About
The New England Goddess Temple
and
The Durga Studio
The Durga Studio is a
like-minded community of people whose roots are based in Yoga, an ancient discipline that explores, develops, and integrates the body, mind, and spirit.
The story of the Mother Goddess belongs to all genders and cultures.
She has always been an accessible deity: the warmth in our hearth, the fire over which to cook,the river whose water we drink, the soil that grows nourishment.
She is Mother Nature herself, and for many, the birther of the Cosmos.
Throughout time we have seen Her revealed through a myriad of myths and faces:
Durga, Kali, Brigid, Pele, Rhiannon, Oshun, Yemaya, Mary, Guan Yin, Freya, Gaia, and so many countless more.
She has been revived, recast, and renamed throughout the ages, and her infinite aspects have evolved into a vast array of personalities and stories.
However, the primary role of the Goddess has always remained fixed:
That of the Great Mother.
The images of the Primordial Mother archetype still linger in our psyches:
her spirals, triangles, circles, the ebb and flow of her moons, and her watery womb of existence. Her sacred dwelling places include caves, mountains, oceans, rivers, wildflower meadows, streams and waterfalls, under the canopy of sacred groves, in temples built by devotees, in open fields under the moonlight, surrounded by ancient stone circles.
At the New England Goddess Temple, we believe we cannot become whole,
cannot make our way back towards recognizing our Oneness,
until the Divine Feminine reclaims her place and is fully embraced
in the consciousness of humanity.
As the Wiccan saying goes: “As without, so within.”
While together our Goddess community journeys in a myriad of ways
to find, greet and celebrate the Divine Feminine,
ultimately we come to understand that we need to only look within to find the Cosmic Motherfrom whom we have never been separate.
The New England Goddess Temple offers class sessions throughout the year as well as monthly workshops, immersions and community gatherings in a beautiful historic healing sanctuary. Courses offered include nature-based yoga, teen yoga, and meditation, along with workshops in related topics including spirituality, the Divine Feminine, a women’s Red Tent, nature, and the arts. It features classes taught by Dr. Jennifer Sundeen, who has over twenty years of teaching experience and over forty years of practice, as well as other trained professional instructors who foster a non-competitive and encouraging atmosphere. There is also a small boutique space with clothing, sacred jewelry, homemade art, and yoga, earth, goddess and spiritual-related items.
The New England Goddess Temple is a reflection of that devotion. The business model is circular, one of inclusion rather than hierarchy, and supports the idea that we all hold inside of us an inner healer and artist, and to that end welcomes the gifts our community has to offer. The more we embrace each other, the wider our circle of Love will grow. Durga has many arms after all.
A resident of Harvard, Massachusetts,
Dr. Jennifer Sundeen is the founder of The Durga Studio.
Jennifer is the founder of the New England Goddess Temple. She is a licensed Earth Minister, a yoga instructor, a spiritual teacher, a healer, an author, an activist, a community architect, and the mother of three daughters. She received her Doctorate of Earth Ministry in 2022 and is the founder of several organizations that support girls, women, spirituality and the earth including The Durga Studio, Durga's Red Tent, a global travel organization called Goddess Pilgrimages, The Lalla Project, and The Harvard Farmer's Market, a 501(c)3. She has served on the boards of additional non-profits including the Trustees of the Fruitlands Museums and served as Vice President of The Village Nursery School's Board of Trustees.
She is dedicated to imparting her yogic philosophy to everyone: To find connections with all people, to cherish the earth, to live healthy lifestyles, to find beauty in the everyday moments, to rediscover the rhythms of the universe, to find the divine being that resides in all of us, and to shine who we truly are.