A note from Erin 11/18/25
Dear beautiful human,
I’m sending warm greetings from where I’m sitting on the couch with a hot coffee and a few candles by my side, in this dark, quiet morning air.
I’m grateful to reach out to you today.
In the fall of 2011, I had a powerful dream. It was the night after watching a powerful documentary film, Dancing in the Flames, about Jungian analyst, author, and teacher Marion Woodman. In the dream, I myself am Marion Woodman. I’m in the desert, kneeling in the sand in a circle of people. I am pouring salt over the loose pages of a sacred Tibetan text. There is a head of sand emerging out of my side, as if the Earth is speaking through my body. Someone next to me nervously asks, “What are you doing?” and I reply, as I continue to pour salt on the text, “It is time to make these teachings tasty and bring them down to Earth.”
The dream rocked me. I took it as a mandate for my work in the world. At that time, I had parted ways with a very rigid and severe spiritual teacher just the year before, and I was finding my way into a life-giving relationship with my own practices. Salt was the perfect image: tasty, unpretentious, down-to-earth.
Last week, I received a very special gift in the mail. I had a birthday recently, and some very dear, long-time soul friends sent a package. It was heavy. When I opened it, along with a beautiful card and some other treasures, I found something rectangular wrapped in plastic. As I slowly unwrapped it, salt crystals began to fall out. When I unwrapped it entirely, I found my dream manifest in physical form! Inside was a beautiful wooden box, and inside that, buried in salt, was a loose-leaf text of the Heart Sutra, two amulets, and a printed image of the diagram I made for Refugia, which you can see below. I laughed and cried. These dear friends had remembered this dream all these years and honored the emergence of Refugia, our upcoming 13-month depth training, as a manifestation of the dream. Making sacred teachings tasty and bringing them down to Earth. What a gift! Now I have that box on one of my altars. The dream itself was a gift. Dear friendships in which we track each other’s soul life are such a gift. To receive this manifestation of the dream – wow, what a gift. My heart, y’all. Phew. (Thanks so very much, dear Matt, Jeni, & Sorelle!)
We’ve been so honored by the warm reception of this training program, which is an offering straight from our hearts. We have wonderful people gathering in both cohorts. Refugia is ON!
This week, I’m putting the finishing touches on the registration page for our Refugia Retreat, which will take place in July in Boulder, Utah, truly one of the most beautiful places on Earth. We’re so excited about all of it. (We’ll open that retreat to Refugia participants first, and if it isn’t full by February, we’ll open it to our whole mailing list.) You can still apply to join us for this potent learning journey. It’s going to be so so good. Potent. Deep. Also tasty and down-to-earth. Of course!
I’d also like to let you know that this Saturday, we’re offering a live online retreat day: Grounded & Spacious: A Retreat in Movement and Stillness. We’re weaving together two of our favorite practices, meditation and embodied movement, within a spacious schedule you can do from home. You’re welcome to register even if you can’t attend live, as all sessions will be recorded and posted to an easy-to-navigate online platform. You’re warmly invited to join us as we dive into the calm, vital, and spacious presence that is ever-present beneath the choppy waves at the surface of our busy lives. We will practice deepening the qualities of groundedness and spaciousness both in sitting meditation, in mindful movement, and in our daily lives. We’d love to connect with you in either of these offerings.
In the meantime, I’m sending you all good wishes. May you be blessed with guiding dreams, deep friendships, and potent wisdom teachings as lanterns to guide your way through the dark.
Thanks for being here. Thanks for being you in the world. Thanks for making the world a kinder place.
Let’s keep taking exquisite care of each other and of all of our siblings in this web of life.
From my heart,
Erin
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