Hello Empowered Wayers:

There comes a moment in every woman's life when the noise of the world no longer satisfies the hunger in her soul. She has followed the rules. She has performed the roles. She has contorted herself into shapes that pleased others, even as it fractured her spirit.

But more than this—she has been living a lie that cuts deeper than performance.

She has been told she must choose: Be spiritual or be powerful. Be flowing or be fierce. Be receptive or be assertive. Be the Sacred Feminine or be Sovereign.

This is the great wound of our time—the splitting of feminine power in half.

And then—something cracks.

Not in destruction, but in revelation.

She begins to hear not one voice, but two that were always meant to sing in harmony: the ancient wisdom of the Sacred Feminine and the clear authority of her own Sovereignty. The voice that knows how to receive divine guidance and the voice that knows how to act on it fearlessly.

That woman—on the edge of remembering her wholeness—is the Sacred Feminine Sovereign.

She is not a trend. She is not a performance. She is the integration the world has been waiting for—Divine Love embodied through conscious choice.

Who Is the Sacred Feminine Sovereign?

The Sacred Feminine Sovereign is not defined by title, income, or influence. She may be a mother who trusts her instincts while setting firm boundaries. An artist who receives inspiration and gives it form through disciplined action. An entrepreneur who leads from intuitive wisdom while making strategic decisions. A healer who holds space for others while protecting her own energy.

What defines her is her integration—she no longer splits her power.

She is connected to the Sacred Feminine: her cycles, her womb wisdom, her ability to receive guidance from sources beyond rational thought. AND she is rooted in her Sovereignty: her voice, her choice, her authority over her own life.

She doesn't need to choose between flowing with divine timing and taking decisive action. She doesn't need to choose between being receptive and being boundaried. She doesn't need to choose between honoring her feminine nature and claiming her power.

She is both temple and throne.

Both river and riverbank. Both sacred and sovereign.

She knows and speaks her truth from the marriage of intuitive knowing and clear discernment. And she leads her life from the inside out—guided by wisdom, expressed through choice.

The False Binary That Splits Us

For too long, women have been offered incomplete teachings:

Sacred Feminine without Sovereignty leaves you spiritually bypassing, all flow and no boundaries, receiving guidance but afraid to act on it, trusting everyone but yourself.

Sovereignty without Sacred Feminine leaves you performing masculine-modeled power, all action and no receptivity, making decisions without feminine wisdom, strong but disconnected from your cyclical nature.

Both teachings serve systems that fear whole women.

The truth is that the Sacred Feminine INCLUDES sovereignty—the goddess who creates also destroys, the priestess who receives visions also speaks prophecy, the mother who nurtures also protects fiercely.

And Sovereignty INCLUDES the Sacred Feminine—true authority arises from deep listening, wise leadership honors natural rhythms, authentic power serves life rather than ego.

Why This Integration Matters Now

We are living in a time of deep reckoning. The external structures we've relied on—systems, narratives, cultural norms—are crumbling. We are being invited, sometimes forced, to look within and ask:

What does my deepest knowing tell me?How do I honor both divine timing and personal responsibility?What would I choose if I trusted both my feminine wisdom and my sovereign authority?

For centuries, women have been conditioned to split their power—to be either spiritual or successful, either flowing or directed, either receptive or assertive. We've inherited legacies not just of silence and suppression, but of fragmentation.

Becoming a Sacred Feminine Sovereign is not just personal healing—it's collective medicine.

Every time you make a decision from the integration of womb wisdom and sovereign choice, you heal the generational wound. Every time you flow with your natural rhythms while maintaining your boundaries, you model wholeness. Every time you receive divine guidance and act on it courageously, you become the bridge between ancient wisdom and contemporary power.

You're not just reclaiming your life. You're healing the lineage and reshaping the world.

How Do We Remember This Integration?

Sacred Feminine Sovereignty is not something you earn. It's something you remember.

It begins with awareness: noticing where you've split your power, where you've been told to choose between aspects of yourself that were meant to work together.

It continues with compassion: not blaming yourself for the splitting, but honoring the intelligence that learned to fragment as a survival strategy.

And it deepens with integration: the sacred marriage of your receptive wisdom and your active authority, your cyclical nature and your decisive voice, your feminine knowing and your sovereign choice.

There are five sacred stages I've come to know on this path:

* Sacred Disconnection – when you realize you've been split between spiritual and powerful, and begin to call all aspects of yourself home

* Divine Disruption – when the Sacred Feminine orchestrates sacred chaos to break you free from patterns that no longer serve your wholeness

* Womb Descent – when you go into the cave of feminine knowing to reclaim the wisdom that lives in your body, your cycles, your deepest truth

* Sovereign Activation – when you claim your throne while honoring your feminine nature, ruling your life through love rather than force

* Embodied Integration – when you live as both Sacred Feminine and Sovereign authority, responding to life's rhythms while maintaining your power

These aren't linear. They're spirals. Invitations you'll meet again and again, each time more integrated and more free.

The Sacred Marriage Within

The path forward is not choosing between Sacred Feminine and Sovereignty—it's the conscious marriage of both within yourself.

You are designed to receive divine wisdom through your feminine knowing AND act on it through your sovereign will.

You are meant to flow with life's rhythms AND direct your own path.

You are here to honor your cyclical nature AND claim your authority.

You are the Sacred Feminine Sovereign—the woman who no longer splits her power, who trusts both her receptive wisdom and her active choice, who lives as the integration this world desperately needs.

The Invitation

If this stirs something in you—if your womb whispers yes while your heart claims its throne—then you're already remembering.

You don't have to know every step. You don't have to have it all figured out.

You only need to begin with one question: What would the Sacred Feminine Sovereign choose for me right now?

Let that integrated wisdom lead you home to yourself—whole, powerful, and free.

The world is waiting for women who remember they never had to choose between being sacred and being sovereign. You are both. You always were.

Welcome home to your wholeness.

With reverence,

Kathryn

P.S. If this message resonated, my new course, “How to Become a Sovereign Woman” is available. The five levels are taught by inspired teaching + meditations + journal + music are included for a nominal price.

P.P.S. Tomorrow (02.19.26)

is the gathering of the Sovereign Women’s Circle. You still have time to join and be with other women on the sacred sovereign path.

Thanks for reading The Sovereign Way! This post is public so feel free to share it.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit empoweredway.substack.com/subscribe

Hello Empowered Wayers!

When I was a new lawyer preparing for my very first trial, I believed John, my mentor, would be sitting beside me in the courtroom. He had guided me through the stages of litigation, helped me think through strategy, and answered my questions.

On the morning of trial, I stopped by his office to confirm he would be sitting next to me at counsel table. I was so nervous that I missed the gleam in his eyes when he nodded.

I should have known what was coming, but I ignored the warning signs from my body and moved forward anyway.

Soon after, I was sitting next to my client, watching the jury panel of 40 people take their seats. I kept looking to the back of the courtroom, waiting for the doors to open and John to walk in. Under the table, out of sight, my hands clenched and unclenched as fear rose in my chest. My mind froze as the realization hit me.

No one was coming.

The bailiff announced the Judge, who walked to her bench and sat down. She looked at the Plaintiff’s attorney, who declared, “Ready, your honor.” Then she looked at me.

Silence and expectation filled the air as I slowly stood. I managed to squeak out, “Defense is ready, your honor,” before sitting down so heavily that my client leaned over.

“Are you O.K.?” he whispered.

I nodded and took a deep breath to calm myself. This was happening whether I thought I was ready or not. I was trying my first case without my mentor and the results would be all mine. I said a quick prayer that I would remember the facts of the case, the law and evidentiary rules, and I would do a good job.

It was sink or swim, and I decided I did not want to drown that day.

Looking back now, I can see that this was one of my earliest initiations into sovereignty. At the time, it felt like abandonment or at least a profound disappointment, but years later, with the benefit of reflection and lived experience, I see it differently.

No one was coming, not because I was unsupported, but because it was time for me to stand fully in my own authority.

There is a particular kind of learning that only happens when borrowed confidence falls away. As long as you believe someone else will step in, reassure you, or quietly hold the weight for you, you will never fully inhabit your inner authority. That morning in court, I realized that the reassurance I had been counting on externally would need to come from within, whether I felt ready or not.

What can dogs teach us about sovereignty?

Much later, while writing Drop the Leash: Let Go of the Past and Love in the Present, I began to understand this moment through a different lens.

Dogs do not carry expectations into the present moment. They do not rehearse disappointment or fixate on how things should have gone. They respond to what is happening right now, with clarity, presence, and a whole sense of self.

In that courtroom, I was still holding an invisible leash made of expectation, approval, and the hope that someone else would steady me. When my mentor did not appear, that leash slipped from my hand, and I was left to face the reality of the moment. I could remain tethered to the story of how things were supposed to be, or I could meet what was actually unfolding with as much presence and integrity as I could muster.

That choice, whether conscious or not, marked the beginning of living from sovereignty.

What is Sovereignty?

Sovereignty is often misunderstood as isolation or self reliance taken to an extreme, but that is not what I mean. Sovereignty is not about doing everything alone or rejecting guidance and connection.

Sovereignty means to stop outsourcing your authority or abandoning yourself while waiting for someone else to validate you, protect you, or lead you through your own life.

Dogs show us this beautifully. They love deeply without disappearing. They remain loyal without losing themselves. They stay present rather than dragging the past into the moment or projecting fear into the future.

That is not dependency or detachment. It is embodied presence, and it is a form of sovereignty we can all learn from.

That first trial taught me that confidence is not something handed down by mentors or earned through perfect preparation. It is revealed when we stay present in moments that ask us to stand on our own feet.

When people hear the phrase “no one is coming,” it can sound harsh or lonely, but for me it has come to mean something very different. It is the moment when life quietly says, “Now, trust yourself.”

Why I created the Sovereign Women’s Circle

This understanding is at the heart of the work I now do with women. Again and again, I see women reaching thresholds where the familiar supports fall away, whether in relationships, careers, or stages of life. In the space between the familiar and the unknown, there is an invitation to step more fully into their own authority while staying open-hearted and connected.

That is why I created the Sovereign Women’s Circle, not as a place to be fixed or rescued, but as a space where women practice standing rooted in themselves together, releasing old leashes to the past, to approval, and to waiting.

As a woman remembers her sovereignty, she moves differently in her life. Instead of seeking approval from someone else, she listens inwardly. She becomes attuned to her body’s intelligence and knows when something is off. And she nurtures herself as much or more than the others around her.

When you “drop the leash” of expectation, need, and reliance on external authority, something beautiful emerges. Your sovereign self.

Takeaways

If someone you expected to show up for you has not, it may be worth asking this question: Is this a moment to trust yourself more deeply instead of proving you are unsupported?

Sovereignty does not mean closing your heart or doing everything alone. It means staying present and whole, rather than abandoning yourself while waiting for reassurance.

Letting go of old leashes, whether they are tied to past experiences, expectations, or external validation, creates space for a quieter and more reliable inner authority to emerge.

If this reflection resonates with you, I invite you to explore these themes more deeply in my book Drop the Leash: Let Go of the Past and Love in the Present, where I write about presence, unconditional love, and what our dogs so naturally teach us about living fully in the now.

And if you find yourself standing at a threshold where life is asking you to step into your own sovereignty, you are warmly welcome to join the Sovereign Women’s Circle, a community devoted to remembering inner authority while staying deeply connected and compassionate.

With love,Kathryn

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit empoweredway.substack.com/subscribe

Dearest Empowered Wayers,

I was standing in my bathroom last week, rushing through my morning routine, when I caught a glimpse of my reflection. Not my hair, not the lines around my eyes. Something deeper. Something that made me stop.

In that moment, the words from the Sufi poet, Rumi, surfaced like a prayer: “If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?”

I had been irritated all morning. The email that didn’t come. The client who canceled. The small disappointments that pile up before we’ve even had our coffee.

But what if those rubs weren’t obstacles?

What if they were the very thing polishing me into someone who could finally see clearly?

Why an 800-Year-Old Poet Still Makes Us Weep

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī was born in 1207 in Balkh, in what is now Afghanistan. His family fled the Mongol invasions when he was a child, eventually settling in Konya, Turkey. He was a respected scholar, theologian, and a teacher with thousands of students. He had everything a man of his time could want: status, security, certainty.

And then everything changed.

A wandering dervish named Shams of Tabriz arrived in Konya one November day in 1244. Shams was rough where Rumi was refined. Homeless where Rumi was established. Wild where Rumi was composed.

The story goes that Shams approached Rumi while he was studying, surrounded by books, and asked him a question so piercing that Rumi fell from his donkey, unconscious.

When he woke, everything he thought he knew had shattered.

Shams didn’t give Rumi answers. He gave him a mirror. He showed Rumi that all his learning, all his religious knowledge, all his carefully constructed identity was just that: a construction. A veil between himself and the Divine Love that was already within him.

The sober scholar became a devotee of music, dance, and poetry. The theologian became a mystic. The man who had all the answers began living in the questions.

And for the next three years, until Shams mysteriously disappeared, Rumi was transformed.

He spent the rest of his life writing about that transformation. Over 70,000 verses. Poems that make people weep eight centuries later. Words that cross every boundary of religion, culture, and time to land directly in the center of the human heart.

Why?

Because Rumi understood something we are still learning: we cannot see ourselves without a mirror.

The Metaphor That Changes Everything

Rumi returned to the image of the mirror again and again in his poetry. It wasn’t decorative language. It was his entire spiritual philosophy.

We are the mirror as well as the face in it. We are tasting the taste this minute of eternity. We are pain and what cures pain, both.”

You are the mirror and the face in it. You are the one seeing and the one being seen. You are the Divine beholding itself through your very eyes.

This is not abstract philosophy. This is the most practical spiritual teaching I know.

When I sit in meditation each morning, I am polishing the mirror of my heart. I am clearing away the dust of yesterday’s fears, last week’s resentments, last year’s grief. Not because those experiences were wrong, but because they have settled over the surface of who I truly am.

If you find the mirror of the heart dull, the rust has not been cleared from its face.

The rust is not failure. The rust is simply what accumulates when we forget to tend to our inner life. When we rush through our days without pausing to remember who we are.

Why Rumi Needed Shams

Here is what moves me most about this story.

Rumi was already brilliant. Already successful. Already teaching others about the Divine.

And yet.

He needed someone to walk into his life and show him what he couldn’t see on his own. He needed a mirror in human form.

Shams didn’t teach Rumi new information. He reflected back to Rumi the vastness that Rumi had forgotten was already within him.

This is what we do for each other when we are fully present. This is what happens in the Sovereign Women’s Circle, in our deepest friendships, in the moments when someone truly sees us and we catch a glimpse of ourselves through their loving gaze.

We become mirrors for one another.

One of Rumi’s most tender poems captures this perfectly:

“You have no idea how hard I’ve looked for a gift to bring You. Nothing seemed right. What’s the point of bringing gold to the gold mine, or water to the ocean? It’s no good giving my heart and my soul because you already have these. So I’ve brought you a mirror. Look at yourself and remember me.”

What gift can you give to someone who already contains everything?

Only this: help them see what they have forgotten.

The Polishing

There is a reason Rumi’s words land so deeply in the modern heart. We are drowning in noise, images and in the constant scroll of other people’s curated lives. We have forgotten what our own face looks like without the filter.

Let go of your worries and be completely clear-hearted, like the face of a mirror that contains no images.

Can you imagine it? A heart so clear it contains no images. No projections of fear. No anticipation of disaster. No rehearsal of old wounds.

Just clarity and presence. The quiet readiness to reflect whatever truth appears.

This doesn’t happen by accident. It happens through the rub.

If metal can be polished to a mirror-like finish, what polishing might the mirror of the heart require?

Every disappointment and loss. Every moment when life doesn’t go the way you planned. These are not evidence that something is wrong. They are the polishing.

The question is not whether the rub will come. It will. It always does.

The question is: Will you let it polish you? Or will you resist and stay dull?

The Truth Was a Mirror

There is another Rumi saying that has stayed with me for years:

The truth was a mirror in the hands of God. It fell, and broke into pieces. Everybody took a piece of it, and they looked at it and thought they had the truth.

I think about this every time I see people arguing about who is right. Every time I catch myself certain that my way is the only way.

We are all holding a shard. We are all seeing only a piece of the picture. No one has a view of the whole picture.

But here is the grace: when we gather in love, when we lay our pieces side by side, something whole begins to emerge. Not because any of us possesses the complete truth, but because together we reflect a larger pattern.

This is why community matters. This is why we cannot walk this path alone. We need each other’s reflections to see what we cannot see from our single vantage point.

What the Mirror Reveals

I want to leave you with one final Rumi verse. One that I return to when I have forgotten who I am:

Do you know what you are? You are a manuscript of a divine letter. You are a mirror reflecting a noble face. This universe is not outside of you. Look inside yourself; everything that you want, you are already that.

You are already that.

Not will be or could be if you work hard enough, heal enough, achieve enough.

Already. Right now, in this moment, as these words flow across your mind.

The mirror doesn’t create the face it reflects. It simply reveals what is already there.

Your meditation practice, your spiritual work, your commitment to presence: none of it is creating your divinity. It is revealing it. Polishing away the dust so you can finally see clearly what has always been true.

You are an individual aspect of Divine Love, looking at itself through your eyes.

Let the rub polish you. Let the world be your Shams. Let every challenge reveal another layer of the beauty you have always been.

And then, as Rumi did, let your life become a poem that helps others remember too.

To your sovereign seeing,

Kathryn

P.S. If Rumi’s words have touched something in you today, I invite you to join us in the Sovereign Women’s Circle, where we practice seeing each other clearly. Sometimes the greatest gift we can give is simply being a mirror for another woman’s light.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit empoweredway.substack.com/subscribe

Hello Empowered Wayers:

More than thirty years ago, I rode my motorcycle through a Texas rainstorm that stripped me down to fear, faith, and forward motion. I didn’t write about it then. I lived it. It wasn’t until last year that I finally put the experience into words, believing I was telling a story about surrender and survival.

But something kept working on me after I published it.

With time and reflection, I realized the storm had been teaching me something deeper all along.

It wasn’t a life or death crisis. Instead, it was an initiation.

When Independence Stops Being a Choice

That afternoon, the rain came down so hard it felt biblical. My glasses blurred, my body shook from the cold, and I couldn’t feel my feet. I wore a half-face helmet—no visor, no protection from the wind or rain.

Bluetooth didn’t exist yet, so I had no way to communicate with my husband or the small group riding ahead. We thought we knew the weather to expect, but no one anticipated this storm. At first, we pulled over underneath an old gas station cover and debated about what to do. Everyone felt confident this storm would pass quickly, so we continued on.

Except it didn’t. Instead of a light drizzle, the rain poured from the sky, the sun hid behind dark, menacing clouds, and lightening flashed all around us.

I had chosen to ride my own motorcycle, craving independence and adventure.

And suddenly, independence wasn’t an idea—it was a fact.

There was no one who could take over for me. No one who could ride my bike.No one who could make the decision for me.

If I stopped, the motorcycle would be abandoned on the side of the road. If I continued, it would be up to me to make it to our destination safely.

Alone—and Not Alone

I was utterly alone.

At first, my mind turned against me, as fear often invites it to do. Harsh self-talk, judgment and very imaginative doom-laden visions. My mind and nervous system searched frantically for an escape, for an out, for someone to come and make it all better.

But no one came.

The moment I realized that no one was coming is when the initiation truly began.

The Moment Sovereignty Woke Up

With no external solution available, I did the only thing left: I turned inward. I prayed. I asked for help, not to be rescued, but to be held.

I surrendered my need to control the outcome and felt something settle inside me.

The fear didn’t disappear immediately, but it loosened its grip. In its place came a deep, quiet knowing:

I can do this.

The rain still fell and the pavement was still slick. My body was still numb and my feet wet from the cold water dripping inside my boots. My reality was still the same, but I wasn’t.

In that moment of surrender to God, something essential shifted in me. I was no longer in control of what happened. Something greater than me had taken over and gave me the strength to keep going.

What I Could Only See Years Later

Years later, when I shared this story on the Mystic Misfits podcast, I heard myself say something I hadn’t fully articulated before:

That night taught me how to live from sovereignty.

Sovereignty isn’t about doing everything alone. It’s about no longer outsourcing your authority. It’s the moment when life stops offering training wheels and instead, invites you to trust the wisdom already inside you.

Initiation Is Not Rescue

Initiations rarely announce themselves as such. They arrive disguised as inconvenience, fear, or impossible circumstances. And they almost always carry the same message:

No one is coming.

Not because you are abandoned, but because you are ready.

When you stop waiting to be rescued, something ancient awakens inside of you. A sense of presence opens as you allow God to be with you. You acknowledge God and He sees you.

In the aftermath of surrender, you discover you know how to listen beneath panic. Presence is chosen instead of paralysis. You learn that you are enough, just as you are in this moment. And your worthiness is already established by your very existence as a human being.

If This Moment Feels Familiar

If you’re facing something right now that feels overwhelming, something where the exits are unclear and the support you hoped for hasn’t materialized, I invite you to consider this:

Perhaps this moment is not here to break you.

Perhaps it is here to claim you.

To initiate you into the part of yourself that knows how to stand, choose, and move forward with grace, even while shaking with fear.

Living from Sovereignty Together

This is the work I now hold space for in the Sovereign Women’s Circle: a place where women gather not to be fixed or saved, but to remember their inner authority, their intuition, and their capacity to meet life as it is.

If you feel the resonance of this story, if you sense that life is asking you to step more fully into your own sovereignty, you are welcome in the Circle.

And if you’d like to hear the fuller conversation about this initiation, fear, and faith, I shared it on the Mystic Misfits podcast. Sometimes hearing a story spoken aloud reveals another layer entirely.

A Blessing for the Road Ahead

Thank you for reading this far. I appreciate the time, energy, and focus you have spent on being here. To thank you, please hear me say these words:

May you trust the moments that ask more of you.May you recognize the initiations when they arrive.And may you discover, again and again, that the wisdom you seek has already chosen you.

With love,Kathryn

Thanks for reading Empowered Way! This post is public so feel free to share it.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit empoweredway.substack.com/subscribe

Hello Empowered Wayers.

There are moments in life when certainty stops working.

Not in a dramatic way and not all at once.

But slowly—like a familiar structure that once held you begins to creak under the weight of lived experience. What once felt solid no longer answers the questions you’re carrying. What once felt righteous feels brittle. And somewhere beneath the noise of opinions, expectations, and inherited beliefs, something quieter begins to ask for your attention.

That’s where my latest book, Sovereign Women: Love is a Revolutionary Choice begins.

I didn’t set out to write a book with answers or to argue for or against a position. I wrote this story because I was interested in asking questions, the kind that don’t demand resolution, but presence. The questions that ask you not to decide quickly, but to listen more honestly.

At its heart, Sovereign Women: Love Is a Revolutionary Choice is a contemplative novel about what happens when a woman is asked to choose, not between right and wrong, but between fear and love.

Emily Carter has spent much of her life certain of who she is and what she believes. As the leading voice for the Women’s Choice Collective, she is the face of pro-choice. Her beliefs about women’s rights and autonomy in making bodily decisions has given her a sense of safety, identity, and belonging. But when an unexpected pregnancy disrupts the life she thought she was living, she finds herself standing at a threshold she didn’t choose.

The questions she faces aren’t abstract. They are embodied. Relational. Costly to her personally and to her career.

She had spent years defending what she believed was right.But no one had taught her how to listen to what felt true.

Emily’s journey is not about taking sides. It’s about staying present when certainty dissolves—and learning how to trust what emerges in its place.

As she struggles with her beliefs about women’s rights and her pregnancy, Emily remembers the wisdom of her grandmother, Rose Sullivan. Rose died several years before, but her quiet wisdom still offers a different way of understanding sovereignty. Rose never gave advice or solutions. Instead, she would listen and ask questions that didn’t rush toward conclusions.

“Fear will always offer you an answer,” Rose said gently.“Love offers you something better.It offers you a choice.”

This idea, that love is not sentimental or passive, but a conscious, often courageous choice, is a thread that runs through the entire story. Not love as agreement or approval, but love as presence. Love as the willingness to remain in relationship with ourselves and others, even when the ground beneath us feels uncertain.

Stay Open to Complexity

One of the things I care most about in this book is honoring nuance. The world we’re living in often rewards speed, certainty, and clarity. But human experience, especially when it comes to faith, morality, grief, and belonging, is rarely neat or tidy.

Sovereign Women makes space for complexity. It allows characters to be conflicted, tender, and unfinished. It trusts the reader to sit with questions rather than resolve them.

She didn’t know yet what she would choose.She only knew she could no longer pretendshe hadn’t heard herself.

If this story resonates with you, it may be because you’ve found yourself in a similar place, not necessarily in Emily’s circumstances, but in her interior landscape. Perhaps you, too, have felt the quiet tension between what you’re supposed to believe and what you’re beginning to sense is true. Perhaps you’ve noticed that fear often speaks first and loudest, while love waits.

This book is not an argument. It’s an offering.

It’s a companion for women who are learning to trust their inner authority without isolating themselves from relationship. A reminder that sovereignty does not mean standing alone. It means staying rooted in yourself while remaining open to connection.

“Sovereignty isn’t about being alone,” Rose said.“It’s about being so rooted in yourselfthat you can stay in relationshipwithout disappearing.”

This book is the first in the Sovereign Women series, but it stands on its own. Each novel explores a different facet of this inner journey—love, trust, faith—through the lives of women who are navigating loss, choice, and meaning in their own ways.

If you choose to read it, I hope it meets you gently. I hope it offers a place to pause. And I hope it reminds you that you don’t have to decide everything right now.

Some revolutions begin in the streets. This one begins in the soul.

Thank you for being here, and for listening.

—Kathryn

P.S. Sovereign Women: Love is a Revolutionary Choice is now available to pre-order on Amazon.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit empoweredway.substack.com/subscribe

Hello Empowered Wayers!

We are still at the beginning of the year (even though it feels as if it is flying by). Recently, on the Mystic Misfits Podcast, I spoke about the importance of being aware of your identity.

Not your name, occupation, sexual orientation, or family origins, but who you are being in each moment.

Identity springs from authority.

Who or what do you accept as your authority? What energy guides you? Where is the edge of your fear?

These questions are basic identity markers, the answers to which mold your identity, beliefs, and ultimately, your reality.

What are the sources of authority?

“Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us." - Marianne Williamson

Marianne Williamson studied A Course in Miracles for many years and it is the foundation of her teaching and books. Her words highlight that we came from love, but learned to fear as we move in the world.

The Course is a spiritual self-study “designed to to awaken us to the truth of our oneness with God and Love.” Throughout the Course, the same theme emerges: We are Love who has learned fear.

There are only two sources of authority: Love or fear.

Let’s explore the differences

Fear is rampant now. ICE protests, New York City nurses striking, fraud, Iran burning. The list goes on and on. Underneath the chaos and destruction is pervasive fear: judgment, condemnation, anger, and violence.

None of these energetic ways of being are based in Love. If they were, they would look radically different.

Love isn’t an emotion or Valentine’s Day card. Love is much deeper and wider than how we use the word to apply to everything from a great meal or a cute dog.

Love is the connection you allow with your higher being, God, Yahweh, or the Universe. As you connect, communicate, and allow Love to flow through you, you step out of fear into a state of consciousness that is eternal.

Fear or Love is always available

One fact that every human must accept at some point in their life: it is impossible to live from fear or Love in the same moment. When you are in fear, it becomes your authority and your identity. Love is pushed off the stage of your internal sense of yourself.

Your body tells you instantly when you are in fear. Shallow breaths, narrow vision, a sense of dread or anger rising in your chest or gut. These are some of the ways your body registers fear.

As you become aware of when you are living from fear, you can rescue yourself. Your breath is the gateway back to Love. Taking several long, slow, deep intentional breaths calms your nervous system and brings you back to center.

As you practice moving from fear back to Love, your awareness of your energetic state heightens and becomes stronger. You develop a new spiritual muscle, the ability to move through fear and re-connect with your source.

The choice is yours in every moment

Are you beginning to see the impact of your choice to live from either fear or love? Your identity in each moment is defined by whether you are in fear or Love.

The 15th Century Persian Poet Hafiz wrote:

“I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness the astonishing light of your own being.”

The first time I discovered this quote was in Paris, France. I had stepped into the famous bookstore, “Shakespeare & Co.” and walked toward the back of the store. There was a red staircase leading to the second floor, and as I stood in front of it, I saw it.

My hope is that this short article has made you aware of the “astonishing light of your own being.” Only you can discover it, remember who you are beneath the noise of the world, and make the decision to live as Love.

On your journey back to Self, take comfort in this quote from the Course:

If you knew Who walked beside you at all times; On this Path that you have chosen; You could never experience fear or doubt again.

Blessings,

Kathryn

P.S. Please share this newsletter with someone who is overwhelmed or deep in fear. Knowing there is a way out of fear is the first step.

Empowered Way is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit empoweredway.substack.com/subscribe

Hello Empowered Wayers!

You know when you find your people, the ones who resonate with your beliefs and love your stories?

I discovered that level of compatibility on the Mystic Misfits Society Show. Of course, I was their guest (so they had to be nice to me), but there was something deeper going on.

A shared desire to know yourself as you move in the world.

See if you don’t agree. The link to the episode is below. Please like and share it if you feel it too.

I have been interviewed many times, but I can never remember feeling so comfortable. Juan and Jessie are amazing at setting the space and asking questions that call for answers from deep within.

I have to admit, I told one or two stories I never shared before.

But that’s what happens when you know you are seen, heard, and held in love.

No one is coming

The title of the episode is “No One is Coming.” I shared the story of my motorcycle trip when I realized I could do it myself.

Instead of outsourcing your authority or waiting for permission to be yourself, know that you are here for a reason. You are not a mistake and you can never screw up enough to lose God’s love.

“No one is coming” is a declaration of freedom…to be yourself and pursue or create what you came here to do.

I hope that message lands. Because I need you to be amazing, so I can be amazing. We’re all One, remember?

Hope you enjoy this episode.

Many blessings,

Kathryn

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit empoweredway.substack.com/subscribe

Dear Empowered Wayers:

The world feels unstable right now.

Invasions, recriminations, incessant fraud dominating the headlines. Everyone has an opinion about who’s right and who’s to blame, while the planet continues its ancient spin around the sun.

I woke up this morning caught in a vortex of fear. My mind was cataloging every threat, every uncertainty, every reason to brace against what might come next.

And I recognized the pattern: when I identify myself by my fears and worries, that’s all I see. The headlines and the chaos become my reality. My identity shifts to anxiety and my peace is shattered.

It was time for a reset.

The Return

I went outside before dawn and sat beneath the waxing moon.

The cool air on my skin. The chair holding me. My feet connected to the ground.

I imagined myself as a tree, deeply rooted in the Earth, nourishment rising like sap through my trunk, my branches reaching toward something I couldn’t name but could feel.

My heart opened to the simple miracle of a new day.

The worry dissolved like mist and I came back to myself.

Not to the self that scrolls headlines and calculates danger. I returned to the self that exists before thought, before opinion, before the need to be right or safe or certain.

The Field Where No Division Exists

After meditation, I opened Insight Timer and found today’s Rumi quote waiting:

If ten lamps are present in one place,each differs in form from one another.Yet, you can’t distinguishwhose radiance is whosewhen you focus on the light.

In the field of spirit there is no division;no individuals exist.Sweet is the Onenessof the Friend with His friends.

Catch hold of the spirit.Help this headstrong self disintegrate;That beneath ityou may discover unity,like a buried treasure.

The timing felt deliberate. Precise.

While the world argues about borders and boundaries, Rumi reminds us: focus on the light, not the lamp.

In the field of spirit, there is no division.

What Dissolves When You Let Go

Here’s what I’m noticing: the “headstrong self” Rumi talks about? That’s the part of me that needs to understand everything, control the outcome, protect against every possible threat.

That self is exhausted from being constantly vigilant and forever afraid.

But beneath it—like a buried treasure—there’s something else. Something that doesn’t need the world to be stable to remain steady. Something that remembers unity even when everything looks fractured.

You can’t think your way to that treasure. You can only drop in and allow yourself to surrender.

Your Practice Matters

You may have a different practice to return to center, to the essence of you.

Maybe it’s walking in nature or creating art or moving your body or sitting in silence with your morning coffee.

Whatever it is, use it. Today. Right now if you can.

Because when you settle your own energy, you change the energy of the world. Not in some abstract, woo-woo way, but in a real, tangible way.

Every nervous system that calms sends ripples. Every heart that opens creates space. Every person who chooses presence over panic shifts the collective field.

Your practice isn’t selfish. It’s essential.

The Invitation

Just for today, catch hold of the spirit. Let the headstrong self soften. Discover what’s beneath all that striving and protecting.

The buried treasure of unity is always there, waiting. Underneath the fear and the chaos. When you look at your need to be right, allow a new identity to emerge. You will discover the buried treasure of unity waiting for you.

You just have to remember to dig.

Many blessings on your journey,

Kathryn

P.S. I meditate using Insight Timer—it tracks my practice and connects me to teachers and wisdom like today’s Rumi quote. If you’re looking for a way to anchor your daily practice, you can find me there and explore the 250,000+ free meditations. Sometimes the teacher you need finds you exactly when you’re ready.

Empowered Way is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit empoweredway.substack.com/subscribe

Happy New Year!

I love the excitement and expectation of a new year beginning. It’s when we turn the calendar over that we begin again.

But why wait for the year to change?

We have been conditioned to tie our lives and identity to time and space. We are humans living in a material world. To keep that world orderly and predictable, time was invented and natural rhythms subsumed into a mechanical process.

What if there is another way to be in the world?

Allow 2026 to be the year of Fluid Identity

Your identity is so much more than what you do, your name, your past, your relationships, your body. When I speak of “identity,” I mean something deeper than gender identification or sexual orientation.

It’s who-you-are at the soul and consciousness levels.

Why did you incarnate into your unique body, childhood, adult life? Whatever the reason, whether you know it consciously or not, you are here, breathing, thinking, and moving in time and space as you.

But who are you?

That is the question consciousness has asked itself since the beginning. When Moses asked God who he was, the answer was simple and profound: “I am that I am.”

Not “I was” or “I will be.” I am.

Present, eternal and constantly becoming.

The Dream of Fixed Identity

Words of Taoism shares an ancient Taoist story about the philosopher Zhuangzi, who dreamed he was a butterfly. When he woke, he wondered: “Am I a man who dreamed of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming I’m a man?”

Who you say you are determines your reality. When you define yourself as a “man who dreamed of being a butterfly,” it closes the door on the magic and mystery of life. Your old identity may not even be true for you now, and when you cling to it, you suffer.

Consciousness Dreaming Itself Awake

“You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.” — Rumi

Consciousness—that vast, infinite awareness—is expressing itself through billions of unique forms, including you and me. Every person who has ever walked the earth and everyone who is walking it now.

You are not separate from this Consciousness. You are how it experiences itself as you explore, experience, and embody.

Your human consciousness is not a mistake or limitation—it’s a specific expression of the Divine experiencing life through your particular lens. The more fluid and open you become, the more fully Consciousness can move through you. The more you release the need to be one fixed thing, the more you become available to the infinite possibilities that Consciousness wants to explore.

This is what “I am that I am” really means. Not a static identity, but Consciousness recognizing itself in form.

I spent years introducing myself as ‘an attorney.’ Even after I’d left the legal world, even after my soul had moved on, I’d still lead with those credentials. At networking events, I could feel myself shrinking into that old suit, that old story. My body would tense and my voice would flatten. My energy would shrink and the other person would quickly move on.

Then one day, someone asked what I did, and before my mind could grab for the familiar script, something else emerged: ‘I help women remember their sovereignty.’ The words surprised me. My body relaxed and I felt more true than I had in years.

That’s when I understood: I had been defending a version of myself that no longer existed, and it was exhausting.

What Fluid Identity Actually Means

Fluid identity doesn’t mean not having values or boundaries. It doesn’t mean you’re flaky or uncommitted.

It means you recognize that Consciousness—your true nature—is always moving, always creating, always becoming.

You are the observer AND the creator of your experience.

When you cling to “I am this kind of person” or “I am not that kind of person,” you limit what Consciousness can create through you. You close doors before you even see what’s behind them.

Fluid identity asks: What if I let life unfold? What if I stayed curious about who I’m becoming?

The Paradox of Sovereignty

Here’s what surprised me about becoming fluid: I thought it would make me feel less grounded, less certain.

Instead, I became more sovereign.

True sovereignty isn’t about being fixed or immovable. It’s not about defending your position or proving you’re right.

Sovereignty is the ability to remain deeply rooted in your connection to Divine Love while allowing everything else to shift and transform around you.

Think of a tree. Its roots go deep into the Earth, receiving nourishment and being held as it grows. The branches move with the wind and reach in new directions. The leaves grow green in Spring, and drop in the Fall, but the tree remains rooted in the unseen source of life.

The tree doesn’t lose its sovereignty when its leaves fall. It doesn’t become “less of a tree” when it transforms from spring blossoms to summer fruit to autumn gold.

It remains sovereign precisely because it allows the transformation.

When You Become Fluid in Your Identity, You Become Unshakeable in Your Essence.

You stop defending outdated versions of yourself because you know who you are at the soul level. You’re not threatened by change—you’re curious about it.

You ask better questions:

* What wants to emerge through me right now?

* What old story am I ready to release?

* What possibility am I not seeing because I’m too attached to who I was?

This is where sovereignty and fluidity meet. This is where Divine Consciousness can fully express through you.

But here’s the truth: this practice is nearly impossible to sustain alone.

Join Women Who Are Practicing This Path

If you’re reading this and thinking, “Yes, but how do I actually live this? How do I stay sovereign while becoming fluid?”—you’re asking the exact question that birthed the Sovereign Women’s Circle.

This isn’t another program teaching you to hustle harder or manifest faster.

This is a monthly sacred gathering where we practice what you just read. Where we support each other in releasing old identities and allowing new expressions to emerge. Where sovereignty isn’t something you achieve—it’s something you remember, together.

The Sovereign Women’s Circle meets the third Thursday of every month at 7:00 p.m. CST via Zoom.

Each gathering includes:

* Guided meditation to connect with your fluid, sovereign nature

* Sacred space to explore who you’re becoming (not who you should be)

* Practices that anchor you in Divine Love while life transforms around you

* A private community where the conversation continues between gatherings

* Monthly resources and reflection questions to deepen your practice

This circle is for women who are ready to stop defending outdated versions of themselves and start creating from consciousness.

For women who know there’s more wanting to emerge through them, but need sacred space to let it unfold.

For women who understand that sovereignty isn’t about standing alone—it’s about standing in alignment with other women who are also becoming.

Your first gathering is waiting. Your sovereign, fluid self is already here.

Your Invitation This Year

This week, notice when you introduce yourself—to others or in your own mind.

What story do you tell? What identity do you defend?

Then ask: Is this still true? Or am I protecting something that’s already transformed?

You don’t have to announce a new identity. You don’t have to know who you’re becoming.

You just have to be willing to let go of who you were.

Divine Love doesn’t need you to be fixed. It needs you to be fluid.

It needs you to be present to what wants to emerge through you, right now, in this moment.

Because that’s where creation happens. Not in the story of who you were. Not in the plan of who you’ll be.

In the space of I am.

To your becoming,

Kathryn

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit empoweredway.substack.com/subscribe

Hello Empowered Wayers.

I am starting something new: The Sovereign Women’s Circle.

Last night, as I sat down to write about it, something happened that always happens when women gather with intention.

The words didn’t come from my head.

They came from that deeper place—the one that knows we’re all connected, all walking each other home, all remembering together what we came here to do.

So I’m sharing them with you. Not as instructions or teachings, but as an invitation into what becomes possible when women stop hiding and start showing up as the truth of who they are.

The Pattern I Keep Seeing

For years, I’ve worked with incredible women—talented, brilliant, capable women who have so much to offer the world.

And I kept watching the same pattern play out.

They would show up to a conversation, a meeting, a moment where their voice mattered, and something would happen. Their shoulders would curve inward, their voice would rise and they would apologize before they even spoke.

I saw it in the entrepreneur who couldn’t name her price without shrinking.

I saw it in the corporate leader who had the answer but waited for someone else to say it first.

I saw it in the stay-at-home mom who started every sentence with “I’m just a...”

And I saw it in myself.

That moment when you’re about to speak your truth, and fear whispers: Who do you think you are? What if they judge you? What if you’re wrong?

The Question That Changed Everything

I spent months fumbling through conversations with potential clients, literally talking them out of working with me because I was so consumed with my own insecurities.

Until one day, my husband asked me something that stopped me cold: “If you were in her position, struggling with what she’s struggling with, would you hire someone who sounded unsure about whether they could actually help you?”

The answer was obvious. Of course not.

I wouldn’t hire me either.

And that’s when I realized: this isn’t about confidence. It’s about focus.

Every time I made it about me—my fears, my inadequacies, my need for validation—I was actually robbing the person in front of me of the help they needed.

The shift happened when I stopped asking “Am I good enough?” and started asking “How can I serve?”

That simple question changed everything. My energy shifted from apologetic to magnetic. And the very next time I had a conversation with a potential client, she said yes to $1,000 without hesitation.

Not because I suddenly had better credentials. But because I was finally focused on her transformation instead of my fears.

What I Learned About Sovereignty

Sovereignty isn’t about feeling brave. It’s about being of service.

It’s not about having all the answers. It’s about trusting that Love will guide you to the right ones. It’s not about perfection. It’s about presence.

And here’s what I discovered: women can’t do this alone.

We need other women who see us and who witness us without judgment. Women we can turn to when the world tries to make us forget.

Women need spaces where we can practice showing up fully—messy, uncertain, remembering our truths without apologizing for taking up space.

Why Now

The world is asking us to choose between fear or love. Silence or truth. Hiding or presence.

And I know it feels safer to wait. To wait until you’re more ready, until the chaos settles, until someone gives you permission.

But the women who change things don’t wait for perfect timing. They act when it’s uncomfortable. They speak when their voice shakes. They show up when staying small would be easier.

Because sovereignty isn’t a destination—it’s a decision you make right now to remember.

The Sacred Gathering I Wished I’d Had

The Sovereign Women’s Circle was born from this longing—for authentic connection, for permission to be fully ourselves, for a place where we don’t have to perform or prove anything.

It’s a monthly sacred gathering where women come together to remember their power, reconnect with their wisdom, and support each other in living authentically.

This isn’t therapy or generic self-help tips. This isn’t advice-giving or people telling you what to do. This is about coming home to yourself. It’s the sacred rise of the Feminine Soul.

Each month, we gather on the first Tuesday evening for 60 minutes of teaching, transmission, and energetic attunement. Between gatherings, we share our lessons and growth in a private community space. We practice sovereignty together through monthly practices that strengthen our inner authority.

The path isn’t straight or logical. It’s circular, spiraling deeper with every turn. We’re uncovering and releasing what holds us back while remembering our power to be sovereign.

The Invitation

If you’re tired of living by everyone else’s expectations...

If you want to trust your own inner knowing...

If you’re ready to stop abandoning yourself to please others...

If you crave authentic connection with other women...

If you want to reconnect with Sacred Feminine wisdom...

If you’re ready to remember who you really are...

The Sovereign Women’s Circle is waiting for you.

This is a gathering of women who are done performing and proving. Who want to practice—together—what it means to Let Love lead.

We meet each other in the mess of becoming. We witness each other without judgment. We remind each other who we are when the world tries to make us forget.

Because the women who need you aren’t waiting for your perfect version. They’re waiting for your true one.

And your true self? She’s waiting for you in the Circle.

To your presence,

Kathryn

P.S. The Sovereign Women’s Circle gathers on the first Tuesday of every month at 7:00 p.m. CST. When you join, you receive live monthly gatherings, a private community space, sovereign practices, access to our inspiration library, and monthly reflection questions to track your growth.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit empoweredway.substack.com/subscribe