Today we’d like to introduce you to Daphne Moon.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Daphne. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
In 2015, the Goddesses of Light started out as a group of women who were tired of having to find a babysitter to take a yoga class, and of wasting time waiting for their children’s classes to end. There had to be a better way.
So we came up with Kutumba Yoga, a Yoga studio with adult’s and children’s classes, simultaneously but separately. All of us being Survivors of some kind of gender-based violence, we decided that for every family pass we sold, we’d donate a code for a free family pass to Genesis Women’s Shelter. Do good in our community, pay our bills, care for ourselves and our children—it felt like a powerful idea. We did our first fundraiser about three years ago, on August 13, 2015.
As our kick-off event, we planned a community event called the Day of Giving and Thanks at Fair Park in Dallas. Three stages, music, speakers and yoga; henna, massage, sound healing, food, local teachers, healers stores… We had such a positive response from musicians that we ended up with more than we needed for one day and a sister felt pulled to creating a second event, the Goddesses of Light Music Festival in Denton, who intended to donate 10% of her profits to our event.
The split in energy caused us to split our attendance too. We both ended up covering cost and raising only $100 for the North Texas Food Bank. So we regrouped and decided to make sure we worked together from that point on. Created the Goddesses of Light Coven, and worked to build our name as spiritually based small businesses. Did our first public ritual for the Mago Institute 9 Day Winter Solstice Celebration that December.
The next year, we all grew and shifted so much. It was apparent there was power in the work we were doing to heal each other and ourselves. I took a second yoga teacher training and realized that mine and Justin’s relationship was beyond unhealthy and had become abusive, and I left. That August we held our first Temple space and taught at TriUnity, a festival in Ava, Missouri. We went with the intention of holding a group healing for Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence, holding true to our first direction.
And when we got there, just before the scheduled time, we were all in breakdown. Crying, barely able to function. How the fuck were we gonna hold space like this? And it struck us—we are these women. We have our own stories to tell. We can’t stand apart from them and heal them. We are still healing ourselves. So we walked into the Temple, sat down, in full vulnerability, and told our stories.
In doing so, we opened the door for the words that had never been spoken to pour from each woman’s mouth, weeping for the child or the woman who had lived them, the ones we were no longer were. I felt the call, immediately, to take this ceremony everywhere I could. When I got back to Dallas, I finally got the courage to call Genesis Women’s Shelter and get some counseling of my own.
I felt guilty because I knew I wasn’t in immediate danger, but the woman who did my intake call was kind and understanding and reassured me that I could benefit from group and I had done the right thing calling. When I went to do the more detailed interview, they gave me information about lawyers, how to find a job, what public services I qualified for, offered help filing for food stamps and Medicaid, and gave me gift certificates for me and my son to get new clothes and shoes from their thrift store.
My group and eventually one on one counseling there created huge ripple effects in my life and helped me feel more and more solid. Like I actually could take this ceremony all over the country and hold these spaces for folks like me. So I talked to the ladies and started emailing everyone I could find who put on festivals. I got us into a few but worked most of them by myself. Then we got accepted to Darkening of the Sun; an eclipse gathering in Missouri.
The first person I called was Wind Song and asked if she’d come with me. She said yes, and I started planning. From that simple yes, we grew to 12 women carrying the torch from 3 different states to converge again in August in Missouri and hold a Feminine Divine Temple open to Men, except our ceremony for survivors. We grew to fill the roles we were given and healed ourselves more along the way. This year we’ve been given a bigger mission, that we are growing to fill.
We have already traveled to Minnesota twice this year, and are headed out of state one more time. We are bringing the Goddesses of Light Music Stage to Medicine for the People for the first time. We will be using the Temple as outreach and support for not just survivors of domestic and sexual violence but for children and folks who are in drug and alcohol recovery. We will be helping people start and build spiritually based businesses by giving them a platform from which to teach, heal and grow.
We are working to achieve 501c3 status. We are planning fundraisers all over Texas, and even one out of state, to fill our needs to achieve these goals, and we are donating 10% of each one to a local organization working with trauma survivors. We are here to stand and show that it’s possible to not just survive but thrive after trauma. It’s possible to grow past what you’ve been through. It’s possible to turn back and extend your hand to those who are still drowning in pain and help them find a place of power.
Has it been a smooth road?
No, but that’s the beauty. Each time an obstacle has arisen–a member leaving, an event failing, something breaking, etc.–it’s been an opportunity to shift and grow. Just like the original healing that created the shift towards what is now the Pain to Power Ceremony, being in breakdown creates breakthroughs–and we all grow and expand in those places.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Goddesses of Light story. Tell us more about the business.
The centerpiece of our work is offering safe space and community to survivors of trauma at festivals. We’ve recently expanded from our focus on survivors of domestic and sexual violence to include the queer community, children, and sober folks.
We carry a feminine divine temple as the container for our work and are one of the only such spaces that are open to men as well as women. We believe our brothers are in need of healing around their inner feminine and hope to close the gap between men and women by celebrating that we all have masculine and feminine qualities.
Starting next year, we also intend to offer a masculine divine temple that will hold a Pain to Power Ceremony for men as well.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Our intention is to offer this space at festivals for the next three-five years, and transition into a permanent space by building a sustainable community.
We’ll offer a wellness center with retreats and host festivals, build a school of sustainability for others to learn to start their own communities and have a school for the children of those who live there.
We believe that the current paradigm in which we live is ripe for transition, and are excited to usher in a new way of being with the tribe of higher consciousness teachers and healers that is rising up around us.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.goddessesoflight.com
- Phone: 9033434764
- Email: daphne@goddessesoflight.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/goddessesoflightdallas
- Facebook: facebook.com/goddessesoflightdallas
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