SACRED FOOTPRINTS by Rhea Ruth Aitken

There are days when I feel so very connected to the beautiful and brave women that have walked this earth journey before me. 

It leaves me sometimes feeling insignificant in their wake and other times inspired to make more of a difference, to step up to their lead. I feel their fears and achievements pulsing beneath my feet, touching my heart. I envision their faces and embrace their lives just for the slightest and most profound moment and always am left with the knowledge we are spiritual sisters, always leaving our sacred footprints for others to find. 

SACRED FOOTPRINTS

I stand in the footprints

Of so many women

My soft sole flesh

The perfect fit

My step the perfect space between.                               

I fit in all of them

Some with such sweet comfort

Some with the echoes

Of a long-ago fear.

I feel them all

These other women I did not know

Whose feet touched the earth

And left their patterns

For me to colour in

Their words for me to silently read

Their tears for me 

To pick up from the floor

In a shiny stone

And cry for them.

And on the days when

My feet blissfully linger

In the space where once they walked

I know them.

I feel myself fading backwards

To meet them

Then further still to be them.

I carry their children

And feel their wounds

I allow the sacred love

That once kept them alive

To pump through me.

We are not so different
Though our time runs

In altered dimensions       

So far away from each other

We are yet as close

As a bud and a bloom 

Just a teardrop, a heartbeat,                                 

A whispered sigh away.

When I stand in a footprint

And I feel its contours

Mould as a glove to my own

That is when my soul

Opens its arms to the journey

Of the women on whose

Hallowed roads I now travel,          

Where I find my place and honour 

From the depths of my being                                        

On the ultimate and blessed path  

Of the feminine divine,

Where I leave my own print

For the one day in another time

When a journeying woman

Will find that she and I fit.    

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*You may find more of Rhea Ruth Aitken's writings in our new GODDESS anthology. For your own copy, just click here. All proceeds from this book will be donated to the Malala Fund.) 

Rhea-Ruth Aitken: Spiritual Medium, Writer, Daughter of the Goddess and all round Creatress, I am a woman who loves to weave stories, songs and poetry, commune with the Spirit World and walk with the cycles of Mother Nature and the Moon. Having embraced the wisdom of Cronehood I now am allowing time in my life to collate and birth some of my work into the world. Spirituality and creativity are ever present passions and being a channel I use writing as a spiritual practice as well as a natural focus for healing, expression and creativity, a way of being mindful of myself as a woman, of knowing and communing with the truth of my soul. Whether for reading, writing, or ritual, words are my constant companion as I walk with the Goddess daily and follow my magical pathway. Words are magical, they can transform, promote understanding, inspire and heal. Words can paint a picture in the mind and sometimes I paint that picture onto canvas too. I love to hold sacred space for women to enjoy sisterhood, sharing and self-expression.  I write for women, those beautiful sisters with whom I share my life journey. If I can touch one heart, share one word of healing or allow one woman to know herself through my work then I have accomplished my promise to Goddess to share and inspire. Find me on my website, or Facebook. 

*For submission guidelines, click here.*