This is the sixth in a series dedicated to the Journey of the Sacred Masculine.  If you wish to read previous posts you can go here.

Today is my mentor and life-long friend Jelelle Awen’s birthday.  Her special day inspired me to gush about her personally and publicly.  It also inspired me to talk about what a woman like Jelelle means to the journey of the sacred masculine – the making of a King.

Jelelle and I became close friends more than 25 years ago.  Our friendship became a transformative romance for me that led to a marriage and then to a child.  During those years we always had a close bond that seemed to have roots beyond this life.  Our marriage eventually completed, but the bond did not cease.  We continued to stay close and co-parent our daughter with all the love that we still shared.  Our relationship shifted to one in which she eventually became my facilitator in emotional and spiritual healing and now as a mentor in my apprenticeship.

What I wish to focus on is what happened to me, and thusly us as men, when I let in the transformative power of the Divine Feminine.  I could feel early on in our friendship that there was something different about this woman.  There was a laser-pointed sense of emotional truth that she inhabited that was different than anyone else.  She could cut to the chase faster than a part of me could run.   There was no hiding.  You could try but…good luck.  Despite some resistance, it was actually quite refreshing.  The parts of me who were holding the charade could finally give up the ghost around Jelelle.

As she began to explore her own emotional inner landscape, a newly empowered sense of feminine came over her.  Not in the masculinized “feminist” sort of way, but in a heartful and soulful sort of way.  Her connection to the faces of Mother and Divine Feminine energy laid the ground work for what is now known as SoulFullHeart.  It is the transformative and transmutational process of seeking our selves and our divinity, bringing the feminine back into a world of unbalanced masculine.

This process seems integral in reclaiming our sacred masculinity.  We have gone so far down the path of the wounded masculine that we stand to affect the greatest change this planet has ever seen by our hands alone.  We see epic environmental changes, economic instability, and a horrific nihilistic war upon ourselves.  We need to go back to a balance within ourselves and that means, as men, feeling our connection to the Divine Feminine within.  This healing work helps to open up our deep sacred roots in the Divine Masculine.  It is where we begin to claim our journey back to King.

I have had to challenge my relationship to women that I learned from both of my fathers and the collective male consciousness.  I have also had to learn to stand up for myself and shake the “good guy” syndrome that was in place in order to please mom. The authentic masculine is about holding our spine as a man along with an open, vulnerable heart.  I did not get this modeling from my past female relationships growing up.  They were all affected by the same patriarchal wounding.  But when I let in the wisdom and love of a woman who knew I was more than I was showing the world, my life began to change at the subatomic level.

I still have work to do.   I always will.  But I would never have had the opportunity to do so if it wasn’t for Jelelle’s presence in my life.  My call to all of you men who seek to actually be more of a man in a sacred way, is to find your way to the love and guidance of the Divine Feminine.  She is the Queen of Kings.  Through the spirit, and through the flesh, She will change your life forever.

Happy Birthday Jelelle.  Thank you for everything you have meant to me.

Sequoia Heartman is apprentice facilitator of the SoulFullHeart Way Of Life. Visit soulfullheartwayoflife.com for more information.