Interview with Szilvia Simon

INTERVIEW WITH

SZILVIA SIMON

HUNGARIAN CORRESPONDENT

AND ORGANISER OF

“33 VIBRATIOINS OF KUAN YIN”

IN BUDAPEST

February 2011

Dear Anique, I welcome you, I would like to invite my readers to "speak" with you, I'm really glad you are ready to give us answer from the distant land, from Australia.

I am very glad to have this opportunity to share my ideas and feelings with you.
"Please tell to us some words about yourself, what it would be important to know about you! "

Its always hard to talk about ourselves,  and I am no different when it comes to that.  So I guess what I would say to you is that I am a very passionate woman.  I am passionate about LIFE,  I am passionate about women,  and I am passionate about the Goddess – or my Spiritual Path.  I understood long ago that many women, including myself, felt a dis-ease in their lives.  They feel disconnected somehow and I did too.  So I began to explore what it was that made me feel this way.  After some years of asking, seeking and searching,  I found my Spiritual Teacher,  who opened up dusty corridors in my mind and told me about the ancient Neolithic Cultures where women were revered because they embodied the Divine.  This gave me a new sense of myself as  a woman and as a Divine Being.  So now I am passionate about helping  women to find this place of power and to feel good about themselves and their lives.

If you want to read more about me go to my web page www.goddess.net.au  

"I know you travel a lot, and you are really famous singer, when did you start your first workshop..

I began teaching in 1990, when I moved to a country town in Queensland called Townsville.  I had been to the USA the year before and done a 3 month intensive with an amazing teacher called Kay Gardner.  She taught me about the Chakras and how to work with them with voice, breath and movement.  She also opened my mind to understanding that we work with energy all the time,  we just don’t focus on it.  So I learned how to focus my intention to work with energy and the chakras.  It was so powerful to then pass this on to others so that they could also find this power.

why so important for you to teach,

I feel that when we are blessed with a wonderful gift like a voice and the ability to sing like an angel,  and also to create music which opens the heart, there is a responsibility that comes with it.  In a way,  you might say it is a way of saying “thank you” to the Divine for giving me the tool to capture the attention of women with my voice,  and then encourage them to learn more about what an amazing sacred tool the voice is.  All my work is about combining the power of the voice with information which can move us along our sacred path.

and why important the women gathering

When we gather as women,  we find a feeling of safety that is not the same anywhere else.  We live in a patriarchal world,  where women are not safe.  And no matter how wonderful our husbands, friends who are men, sons, brothers etc…. are,  they still – at an unconscious level – represent the patriarchy to us.  So in their presence, we are always on our guard at some level.  I have also found that as women, we have common experiences that bind us together.  We all bleed, or have bled if we have passed menopause.  We have all felt the judgment of the culture if we are not thin enough, pretty enough, smart enough etc…etc…I could go on and on.  So when we gather as women,  we get a break from feeling that way,  and that is very enlivening.

All my circles have the same focus and the same intention – to empower women,  and this is very healing. When we gather together as women, in a circle that is named as “safe”  and also “confidential” as all my circles are,  we can feel safe to be just ourselves.  This is important in itself,  because I feel many women spend most of their time not being their true selves.  When we are ourselves,  we can more accurately feel what it is that needs healing or letting go.

 ..why would be useful to us join for this circle?"

Doing sacred, spiritual work in a circle of like minded women, who have open hearts and want to connect with others who are the same, is one of the most powerful things we can do for ourselves.  Because when we do,  we are healed at a very deep level.  It may not be obvious to us at first,  but as the days and months unfold after being part of such a group,  a woman will notice changes in herself and her world. Often, she will be able to make changes that she has known she has to make, yet could not find the energy to do.  This process moves us along our road to enlightenment,  and after all, this is what we incarnated to do.
"When was born your decision, you will follow Kuan-Yin of vibration.. and why are you chose Her?"

When I first began to walk with the Goddess,  I was living in a converted warehouse in Chinatown in Sydney.  Each morning I would walk down the street to a lovely café to have my morning coffee and a bagel with cream cheese.  I would have to walk through a small group of shops, and one of them sold all kinds of interesting things related to Chinese culture.  The window of the shop was always full of things, all messy and jumbled together,  and I would sometimes stop to look.  One morning, as I walked by,  I had not planned to stop,  yet I turned and looked,  and there, right in the middle of all the mess, was a very large figurine of Kuan Yin.  I had seen pictures of Her before,  but this sculpture was exquisite.  Her face was painted in such a way that I felt she was looking right at me.  I was mesmerized.

I walked into the shop and asked the shopkeeper how much she was.  He was a tiny very old man,  and he asked me why I wanted her.  I said I did not know,  but I felt that she was looking at me.  When I said this, he smiled and said maybe I should take her and keep her for a week and then I could tell him what I thought she was worth.  I was amazed and asked him why he was trusting me because I could easily take her and never come back.  He just smiled again and said he trusted his intuition, and that his intuition told him to trust me.

I took the statue home and made an altar for her – my first altar to a specific Goddess.  It was beautiful, right in the best sunny corner of my living room.  I would sit for hours in my chair by the window, looking at her.  After a few days,  I began to feel a sense that she was alive,  and I could hear her words in my heart.

She told me many things,  the most important being that I had been given my voice to open women’s hearts.  Not only that,  she told me that She would be there always to support me and guide me. This changed my life.

The next day I went back to the little Chinese man and said to him,  I don’t care how much she is, I must have her.  I told him about what she had told me and he just listened and smiled.  He then opened a small drawer under the counter and gave me a tiny replica of the statue made into a pendant.  He told me that both came together and that the price would be $50.  I knew that this was very cheap for both these items,  and I also understood that he was more than just a shopkeeper.  I bought the statue and the pendant and I have them still today.

So Kuan Yin chose me really,  and over the years she has given me my Spiritual name,  has healed my heart many times and has opened my heart to others in a most beautiful and magical way.
" What is your experience ... what happens if we are start to open our heart-chakra? It seems this is very joyful process.. but how we can go ahead if we feel pain, sorrowful, or fears without joy?

When we open our Heart Chakra,  we become very vulnerable at first.  This is only natural,  because we live in a culture that does not nourish the heart, it nourishes the brain.  And as women,  we are accused of being “over-emotional” when we open our hearts and allow our feelings to show. So when the day comes and we decide to open ourselves,  we feel a tremendous amount of energy flow,  and sometimes this is overwhelming.  So we need to learn to work with the energy.  Of course, when good feelings emerge,  we can process these quite easily.  And often, we don’t even think about it.  Yet when more challenging feelings begin to surface,  we are immediately afraid and we constrict the flow of energy.  This is what causes us pain.  When we learn how to flow with these energies, and understand that they are just part of the overall balance of things,  we begin to understand the messages embedded in the experience,  and we can feel the pain, yet still know that we are joyous loving beings.

and how many times we need to invoke Kuan-Yin mantra if we would like to stay in our center? "

We need to do any process which involves chanting for at least 20 minutes for the energetic bodies, as well as the physical body to be affected.  And we need to do this everyday if possible.
"So many of us.. we believe: 'Oh I have not good voice.. I can do singing in my bathroom, but not before one bigger group'
  why so such important for you to courage us.. use this tool? why not enough if we listen the professional singers than you example..

Many of us have been given terrible messages about our voices and our singing as children.  We carry this into adulthood,  and very often,  the messages were very wrong.  All of us have lovely natural singing voices.  We just need to allow them to come forth without trying to control them.  It makes no difference if you think that you sing in tune or not,  because with chanting, there is often a very basic tune,  it is the use of voice which is important.

When we chant, we feed our energetic bodies,  and this is vital.  During the workshop I will explain more.  But for now, just understand that when we chant,  we balance the Right and Left Brain and this is critical to our wellbeing.  Also the vibration created by the voice in the body, is like a healing.  So as healing as it is to listen to a pure voice chanting,  the vibrations from hearing are quite different to a combination of voicing and hearing. And this is what happens when we chant in a group.  We use our voice and create a vibration, and we also have the vibration of the group impacting on our physical and energetic bodies as well.
"We are so close for 2012, what do you think about our planet of vibration?

I feel the Planet is experiencing a huge preparation – in fact this has been going on for quite some time.  Just as women go through 3 basic stages – Maiden, Mother and Crone – I feel the Earth has been preparing for her Croning. When we become Crones,  our focus shifts from the personal to the universal.  What I mean by that is that we become more concerned with being there for others than just for ourselves.  This requires a deep shift in the Heart Chakra.  This shift is what all Beings on Earth will be asked to make. And this workshop will share some tools we can use to help make that shift.

 So we will see large structures like companies and organizations which give nothing and take much from the Earth, begin to disintegrate.  This is already happening.    We shall also see a shift back to more communal living, as we understand how marginalized we all are and how the patriarchy has forced us into isolated lives which are barren and unproductive, in terms of our Spiritual development.   I feel education will change and more focus will be placed on the “unseen worlds” than the material world.  Many, many changes will come, and we shall explore those when we gather.

How do you hold your inner balance? What is your advice to use? "

For me, daily sacred practice is my foundation and anchor.  When I don’t get the opportunity to do my practice,  I feel the dis-ease of distraction and ego.  I was born with a very healthy ego,  and all the years as a professional singer,  and now as a Spiritual Teacher, means that my ego can get fed in the wrong way, very easily.  And when we feel “off-center” that is what is happening.  Our ego is rising and our connection to all that is becomes less.  Daily practice,  even if it is for 5 minutes,  will keep us in the flow of Grace,  of Guidance and Humility.

"What do you think what will happens on the Earth? Are you optimist? Your workshop title "Life in joy and power" but we hear so many negative news, not too "pink" selfish thing to be in joy, when so many people have suffering, and the planet has many wounds?"

The Earth has always been and always will be. I am very much an optimist.  I have no fear about what will happen to the Earth.  After all,  the tragic impact we humans are having on the Earth, is only on the surface.  Our Mother has a deep and vital core and is alive even if her skin is being ravaged by weather change, mining, pollution etc…….Still, we must be aware and we must do our bit, however we choose to do it,  to help rebalance the situation.

I feel very deeply that we can live in our joy and power whilst at the same time being aware and active to bring about positive change.  Yes…many are suffering.  I find it very difficult to watch the news or read the newspapers.  So I don’t do it often,  and when I do it is because I have been told I must see something or read something.  We have a responsibility as a global family to do what we can to lessen the suffering of others,  and it is up to us to find a way to act which will not bring us “down” and make us joyless.  Rather,  we need to be conscious and keep pushing that joyful energy out into the universe as much as we can to balance the energies that are not so joy-filled.

"About workshop: what would like to tell us about 33 vibration? it is not too much? Why don't choose just 1 or 2? "

The 33 Vibrations are like a web of information and energy that link together all the aspects of our LIFE experience.  We need to know about and understand them all in order to work on any one aspect.  So we shall have an overview of the whole 33 Vibrations.  Yet, we will focus on 4 as the primary vibrations over the two days we are together.

"You are a priestess, if I never heard before the Goddess and about Her priestess, how I can imagine this aspect? What Goddess represent in your life?

For me,  Goddess represents All That Is.  Every single thing that exits in Creation is Goddess.  Both the Earth and all the Cosmos are Goddess.  For some,  especially Pagans,  the Goddess is the Earth.  That is not enough for me.  All that has ever been and all that will ever be is Divinity.  And for me Divinity is Goddess.  I like to use the word Goddess because for so many thousands of years in patriarchy,  the masculine has been made more important than the feminine.  So for me using the word “Goddess” brings balance into the energy field of LIFE, and heals many wounds in me and other women, without having to actually explain anything at all.

Why so important in this modern world to be priestess? What does word mean for you?

At any time, in the herstory of the World, all the spiritual traditions have spoken about “service” as a way of reaching Enlightenment.  It is in the giving to others that we learn true Humility.  And it is in Humility that Compassion can be found.  And with Compassion, comes Power.  For me, being a Priestess is to devote oneself to service.  Service to the Goddess through service to my community.  I believe that we take LIFE – we incarnate – to learn true Power.  To learn about the Power of Love,  and the Power of Goodness.

As a Priestess,  I have to learn many things, including discipline, dedication, devotion and integrity.  In learning to be Powerful in all these ways,  I am open to receive guidance in a particular way.  For me,  it has been to teach what I have been taught by other teachers and also by Goddess.  The flow of inspiration and guidance that flows through me at all times is because I have dedicated myself to the Priestess Way.

I feel my work in this “modern world” is to assist other women to do the same thing.  Why?  Because the world so desperately needs these qualities of Humility, Compassion, Integrity and the Power of Love.   We have to shift from the Love of Power to the Power of Love.

Another very important aspect of being a Priestess is to create and lead ceremonies which open the archetypal memories of people who attend.  By leading people through ancient time honored processes,  even the most skeptical person will feel that spark of connection.  This is the highest form of working with energy – raising energy so that others feel it and benefit from it.

What is your experience, generally the people .. they know Her? "

More and more I am finding that as I meet new people,  they are aware of Spirit and operating at levels other than the mundane.  More and more are turning to the Feminine Divine and Her qualities I have outlined above – Humility, Compassion, Integrity and Love.  I don’t know how many would use the word “Goddess”, but I feel many are comfortable with the Feminine Divine.
"And the end.. you have been travel already in Hungary, what is your experience with Hungarians? What is your messages to us, what is your impress about us, about our land? "

Yes….I have loved traveling to Hungary and to finally experience the river that I have sung about so many times.  My mother and father would always get me to sing The Blue Danube – words in French – on their anniversary,  and it brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it.  I love the city of Budapest.  To me she looks like a grand lady who has seen better days.  I hope with the change in Government that more of her beautiful old buildings will get a coat of new paint and look glamorous again.

I have felt the struggle in many Hungarians. The struggle with finances and also with the changes that have occurred in your country.  But I also see a lot of optimism and that is what I feel we should focus on.

The most powerful impression I have of Hungary is the amazing herstory of your land.  The ancient Goddesses that walked this land and the ancient traditions of your folklore is magnificent.  Unlike many other countries,  the ancient history is present in the folklore and fairy tales,  and so for women to access the “story” of the Goddess in your land would be a marvelous adventure.

My message to you,  my sisters in Hungary,  is to claim your Priestess self.  Find out all you can about the ancient foremothers and foresisters of your land;  where the Temples were;  how the Priestesses lived in the Temples;  what were their songs and stories.  Find the old women and ask them…they know.

Most of all my sisters, hold on dearly to each other.  Recognize that conflict between you is what the patriarchy wants.  Realise that together you are magnificent, and that reflects in your individual lives.  Support each other, trust each other, don’t compete with each other and understand that when you gather together, it is a political act!  It is a victory against all that tries to suppress us.  Let us gather for this workshop and create an energy that will feed us all for a long time after we part our ways.  The Goddess in all Her glorious presence is with us and loves Her daughters.

Blessings to you all,  may you be well, joyous and prosperous always.

With love,

Anique