What I’m carrying this lifetime

Dear Guild Members, This message will touch right into the heart of why we do what we do here. If you have a blog or social and any part of this resonates, feel free to quote and share. Perhaps it will spark something for you. I am in Portual on a pilgrimage and this message for us about why I do what do and how it works with Intentional Creativity came forward. What I am carrying this lifetime. Why it matters. How I share it. And why you don't see me posting about everything that happens. Because I know my call and it is to call you towards your call in a more conscious embodied way. Many of us search our entire lives to find the deepest medicine that we carry. I know what mine is, and everything you see and hear from me is an extension of that knowing. (link in comments if you would rather listen) I sat down this morning in the sun for cafe, guided by heart visions to draw an illustration of what it is that I'm carrying this lifetime. What I'm carrying is designed to shed light on what you are carrying. By carrying, I mean medicine that you came in with this lifetime and living in such a way that this medicine gets expressed. Until we bring this sacred medicine within each one of us forward, it's as if we're looking for it in every face, in every culture, in every tradition, in every march. Your sacred medicine, what you are carrying is actually at the root of our pursuit for equity and justice. Yet if we don't know what really matters to us, and that we really matter, and that what we're carrying actually matters, it strangely makes us focus more on ourselves. If we don't know who we are, we're actually more obsessed with ourselves. When we know who we are, then we can begin to express it and live it. And that usually happens at the level of community and organization. I'm going to make the sharing of this medicine I am carrying as simple as possible.Then for those of you who feel called, I'll be offering an intensive training that is my magnum opus that's called Stardust Bones. That's coming soon. And it's for people who want to become absolutely present and conscious and clear about who they are and what they're doing in this lifetime. It's guided by my heart vision, meaning the intelligence of my heart in relationship with my mind, my gut, my vulva, my hands and my feet, and my identity, all inside of a space called Soul. You ready to hear what I am carrying? It may spark what you are carrying. Maybe stop what you're doing. Maybe you've heard it all before. Maybe it's your first time. Listen. There are outside influences that shape the story that happens inside of you, which ends up equaling your Voice. Your Voice is how you speak to yourself from within, the narrative. The narrative that you're running from within, is running your life, period. So when we are aware that the outside influences on consciousness BECOME inside story, that equals Voice. Then we become aware of how family and culture, how economics and media, how politics and health, how education and myth, that equals 'a default identity' Default identity is what ends up happening when outside influences come and shape us. All of these influences, well meaning or otherwise equal a sort of default identity “Who you ended up being” as a result of these outside influences that you weren't aware of ingesting. Plus how you experience them and how you are shaped by them. The culture that you live within yourself is often based on the outside influence stories until you choose otherwise. Usually that's when we're rebellious teenagers. But it takes a lot of consciousness and embodiment in order to rescue ourselves from those outside influences. A lot of them were positive, yet even those positive influences were shaped by the often invisible operating paradigm that those adults heaved upon us without their full knowledge or ours. For most of us, it's not intended to be a solid indoctrination, but that is what it ends up being. A solid indoctrination that we are not aware that we are operating WITHIN that shapes every part of our lives. Take that in. This influence impacts every relationship we have with lovers, with money, with food, everything. Every relationship we have has been shaped by the story we create from our default identity. When we realize it's up to us to rescue our own Self from the outside influences and the impact on our inside story on identity, then we realize that who we've ended up being was a weaving of a pattern created by influences outside of ourselves without our known consent. And this is actually normal. This is the human existence. It's not all negative. The outisde influences become negative when we're unconscious of it and when it's in charge of us. Then we bring in... how stories of love and trauma then influence the perspective we have on that inside story. As well as the worldview that we project around us about what's actually going on. The story of ourselves and the story of the world around us is often shaped unconsciously. I'm here to tell you, you can influence your own consciousness and it does require a cycle of rescue. How we do make the shift into curating our own consciousness and WHY it works. In our community, we beome conscious through meditation, movement and metacognition. We experience this usually within the framework of a teaching technology, a curriculum, and a pretty giant painting. There's something that happens when you're confronting these ideas, not as an abstraction in the mind, as a thought, as an energy form, but actually make it in matter. You're asking the question while moving the brush...How has the media shaped me? And you move the brush and listen. What stories have I taken on from my parents? And you make dots and listen. What hidden grief am I carrying about the health, of my family, and my world? And you splash colored paint everywhere. What are the hidden myths that are secretly operating in my unconscious, all these hidden rooms? And you make little shapes that represent the rooms. You externalize the internalized narrative. This is Intentional Creativity. During the creative process, you're meditating on it because you're in a flow state. You are being metacognitive because you are observing yourself, observing yourself, right? Metacognition is thinking about thinking. Metacognitive drawing and painting is thinking about thinking with a pen or a brush. And then the movement. You're moving your body across the canvas, selecting the paint, moving the brush, making giant strokes, stepping in, stepping back, turning the canvas. Seems like it's not a lot of movement, but if you've ever done it with me or another IC Teacher for a day, you know that it is. These three things, meditation, metacognition, and movement. Bringing externalized movement to the canvas brings the the internal narrative and makes it visual. This allows change because the neuroplasticity of the brain and the intelligence of the heart, the healing power of the hands, the power of the feet which move you back and forth without you even thinking about it, because you're in flow state. The systems of intelligence, the heart, the brain, the gut and the groin brings a space of coherence. Clarity can come in a way that it hasn't come before. Because all of your systems begin to align. I share this with you today, guided by my own heart vision. That my heart vision is to catalyze those who choose, into your heart vision. For you to see, feel clearly, for you to know and be clear in who you are this lifetime. Even with that amount of trauma that you've had, right alongside the chaos and the undoing, there's this thing called curating consciousness that's guided by the vision of the heart. And it works. Choosing to Curate your Consciousness, consciously brings you closer into presence, into embodiment. Brings you closer to your sensuality and the highest level of consciousness that's available to you. Brings you closer to your calling. I've given my life force bringing this sacred technology of self-expression called Intentional Creativity forward. When I express Life Force... then my Life Source, the deep nourishment, then my creative fire gets fueled. When we work in form, like at a canvas or on the dance floor or in the gardens, we give energy and mind an opportunity to be expressed in matter. This is a very specific chosen happening. It's what I'm here to bring. This is my sacred medicine which is all about your sacred medicine. That's what makes it sacred. I'm not here to report on politics and the media. I'm not here to make a poster for everything that matters to me. I'm here to focus. This is my focus because I know that those of you who are focused can come into your own sense of self and shape your own identity and curate your own consciousness and hear your own voice clearly. When you can do this you will take action on what matters to you. A personal story… I remember a long time ago after I had finished domestic violence advocacy training, something happened with a student in one of my onlines classes. I took the training because I was committed to ending violence against women in any way that I could in my lifetime. Then this medicine that I'm carrying now started coming so powerfully. I started working with bigger groups virtually. I remember working with the head of stalking in one of the states here in the United States. And I said to her, I feel like I'm neglecting my station by not working directly with the women who are in survival. And she said, The leaders who are in survival need you to teach us. I can't do my work to support women in stalking and safety one-on-one if you don't do what you're doing. I need you to do what you're doing so I can do what I'm doing. This was such a meaningful moment for me. She studied with me for years and shaped the way that she worked within her stalking department. Being stalked was one of my most harrowing experiences in my 20s. So I'm not always on the front lines of whatever thing is going on in the world in the way that people might think I should be. I'm using my gifts in other ways. Sometimes I reach a thousand, sometimes ten thousands, and sometimes one grandmother calls me. Someone I don't know that I've never met. Someone who sent me clothes, and socks when I was in a fire evacuation. They had just had a shooting event in a place where her grand children were educated and she couldn't think of anything that would make her feel better than just to call me and maybe I might answer and maybe she might hear my voice. And maybe she could paint with me that day and maybe she could then talk to her grandchildren in a different way. I am so glad I picked up the phone. So it may not always seem like I'm directly addressing all the harm and war and violence that's happening. It's not that I'm spiritually bypassing. It's that I know what my call is. And my call is to guide and support those who are called in hearing their calling. I love you more than you could ever imagine. It's quantum, yet it's tangible. That is why I am speaking these words. Holding this frequency with you, for you, by you, with earth, for earth, by earth, in earth, with stars, in stars, by the stars. We do have stardust bones, you know, and our bones remember. May we all remember more. Right now, this lifetime. With love Curate Shiloh Sophia https://teawiththemuse.substack.com/p/what-im-carrying-this-lifetimeWatch for Stardust Bones - coming soon…Paint with me now here Paint with me in Miami herePortugal Tea with the Muse is complimentary. If you would like to contribute, that is welcome but you will hear from me without paying too. Sometimes, this platfrom asks you to pay, not me. Lots to watch and learn from rightr now. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

I’m taking a break from work but every day I still think about you and about us and where I’m headed. I’m listening to the most amazing book that I recommend to all of us. It’s way above my head, but it makes me think things and today it made me feel duped. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Believing the women. Believing ourselves. Checking with our body when we’re ready to move on and tell our stories. my mother said she couldn’t always trust her heart ♥️ Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Dear Ones,You just never know where a sacred path is going to lead you. Right now, I'm on the balcony of a hotel on the Sonoma Plaza. It's curious finding myself here because I live here in Sonoma. But it just so happens that for various reasons, last night, every bed at the inn, including at my house, was full because we just had an event, Exotic Creatures. As I sat in my little car trying to decide where to go next, I wanted to go for a swim. I wasn't sure where to stay. And I looked up the most affordable hotel in town, which happened to be right on the plaza. So as I made my way here and got in my pajamas after a beautiful swim, I wondered... Was there a reason that I could think of why I would be right here?The reason why I'm right here... is to connect with my roots. Because this Sonoma Plaza is where I took my first steps. It's where I have memories of my mothers and my lovers. It's a place as close to home as I've ever known. Next to these trees. These flowers. This rose garden. This sundial. These amazing ducks. So I wanted to start my day right here. With the sounds of the morning birds. The light of the sun. The sounds of the traffic going by. And this poem/prose that I wrote from bed this morning. Ready to listen? Tune in. Because here we go. It's called the Constellation of She-Bear.Constellation of She-BearThe morning birds have let you know that the light is returning now. Right in the middle of where you are, there is beauty right next to the trouble. Can you pause and look for it?Just the presence of the sun is the reminder that there are cycles within cycles and it won't always feel like it does right now. Exactly, exactly in the spot that seems almost impossible to navigate, there is an opening to go through. Look for it.You might need to be brave because this threshold is going to look different than the ones you've known before. The trees that are blooming nearest to where you are standing have turned their leafy green ears towards your troubles. Go ahead, little one. Tell them about the thunder in your head. They already know.This makes me think of a song a song my mother used to sing to me as a little girl. Trouble in mind, I’m blue but I won't be blue always sun's gonna shine in my back door somedayI know I know it seems as if the universe is conspiring against you sometimes.You wonder if there's any more that can go wrong. Well, let me ask you, would you be willing to ask a different question? Even though you can't see them, there are tigers right now drinking water in a powerful river of fresh, sweet water. Just knowing that offers joy. comfort. Just think of it. Can you see the tigers drinking fresh sweet water in the thunder of your mind? Even though you can't hear it right now, there are medicine people playing a song for you on their drum. It's a heartbeat just for you. Really, it's happening right now. Somewhere around the world,a medicine person with a drum is playing a song for humanity and you are included in that. And even better, it's a song in your mother tongue. The language you speak in your world.Can you hear it? Can you hear it? Above the birds and the traffic and the air conditioner and the sounds of coffee brewing and the sweepers are sweeping and the housekeepers are keeping and the artists, well, we're reciting poetry on our phone, of course. Can you hear it?I wish I could rub this fragrant oil that smells like roses and frankincense into your hardening scars to soften them for you. You shouldn't have to do that all on your own.I just noticed how the skin puckers at the site of the wound. The poets tell us that's where the light gets in, you know, through the cracks. Light comes in and out of the wound. (You know, Rumi and Cohen always speaking about these light-filled wound things.) Listen closely now. Listen.The bear in your heart is carrying you. The bear in your heart is carrying you. The bear in your heart is carrying you safely to the next destination on your sacred path. I know you wish it was different. I wish it was different too. And not because we're fragile, although we have our moments.Maybe it's because we're tired. But mostly because we know it doesn't have to be like this. And it makes us sad that it doesn't have to be like this. It doesn't have to be like this, but it is. And so here we are. Do you remember the day when you took shelter from that perfect storm?You just stopped running and reacting and started noticing the blooming orchids? It all just seemed so unlikely to find all that beauty right next to all that destruction. But there it was. Here it is. As I looked up yesterday... at the woman swimming in front of me.There was indeed an orchid on her shoulder in the colors I had just painted. These are reminders that I am on a sacred path. And today I'm here to tell you, maybe to affirm for you or remind you, yes, These are fierce times. Fierce times. We are called into a future self that's more mature than we've ever been so far. And part of us, well maybe a lot of us, just want to go back to sleep. To pull the covers up over our head. To put the fuzzy socks on and go back to sleep. Yet every day that we overcome the fear which holds us back. Every day we release more withholding. Every day that we're kinder to ourselves, we are learning to see in the dark. But today, today I want to honor all the places that you are saying no. All the places you're saying no. I love your big, bold, quivering f**k no.I love your walking away. I love your walking toward your life right now. I want to cherish the few yeses that feel just right in your belly. You know the ones I'm talking about. What can you say yes to today that turns ancient starlight in your bones into actual life force you can use? You know that grace-filled stuff called Life Force?I've heard that even with current circumstances, there is actually still enough Life Force to go aroundRumor has it, You get to have as much as you want. You do need to ask for it, however. Not because it's moderated. Like no one can keep you from it. But because sometimes you forget it's there. Sometimes you forget that life force is there and you have to ask for it. You can hear me. Can't you? Pacing the floor in my fuzzy socks. This Life Force is here. It's between us right now. Can you feel it? I can.I'm smiling as I think about you. As I see your face. Your smile. Your eyes. I see you. The intention of noticing myself. You, me, eyes, life force, and the bear in your heart. It activates the sparks of hidden power within us. Pow, pow, pow, there goes the sparks. Sparking. Life is lifing. Stars are starring. Hearts are sending hearts. Sometimes you feel like you're not from around here. You search the stars, you look to the earth, and you just feel like maybe you don't exactly belong here.And you, darling heart, have made an art of not belonging. You've gotten really good at it.You can still be in crowds and in groups and not belong and not panic, and you're doing all right. You've also learned to practice feeling safe without anybody needing to validate your existence. You did a really good job! You are really amazing!You know that, right? Yet, precious one, I am here today to remind you that you do belong in this constellation of being. You have been walking barefoot through the galaxies alone for long enough. Right alongside the hot mess that you are in, the great mysteries have woven a milky way into the garment of your body, your sacred skin suit.For you, I give thanks. Our cosmic GPS coordinates led us exactly to this exact moment, the one we're in right now. The bear in my heart calls to the bear in your heart. Can you hear the call? The only thing you need to do to step onto your sacred path is to step onto your sacred path.I know it feels kind of like a riddle to recognize it, that you're already on it. I know a woman on her path when I see it. Let me be the one to tell you, I can see you are on your path. Yes, you've already crossed the threshold and you're in the NOW.I welcome you here, where I live in the now. It's good here. There's not that many people hanging out in the now, honestly. For us introverts who look like outroverts, it's kind of a cool place to be Now. It's so popular to talk about, but so few actually find their way to Now.So I'm glad you made it across that threshold.So, you know, this circle has been called and your name was on the list again. To come and speak to us about the gifts that you are carrying. Your unique medicine. Let me just tell you nobody here actually cares if you have your stuff in a tidy pile. We really don't.We like the steam that comes out of your compost. We all know that soon enough there will be wildflowers growing from everything you've been willing to let go of. So right beside the suffering there's this beauty to behold. That's why I'm here talking to you today to remind you to look for the beauty.You won't have to look very far. It's right where you look right Now. I'm inviting you to find a question that feels sweet on your tongue. The morning birds have let you know that the light is returning now. Right in the middle of where you are…There is beauty right next to the trouble. #medicinepainting #intentionalcreativity #ExoticCreatures #musea This painting was created in a weekend event called Exotic Creatures, using Medicine Painting. An ancient yet futuristic Intentional Creativity process that allows us to reveal so much of our hidden worlds and interpret it as medicine. Brave action steps, emerge, post painting. We don’t want to live the way where we’re living before. We now have the courage to try something else. We can’t go back to where we were.One of the curious things is that we begin to watch for things that arise in the painting to arise inside of our lives. Within 45 minutes of completing this painting, I was at the pool and there was a woman swimming who had an orchid tattoo on her back in exactly the same colors as my painting. Later that night my phone showed me a photo from 2021 on the exact samed date of orchids. Then a few of us were out to dinner together and one of the women had a butterfly on her painting, which now manifested in another tattoo. Another woman had included a sacred herb in her painting, and then suddenly found out about a ceremony that included that sacred herb, and one of her other paintings. And the list goes on and on! How often we collapse the symbolic and mystical into our world in the day-to-day reality. Especially when we’re looking for it!This painting and poem is dedicated to my students from Exotic Creatures, and also Color of Woman. I continue to be in awe at the sacred work of Medicine Painting. Painting with an intent to heal through the Alchemical Feminine and realize that we are already on our sacred path. Less withholding, more acknowledgment. Less loneliness, more inclusion in the tribe of healers and creatives who are willing to open their eyes. So good. At the end of the class, I decided I wanted to teach more specifically about the ingredients called Medicine Painting that I have been working on in our lineage for over 30 years. Stay tuned to learn more about how you can work with painting for healing yourself and also with others. Having nothing to do with being a great painter. Self-expression offers access to healing because it activates life force. It’s the art and science of self expression that lights up my sacred path. The constellation of the she-bear reminds me of my calling. I am on my sacred path and not one single thing can take me off of it!Love in the Now,Shiloh Sophia Exotic Creatures team, Ruby, Alyse, Anasuya, Ali and below is the classroom too Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

How are you navigating these times? Yes, I too am concerned about what appears to be an incoming dictatorship in the United States in an undemocratic process! I need to choose how much I focus on that. I need to keep my eye on it, but I need to focus on other things too. My life force needs my attention.Do you need to rescue your nervous system from the hijacking of the narratives of force? Are you willing to collaborate with your chemistry towards something that you love? Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

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Exotic Creatures begins on Friday - come create feminine alchemy with meTomorrow we have a live ritual - join usDear Ones,This is the finaly promised Re-Imagining Women’s Mythologies. Seems like I am just getting started!Today’s episode isA rejection of the normaliztion of rape storiesA call to action out of reaction Rescue of life force from the power over structuresTouching on women’s stories where we were mis-informedInvitation to choose your consciousnessPaint with me this weekend and talk to me tomorrow!Shiloh Sophia Tea with the Muse welcomes your subscriptions as you choose. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Re-imagining Women’s Mythologies continues today with * a look at the perilous life of Little Red Riding hood* a call vicitims to ask when we are no longer victims* the dead grandmother wolf archetype* the dead mothers in stories* transcending the need for rescue* a general call to go beneath the layers of weapons into a pre-conquest state.Join us to paint your wild free woman archetype in Exotic Creatures starting Friday. No painting experience required. Part Two in the player above.Then I have included two additional audios - the 2:52 one is just a breif note on Baba Yaga. The second 42 minute audio is a re-telling of the Selkie story released earlier this year. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

OK, here we go. I’m diving in. I’ve already been to bottom recently. I’m not here to save the day. Just FYI I’m mostly gonna stir stuff up. I’m not here to change your mind. I don’t need you to respect my opinion. It’s just time to speak about the sacred cow within mythologies centering the feminine psyche. It’s true. I take the mythologies way too literally. I do.But when I look at the state of the world, I can’t help but wonder how these dominant narratives have shaped us into the culture We are today - where women are in need of rescue. But who will rescue us if the rescuer is also the perpetrator? Enough. Shiloh Sophia PS To learn about the Exotic Creatures course go to intentionalcreativity.life We would love to have you paint with us. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Hello Everyone! This three part series starts RIGHT here. I will be sharing an un-hinged view of the changes I am hoping we can make together regarding women’s stories. Three podcasts in three days breaking it DOWN. So we can bulid up something living.Those who are called to become the Shereo of your own story and who want to experience my new work - join us for Exotic Creatures - no woman ever regretted spending a few days listening to the new story that wants to emerge AND making a painting that goes along with the narrative that is ready to emergePhotos taken yesterday at Wild Water Creek by Michelle, the beauty on the far right.Norma Jeanne, Shiloh, Vicchi, Naia and Michelle. We shared a lovely day together in ceremony, story and creativity. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe