Marguerite Rigoglioso, PhD.
Founding Director
I’m evolving into the person I came here to be. That means a sacred world server who carries memories from times past. I started out as a spiritual scholar, but more and more I am transforming into a scholarly spiritualist. And as I delve deeper into intuitional ways of knowing, I find myself relying less and less on library books and more and more on the great cosmic repository of All Wisdom, which may be accessed when one begins to open one’s ability to See.
My studies have taken me to Vassar College, where I earned an A.B. in psychology, and the California Institute of Integral Studies, where I earned my M.A. in philosophy and religion, and my Ph.D. in humanities. But some of my most profound learning has taken place in women’s circles and my own ceremonial work.
In addition to the leaders in the field of women’s spirituality whom I have either known or read, my most important spiritual teacher has been Robert Owings, my former partner, who showed me the road inward… These days, I find that accessing guidance directly from the subtle realms and the natural world is the best way to learn. For three years, I also studied clairvoyant skill development at the Foundation for Spiritual Development in San Rafael, California.
It is my great joy to feel myself to be in connection to the Cosmos to assist with the return of the Sacred Feminine and the evolution of human consciousness. This, of course, begins with myself. The journey toward growth, healing, and higher vibrational living involves working with my own Shadow and karmic issues. Along the way, I aim to share my knowledge with others in order to restore the holy orders –– particularly those of women –– that have been lost and repressed over the past several thousand years.
I’m a sacred server, a teacher, and an author, but I also aim to be a good friend to those who bless my path and a role model for the younger members in my extended family. Whenever I can, I try to mix it up with Humor, that great beneficent deity.
See my professional bio and CV here.
You may contact me here for more information.
Who Are the Seven Sisters?
Many people attracted to our school inquire about the name. Yes, it refers to the Seven Sisters of the Pleiades, that smudgy asterism in the nape of the neck of Taurus, the Bull constellation. If you follow Orion’s belt upward to the right in the nighttime sky, you will see it –– not directly, but only out of the corner of your eye. Like any great mystery, you can’t look at it head on or it disappears… Your gaze must be oblique, and your attitude must be one of trust.
According to many traditions around the world, including that of the ancient Greeks, the Pleiades were the seven daughters of Pleione and Atlas. The Greeks placed their story in Africa, and described them as seven virgins who gave birth to “the greater part of humanity.” That story is echoed by many indigenous peoples, who believe they “come from” the Pleiades. Thus the Seven Sisters can be seen as the Seven Mothers of the World, perhaps nothing less than the Seven Daughters of Eve that geneticists talk about.
Clearly this is more than a New Age fantasy…
The Seven Sisters have loomed ever larger in my world. For years now, I have realized that from their celestial abode they have been informing my scholarly work on divine birth, and they constantly seem to be transmitting insights about the restored role of the Sacred Feminine and women, and enlightened thoughts about ways in which humanity may move further into “unity consciousness.”
When it came time to name the school, their name naturally popped up. I was in the shower at the time. The Pleiades also have a sense of humor.
For more fascinating mystical information about the Seven Sisters of the Pleiades, much of it not discussed anywhere else, consult my book The Cult of Divine Birth in Ancient Greece – Marguerite Rigoglioso, PhD., and flip to the chapter on Dodona.
May the consciousness of these Seven Sisters, these Seven Virgin Mothers of the World, guide our enterprise and all of humanity as we restore the ancient priestesshoods in service to today and tomorrow.
–Marguerite Rigoglioso