The Revelation Project - Episodes Tagged with “Liberation”

Episode 177: Bergen Hyde - Losing My Religion: Finding Salvation In The Sacred, Messy, Truth, Of My One Precious Life

Monica Rodgers | Revelation Media LLC — Wed, 16 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0400

This episode features my dear friend and returning guest, Bergen Hyde and her personal story of divesting from patriarchal religion.

This is a topic I feel is very important because I believe many patriarchal religions are the underpinnings of the trance of unworthiness, keeping many women in positions of servitude and oppression through biblical misinterpretations, scripture and sanctioned abuse.

Bergen generously and courageously shares what it’s been like to untangle from her Mormon faith tradition including the heartache and courage as she unpacks years of repression, and even her own complicity in her own indoctrination.

We explore various aspects of Mormonism and the practices that were most troubling for her including ideologies, rituals, gender roles, body shame, and the perpetuation of patriarchal norms.

We also discuss the intersectionality of patriarchy with racism, fat phobia, homophobia, and transphobia, emphasizing the need to confront internalized oppression and dismantle oppressive systems.

We also delve into topics such as feeling spiritually homeless and named the episode "Losing My Religion” after the song by REM, as Bergen reckons with the truth as she highlights the importance of changing transforming her personal narrative to one of empowerment and sovereignty after years of feeling angry and victimized.

This is a longer episode than usual because it’s such an important topic that requires more space for reflection- I hope you love it as much as I do.

Here’s more of what we cover:

What it means to divest from patriarchy The Damsel in Distress and other patriarchal archetypes/ stereotypes of religious women including piety, goodness, and obedience.
How we can develop self-trust, self-love, and how we can redesign a life on our own terms outside of patriarchal religions.
The process of reclaiming our identity, and facing fears about hurting loved ones as we disengage.
Having the courage to challenge harmful patriarchal systems in general.
The crucial role of personal storytelling in our lives and reclaiming authorship of our lives.
The power of sisterhood and the importance of witnessing each other.
The tricky terrains of patriarchal structures and responsibility,
The bitter truth about our complicity in patriarchal systems, and how to break the cycles of harm.
Recognizing and taking accountability for our role is the first step towards effecting meaningful change.

and so much more!

Bergen Hyde lives in Provo, Utah with her partner and three children. Her favorite things are dancing, salty snacks, spending time in the mountains, and preferably in a body of water.

She is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of WOMB, which she founded with her two sisters Jentri and Sarah. The three sisters hold women’s circles, workshops, retreats, and one-on-one mentoring designed to support women in healing internalized patriarchy, integrating the sacred feminine, and reclaiming personal sovereignty.

Bergen has been devoted to the sacred feminine and regularly co-partners with Sarah Durham Wilson to facilitate group mentorship through the Wounded Maiden to Mature Feminine Rites of Passage Program.

Special Guest: Bergen Hyde.

Episode 144: SUMMER SERIES: Amy McPhie Allebest - Breaking Down Patriarchy

Monica Rodgers | Revelation Media LLC — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 00:00:00 -0400

In 2016, Amy Mcphie Allebest published her piece "Dear Mormon Man,” which went viral during the #metoo movement, helping crack the foundation of deeply rooted inequalities within her church and worldwide.

The feminist awakening started long ago, yet part of the issue we face in making progress as daughters of the patriarchy is that our vast repository of herstory isn’t shared widely, taught, or easily accessible. Still, Amy McPhie Allebest is changing all that with her podcast Breaking Down Patriarchy, An Essential Texts Bookclub, which I believe is one of the most important podcasts of our time.

Amy has always been drawn to asking the deeper questions that revealed the oppressive social systems at play in her university studies. Her questions always led her to more questions that piqued her interest in how these systems impacted women over time.

Amy is no stranger to agitation and frustration about oppressive systems in her own life. When she found that she could not find a comprehensive women’s studies program, she decided to create one that would help her to illuminate her own struggle. So began an essential texts book club podcast where Amy invites her listeners and readers to tune in each week as she and one of her guests break down the patriarchy. Their conversations are about seminal feminist texts written over the ages that chronicle a deep, rich, and rewarding herstory highlighting the many remarkable ideas, observations, and work of female pioneers who are the foremothers of a most incredible movement to liberate, amplify, and celebrate the independent, sovereign and essential roles of women as co-equal partners in a world that has always sought to oppress and control them.

This podcast is a project for the whole human family, and I urge all of us to tune in and become active listeners to this body of work that Amy has worked so hard to make available.

It’s filled with incredible history, conversations, insights, and poignant and powerful revelations that offer alternative ways of imagining what might be possible if we were to succeed in joining hands with the men we love to build a more equitable system that benefits and liberates everyone from the oppressive and unjust systems that have dominated the world for the past 5,000 years.

It’s just as important for men to listen in and participate in breaking down patriarchy because ultimately, men are still in power, and patriarchy harms everyone.
It’s also deeply important because we love the men in our lives, and Patriarchy hurts the men we love as well as hurts women.
We don’t actually know the true nature of women because she has always been subjugated.
All human beings have both masculine and feminine energies, and all human beings benefit from cultivating both.
Men are taught to be good men by being defenders of women, and while there is a lot of beauty in that, it can also be very condescending and limiting for the women in their lives.

Listen in as we talk about her podcast responses from both women and men across the country, how Amy sees her role as she continues to steward this project, as well as what her vision for the future entails.

Episode 94: Amy McPhie Allebest - Breaking Down Patriarchy

Monica Rodgers | Revelation Media LLC — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 00:15:00 -0400

This podcast is a project for the whole human family, and I urge all of us to tune in and become active listeners to this body of work that Amy has worked so hard to make available.

It’s just as important for men to listen in and participate in breaking down patriarchy because ultimately, men are still in power, and patriarchy harms everyone.
It’s also deeply important because we love the men in our lives, and Patriarchy hurts the men we love as well as hurts women.
We don’t actually know the true nature of women because she has always been subjugated.
All human beings have both masculine and feminine energies, and all human beings benefit from cultivating both.
Men are taught to be good men by being defenders of women, and while there is a lot of beauty in that, it can also be very condescending and limiting for the women in their lives.

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Episode 91: Kristen Lynch - Goddess Talk

Monica Rodgers | Revelation Media LLC — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 01:00:00 -0400

Kristen is a soul mentor, intuitive business & conscious leadership guide, and the founder of Goddess Brand Co. & Goddess Talk Podcast. She helps feminine beings awaken to theirdivine nature so they can experience deep soul alignment and live a life that turns them on - on every level.

Her secondary mission is to assist New Earth visionaries, healers, creatives, teachers, & lightworkers in activating their gifts, power, & mission so they can build sacred businesses that contribute to collective healing & ascension.

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Episode 89: Sophie Strand - Catching Feathers & Ecological Embodiment

Monica Rodgers | Revelation Media LLC — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 00:00:00 -0400

*There are no accidents. *

As we awaken to our true work in the world, synchronicity becomes more frequent and intensely delightful.

Synchronicity is how we know that we are exactly where we need to be and that we are “right on time” with the divine.

It so happens that this idea of being “on time” is exactly the topic Sophie Strand writes about. Her piece, Catching The Feather, stopped me mid-Facebook scroll and took my breath away. Something in my body resonated at a cellular level, and I realized that she was speaking to a truth my body remembered.

I’ve been on a quest these past few months to reacquaint myself with my inner wild. That free and innate part of myself that has been tamed and contained, that forgot how to listen to the natural rhythm of life and needs to pick up the drum beat and dance. To allow myself to howl in my loneliness and smell my way to my knowing and dare to open to my ancient wisdom and memory. The wild part of me that remembers who I was before I was domesticated and separated from my true mother, mother earth, and the sensorial ecstasy of being alive outside the confines of the patriarchy.

Whenever I put my life and my intentions inside of my personal “Revelation Project,” I am always guided to the next human or experience, or tree, river, feather (ahem) I need to meet on my remarkable journey. My job is simply to trust that more will be revealed, and you know what?

More always is.

I’m honored to introduce you to Sophie Strand.

Sophie has much to teach us about returning to our senses and trusting our original design. As deeply interconnected beings, we are always at choice to feel into the intelligence that surrounds us and is within us. She invites us to speak to the trees, listen deeply to what the rivers have to say, and embody the community of mycelium to know more about truth, healing, and reciprocity. To decenter ourselves is to return to the wonder of nature and to discover where true love lives.

Thank you, Sophie, for your incredible work in the world! You are a revelation!

Listen in to our conversation to hear more about:

During the pandemic, when time and structure began to melt and we had to restructure our lives, Sophie began catching feathers while on her walks. She believes they held messages.
Our linear minds have a way of thinking about ourselves and the world that surrounds us. For many of us, the concept of “time” can be reimagined and reinterpreted as it’s changed.
Life is always giving us messages and symbols and numbers. Specific animals also often hold medicine and messages for us if we are willing to be curious and open to those.
What if we were to re-wild our understanding of the divine and even Mary Magdalene and Jesus? How would that change our understanding or our relationship to what they symbolized and the message of love they wanted to plant within us?
Revisiting myths before the patriarchy co-opted them is also a fertile place to revisit ideas of masculine and feminine.
The Greek word pharmacon can mean medicine or poison. It means “powerful substance.” Myths are like that - they can be medicine or poison.
Patriarchy has been conflated with masculine, and masculine has been conflated with patriarchy.
We need to re-wild myths with ecology because they are rooted there.

Sophie Strand is a writer based in the Hudson Valley who focuses on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and ecology. Her books of poetry include Love Song to a Blue God (Oread Press) and Those Other Flowers to Come (Dancing Girl Press) and The Approach (The Swan). She has recently finished a work of historical fiction that offers an eco-feminist revision of the gospels. Her book of essays, The Flowering Wand: Lunar Kings, Lichenized Lovers, Transspecies Magicians, and Rhizomatic Harpists Heal the Masculine, is forthcoming from Inner Traditions' imprint Sacred Planet. Follow her on Facebook or Instagram @cosmogyny.

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