By Anne’s friend Lone Morch All images by Lone Morch

Phoenix Rising!

Life is full of paradoxes. On one hand we live in an exciting time of paradigm shift from a failing patriarchy to a more feminine path and deeper consciousness of who we are, as both cosmic and human beings. Women of the West have taken the holy man, Dalai Lama’ s word to heart - that we are indeed the ones the world has been waiting for, to save the world. (Read The Feminine Fad: about power, truth, & the new feminine at Divinely Furious.)

Women hold the power to rise like phoenixes (Anne’s favorite theme) from the ashes of the falling patriarchy and create a harmonious world of people, plants, animals, stars and gods. Many of us are busy getting on that train and doing our part, self included.

Yet on the other hand, we are still caught in the battle with body, beauty, self-worth and -trust issues. Bombarded by media, ads and fashion, we spend billions on beauty - diets, botox, fashion - in the name of attractiveness, because in our world “fuckability” equals success.

Sex sells all around. Meanwhile, we also self-help and workshop junkie ourselves to exhaustion and most of us find that at the end of the day, the books, the 10-step programs, the momentary high of workshops intimacy and revelations does little for our deepest self-love and self-trust issues.

We still have to face the woman in the mirror as who we are. As long as we believe she needs fixing, we’re stuck in the proverbial rut.

It’s an old, die-hard story.

Many of us know in our hearts that our weak spots are being targeted by the economy (at large) we exist in. We know we’re objectified and sexualized, making us comparing and competitive, self-hating and running a dead end rat race of not enough-ness.

Tell the Fixers to Get Lost | I’m Taking You to Paris!

We don’t stop. A little timidly we avoid eye contact with each other when the truth is staring down at us, and we buy another pair of too tight jeans, tell our girlfriend how we despise our cellulite or sign up for another training program, botox product, cleanse and new-you workshop to look younger, radiant, sexually attractive or simply, like someone else.

Add to that, the mere fact that most of us (in the cosmopolitan areas?) need advisors for all areas of our lives - image stylist, skin caretaker, personal trainer, yoga teacher, sexologist, astrologist (both vedic and Western of course to cover our asses), a nutritionist, an acupuncturist, intuitive counselor and personal life coach.

Add to that relationship therapist, financial planner, insurance broker, website designer/manager, business strategist and a whole slew of other advisors if you own your own business. Did I mention priest, minister, rabbi, imam and spiritual adviser?

From the outside, it looks like we don’t know how to live anymore. We try so hard, yet we are dying doing it.

No wonder perhaps, that we numb out to our true feminine essence and power. It’s easier to follow the program than figuring out your own. We duck, hiding behind our hands, “Don’t ask me to feel, let alone take responsibility please.”

We have a choice.

Praising the Soverign Woman

I’m here to vote for the self-made, sovereign and liberated Wo(man). The Woman who wants nothing but to live a life that reflects her own program - directed by her soul, fueled by her sexuality, and held sacred and free by her sovereignty. Live with capital L … by our senses and soul stirrings … through our dreams and desires and bold actions.

It’s a tall order, understanding there’s no quickie route to owning the woman YOU. Unless we grab this tall order by its balls, there’s no way we’ll rise from the ashes of the old paradigm and forge a new way. At the heart of my vision for you, we rekindle trust and pride in our spirited human-ness and fulfill our potential as honorable stewards to our own lives and his world we create together.

This is why I talk about your Inner Lover and Leader.

For so long, we’ve been seeking love and leadership on the outside.

It’s time, ladies (and gents) to seek this psychological independence on the inside.

Two words come to mind.

Response-ability and Sense-ability.

We were born with these two important qualities. We can sense and we can respond. Therein lies our power - to live a life of our own making. We can feel things, and we can make choices based upon that.

Two important questions to hold:

What do we feel, sense, intuit ?

What do we choose?

And let me to add another: Does this choice set you free or imprison you?

We are what we love, desire, find beautiful, honor as sacred and do with our time. When we honor and try to be and do and live what isn’t truly who we are — example, the glossy picture images of success we see all around us — we have no choice but to shut down our feelings and gut, diffusing our own power to act on our own inner knowing of the truth. We end up living mostly neck-up, half-awake, half-alive, half-true, timid lives.

A Week with Me in Paris

I know what I want. I want to feel free, alive, awake and in truth of who I am. Do you know what you want?

I speak to this based upon my own experience. And the experience of having worked with women’s sensuality and self-expression through photography for many years.

Women come in despair and hope: They want to be more feminine, sensual, sexually confident. They want to see themselves as nuanced, free and powerful. They wish to touch the mystery of their own female, intimate soul.

Women want to feel sexy - not for a guy or to get something - but simply to themselves. They are, indeed, fatigued with the bombardment of vulgar or cheesy images and trying to live someone’s program and standard. Women come to me, wanting to explore their own sense of beauty, sexiness and feminine nature through my camera lens. They want to embrace the romantic and the raw, the feminine and the boldly assertive, the bare and the leather. They want to be okay with all of their facets.

Clearly my business has hit a growing need amongst women who are tired of the images served up by media, fashion, Playboy fighting their inner need for knowing themselves as their own lover and leader.

It is up to women to take action, and I will help you. Come with me — Anne says GO — as I reveal a wonderful online program and Paris getaway designed with you in mind. I’m trying to twist Anne’s arm to join us September 4-10, 2011. She says it’s a spectacular time of the year. Lone Morch

See more Lone Morch images in Fashion & Art images.

Lolo’s Boudoir website Anne recommends some real women photography stories on Lone’s website.