Return of the embodied Feminine
About
Working as a yoga and shamanism teacher in this time of cultural and soulful separation, Sifra realised that female strength and spirituality comes through the awakening of the body. Her life story is about coming home to connection, individually and collectively.
The book is one woman’s own story about her body, sexuality, the forgotten intuitive knowledge of women and personal journey of remembering her magical sexual connective feminine power through sisterhood. This is a compelling journey of awakening through rituals, moon circles, and self examination.
The book has thirteen chapters, all have sub sections. The names of the chapters, in the contents list below, already suggests a lot about the content and structure the book, with no need to add extra words or description.
Synopses
The Return Of The M is a true story about growing up and living in the western world as a woman and Sifra Nooter questions how and what this means. She iterates the confusion of living in this masculine orientated world that seems to dominantly value the thinking mind with its main focus on having targets and goals.
Sifra explicitly describes her life, especially how she experiences things that happen with her body; how it is treated as a result of living separated from the value of body-consciousness and our innate wisdom, instead of connected to ourselves as ‘whole’. Feeling as if something is fundamentally forgotten about our innate knowledge and connection with nature, Sifra journeys to re-forge this kinship. Through the knowledge of the bears, the birds, the wind and a sacred connection to her haven by the sea.
Having started with the path of yoga and shamanism, there came a point when she realised that she yearned to know what it meant to be strong as a woman in her femininity, to bring alive this forgotten essence that is void in the western world. Starting to understand that it is all about connection. Body connection. Feeling the truth and wisdom of her own body in relation with herself, and from there, connecting with her lovers, her children and friends. She describes her path through tantra and the sexual adventures that helped her to connect with her female sexuality thus restoring her sense of wholeness.
Sifra takes us on a beautiful intimate journey of the awakening feminine, supported by her initiative to start a sharing circle with women, gathering at the time of the full moon and connecting with the moon calendar. In doing this, as a group, they questioned and found answers about pure female strength, in relation to the energy of the moon and thus in relation to the cycle of the female body. Calling themselves the Moon Sisters, this circle empowered them in an incredible way, awakening body and soul wisdom, and supporting them all in taking big steps in their lives.
Author
Sifra Nooter graduated as a drama teacher in 1989, later orienting towards learning and teaching aerobics, yoga and shamanism. In 2015 she became the founder of ‘Magie van seksualiteit’ in Holland, ‘The Magic of Sexuality’. Together with her partner, they have developed a training program for people who want to experience a deeper intimacY with themselves and in partnership. Sifra has also developed a training program, ‘The magie van vrouwelijke seksualiteit’ (The Magic of Feminine Sexuality) especially for women to get in touch with their body, womb and female sexuality. This training firstly leads women into a deep connection with themselves, then to make contact with each other, as empowered women, as sisters and then with the outside world. Her work is based on the shamanic idea that everything is connected with everything and the importance of our primal need to experience this connection.
In 2016 she published her book ‘The Return Of The Embodied Feminine’ in the Netherlands ‘Het Vergeten Weten’, selling copies via the internet and her work. She gives workshops and year long trainings for men and women in the Netherlands. On social media she writes regular blogs about her continuing journey. This powerful and raw book changes lives, especially those of women. By reading it, women say that something transforms deep inside their bodies. Sales are elevating, word of mouth, from person to person as the talent of Sifra’s ability to give words to what happened in her personal life emanate, heal and inspire in the lives of others and in the collective field.
Audience
The audience is mainly women. Women who are interested in spirituality and personal evolution. Women who work with women themselves, often they are coaches, bodyworkers, psychologists, yoga teachers, mindfulness teachers. Women who have the courage to learn about themselves on a very deep level, who want to live completely, as women, with their sexuality awakened and valued as pure life source. Women who understand that if they live themselves completely, it will be much easier for the people they help or are teaching to also live completely and fully. They want to involve the whole spectrum of life ‘in’ the body, they understand that it is important in this particular time of transformation, that we start to feel our bodies and stop ignoring the magnificent knowledge and wisdom of our wombs. Women who want to become wise, happy, open women as they grow older, instead of sad, closed off, regretful women trying to stay young.
Furthermore, this book is ideal for women and men that believe we are living in a time of transition, that the feminine is awakening and coming back to the earth, that it is what we need to restore balance. That it is time for new kinds of relationships, partnerships, with deeper connections, in a sacred intimate way. In fact, ancient shamanic wisdom states that the world can only change, that planet earth can only be saved, if and when women start to awaken and bring back to life the wisdom in their wombs. People with the understanding of the importance of womb wisdom, womb power, womb-fullness. People that are interested in doing personal work on all levels, learn about themselves and how they can live fully integrated in the body and connected to a greater life source. People that believe that in this time, we need to embody ourselves through connection, all of us.
I am currently looking for possibilities to give workshops in LA and other places in the US, on the understanding that my subject is popular in LA and in fact, gives even more depth to what is going on there already. I give talks and seminars from 10 minutes up until day workshops of 3 hours or more and deepening with a 7 day training week, and everything in between. It is my wish to share my work in the US, bringing my ideas and knowledge to further inspire transformation in people’s lives.
1.The power of the young woman
Teenage And Kundalini
Condylomata acuminata
Temple
Phone Sex
The Love Of Your Life
The Director, The Writer And The Soap
Aerobics
2. The Strength Of The Mother
Carrying For The First Time
The Caves
Giving Birth For The First Time
Carrying For The Second Time
Giving birth for the second time
The Bear
Your Babies
3. The Strength of the Soul
Shamanism
Your Teacher
A Glimpse Of The Wise Old Lady
More Bison
The Magic Of The Moon
The Grubby Old Lady
Sjasoo
4. The Strength Of The Ancestors
Your Parents
Your Father
Your Mother
Ancestral Field
North America
Ancestral Shrine
5. The Strength Of The Woman
Sexual Energy And Blockages
Sjasoo The Magical Sister
Inner Convictions
The Liberation Of Sjasoo
Desperation And Surrender
Megalomania And Trust
6. The Strength Of The Grandmothers
Thirteen Grandmothers
Blessing
The Gift Of The Bear
The Ashes And The Temple
7. The Power Of The Mooncircle
The First Mooncircle
The Opening Of The Circle
Prayer
How Does It Work?
Giving Birth In The Circle
Tired
Sheela Na Gig
Bringing Back The Power Of The Circle
8.The Power Of Desire
Sjasoo Is Alive
Tantra
Do Not Pick Up The Child
You And Your Husband
The Guy From The Gym
The Invitation
Your Husband’s Desire
The Confession
9. The Power Of Sexuality
Welcoming Everything
Celebrating Life And Love
Sex Parties
Sacrifice
Your Children
Good Girls
Yoni Eggs
Sex Academy
Healing Tao
The Romantic Dream With The Guy From The Gym
Real Surrender
10. The Power Of Spirals
Sun
Merkaba
Addiction
Therapy
Daddy
Trusting Women
11. The Power Of Welcoming
The Long Dark Road
The Belly Of The Beast
The Castigated Men
Coming Home
The Clear Felling
Silence
Choice
12. The Power Of The Moonsisters
The House In Drenthe
Dying Dry
Passing On Live
Rebirthing
Life
13. Coming Home In the Circle
Competition
David Deida: ‘Dear Lover’ A Women’s Guide To Men, Sex And Love’s Deepest Bliss. First edition by Sounds True, 2005. The way David Deida writes to his lover is the way I want to be that lover. The woman that knows how to surrender and sink deep into her feminine power. So here, in my book, the woman is speaking. It was his book that gave me the idea to write in the second person, even when it is about me.
E.L.James (Erika Leonard): ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ 2011 published first by The Writer’s Coffee Shop and later Vintage Books. The main character, a woman, hypnotised by this man that makes her feel a whole, sexual being. My book goes further, investigating what lays behind this desire, this wounded sexuality? What does this woman need for herself to feel sexual and complete? That is what my book is about.
Marilyn French: ‘The Women’s Room’ 1977 sumit books. She was the woman that wrote very openly and confrontingly about women that stand up, and how they managed to do the same things as men. 50 years later, I write very openly and confrontingly about women, that are searching how to be a ‘real women’ in their full feminine power, and discover what this is and means.
Vladimir Megre: ‘The Ringing Cedars Of Russia Anastasia’ Published 1994: by Ringing Cedars Press. Anastasia is the wild woman, living in nature, not needing anything, she knows how to live in connection with everything around her. I am the wild woman, living in the city, looking for this connection, finding it, in making love, giving birth, discovering nature, sitting in women’s circles, learning about trance travelling and feeling into my body.
Gary R Renard: ’The Disappearance Of The Universe’ Published 1992 by Hay House. The way he brings a new reality into this reality; how he is in contact with guides from other dimensions. This is the way the woman in my book travels from one reality to another and, by doing so, helps readers to change their everyday life, offering an alternative perspective and understanding of how they can create their own reality.
Anaiya-and Padma Aon Prakasha: ‘Womb Wisdom’ Awakening The Creative And Forgotten Powers Of The Feminine. 2011 Published by Simon & Schuster. They write in theory and of experience about the power of the feminine. I further this theory and experience by writing about how to deal with the awakening power of the feminine in my daily life, in the city.
Recensies
Afdalen in seks en via die weg bij de bron komen
Je boek doet bij mij iets heel onverwachts. Het opent mij – niet voor de weg van tantra, seksualiteit – maar voor mijn eigen weg. Je onverzettelijke, onverbiddelijke, niets ontziende houding om jouw waarheid te vinden, te leven, te belichamen maakt mij helemaal wakker om juist dat te doen: mijn eigen waarheid te ontdekken, omarmen, leven en belichamen. Jouw weg is niet de mijne, los van het feit dat jij een vrouw bent en ik een man. Maar wat je mij met dit boek schenkt is een volledige overgave aan de weg om jezelf helemaal te zien en te zijn. Ik maak een diepe buiging voor de stroom die leven heet, die jij door je heen laat gaan, en alles, alles wat dat in de weg staat laat smelten.
De weg die je beschrijft is voor mij op het ene niveau onbegrijpelijk en onnavolgbaar en op het diepere niveau van- Zelf- sprekend. Het verslag van je reis is monomaan, er bestaat niets anders. Na de eerste twintig bladzijden dacht ik – de Stam van de Holenbeer – je bent niet hier in de 21ste eeuw, je bent totaal ergens anders. Niets over de wereld buiten je, geen vrouwenbeweging, geen maatschappelijke context. Oké, pratende hoofden, ja die taal snap ik, maar verder lijkt de wereld voor jou -en je ex-man- niet te bestaan. Voor mij onbegrijpelijk in een tijd waarin het persoonlijke juist tot politiek werd verheven. Ik las zelf in die tijd met rooie oortjes ‘De schaamte voorbij’ van Anja Meulenbelt. Jeanette was actief in de vrouwenbeweging, ikzelf stortte mij in de mannenbeweging. Niets van dit alles lijkt je pad te hebben gekruist. Op het diepere niveau is er herkenning. En ja, nooit gedacht dat dat ook zou kunnen: afdalen in je lichaam, afdalen in seks, en uiteindelijk via die weg bij de bron komen. Mijn vader zou zeggen: Gods wegen zijn ondoorgrondelijk.
Jouw weg staat centraal in dit boek. Toch krijg ik als mannelijke lezer zo hier en daar een inkijkje in het leven van je ex-man. Schrijnend om de seksverslaving van een mannenbroeder zo vierkant geëtaleerd te krijgen. Ja, zo gaat het met veel van ons mannen, ja zo gaat het met mij, met mijn zonen. De duistere krochten en krachten van seks, waar we zo gemakkelijk in verstrikt kunnen raken. Naar om te lezen, maar o zo waar. Er is inderdaad nog veel werk aan de winkel.
Wim
Mijn eigen verhaal
Wauw Sifra,
Pas op bladzijde 73 van je boek, maar ik heb het gevoel dat ik m’n eigen verhaal aan het lezen ben. Een paar weken geleden tipte T. Beekmans van de Vrouwenkrachtacademie (waar ik onlangs mee ben gestart) mij jouw boek na een verhaal dat ik haar vertelde over een aantal ervaringen die ik het afgelopen jaar meemaakte. Dus. En nu ga ik snel verder lezen. 🙂
Lieve groet,
Anouk
Wat een herkenning
Lieve Sifra, gisteren je prachtige boek uitgelezen… wat een herkenning moet dit zijn voor veel vrouwen… ook ik herken er mijn zoektocht in, van sjamanisme naar tantra en tao en wellicht nog verder, het steeds meer bevrijden van de godin…
Heel dikke kus,
Jeannette
Zo’n: Dit is het gevoel
Lieve Sifra, Ik heb de afgelopen week je boek gelezen. Ik kon niet meer stoppen met lezen en heb zó veel gehuild; de tranen bleven maar komen. Waarom precies, wist ik niet, maar ik werd diep geraakt door je verhaal en iets heel diep in mij ‘herkende’ zaken/ gevoelens. Wat een heerlijkheid! Je schrijft fantastisch en ik werd er zo gelukkig van. Zo’n ‘dit is het-gevoel’.
Lieve groeten,
Anneke
Het is tijd, ik voel het
Mooie vrouw,
Dankbaar ben ik je voor het schrijven van je boek. Voor je openheid. Hoe je jouw verhaal vertelde als was het het verhaal van ons allemaal. In oprecht zoeken en aanwezig blijvend. Pijnlijk kwetsbaar en zo inspirerend. Ik dank je diep. Het is tijd. Ik voel het.
Liefdevolle groet,
Inge