A reminder that
Women Embodied, my once-a-year and one-of-a-kind learning circle is now open for registration. A beautiful group is already forming.
With all the tumult of the times, I’m leaning on the poets who deepen and widen my perspective in such helpful ways. What are you leaning on?
Again and again
Some people wake up.
They have no ground in the crowd
And they emerge according to broader laws.
They carry strange customs with them,
And demand room for bold gestures.
The future speaks ruthlessly through them.
-Rainer Maria RilkeIt may be that these tumultuous times offer the initiatory threshold we need to wake us up. As my dear friend and magnanimous mentor Francis Weller writes, “Whatever is happening, much will be asked of us if we are to make it through the whitewater of this narrow passage. We do not know what lies ahead, but one thing is sure: This as a time for bold gestures. It is time to wake up and humbly take our place on this stunning planet.
The immediate need of our time is for ripened and seasoned adult human beings to take their place in our communities; individuals who carry a deep and abiding fidelity to the living body of this benevolent earth, to beauty and to their own souls. Traditionally, these were the ones who had successfully crossed a series of initiatory thresholds and had come through as protectors and carriers of the communal soul. They were the ones whose artistry and wisdom kept the current of culture alive. We live in a society that has all but abandoned rituals of initiation. Consequently, we are languishing from the absence of mature and robust adults.”
In Women Embodied, we’ll be deepening together to become such robust adults, protectors and carriers of communal soul. As we aim to be a healing presence, inevitably we deepen our own healing.
Today I shared a powerfully touching conversation with a beloved friend and a powerful soul activist who has been in my classes over the years.
Nan said, “You invite people into deep medicine. There are many deep and capable women walking around with an open wound of self loathing -– often particularly focused around our bodies. It can be draining us our whole lives. You are one of the few people on the planet who can offer true medicine.
Your voice and your work gave me freedom. Your teachings made me free. I no longer spend any time grappling with my dimpled thighs or my belly. My attention is liberated and now I’m using it to benefit the times and the people and the more than human world. I wouldn’t even have a channel open if I still had to worry about my thighs. I don’t have to anymore. You gave me other practices and understandings. Seriously, where else was I going to find it? How lucky to stumble into your work. I could cry about it all day long – this well of gratitude. I’m glad I got to be liberated in this lifetime from that bullshit.”
I shed tears listening to her. She reminded me why I do what I do. So we can get free and so we can be more liberated to fully bring our own medicine forth to this world that is so in need. As Desmond Tutu said, “Free yourself. Free others. Serve everyday.” Thank you,
Nan, for your
important work in the world and for blessing me to share your words.
The overculture encourages us to be stressed, disembodied, judgmental, distracted, and to spend our time on what doesn’t really matter.
Some people wake up.
May we be them.
I’ve got perspectives and practices that truly help.
we will be learning and practicing to cultivate embodied skills essential to navigating these times.
- unconditional, courageous kindness, and tender compassion toward our inner and outer lives
- slowing down reveals our grounded, centered, flexible, upright, embodied presence, as well as a deeper connection with our inner compass
- a warm heart capable of courage, wholehearted participation, and tenderness toward it all
- reliable access to refuge in the spacious presence of our awareness and our own vast heart-mind
- ways of moving and inhabiting our bodies (outside the paradigm of domination or fixing) with far less effort and much more pleasure – so the soft animal of your body can really show you what she loves
- deepening connection with soul in a culture so focused on improvement and ascension – we’ll explore “slow and down” and revel in the sacred ordinariness of our soulful, embodied lives
- a sense of gratitude, reverent curiosity, wonder, and good humor to sustain us through challenging times; as well as welcoming the guest of grief
- a deepening relationship with our inner authority and a growing capacity to reliably access our embodied wisdom
- a sense of sufficiency and being richly resourced
- nurturing fresh and nourishing ways of being with our bodies, our inner lives, and each other that are outside the paradigm of domination, fixing, or objectifying
- a growing courtship with our unique gifts which we carry as medicine for the community
- widening our kinship with the natural world and shedding the too-tight skin of individualism most of us have grown up with; as well as growing the necessary capacity to “think like a village”
Tools and practices we’ll use:
- enlivening and softening somatic movement lessons
- embodied meditation
- positive neuroplasticity practices
- powerful seasonal myths as guidance and inspiration
- rehydrating the indigenous soul within
- deep ecology practices
- divination
- soulful poetry
- beautiful communal rituals to connect with grief, gratitude, ancestors, and more
- council circles where we can speak and listen deeply together
- deep embodied listening to ourselves, one another, and the living world.
If you’re at all drawn to this unique opportunity, I’d love it if you’d read more and apply here. I’m offering both an in-person and a zoom-only option so you can participate from anywhere. This is not a giant course but an intimate circle. I’m so honored to invite you to join. Payment plans are available.
