I am gathering people for a course called Ensouled: Blessed Initiations and Instructions for Body and Soul, tools and community support for sensitive, creative people who identify as mystics or sensitives. I’ll be sharing 12 initiations, things that I pay attention to in my own leadership and life practice. Some of this is baked into InterPlay but, sometimes we need even more awareness and support. This is that kind of time.
The course is delivered over 12 months. You get my writing on how I discovered the practice. I offer a base practice for needed body wisdom along with a video to demonstrate this each month. I also offer one to one accompaniment or a small wisdom group with whom to journey.
To explore the content go to my webpage at https://cynthiawinton-henry.com/ensouled/. I’m setting up a few small groups starting January 25th and will initiate another round of groups in the Spring.
I’m deeply grateful to have recently received Francis Weller’s writing on initiations. I read it out loud at a Seattle Hidden Monastery retreat. I rarely read something this long to others that but this was so right on. Francis speaks directly and beautifully on why we need to recognize and teach the way of initiations. Check it out. He starts with Rilke.
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.
As you know my particular approach maintains the need for creativity, playfulness, and body wisdom. I need to constantly remember……
Flowers do not force their way with great strife.
Flowers open to perfection slowly in the sun.
Don’t be in a hurry about spiritual matters.
Go step by step, and be very sure.
– Grace Cooke / White Eagle
And from my book Move. “Instead of attacking problems…Play welcomes wounded-ness without making a huge deal out of it all. Play concentrates upon and elevates wholeness rather than weakness…Play heals in part because it takes the pressure off what hurts. Our bodies love to create. Play activates the best in us for nothing but recreation. In recreation, we are created anew. Our creative energy, like a tide of health, sweeps our challenges in the direction of well-being.”
Let me know if where I am going strikes a chord. Do email with questions.
Flowers do not force their way with great strife.
Flowers open to perfection slowly in the sun.
Don’t be in a hurry about spiritual matters.
Go step by step, and be very sure.
– Grace Cooke / White Eagle
MMMm. yes
And from my book Move. “Instead of attacking problems…Play welcomes wounded-ness without making a huge deal out of it all. Play concentrates upon and elevates wholeness rather than weakness…Play heals in part because it takes the pressure off what hurts. Our bodies love to create. Play activates the best in us for nothing but recreation. In recreation, we are created anew. Our creative energy, like a tide of health, sweeps our challenges in the direction of well-being.”
Was thinking of you and this as we listened tonight to “The Embodied Way” podcast with Michael Meade discussing Soul, Body. Thinking also of Bill Plotkin’s work in soul and wholeness,
Glad for your deep and wide contributions to these conversations. For the next two years I feel pretty full in my apprenticeship as a Soul Initiation and Apprenticeship Program with Animus Valley Institute, where I have been dedicating myself for many years (I would say this work, Joanna Macy’s and Interplay form a good three legged stool 🙂 ). So, I can’t say yes to the particular invitation, but yes to the big conversation.
And, if you’d like to come up to RB sometime for a little break, let me know and it would be fun to play and converse.
Love, Laurie A
I would love to find out more about this. Cost, etc. This resonates deeply.