In the process, I felt myself becoming transparent to some kind of Big Secret, as if I were replicating in a small but significant way how the universe takes shape. The whole experience was poem-worthy; you can find the poem (including sewing instructions) here.

So what’s a torus (plural: tori; adjective: toroidal) and where does it live? As Foster Gamble says, a torus is an “energy vortex that you can see everywhere … in atoms, cells, seeds, flowers, trees, animals, humans, hurricanes, planets, suns, galaxies and even the cosmos as a whole.”

Apparently, the torus shapes the flow of energy and the form of matter in every nook and cranny of the universe. Toroidal forms include:

My neck gaiter is a ring torus. The human body may well be described as a spindle torus. Seen in two dimensions as in the image below, we find the body’s center, the hara, in the center of the vesica — the shape defined by the intersection of the circles. “The hara is the energetic centre of body according to Eastern tradition”:

The hara-charging Honoring Your Belly practice includes 23 power-centering movement and breathing exercises. The next-to-last gesture, the 22nd move in the sequence, is Heaven and Earth. With our arms upraised at an angle and legs in a wide stance, we indicate the shape of a torus; our belly’s center is the origin.

Wendy Howard’s article Does It Matter? on matter and gravity in relation to the torus is deep, complex, and illuminating. The article offers an animated illustration of toroidal energy flow as well as a hint on how we manifest our intentions. Here’s an excerpt:

All matter exists in a sea of consciousness which organises itself in multi-dimensional nested toroidal flow patterns around seed ‘ideas’ out of which matter ultimately precipitates, anchoring the ‘idea’, and giving form and expression to the conscious imperative in all its myriad expressions. This creates a universe of infinitely nested looping energy processes from the galactic level to the subatomic within an overall hologram maintained by the consciousness of the universe in its entirety, and which is toroidal in its topology.

As mathematician and cosmologist Arthur Young has said, “The self in a toroidal Universe can be both separate and connected with everything else.”

All I can say is: Enjoy your nest!

Lisa’s now a certified life coach/intuitive eating counselor working with women who struggle with their relationship to food. The healing that begins with food and nourishment often, and in time, leads to resolving body image issues as well.

What’s unique: Lisa comes to coaching after two decades in fashion advertising, styling photo shoots to show off gorgeous models in spectacular locations.

So: Lisa B has the inside scoop. Having been a tip-top creative director, she knows exactly what we’re looking at when we look at an ad and find ourselves wanting.

In a recent conversation, Lisa chuckled at the idea that the media might be taking away our power. On the contrary, she sees women giving our power away every time we compare ourselves to an image and judge ourselves unfavorably. As we return our focus to ourselves — what we truly desire, what truly gives us pleasure — we become more and more self-validating. Then media images become irrelevant: “white noise.”

Directing anger toward fashion advertising, the demon “out there,” is certainly one place to start, she says. Ultimately, though, we need to harness that energy to reclaim the truth, strength, and wholeness already within us and create a luscious life.

Here’s to luscious!

Do you ever notice that someone’s missing as we put on the big birthday party for baby Jesus?

Maybe you’ve seen one of those mobile slogan signs outside a church, urging you to “put the Christ back in Christmas.” Sure, the season’s all about sales; we’re overloaded with ads, trips to the mall and credit card charges.

Still, there’s a key figure in this Yuletide season who’s largely overlooked.

Mary. God’s baby-mama.

The woman who took it on faith from the angel Gabriel that she and her big belly would give birth to a savior. As in Luke, 1:28-38—

And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God.

And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.

And Mary said…be it unto me according to thy word.

Right.

What if Mary had dismissed that angel as a crazy daydream? “I’ve just got to stop hearing those voices.”

What if she stood in front of the mirror for the next nine months and pouted? “Look at my belly! I’m getting so fat. No matter how hard I work out, no matter how much I diet, I just can’t get rid of this belly.”

What if she laced up her shapewear all the more tightly? What if she got busy scraping up the money for a tummy tuck?

What if, on Christmas eve, she finally accepted the fact that she was pregnant with God—and balked? “Oh, no. Sorry, I’m not ready yet. Some other time.”

Now here’s the question that interests me. What if we—women and men; with and without children; wanting and never wanting offspring—know ourselves to be Mary?

Mary gave birth, yes, to Jesus. Jesus Christ. More to the point, she gave birth to Christ consciousness. What’s that? The evolutionary impulse to expand our human capacity for compassion, wisdom, love. The ability to expand our embrace to include more and more in our experience of union. In other words, world-saving grace.

Christ consciousness grew in Mary’s belly. Mary gave birth to Christ consciousness from her womb.

Just so, within each of us—within our bellies, within our body’s center—dwells a concentration of life force, vital energy. This pro-creative power not only brings children into the world. Directed by intention and love, this life-affirming power promotes creation in any dimension we choose.

Women and men around the world have learned to cultivate this power through movement and breath as structured by healing rites, spiritual practices, traditions of dance.

The knowing encoded in these rites, practices, and traditions has not expired. It remains with us in our bellies, our blood and our bones. It’s available to us now as a thread connecting humanity through time. It’s the technology, so to speak, that allows you to formulate and manifest the world-saving grace that only you can birth.

Like Mary, we each are pregnant with God. These bellies of  ours? No matter the size or shape, they’re sacred.

Listen. Mary Christmas! An angel is trying to tell us something.

How are we going to respond?

Photo credit: Pinterest

The stars seem to be aligning for belly-love! Earlier this month I discovered the Real Girl Belly Project over at xojane. A comment there led me to Hannah Siegle and her post on the cultural epidemic of belly-fear.

Her follow-up includes the sentence

The belly is the powerhouse of our soul.

Ahhh!

Now Hannah is launching the Real Body Project, with a first focus on the body’s center. You bet I’m on board to support this venture however I can.

Here’s the vision: a gallery of photos showing real bellies. But not just bellies. There’s a bonus.

Hannah wants photos of hands resting on bare bellies, fingers forming the outline of a heart. “Average, skinny, plus sized, man or woman, please join me in this endeavor,” she writes.

I ask:

• Will this project help us accept how our bellies look on the outside?
• Will it help us discover and develop the amazing force for vitality, intuition, and confidence dwelling within our body’s center?

I say: Let’s join forces and find out!

When your hands outline a heart upon your belly, the fingers resting below your belly button mark what the Chinese call the tan tien. This point in the body’s interior, just in front of your spine, is The Gate of the Mysterious Female.

This point, this belly center, gives you access to the enormous pro-creative power—the power to promote creation—concentrated within your belly. (More on this, of course, in The Woman’s Belly Book: Finding Your True Center for More Energy, Confidence, and Pleasure.)

If you’re ready to be part of this real body/real belly project, send Hannah your heart-on-belly photo. If you wish, send along your story, too—some words about your relationship with your belly. Email the goods to hannah.siegle(at)gmail.com

Now where’s my camera?

The pics are displayed in two installments: Gallery 1 and Gallery 2. The discussion starts, of course, with external appearance. I hope it gets to the key questions:

• How do we cultivate the power to promote creation that’s concentrated within our bellies?
• How do we direct this body-centered power to healing ourselves, our communities, our world?

I’m hearing strains of Taj Mahal’s rendition of Willie Dixon’s song “Built for Comfort,” with lyrics (also found on page 175 of The Woman’s Belly Book) adjusted appropriately:

Don’t try to make my belly thin!
Don’t try to make my belly flat!
You better believe my belly’s beautiful,
Don’t you ever call me fat.
Because I’m built for creation,
I ain’t built for speed.
You know my belly’s got
Everything
This woman needs.

My poster design won last year’s contest in the open/non-student category. I was so honored!

I sent in three designs to this year’s contest — click on the thumbnails to see larger versions.

As you see, I explore the theme: ”Not A Slave To Fashion.”

In each design, the woman’s figure is silhouetted in black. This woman is of any and every race, age, and ethnicity.

Still, the figure refers to the enslavement of Africans and African-Americans in 18th- and 19th- century America.

In those times, the production-based economy depended upon manual labor; slavery appropriated the body’s muscle-power as a means of production.

Our economy now depends less upon production and more upon consumption. Defining women’s bodies as defective, corporate marketing generates dissatisfaction with the body’s appearance and appropriates this discontent as a motive for consumer spending.

The shift from a producer-based to a consumer-based economy has made slavery less overt, more subtle, even seductive. It’s slavery all the same, an attempt to steal individuals’ autonomy and sense of self-worth while making their health and well-being secondary to someone else’s profit.

What would we be doing with our resources if we were no longer slaves to fashion? If we were no longer pre-occupied with fixing our “defective” bodies? If women truly occupied our bodies with full and compassionate presence, how might we use our time, attention, energy, and money to heal ourselves, our communities, our world?

Last night I met with participants in Initiation 2012: Awakening Your Sacred Center by teleseminar. The four-week course has been taking place through Susun Weed’s Wise Woman University.

The 75 minutes we spent with each other was lovely — inspiring, insightful, supportive, exciting.

Among other adventures, we viewed how people in both ancient and modern cultures have honored the pro-creative power — the power to promote creation — centered within women’s bellies.

One image we discussed, shown at right, is the Goddess of Laussel, an 18-inch bas-relief  that dates approximately to 25,000 BCE. The figure, carved into a large block fallen from the upper margin of a limestone rock shelter, was discovered in 1911 in southwestern France.

Last night, the women I talked with made clear that not all women — perhaps not most women — are ready to reclaim our bellies as our body’s sacred center. Still, the women who are ready do appreciate good company through the process and a forum in which to share their experiences.

I come back to the knowing that reclaiming our bellies, our bodies, and ourselves is the real revolution, the real evolution of awareness that we need personally and globally.

Occupy Wall Street, good. Occupy our bodies, all the better.