Pink Coyote

Fox + SouLodge 4.0 Giveaway

Fox has been calling me out for over a year with some urgency. She's run in front of my car, lured me down a hill outside a restaurant in Big Sur, and showed up in numerous dreams, paintings and writings. She helped me discover some of the work I would be doing with SouLodge.

Driving into town one day two weeks ago, she called to connect again. I stopped the car abruptly to wrap her warm body in a towel, and take her home for sacred burial. I received a large dose of medicine from her that day and am still working with it now. She is a mysterious creature, and a mighty totem, despite her petite physique. With the help of a friend and our two girls, we honored Fox and gave her back to the Earth with blessings. Part of walking my path means taking care to honor the medicine, as I was taught to.

My guys were gone camping, and so I opened the Earth myself this time, placing her bundle between Mama Sycamore and Grandmother Sage. Thank you to all who gave support and blessings the day she went to the other side.

Honoring the sacred lifecycle.

Fox has come in, along with Red-Tailed Hawk, Great Blue Heron, and Elk to accompany our Eagle eyesight into the East with Spring Lodge teachings. It is a very strong Medicine Wheel to walk this time around. After restoring in the North, it's time to warm up the soil and plant the seeds for the remainder of the creative year. The fourth Lodge running will be pretty fiery, with an emphasis on soaring high without burning out.

So let's give away some seats by the fire, shall we?  

THREE winners will be announced SATURDAY MARCH 10th.

*Enter with a comment, and be entered again for a tweet, a blog post, and again for a Facebook share. Be sure to let me know in your comment how many entries to put you down for.

**Those who register by March 15th will be invited to the Spring Equinox call to take place on Saturday, March 17th. I'll discuss the animals who'll be joining us, as well as how to do some clearing and planting ceremony for the Spring Equinox taking place on Tuesday, March 20th.

Registration closes on March 26th. Class begins on Monday, April 2nd.

Gratitude to YOU, the awakened women who walk the path, to the creatures that work as allies with us, to our ancestors, to the Four Directions, to Mama Earth and Father Sky, who teach us all we need to know.

******

For me Soulodge has been life enhancing and nothing short of miraculous.  As a person who strives to connect, remain open, and worship Mother Nature and all of her critters on a daily basis, I had no idea how much more was available.  How connecting with your own soul can make one a happier, stronger, more fulfilled individual.

 

I have done many classes and workshops before and they have been interesting and fun.  Soulodge, on the other hand, has rocked my world!  Giving me faith when my own was waning, making me laugh (at finding out how many carry rose quartz close to their bosom) and making me cry when I feel the human-ness of the struggles we all face.

 

Pixie Campbell is a pioneer for the soul.  She has started with her workshops a revolution for wise and wild women to gather, create, support, connect, conspire and heal themselves, each other and the world.  I am blown away by her courage, honesty and the beauty with which she portrays the balance of being 'strong as mountain and gentle as feather'.

 

I will never forget my time in Soulodge and my whole life will forever be enhanced by the lessons I have learned here.

 

I bow deeply and gratefully to Pixie Campbell ~ The 'Queen Bee' of Soul.

 

--A.Wingfield

 

 **WINNERS OF THREE SEATS IN LODGE ARE...**

Nicole, Terra and Petrea. I've replied to your posts below. Welcome into Lodge, sisters! Send me an email at soulodgeretreatsatgmaildotcom and you'll receive your welcome instructions in your inbox. Thank you all for playing! I hope to see you under the flap on April 2nd.

**Those who register by March 15th will be invited to the Spring Equinox call to take place on Saturday, March 17th. I'll discuss the animals who'll be joining us, as well as how to do some clearing and planting ceremony for the Spring Equinox taking place on Tuesday, March 20th.

Blessings, all. Aho!

Den-like Depths & Nesty Heights

photo by Brandon Campbell

Searcher, there is no road. We make the road by walking. --Antonio Machado

The light is making it's way back and the post-release hangover wore off in no time. It's been so energizing to read all of the posts that came in, to know that energy was being raised, consciousness committed to, and women and families in circle around the fire were gathering everywhere. Mission accomplished! When I birthed the idea many months ago, I had no idea how the video would be made, much less received. It was loaded over 25,000 times, which exceeded my dream to be amazed, by far. Thank you to all of you who embraced this ritual, some of you for the very first time.

It takes so much courage to create the road by walking.

Snuggling in with my babies for Christmas, I was reminded of just how little it takes for a young mind to be amazed. It's not even their dream to be amazed, and yet, it's so simple for them. For Miles and Ivy- being together, making platters of food, seeing Santa's cookie with a big bite taken out of it, being in awe at the lights and the laughter, pecking out Silent Night on the keyboard, having everyone in their tribe circled around them...I could see the wonder of celebration all over their faces-excitement for life seeping out of their skin.

Marking special occasions ceremoniously has a tremendous impact on the young and young-at-heart. Tribes of all cultures have been burning fires, even Solstice fires, for millennia. As I've taken the work of SouLodge narrower and deeper, into what it really means to connect to the Earth and the seasons, it becomes evermore clear that we are all connected by a distinct thread. This very tribe of rebellious moms, creative spirits and wild women burns so brightly that the thread is unmistakable, and oh-so-powerful.

The Four Season Pass has sold out of it's limited quantity-but there are still seats open for Winter SouLodge. I hope you'll take your commitment to connect and circle to new den-like depths and nesty heights with the howling pack, where we'll be focusing on deep restoration and care of Self and Earth during the quiet time of year, before bursting into bloom in the meadows of Spring.

Ivy holds down the heartbeat of mama Gaia.

 

A Week for the Books

This is the week of all weeks. I'm pleasantly stunned by all that is being released around here and in the ripples that surround me.

This Friday, December 16th, is the day I'll be sharing the beautiful video made by twelve women and I to share with you as an offering for the Winter Solstice. The Mother of All Releasings Ceremony feels so big. There are so many women, tribes, and families who are stepping forward, lighting a fire and tossing in the un-needed, most of which is hinged on FEAR. This week I'll be baring my soul, making my request of the Universe, asking all women to open up and LET GO. If you are hosting a Solstice party or gathering this weekend, the video will put some swirl in your skirt and bring some sacred to your space in preparation.

I will also be giving away two passes to Winter SouLodge on Friday. You heard me right. Class begins January 16th. Tee hee.

This Thursday, I'll be attending the official launch party, with an enormous collection of my friends and community, to celebrate the release of Christine Mason Miller's book Desire to Inspire: Using Creative Passion to Transform the World. THE WORLD. Putting our creativity to work and living our vision has the power to CHANGE THE WORLD. Yes, it does. I'm so proud to have shared writings and a project in this book.

 

Christine and I have been friends for eleven or more years, when she was manufacturing a greeting card line (Swirly) and I was manufacturing sleepwear (Napcake). We collaborated on pajama designs then and I knew I would want to work with her for as long as she'd have me on her team. At the time, my mission was to create a beautiful permission to rest and Christine totally got it-we were taking big leaps of creative faith at the same time. Jennifer Louden, another super-shero from back in the day, has interviewed Christine at her blog, and reading it reminded me how far it's possible to come in such a short time. From artist to visionary doesn't take long when you line your head up with your heart.

Also on Thursday, the new Squam Art Workshops website is going live. Oh, yes. That is all I can say.

I've created a foundation course for SouLodge, which will be available as a PDF e-Lodge this weekend. Wheeeee and awrooooooo! I've been feeling called to do this since the Summer session ended, and because we covered so many wondrous basics, that I thought it would be really helpful to those just coming in, and answer many questions that come up around what's helpful to know while waiting for a session to begin, or to work the lessons in solitary before coming into the community fully present and accountable. For all of you who have asked for this, thank you. You push me to keep my muzzle to the grindstone, and birth what is ready to be received.

I'm also taking a really huge leap of faith. I will tell you about it when the time is right, but please hold a light for me as I release something I didn't think I was going to, and embrace something I thought I was going to let go of. I am clearing the way for something I once thought impossible. Crazy risky. But crazy good.

I have so much passion for this community, this sacred women's circle. I have a vision in my mind each time I come to this space: I see women with babies on their backs, bread being kneaded, water being carried, the sun drawn down, poetry sang to the rising moon, the fire in the center of it all, skirts swirling, women trusting, letting fly with the spiral dance...this vision comes to me every time I come to write here, and I feel flooded with gratitude every.single.time.

photo by Christine Mason Miller

 

Bright Grey Friday

 

I love this *extra* day, sandwiched between the holiday and the weekend...and today is grey, my favorite sky for cuddling under soft blankies and watching movies and eating leftovers. My mind is quietly stirring with ideas, things I've wanted to share with you, my upcoming video for the Mother of All Releasings Ceremonies, (to be filmed by the illustrious wild woman, Anne Carmack, of Folk and Fable) and little goodies I am eager to tell you about.

I'm really excited about the upcoming release of Desire to Inspire: Using Creative Passion to Transform the World, the book by Christine Mason Miller which I collaborated on with a number of known artists. I've become obsessed with Christine's inquiry into what it means to be a force of good in the world. One of my pieces of writing is based in the ritual that I created around Miles shift into becoming a sibling. It speaks of the rite of passages that we can celebrate in our own lives, and of those around us, to bring us back into connection with the meaningful stages of initiation we often forget to honor. I've had a chance to thumb through a copy of the book, which is packed full of mojo to lift your spirited work to a level of global relevance to be savored by all. Check it out! And check in with Christine's blog to find interviews with those of us who contributed and giveaways. It's slated to begin shipping on December 20th, but rumor has it that it may hit the post sooner.

If you'll be in Los Angeles on December 15th, please come to the book release party at the Ambrose Hotel in Santa Monica! Find details HERE.

Two creatives and SouLodge clansisters have added Lodge-inspired jewelry to their collections this season. Celisa Nalls, of My Soul Can Dance (who I had the pleasure of meeting at Serendipity Retreats) is featuring two versions of a necklace and earring set, which she is calling Sacred Soul Journey and Infinite Nature of Energy. She used leopard jasper (a stone which is used in shamanic journeywork) and copper, and element that aids in healing, flow and release of toxicity. I'm so honored that women are creating magic while they dig into their soulwork in SouLodge. I'll feature numero dos and her beautiful creations next week...

I've listed postcard decks again! They'll be shipping out on December 6th, so reserve your deck asap. This is my etsy store hotcake, you might say. Winter SouLodge is also blowing out, and the annual memberships are going fast, too. I'll have a comprehensive page up for what members will receive with the Four Session package in the coming week-you who are going this deep, and waking up to your wild in such a BIG WAY have much in store for you, in addition to just the seasonal session themselves. Wheeee!

As I counted my blessings all day yesterday, you know, officially, and out loud, this community came up again and again. It has become my lifeline, my place to be fully expressed. You who come to gather and offer up ideas, warmth from your kitchens, hope from your hearts, wisdom from your intuition, nourish me. My hope is to give back in 2012, for being able to live my dream, and for the joy of being alive and creative at the perfect time in history.

 

Winter Session for SouLodge + Releasing

Good Monday morning, sweet readers. I'm so grateful for this space. I know I say this ad infinitum, but it's so true. It's really hard not to bow to the screen every time I come here, because I truly am living my dream of creating and connecting in exactly the way I know I'm meant to.

I'm working hard behind the scenes to create a beautiful ceremony for the Winter Solstice that I want to invite all of you to be a part of. (Yes, I'll do a button and all of that yummy stuff for you who are so deliciously button-hungry :)

It's called The Mother of All Releasings Ceremonies, and I will perform the ceremony live and share the video here on December 21st, the day before the Solstice, the darkest day of the year. You and hopefully thousands of others can do the same on the 22nd and raise energy and consciousness around this, if you feel called to, which I hope you do!

The reason I feel so strongly about this day and this ceremony, is because I've discovered in my own work, as well as in observance of the women in my classes, that we women are carrying and holding onto and holding *in* SO MUCH. I want to grant permission to do what we are designed to do, which is to gather and empty, gather and empty. It seems that this is on my mind all of the time now. I notice that when I am stepping into my visionary shoes, I cannot afford to drag a dead horse behind me. Women are communing and taking amazing leaps all around me, and none of us need to be stalked by the stagnant and outmoded. I hope you'll join me when the day comes. Envision a fire, and see yourself tossing your old worries and fears in there. The elements love to compost. Let's give them the best of our garbage. The most choice, decaying, bits.

I'll be putting up a recipe here at the end of the month so that you can create your very own releasing bundle, (the same that I created for my Lodge Women), filled with the energy and words that you are ready to let go of in order to greet the new year with open arms, a bright light and no dead anything clinging on and loitering up your beautiful space!

Registration has opened for Winter SouLodge and there are also four-season passes available for all full-length sessions being held in 2012. I'm so excited to be doing this work and sharing my tools and resources with awakened women. It's become a safe and lively container, and I've learned so very much inside the shelter about the true nature of Woman. It keeps my fire burning. :)

Kits, Fokses and Creative Fire

This season. Oh, this season. You are sneaking away from me so quickly like a sly little red fox. In addition to eating the children's Halloween candy...I am trying to soak up as much of the Autumn air as I can. This is the season which always feels like New Year's to me. I don't want it to slip past me. Staying in the present moment has been at times, really easy. Such as when I whipped up a little minky black tail, a kitty cape and pointy ears on an old headband for Ivy's cat costume in under two hours, two days before All Hallow's Eve. Oh, and gaining an hour on the clock last night. That was especially easy to be present for.

But most times I am feeling surrendered to the chaos that is looking at houses many times per week, driving back and forth to Ojai, falling in love with it, transporting back here, grieving this place and loving how we're able to spread out here on this land. There is much talk of releasing coming out of my mouth these days and releasing what was, in order to embrace what would very much like to be, is required. I have not designed that ceremony yet.

I did take some time this week to create Releasing Kits for the wild women of Autumn SouLodge, however. And that was great fun for me.I have to balance the work in my head with work for my hands. Fun! I mean, fun for my hands. It's late. To the photo journal.

Ceremony starts with smudge.

It all began rather innocently.

Tribbles! I mean, er...Releasing Kits!

Rainy days make for good indoor ceremony, and tired mama Lodge leaders with naps in the agenda.

The creative fire is eternal.

 

Alignment

Yesterday I did some journalling to clear my head about some things-about where I want to go, about SouLodge, about all of the work that I seem to be immersed in...always. I love to work, and sometimes it's an obsession that becomes an obstacle to the higher purpose of my short life. As soon as I became clear about what it is I really want to do, you know, with my life (!) two plants, a stone and an animal came to me. I wrote them in block letters on my journal page and my mission became even more clear.

I always find it rather humorous to discover this need to realign myself. It's kind of like cleaning the dryer lint out of the tray: things/thoughts/ideas just get all clouded together and I find myself walking in circles, but not circulating meaningfully.

I bound the medicine of what it is I'm living up to in a bundle pouch, making something just for me-which is something I haven't done in years. All of this bundling for others, and none had really encompassed all that I wanted to affirm. I think this is why I'm enjoying teaching medicine-making in the Lodge so much. Only *we know* what we need the most, how to bring it all together, not leaving out important parts, when it comes to the overall vision. It's felt so right to teach women how to do this for themselves. Just a few tools and a bit of inspiration, and women are lighting up and recognizing exactly what they need! Community is so beautiful this way. Making the way back to our roots seems so easy when we realize that we're not alone...

For my personal medicine, I chose Yarrow because Matthew Wood called it "natures band-aid" and it's stuck with me ever since. I've experienced this sister as one who is like a balm on fears and ouchies and because reverence for the Earth is high on my list, I felt she needed to be in there. I'm feeling once again, overwhelmed by the amount of waste that goes out of just my home and so I'm renewing my commitment to reduce that dramatically. I've been buying used as much as possible for a long time and it's food packaging that really bums me out. So, YARROW. To keep me conscious about this beautiful place that nourishes us from birth and takes us back at the end of our lives so graciously.

I chose Coyote, which is no major surprise, but when I took inventory of my values, I saw how important this tricky one is. Bringing so much laughter and humor to my life lessons, I've become utterly dependent on the ultimate survivalist who travels fearlessly everywhere, adapting like no other. Coyote connects us all with her warm magic, her foibles, her humility. She parades her right to life in and around the hills, on the shores, and right on the city streets. I truly don't know where I'd be without this companion by my side.

Rose quartz is in there, because the deeper I get into the bones of myself I realize that love is the only thing that matters, and noticing every day that we are more ONE than we are not, this was an easy choice. Healing the world, one heart at a time.

Tobacco is there for gratitude and an offering to Spirit for making this life possible and awakened.

And Butterfly Bush literally called me from across the yard for Beauty and the sweet aroma of existence. Abundantly, she grows and feeds butterflies, skippers, bees, and hummingbirds, expanding her reaches over my neighbors fence and beautifying even his junk pile. She attracts the best- her beautiful equals in the quest for nectar- and I know my life has this blessing on it, too.

I added a couple of other things which I'm keeping secret because superstitious rumor has it that one is not supposed to reveal everything in one's magic satchel. It seems in keeping with the feminine to carry a bit of mystery with us at all times.

The beautiful bundle pouch was made by my sacred sister, Lauren, who creates medicine bags and all kinds of delicious goodies, while nursing her month old baby boy and unschooling her bright light of a daughter. Her store is a bit less abundant than usual, because I am taking many of her medicine items to Squam with me in two weeks to share them on vendor night. I had to have first pick and chose the above pictured pouch to put all of my items into. She inspires me to walk with more reverence, always.

Blessings to you as you find your way, dear sisters.

There Is Only Make

Sometimes it's not until I sit down and take inventory, do I really know what it is I've been up to. Isn't it funny how we can run all year long and proects that have finally come to fruition start popping up. When you're busy making, it's kind of a fun game of surprises.

Here's where you can find me these days:

Teaching a mixed-media workshop and at a vendor night table at the sold-out Fall Session of Squam Art Workshops in mid-September. I'll also be celebrating my fortieth birthday while I'm there (on vendor night) so come by if you're in the neighborhood! I'll find some cupcakes somewhere and we can chat.

Inside the pages of the amazing book, Desire to Inspire: Using Creative Passion to Transform the World, by Christine Mason Miller. Which is now available for pre-order! Writing and creating exercises for this project was one of the most important things I have worked on this year. It's dear to my heart for many reasons-and it's packed full of inspiration from twenty artists I'm blessed to be in the company of.

Donating to a giveaway at dandelionseeds&dreams for Lis Hofmann's fundraiser for Half the Sky Foundation. There is a print and a card deck to be scored!

As featured artist this week at Creative Therapy, with a new never-before-seen painting, entitled, Faith.

Special Guest/Interviewee in the upcoming e-Course, by internationally known and phenomenally wild artist, Stephanie Levy, Creative Courage. The interview questions are so very juicy, this course is going to turn the world of art e-courses on it's ear. You may also know Stephanie from artistswhoblog, still one of my favorite blogs ever.

Teaching two days of mixed-media painting and a half day of journeying with totem animals in the mythical Outer Banks of North Carolina at Serendipity Retreats. I just found out that Mindy Lacefield has been added to the roster of instructors- and if you don't know Mindy, well...you might really like to.

Hope to see you face-to-face out in the world because a) I like to hug my kindreds and b) because it's nicer than type-to-type once in a while!

 

Fox Dreams: Regenerating Our Sacred Tails

Soulfooting, 2010.

I had a dream last night that I want to share. It's one of those dreams that just blasts with rays of incoming light and Truth. Don't you love those dreams? When you wake up and have it all figured out? *wink*

~~~

Miles' birthday party was taking place in my home, and I'd been told by my partner that he'd invited a gentleman from work to come and bring along his family.

My house was flooded with unexpected people, but most notably, the affluent man, who brought many, MANY daughters. All were playing with their children on swingsets and with toys, filling up every corner of my house and garden. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that they all looked rather ill and had whiteheads on their faces. Their eyes were, in many cases, almost swollen shut. They were all sisters, and they all bore a very similar resemblance, they even seemed to all be about the same age.

Down the garden path, happily putting some distance between myself and my numerous odd guests, I saw a red Fox pop up near a bright green tree, standing out in my visual field on the dismal landscape.

She came near me and I saw that her tail had been removed. It was ragged, stubbed and brushy, having been removed in a haste, perhaps. More and more distressed foxes of all colors, some wearing dog collars, came around wanting to follow me out the gate to escape their captor, the gentleman with all of the daughters. I was very unsure of what I was seeing, and it took me some time to come up with a plan. I whispered to them that their tails WOULD grow back, but I would have to come secretly and let them free so that they could get a good lead on him, as he would be coming for them. They seemed so disparaged in their hopes, not unlike shelter dogs, but I provided something for them to cling to. I closed the gate knowing that I would be back after dark.

~~~

If you've ever had the pleasure of seeing a Fox or it's tail, you know that it is her shining glory. It is FAT, FLUFFY and by far, one of the most beautiful and cozy tails in the animal kingdom. She uses it to curl up into, and keep warm, to navigate with like a rudder, to strut her stuff. Her tail activates instinct, kundalini, sensuality, self-sanctuary, mystique, camouflage.

Under the light of the moon, it is time to slip our collars and regrow our tails. The inner dictator, passed down through all of the various outdated systems, is dying. His daughters cannot see, and the last organ in line to detox, the skin, has begun to show it's repressed anger and irritation. The promise of my dream is one of regeneration. These feminine tails are growing back into their lively, fluffy, cozy guidance.

The SouLodge Summer Session began today. It has been an amazing day of transparency, of sharing fear, a willingness to release obstacles blocking the instinctual path, and of great emotional intelligence. My hope is that it is a place where we can continue to grow back our heavenly tails.

If you are currently in the process of regenerating your own beautiful extremities, which connects you to the vitality that soulful undomestication provides, please tell me more. My dream is to see collars on the streetcorners and tails up proud, headed for the forest.

And so I say confidently: I am a Woman. Let me do what I do.

Yip! Yip!

Summer's Offerings at SouLodge

Half way between the Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox sits a little celebratory holiday that the Celts call Lammas. It's been written that the earliest harvest of grain occurs today, and that bread made with todays grain will be a bit risky. It may not be as rich in color as Autumn's wheat, or as ripe in flavor, but that the benefit lies in the possibility of the early seeds. The festival is a reminder that everything has a beginning: ideas, shifts, new ways of receiving nourishment. All change comes from a place that beckons us a little deeper into the full, robust flavor of our lives. The energetic shift can be felt in the in-between seasons, as well as when they appear on the calendar to call us to movement. I even just love sensing the subtle changes in the way the sunlight comes through my windows.

The creatures are slimmer, lighter, and seeking water from different sources now, their babies of Spring finding their own relaxed footprints behind them as they sink into their wild ways, and the instinctual natures that will ensure their survival. Ants are coming up out of every crack and crevasse, showing my children and I how to work communally, and for wholeness, carrying seeds (and bits of dog kibble!) on their backs many times their weight.

Summer's hot breezes, cool dips into swimming holes, ripening fruit, and long, playful days, feel expansive to me. Juxtaposed to Winter-a time of cozying down and becoming perhaps a bit more quiet and inward-Summer is a season to connect, to build campfires together, to feast, to storytell, and to acquaint ourselves in community. It is a time of intimacy and openness of hearts, for guidance to flow in like the sun's rays- warming us up to our potential, readying us for the coming harvest, which will carry us through Fall's crisp drawing down, and Winter's bundled-up months.

Part of the experience in the SouLodge is to gather at the long table of the season and break bread together. The teachings and relevance of the seasons creates presence, and grounds us, binding the medicine of what wants to come in and be shared in the waning days of light.

I'm thrilled to be able to host this sacred space...and to do it online! I am full of hope that the fluid experience of communing together, creating ritual, crafting, journeying, practicing gratitude, and going deeper into ourselves, will secure the lessons that Summer brings for all of us. Please join me in the Lodge, if you feel called, and share this post with someone who you think might love what is being created. Registration closes Wednesday, and Lodge begins on Monday!

So much Lammas gratitude!

Unbound

 

Last night I did a healing on myself at bedtime. I had an old, old issue I needed to experience some more release with and I have a trick I use to perform soul retrieval on myself with (which those of you who are in the SouLodge will get to work with), because sometimes when I need to do some deep inner healing, I don't have time to schedule an appointment with a local practitioner and wait for it. It may require more assistance and deeper work with a trusted healer later, but to begin, I just needed to get the work moving.

As often is the result, I felt a big shift and the thing that was triggering me had a lot less energy behind it. What I think is miraculous is that we get to a point where we are capable of doing much work ourselves. I love to go outside of myself for feedback and help, bodywork, acupuncture, therapy, power conversations within my phone tribe...I've loved the tools I've been able to gather through all of the work I've found myself smack in the middle of, sometimes when I least expected it. Last night's retrieval left me feeling pretty open and clear.

First thing today, I got caught up in a conversation online about labels, judgement, politics, and fear, (and Dennis Hopper, who I never knew spent some time as  Republican, but as the story goes, was both radical and dynamic at the same time. I don't know why I was surprised, knowing wild him). On the heels of my last post, I figured it wasn't an accident that I'd landed here. The powers that be have a strange way of testing me faster than I can say, "One Love".

The messages coming through on many levels is that I'm not comfortable being in boxes, and neither were the women I was having the discussion with, though I got that we're probably polar opposites in the voting booth. Who knows? Maybe not. I didn't give a damn. I wasn't going to sit there under old previous umbrellas and see our differences. I consciously sought to see where we were the same. It wasn't hard to come from an honest place and feel comfortable without being accomodating. And they were doing it, too. It was enlightening and liberating on many levels. Not to go there-to differences. What purpose would it have served?

I've called myself all kinds of things in order to try to get to know myself better, to draw people toward me or distance them from me. This evolution that is taking place, for so many of us collectively, is that when we stand in our power as women, we don't need those ill-fitting garments anymore to protect us. We can trust that if we eat a piece of bacon we won't slide down a slippery slope and become dietarily irresponsible, or environmentally unconscious if we don't by a hybrid vehicle. The need to prove and appear put together- of value to onlookers - starts to wane as our hairs gray and fight for more precious real estate up there where all of the thinking goes on. Surrender to coming of middle age, hence accepting the staff of emotional maturity isn't as grim as it sounds. Think of Georgia O' Keefe, how even in her white-haired days, which is how most of us remember her, she was a wild, free Woman. And naked! She was beautifully unbound.

Many of us have our feet on varying stones of this meditative walk to getting clear, but one thing seems certain: It seems we are willing to become even more comfortable with who we are. There is no need to qualify our choices, offer disclaimers for the shape our homes are in, do it all right in the outer world, get the thumbs up for our casseroles.

There is bigger work to be done in the inner world, which in turn manifests more boldly in the outer. It's a long process, and each time the road rises up, I find I'm ready to meet it. When a piece of me feels like it's gone missing, I want to go back and rescue it and bring it back in, my way.

This old Earth moves and evolves so slowly, so patiently, rhythmically. My hope is that we can learn to be kind during our transitions, as she is. That we can create with intention and purpose, but without expectation to look like something that others might find agreeable. It's not about being ambivalent about what others think-rather it's putting what a woman thinks about *herself* first.

Ours is the heart we have to heal.

No ribbon, please.

 

Open It

A doorway is a gift. We never know what we'll find on the other side of it. A threshold is a journey into the East, into a new beginning, the energy of Eagle. I'm finding these years that less and less does fear-of-what-might-come presents an issue. When fear subsides, trust flows in. When the river is undammed of obstacles, abundance flows in.

What is your deepest human intent? Does it require that you show up fearlessly? Open a door of sorts, come what may? What help do you need?

(Explore these questions and more in the SouLodge)

(More on taking risks, and walking through Doorways here)

(Thank you Susannah for Owl City's Introvert mythbuster)

(So no one can pull the but-I'm-an-introvert card)

(((supportive hug)))

(Don't forget to howl up this beautiful, pregnant Capricorn moon-the biggest moon of the year)

 

Naked In the Rain

It's a far cry from raining here in the desert-like belt of the Central Valley, but my spirit feels like it's dancing in the rain. The SouLodge is growing into a robust community of truly kindred individuals and we're weeks from beginning. Creating something that comes from a place so ready and fertile is the best feeling in the world.

I received some Rabbit medicine on the porch last night, (Bunny Killer just left me a fluff of cottontail) about thirty minutes before I read this blog post on Possibility. Stacy wrote about stepping into possibility rather than stepping out of one's comfort zone. Think of Rabbit and how much risk she takes- she is the ultimate vulnerable creature. Yet, she is so prolific: creativity is the key to her survival. She steps out into possibility, because hanging out in her protective warren would never allow her to create the way that she needs to in order to thrive.

When I read Stacy's post, I immediately thought of all that I've created, and of how easy it is to step into possibility, rather than out of a comfort zone, and I felt the truth of that vibrate in my bones.

Everything I need to know, I learn from the creatures and the Earth. And good friends, too.

Where's Alice? By Donna McKenzie

Get naked. Dance in the rain with fertile Rabbit and she will teach you magical things, indeed. Come sit in the Lodge and share the wisdom that comes from those wild, healing, ancient, transformational experiences.

The Nature of YES

There has been such a tremendous response to the SouLodge course announcement, that I don't know what to do with myself. Except to be grateful and do a major happy dance! Also, I have a hard time calling it a course, because it's not a course at all. It's not academic. Not of the left-brain at all. There will not be much *thinking* involved. As I've watched your names pop up in the registration pool, sparkling like clear water in a protected turquoise bay, I realize that I know you. 

Transformation is already taking place. Just by nature of saying, "YES. I want that."

SouLodge Virtual Retreat is Live!

I'm so excited to announce the details of this online class! I'm over the moon to deepen my work with myself, with my community, and to midwife you through your explorations of the parts of yourself that want to come forward with courage and wildness.

is up HERE.

I want to invite you to step into the forest, into a safe lodge where you can experience a rite of passage, an honoring of the feminine process, a place where the Four-Leggeds and Winged Ones, the Plant People, and Stone People, are waiting to greet you and help you walk through to the next level of intuitive self-care.

Thank you to all who have encouraged me to do this, for asking for the teachings, and for opening your hearts to the deeper work. I am in pure gratitude for all of you.