my background in the divine

Goddess Babe. Yep, that’s me!

I’ve been a goddess babe since the mid 1970s when I took the name Phebe. It’s a name for the moon and means ‘Shining One.’ Little did I know how powerful this affirmation would be.

In the 70s & 80s, I practiced in circles of women (still do). We brought Z Budapest and Kay Gardner to Cincinnati in the early 80s for the Wise Wimmin Surviving Conference.

I took a Buddhist turn in the 90s. Zen meditation served as a wonderful source of discipline for me. I thank Zen Master Dae Gak and Furnace Mountain for starting me on my way. But when I accompanied a friend to Siddha Yoga and saw the arati tray being waved to the gurus, I found the bhakti bliss that had been missing for me.

On my puja (altar) in 2011, I have my mother (left her body March 2007), Gurumayi (living guru of Siddha Yoga, who I’ve met only in dreams & visualizations), and Anandamayi Ma (whose ashram in Varanasi, India I was fortunate to set foot upon in 2008). It may seem weird to some but I ‘met’ Ma via a website Her devotees set up. My mother birthed me, Gurumayi gave me Grace, & Ma opened my Heart.

In recent years, I am learning to resolve the dualities in my life, knowing it is actually a nondual world (more to explore here for sure!). A sense of humor has been a major survival tool; it keeps the ego down.