Welcome and a very happy New Year to all our supporters, subscribers, students and visitors from Gloucestershire and beyond! Wishing you all the blessings of a brand new year with the immense hope and possibility of whatever you wish to dream and seed over the coming months of winter. We hope that your midwinter season was restful and filled with moments of tenderness, beauty and joy as well as delicious food and remembering the special moments of the last year.
Did you know the Stroud Goddess Temple project celebrated its 5th anniversary at Summer Solstice 2023? And this year at Samhain we also celebrated two years in our premises at London Road where we’ve been able to offer our community library and local makers shop in addition to a warm and nurturing space. Thanks for all your work and support along the way.
We’ve got details of our current drop in sessions below, but did you know we need £600 a month to run the physical premises, for rent and administration costs? We’re very reliant on your sponsorship and on donations from visitors - please support us as you can, share our events, and let us know if you have any fundraising ideas to keep our temple running into the future. Times are hard, but community spaces are needed more than ever. We have gift packs for regular subscribers which you can collect in person at the temple on your next visit. You can donate as little as £5 a month to help us keep open and offering nurturing sacred spaces to all.
When are we open?
We have regular drop-ins Monday - Friday from 10 am to 1 pm. These are run by our volunteer Melissas, so please do check ahead by messaging the Facebook page or goddesstemplestroud@gmail.com if you are making a special visit to Stroud, to make sure we’re actually open on the day.
We’re also slowly expanding these times to include fortnightly Wednesday evening drop-ins and monthly drop in Saturdays - this month 7-9pm 10th and 24th January, and Saturday 20th January 10-1pm we are open for drop in visitors - get in touch if you’re interested, or check our Facebook page and please like and share our posts!
We’re also proud to be part of the Stroud Warm Spaces project offering special cover on Thursdays for the second year during our drop in time 10am-1pm.
Rent our Space
At Stroud Goddess Temple, we share the space with healers, artists, community groups, so if you have something you would like to offer please contact us and use the booking form.
Hire rates are £12 per hour or £60 full day for the Main Temple for groups up to 20 (seated) or £8 an hour / £40 full day for the Quiet Room for one to ones or smaller groups.
Special events…
We’ve several events planned at the temple over the next few months
20/01/24 - Temple Open Day and MERMAID GODDESS FUNDRAISER with Drew Galdron and Bliss Magdalena
31/01/24 - Temple dressing for Imbolc,
11/02/24 - Imbolc ceremony with Faye Morgana from, 12noon, at the temple.
Join us as the year turns once more to Imbolc. The season of new beginnings as we awaken like the snowdrops after our Yule slumber. We will be going on a guided meditation to find our path and divine the threads of our lives that we wish to nurture into full bloom in the coming year and then we will weave threads mindfully into your own totem to carry or wear to help you keep your intentions in mind as the year progresses through the seasons. Don’t worry it’s a very simple craft, I promise! If I had known this method years ago there would have been no stopping my pre-teen self making millions of them! Exchange is £10 payable in advance, please email faye.morgana@hotmail.com for payment details and let me know if you wish to attend in Bristol or Stroud, or to enquire with any questions you may have. Suitable for ages 13+.
20/04/24 - Cuda and the Cuculatti workshop day with Kate Dineen - £75 It is an honour to be starting this enriching and illuminating spiral again as we embark on a new course at Stroud Goddess Temple getting to know our local Cotswolds Goddesses, their qualities and attributes, and how they resonate for us on a personal level. This is a journey of sacred feminine empowerment and nourishment. On 20th April, with colleagues from the Temple, I will be leading a Cuda study day sharing my research and experience. Talk, sharing, journeying, guided meditation in the Temple, ceremony out on the land singing to Cuda and the Cuculatti. This day is the start of the new Spiral 1, it is also a one-off study day for those who are interested in Cuda but not wanting to do the full spiral. It will be informative, spiritually enriching, nourishing and you will feel welcomed into a vibrant and heart-centred circle. Do join us! email stroud.goddess@gmail.com to sign up for this special event.
Goddess Camp 2024
We are thrilled to welcome Goddess Lovers from all over the UK to attend the third annual Gloucestershire Goddess Camp at Conygres Scout Camp, Wotton Under Edge 25th-28th July 2024.
The camp is open to people of all genders, beliefs and backgrounds to celebrate coming together and offering our gifts in devotion to the Divine Feminine in all her forms in all our lives. You can teach, receive, facilitate, participate, perform, share or sell your wares under your radical participatory action ticket.
Our current Early Bird tickets, available until Imbolc are:
£100 Single,
£150 One Adult Family
£200 Two Adult Family
You can sign up on our 2024 camp webpage: https://www.goddesstemplestroud.com/goddess-camp
Spiral 1 Cotswold PriestXess Training -
STROUD GODDESS TEMPLE WELCOMES YOU TO BECOME PRIESTXESS OF STONE, STREAM AND SKY
A comprehensive ceremonial and ritual training for those called to step up as wisdom keepers of this sacred landscape and the Cotswold Wheel of Goddess
Have you dreamed of stepping into your Priestess self?
Would you like to learn more about the local Goddesses of this region? Do you want to learn the skills of ceremony, ritual and rites of passage for self, family and community?
We are excited to be nearing the dedication for the second spiral Priestess initiates who undertook the first delivery of this training and have now been in process for two years, and happy to be welcoming some of them onto the faculty support team as Lovelies to support the new students joining this year's Spiral 1 course. If you have any additional questions about the Cotswold Priestess training and would like to book a clarity call with Bliss, please email goddesstemplestroud@gmail.com
We have many other events and offerings happening at the temple regularly including a Dark Moon Women's Circle for all ages with Linda Rodgers, and a monthly Thursday Purple Tent for women in their elder wise years. These are both inclusive for all femmes. Contact us for more details on stroud.goddess@gmail.com
Here's some lovely testimonials written in support of our recent Heritage Lottery Funding application (fingers crossed!) which were sent in by members of our community:
"I am writing in support of Stroud Goddess Temple. It is a unique community resource run on donations and with the goodwill of volunteers. The Temple provides a safe, warm space for people of all spiritual persuasions, including atheist, to find warmth, relaxation, and an illuminating library. There is space for therapists and facilitators to see clients and to run workshops.
It is an inclusive space where the local community can find out more about the sacred feminine. The Temple reflects local as well as global history, pre-history and archaeology by showing posters and artwork as well as books about this developing and growing area of academic research into, as well as amateur interest in, Goddess cults and worship. With the 'Priestess' training as well as open days and drop-in sessions the project provides a much-needed focus for women, men and children to explore this hitherto forgotten aspect of Cotswolds and British history. All are welcomed in this space to find out more without obligation.
As it is, the Temple relies solely on the donations and good will of volunteers and it is a testament to all involved that it has kept open for the last two years. For its continuation to be sustainable a heritage fund would greatly enable this community resource to reach more people and provide a warm safe space for locals to be together learning more about this aspect of Cotswolds history.
Kate Dineen"
"SGT Gloucestershire Goddess Community Funding support letter - I have felt so much more connected to my community since volunteering at SGT, I feel more empowered and able to speak my truth, I've come out of my shell, and stepped out of my comfort zone to facilitate craft and creative circles incl music and poetry, and have now initiated monthly drum and song groups as a temple fundraiser. I feel more confident and love to share my skills with others esp the peace & healing meditation I hold space on Mondays and even if just one person feels the benfits of calm and peace, it is so heart warming and fills me with gratitiude. I am also excited to work with othe local organisation with a a donation of xmas gift boxes, which opens up new avenues and opportunities, whilst harnessing my skills and experience I've built up over years as a PA . Furthermore I have stepped back from stressful job & found a much more peaceful life helping others and discovering my core soul purpose, and its such a lovely warm welcoming space . Working together and sharing ideas is always central to a happy community and inviting friends and family here has been a real eye opener, and fills me with such a big sense of love and harmony . So excited for whats to come next.
Ananda Tara"
"I have been volunteering at the Stroud Goddess Temple since it first opened and have experienced first hand how important this community project is.
Many people are struggling with environmental, spiritual and mental health issues… and what is so unique about this project is it provides a place for all spiritual, religious, cultural and eco based understandings… within the context of acceptance, support and inclusion.
People are searching for a way into a community that is without dogma, a space to be heard, to grieve, to celebrate and learn, and when people find us, their reactions are something very special to experience. It's like a weight has been lifted from them, there are often tears, a kind of deep seated relief that here, here they can be all they are.
People come to be warm, to not be alone, to be heard, and fully seen. They come to grieve, to light candles, be blessed, write prayers and connect to the seasons and mother earth's renewals and healing… to have a cup of tea, borrow a book, discuss their faith and their searching..
And on top of the morning sessions there are more and more events being held, women's circles, healing and prayers, crafting, singing, drumming, teaching… and because this space has such a wonderful feeling, full of the love and respect that is central to it's being, beautifully decorated for each season…therapists and teachers of many kinds hold their offerings here too.
Personally, being involved with Temple has brought me into a community, where even with my physical limitations, I can be of real service to others; deepen my own spiritual journey; learn from a truly amazing community of elders and teachers - and inspire my own personal writing and creating, sharing it with other artists and creators.
The Stroud Goddess Temple is a truly unique community project, and Stroud is so lucky to have it.
Helen Hart "
Wishing all of you the very best of blessings and we hope you have enjoyed reading about the temple in this newsletter.
Blessed Be!
Bliss Magdalena Qadesh, Priestess of Goddess, 2024.