Indigenous Wisdom with Julia Carmen

Do you really know what it is to be lazy and enjoy it?Julia Carmen brings the monthly archetype series to Dos Almas, the Two Souls, an archetype she calls truly universal. They are the balance of the universe, male and female frequency together, the universal soul of the all. They prefer "they" and "them," and what they carry is a healthy love of self within self. They encompass every archetype, they are complete, and the people around them feel balanced too.They are also without guile: a person of innocence who speaks the truth of the heart. Julia is clear that it does not mean naive. Because Dos Almas holds all the other archetypes, you can lead with it, and if you do, you feel complete no matter how funky the outside world gets.Their companion is Lazy, "not really dragonfly." Get your pad and pen: what does lazy mean to you? Lying around doing nothing, or just being in the now of what is going on?Julia closes with a blessing, and a reminder that our ancestors, guides, and the loved ones who have rebirthed are with us, and that the love is intense.Learn more about your own archetype in The Magical Papers at theschoolwithoutwalls.net.Learn more about The School Without Walls and the Dragonfly Guides:Get your free guide: 10 Questions to Ask Your Soul SelfEnroll in The Magical PapersExplore The School Without WallsProduction assistance from Podlad.com and Daypack Digital. Artwork by Olivia Dancel. Dragonfly art by Soul Creative Design.

Who do you honor, and how, when you don't have a tradition handed to you?With Día de los Muertos on November 1st and 2nd, Julia Carmen talks about honoring the ones who came before us, in our own way and with respect for where the tradition comes from. In her family it was never just one weekend. Her mother honored hers every day. Julia describes the holiday as a time of music, food and being together, not a sad day, and a doorway into something we can carry all year.She shares the story of her grandmother coming through with a message for her own daughter, and what it taught her about remembering a death and a life together. Then she shares how anyone can honor their ancestors, with respect as the key: educate yourself before you borrow, learn where the practice comes from, and honor your own people and lineage too. An altar can be in your heart, or one photo, one candle, a favorite song. Say their names out loud.Julia closes by pulling a card, Kissing/Lover Dragonfly, and reading it as our ancestors saying, "Look in the mirror and see me."Get your free Día de los Muertos Resource Kit, with recipes, songs, films and readings: theschoolwithoutwalls.net/kitLearn more about The School Without Walls and the Dragonfly Guides:Get your free guide: 10 Questions to Ask Your Soul SelfEnroll in The Magical PapersExplore The School Without WallsProduction assistance from Podlad.com and Daypack Digital. Artwork by Olivia Dancel. Dragonfly art by Soul Creative Design.

Who is on your altar this year? And what if you've never made one?Julia Carmen sits down with her granddaughter, Juliana Guerrero, as Día de los Muertos approaches. Juliana remembers what the season looked like growing up, what she carries from the line of women behind her, and what it's like to teach in a school that builds a huge ofrenda together every year. She names what she calls a teeny tiny silver lining of the overculture's version of the holiday: it has people asking questions.They talk about doing this with respect, about asking permission, and about the fact that some altars are private. Juliana walks through her living altars, including the love altar she first built during a hard season. Julia talks about where to begin if you're new: start with yourself, start with the people who really saw you, and don't compare. They also talk about grief, and about the songs and films that help carry it.Julia closes by reading the Fire Dragonfly card, and Juliana leaves us with three words for anyone sitting with their people this week: be still, be kind, be love.Free Día de los Muertos Resource Kit: theschoolwithoutwalls.net/kitLearn more about The School Without Walls and the Dragonfly Guides:Get your free guide: 10 Questions to Ask Your Soul SelfEnroll in The Magical PapersExplore The School Without WallsProduction assistance from Podlad.com and Daypack Digital. Artwork by Olivia Dancel. Dragonfly art by Soul Creative Design.

You may know their work long before you ever really meet them. The Artist is often seen, but not seen.Julia Carmen returns to the Archetype series with the Artist, paired with Emerald Dragonfly. She describes them as the creators of their own universe, close kin to the Alchemist and the Wizard, and filled with more emotion in motion than most. They move like chameleons, changing their own colors and seeing the colors in other people, so they're very hard to fool. Julia's other image for them is an octopus: ranging in every direction, and ready to release its ink when it needs to.An Artist doesn't have to paint. This archetype shows up through poetry, through parenting, through a person's work and word. Julia also names the caution for those who lead with the Artist: because emotion runs ahead, being near one can be intense. The Artist is born with the knowing within, and their stories come from other worlds of being. This is an Archetype that can be cultivated, in the stillness of you.Their companion is Emerald Dragonfly: "Know this. You can never be lost."Learn more about your own archetype in The Magical Papers online course, at theschoolwithoutwalls.net.Learn more about The School Without Walls and the Dragonfly Guides:Get your free guide: 10 Questions to Ask Your Soul SelfEnroll in The Magical PapersExplore The School Without WallsProduction assistance from Podlad.com and Daypack Digital. Artwork by Olivia Dancel. Dragonfly art by Soul Creative Design.

Some archetypes can be cultivated. The Seer cannot — they arrive this way already, walking with their peeps, and stay that way their whole life.Julia Carmen returns to the archetype series with the Seer and their Peeps: those born already balancing the physical and non-physical worlds, in a constant, ever-flowing motion that never looks for a point of reference — because in the physical there isn't one. "Peeps" is Julia's generic word for whatever your own tradition calls this crew: ancestors, guides, angels, four-legged and winged ones — the group each Seer comes in with and walks beside for life.The Seer holds their past lives the way most of us can't: fully understood, never carried. They aren't leaders and they aren't followers, and their energy moves like a colorful, DNA-like spiral — unique to each person, the way no two snowflakes match. Unlike most archetypes in this series, the Seer can't be cultivated into. You either come in this way, or you don't.Their companion is Mother Dragonfly: inside of me is your life... you see, you are the mother — which Julia clarifies isn't literal parenthood, but the mother within yourself, the one doing the creating.If this isn't your archetype, look around — chances are good there's a Seer already in your life. Trust the quiet, still voice. That's how you'll know.Learn more about The School Without Walls and the Dragonfly Guides:Get your free guide: 10 Questions to Ask Your Soul SelfEnroll in The Magical PapersListen to Mother Dragonfly's episodeExplore The School Without WallsProduction assistance from Podlad.com and Daypack Digital. Artwork by Olivia Dancel. Dragonfly art by Soul Creative Design.

What is a casita, really — and what happens when it gets crowded with somebody else's stuff?Julia Carmen sits down again with her granddaughter Juliana Guerrero for another J&J, sparked by a question Juliana asked after their overculture conversation. A casita isn't a house — it's the place within each of us connected to the Soul Self of Being, what Julia has also called the little blue light since Juliana was small. It's a homing pigeon: wherever you go, it says, this is you.The two talk through what happens when a casita gets neglected or overrun with other people's stuff, and how Juliana found her way back to hers after a dark stretch in high school — asking herself what she actually wanted, rather than what she was told to want. Julia shares the question a friend once asked her that changed how she guards her own casita: if someone knocked at your door, would you just let them in? Boundaries, they agree, are a form of care, not withholding — and Julia is direct that if what you're carrying is more than a casita can hold on its own, get the professional support you need.Juliana offers her own tending practice — sun, a walk, a good cry, writing it down. Julia pulls a dragonfly card live on air with a message for anyone listening: rest in the sleep of yourself, and know that how will show itself in its own time.Links and resources:What is Soul Listening?Sleeping DragonflyPurple DragonflyLearn more about The School Without Walls and the Dragonfly Guides:Get your free guide: 10 Questions to Ask Your Soul SelfEnroll in The Magical PapersExplore The School Without WallsProduction assistance from Podlad.com and Daypack Digital. Artwork by Olivia Dancel. Dragonfly art by Soul Creative Design.

What if the child in your life who doesn't quite fit the mold was never a mystery to solve, but an angel you were chosen to guide?Julia Carmen returns to the monthly archetype series with the Seeables — the new babies being born now, angels who have never taken human form before. They see without the veil: no past lives, no future to hold onto, only the Now, known within itself. They need guidance from the humans raising them, and the relationship runs both directions — as we help a Seeable learn to be human, they awaken us to the soul self, the alma of being.Julia shares something pointed for the parents, tías, tíos, and grandparents raising a Seeable while carrying their own ancestral wounds: these children did not come here to heal you. They came because they are love, unconditional love, here to walk beside you.The companion for this archetype is the Night Rainbow dragonfly, carried by Makua, the male healer: be not afraid of the night, because that is when the rainbow shows its truth. He hides from the all until we're ready to see him, and shows himself only to the brave who move into the night of self.Share this with someone raising a little one who sees.Learn more about The School Without Walls and the Dragonfly Guides:Get your free guide: 10 Questions to Ask Your Soul SelfEnroll in The Magical PapersExplore The School Without WallsProduction assistance from Podlad.com and Daypack Digital. Artwork by Olivia Dancel. Dragonfly art by Soul Creative Design.

What happens to the parts of us that don't go away when someone we love leaves?This is Part Two of Julia Carmen's conversation with Catherine Gairard, harpist and musician carrying a lineage both French and Peruvian. Catherine's mother passed away earlier this year, and what she's experienced since isn't grief in the usual sense.Julia meets her here freshly grieving her own loss, and shares a moment of very human, unscripted grief of her own. Together, they explore knowing the truth of the soul self doesn't cancel out the body's need to feel its pain.Links & Resources:Catherine's music and workLearn more about The School Without Walls and the Dragonfly Guides:Get your free guide: 10 Questions to Ask Your Soul SelfEnroll in The Magical PapersExplore The School Without WallsProduction assistance from Podlad.com and Daypack Digital. Artwork by Olivia Dancel. Dragonfly art by Soul Creative Design.

What if the thing that makes you feel like the odd one out is actually your royalty?In this month's archetype episode, Julia Carmen sits with the "Bastards" — and puts the name in quotes on purpose. The dictionary root simply means something of a different shape or size than usual for its kind. Different from the mold, and nothing more.The Bastards are solid and unmovable, like a warrior — the pillars who hold up the king and the queen, taking on the frequency and vibration of whoever they support. Julia shares a story from a retreat in Montana, where her granddaughter Juliana was identified as a lead Bastard and was, at first, genuinely upset by the word. Months later, working through what the archetype meant, she made changes in her life she never thought she'd make.The teaching underneath it: the Bastards think they're the outsiders, the ones set apart. That feeling is an illusion — they are from royalty. Discernment goes both ways, and the Bastard's work is turning it inward, toward their own worth.The companion for this episode is the Jasper dragonfly, a rascal, a coyote, the Trickster, whose message is simple: go ahead and chase me, you'll never catch me, but you can try.If you've ever felt like the different shape, the odd one out — the invitation is to see the royalty in you. The different shape was never a flaw. It's the blueprint.Learn more about The School Without Walls and the Dragonfly Guides:Get your free guide: 10 Questions to Ask Your Soul SelfEnroll in The Magical PapersSchedule a free Cafecito y Chisme Call with JuliaExplore The School Without WallsProduction assistance from Podlad.com and Daypack Digital. Artwork by Olivia Dancel. Dragonfly art by Soul Creative Design.

Where did the word "overculture" come from — and why do we still need it?In this J&J conversation, Julia Carmen and her granddaughter Juliana Guerrero trace the word back to Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés (Women Who Run With the Wolves) and Dr. Magda Permut's essay "On Overculture." Together they define it: whatever dominant force runs a family, a classroom, or a country — the hierarchy everyone quietly agrees to without questioning.Juliana, a high school teacher, uses the word with her students to talk about colonization. Julia shares the overculture she grew up inside — one that dictated marrying young and starting a family early — and reads a poem she wrote, "The Me and the Others," about being a fair-skinned Mexicana whose own brown children have called her a "white Mexican."They close on what it costs to keep explaining yourself so others feel comfortable, and where that explaining should end. The overculture didn't invent us, and it doesn't get the last word — underneath it is the Indigenous soul, older than any grid placed over it.Learn more about The School Without Walls and the Dragonfly Guides:Get your free guide: 10 Questions to Ask Your Soul SelfEnroll in The Magical PapersSchedule a free Cafecito y Chisme Call with JuliaExplore The School Without WallsProduction assistance from Podlad.com and Daypack Digital. Artwork by Olivia Dancel. Dragonfly art by Soul Creative Design.