What is sticky? Misdirected anger, jealousy, feelings of inadequacy and limitation, and and and and... these are the burs we collect as we walk the path of life. They get stuck in the creases of the psyche, the folds of our pant cuffs, and tangled in our hair. What are your methods for removal? What are your best deburring tactics? Movement, humor, silence or noise? I like a bit of it all. And I try to remember that the thoughts that are sticky, uncomfortable and prickly have a purpose. Burs are seeds. So what can we invite them to become? 🌱 .. .. .. #seeds #nature #metaphor #methods #becoming #peacewithlife #survivaltactics #art #whatevergetsyouthrough #spiritualarchaeology #diggently #freeyourself
Seek what is seeking you. Seek what is buried. Under the rubble of personal history are the artifacts of your aliveness. Dig gently. Revel in the mystery and and adventure of the excavation -- for healing doesn't have to cause more pain than what broke us in the first place 💛 ... .. . #messagefromspirit #artemis #ressurected #artifacts #ancients #museum #musings #healingdoesnthavetohurt #paradigmshift #spiritualarchaeology #journeytotheunderworld #katabasis
Musings from an art museum: 1) mythology is very much alive - revived and reinvented. Proof of its intrinsic place in the human psyche and soul. .. .. .. 2) We are returning to nature worship - the pendulum has swung - the modernity we chased is now what we fear. 3) On click-and-go engagement. What if we let artcapture us rather than try to capture it? Can we commit it to memory rather than storage? How might that feel? 4) what if being with art was a similar practice as mediation? Waiting, patiently...waiting still, longer, looking, waiting.... still.... quiet...until, oh! It suddenly begins to dance and move and shift and stir the senses. .. . .. .. 5) Art deserves patience and attention in order to come alive. I am willing to give it this, for magic to happen. .. .. .. #art #howwesee #newmythology #ourcollectivevision #museumofcontemporaryart #meditation #shifting #artcomesalive #patience #rewards #experiments #ideas
A year ago today I made it to the mirror city and the little girl I was led me there to met the woman I am and a bridge between past and present and future was built. This is what healing looked like for me. So I laid down the pain and picked up my pen... .. .. "Pompeii gives each one of us the gift of finding and recognizing our own path. It is a ‘mirror city’ in which every human being can evaluate himself if he really wants to, by embarking on a personal journey of discovery to rediscover authentic feelings that are all too often anesthetized and subsumed within the innermost parts of the soul. Pompeii offers us the possibility of learning about ourselves in a two-thousand-year-old fragment of humanity." .. (Marcello Fiori - Elegy for Pompeii - Pompeii: Echoes from the Grand Tour.) .. ... #leavingpompeii #writing #followtheclues #seek #dig #artifacts #spiritualarchaeology #pompeii #napoli #inspiration #adventureofalifetime #writersofinstagram
"Confess your hidden faults. Approach what you find repulsive. Help those you think you cannot help. Anything you are attached to, let it go. Go to the places that scare you." .. .. Sage words for dark months and new moons 🌚🍁 ... ... (Advice from her teacher to the Tibetan Yogini Machik Labdron) ... ... #november #darkdays #bringusclarity #theplacesthatscareyou #pemachodron #vesuvius #fearless #obsidian #fall #healing #gettingbackup #yoga #buddhism #soulevolution #newmoon
Death, loss, grief: what to as the ones left behind, how to remember, yet move on, how to let go, but remain close in spirit and heart: these questions, brought about by the death of my mother were what catalyzed a quest in me almost 12 years ago. Unsatisfied by modern western culture that wanted to hide and deny death and grief at all cost, I looked to cultures and times other than my own. I found a brave and beautiful paradox: to face and embrace death (of all kinds, of all things), not deny it, is a pathway to a rich and meaningful life. ... ... Today, my heart stirs to see how widespread this revival of the lost artforms of living is becoming. My social media feeds and local movement studios abound with ceremonies, rituals, and prayers: the reawakening of ancient words - breathed back to life by young women's voices. .... ... I hear the songs of Samhain, the Celtic call of 'summer's end', the time between seasons when it was believed that the boundary between this world and the otherworld could more easily be crossed - a time when our ancestors come to visit us, and we leave feasts on our tables to greet them with. I hear the songs of Dia de Los Muertos, ringing bright and colourful, flowers, stories, scents, and food are danced day and night for the souls of our beloved ancestors, a celebration of life and lineage that is bound eternally by the heart after the flesh is gone. ... ... I am brought to tears by the revived beauty we can find in death - for this is what I have been searching for. may we begin this month of darkness by lighting candles, dancing, singing and remembering those who have gone before us, those who have given us the gift of loss, so we may bravely face whatever must die within us in this liminal season -- so we may dance our next days in joy, with their spirits by our sides, and their memories in our hearts. ❤️🌹🔥
KATABASIS: JOURNEY TO THE UNDERWORLD 🏺🕯 “In the ancient Greek world, [the] descent in search of understanding was known as katabasis [‘go’ ‘down’]” writes John Freccero. Journeys to the underworld are mythic archetypes about the inner experience, where the hero travels to discover heightened knowledge, to recover something lost, and find inspiration and power for themselves, and their communities. This archetypal journey appears in Japanese, Mayan, Vedic, Yoruban, Mongolian, Greek, Roman, Welsh, Egyptian and Mesopotamian mythologies, and speaks to the universal experience, (and necessity) of journeying into the shadows to face our fears and inso, develop agency and power. 🔶Societally, we are on such a journey to open collective closed symbols. We are tearing up the dark underbelly of our bloody colonial legacy and its destructive impact on indigenous peoples and their land; the massive wounds of toxic masculinity to both men and women; the harmful limitations of fragile white feminism; the puritan moralistic hangover that is the stigma against Cannabis; the disgrace that is myopic new-age self-care and commodified spirituality without social and environmental consciousness and responsibility. This is an era that proves that getting uncomfortable, tearing away the veneer and looking at the truth hidden by lies and fear is the only, and necessary path to healing, individually and collectively. 🔶As we slowly descend in the darkest days of the year, let's remember that we have each other to do this work with. I will be leading a 6-week session at @samastudio from November 4th until December 9th. exploring #katabasis myths from different cultures as a springboard for discussing personal and collective fears. deep hatha yoga, breathwork, and guided journeying will help us gain insight, perspective, tools and strategies to overcome our fears and take action in our lives and communities, where it is most needed. .. .. .. 🔗in bio for more details. .. ... .. (Image: Fresco of rites and rituals from the Villa of Mysteries, #pompeii) ... ... ... #getuncomfortable #unpacking #fear #mythology #underworld #archetype #action #shamanism #yoga
Funny how my two favorite indoor places are contrary spaces ⚖️ One is filled with nothing where you empty your mind. One has little empty space where you fill your mind. #libraries #movementstudios #andneverthetwainshallmeet #saveinmyheart
As a yoga teacher and cannabis user on the eve of legalization, there's a lot of debate over whether it’s right or wrong to combine cannabis and yoga and how best to achieve personal growth and wellness through this combination, based on ancient history and science. This can easily become a red herring to the urgent issues surrounding this burgeoning mega-industry. The more crucial debate should be how we use this new legal landscape as a decolonizing tool, and as an invitation, for us to address the ways POC people have been oppressed as a result of marijuana laws. If we are more concerned with whether our vape pens match our yoga mats, we have lost our true commitment to the core foundations of yoga: truthfulness (satya), non-stealing (Asteya) and nonviolence (ahimsa). .. .. .. Full article link in bio. .. .. .. (Thanks to @alphawomanco Woman for championing these issues and @fakejennileigh for you invaluable input) .. .. .. #yoga #cannabis #legalization #october17 #racism #colonialhistory #decolonize #spirituality #consumerism #medicine #morality #culturalappropriation #allyship #satya #asteya #ahimsa #cannabisyoga #socialjustice
3 trips to the emerg, 3 different hospitals, 2 weeks in bed, 1 minor throat surgery, 0 thanksgiving diners and 100 % grateful for the docs and nurses who devote their lives to caring for those in pain. I had no idea strep throat could be this brutal. To my love, @gusunderthegun for taking tender devoted care of me after 15+ hours on set everyday. Words cannot express... Life is precious and what's important is pretty simple when it boils down to it. #takecareofeachother #appreciatewhatyouhave #helpeachoher #takeyourvitamins #wearyourscarf #tryingtobebetter #gettingbetter