us to impulsively act in ways that are illogical, life-threatening and against our own long-term benefit. Fear must be transcended—and can be transcended—but first we must understand the science of fear and fear’s close cousins, hate and anxiety. It’s in our human DNA—it is a primary reaction for survival. If primitive man and woman didn’t pay attention and flee from the rustling bushes, they might have been eaten and humanity would not have evolved so we can be here together today. It’s as simple as that. We are wired to respond to fear more quickly than logic. Fear usually always overrules reason. It’s a powerful, primal reaction. When you feel your mood change and your body react and become tense, it’s happening and needs to be kept in check. Knowing that, logically, that this is the human condition, we have the first tool to battle fear.

Think about that the next time you open the newspaper or turn on the news. And dare I say, the POWERS THAT BE often encourage that fear within us with talk of World War III, with moronic suggestions that plastic tarps and duct tape can protect us from nuclear fall-out, or color coded terror alerts constantly raising and lowering awareness, keeping us on an emotional roller-coaster and off balance—even strategically timing alerts for political gain. When we constantly receive these pictures and take in these words and thoughts, our clarity becomes distorted—we are more easily manipulated. From this fearful place, we might more easily be duped to look for a white knight who can ride in and save us.

I’m going to suggest to each of you today, YOU ARE YOUR OWN WHITE KNIGHT.

If our leaders have failed us and there is no long anyone in the public arena telling us or our children we are powerful, we are capable, we have nothing to fear but fear itself, then we have to practice that ourselves. We have to value ourselves and step forward into fearlessness, removing the obstacles that prevent us from doing so. Perhaps that means creating a community of support. It might mean being a trailblazer yourself—even if you are afraid—because by your action, your seeming fearlessness, the very act of your trying, the energy is contagious and it inspires and gives another permission to try, to risk, to act.

Maybe by now you see I’m not just talking about politics. I’m talking about stretching ourselves, challenging ourselves, trying to accomplish things we might feel a bit are beyond us. It is a journey of becoming, of growing, that we all must take and we cannot be afraid of the journey because it is the journey that steels us, it’s the trying, the praying, the challenging, the seeking, the very act of DOING that staves off fear and fills us with hope and inspiration. The destination doesn’t necessarily hold the reward. The reward comes from that which has been gleaned from the journey.

The destination is just where you take a deep breath, relax, and reflect—after the journey has molded you.

Sometimes, as we get older, we naturally become more fearless. We’ve weathered a lot of storms and we are not so easily daunted. We might be more willing to try things, to throw spaghetti against the wall and see what might stick. And if we are fortunate enough to be in that place or mind-set, it might be a good thing to help those around us to believe in themselves, to encourage and support one another, particularly women to women, rather than compete or diminish one another.

And we don’t want to spout empty platitudes. Neither are we going to tell you to go out and SHOP to ward off evil or to prevent bad things from happening to your family. Because the more aware and enlightened know among us know the end game is not “those with the most toys win.” Was it Jesus who said the rich man has a better chance of passing through the eye of a needle than entering the gates of heaven?

We are going to give you a few options that you can carry forward with you into your everyday life that might be useful tools or a springboard for your own ideas to keep yourself inspired and cultivating HOPE and thereby keeping fear and hopelessness at bay. And soon, if you take baby steps, they will become a part of your psyche and your new paradigm. You’ll find yourself rising to challenges more easily, meeting bigger and bigger challenges with less and less fear and trepidation and you will not be so easily duped, confused or manipulated.

But remember, we have to work against our brain’s programming - and that’s all it is. The fear impulse sometimes keeps us safe, but it often has nothing to do with logic and may cause us to act against our own best interest.

According to Daniel Gilbert, Harvard University psychology researcher, “Negative emotions such as fear, hatred and disgust tend to provoke behavior more than positive emotions such as hope and happiness do.”

Edmund Burke, 18th century political theorist, observed: “No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.”

Then we must act to transcend the fear, and there are many coping mechanisms.

1) Contemplate Goddess and/or the Divine Couple and your connection to her or them.
2) Use meditation to go within and find stillness.
3) Use breathing techniques or physical activity to ward off anxiety and fear.
4) After a good night’s sleep, everything looks better in the morning!
5) Recall images or thoughts that make you feel powerful.

Two of my favorites are Sekhmet’s fiery eyes like lasers removing obstacles or two scenes from The Lord of the Rings movies. One is where Gandolf stands before the demon, alone, with only his personal power and staff. And he commands the demon, “You shall not pass!” And Gandolf prevails. The second is in the final movie of the trilogy when another demon beast is coming for one of the warriors and tries to intimidate, stating, “No man can kill me!” The warrior reaches up and whips off her helmet to reveal she is a woman and shouts, “But I am not a man!” and she slays the beast dead.

Gandolf and the female warrior transcended fear in their doing as we, too, may do our best work and accomplish amazing things once we are no longer afraid of death or failure.

Note: Sacred Sundays services are provided to offer a safe place to share sacred space, to offer a few hours one can look forward to each month to carve out time for yourself or with your family or friends. It is a niche where you can be with a like-minded community and of course, to seek out the Divine within and to strengthen that connection with Deity.

With Sacred Sundays we hope to create an environment where each of us is able, for a time, to slip out of our commercialized, corporate culture and slip into a new culture, formed from diverse ethnic backgrounds and a rich variety of poetic, mythological, ritual, folk and mystery traditions. We ask that in each Sacred Sundays services, you attempt to open yourself to new ideas and feelings, to share your thoughts in the safety of our circle and to be prepared to find your creativity, your wildness, and your wisdom.

During Sacred Sundays we strive for balance, peace, harmony and love, so we honor the Sacred Feminine as primary, complemented by the Divine Masculine, and thus our services are open to people of all faiths, traditions and spiritual backgrounds.

Each month we will introduce a new deity and concept with January being that of Hope and Fearlessness.

Karen Tate, independent scholar of the Sacred Feminine has successfully published two books. Sacred Places of Goddess: 108 Destinations (CCC Publishing) is available in bookstores now and has been given the thumbs up by the J. Paul Getty Villa Museum bookstore and the Joseph Campbell Foundation. Walking An Ancient Path; Rebirthing Goddess on Planet Earth (O-Books/John Hunt Publishing) is anxiously anticipated and will be available in June 2008. Karen lectures at public, private and academic institutions, minsters at Sacred Sundays interfaith services based on the Divine Feminine and is the hostess of her own internet radio show, Voices of the Sacred Feminine. She has a sacred tour planned in October 2008 to Turkey. For more information go to www.karentate.com