New Moon Gratitude 2: Dance

Continuing to honor the sweet beginnings of Autumns first new moon. Tonight, I bow in deep gratitude for something very dear in my life...DANCE.

Dance has been a core aspect of my life. Dance is how I move feelings through my being. Dance is how I express soul and play with spirit. It is how I find myself, and how I let others find me.

When I was young, jazz class was therapy for me. It provided me with a safe place away from my parents to emote and process the energies of growing up in my household.

In high school I choreographed dance routines for flag teams and cheerleaders. In my twenties I taught ballroom and latin dance classes at Arthur Murray's dance studio (and was the first person to bring Hip Hop classes to the franchise)

4 years ago I moved to Denver and found myself welcomed into the ecstatic dance community of Rhythm Sanctuary. Being a part of this tribe 500+ people strong has been deep medicine for me. It not only supports my individual expression and evolution, it bridges connections between my heart and the hearts of others.

Dance is a powerful and primal language that unites communities, cultures and lovers. Dance shares prayer between bodies, bringing our species together in rhythmic and primal ways to explore and express the energies we all experience simply by being human.

Happiness, sadness, anger, hope, love, strength, fear...these are all emotions we share as humans. They are the waves of energy that ebb and flow through us as we travel the spiral of life and death. Dancing with self and others supports us in honoring and celebrating the collective in beautiful, integrative ways.

I am so grateful I have a body that can move, a soul that has deep longings, and a spirit full of fire. These elements within me find voice through dance and I am so grateful for this creative outlet in my life.

New Moon Gratitude 1: Body

Tonight is the first new Moon of Autumn 2014; a powerful time to set sacred intention for the upcoming season of harvest and release.

To honor passage from my Heart Chakra Summer into my Throat Chakra Autumn, I will be expressing (chakra 5) gratitude (chakra 4) each day during the waxing phase of this moon cycle. This is a great way to cross the bridge from my heart up into the expressive channel of my throat.

To initiate this process I start with the Root Chakra. I am thankful for my body. It is healthy. It is strong. It is durable. It is flexible.

I am thankful for the cells in my heart that have their own proactive rhythm that keeps me alive and active. I'm grateful for the white blood cells coursing through my veins that fight off infection and help me heal quickly.

I'm thankful to have my limbs, my organs, my senses and my flesh to protect and hug me to my core.

There are so many people in this world that have debilitating illnesses and minimized capabilities for movement. At some point I may be one of them. So right now, and as many moments as I can bring my attention to, I honor my body as an amazing vessel for spirit.

I am thankful my body evolved from sperm and egg, into an organism that can breath air, absorb nutrients and expel wastes. I am thankful for the strength of my muscles to propel me through this world, so that I can move towards things that bring me pleasure (and away from that which brings me pain).

What a gift, this flesh being I get to ride around in. Thank you body for all that you are, all that you support and all that you embody in this world. I bow to you and intend to treat you with deep respect, honoring the animal of your being through my fullest living.

Private SoulCollage Readings

Over the past several months I've been expanding the services I offer through E3 Alchemy. When I moved from San Diego to Denver, I took a break from teaching and focused on landing in my new home and creating community. Now that I am entering YEAR 5 of living in Denver, it is time for me to engage my passions, skills and soul purpose and stand more fully in what I want to do.

Many of you know me as the SoulCollage lady. I've been offering Intro classes and Creative Studio along the front range for the past 3 years and have grown a sweet little community here of SoulCollager's here. I have started offering private SoulCollage readings - amazing journeys that use Sacred Symbols as access points to your own wisdom. I love offering these adventures and would love to book one with you!

Since I am kicking this new service off, and getting the word out there, I am offering a sweet cost structure for this service throughout Summer. I do readings around Body, Mind, Spirit, the Medicine Wheel and the Chakras.

Knowledge of SoulCollage is not needed to participate. You will have access to many powerful imagery stations to work with in your private session. Those of you already creating SOulCollage, bring your cards to your reading and dive deeper into your creations.

Soul Work

SoulCollage creation by Raven Shree

Over the past year I’ve been deeply craving to live my Soul Work, and have this be the primary focal point of my life. The more I become attuned to my gifts, and my desire to be of service, I yearn to engage these forces on a more consistent basis. As I contemplate how to manifest my Soul Work, I have fears come up around not being able to make enough money to support myself living my dreams. 

Last night, in my pre Rhythm Sanctuary ritual, I pulled a series of tarot cards for guidance in this area. The images I pulled opened me up to a new way of seeing my desire. I saw how my vision of Soul Work has solely been tied into a revenue equation. I’ve been exploring the theme of Soul Work only through the lens of a career path. In realty, my Soul Work is something deeper and wider then a job. It’s something I am destined to live, every day, every moment, in every interaction, with self and other. 

On some level I knew this, however, it was only a mental understanding. My deepened embodiment of Soul Work made living my Soul Work unconditional. I do not need to wait to find the perfect job to do my Soul Work, living my life is the only foundation I need. 

This epiphany inspired me on the dance floor at Rhythm Sanctuary. Embodying conscious presence, I stood in the power of my gifts, and engaged them in every interaction I had. Each dance partnership I entered into was an act of service; holding space for other to be seen, felt and honored in their fullness, while at the same time, opening up to receive love, grace and the divine through other. 

I am honored to be a conduit for magic, and am excited to deepen to my commitment to living my Soul Work in all the moments of my life. And maybe, just maybe, by living my Soul Work as the foundational standard of my being, an amazing career will emerge that feeds my passion and supports abundant living in ways that are vibrant, aligned and amazing. 

So Be It. 

Dancing Tree Lessons

On my recent road trip through Utah, I connected with Tree, an old teacher, one I am remembering and reconnecting with. Click here to read mytho-poem I wrote as I apprenticed to Tree. 

I took this lesson from Tree into ceremony space 
and community Ecstatic Dance. Here is how the medicine flowed through...

I started out exploring my various purpi 

(is that plural for purpose?) 

I embodied the purpose of my roots 

and my animal purpose to live. 

I expanded into the bark of my being 

embodying my purpose 
of being support and shelter for others. 

I extended my arms up and out into the world 

baring fruit and blossoming outward. 

I explored and embodied the theme of absorbing; 

absorbing the vitality of my community, 

my dance partners, my breath, the vitality of others. 

I explored and embodied the theme of releasing;

and in this practice, 

came to see I defined releasing as something bad. 

I noticed that I had shame around having things that need released. 

I mean...shouldn’t I be more evolved by now?

My understanding of releasing transformed through this dance.  

I was able to better understand the ebb and flow

of giving and receiving

of absorbing and releasing. 

They are both necessary parts of the cycle

if I did not have anything to release, 

I would be dead. 

the exhale is just as necessary as the inhale! 

As I danced with others, 

I received their vitality, and my inhale. 
I also released anything that prevented me 

from being in the fullness of that moment and connection, 
and honored the exhale as part of this process. 

oh how I love releasing now! 

I bow in gratitude to the trees of our planet, 

the elders that provide shelter, food, 

wisdom, oxygen, inspiration, company

and entrance into deeper embodied experiences. 

Inner Child Healing

Yesterday I shared the SoulCollage card I pulled from the Direction of North in my final Medicine Wheel reading of Winter 2014. Today I share the card I pulled from the direction of East. As I step into Spring, calling in vital, passionate infused intimacy with the masculine, this card speaks beautifully to the new beginnings of how my inner child will engage in this process too.

SoulCollage Card and Poem by Raven Shree 
There are parts of my little girl calling to open 
calling to trust 
parts of me that were stunted from growing 
that are now ready to stand upon the welcome mat of life 
and say YES! 

I open the Feminine in me 
and reach out to the masculine 
knowing the same love of the divine 
beats in both our hearts.
I am a grown woman now 
and no longer fear the masculine's attempt to kill me, 
control me, consume me, annihilate me. 
That is in the past; that little girl is no longer in physical form
however she still has an energetic place in me - 
I reach out from this place and trust that man can love me.

I offer myself as joy and light 
knowing some stag out there would hop with joy to have me ride him 
There is man out there that wants to take care of me,
protect me, love me, and cherish me as the soft feminine being that I am.
I will allow this and cherish;
not as a broken little girl needing daddy, 
but as a woman with a little girl 
open to receiving and cherishing love and affection. 

2014 Begins

It's 2014!!!!  I'm excited about what the new year holds. So many threads in my life are lining up to come together this year, and I'm excited to see what new blossoms emerge this new year. 

2013 was intense. It ripped me open, laid me bare at the altar of death, and insisted on transformation. I guess that's what's needed for evolution to happen; old forms must die for new forms to emerge. 

In October I passed the one year milestone for legally changing my name. Releasing my complete birth name (first, middle and last) and claiming a new name has so many layers of transformation in it. It is not just a name change, it is a complete metamorphosis of being. 

So much of 2013 was about dying to my first adulthood, while at the same time, seeding so many aspects of the second adulthood birthing through me as I claim the archetypal power of my new name.   

As I moved through this dying / birthing process, all the aspects of my old life that used to fuel, nurture and distract me no longer had space in my world.  SoulCollage, photography, dancing, hiking, nature, teaching, journaling....all these activities fell away. I found myself sitting in the center of no-thing-ness with only me, God and the current breath of the moment. 

As I moved through this portal of transmutation, and slowly found my footing on my new foundation, I started to engage with my passions again, however, this time there was something different. I no longer wanted to do them alone (which was my old tendency). I now wanted to engage in art and nature with friends and loved ones. Having spent so much of my first adulthood enjoying solitude, I am finding that Raven Shree is a much more social animal. She craves intimacy, connection, union and community. What a wonderful understanding to take with me into the new year as I continue to flesh out this new being I am becoming. 

May 2014 bring you deep felt connections, with Yourself, 

with Loved Ones, with God, and with the Wild Divine Nature of your Soul.