And I noticed something. Time . . . altered. Instead of being a rushing river trouncing and bouncing me, time became a calm lake, of which I was the mistress. It felt like it was my experience of pleasure that controlled time. I was in control. I was in control. There was an actual physical consequence to this experience of taking my pleasure.

Just as every jewel is enhanced by a velvet cushion, these women seemed to understand instinctively that beauty translates to power.

When you feel rapture, you get turned on—and become radiant as a result. I will use the words rapture, turn-on, and radiance interchangeably throughout this book, because they all point to the same experience. It’s the experience at the heart of everything I do.

But every time a girl or woman is physically, verbally, or mentally abused, it furthers her disconnection from her power. She has no access to a sense of herself and no connection to her body, her divinity, or her radiance. She is no longer her own. She has lost her center, just as I lost mine. Her light has gone out. There is no one home, and no

Feeling turned on at the thought of a desire actually sends an energetic vortex of attraction out into the world. Everything in your world begins to line up around that desire. The way to shut down the vortex is to disapprove of the fact that you don’t have it yet, or to doubt that you’ll ever get it. Indulging in doubt is throwing water on the

For, like so many women, we think we are obliged to say yes. Many women have spent their lives watching their moms, grand-moms, aunts, and friends choicelessly support a legacy of submission. Many women have been taught since childhood that they are an object, existing solely for the enjoyment of men. This kind of man is looking at women as

Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love. — HAMLET’S LETTER TO OPHELIA

feeling I hadn’t had since childhood. Dazed and amazed, I stepped out of the tub and proceeded to the next stage of the assignment. I was to look at myself in the mirror, lit by candles, and notice what was beautiful. I had never thought to look at myself like this, to notice my own beauty.

Our cultural connection to the Divine Feminine is the radiant woman. A turned-on woman is a portal to the Goddess, for herself and others. We can actually see and feel radiance through her. She emanates it like light or heat, and the attraction is undeniable.