Women+ Mornings

We meet bi-monthly at Sholden Hall and all the women in the Sangha are welcome to join our morning of practice. 

This is a friendly, welcoming space where we explore different themes through meditation, talks, creativity and personal sharing. 

Our dates for 2023:

February 12th

April 16th

June 11th

August 13th

October 8th

December 10th

Sunday 16 April at Sholden Village Hall

Join us from 10am - 12:30pm:

For those of us who were at the last women’s morning - our little female figures have been fired and glazed and are ready to collect. But everyone is welcome to join us this Sunday - even if you weren’t able to make it last time - it will be lovely to be together with you.

We will start with drinks before we meditate together and talk a little together about cultivating gratitude for all that we have.

Everyone is welcome! We hope to see you there.

Highlights from our previous meeting:

Sunday 12 February at Sholden Village Hall

The theme: "The Wisdom of Accepting Ourselves”. So often there is an expectation that we should look a certain way and this can undermine our confidence and our sense of who we are.

Attendees were invited to shape their own clay figurine and share the wisdom of accepting and loving ourselves as who we are. 
The original tiny figurines were made over 26,000 years ago. There are many interpretations of why they were made but one is that they were an expression of the beauty of the older mature female form.

The following was kindly put together by Ingrid, who is a member of our Sangha.

Paleolithic Venuses

The Paleolithic Era is the ‘Old Stone Age’ which lasted from around 3 million to 30,000 years ago. Compare the birth of Christ – 2,023 years ago, or indeed the life of the Buddha, 2,500 years ago.

The Paleolithic Era, the age of the Hunter- Gatherers, ended 30,000 years ago. The people of these times wandered the wilds of Northern Europe and Eurasia and did not settle. They followed herds of wild animals. They made tools of stone. They did not build or cultivate. They have left us little statues of mature women and very little else. No men, no nubile virgins, no children.

The ’Paleolithic Venuses’, as they are unsuitably named, began to appear around 40,000 years ago.  They are typically only a few inches (< 10”) high.  Carved from stone they have protuberant, often pendulous breasts, pronounced (sometimes possibly pregnant) abdomina, and absent, or vestigial faces, hands and feet. Many appear post menopausal.  These are clearly not erotica.

Many have holes or loops and could have been worn attached, and all are smooth, as though held and passed on for generations. It seems most likely that they represented not sex symbols (Venus is a misnomer) but the valued, fecund Mother Figure. Perhaps Mother Nature, or Mother Earth, certainly Woman as a symbol of Creativity, the survival of the Race, of Life itself.

They are often found deep in underground caves, where animals and hand prints are also found painted on the walls.  The hand prints are found, by measurement of the ratio of finger to palm, to be female hands.

One very famous figurine, The Venus of Willendorf, is especially interesting. She was found in present day Austria, on the banks of the River Danube, and is estimated to be 40,000 years  old. She is carved from Oolite – a limestone never found in that area. The nearest source would be by Lake Garda, in Italy, 600 miles away.  Who brought her all that way to Austria? And why?

The figurines leave us with unanswered questions… but the one thing they do clearly demonstrate is a deep respect for Mature Womanhood throughout our continent and throughout time.

It was a highly enjoyable and productive morning.