Bella Figura, The Tradition of Living Beautifully

Chloe Garcia Ponce, of Mexican and Native American ancestry, is a Mexican Curandera healer, herbalist, and channel working through the power of prayer and candle work.  Curanderismo is a holistic approach to wellness that has been used in the Americas, pre- and post-contact, for hundreds of years.  In Mexico, it is also known as Mexican Traditional Medicine.

A Curandera may be referred to as a woman of knowledge, or, if trained in traditional Native ways and serving their native community, a medicine woman.  Chloe’s multicultural upbringing shaped her life and Nomadic Songlines, her healing practice. 

Things discussed:

Making the best out of times of fear and uncertainty

Returning to practices that connect us to our true selves

Youthful rebellion leading to a circling back and finding your roots

Supporting one another through hardship

Ways to release emotion

Death as a catalyst for growth

Accessing the voices of those who have passed

The importance of human touch

Women and christian sacred texts

Resources:

Chloe's website

Chloe on Instagram

Bella Figura website

Dolores on Instagram

My guest for Episode 6, Alicia Jo Rabins, of Jewish ancestry, is a writer, musician, performer, ritualist and Torah teacher. She is the author of poetry books Divinity School (winner of the APR/Honickman First Book Prize) and Fruit Geode (finalist for the Jewish Book Award) and has released three albums with Girls in Trouble, her songwriting project about Biblical women. She is currently at work on an independent film, "A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff." The recipient of a 2020 Oregon Literary Fellowship, Rabins lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and two children.

Things discussed:

Being drawn to ancestral religious practices.

Reconnecting to cultural traditions even after several generations of assimilation.

Re-examining the biases against organized religion.

How organized religion can root us.

Art as a means to explore religious experience.

Embracing the roots of our adopted country in addition to our ancestral one.

Emotional challenges of motherhood.

Struggles of the writing life.

Teaching children about their heritage.

Raising children with ancestral traditions.

Resources:

Alicia's website

A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff

Girls in Trouble

Alicia on Instagram

"Ancestral Language for Strength," Dolores' blog post

Bella Figura website

Dolores on Instagram

My guest for Episode 6, Alicia Jo Rabins, of Jewish ancestry, is a writer, musician, performer, ritualist and Torah teacher.  She is the author of poetry books Divinity School (winner of the APR/Honickman First Book Prize) and Fruit Geode (finalist for the Jewish Book Award) and has released three albums with Girls in Trouble, her songwriting project about Biblical women.  She is currently at work on an independent film, "A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff."  The recipient of a 2020 Oregon Literary Fellowship, Rabins lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and two children. 

Things discussed: 

Being drawn to ancestral religious practices.

Reconnecting to cultural traditions even after several generations of assimilation. 

Re-examining the biases against organized religion.

How organized religion can root us.

Art as a means to explore religious experience.

Embracing the roots of our adopted country in addition to our ancestral one.

Emotional challenges of motherhood.

Struggles of the writing life.

Teaching children about their heritage.

Raising children with ancestral traditions.

Resources:

Alicia's website

A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff

Girls in Trouble

Alicia on Instagram

"Ancestral Language for Strength," Dolores' blog post

Bella Figura website

Dolores on Instagram

In Episode 5, I speak to Jill Willard, of Italian and Irish ancestry, author of “Intuitive Being" and celebrated intuitive and healer. Jill is trained in multiple healing, wellness and listening modalities. Her wisdom and expertise focuses mainly on the connection between the brain, our body and our choices.

Topics discussed

What intuition is.

What an intuitive is.

How her heritage connected her to her intuition and fifth-sense.

Her silent conversations with her grandparents.

How intuition and instinct are not new ideas, but ancient practices that were commonplace to our ancestors.

Catholic sacraments and their parallel to energy centers.

How her psychic abilities forced her to see the abuse priests perpetrated on children, and other troubling facts, before they were revealed.

Why intuition has faded in modern society.

What being out of touch with your intuition feels like.

Learning to rest and to get back into our bodies.

How motherhood opens up a new form of intuition.

The art of mediumship.

References

Joseph Campbell

Connect with Spirit, Find Your Center, and Choose an Intentional Life

Guest

Jill's websites:

www.jillwillard.com

https://intuitivebeingexperience.podia.com/ibe

https://www.thepresentprogram.com

Jill on Instagram

Bella Figura

Bella Figura website

Dolores on Instagram

In Episode 5, I speak to Jill Willard, of Italian and Irish ancestry, author of “Intuitive Being" and celebrated intuitive and healer.  Jill is trained in multiple healing, wellness and listening modalities.  Her wisdom and expertise focuses mainly on the connection between the brain, our body and our choices.  

Topics discussed

What intuition is.

What an intuitive is.

How her heritage connected her to her intuition and fifth-sense.

Her silent conversations with her grandparents.

How intuition and instinct are not new ideas, but ancient practices that were commonplace to our ancestors.

Catholic sacraments and their parallel to energy centers.

How her psychic abilities forced her to see the abuse priests perpetrated on children, and other troubling facts, before they were revealed. 

Why intuition has faded in modern society.

What being out of touch with your intuition feels like.

Learning to rest and to get back into our bodies.

How motherhood opens up a new form of intuition.

The art of mediumship.

References

Joseph Campbell

Connect with Spirit, Find Your Center, and Choose an Intentional Life

Guest 

Jill's websites:

www.jillwillard.com

https://intuitivebeingexperience.podia.com/ibe

https://www.thepresentprogram.com

Jill on Instagram

Bella Figura

Bella Figura website 

Dolores on Instagram

Mallorie Vaudoise, of Southern Italian ancestry, is a NYC-based spiritualist of Italian descent. With Vanessa Irena, she hosts Good Bones, a podcast about living and dying well. She is the author of Honoring Your Ancestors: A Guide to Ancestral Veneration and Italian Folk Magic, a blog about devotional practices from Southern Italy and Sicily.

Drawn to witchcraft and folk magic from a young age, her path has required both careful study and wild abandon. Her writing is an act of devotion, an offering to the spiritual ecosystem in which she finds herself. She believes that music, food, wine, and kissing are vital tools of spiritual evolution.

Things discussed:

What ancestor veneration is and what it isn’t.

How different cultures venerate their ancestors.

Mallorie’s book, “Honoring Your Ancestors: A Guide to Ancestral Veneration.”

How we repeat patterns from not only our own past, but the pasts' of our ancestors.

Ancestor veneration can shine a light on these patterns to help release them.

How to discern if a pattern is ancestral trauma.

The body and home are our spiritual foundations and need to be tended to first and foremost.

How to feel messages from our dead.

Resources:

“Honoring Your Ancestors: A Guide to Ancestral Veneration”

Mallorie’s blog, Italian Folk Magic

Mallorie on Instagram

Bella Figura website

Episode 2 [Marine Selenee]

Dolores on Instagram

Mallorie Vaudoise, of Southern Italian ancestry, is a NYC-based spiritualist of Italian descent. With Vanessa Irena, she hosts Good Bones, a podcast about living and dying well. She is the author of Honoring Your Ancestors: A Guide to Ancestral Veneration and Italian Folk Magic, a blog about devotional practices from Southern Italy and Sicily. 

Drawn to witchcraft and folk magic from a young age, her path has required both careful study and wild abandon. Her writing is an act of devotion, an offering to the spiritual ecosystem in which she finds herself. She believes that music, food, wine, and kissing are vital tools of spiritual evolution.

Things discussed:  

Resources:  

“Honoring Your Ancestors: A Guide to Ancestral Veneration”  

Mallorie’s blog, Italian Folk Magic  

Mallorie on Instagram 

Bella Figura website

Episode 2 [Marine Selenee]  

Dolores on Instagram

Christopher Castellani, of Southern Italian ancestry, recently published his fourth novel, Leading Men, for which he received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, was published by Viking in 2019. The novel explores the complex relationship between Frank Merlo, a Jersey-born Italian American, and Tennessee Williams. Castellani is also the author of the novels All This Talk of Love, The Saint of Lost Things, and A Kiss from Maddalena, a trilogy inspired by the lives of his Italian immigrant parents. His collection of essays on point of view in fiction, The Art of Perspective, was published by Graywolf Press in 2016. He is currently on the faculty of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. He lives in Boston, where he is artistic director of GrubStreet, the country's largest and leading independent writing center.

Things discussed:

The parts of our heritage we need to leave behind.

Internalizing our family stories.

Research shows that family stories give us strength and build the foundation of our lives.

Loosening the ties to our family stories in order to incorporate some of our own.

How our respective cultures can be comforting and also suffocating.

The beginning of our lives start with our ancestors’ stories.

Writing our family stories as a way to redeem the loss of assimilation.

Leaving behind the parts of our heritage that don't support us.

The same Elemental of our culture can heal as well as wound.

Tips on how to gather and write your family stories.

Resources:

Guest:

Christopher's website

Christopher's books

Christopher on Instagram

Grubstreet

Mentions:

Guggenheim Fellowship

Italian American Podcast Gay Talese Episode 1

Italian American Podcast Gay Talese Episode 2

"Where are the Italian American novelists?" - Gay Talese essay

Bella Figura:

Bella Figura website

Dolores on Instagram

Christopher Castellani, of Southern Italian ancestry, recently published his fourth novel, Leading Men, for which he received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, was published by Viking in 2019.  The novel explores the complex relationship between Frank Merlo, a Jersey-born Italian American, and Tennessee Williams. Castellani is also the author of the novels All This Talk of Love, The Saint of Lost Things, and A Kiss from Maddalena, a trilogy inspired by the lives of his Italian immigrant parents. His collection of essays on point of view in fiction, The Art of Perspective, was published by Graywolf Press in 2016. He is currently on the faculty of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. He lives in Boston, where he is artistic director of GrubStreet, the country's largest and leading independent writing center.

Things discussed:

The parts of our heritage we need to leave behind.

Internalizing our family stories.

Research shows that family stories give us strength and build the foundation of our lives.

Loosening the ties to our family stories in order to incorporate some of our own.

How our respective cultures can be comforting and also suffocating.

The beginning of our lives start with our ancestors’ stories.

Writing our family stories as a way to redeem the loss of assimilation.

Leaving behind the parts of our heritage that don't support us.

The same Elemental of our culture can heal as well as wound.

Tips on how to gather and write your family stories.

Resources:

Guest:

Christopher's website

Christopher's books

Christopher on Instagram

Grubstreet

Mentions:

Guggenheim Fellowship

Italian American Podcast Gay Talese Episode 1

Italian American Podcast Gay Talese Episode 2

"Where are the Italian American novelists?" - Gay Talese essay

Bella Figura:

Bella Figura website

Dolores on Instagram