What liberation smells like, sounds like, feels like for Sara

All of our energetic pathways as music, and the unblocking of those pathways bringing music and liberation to the world

Chetna’s journey with the Bansuri and the permission to make music

Sara’s relationship with the banjo as a way to soothe her soul as she’s in relationship to the instrument

The krar as it relates to the banjo and how it’s different

Sara’s ancestral connection the krar through her dad’s Eritrean background, and her pursuit of opening to and belonging with the krar

Sara looking to her heritage and her grandmother for what she needs to mother herself in a different way, which lead her to using her hands and being her senses as she cooked and played music

Her discovery of finding her cultural DNA, through repetition and doing with her hands, and eventually going to Jamaica and being connected with a banjo and krar-maker

Her trust of “more will be revealed” and saying yes even though it doesn’t make sense

Similarities between West Africa and Jamaica as a site for Black liberation

The discomforts of being there with the environment, and also the cultural and communal resilience and spirit 

Lessons in accepting perfection, the “mark of the maker” and letting our instruments (including our bodies) have their beautiful scars (and how the instrument imitates our bodies) 

The process of getting intimate with the wood, gourd, goat skin and other earth materials for the instrument 

Being in collaboration and consent with the materials and tools we’re using

Sara’s experience in Conscious Creators and the support she receiving in this process over the last few months

Being in deep listening and collaboration, and locating ourselves in the process too

Sara on IG: @saragbanjo (Sara offers 1:1 Oracle Card Readings, SoulCollage®️ Facilitation, Enneagram Consultation and support for your creative project with vocals, lyrics, melody, voice acting & narration, ambient song and gourd banjo live through her embodied empathic voice.)

Chetna on IG @mosaiceye and the podcast @creationforliberation 

Upcoming Events: Embodying Bhakti: The Yoga of Love - a series for women and non-binary activists, Reclaiming our Creative Inheritance: a 2-hour workshop on June 4th

Work 1:1 with Chetna for high-achieving changemakers to go beyond your logic and conjure your embodied creative magic

What liberation smells like, sounds like, feels like and looks like for Lama Rod from both an abstract and embodied experience

Contentment and acceptance alongside the wrongness, suffering and crisis of the world

The subtle practice of “holding the chaos and crisis, instead of the chaos and crisis holding you”

Holding space for everything that’s arising is still feeling the chaos and tension, feeling our hearts breaking and enraging, and also still being connected to the space that’s holding us and everything

Reacting to everything may create more harm, and gives little space to respond

The choicefulness and consent of this practice

Chetna references Dylan McGarry’s art that speaks to how to hold ourselves and each other accountable requires holding

Accountability is meeting the reality, showing up and telling the truth

We have to confront our personal broken-heartedness as an expression of the collective disappointment

Not giving in to everything being “too much”, letting things arise in the nature of one’s own mind

Liberation work is calling us to do what we thought was impossible

Lama Rod’s practice of “no choice” as a way to not bypass the work or give himself excuses

Chetna’s relation to this with choosing to be in recovery, and having chosen “no choice” when it comes to engaging with certain substances

The necessity of “no choice” despite our human shit, to eliminate complexity and not enabling ourselves to get out of the work

Boundaries as a way to maintain discipline and dedication in the face of difficulty

“No choice” as conducive for empowerment, balance and liberation

On the other side of some rigidity, hard choices is discomfort is space, like a crucible  and the discomfort of alchemy

Seed processes and the struggle of a seed cracking open to sprout, and how it relates to our nature’s propensity to emerge through discomfort

Surrendering to the dark or the unclear, where our awareness isn’t and where there are narratives of danger

Lama Rod’s relationship to the energetic of depression, and the medicine of surrendering to get close to the depression and see what it needed

The darkness is asking to be tended to, and the need to offer care to the things we’re afraid of

Pressing down, avoiding and pressurizing the darkness before it leaves us without choice due it’s need to be released

Depression as a portal to liberation, love and compassion when we sit down and ask what it needs and why it’s here

Tending to the darkness softens our hearts and reduces the isolation

The advanced practice of loving the things we’re most afraid of 

The distinction between love and like; wanting someone to be free and resourced even if I don’t want them to be my friend

If someone, or a collective of people were free and getting what they needed, what harm would that prevent?

Trying to love in this way has to come after we spend time with the rage, fear, grief

The coexistence of loving someone (and understanding that they deserve to be free) and being pissed off at them too 

How this could allow us to take less personally our anger without it overtaking us or making it wrong in us

The Love is what holds the space, the watery Love sets the boundaries for the fire of anger without repressing it or letting it overtake or spread wildly

You can sometimes help someone be free by staying out the way, and whatever we do in Love is helpful

The apocalypse as something that’s been around for centuries, not just our lifetime or our disruption

The apocalypse has been experienced by many different communities across time; this can allow us to zoom out beyond the confines of our lives

This is a time of decolonization, when we are dealing with the wounds of colonialism

Abolition as a way of healing to abolish the systems that perpetuate violence

The pain and suffering of individualism that narrows our realities and produces isolation and separation, which is a root of colonialism

Decolonization is really about community; Loving people without feeling like we need to like them and holding chaos are ways to decolonize and be in community

This work is both personal and collective; us as individuals have to name the experience of our pain, and our ancestors pain, in order to abolish and heal the pain of the collective

Remembering who we were before systems of oppression is hard work; the cellular structure of our hearts proves our capacity to return to who we were born as

We have to grieve our way back, for our ancestors and ourselves, in order to move forward

The importance of unwounding our hearts to be present in community more and in this liberation work

Lama Rod online: lamarod.com

Lama Rod on IG @lamarodofficial 

Chetna on IG @mosaiceye and the podcast @creationforliberation 

Upcoming Events: Reclaiming Creativity Workshop with Kripalu. Embodying BHAKTI: The Yoga of Love - a series for women and non-binary activists (mosaiceyeunfolding.com/communityevents)

Work 1:1 with Chetna for high-achieving changemakers to get out of your heads and into embodied creative alchemy (chetnamehta.co/sessions)

The creative process being a spiritual one, and how honoring that is transcending the inner critic that says “you’re a fraud”

Feroza’s relationship with her creative muse

Creativity rising up in her like water that have to be poured out based on experiencing a lot of emotions

Creativity also rising up in her when her muse comes gently knocking

Developing a relationship with her muse where there is a trust and patience

Honoring her body’s request to make music, even though “no one is asking for it”

Her joining Creative Somatic Alchemy which was a journey back to her creativity and herself after a medical trauma 

The impact of community connection in her creative practice

Negotiating with her muse, speaking to her nicely, and treating her well

Revolving her life around her intuition and honoring that there’s always time to pause

Setting herself up to have no excuse to pause by walking with a notebook and pen to honor the whisperings

The felt sense of music from her muse and music from her mind, based on the sensations in her body and emotions

Creating music that invites people to feel, and recognizing that many people aren’t ready or willing to go there

She asks the question, “what does your soul say?” “what does your heart say”, and focuses on offering her music to folks who are thirsty for this

The important activism in art that invites us to feel and rest, to give water to the fire of the world

Her experience with Mosaiceye community as her fellow witches and unicorns, and what it helped steward in her to create differently than she has before

Being held in graceful accountability made her want to be herself even when she felt sad, how it helped her be honest

The challenge and beauty of sharing music and watching folks listen, receiving affirmation and being together in it

The permission to play and flow with herself and within her collaborations

Grace and grit being invitations she took on and accepted from her learnings

Taking generative space from creative practice, whether it be music, ceramics, relating and conversing; to rest and give space for divine alchemy to have a hand

Bringing open experimental energy to creative practice like Dee Dee from Dexter’s Lab (lol)

The difference between “passion” and doing what she needs to do, because “I am, therefore I create.” 

The deeper we get in touch with our creativity the more likely we’ll be disrupting systems that oppress our creativity, and we need community to do this hard work and play.

Feroza on Substack for stories and musings behind the songs (ferozacayetano.substack.com)

Feroza’s BandCamp: https://ferozacayetano.bandcamp.com/music

Feroza on IG @feroza.cayetano (instagram.com/feroza.cayetano)

The songs played: “Bring Me Back” and “human, pt. ii”

The 3-month Creative Somatic Alchemy (mosaiceyeunfolding.com/communityevents/creativealchemy)

The 4-month Conscious Creators program (mosaiceyeunfolding.com/communityevents/consciouscreators)

The River Membership Community - launching with the Summer Solstice! (mosaiceyeunfolding.com/theriver)

Chetna on IG @mosaiceye and the podcast @creationforliberation 

The Chetna Unfolding newsletter on Substack (chetnaunfolding.substack.com)

What life is like lately for each of them at the time of recording this conversation at the end of February, around 140 days after October 7th

What “peace” means to each of them today, alongside the violence that they’re actively threatened by daily

How Ameera holds the human need to defend and protect against violence while working for peace

Why each of them are committed to the work and mission of Tomorrow’s Women

Ameera’s background in joining the organization for cross-border collaboration when she was a teenager

How their empathetic and connecting conversations give them both resilience and hope in humanity despite the violence

What they each want us as activists outside of Palestine and Israel to be aware of and how to be supportive in this time of crisis

How they keep hope when the war goes on and people lose faith in the future

Tomorrow’s Women online via their website

Art to benefit the mission of Tomorrow’s Women

Chetna on IG @mosaiceye and the podcast @creationforliberation 

The Chetna Unfolding newsletter on Substack (chetnaunfolding.substack.com)

The Chetna Unfolding newsletter where she’s been publishing more recently about longing and depression as portals, second arrow suffering, the addiction to binary thinking, and more

Ahimsa and nonviolence, and the confusing contemplation about what peace means today

The day count and loss of 30,000 Palestinian lives, 1,400 Israeli lives, and uncountable plant and animals lives taken by genocide

An introduction of Hawah Kasat, an award-winning educator, community organizer and yogi among other things

HawaH talking about “negative peace” and “positive peace” 

How the negative/positive peace binary helps her understand to some degree, but also has its limitations

HawaH talking about the nuance of nonviolence

Binary-thinking as a strategy to make quick moves in a panic

The illusionary clarity of binary-thinking that leaves little room for nuance and complexity

How relying on panic to carry us forward f*cks us over even more by fueling even more panic and suffering.

The distracting suffocating binary of enough and not enough in regards to our activism

The present-traumatic stress caused by over-consuming media 

How there is no one-right way and to believe and assert on others that there is one right way to think, to be, to act right now may be a perpetuation of domination and separation

The inquiry: “how can I- and we- be influences of change in the world without perpetuating colonial cultures of separation and domination?” 

The inquiry: “how can I expect to disrupt the cycles of trauma and fear when I’m acting from my trauma and fear?”

Her desire to normalize when and what we don’t actually know…and to open to the possibilities of connection and healing in that unknown.

HawaH’s website: hawah.us

HawaH on IG @hawahkasat

Chetna on IG @mosaiceye and the podcast @creationforliberation 

The Chetna Unfolding newsletter on Substack (chetnaunfolding.substack.com)

Upcoming Events: Welcome Spring 2024: an Intention-Refreshing workshop. Embodying Bhakti: The Yoga of Love - a series for women and non-binary activists

Work 1:1 with Chetna for self-trust, creative reclamation and divine aligning (chetnamehta.co/sessions)

Art as alchemy and permission to be bold and expressed

The importance of leaning into creativity during these times of violence, multiple genocides and divisiveness

How art is often born out of suffering, and how James’ creativity is fueled by grappling, pain and what feels hard to make sense of

Turning the pain, the lead, into beauty or gold; releasing or purging sadness through liberating art

Art as a service to ourselves to transmute, and offering a light to others who need it too

How art has been and can be an agent of change, revolution, and liberation

Creativity representing sovereign consciousness and our ability to respond

In times of conflict, different people have different roles, and the role of the artist is to offer better alternatives and plan visions and dreams in the collective consciousness

Owning the art that feels good for each of us, and letting ourselves be in the front row seat to our art and process, is important for the abundance and prosperity of our creativity

Artists are there to remind us that we have sovereignty over our own consciousness, and give permission to listen to the callings within us that might be oppressed in our society and culture

Rising in our leadership and being the leaders we want to see and stop looking for institutional validation, that could mean being of service to the people immediately around us

The Human mind as an amazing tool, but not the only tool; and how we need both the head and heart, facts and feelings

James’ creative process beginning in his emotions and bodies, and his ideas coming downstream from his emotions

The head and the ego being great to edit, craft or finish and launch a project

The Yin and Yang of the creative process, and need to stop repressing the Yin and feminine energy

The need of an awakening of the Goddess within all of us, and return to intuition to guide us

How individual creativity comes from balancing the divine and masculine energies

Creativity as a spiritual practice, and the magic of creating something out of nothing

We’re all baby Gods creating things from imaginations that are portals to other dimensions

Listening to the whispers to birth mystical illuminations in everything that we make

How the Muse is attracted to dedication, devotion and discipline

James’ website: www.jamesmccrae.com including his new book, The Art of You (jamesmccrae.com/the-art-of-you)

James on IG @wordsarevibrations

Chetna on IG @mosaiceye and the podcast @creationforliberation 

The podcast to watch on youtube

Upcoming Events: Conscious Creators Launch Program and Alchemizing the Inner Critic Series starting in January (mosaiceyeunfolding.com/communityevents)

Work 1:1 with Chetna for self-trust, creative reclamation and divine aligning (chetnamehta.co/sessions)

Organizational Engagements: to bring purpose, creativity and embodied workshops to your team (mosaiceyeunfolding.com/organizational)

Some of Chetna’s recent longings

The pain and ache of longing, and the inevitability of it as humans

The distinction between the content of our longings and Longing itself

The human tendency to chase after the longings, as symbolized by hungry ghosts

 The clarity, awe, love and truth that comes with being with longing, especially in community

How contemporary and ancient mystics, from Rumi and Hafiz to John O’Donohue and Michael Mead have recognized the power and portals of longing

How our heart’s longing can lift our chins up to our north stars, our purpose and highest values

The interconnection between longing, desire and needs, values

The shame that comes up with honoring our longing amidst the oppressive systems we live in

The invitation be with our longing, to look beneath the content of our longings, and let it inform and illuminate the way, and to do so in community

How now is the urgent time to be in alignment with our values and purpose. To center our heart wisdom and guiding principles amidst all the darkness and suffering in the world.

“Longing as a Portal” on Substack

Subscribe to join the next Alchemy Circle

The Clarifying your North Star Webinar

Upcoming Events: the 4-month Conscious Creators Launch Program for women and non-binary changemakers

You Are Chosen: a free 5-day practice in choosing yourself and being divinely chosen

Work 1:1 with Chetna for self-trust, creative reclamation and divine aligning

Chetna on IG @mosaiceye and the podcast @creationforliberation 

The podcast (with guests) to watch on youtube

Kiran’s partnership being a space where she could be her full, queer, androgynous self in her vulnerabilities and wins

Morning meditation with Deepak Chopra and Oprah as a way to reset, start the day positively, take responsibility for her self-rhetoric, and get herself ready to step out into the world

The practice in partnership of separating behavior that’s not loving from the deeper truth of care and love for you

A reframe on projection as a space to learn when we can own it; the person we project on is illuminating something within us that we need to look at

Being aware of our menstrual cycles, moon cycles, etc. to take responsibility for our moods and feelings

Leading with the underlying assumptions of the great joys of love, care, and growth mindset

Modeling the behavior in relationship that you seek

The art of asking for what you need, and the art of giving it or not if it’s not within capacity

Experiences that might have contribute to us not being able to ask for our needs; others receiving those needs as something bad, or feeling shame after asking for your needs from someone who was misaligned

We’re teaching other people how to care for us by asking for our needs

Being in the practice of meeting our own needs, and tapping our communities for care also

Speaking your needs and giving the other person the opportunity to rise to opportunity to win, the ask, and the invitation to give 

Some of Kiran’s daily practices that help her stay on the path of purpose: making her bed, morning meditation, making a matcha, morning pages

Self-respect through discipline and showing up

The necessity and importance of taking the time to connect to ourselves, especially in the world where there’s so much that takes us away from ourselves

The healing opportunity in people who are different or expressing themselves in big ways; showing us what’s possible!

Being accessible in her self-expression through empathy, shared leadership, warmth, and awareness of others through eye contact, thoughtful conversations, meaningful engagements with presence

“Bad habits” being a way to cope or get a deep need met; i.e. smoking tied to easing the mother wound, for nourishment, sustenance, and connection which feels more accessible than connecting with people. 

“Bad habits” coming from a deeper need for care, but in a way that aren’t beneficial for us or others

Music as an audio timestamp of emotion, amplifying sincerity in music-making

Some of Kiran’s “bad habits” like eating badly, drinking too much, etc.

Her desire to meet the root cause without the distractions by eliminating alcohol, being plant-based, and meditating

Understanding the depth of the pain as a way to amplify the joy

Emotions as currency that we can create from, feed ourselves from, etc.

The self-respect of restraint (like bumper lanes on a bowling alley), boundaries, and what you do when no one is around

Her work as healing; finding her way into healing by doing her work of service and purpose

Her attraction to people who are strong in their feminine, a divine mother queen despite gender, and learning this from gay men and trans women

Her going on tour doing a strong feminine show that is her dream show that she’s always wanted to watch 

Kiran’s website including her upcoming tour schedule: madamegandhi.com

Madame Gandhi on IG @madamegandhi

Chetna on IG @mosaiceye and the podcast @creationforliberation 

The podcast to watch on youtube

Upcoming Events: Clarifying your North Star Workshop on 11/11 (mosaiceyeunfolding.com/communityevents)

You Are Chosen: a free 5-day practice in choosing yourself and being divinely chosen (https://chetnamehta.myflodesk.com/chosen)

Work 1:1 with Chetna for self-trust, creative reclamation and divine aligning (chetnamehta.co/sessions)

Luis’s journey of sharing more of himself in his work, claiming himself as a model, playing with make-up and being free

Going from a stable and “successful” job at Kaiser to a queer-centric and indigenizing therapeutic practice

Sharing himself authentically in room as a therapist with his clients

Luis’s journey of identifying as an indigenous person through the shame, taboo and grief 

The messages and stories in his family about what it means to be indigenous, the othering of indigenous people of Oaxaca while using aspects of their culture

Bringing his background into therapy, the complex grief around identity and reclamation

The universal practices of humming as nervous system regulation

Bringing in Quitapenas or “worry dolls” as an offering in his therapy practice with relevant clients despite his initial doubts and fears of what’s “ethical” or “valid”

The lack of acknowledgement and co-opting of indigenous culture, art and practices, even with “evidence-based” modalities

The intimate act of discovering ourselves, coming out as ourselves, being seen and allowing ourselves to not be seen

Being ‘out of hiding” is a daily practice, and how “hiding” sometimes is for protection

How Luis protects his inner child as he lives out and proud and freely authentic

Luis’s websites: www.psychosocialtherapy.com, psychosocial.media

Luis’s Queer Magic Podcast: luis-cornejo.com/queermagicpodcast

Luis on IG @luis_thee_lmft

Chetna on IG @mosaiceye and the podcast @creationforliberation 

The podcast to watch on youtube

Upcoming Events: Boundaries for Peace Support Group (mosaiceyeunfolding.com/communityevents)

You Are Chosen: a free 5-day practice in choosing yourself and being divinely chosen

Work 1:1 with Chetna for self-trust, creative reclamation and divine aligning (chetnamehta.co/sessions)