DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, MASSACHUSETTS,
NEW YORK AND OHIO

MY MONARCHY

In 1967, although I couldn't know it at the time, I began to meet the five woman who would become my lifetime friends. We were students at the University of Dayton, Ohio at a very exciting juncture in history and we just seemed to click.

 

After graduation we had our first reunion in my Manhattan apartment in 1972 on Memorial Day weekend. It became a tradition. Our rule for success was a simple one: No Husbands, No Kids. It worked.

 

We met in New York City for many years before we decided to diversify. Each year someone selected a place to meet. We met in New Jersey, Cincinnati, West Virginia and Cape Cod. Our visits grew more precious to us as the years passed and we experienced birth and death, career highs and lows.

 

Professionally we are diverse. We have a family therapist, a media specialist, a business consultant, a senior scientist for the EPA, an acupuncturist, and I am an astrologer and Tarot reader, better known as an Intuitive Counselor. But what unites us is an unbeatable desire to have fun. Years ago we named ourselves the GirlGang. It fits.

 

Twelve years ago we decided to upgrade ourselves from a three-day weekend to a whole week, since a week was time enough to go somewhere exciting and do more fun things.

 

We have met in the most wonderful places - from Santa Fe to Puerto Vallarta. This year we have rented a palazzo in Venice where we have shared important past lives together. Although each of us has been to Venice, we have never traveled as a pack, and I am very excited to see what past life memories surface.

 

I thought we should choose a Queen each year, working chronologically through our birth order. The Queen for the year makes all the executive decisions for the year. In debates, she settles things. It is a position of responsibility and one of great joy. The Queen is pampered for the entire year.

 

Every year we have had a coronation with pomp and ceremony. They were usually themed. A Key West coronation was called Island Girl. One of my coronations was in Martha's Vineyard and it was dedicated to Corn Woman. Another crowning was dubbed A Night in Venice. I had a silver crown given to me as a gift and over the past 12 years it got decorated with seashells and fake jewels and gems.

 

The first thing we do when we arrive at a destination is to create an altar. That altar grows and grows throughout the week with Buddhas and Ganeshes and Our Lady of Guadalupe and saints and icons from all over the globe. It becomes the focal point of our Spirit Work.

 

I thank Goddess every day for the incredible gift of my GirlGang. They mean the world to me and as Emily Dickinson said, "My friends are my estate."

 

Carole Murray, NY

 

 

Please Submit Your Royal Reports

 

Tell us about your Self and/or your Queen Group: who, what, where, when, why? What Queenly topics do you explore? What projects do you engage in? Describe some golden moments. Send pictures!