Happy Friday COM|PASSionate REVOLUTIONARIES!!! [youtube=http://youtu.be/6FI8bo-kW-8]
A little message of love and encouragement via Melissa A. Fabello.
<3 <3 <3
Why Dreams?
in Dreamboat
Sometimes I tell people that I do dreamwork for a living, and mostly they cock their heads at me and don’t say much of anything. It’s unexpected. Some folks get excited and intrigued - my people! - but mostly I get two kinds of questions. “What does that mean?” and “Why dreams?”
I want to talk about that “why?” question. I’ve written a bit about the other one - what dreamwork means, and what that looks like. You can even download a lovely little pdf I made about beginning to work with dreams. The “why” question is trickier to answer, but for me I think it comes down to this:
Because there is more to you than your daily, outward self. There is more to all of us.
Dreams are a bridge, connecting us to what else is going on inside - particularly things our waking selves have a hard time looking at, deep feelings, hidden stress, secret strengths, and important parts of our histories and futures.
Especially in our dominant American culture, our daily waking self’s perspective tends to harden around us like an armored shell. Dreams crack that shell open and reveal how much more we are - and how much more we are capable of. Dreamwork is a practice of remembering and honoring that richness within each of us. Dreamwork brings our daily waking selves into deeper relationship with the rest of us, and with the infinite web of relationships that is Gaia and Her dreaming world.
Dreams offer a chance to be in dialogue with what’s wild and Other about us. We are visited by powerful animals, beautiful strangers, familiar terrors and we sit with them, we host them, we listen to the messages they bring. We learn, and we change, and the dreams change along with us.
Dreamwork grows an important skill that we can bring into waking life too - especially those of us who inhabit certain kinds of privilege: sitting and listening to what feels Other, containing the intense feelings that arise in us, and trusting that a perspective so different from our own is true and deeply valuable for us to hear. It’s as important to be able to do this within yourself as it is with your intimate and community partners, and as we go about the business of renewing our relationship with the more-than-human world.
Dreams are also where we have great adventures and find the spark of inspiration - we travel to new places, and we drink deeply from where the underground currents bubble up in flowing springs. We receive important messages from the world that is so much bigger than us.
I invite you to begin, or to deepen your practice of attending your dreams and working with them lovingly. Over time, with this practice, we come into a sense of ourselves as empowered, of our experiences as full of meaning, and of the world as alive and full of magic.
I will be teaching a dreamwork course in the Spring that will be a deeper, 12-week exploration of this practice. Dreamwork for Survivors will weave this practice while bearing in mind the needs of survivors and the ways that this work can uniquely support healing and reconnecting to yourself and your world.
Please check it out! Follow the link for more in-depth information and to sign up for updates as we get closer to March.
There are so many ways to engage your dreams. If joining a dream circle isn’t calling you, I encourage you to begin in a smaller way. Even just the act of making a dream journal can be a powerful start of such a practice.
I love that I get to live in this work, and that part of my work is helping others find access to their own version of it. And I look forward to sharing more of my work with you as we move toward the Spring and launch the Dreamwork for Survivors course.
This blog was originally posted over at Califia Collective, with whom I'll be teaching the upcoming course. If you haven't checked out their amazing and inspiring blend of community healing, justice, herbalism, and queerdo magic, you're in for a treat!
~ Sweet dreams ~
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Kaeti is a therapist, teacher, and dreamer based in Long Beach, California. All of her work (and play!) is interested in dismantling intersections of oppression and breathing magic and radical healing into all the daily corners of her life, into all the spaces of community she helps weave.
Healing Reflections: Bloom Bravely
Good Morning REVOLUTIONARIES!
We hope all is well out in your worlds! I'm a little bit under the weather. It's been quite a winter season! I was talking to the studio owner over at Deep Dog Yoga, Yorba Linda about the Wednesday morning class before it started. The class, while always lovely, really seems to flow with the seasons. Sometimes we're a very small group and sometimes a large group. Sometimes we move and sometimes, like this morning, what seemed to be called for was deep grounding, stretching and strengthening for our bodies and our hearts.
Hump Day is real! It can be a struggle or a leaping off point. It's an interesting little moment in time and space each week and we've been loving offering you a Quick Healing Tip to get you through the week. In the off weeks of this bi-weekly series we're still feeling into what might be needed on Wednesdays here at COM|PASSionate REVOLT and decided that this week a little healing reflection might be just the thing.
We stumbled upon this lovely post by Recreating a Beautiful Mind and wanted to point you over there today in case you're struggling to Bloom Bravely this Wednesday.
In bravery,
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Traci is a yoga teacher and therapist in the Orange County area. She sometimes struggles with Wednesdays but is learning to foster dialogue with the moment, listen into body and sink into healing.
The Magician: A Magical Lunar Cycle Spread
Let's talk about magic.
When The Magician came up for today's card, I had to grin: of course! Today's a big magical New Moon, and new moons are generally a great time to play with tarot for divination, exploring thoughts or beliefs that no longer serve you and are ready to be released, planting new seeds of intentions, or making reflective space for new ideas to come to the surface. Today's new moon in particular comes right on the cusp of Capricorn and Aquarius, as we straddle the boundary between the gravity of tradition that weighs on our bones and the electric future sparkling before our eyes. It's also conjunct Circe, an epic magician adept at powerful magic in the service of self-care and transformation. Tomorrow, Mercury turns retrograde, which deepens the pull to slow down and turn our gaze inward. Time for tarot, meditation, or journaling during this window promises to yield some pretty powerful and useful insights.
The Magician asks us to take advantage of this opportunity. The Magician is all about taking our awareness of cycles, patterns, environment, and energy and introducing our will, our hopes and desires, into the mix. The Magician reminds us that we can not just notice all these things, but take action and participate!
Here's a spread you can use to explore the opportunities this period holds for you. It follows through the lunar cycle as it interacts with Mercury for the month - because what better structure to follow for magic-making reflection than the dance of the moon's own rhythm with the hermetic magician himself? You can lay it all out at once, or pull cards for each part of the cycle as we move through it - or both!
0° Aquarius New Moon + Circe (Jan 20): The Vision.
How am being called to evolve beyond my traditional or habitual boundaries? How does this image illustrate possibilities for serving my community, in a way that actually meets my needs and serves me too? What intention can I set to participate mindfully and heartfully in this magic?
Mercury Retrograde 1° Aquarius (Jan 21): The Knot.
Where is the Trickster drawing my attention? What kink is being unraveled in the service of this magic? What needs to be lost or released in this process?
Waxing Quarter 0° Taurus (Jan 26): The Garden.
How do I meet my intention in the sensual world? How can I enjoy myself and find pleasure in this process? How can I get creative with this magic?
Full Moon 14° Leo (Feb 3): The Roaring Heart!
This is where your intention for this cycle finds full expression. How does the card you pull here reflect an image of your own power? Are you aligned with your own power? Do you feel overwhelmed or disempowered? What do you need to express out loud?
Mercury Direct 17° Aquarius (Feb 11): The Unexpected Lesson.
How does this shift your intention, moving forward? How can you adjust to weave this into your ongoing magic?
Waning Quarter 23° Scorpio (Feb 11): The Purge.
What has surfaced in this cycle that you no longer wish to house within yourself? What can you do to shed these elements and make fertile room for new growth?
29° Aquarius New Moon (Feb. 18): Renewal.
An image that reflects your dedication to honoring yourself as a part of your beloved community. Rinse yourself clean after the lessons of the last cycle, and know that you are devoted to your own process of evolution, whatever your journey is. What is your vision, moving forward from here?
Blessings on your magic-making endeavors!
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Kaeti is a therapist, teacher, and dreamer based in Long Beach, California. All of her work (and play!) is interested in dismantling intersections of oppression and breathing magic and radical healing into all the daily corners of her life, into all the spaces of community she helps weave.
MHM Ep. 2: Language + Access
Happy Monday REVOLUTIONARIES!
Episode 2 of the Mental Health Mashup is now live on LibSyn! You can also listen below:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/compassionaterevolt/MHM2LanguageAccess.m4a
In this episode Skye + Traci will discuss some of their intentions and perseverations behind the Mental Health Mashup. Specifically, how access to language best serves and/or limits community conversation, education and identity processes.
We hope you enjoy and we'd love to hear your thoughts!
You can reach us at compassionaterevolt@gmail.com
www.compassionaterevolt.wordpress.com
In COM|PASSionate REVOLUTION,
Skye + Traci