An Unapologetic Creatrix
For Megan Riley—Spiritual Executive Coach, Mentor, Creatrix—early signs pointed to a life path beyond the ordinary. One of her first memories is having deceased loved ones appear at the foot of her bed. Despite being young, Megan wasn’t frightened by this because in her Irish Catholic family this was not unusual. In fact, it was often talked about. She says, “It was only really when I got to school that I figured out I was weird.” Seeing apparitions wasn’t her only connection to her ancestors. There were others. Megan says, “I would hear little things come down the line that were obviously super, super witchy.” However, these musings on ancient craft were not openly discussed by the family because of the history of danger that once existed around them.
Shaped not only by her lineage, Megan tells how she bumped up against misogyny at an early age and how it changed her. She wanted to serve in her church as—what was then called—an altar boy. She soon learned why the position was titled by gender, and how females, no matter how devout, were not offered the same status as their male counterparts within the church. Megan says this led her to internalize misogyny. Coming to believe the more masculine she pretended to be the better it was for her. Later she came to understand this was not true. In fact, she says when this happens to us as women, we deny and abandon ourselves.
For Megan, this denial kept her from expressing her creative energy in healthy ways. She explains, “I’ve got a lot of planets in Scorpio and a lot of water planets, and it was really intense.” She believes by not honoring her strong energy through positive means, she missed out on learning such things as homesteading and the witchy, crafty parts of herself. Instead, back then, she thought it best to become something like an attorney, to pursue a super masculine route.
These early experiences and erroneous beliefs about who she should be became a part of Megan’s personal story. She acknowledges that today these outdated stories are being examined and dropped by the collective. She says, “I think the weight of our expectations is collapsing, what we thought was appropriate.” In her case, there was a family creed that it was best to hide your sadness and not process your emotions. Megan says the thing to do was to look happy even if you weren’t. But following that narrative proved traumatic for her, and that trauma eventually manifested as addiction, eating disorder, and depression.
Today, things are different for Megan. She can dip into her healer’s toolbox and pull forth the strands of her personal story, as well as our collective limiting stories, for guiding clients in their own healings. She believes every great story has a guide and who better to step into the role than someone who has been through it, lived it. According to Megan, the guide can say, “Take my hand. I’ve got you.” For anyone wanting to heal, to transform, these are powerful words, an offer of hope.
Besides using story for healing, Megan, who recently started CrossFit training points out the benefits of moving our bodies in new ways, explaining how it can lead to the release of stored traumatic experiences. She says, “Just to have the body do something it’s never done before is going to shift our internal state, and having it shift our internal state, then it’s going to shift how we’re looking at the world that day.” This shift in perspective then becomes another tool in the healing process.
These days, Megan lives her authenticity. She says, “I don’t apologize to anyone about it, and it scares some people for sure. It makes some people uncomfortable.” But she’s not denying her experiences because she knows there is a reason they happened.
After the pandemic pause, Megan is eager to get back in front of large groups of people, helping them to generate and maintain the level of energy they need to manifest successful results. This unapologetic creatrix says, “This is why I’m on the planet.” She finds it super fun to work with this energy, using it to help others reach their goals, whether it’s a corporate team, an entrepreneur, a small business, or an individual. Megan rocks her energy and guides others to do the same.
By Karen H Lizon
