Katinka Soetens
Born in the Netherlands and raised an eclectic protestant, I’m a humanist on a path of pagan spirituality since the mid 1970’s. Following the ancient rhythms of the moon, the seasons, of my body and sacred sexuality and of the great cycle of life, death and rebirth in one way or another.
Having been blessed in my early life with teachers and life experiences that taught me to question and explore, finding my own way to connection and lived reality of the Divine is an ongoing red thread in my life.
I have always had a keen interest in ancient history, mythology, travel to ancestral sacred sites, and the power of initiation ceremonies.
In 1983 I moved to Cornwall to work on the land, and found my connection to Celtic mythical spirituality developing, informed by living close to, or as part of, nature.
My spiritual path of Earth-as-sentient-and-sacred has had different forms. First solitary wiccan and then tantric, which became more and more Goddess based, while recognising and loving the sacred Masculine. Especially since an initiation and spiritual awakening experience during the birth of my first child in 1996, Goddess became an embodied reality. Since then, I trained as doula, as teacher, sacred dancer and celebrant for rites of passage and seasonal ceremonies.
In 1999 I had found the Goddess Conference as participant.
This gave me a fantastic Goddess based experience of both group ceremony and connection to the sacred landscape of Avalon, for which I found I had a deep longing. I eventually overcame my perceived ideas and resistances about hierarchical groups, and trained with Kathy Jones, initiating as Priestess of Avalon in 2002.
For nearly two decades I’ve served as priestess in the Goddess Conference and Goddess Temple. I still delight in this space for the Divine Feminine in Glastonbury. Though I am not involved any longer, I find it to be such an important, revelationary, and healing counter-part to the many places of worship for the God of patriarchal religions we have in our society.
In 2003 I self-dedicated as Priestess of Rhiannon, and this was also my first year as part of the Ceremonial Priestess group for the Goddess Conference, a role I’ve held ever since, and which changed to becoming the holders and co-organisers of the Goddess Conference with Marion Brigantia in 2017.
My work helped me develop priestess skills aa well as energetic and devotional practises, which are an essential part of our journey of awakening as love-in-action. I home educated my children in Cornwall, continued to study, and lived close to the land with my partner, until the break-up of our relationship, which brought me as single parent to live in Glastonbury.
In traveling and visiting ancient sacred sites, especially those in Crete, Sardinia, Malta, Italy and Greece, there have been many insights, initiations and devotional remembering, deepening this ever opening path for me. The Goddess and the God have shown me their faces within and around me in so many ways.
I am a self-initiated Priestess of many Goddesses in many places, as well as Priestess of the God Dionysus, who is the beloved face of the inner Sacred Masculine for me.
I am in service to the Goddess, often specifically in the form of Rhiannon, and of the God, often specifically in the form of the Horned One.
I have trained further in sexual psychotherapy, natural birth techniques, soul midwifery, shamanic shadow hunting and both neo- and traditional- Tantra. I am deeply grateful for the many wonderful teachers that have blessed and enhanced my development and journey, and who hold the mirror for how to live, as well as for how not to do things, from which I get to learn to this day.
I teach the two year Priestess of Rhiannon training, first for the Glastonbury Goddess Temple, and now for the Path of Love Mystery School, and a year long Brotherhood of Rhiannon for men. I love holding mixed groups and further developmental courses, tantra and devotional workshops and courses for women, men and couples to deepen into experiencing the sacred within and beyond themselves.
Throughout my time working with and learning from the late Dakini Shakti Milan, an important piece of integration of my inner masculine with my inner feminine manifested. It has been a touch stone for me and a treasure that has bloomed into deeper understanding of the meaning of Divine Masculine and Feminine, Goddess and God.
From this, a desire to raise a Temple to both pagan Goddesses and Gods arose, and the time has been waiting for about a decade now, for this dream to become reality in Avalon.
In the last few years, it has become increasingly important to me, as empowered human beings, to walk our talk in co-operation and be a part of circle ways of manifesting: circles of equals.
In this year’s Goddess Conference, while we are working with the forgotten archetype of the Queen or Sovereign One, it seemed the perfect opportunity to make this all ‘more real’. To face our fear-based shadow behaviour of ‘ruler’ as the controller, victim, destroyer and abdicator within, some of us decided to commit to try and be accountable as ‘healthy queens’ and form a co-operative society.
One of our Goddess community elder priestesses, Sally Pullinger, had been talking about creating a greater umbrella co-operative between several priestesses all manifesting their work and devotion in various ways in Avalon, and so the Temple of Avalon was born.
I feel passionate about a new way of bringing Pagan Goddesses and Gods, in harmonious union, out into the world.
The practise where a particular group in society gets to decide what form the Divine has for everyone and denies the existence of other forms, is such a mark of power-over distortion.
If we truly wish to see a better world of love and equality, we cannot deny any particular part of humanity the form of the Divine in which they get to recognise themselves.
I have felt very inspired by modern Temple places that I’ve been lucky enough to visit, where this is already happening and Goddess and God are given space together.
There is such a longing and a need for a sacred Temple space where both the Divine Feminine as Goddess and the Divine Masculine as God, as well as all non-binary forms of the Divine, are honoured and celebrated in Avalon and the world.
The revelational aspect of a physical place for this, is not to be underestimated and is a responsibility we take seriously as a group. Within the powerful magic of Avalon, I hope this new Temple will resonate as healing and as a beacon for change. As a reality for meeting in and as union, for peace and love and understanding, for learning and developing and honouring, for Goddess and God in harmony in the world once more.
Katinka Soetens
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