Welcome to Everything Speaks if You Listen with Jen CobbleWorks where we befriend our humanity and the Sacred through story, soul questions, and every day life.

In this week's episode, I share two invitations with you. The first one is to join me for an upcoming podcast episode where my teacher and friend, Mary DeJong of Waymarkers, will tell the story of Fox Woman Dreaming and encourage us to listen to Story's sacred presence and wisdom more often. I spend the first part of this episode sharing my own love of story and applied mythology and introducing you to the themes Mary and her work are grounded in.

The second invitation this episode has us stretching into the innate shadow and light of the winter season and the sacred holidays that we celebrate this time of year. I talk about my own need to recognize what is hard and challenging and dark in my life right now, and in our shared realities right now, while also needing to recognize what is alive and brimming on the horizon. We are not asked to demean or diminish the dark in favor of a saving light. We are asked to witness the dark, see it for more than fear and trauma, but also a place of seed bearing, like a womb. We are asked not to live in the dark so much and so long that we cannot tolerate hope and the possibility of peace. We need both. And this episode explores these needs and the tension they create...which is sometimes a beautiful, creative tension.

The link to the Shadow + Light course I mention (with NO homework in it!) is below. Use coupon code BOTHAND at checkout for 10% off the $37 cost. If this cost does not align with your budget this year, please email me at [email protected]

cobbleworks.teachable.com/p/shadowandlight

I'm Jen Cobble Willhoite, a contemplative storyteller, spiritual tool designer, and life-long soul seeker. My path is formed and framed by questions more than answers. I'm more comfortable wondering and wandering about things spiritual than I am in ideology, religion, or dogma.

My soul language and connection with Spirit is primarily grounded in Celtic Spirituality, science, nature, seasonal cycles, myth, folklore, and stories of all kinds. I do have roots in progressive Christianity that I sometimes speak from. My tap root, though, is ordinary life. I believe enlightenment is rhythmic, unfolding, and found in our everyday experiences and selves. I also offer tools and courses on my modern interpretation of the examen: a daily ritual of looking back, looking within, and looking ahead to cultivate a rapport with your inner wisdom and the Sacred as you understand it.

Every week, I share an episode from my own spiritual explorations, offering invitations for you to explore these themes on your own. Thanks for journeying with me!

Welcome to Everything Speaks if You Listen with Jen CobbleWorks where we befriend our humanity and the Sacred through story, soul questions, and every day life.

In this week's episode, we explore the provocative, yet sacred invitation that our daily triggers can hold. We do this through the lens of the examen practice, of daily reflection and listening within. In the ritual of the examen, there are a pair of powerful questions that sit in the center of the practice. They ask us where and when we felt deep connection to ourselves and the Sacred, and were and when we felt deep disconnection to them.

Our minds often want to open up a moral courtroom and engage in dualistic, binary thinking when we encounter these questions. We want to assume that the connection (consolation) is good and the disconnection is bad. But this is only our surface response, our reaction to our triggers.

Self-reflection and listening within ask us to go deeper, to make space to let these questions sit within our souls, giving rise to answers in their own good time. When we reflect on our ordinary day, the answer to where we felt sacred connection and disconnection might seem meaningless because it's ordinary (like a trip to the grocery store). But we're being asked to see that great wisdom, magic, transformation and presence live within and beneath ordinary things.

When we make it a habit to self-reflect, we get used to making space for the ordinary to reveal its deeper story and truths. This helps us know ourselves and the Sacred more intimately and uniquely. And it helps us find meaning in our lives just as they are.

I use my Compassionate Card Deck as a tool in this episode. If you're interested in more information on these or to purchase a deck for yourself, the link is below:

Compassionate Question Cards

I'm Jen Cobble Willhoite, a contemplative storyteller, spiritual tool designer, and life-long soul seeker. My path is formed and framed by questions more than answers. I'm more comfortable wondering and wandering about things spiritual than I am in ideology, religion, or dogma.

My soul language and connection with Spirit is primarily grounded in Celtic Spirituality, science, nature, seasonal cycles, myth, folklore, and stories of all kinds. I do have roots in progressive Christianity that I sometimes speak from. My tap root, though, is ordinary life. I believe enlightenment is rhythmic, unfolding, and found in our everyday experiences and selves. I also offer tools and courses on my modern interpretation of the examen: a daily ritual of looking back, looking within, and looking ahead to cultivate a rapport with your inner wisdom and the Sacred as you understand it.

Every week, I share an episode from my own spiritual explorations, offering invitations for you to explore these themes on your own. Thanks for journeying with me!

Welcome to Everything Speaks if You Listen with Jen CobbleWorks where we befriend our humanity and the Sacred through story, soul questions, and every day life.

In this week's episode, we consider a deep (maybe the taproot?) invitation from Samhain, All Soul's Day, and All Saint's Day which is: If this is a short season where the veil is thin, how can we connect to the thinning veils within us? This feels important because we have to decide whether we are going to open our hearts to Sacred presence or not. We have to consider our inner veils, the places where we often can feel very guarded and protected even from love and Spirit.

Honestly, receiving love can feel extraordinarily vulnerable. It is no small task to ask ourselves to stay open and welcoming even to love. We can convince ourselves we are not worthy of it. We can begin to believe that Love doesn't really *do* anything anyways. We can armor ourselves up internally and refuse Spirit's embrace. It's ok if we need to do this. There is nothing wrong with self-protection. But when we're in a season where all of existence is drawing closer together, it's reasonable to ask ourselves if we can lower our guards and thin our own inner veils.

This is a short, liminal season that can help us feel connected to parts of us we have almost forgotten and we want to reclaim. It can help us feel connected to precious memories, people, places, animals, events, even things. This communion of who and what we hold most dear becomes part of our own inner strength and connection to the divine as we know it. It edifies our hope and our sense of love in the world. But for this communion to occur, we need to welcome it, to thin our inner veils.

Weirdly and honestly, I share how an 80's pop song from REO Speedwagon is often the catalyst that reminds me to pick up the invitation of spiritual communion from Samhain, All Soul's, and All Saint's and receive the love that is abundantly available to me, to all of us...even if I don't always feel "chill" receiving it.

If you'd like to email me about 1:1 work, please do so at [email protected]

I'm Jen Cobble Willhoite, a contemplative storyteller, spiritual tool designer, and life-long soul seeker. My path is formed and framed by questions more than answers. I'm more comfortable wondering and wandering about things spiritual than I am in ideology, religion, or dogma.

My soul language and connection with Spirit is primarily grounded in Celtic Spirituality, science, nature, seasonal cycles, myth, folklore, and stories of all kinds. I do have roots in progressive Christianity that I sometimes speak from. My tap root, though, is ordinary life. I believe enlightenment is rhythmic, unfolding, and found in our everyday experiences and selves. I also offer tools and courses on my modern interpretation of the examen: a daily ritual of looking back, looking within, and looking ahead to cultivate a rapport with your inner wisdom and the Sacred as you understand it.

Every week, I share an episode from my own spiritual explorations, offering invitations for you to explore these themes on your own. Thanks for journeying with me!

Welcome to Everything Speaks if You Listen with Jen CobbleWorks where we befriend our humanity and the Sacred through story, soul questions, and every day life.

In this week's episode, we look at why we often resist the invitation to listen within and practice reflection. The fact is, we can encounter a lot of painful or shadowy stuff when we do practices like this. And our response can (naturally) be one of, "Why should I dig up all this stuff again?"

But in our avoidance of journeying within and reflecting, we miss some big, compassionate revelations. One is that there is more love, creativity, mercy, and healing within our shadowy parts than we originally think. And another is that our immediate judgment *against* our shadow, our umbra, can actually occlude us more, block us more, and prevent more growth than whatever "bad" things we might encounter there.

Again, we turn to the cosmos and the recent and upcoming eclipses for applied metaphors in how we can embrace our own shadows and be more willing to practice inner listening and "go there". The recent annular solar eclipse gives us imagery of a sacred ring of fiery protection, of Love's embrace, that holds us safely while we reflect. It also circles something for us, highlighting something within us that wants more time and space to be heard, expressed, or healed.

The upcoming lunar eclipse gives us the imagery of the umbra, the shadow that is cast by something that is illuminated. When we consider Spirit, Source lighting or accompanying our reflection practice, we get the opportunity to see our selves AND our shadow. Light offers us both as meaningful invitations to know ourselves better.

Ultimately, my hope is that you will find this episode affirming of how scary it can feel to reflect and journey within, but even more affirming of the powerful seeds of creativity and soul wisdom you hold within your inner dark places. They are more than a fearful basement within ourselves to be avoided. Our shadows are also seed beds.

Link to the Soulful Halloween journal is here (VERY compassionate, yet surprising, invitations into deeper self-love and connection to Spirit): Soulful Halloween Mini Course

If you'd like to do an inner listening practice with me or in a small group to make it less scary and more enlightening, simply email me here. Times for this are opening up in November: [email protected]

I'm Jen Cobble Willhoite, a contemplative storyteller, spiritual tool designer, and life-long soul seeker. My path is formed and framed by questions more than answers. I'm more comfortable wondering and wandering about things spiritual than I am in ideology, religion, or dogma.

My soul language and connection with Spirit is primarily grounded in Celtic Spirituality, science, nature, seasonal cycles, myth, folklore, and stories of all kinds. I do have roots in progressive Christianity that I sometimes speak from. My tap root, though, is ordinary life. I believe enlightenment is rhythmic, unfolding, and found in our everyday experiences and selves. I also offer tools and courses on my modern interpretation of the examen: a daily ritual of looking back, looking within, and looking ahead to cultivate a rapport with your inner wisdom and the Sacred as you understand it.

Every week, I share an episode from my own spiritual explorations, offering invitations for you to explore these themes on your own. Thanks for journeying with me!

Welcome to Everything Speaks if You Listen with Jen CobbleWorks where we befriend our humanity and the Sacred through story, soul questions, and every day life.

In this week's episode, we name the catastrophic human loss the world is experiencing through war as well as earthquakes, fires, and flooding, and talk about how we can engage with peace by learning to calm our inner storms in response. When we do this, we remember our humanity and the humanity of others, making it harder to give into acts of vengeance, revenge, or applied chaos. We explore the story of Peter stepping off the boat and wanting to not only calm stormy sea waters, but to walk on water as he saw Jesus do. Rather than experiencing fear, churn, and turmoil and then deciding we just aren't strong enough or good enough to do anything about it, we can expand the margins of this story and imagining leaping off the edge into storminess over and over again, so that we can practice feeling our own fears and "sinking-ness" while also practice calming those inner waters. The more we grow our capacity to calm ourselves within, the more we can balance and have faith in even the worst swells around us. And most importantly, the more we connect to others in a humane way.

We talk about how this is the covenant edge of peace, the generative, creative edge of bridge building within and outside of us where we transform the energy of destruction into one of collaborative respect. But we must be able to do this within ourselves if we're to do it with others.

One of the ways that tethers us to our humanity and the humanity of others so that we do not plunge into the storm entirely, is to plunge into Love, to fall in Love, in our everyday life. As pat as it sounds, engaging in activities and with people that enliven us stirs our hope and sense of possibility. We remember why life is precious, not just for us, but for everyone. Finding connections of Love in everyday life keeps our inner flame of hope alive which lets us share that hope with others in tangible ways.

I'm Jen Cobble Willhoite, a contemplative storyteller, spiritual tool designer, and life-long soul seeker. My path is formed and framed by questions more than answers. I'm more comfortable wondering and wandering about things spiritual than I am in ideology, religion, or dogma.

My soul language and connection with Spirit is primarily grounded in Celtic Spirituality, science, nature, seasonal cycles, myth, folklore, and stories of all kinds. I do have roots in progressive Christianity that I sometimes speak from. My tap root, though, is ordinary life. I believe enlightenment is rhythmic, unfolding, and found in our everyday experiences and selves. I also offer tools and courses on my modern interpretation of the examen: a daily ritual of looking back, looking within, and looking ahead to cultivate a rapport with your inner wisdom and the Sacred as you understand it.

Every week, I share an episode from my own spiritual explorations, offering invitations for you to explore these themes on your own. Thanks for journeying with me!

Welcome to Everything Speaks if You Listen with Jen CobbleWorks where we befriend our humanity and the Sacred through story, soul questions, and every day life.

In this week's episode, we name our painful shared context right now: war, climate catastrophe, and ongoing pandemic while we also naming our personal pains and struggles (I articulate a few of my own as example). We acknowledge the despair that comes with all of these, how it feels like we might be at a breaking point. We consider that a breaking point is also called a threshold, and then notice the other definition of a threshold: a place of change, of travel, of reunion and departure, of new life.

Holding both of these at once, the notion of being at our limit and being at a place of growth, we look at how limits within us (what we're stubborn about, what we won't let go of, etc) can be softened into portals. We can soothe and massage our limits, making them softer and dilating them so that we can open up and receive something different.

One way we can soften within to make room for life beyond despair is to turn to things that provide us structure and also freedom of imagination and hope. The two things that always come to mind for me are questions and poetry. Both have the certain structure we long to lean on while also giving us the permission to tap into what is mysterious and infinite and ineffable.

In the midst of breaking points globally and personally, I share my own Wild God invitations that won't be silenced right now. There is something sacred that is clawing at my door and it is demanding some sort of responsive action in me. I want to resist it and say that there are bigger things afoot, but it will not stop howling at me.

The poem I have been turning to in this season of uncertainty, avoidance, and seeking is Sometimes A Wild God by Tom Hirons. I read it for you and hopefully, inspire you to read it over and over again for yourself. It creates space within me, space for what is awful in my life right now and space for what is nonetheless stirring with life in my life right now. I hope it works in your soul in a similar way. As promised, here is the link to learn more about Tom Hirons and his poetry and work in the universe:

Tom Hirons

And here are the links I also mentioned from my own work, ways to connect to a ritual of inner listening and reflection as well as the current Halloween mini course. Enjoy :)

The newsletter ...with info and resources on inner listening

The Halloween mini course

I'm Jen Cobble Willhoite, a contemplative storyteller, spiritual tool designer, and life-long soul seeker. My path is formed and framed by questions more than answers. I'm more comfortable wondering and wandering about things spiritual than I am in ideology, religion, or dogma.

My soul language and connection with Spirit is primarily grounded in Celtic Spirituality, science, nature, seasonal cycles, myth, folklore, and stories of all kinds. I do have roots in progressive Christianity that I sometimes speak from. My tap root, though, is ordinary life. I believe enlightenment is rhythmic, unfolding, and found in our everyday experiences and selves. I also offer tools and courses on my modern interpretation of the examen: a daily ritual of looking back, looking within, and looking ahead to cultivate a rapport with your inner wisdom and the Sacred as you understand it.

Every week, I share an episode from my own spiritual explorations, offering invitations for you to explore these themes on your own. Thanks for journeying with me!

Welcome to Everything Speaks if You Listen with Jen CobbleWorks where we befriend our humanity and the Sacred through story, soul questions, and every day life.

In this week's episode, I answer two questions I get A LOT: Why do I use so many different names for God/Spirit/Sacred/The Divine? (see? I did it again :D ) and How do I engage with and use spiritual cards such as: prayer cards, oracle decks, and Tarot?

In talking about why I use so many different names for Spirit, we consider how language is an act of creation itself which involves both expansion and contraction, growth and winnowing. In my experience, Spirit is so massive in its concept, energy, shape, size, history, and diverse expression, as well as so mysterious and paradoxically, intimately known, one or two consistent words for it feels too small, both in trying to name the unnameable and in honoring our unique experiences with the sacred.

We talk about our voice and language as a threshold itself and the first step in co-creating, in that alchemical and logical process of moving the intangible into the world of the tangible.

Secondly, I hear from a lot of people that they are curious about prayer cards, oracle cards, and tarot cards as a spiritual support in their daily life and larger soul journey, but that they were told they are dangerous, possibly even immoral or evil. I share my own experience with each of these kinds of spiritual tools, note the lineage (as I understand it) from them, and share how I engage with them in a relational way. As someone who has co-created/channeled/received/made at least two oracle style decks, I share my intention and process with you. We talk about how all of these tools, in my understanding are fundamentally invitational and not prescriptive or foretelling.

I mention Lindsay Mack as a tarot teacher I trust. You can learn more about her work and podcast in the link below:

Tarot for the Wild Soul

I also mention Jeff Hinshaw as a trusted teacher in this arena. Their link is below:

Cosmic Cousins

My Love + Hope Halloween Journal and Mini Course is available. If you would like to engage with underworld and Halloween themes as a (surprising!) entre to deeper self-love and deeper communion with Spirit as you understand them, this is a lovely and compassionate way to begin that unearthing and deep listening practice. The course is $19 and the link is below:

Love + Hope Soulful Halloween

I'm Jen Cobble Willhoite, a contemplative storyteller, spiritual tool designer, and life-long soul seeker. My path is formed and framed by questions more than answers. I'm more comfortable wondering and wandering about things spiritual than I am in ideology, religion, or dogma.

My soul language and connection with Spirit is primarily grounded in Celtic Spirituality, science, nature, seasonal cycles, myth, folklore, and stories of all kinds. I do have roots in progressive Christianity that I sometimes speak from. My tap root, though, is ordinary life. I believe enlightenment is rhythmic, unfolding, and found in our everyday experiences and selves. I also offer tools and courses on my modern interpretation of the examen: a daily ritual of looking back, looking within, and looking ahead to cultivate a rapport with your inner wisdom and the Sacred as you understand it.

Every week, I share an episode from my own spiritual explorations, offering invitations for you to explore these themes on your own. Thanks for journeying with me!

Welcome to Everything Speaks if You Listen with Jen CobbleWorks where we befriend our humanity and the Sacred through story, soul questions, and every day life.

In this week's episode, we look at the insightful gifts we can receive when we engage with symbols and stories that often scare us. This is not the same as worshiping what scares us, or agreeing with everything that scares us. It's about being engaged so that our fear doesn't grow. What I mean by "engage" is staying open and curious and non-judgmental rather than trying to admonish or defeat our shadows or our fears. Fundamentally, there can be beauty, truth, expansion, opportunities for healing, greater self-love, and a deeper connection to the Sacred even beneath scary triggers. Pausing to notice what we react to and then how we respond is the core of living into life's questions and being curious. It's at the core of reflection and contemplation. Halloween is no different.

As an example, I share a story about why I loathed and was terrified of the Noah and the Ark story as a kid (and am still wrestling with it) and then we spend some time on ghosts: how they can represent regrets, fear about our place in the world in the midst of changing roles and technology, and an ache for something in the past to be different than it was. All of these examples point to one thing: if we turn away from every frightening image in our culture, stories, myths, and folklore, we are turning away from profound invitations that can be a threshold into greater freedom, understanding, and self-love.

The link to the Halloween journal and mini course (featuring Love + Hope!) is:

https://cobbleworks.teachable.com/p/soulful-halloween

You can follow along some more of this exploration of the underworld and the invitations it offers for our spiritual growth over on Instagram:

@cobbleworks

Or feel free to email me with questions on the course or anything else at:

[email protected]

I'm Jen Cobble Willhoite, a contemplative storyteller, spiritual tool designer, and life-long soul seeker. My path is formed and framed by questions more than answers. I'm more comfortable wondering and wandering about things spiritual than I am in ideology, religion, or dogma.

My soul language and connection with Spirit is primarily grounded in Celtic Spirituality, science, nature, seasonal cycles, myth, folklore, and stories of all kinds. I do have roots in progressive Christianity that I sometimes speak from. My tap root, though, is ordinary life. I believe enlightenment is rhythmic, unfolding, and found in our everyday experiences and selves. I also offer tools and courses on my modern interpretation of the examen: a daily ritual of looking back, looking within, and looking ahead to cultivate a rapport with your inner wisdom and the Sacred as you understand it.

Every week, I share an episode from my own spiritual explorations, offering invitations for you to explore these themes on your own. Thanks for journeying with me!

Welcome to Everything Speaks if You Listen with Jen CobbleWorks where we befriend our humanity and the Sacred through story, soul questions, and every day life.

In this week's episode, we explore two invitations: one from the autumnal (and spring) equinox, and one from Halloween. Both are offered as seasonal lenses into deeper self-reflection, self-love, and connection to Spirit.

The equinox is a day where we experience equal amounts of daylight and nighttime (roughly). Through this, a reflection question emerges: where do we notice mutuality and healthy balance in our daily lives and in our relationships? And where do we notice imbalance? As we consider the balance of day and night, we are invited to consider what is balancing for us in our rhythms of work, rest, and relationship and what we might want to bring into greater balance.

I shared last week that I have a mini course available with a Love + Hope illustrated journal and 8 audio lessons/stories inviting you into deeper self-love and connection to the Divine. What may be surprising and unconventional to hear is that the lens we are using for this mini course is Halloween! We begin to explore some basic differences between the Celtic roots of Halloween, Samhaim, and Halloween itself. And then I share why I think this unconventional, often controversial holiday, is a welcome doorway into greater connection to ourselves and Spirit. I will be sharing more about this course and the 4 primary spiritual invitations into spiritual growth I believe it offers, but this is a great intro.

I think you'll find this mini course compassionate, insightful, gentle, and surprisingly deep. It's $19 and is available now. Click the link below to learn more and enroll.

A Soulful Halloween Mini Course

I'm Jen Cobble Willhoite, a contemplative storyteller, spiritual tool designer, and life-long soul seeker. My path is formed and framed by questions more than answers. I'm more comfortable wondering and wandering about things spiritual than I am in ideology, religion, or dogma.

My soul language and connection with Spirit is primarily grounded in Celtic Spirituality, science, nature, seasonal cycles, myth, folklore, and stories of all kinds. I do have roots in progressive Christianity that I sometimes speak from. My tap root, though, is ordinary life. I believe enlightenment is rhythmic, unfolding, and found in our everyday experiences and selves. I also offer tools and courses on my modern interpretation of the examen: a daily ritual of looking back, looking within, and looking ahead to cultivate a rapport with your inner wisdom and the Sacred as you understand it.

Every week, I share an episode from my own spiritual explorations, offering invitations for you to explore these themes on your own. Thanks for journeying with me!

Welcome to Everything Speaks if You Listen with Jen CobbleWorks where we befriend our humanity and the Sacred through story, soul questions, and every day life.

In this week's episode, I share more about the sacred presence and magic already alive in our daily lives and how a reflection practice reminds us of this. Then, I lead you in a guided examen, an inner listening exercise where you look back on your day or week and then plan ahead a bit. We listen to moments of deep soul connection as well as deep soul disconnection and ask Spirit to tell us more about the significance of these ordinary, yet potent moments for us. We consider what is left undone in the day, where we might need to shore up boundaries, recommit to routines, and/or repair relationships with ourselves or others. And then we look ahead before we move ahead. We consider what we need to do and what we want to do going forward.

It's a compassionate, beautiful pause to help you let go, release, accept, and move on with love and integrity.

Links to the reflection resources I mention at the end are below. The first one is for my newsletter which regularly explores themes of inner listening and self-reflection from both a spiritual and pragmatic approach. Signing up also gives you a copy of a free mini book on the examen practice and my unique approach to it. *A quick note about newsletters: I send things weekly at the most. I easily get overwhelmed by a bunch of emails and strive to share at a respectful rate myself. I am always trying to honor both the deep, slow time of soul as well as the faster rhythm of everyday life, so expect newsletters to come from me 2-4 times a month and no more as a way to stay connected, but respect our need for space and quiet in our inboxes. ;)

Newsletter and illustrated mini book: www.jencobbleworks.com/free

Card Decks for Self-Reflection, inner listening and the examen can be found here: www.etsy.com/shop/CobbleWorks

I'm Jen Cobble Willhoite, a contemplative storyteller, spiritual tool designer, and life-long soul seeker. My path is formed and framed by questions more than answers. I'm more comfortable wondering and wandering about things spiritual than I am in ideology, religion, or dogma.

My soul language and connection with Spirit is primarily grounded in Celtic Spirituality, science, nature, seasonal cycles, myth, folklore, and stories of all kinds. I do have roots in progressive Christianity that I sometimes speak from. My tap root, though, is ordinary life. I believe enlightenment is rhythmic, unfolding, and found in our everyday experiences and selves. I also offer tools and courses on my modern interpretation of the examen: a daily ritual of looking back, looking within, and looking ahead to cultivate a rapport with your inner wisdom and the Sacred as you understand it.

Every week, I share an episode from my own spiritual explorations, offering invitations for you to explore these themes on your own. Thanks for journeying with me!