The Pagan Experience: A reminder that this month there are no formal writing prompts. Please post about whatever topics are your favourite and you think would be of interest to our community.  Enjoy!

I’m incredibly slack with writing this month because it’s a prompt-less month at The Pagan Experience, and I haven’t felt the connection with the topics of Pagans Down Under. Or, as my mind is telling me, Excuses! Excuses!

I was first introduced to Damara through Doreen Virtue’s “Goddess Guidance Oracle Cards” many years ago, but only began working with her a year or two ago. The downside to the oracle cards is that they only reveal a small aspect of the Goddess on the card. It really is a matter of, “you need to look deeper” and when you’re new to the path, as I was at the time, you don’t.

Damara is a Celtic Goddess of Children and Fertility, and Faerie Princess of the British Isles. Along with being a Goddess associated with children, she’s also wonderful to call upon when working with the Inner Child.

If you choose to work with her in your inner child work, there is a major point I feel I need to point out – she is fiercely protective of the Inner Child. If she deems that you are not ready to work with your Inner Child, you won’t meet them. It’s that simple.

This is not a bad thing, it simply means that there are other aspects, or other things in your life taking precedence, and you may not be in the right frame to meet your Inner Child. It can also mean that the Inner Child is not ready to meet you, and Damara will put their needs first regardless to what you want to do, and how good your intentions are. After all, this is YOUR Inner Child, an aspect of YOU.

Damara is like a protective older sister, a protective mother, a protective aunt. She appears in different ways to different people. To me she appeared as mid-late 20s with strawberry blonde hair wearing a long flowing white gown. When I approached saying I’d like to introduce myself to Inner Child, she didn’t immediately step back, she thought about it for a minute or two, and her face was that of someone weighing it up. The Inner Child was holding onto her legs with her face hidden, incredibly shy, and reminded me a great deal of my youngest niece.

It was over 10 years before I allowed myself to try and begin Inner Child work. From the moment I said to myself, “I need help” to “Okay, I’m ready to embark on working with the Mini Me” it was almost twelve years. The “mini me” I met was not a younger version of myself, she had her own identity (which is very fitting with me and looking back I’m not at all surprised).

Since then I have met and worked with four Inner Children, all of different ages. There is the youngest, 0-10, who I met first. She who is 11-16. She who is 17-24 (pictured, who has given me a name to call her), and She who is 25-29. 25-29 She doesn’t like being called a “Child” and prefers to be called the, “Inner Bitch!” which says a lot of who that one is!

I started working with “17-24” about four years without realising what I was doing, and then became reacquainted earlier this year with help of Inanna and Ereshkigal. Knowing what and who she really is helps a great deal, having a specific name to call her helps even more.

Working with the Inner Child is a very rewarding experience, and it assists with finding balance within yourself. My favourite “Inner Child Working” moment was in meditation where myself and “25-29” were sitting on the sand at our beach, while “17-24” and “0-10” were building sandcastles.

I’m not sure if this way of “splitting” will work for everyone, but it has certainly worked for me. Meeting Damara and working with her and with these Inner versions of self is incredibly rewarding.