We are witnessing a global awakening.
And awakenings are messy business. They produce outrage, unrest, struggle, and conflict.
In fact, an awakening can look and feel like a sh*tstorm with no end.
It can leave us powerless, isolated, and empt, which has huge consequences. OR it can force us to find new heroines, new sources of inspiration, and new definitions of success, when the presiding options fail us.
Today, I want to look at the women who used the choppiest waters as a launching pad to access their inner legend.
Because when sh%t gets real, it’s time to be legendary.
I’m referring, of course, to the Courtesans. A league of women who – during a time of almost unimaginable repression – refused to fall victim to self-doubt and disempowerment.
They chose to connect with their turn-on, despite massive cultural resistance, and use it as an opportunity to rise above repression, rather than succumb to it.
The Courtesans – historic holders of the sensual – represent the key to restoring our bodies, our minds, our souls, and the world.
And yet, sensuality is what most of us have been taught to ignore, deny, disconnect from, and fear…to our own (and the world’s) detriment.
We fear our sexuality more than we fear our own compromise.
We disconnect from our sensual radiance in order to be ‘liked’ and ‘accepted’ by a culture that loves a powerless woman.
Why?
Because powerless women do not fight back. Powerless women do not stand for themselves or others. Powerless women spend money on endless shit they don’t actually need in an attempt to feel better, which never works because we can never love ourselves if we do not love our sex.
But the truth, precious sister, is that sensuality is our birthright. Our native language. Our highest gift. Our edge. Our power source. Our future.
It is what made the Courtesans not only possible, but absolutely unstoppable.
So, allow me to introduce you to a few of these extraordinary women – some ancestress Aunties of yours – whose stories will no doubt fill you with desire and show you a different way forward.
Meet Auntie Josephine Baker, born in poverty in St. Louis Missouri. Dance saved her life and padded the way to her dreams. (BTW, dance is a key ingredient to sanity and sensual aliveness for every woman.)
She moved to Paris to perform as a dancer and escape the relentless racism in the US. But Auntie Josephine did more than just dance in a banana skirt at the Folies Bergere. She fought for racial equality by demanding that her contract contain a nondiscrimination clause and that her audiences become integrated.
She also was in the French Resistance movement for 7 years, fighting Hitler, while raising 12 adopted children. Among Josephine’s most notable quotes is the line: “I wasn’t really naked, I simply didn’t have any clothes on.” Which perfectly captures her cheeky and defiant spirit. (Try it next time you are caught skinny dipping – I dare you!)
Next on my list, Veronica Franco – the deepest heart of my heart. She came for me in the film ‘Dangerous Beauty’ and inspired me to start The School of Womanly Arts.
(Courtesans will do that, you know. They live to inspire your desires.)
Auntie Veronica dared to raise her voice when women were supposed to be silent. She succeeded in pursuing an intellectual and public life when women were shut within the domestic sphere. She wrote extraordinary poetry, and openly celebrated female sexuality when chastity was one of the highest virtues women could attain.
Another Courtesan with whom I have an affectionate relationship is Auntie Paiva. She was Russian, like my own grandma. Paiva, formerly known as Esther Lachmann, was an outrageously ambitious woman. She was not known for her looks, but what she lacked in attraction, she made up for with boatloads of charisma.
At the tender age of 18, she left her impoverished family and moved to Europe, where – through massive ups and impossible downs – she managed to seduce a 22-year-old Prussian mining magnate, Count Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck.
It was a love match. He built her the most ostentatious palace on the Champs-Élysées – in the very spot where she had been arrested for prostitution years earlier. Her palace was adorned with sumptuous and elaborate details, including an onyx and silver bathtub with a tap for champagne and another for donkey milk.
The palace is now a Gentleman’s Club – no women allowed. But, the last time I was in Paris, I had the audacity to ask if I could rent it out for a Courtesan party, and seduced the owners into saying ‘Oui’! I got to fulfill a lifelong dream of sneaking into that onyx bathtub and drinking champagne, amongst other madcap adventures.
This is just a short list of the women who have shaped my life and given me the courage to live more boldly.
Can you taste the freedom in the air when Courtesan’s are present? Do you feel even more connected to the power of your desire?
If you like this taste, and want to go even deeper, join me in the my 3 Day Courtesan Challenge next week – where we’ll follow in the footsteps of our ancestresses and become the heroines we most long to see.
On August 13, 14, and 15, I’m opening a portal to the past that will redefine and revolutionize your future.
Together, we’re going to connect with the same erotic power and innate genius that set our Courtesan Aunties free – the very seat of creation, recreation, and life force we have been taught to ignore.
Make history with me next week and join the awakening right here.
With so much love and pleasure,
Regena