Tea with the Muse

Tragedies to Remedies 

You are You

I am I

We are We

You are not the stories you tell

to yourself about yourself

You are You

I am not the projections about me

that in the past have bound me

I am I

We are not the accumulation of wounds

Inflicted on us by others or ourselves 

We are We

You are not your woundings

even with a persistence of tragedies 

You are You

I am not required to walk in apology even 

with the mistakes I made, healing is here

I am me

We are beings capable of recovery

self-forgiveness just walked into our discovery 

We are We

You are You

Stardust, Water, Soil, Sunshine and Self

You get to tell a new story today, ready?

I am I

Gloriously shaped by life’s tapestry 

I alchemize the rich colors that are ripe in me

We are We 

Beings capable of ecstasy and creativity

We are the storytellers of our intentional destiny!

Little Darlin of your own Destiny 

You don’t have to fight or flee,

You don’t have to fawn or freeze

Find you, find Me, find We

You will bring compost into your apothecary

I will remember that choice is my own alchemy 

We will weave our tragedies into remedies!

You are You and I choose I you as you

I am I, and I honor my emergent identity

We are We, and what delicious company!

SHILOH SOPHIA

Paint with us now! The class is all ready for you!

I recorded the Tragedies to Remedies poem this morning and made a special announcement - that Jonathan and both had revelations regarding being complete with teaching this class ourselves, and our own stories that we told feel complete too. Whoa.

Shiloh and Jonathan painting in Apothecary 5.0

Enjoy a conversation with Shiloh Sophia and Ali Stoddard about the power of painting! https://musea.org/apothecary-2024-invitation/

Open to all!

SS

The STUDIO (for those who don’t think they have room)Let’s start with what every studio needs. Every studio needs a work table, a place for an altar, a place for supplies, a journal and a teapot at the very least. Usually the Muse also wants a plant. Oh and a hammer and nails. Hand-paint your hammer so everybody knows it is YOURS. My mother Caron was also never without a tape measure. My studio must-have is sandpaper. I also like a painting rug for where I stand. An easel is awesome but a few nails on the walls works just fine and you can have multiple canvases up at once. For all of these solutions, if you use oil or acrylic you will want painter’s drop cloth from the hardware store to protect the innocent surfaces of your home. If you live with others, this will be important for ongoing relationship.

Once the artist moves in for good, things can get a little challenging, because your priorities have literally changed. Maybe even your values, and how you like to inhabit spaces changes. In other words, pristine white couches are now an endangered species. YOU DO have options for having a studio and it is needed if one is to choose a creative life, that is oh so romantic. Sue Hoya Sellars used to say, Being an artist is so romantic. So let’s get to it. I want to tell you that the physical-ness of a studio is rad cuz you work there, but it is more than that. Even when you aren’t in your studio physically – YOU KNOW IT IS THERE and IT WORKS YOU. I hang out in my ‘studio in my mind’ all the time. 1. Guest Room: Clear the guest room that is often empty, and make your guests sleep on the couch. They will understand when they see what is happening in there, if they are lucky enough for you to show them. The bed is fine to leave, add lots of pillows and take naps there. Muses love beds. But the dresser is now a surface for painting to perch and journals to be spread out as if it is an altar. The nightstand is an altar. Sorry if you have a white rug. If you plan to live there a long time you might just choose to let the rug be a painting rug. What have you got to lose? (people who don’t paint hate this idea, but painters are so relieved)

2. Dining Room: The dining room, how often do you eat there really, put a drop cloth over the table and voila – it’s a work table. All creatives need work tables if they are serious. Move most of the chairs out to the garage or the street. You need room to MOVE all the way around the table and at times you may find yourself needing to lay right on the table. You might need to put up a curtain if you don’t have doors on it. A shower rod is a quick fix without needing to drill for a rod – honestly you could have this going today if you want!3. Bathroom: The bathroom, especially if you have two, is often so under-used unless there are two people and you both have do go number two at exactly the same moment. Poor lonely bathroom, use the shower stall as a place for a small desk or a stack of paintings. The water is right there and the toilet works just fine for a table. Plug in a teapot instead of hair drier and it is all ready for you.4. Laundry Room: The laundry room is often the last resort because there is too much coming and going. But the tops of the machines make a fine work table. It smells good in there and there is often a window. But clean clothes and paint are magnetized towards one another.

5. Bedroom: If you are single, your bedroom can work and that way you are surrounded by your creativity. Do not do this if you are in a committed relationship. Your part-time lover will think it is sexy at first, but then they will want more room for themselves. Be careful here, and don’t compromise your creative space. You can always have sex on the couch or the dining room table.

6. Garage: Finally the garage. Now I will be honest about this. Lots of people pick this one and start parking their car outside. Big move. But unless it has access to air, unless you can move smelly things out, unless you can regulate the temperature, unless you can really make it feel good to you – you won’t go in there. You know what I am talking about. If you add a fancy rug you can get paint on, a disco ball and a stereo and a nice big chair it COULD work. But if you try this option and the Muse doesn’t want to go there, then you MUST find another solution.7. Pavilion of Plein Air: If it is warm enough where you are, there is always outside. Sue Hoya Sellars got an Easy-UP and called it a painting pavilion. She added chimes that rang when the wind blew. Begin to think of all of your outside spaces as additional rooms, even if it is just a deck or an entry way. Take over. The Muses have requested it. 8. Imaginal Dream Studio: But the most important studio is the imaginal one, the place you set up in your consciousness for the Muse to play. You can think of this like a chosen department of your inter-consciousness where your Dream Studio is. Build it out, see the windows and the plants and all the space. See the view and the giant chair big enough for two. Set it all up and then hang out there.­­­Sue used to also treat her journal as her studio. She would go to Denny’s get a cuppa coffee and sit all day – she called it her studio. So really you have no excuse.Whatever you do put a sign on the door: The MUSE is in. To anyone who might be passing by, this is a CLEAR SIGN not to disturb. Except the cat or the pup. They always want to be where the action is. Oh, and one more thing, a painting bathrobe. You need a robe that you can grab in the wee morning or the middle of the night and get right to the studio without thinking or talking yourself out of it.

Finally and perhaps most important. Each time you create set up for the next time. Whether that is a jar of water or a blank page with a pen perched. Do not give yourself the CHOICE not to go. Do not want to feel like it, just get in there. The MUSE is always waiting. Tap tap tap…. Hear that? That’s the end of her paintbrush, which is a magic wand…anticipating your arrival.Excerpted from my upcoming book, Rodeo of the Soul, Cosmic Cowgirl Poetry & Painting Prose

Shiloh Sophia

I haven’t had a functional ‘studio’ of my own for over 2.5 years. Those of you who have been at MUSEA know that there is a film studio, which is very different than your personal paintings studio. I know I am spoiled, I have a whole room and places to sit and a fire place. Don’t be jelly, go make your studio today! Here is one of the first peeks at it….this studio was created for painting by the previous stewards. I used to have this studio years ago and I have to say, I am so relieved to have it back.

s

A poetry reading for you from Tea with the Midnight Muse for you - a prayer 🙏

This painting was from a starry starry night paint and sip inspired by VanGogh of course 💫

Dear Ones! Today’s message is a call to action!! Plus a video I just took of the kind of teaching paintings I have done the past two years. Come see.

~ Shiloh Sophia

Hello Everyone,

It’s Shiloh Sophia on a lovely Saturday morning. This new one minute poem came through and dropped itself like a delicous dispensation of honey.I am working on the draft manual for our only new training this year, Animystica. For healersa nd leaders to learn 4 specific healing arts. When I am designing new curriculum it feels like an extreme sport - my heart races, my body is filled with life and there is this curious precious pressure that moves me forward. It is a calling.If you are called to work with me over the next year on a training delivered in real time - this is it. Come see, and then choose if you want to apply and then book an appointment with me one-on-one next week. That’s it! So if you are called to the healing arts, to medicine painting, and to the path of a healer through self-expression and leadership - this is the thing. See you in the next circle,

Shiloh Sophia

Dear Ones,

I have JUST recorded this. I painted with my eyes closed and hand oustretched while I listened to messages arriving within. A posture of giving and receiving, of opening myself up to listen to the deeper messages that become available through painting. Then I turned on the audio and let the transmission come through without editing. I had my students do the same thing. Paint and listen and establish a strong bond with your between worlds giving and receiving. Brave, and edgy to be sure. Before I did I taught them about discernment and protection and distinctions. We aren’t opening to non-specific of planet beings like a channel - it’s more personl and specific to you and your Soul. We painted for two whole days prior to attempting this level of receiving.I am teaching today for our course, Red Madonna, a 13 moon journey of connection with your Guardian Angel and who you are as a ceremonialist, what we call a Celebratrix. You can still sign up for the next two days.I am also teaching today on ritual painting. All of the access can be found at the button above. Join us to begin receiving your own information through Intentional Creativity as a Path of Practice.

Dear Ones, Thinking of you with an invitation to join us to paint two paintings over 13 moons - come see! This painting is called Dream of You and is painted, and beaded. Shiloh Sophia

Hello Lovely Ones ~ Today I share with you:

A reading from my upcoming book Rodeo of the Soul: Quantum Red Thread Cafe

The teachings of the Red Thread we follow - all four of them in a few minutes

The origins of Red Thread Cafe and what’s included - with gratitude to Sue Hoya Sellars on her birthday tomorrow (April 20)

An invitation to join us in our imusea app (as we choose to define how engagement happens in community - not on platforms that are always tracking us)

You can find the app through just a websearch, imusea and you will find the one that is right for your phone. BUT also please know the app is ALSO able to be accessed via desktop

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Quantum Red Thread Cafe

There is a quantum café right herebetween tomorrow and todayYou will find us here waiting for you since foreverThis is the Red Thread Cafe located in every place there is,including in the most important place of all,your connection to your imagination and the MuseWhen you arrive, you can’t miss meWatch for the cowgirl hat with a red rose and the kickass red bootsI will be the one with my heart on my sleeveThis is a place to gather yourself up,pull up a chair and have tea with the many MusesYou will see, you will be in good companyWe are the Cosmic Cowgirls gathering in the bounty of Intentional Creativity ~ did you hear our call? There are ancient stories to be told under the smiling moon!There are present day stories rising up with the laughing sun!There are future stories being woven with the fabric of our hopes!We have our heads in the stars and our feets on the good earthWe are both/and womenWomen who straddle the worlds We ride in the rodeo of the soul

We are women from the ancient future!

Be welcome here! Whatcha working on? Show us your stuff!We have anticipated your arrival for lifetimesWe are so glad you are here! We remember you!