Sacred Retreat: Using Natural Cycles to Recharge Your Life

95 Pages·2016·1.56 MB·English

by  Pia Orleane

SACRED RETREAT
“The minute I started reading this book, I got chills. My body said a big
‘yes’ to this information. Yours will too! Every mother and every
daughter should read this book.”
CHRISTIANE NORTHRUP, M.D., AUTHOR OF MOTHER-DAUGHTER WISDOM, THE
WISDOM OF MENOPAUSE, AND WOMEN’S BODIES, WOMEN’S WISDOM
“We simply cannot secede from nature, and to believe otherwise is
madness. Orleane shows how we can remain in nature’s flow and reap
the benefits that are a part of this inescapable oneness.”
LARRY DOSSEY, M.D., NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ONE MIND
“This gentle, deeply reflective book offers us another way of seeing the
world—through the eyes of feminine vision. With penetrating insight, it
recovers for us a long lost wisdom and offers a template of how we
might restore balance to our driven, radically unbalanced society and our
stress-filled lives. Anyone reading Sacred Retreat will have their
understanding of life deepened and enhanced, leading them into a more
conscious way of living, a closer relationship with their body, and an
interweaving of their life with the rhythms of the natural world, the
planet, and beyond that, the cosmos. A hugely valuable book.”
ANNE BARING, AUTHOR OF THE DREAM OF THE COSMOS
“Orleane’s well-documented and well-written book is full of wisdom. An
antidote for these fractured times, it is a call for us to return to the natural
wisdom of our bodies, to reclaim our innate power, and to reconnect with
the cycles of the natural world.”
ERICA ELLIOTT, M.D., PHYSICIAN, SPEAKER, AND COAUTHOR OF
PRESCRIPTIONS FOR A HEALTHY HOUSE
“Pia Orleane, Ph.D., is a talented researcher and writer with a feel for
people and their lives. I strongly encourage you to consider her book.
Here is a strong, unusual, and inspiring study valuable for many. Pia
helps open magic to us.”
RUTH RICHARDS, M.D., PH.D., AUTHOR OF EVERYDAY CREATIVITY
“Sacred Retreat gets to the root of the current planetary crisis and how
we can transform it. This book is an accessible and practical guide to
bringing the feminine back online by starting with our own bodies and
cycles. I immediately put the insights from this book into practice and
felt richly rewarded with increased intuition and empowerment. Any
woman or man who desires to realign with the rhythms of nature will
receive great benefit from the practical wisdom offered here.”
EMILY TRINKAUS, AUTHOR OF CREATING WITH THE COSMOS
“Pia Orleane, Ph.D., writes with passion and conviction. Sacred Retreat
is an antidote for the stress and depression so prevalent in today’s
tattered cultures.”
STANLEY KRIPPNER, PH.D., COAUTHOR OF EXTRAORDINARY DREAMS AND HOW
TO WORK WITH THEM
“Every day we witness the great imbalance in the world that our current
story and ways of living have brought us. This book offers an insightful
guide on how humanity can return again to balance. Pia Orleane’s book
is a profound instruction manual.”
MARIANNE MARSTRAND, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE GLOBAL PEACE
INITIATIVE OF WOMEN
“Sacred Retreat is not only an important book, it is vital for humanity!
Every mother should put this book in the hands of her sons and
daughters. Every teacher should teach from this book in schools all over
the world. And war would end. This is a vibrant book with important
wisdom for both men and women. The divine feminine is sending the
message to change NOW!!”
ERIKA MIKAELSSON, JOURNALIST AND CEO OF NORDIC LIGHT MEDIA “Pia
Orleane, Ph.D., well deserves the accolades she has received for her original research, much
of which is eloquently expressed in her unique comprehension of the natural cycles of life,
especially as it relates to women and the reclamation of the divine feminine. This unique,
especially as it relates to women and the reclamation of the divine feminine. This unique,
informative, and process-oriented book is greatly needed to empower women and rebalance
the current patriarchal dominance the world over.”
NICKI SCULLY, AUTHOR OF SEKHMET
“Throughout the world, there is a real problem with gender inequality
and our relationship with Mother Earth. These are challenging times and
we need people that can give us wisdom and hope in the struggle.
Orleane does just this in her book Sacred Retreat . Everyone wishing for
social change and peace in the world should read this excellent book.”
ROY BOURGEOIS, FORMER CATHOLIC PRIEST AND FOUNDER OF SCHOOL OF
THE AMERICAS WATCH (SOA WATCH) “Pia Orleane has made an important
contribution to the growing recognition of the importance of feminine values in our
unbalanced society. This book provides a desperately needed corrective to our growing
malaise and is well worth reading. It offers immediate practical and ultimately spiritual
suggestions for both women and men.”
GUS DIZEREGA, PH.D., AUTHOR OF PAGANS & CHRISTIANS: THE PERSONAL
SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE
“An invaluable reminder to get our lives back in sync with the
undeniable wisdom of Nature—including our own physiological,
emotional, and spiritual rhythms and synchronicity with all beings with
whom we share and co-create our world.”
ADAM GAINSBURG, AUTHOR OF SACRED MARRIAGE ASTROLOGY AND
FOUNDER OF SOULSIGN.COM
“The power of Orleane’s writing has far-reaching implications as modern
women continue their ancient Earth cycles during these tumultuous
times. In a readable and completely fascinating way, we are brought to
reconfirming ourselves as vessels of wonder and awe.”
EMILIE CONRAD, FOUNDER OF CONTINUUM MOVEMENT AND AUTHOR OF
LIFE ON LAND
“This rich, timely work clearly rises from the depths of a woman’s soul.
It is, indeed, an invitation into life’s mystery. This work is a ‘must’ for
all those who seek the healing of the human condition.”
KENNETH HAMILTON, M.D., AUTHOR OF SOULCIRCLING
Acknowledgments
MY FIRST THANKS go to my heartmate, Cullen Baird Smith. As a balanced,
spiritual man, he consciously carries the divine feminine within him more than
most. Every day he shows me his longing to create a just world that is fair to all.
Our intense and illuminating conversations about the imbalances in the world are
reflected throughout this book. I am very grateful to him for encouraging me to
publish this work and for the beautiful opening remarks he wrote for this book.
These opening remarks reflect his wisdom and understanding. I am grateful for
his sharing a few of his original terms for my use, and his valuable, critical eye,
and editorial abilities. His edits allowed me to see what needed expanding or
deleting and helped me to understand my limitations so that I could move
beyond them. I also appreciate his having connected so lovingly with me on all
levels and in all conditions. Thank you, Cullen, for seeing me, for believing in
me, and for appreciating me. Thank you for sharing yourself with me, and for
being my full partner in every sense of the word. What a joy to live with you!
Our path together continues to be truly divine.
I am deeply grateful to Barbara Hand Clow for her encouragement to get this
work into the world, for our shared understanding of the importance of natural
cycles, and for the wonderful, supportive foreword she wrote for this book.
Thanks to Anne Baring, for her vision, her deep insight, her inspiration, and
her support. Her suggestion to be true to my knowledge without being tentative
encouraged me to use my feminine power to express myself.
I extend my ongoing appreciation to my longtime friend Rebecca Gretz,
without whose technical support I would be totally lost. Thank you for so often
helping me to research subtle points to gain a broader perspective. Your deep
friendship, dedication to evolutionary growth, trust in the universe, and amazing
approach to life make the world a better place!
Thanks to my good friends Diann (Sara) and Brendan Bowen for early edits
of my work. Your sharp eyes and editorial skills made this a better book. Thanks
to Dan Gretz for technical support and occasional research assistance. I thank
Marcellus Davis for facilitating Internet communication for me, given my choice
to be separated from the digital world as much as possible.
I thank all the people at Inner Traditions • Bear and Company who helped me
bring this work into the world, including Jon Graham, Kelly Bowen, Manzanita
Carpenter, Erica Robinson, Patricia Rydle, Jeanie Levitan, Blythe Bates, John
Hays, and most especially my amazing editors Jamaica Burns Griffin and Anne
Dillon—wizardesses full of intelligence, style, flow, and depth. I am very
grateful for their touch on my work.
I thank Saybrook University for supporting my research and me as a person.
I am grateful you chose me to receive the prestigious Gerald Bush Award for
Original Research and Creative Solutions. I thank all the women and men before
me who contributed their voices to the value of the feminine.
My deepest gratitude to the late Emilie Conrad, my friend and a true
visionary whose wisdom of the body was immense. What she knew, we all
should know.
A huge note of appreciation goes to those friends and colleagues who
recognized the worth of my work and provided glowing endorsements because
they believed it can make a difference in the world.
A warm thanks also to all the women who enthusiastically participated in my
original research on treating menstruation as a sacred time. Without your
dedication to the project and willing support, I would not have been able to make
the scientific conclusions that aligned so nicely with my experiential wisdom.
Thanks to my mother, May Jo Wootten, who always told me I came from the
stars and taught me that I am divine. Thanks to my dad, William Robert Finlay,
who gave me unconditional love. I miss you.
I give special thanks to all who are listening to the call of the divine
feminine, but especially to my spiritual sisters Diana Johansson, Rebecca Gretz,
Diann (Sara) Bowen, Sulara James, Erika Mikaelsson, Maria Belknap, Oribel
Divine, and Jai-La Visitor—divine women who have loved and supported me in
innumerable ways every day that I have known them.
Thanks to all the men who each in your own way demonstrate how honoring
the divine feminine within you can be a powerful force for positive change on
our planet. Special thanks to my friends Marcellus Davis, Brendon Bowen, Brian
MacIntyre, Brad Oliphant, Terence Neff, Genesis Young, Alexander Senchenko,
Wolfgang Hoffman, and again, my own beloved, Cullen Baird Smith. I am sure
there are more of you to thank who I am remiss in remembering here. To those
I’ve unintentionally omitted I give my heartfelt thanks.
My most profound gratitude goes to all members of my spiritual family and
my unnamed friends, from both the human and other realms, who support my
work and me in countless ways. Thank you for being in my life. My heart
recognizes and appreciates our connections! To you, I send all my love, light,
and deepest appreciation.