We Are All Women of Distinction – Teressena Bakens

by Teressena Bakens
images by Martien Bakens (Belight.Photography) & Jaydynblair Photography

I am a creatrix.

I draw, I paint, I exhibit professionally.

But what I am creating is not the product… it is not the painting or the weaving itself, although they are an outcome. What I’m really creating is beauty, creating myself, my life, the world around me.

I am a weaver. On a 3-D level, I create blankets, rugs, shawls, altar cloths. There is a continuity that weavers throughout time and all civilizations had of weaving the dreams of the people into being. In the cosmovision it is the Celestial Grandmothers who weave our dreams and destinies among the stars. As a Grandmother, I weave with such intention, weaving dreams in the fabric, creating an energetic weave that contains the vibration of the intention. I create harmony, peace, balance, serenity.

True wisdom comes from a deep inner knowing. It is prompted by our intuition, guided by our soul and remembered by our bones.

Teressena Bakens

I am a medicine woman. I have had the opportunity to be with and learn from Native American, Mayan and Peruvian shaman and medicine people. As a wisdom keeper I create ceremony. Sometimes we create ceremonies to mark rites of passage, initiations, transitions. But this is not the only way. Life is ceremony, honoring the sacred moments of your life every day. It is a way of being. In ceremony, we weave together the energies of the Earth and the Sky into our own Heart, to dream anew world into being.

A Woman of Distinction is uniquely herself, aware of her own energy signature. She expresses her gifts in her own unique way.

No one can do what she does… Only she can. And yet a Woman of Distinction knows that she is part of some-thing much larger than herself. She understands that she is simultaneously significant and insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

Two hundred years from now, no one may remember who she was. Her deeds may go unremembered.

Creativity is the inward journey of the soul and the outward expression of the sacred. It allows us to merge our human and divine selves, adding our light and color to the universal dream; weaving threads of beauty in the cosmic web of life.

Teressena Bakens

However, what she has contributed in her peacefulness, her love, her compassion will have made a tremendous difference in the collective evolution of human consciousness going forward.

A Woman of Distinction understands the difference between an ego-driven life and a path of the sacred. This is her service, her joy and honor to fulfill. When we move from an ego-centric perception to a grander vision, we realize we are so much more than the roles we play. We begin to see things multi-dimensionally. We realize there is a soul and energetic component to all we do and all we are.

Take me for example: I have four children and am now a Grandmother of six.

• On a familial level, I am a Grandmother.
  • On an ancestral level, I join the matriarchal lineage of the women in my family history.
    • On a planetary level, I am part of the lineage of Grandmothers throughout time.
      • On a cosmic level I am one with the Celestial Grandmothers, the guardians of all children, guardian of the children, of all the children’s children’s children.
        • On an etheric level, I am the archetype of the Grandmother. That aspect of the sacred feminine that resides outside of time and space in the Infinite.

Layers upon layers, interconnected, interwoven, multi-dimensional waves of Grandmother that ripple out from me every time I read my granddaughter a story, or play at the park with my grandson. We are so much more than we realize.

Many years ago I was searching for my “purpose”. I re-member asking in meditation “What are my gifts?” The answer came clearly as if someone spoke it aloud in the room. “You create.” At the time I thought it referred to art, drawing, painting, weaving. What I’ve come to understand is that we are all creating every single moment. Whether we are aware of it or not is another story. A Woman of Distinction creates with conscious intent. She is aware of the power that resides in her, the power to create not only her dreams, but the universal dream unfolding in the grand shift of the ages. She adds life and beauty to the world and is an inspiration for others to do the same.

How do I do this? How does anyone do this? By tapping into the essence of the universal creational forces that exist all around us and IN us. We can connect with the five elements. Fire is our passion, our creativity, our kundalini energy that ignites the spark of the divine within and arises to full flame. Air, the wind the gift and breath of life that fuels the fire. Water, the life blood from which we birth our dreams. Earth, the rich fertile soil that brings things into form, that we feel in our bones. Ether, pure energy, consciousness that infuses all with light and love. These are the creative forces of nature that course through us. And remember, the Earth is also a celestial body, part of a galactic procession through the expanses of the Cosmos, that pulse with the potential to create new stars and galaxies. THIS is what I attune to when I create.

People often use the expression to be “in your strength and your power.” I suggest be in the strength and the power. I create from connecting with the energy of all creation; the abundant, fruitful beauty and bounty of the Earth and infinite expanses of the cosmos. I create from attuning to that which organizes all of creation, the spiritual laws of the universe that create harmony in the music of the spheres. Infinite love and light, attuning to the in-and-out breath that pulses through the movement of the cosmos—from that I create.

A Woman of Distinction knows that everything we do and everything we are affects not only individual lives but eons of time and consciousness. She recognizes she has the power not only to ignite change in her own life, but has the ability to influence the trajectory going forward. She is an Ancestor of Tomorrow and leaves a legacy that is not personal, but collective.

So for all of us, it begs the questions… What do you choose to create, contribute, conspire for humanity and Mother Earth? What are the gifts you have to share? The wisdom that asks to be spoken? The beauty that seeks expression? What service are you called to offer for healing and wholeness on a personal and planetary level?

Perhaps more than what you contribute on a physical level….what is the energy signature vibrating in the field around you? There is a trendy expression about “stepping in more fully”. I feel this is a misperception. Stepping in implies you can step out. When you embrace, embody who you are, it is your true essence. It is a way of Being and that is where you reside; how you source yourself; how you see yourself; how you walk in the world.

It is important to be grounded. As a young child, I grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. I always felt connected to the Earth. Nature is such an incredible teacher, healer and source of inspiration that we are not separate from, but a part of. From the mountains and seas, to the stars and planets. There is a deep inner knowing of the sacred that cannot be explained, yet is felt in every fiber of my being. This is where I am grounded. In the Sacred. In Great Mystery, that is Me.

There are many ways I am of service. But whether I am teaching a class, leading a ceremony, facilitating a retreat, doing a reading or healing session, creating a weaving or painting, or writing a book… these are only the venues. It is the radiant light and energy from the Heart of the Earth and the Heart of the Sky, that resides in my Heart of Hearts that is the gift that is shared. This is what radiates from me. This is what people connect with. The essence of peace, love and harmony… that is the gift that is given.

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Return of the Ancestors

Welcome Ancestors
wisdom keepers of the ages
whose voices whisper
in the desert wind
whose songs surround me
in the landscape of waking dreams.

Welcome Ancestors
grandmothers and grandfathers
whose stories are told
in cavernous volumes of limestone pages
whose walls of wordless wisdom
speak a primal language of tribal truth

Welcome Ancestors
forgotten artists of stones
whose strokes of crimson and ochre
live and dance still at the fire of my heart
whose visions are painted in peculiar petroglyphs
on canyon canvases stretched over time.

Welcome Ancestors
those who have come before
whose legacy lingers in libraries of stone
whose spirits emerge
in new expressions
of those who are yet to come.

Teressena Bakens

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