Tea with the Muse

An invitation to explore legacy and lineage and our bodies of work, and how we choose to shape them.

Photo ~ the first graduating class of Color of Woman Teacher certification in 2010 ~ this is the place where I first shared the deepest Teachings that had been passed me in image and word.

Tune in to hear behind the scenes reasons for why I do what I do…. And my invitation for you to join me.

In this podcast I talk about things like…

* the first time I encountered consciousness

* awareness as a conscious choice and not a default setting

* how we don’t always use ‘sub-consciousness’ in our community and what we say instead to link to imagination

* unconscious behaviour according to my two moms ( racism, sexism, capitalism)

* my mother’s only two rules and how she let me change my name

* a movie that was life-changing for me (Warrior Marks) and how it informed my work in Intentional Creativity

* a very sad wedding I attended and how it connects with suffering

* an invitation to see self-expression as a way to work with coming into being

What choice do you really have in life? Where are you not being at choice in your life?How does Self-Expression translate into a choice?Come listen and have some tea with the MUSE today!

How does the Soul reveal itself through you?I rise in the dark. It is so early in the morning it is still nighttime. The dark of the moon and the mist reveal no brightness. Yet my Soul stirs me to take up the pen. Who is doing the talking here? I wonder. I want to write a poem but something else is being requested. I submit and write the first sentence…

“Every single one of us comes into this life as we are.”

From there the pen flows without stopping, as energy moves into form, organized in black words on a white page. I co-create with the life force flowing through me. I want poetry because of the liminality it brings, but instead I get the hard questions, the provocation that challenges beliefs, and the call to more awakeness than we had before. Here are this morning’s pages, perhaps they may be of service to you in your own discovery process, and always in service to the Great Work being lived out in each of us, whether we are conscious of it or not.

~

Every single one of us comes into this life as we are.

This is what we call our Soul, our innate ‘us-ness’ seems to ride in with our incarnation. We come in with our own flavor and sass and sometimes a bad attitude and sometimes an innate call to do the work of saving ourselves and others.

All of us are carrying innate qualities, like imagination and identity –and the soul in which our being has being-ness. A conversation with our Soul is something we all need to have… But how do you do that?

How does each one of us navigate arriving here and not really coming in with a map of where to go and how to get there? Well. That is THE Question of Questions. How do we navigate this thing called life? How does it work and who lives in here?

How I experience my relationship with my Soul is how I live my life – yet it is through a veil – sometimes clear and at other times hidden. I always say that being awake means: As awake as our soul is willing to be at any given time. To me it seems as if soul moderates what we can handle, and safely integrate. Kindness seems to be the mode of the soul towards us, and…creativity.

Self-expression is one of the ways we can get to know our soul-stuff. When we create, who we are gets revealed in the visible world and we can take a look. Soul cannot be understood in abstraction and the mental constructs only – our body is the prism through which the currency of soul is reflects true colors.

The idea that the Soul is carrying information specific to it, seems possible. But can we say for sure? Do we need to assert surety? Can mystery be included when we speak of the Soul? For me, mystery must be included whenever we are speaking of soul, and the work of the soul. When we are born, we inherit a cultural familial framework and dna package that we did not choose. Or did we? What is your belief about it? Whatever it really is, my belief is that no one here really knows.

Do you think we have access to knowing if we have pre-destined choice?

I always feel unease when someone asserts that they know we agreed to whatever it is our soul is experiencing. Maybe for some of us, but for all of us? Is it true universally that we chose our challenges this life? This belief feels rigged and life doesn’t feel rigged to me. There seems to be much more organic influence happening – less control – not more.

I know I want to engage with coherence with what is possible for me. How can I learn the power of my own soul without needing to assert I know what is going on here....

Hello everyone! A little something uncommon today as Jonathan asked me some questions about my approach to business (we are starting a 6 week course today.) In this convo I share a story about sleeping under the drawing table while my grandmother and mother worked all night. Whether you are in business or not, this should be fun to listen to and tune into cafe with us. This is our daily ritual and it truly is the foundational fabric of our entire life….

Have a great day and a good morning, with heart,

Shiloh Sophia

For all upcoming events go here: Study Intentional Creativity and the Power of Imagination here

Dear Ones,

Today I am sharing my poetry writing practice and the results of it from today - as well as a personal sharing. AND I am inviting you to notice what framework you are looking at your life through - to get it conscious for yourself.

Today’s poetry prompt was an open gate, a metaphor that allowed this poem and to come through. It could just as well be an open window overlooking Florence like this photo that Jonathan took in 2019! This was our last trip before ‘shelter-in-place’ was a thing. We haven’t really travelled since then and things have been on the rough side for us for quite a bit. So I am noticing that gates, windows and doors are showing up a LOT.

I am still not sure what the open gate really meant for me today but it is in the exploring of it that that poems sometimes spring out. I am still on the despair and desire theme too. Maybe you will write a poem in response or your own? That is another practice, reading any poem and then using something in it, even one word or a feeling as a jumping in place.

Sending love for your day,

Shiloh Sophia ~~~

Open Gate

Between the apple tree

and the dappled blue spruce

There is an open gate

If you should find yourself there

on the edge of things

pause with respect

before just walking on through

On the other side of the gate

you can never be sure

what you may find waiting

Usually it is something

you have wanted to avoid

and you just can’t anymore

and despair is Just. Right. There.

OR

You find something

you have desired

all your life and

suddenly there it is…

Only now you aren’t sure

you want what you thought

you wanted before

That is because who you were

before

just isn’t who you are now

Before.

Before is the place where

you didn’t know just what love

would ask of you

when you agreed to share yourself

in exchange for a chance

at a heart filled with impossible light

Light that cannot be contained

That desire you have been nursing

was before you needed spectacles

to read the evening poetry by firelight

Sometimes if you look into the flames

with a soft and sleepy gaze

You can even see the open gate

and your despair or desire

winking and twinkling through

 This opening is not a sentence

or a summons

The open gate is finally coming

to the awareness of choice

When you gain awareness of choice

you garner favor with the poets

We all want that!

Oh… all the times you thought

you didn’t have choice

when you actually did

can sometimes be

a stunning reckoning

but then you hear your lover’s voice

calling from the other room

and you realize you would risk it all again

and again and again

Their heart is the opening

and there is no gate needed

at all between you

You just must remember

who they are

while not forgetting

who you have become

and how they have become

more of who they are

No one said there would be

a clear path through the

wild garden of berries and

bramble bruises and skinned knees

on the way to the open gate

The open gate is awareness

of choice

and the acceptance of love

and the writing of this poem for you

Right here between the guardians

of the apple tree and the dappled spruce

This love is

Shiloh Sophia

Sacred Encounter - Painting by Shiloh Sophia

Dearest Hearts,

Oh so many things. Drinking tea and watching the sunrise and thinking of you. If you have read Jonathan’s substack, The Intentional Table then you will know what ecstasy and despair I am speaking of. Breathing a sigh of relief, and drinking tea that he has made for me. I am thinking of you and knowing all that you are also going through.

“Then a woman said, speak to us of joy and sorrow. And he answered:Your joy is your sorrow, unmasked, and the self same well from which your laughter arises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.” Khalil Gibran, The Prophet I remember reading this when I was a young woman and asking myself the question,

Is this true? In order to have the amount of ecstasy that I'm seeking…Ecstasy that the poets speak about and the painters paint about, and the dancers twirl about, and the gardeners plant seeds about, Must I also have the sorrow? Is it true? Is it true that the counterpoint to the critic, the voice of meanness inside has a sister called the Muse? Is it true?Well, now, at this time in my journey, as I reference that quote by Kahlil GibranI will definitely affirm that my ecstasy and my despair are riding to and from the roads of my life on the same horse. It continues to perplex me as this horse of ecstasy and despair, trots in and out of every single day, the depth, the impact, the emotional and somatic swinging from laughter to tears.

Sometimes in the same second, an orgasm could turn from laughter…to absolute tears. Bad news could make you shudderand then you feel a sense of absolute soul, soul filling, gratitude….

The body could be in pain so deep, you wonder when it will ever leave. Will you ever feel the same again? And then you feel a sense of relief for whatever reason at the pet of your dog or your cat, or a sunrise through a cloudy day…And there it is again, a sense of freedom. Moments later, the pain returns. What an experience as a human being to navigate this juxtaposition between ecstasy and despair. This horse of ecstasy and despair comes be-jeweled into my life and shimmers as she waits for me to hop on. She does not promise safety, but she does promise she will carry me through the ecstasy and despair. My only consent to riding this horse is that I recognize both for what they are, to be clear on the distinctions and to begin to notice when one flips to the other.And… watch that switch time! Pay attention to when energy becomes matter and matter becomes energy. Dance on the equal sign as it changes. And if you can learn to be soft enough to notice the change, it won't take you so much by surprise. You won't feel as crazy. You'll know that joy and sorrow are sisters and the ecstasy and despair, are sisters. You will know, this is just part of the human experience.You won't need to resist it so much. You may even learn to welcome it.

You may memorize the reality that this despair can turn into ecstasy in time. You will not be able to control the timeline and that pisses us off. But if we can pay attention to the alchemical moment of change, then the horse of ecstasy will let us ride and ride and ride. And when despair comes, her shimmering jewels will remind us… as they dim down into darkness, only a glimmer of light remains, but still a glimmer because you memorized the brightness that was there before -and to not demonize one or the other or exalt one as better or worse. To see both simultaneously as the human experience, then something happens…..I wish I could say it's understanding, or even better… peace, but it's more like just being here and not resisting being here. When ectasy comes, throw open your arms. When despair calms, throw open your arms. And when that horse rides…with youholding on for dear life, remember, you carry both. Life isn't doing this to you. Life is happening through you. No, you cannot control it. But yes, you can enjoy the ride.This is our choice as humans. Will we choose it? I will.

Shiloh Sophia

On another note…applications are closing today if you want to hop on a horse named desire for sovereignty with me - GLOW here