Priestess Pathway Practicalities #4
Sisterhoods and the Ninefold
We, who come among the dead as far
as to the very Goddess, nine girls,
maidens, lovely in our dancing,
in bright loveliness of folded
woven-work, with fine-sawn necklaces
of ivory, shine, brilliant
to the dead eye as forgotten daylight7th c. BCE Greek Papyrus, from Dances for Flute and Thunder, transl. Brooks Haxton
Priestesses are not solitary witches.
Community service and teamwork is at the core of every priestess tradition. That being said, if you decide to become a priestess today you often have to start out alone as we simply don’t have the temples and places of devotion that we used to before the various faceted goddess was replaced by one God who was only allowed to be publicly praised by men in power positions.
But after this take over priestesses didn’t stop, they just had to go undercover, like the goddesses who became saints - because the deep rooted truth could never truly be weeded out of folk consciousness.
Some women went into cloisters to continue their work more or less undisturbed under disguise but for most this wouldn’t have been the right way forward. As priestesses were not virgins and maidens like the church describes them, those terms simply mean “not beholden to any man”, in service to the goddess, the community and aware of her power - of creation, destruction and healing. Many priestesses had a family and children, they definitely weren’t confided to celibacy nor were they expected to only live amongst other women. They had choice and were highly respected in society.
And for some being a priestess wasn’t a lifetime’s work but a season of bringing their skills into community. I believe the work never really stops once you remember the deep inherent force within you and devote to the goddess and great mother of all but it can shift in output and form.
Service and sisterhood is not constricted to specific four walls or temple halls. Temples became online schools and ceremonies quote deities from all over the world. You can create beautiful spaces of devotion in collaboration with friends and colleagues. You can serve food at a community hall and hold hands in hospitals in prayer and with a supportive smile. But that’s just the external, the internal is the real practice and embodied wisdom doesn’t need to be validated in specific places but gets to shine through relationship to self, land and others.
You don’t have to wear long robes and chant prayers to awaken the Priestess within you. Much more important is the remembrance of your origin, your magic, your nature. And to help unbury it from conditioning, trauma and distortion. The Call of the Priestess truly is a Call to yourself. It is the Call of the great mother goddess of all. The Call of liberation, connection, enchantment. The Call of interdependence, love and sovereignty. The Call of breaking free from the shackles that kept you conforming and forgetting the wildness within you. The Call that brings us all back home.
In my yearlong priestess training THE WORLDS OF AVALON I will not only teach you about the origin of our western indigenous mystery tradition and nature spirituality but also guide you on the journey of your self-empowerment - because the true mystery cannot be explained but must be experienced through sovereign action and personal embodiment.
The self-paced online course opens its doors tomorrow, full schedule on my website: https://lauradurban.com/lp-courses/avalon/
The Ninefold
Mythologically priestesses have been found in community, most commonly in a sisterhood of nine. The number nine adds power, mystery and meaning. Three times three is a classic spell framework and 9 represents the end of a cycle and the beginning of a new as the last number.
When multiplied with any number in a sum always adds up to nine:
9x9=81 > 8+1=9
13x9=117 > 1+1+7=9
51x9=459 > 4+5+9=18 > 1+8=9
Try it with any multiplication you will get the same result.
We find ninefold sisterhoods and wise women all over from the Greek muses to the Scottish Nine Maidens. These Ninefold Sisterhoods, whether in mythology, folklore, or spiritual practice, often emphasise themes of unity, power, and the deep interconnectedness of women in both the spiritual and physical worlds. They represent the cycles of nature and enhance each other. Everyone in this sacred circle weaves in her own knowledge, experience and profession.
What is clear is that the Nine Maidens functioned as discrete groups within many different societies, some of which have the Nine Maidens at the centre of their mythologies. Mythology can be understood as the process which gives rise to the earliest stories humans told each other and which were attempts to explain life in ways that are meaningful and understandable.
Many of the different traditions of the Nine Maidens associate them with what are apparently goddess-type figures, and this reflects a very widespread early belief in the world having been created by an essentially female force.
Stuart McHardy in The Nine Maidens: Priestesses of the Ancient World
Greek Mythology has several ninefold sisterhoods from the Nine Muses to the Nine Nymphs. In Irish stories we hear of Tír na mBan: An island populated only by beautiful, sexually inviting women, visited by many Irish heroes. The women of the island provide a consort for every male visitor and serve only the best cuisine with the most enchanting music. Bran was summoned by the queen of Tír na mBan and stayed for many years, thinking but a single year had passed - a very common motif of the Otherworld.
We find 9 Maidens who kindle the Cauldron with their breath in the Middle Welsh poem Preiddeu Annwfn, in which Arthur and his men try to retrieve the Cauldron of the King of the Otherworld.
But not only in Irish, Welsh and Greek Mythology can we find 9 maidens. In Scandinavia from Iceland to Greenland we know of seers, völvas, who appear in a group of nine. And in Norse mythology we know the 9 Valkyries, 9 worlds and 9 maidens of the mill, who sit at the centre of the world.
A common theme in literature is 9 magical women who live on islands and are somewhat magical, either faery women themselves, or witches, priestesses or women who are skilled in magic, shapeshifting and healing. The 9 maidens also have ritualistic character, maybe to evoke the great goddess and fertility for land and people.
The depiction and description of 9 women in connection with the Great Mother Goddess is ancient and predates Christianity and the concept of one masculine Father God.
I work specifically with the Ninefold sisterhood of Avalon and their different traits, aspects and attributes in my yearlong training THE WORLDS OF AVALON. The study and self practice course opens its doors tomorrow!
I am holding the torch to guide a way froward through the muddy waters of conditioned society and serve the Grail as offering to drink from the elixir that lifts the mists of forgetting.
Let us lift each other up and create a world in which we thrive, not only survive. Men are welcome on this path, too as you know I am all about interdependence and as soon as you enter Avalon you will know that true and rightfully kings can only be challenged, initiated and anointed by the goddess. We need both men and women and everyone in between to make a lasting and sustainable change!
Monthly and Quarterly Instalment payments are possible, please contact me for any further requests or questions!
absolutely- we come together. in our words, intentions and holding the world in love. in light to see what is.