Why Bother Dying Eggs? I mean isn't it just a big stupid hassle?? As you may have read before, I've struggled with Easter in the past, making it feel relevant. For most of my adult life I just ignored it. Once I had kids I kinda had to think a little more deeply about it - so I could explain why I don't care and not hiding chocolate eggs for them to hunt. Over the last few years, though I've gone a little deeper in understanding Spring and its equinox. [...]
Why would you want to do Myth Mending anyway??? Stuff Myth Mending can help you with: Moving though relationship conflict Work and career development, change or evolution Personal feeling of well-being Personal and professional commitment preparation (marriage/career) Understanding your purpose and calling in the world Creating and maintaining family rhythm and harmony Finding and maintaining a healthy weight Overcoming depression, anxiety and/or addiction Following a dream that seems difficult or impossible Here are a couple examples (that I have permission to share): Family: A mother is pulling her hair out [...]
Somatic Wisdom: you only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves . . . ~ Mary Oliver Most people have heard of the right brain / left brain division. The right brain is the creative, non-linear, emotional side and the left brain is the analytical, linear, rational side (more or less). Those of us who have, for better or for worse, been immersed and/or indoctrinated by dominant culture have learned to prefer the left brain. When we try to access our creativity, we often [...]
Dream-Craft blossoming warrior dreaming . . . *Becoming human is about more than just one’s own material existence from birth to death. As we have seen, it's also about lineage. It’s about accessing resources in seen and unseen realms. Dominant global culture makes it easier for many of us to have good access to the visible world. What we have most trouble with is accessing unseen realms. Even those of us who have an easier time listening into the invisible realms still have to contend with the prevalent bias toward [...]
Lineage Repair Walking. I am listening to a deeper way. Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands. ~ Linda Hogan We all have ancestors — we are all decendants. When your grandmother dies, she becomes your ancestor. Each of us could/should have a long line of souls standing behind us, supporting us from the other side. Unfortunately, most of us don’t have that. It may be many generations of rupture and entanglement before one [...]
Trauma Resolution The ins and outs of living in a traumatic age . . . I don’t care who you are, you have experienced, and carry the effects of, trauma. Trauma is ubiquitous. Being born into modern times itself is a trauma. The world has changed so much in the last 150 years, our evolutionary nature just can't keep up. We were born to move at the pace of walking (and occasionally running) and yet we barrel through space in cars and trains and planes. Our systems hardly know what [...]
I went to the movies the other night . . . The film was called Wonderstruck and it was loosely related to museums. Anyway, at one point in the film, one of the narrator explained the phenomenon of "Cabinets of Wonder". Wikipedia defines them like this: Cabinets of curiosities (also known in German loanwords as Kunstkabinett, Kunstkammer or Wunderkammer; also Cabinets of Wonder, and wonder-rooms) were encyclopedic collections of objects whose categorical boundaries were, in Renaissance Europe, yet to be defined... "The Kunstkammer was regarded as a microcosm or theater of [...]
It is Winter. The waters are frozen. The trees are bare. The heart is still as the season of death descends and the sound of grief echoes in the quiet sleeping garden of the soul. Winter is characterized by water, the healing water of tears. We invite the ancestors in the Fall and in the Winter we allow our grief to swell and emerge. Not just any tears, but the sacred tears of measured grief offered to the ancestors once and for all. This is the essential lesson of the [...]
Dear Hettie Quackers, Has living on a farm and connecting with the earth helped you understand the meaning of Easter? ~ Dawn This time last year I had a huge epiphany. As Easter was approaching I had been pondering the season and feeling rather uninspired. I didn't feel like forcing myself into a false celebration and I just couldn't find any point of connection with the Easter Holiday. I had found deeper meaning in many contemporary cultural festivals, and deeply involved in teaching others how to honor the seasons and [...]
Ask Hettie Quackers Q: How do I celebrate Day of the Dead in a way that makes a difference? A: Hettie says, tell them about the altar.... and the Feast. Well, we here at Tierra Soul started building our Day of the Dead altar yesterday. I went down to the basement and brought out the box marked Fall, and we chatted about each item as we placed them on the altar. There is Xoco's birth-bell (he is a Fall born baby), our Halloween masks from 2009, crumpl-ey paper lanterns from [...]
