In No Particular Order …
The original gate to the Isis Temple - Aswan, Egypt.
‘The curfews, the religious rules, the patriarchy… All the superficial surface-level stuff….’
3:33 AM - Egypt, Luxor Airport - Coffee shop outside the airport.
The shop falls silent as I walk in.
All eyes on me.
Yet, not one set of eyes meets my eyes.
Not a woman in sight.
Just me and about 30 men.
In this part of Egypt, women are not allowed out after 9/10 PM-ish without being accompanied by a husband or male family member.
With a lack of female presence, does it mean females ‘lack of presence’?
From first appearance and through a narrow lens, it would be too ignorantly easy for me to sit here and falsely compare myself to the women I have witnessed here in Egypt over the past 15 days, in terms of freedom and presence.
They don’t drive ( only very few highly educated women drive ).
They don’t show their full faces, hair or bodies.
The curfews, the religious rules, the patriarchy…
All the superficial surface-level stuff.
And then there is me …
A Western women, with my ripped jeans, cropped T-shirt, long flowing loose hair, pink lipstick, black nails, tattooed hands and palms, Nike trainers…
Sitting here scribbling in my notebook and staring up at the crescent moon, waiting to jump on an aeroplane that will lead me to another adventure in the 4th country I have lived in this year alone.
So free.
So free to be the woman I am, the woman I created and worked so hard at becoming… living the life I carved out for myself.
The life I worked so hard to materialise.
Against all odds, societal pressures and limiting conditioning.
This is my version of freedom.
My representation of what a free woman looks like.
Some would argue privilege.
Finally, in my 30s, I stand so strong in my power, my womanhood…
… But I have never felt as strong in my feminine power as I do right now, sitting alone, the only woman in this coffee shop… here in Luxor, Egypt.
Something changed during my stay in Egypt.
In the lack of physical female presence, in everyday life, ( from my obscured Western perspective and the short time I have been in Egypt ), I have become so sensitive to the collective energy field of the feminine presence in this place.
At the Isis temple, we were kindly shown around by a female tour guide, which is rare; she was also the manager, even rarer.
She granted us permission to sing in one of the chapels; usually, any form of rituals or singing is now forbidden in temples, but we were there to sing, and she knew it.
She allowed it.
A military security guard ‘caught’ us and lost his shit.
The female manager explained the situation, but he dismissed her and reported the situation to the chief boss of the temple.
Within minutes, there was a big kerfuffle, 20 male colleagues and the male boss, raised voices, all arguing in Arabic, all tourists in the temple now on high alert ‼️
One female manager. She did not raise her voice.
She used very few words, but she was sharp like a strike of lightning.
Just one strike, though.
She mostly controlled the situation with her energy field.
She stood firm in her perfume of power while the men steamed up in the temperature of their testosterone.
It was quite the spectacle!
It was impressive.
She was impressive.
After things calmed down a little, I asked her, “is everything ok?”
To which she replied :
“Yes, bc we are women !!”
She looked me dead straight in the eyes when she said it…
Our souls combined for a split second, really, I felt her words with my whole heart, and my body orgasmed with ‘truth bumps’.
This short yet impactful interaction ended with a smirk and a chuckle.
Another hallmark sign of a strong woman: the ability to change and uplift the energy of a serious situation using light, laughter and love.
The women I have seen here are fierce.
The women here are THE BOSS in the household. ( So I have heard ).
The women here stand strong in their truth, take no shit, and rise above the bs with a mix of grace and a glorious burst of ferocious demand.
Faces hidden, bodies fully covered, abiding by strict cultural and religious rules…
women here command!
They summon an energy field that exudes domination and obedience.
I’ve seen men cower and shy away, like a puppy dog being told off.
Their energy is undeniably potent.
Their presence is viscerally tasty.
I want to say ’goddess energy’, but my studies of Ancient Egypt have shown me that there is a big difference between Ancient Egyptian wisdom, the priestesses and goddesses, vs Islamic Egypt and the beliefs of the Islamic Egyptian women.
Different time, different culture, different beliefs.
Different story.
Different blog.
SAME ENERGY !! ??
FUCK IT … goddess energy!!
There I said it !!!
What I saw with the female manager was straight-up fierce goddess energy.
Her presence moved me. Her presence moved the situation.
The ability to seamlessly transition from gentle ‘Isis’ or ‘Hathor’ Goddess energetic qualities, to a fiery sniping ‘Sekhmet’ quality of energy, and back again, with precision and grace, while maintaining balance…
fierce huni fierce!
I guess it’s true, the Goddess lives within all of us….???
The Goddess manifests herself through all sisterhood within the human race.
The Goddess reminds us to look at all other women straight in the eye, where we meet the soul…
… where we can multiply our power through every glance.
Language aside.
Appearance aside.
Beliefs aside.
We are on the same side.
Big love,
Madeleine xox