Blessed full moon and welcome into this chapter of shifting light. This image is of some of the flower petals released last week from our summer solstice ceremony, carrying the skins needed shedding in order to be truly new for what wants to be born in us next. It's the paradox of rebirth, and the beauty of my way of practicing healing evolution, that shedding happens naturally at fullness. The skin of the seed must crack in order to let in water, nutrients, light. But it is a generative shedding, like taking off one's clothes to go into a sauna or medicine lodge and let the heat do its alchemy to cleanse and call forth your essence. At least that's how I imagine it! And there is a tenderness in the aftermath of the shed, as new, raw parts touch light and begin to form something, at first, wordless... Do you feel the shift, the quiet re-orientation as the fullness of the light turns inward and downward, being magnetized by gravity, our bodies, and also our attention? What if emptiness is not absence, but more ease at touching what's essential? Less static above a more reliable kind of fullness? Here's a lovely quote from Ana Otero about this season we're entering: "In many mystical traditions, Cancer is associated with the Great Mother, the Cosmic Womb, and the waters from which creation emerges. It is the sign of belonging, nourishment, memory, ancestry, and the soul's deepest roots. During this season we are invited to return to the inner sanctuary of the heart and listen to what is seeking to be nurtured within us. The Solstice reminds us that true growth does not occur through constant striving, but through the sacred rhythms of receiving, holding, and allowing life to unfold according to its divine timing. This is also a season of incarnation. The mysteries of Cancer teach that every vision, prayer, revelation, and blessing must eventually enter the womb of the soul if it is to become embodied within the world." A lot is percolating in the stillness for me right now."

In this interview, I sit with Rachel Blackman, fellow animist, somatic practitioner, and devotee to the work of grounding the sacred in the body, for a rich conversation about how animism can completely change one's life, from the inside out. Spending time with Rachel is always a delight, as she embodies the fresh, curious, and grounded perspective of one who has become a channel for what she calls "the generative principle," such that even as we share about things we each teach regularly about, the conversation can be emergent, alive, and ever-in-tune with the Mystery as it calls us to evolve our consciousness in ever-wider circles. It's so important as we collectively awaken (a.k.a. reground in our original knowing) to hear stories of metamorphosis from those who have experienced the alchemy of "dying before you die," and perhaps even more importantly, to experience the radiant energy that is transmitted on the other side of saying "yes" to being remade. If you'd like to be guided in returning to coherence and awakening your own connection to the bio-intelligent field, reach out to me directly for a Metamorphosis Session. 🦋 Or check our Rachel's work here: https://www.rachelablackman.com/

The time with you all this morning felt full. There were several of you planning to come who ended up not making it live last minute. Know that you were with us, and your flowers were placed in the ritual bowl. <3 I will report back when the flowers (and our old skins) are set free down the river, handed over to Mother Gaia and the Cosmic Flow. Here are the replays: on the left, my presentation and the meditation on the right: our group ritual xoxo PS here's the poem I read at the end: SEED I was buried for so long I forgot I could speak. Now, as drops of rain like shining jewels warmed in the soil reach my frozen skin something in me softens like a fist trembling open and I listen for the far off sounds of starry streams arriving. Then the hunger rises into my heart, like the memory of a flower, a flower yearning to know in smell, in taste, in touch, and with her many stamen eyes the splendor of sunshine beckoning from beyond the dark and heavy sky. And then something, something in the base of my spine gathers itself like a muscled serpent for the climb knowing there is nothing nothing else to do but this for every moment of every day: to unfurl in an ecstasy of green, shooting petal-wings toward that inevitable heaven. 🦋 @Crystallynn Light @Shannon Wills@Yana Sebaali @Danella Durieux @Denise Weinberger @Sammy S @Leslee McCoy @Patricia Zukas@Lorraine Cannatta

Dear fellow transmuters! I've just finished working on the slides for our summer solstice ritual and setting my altar for the experience. It feels potent, and I'm so grateful to be here in this moment with you all stepping into the next layer of alchemy. We will be deepening our capacity to receive through the many layers of the "cosmic cocoon," and fully committing to the alchemy in store for us during this next cycle in the chrysalis. We will drink from the sacred well together, share our voices, and be witnessed in community. We will bless and thank the old for where it has brought us thus far, and make a ritual gesture to release it, making space for the incoming height of the light as it crests above us at this moment in the season. If you feel called to take part beside your personal altar, that might increase the experience (but is not required). If you feel called to bring along any dried flowers, bones, papers, or objects that represent something beautiful that is no longer fresh, something ready to be released to make space for something new, bring those too. If you feel called to bring a sacred item from your altar, consider whether it still feels like a true representation of your soul on its path, right now. If so, it can receive the blessing of our ritual time. If not, it can be recycled for something new. We begin at 8:30 AM Pacific Time, and go for 90 minutes! See you soon, in sacred space! Warmly, Elizabeth @Amanda Ramirez @Kathleen Nora Bower @Brooke W@Crystallynn Light @Lorraine Cannatta @Lyndsay Conklin @Denise Weinberger @Danella Durieux @Jess Delfino Funston @Jim Wells @Jo Soen @Jen Lundstrom @Janna Sublett @Kim Queen @Klairity Marie @Samanthia Kingsley @Breon Michel @Megan Brians @Melissa Rain @Leslee McCoy @Nina Pullella @Nancy Green @Patricia Zukas @Pippa Galea @Julia Roibal @Rita Skeeter @Sammy S @Shannon Wills @Yana Sebaali @Zackoree Harrison @Cookie Schwarzinger And everyone else! I just tagged a few here.