I’m writing cozied up on the floor in my office. It’s dark and quiet. Except for the drumming flame of a wicker candle. And I’m sitting with a question poet Jacqueline Suskin asks in her book, A Year in Practice.
The question is, what do you think the world needs most?
And a flood of thoughts enter my space of contemplation.
Freedom for the oppressed.
An end to patriarchal imperialism and its insolence for life.
Protection for all of the species teetering on the brink of extinction. The birds and plants I can’t bear to say goodbye to forever.
A future for our children.
And my heart swells, and my body nearly shuts down, the list of our world’s unmet needs too painful. Too big to feel alone.
But then a wiser voice steps in, it’s a collaborative voice - the voice of all of my guides and my teachers. And it says, the world needs to remember.
Our species needs to remember what our bodies have never forgotten, could never forget…that we are the land. We are the earth. We are not separate from any form of life in this wondrous world.
And if we can remember what our bones know and what the trees and the animals know…
We can be in awe of ourselves and one another, in awe of the miraculous relational web that sustains life.
And if we can be in awe of these bodies and our collective body, we can love each other back to wholeness.
And if we can love each other, we can heal.
And if we can heal, we can evolve.
And from our evolution, we can create a different world. A world that reveres these bodies, nature, connection, life.
In her book, Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer shares the words of her Potawatomi elders, “ceremonies are the way we remember to remember.” These wise elders teach that we need practices to remember who we are, to remember our place, our belonging, our blessings, and in turn, to remember our responsibility to the earth and all of creation.
This sentiment is also centered in ancestor, Thich Nhat Hanh’s work and many other spiritual teachers of our time. And it’s deeply woven inside of my own lineage of Celtic earth wisdom and alive within every single indigenous culture around the world. Practices of remembering our profound connection to the earth. Practices that existed long before colonization and will be in practice long after.
Practices that are inherent to human survival.
And in this time of ecocide and genocide and collective grief, we need the practices that are going to help us remember to remember more than ever.
This is the why behind my new offering, Earth Body.
Earth Body is a yearlong ceremonial space of deep remembering.
A home for remembering your wild and wise connection to creation. A home to practice embodying the powerful force of nature that you are, that we are, in these pivotal times.
Imagine…
A year of devotion to earth wisdom.
A year of devotion to your wise body.
A year of being nourished in circle with women and our ancient ancestors.
A year of gathering council with the elements and the plant and animal beings that are just as committed as we are to collective healing and liberation.
✨
If you’re longing to fill your cup with a year of soulful community, somatic ritual, and deep earth wisdom, I, and the other seven women who have already said yes, would love to welcome you on this journey.
Registration closes January 30th and we begin on January 31st for Imbolc.
🌱 Click here to learn more and sign up 🌱
I’m so honored and excited to share this space with y’all.
Here’s to our miraculous earth bodies.
And to the one body of earth that loves and nurtures us all.
In gratitude and praise and care,
🌻 Josie
Remember…
You are saltwater
You are earth
You are wind
You are fire.
You are fertile land
And endless sky.
Glowing moons
and fireflies.
You are shooting stars.
A naked child
laughing with the sun.
Ancient trees
and feathered wings.
Sap and blood
and life.
You are the story
that miraculously survives
the hourglass of time.
Lay your heart on this blanket of moss.
Let your bones remember the song.
Yes can you hear it now?
You are the light of god.
✨
Sunday Soul Nourishment is the free weekly version of the Starlit Soil newsletter.
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I am endlessly grateful to each of you for your presence here. Your contribution and sharing is so appreciated.
So good!!! Gah!