Me again! I have no idea what happened, but just realized my last LoveLetter was cut off (at the knees). The entire bottom half dropped off, leaving my message and spiral teaching incomplete. So... like a spiral, I'm returning back to you. Ha!
........................................................ Blessings! May this LoveLetter wrap you like a warm embrace, to ease the intensity of this season; a time belonging to the deeper mysteries and to transformation. As this is my birth time (I just turned 67, with 5 planets in Scorpio), I get the depth of emotion this time can bring. To be honest, it's taken me decades to really appreciate and celebrate my ability to feel so intensely and to accept and trust in my natural impulses to shed the old to make way for the new, again and again. I've come to recognize and celebrate my life as a spiral, which has informed pretty much everything I do and teach, from my dance practice to my book. Below is an excerpt from the Intro of 'She Reflects'. I share this in the hopes that my words will add value (as inspiration, support, reflection or encouragement) to your own journey. May it be so.
Love, Erica | "The Eight Turns of the Spiral: Life unfolds more like a spiral, doesn’t it, and not like a straight line. We move forward in our lives as though around and around the curves of a spiral. Being. Becoming. Being. Becoming. As we make the turn around each curve, we evolve. We move from selfhood, to partnership, from our inner life to interaction with the world, from innocence to discovery; from inexperience to wisdom, each turn providing a new vantage point from which to look inward at ourselves and outward at our lives. As part of my work in Dance Our Way Home, I created a process of healing and discernment, of shedding the old and celebrating the new. The process takes us through eight turns of a spiral. Each turn is a chapter in this book. |  Listen | At the First Turn, we slow down, linger and pause. We soften, relax and listen. We tune into ourselves, creating space for our inner voice, body, and heart wisdom, to be heard. We ask and receive. We open to the exquisite dialogue only we can have with the world around us. |  Follow Your Impulse | Through the Second Turn of the spiral, we become the wanderer journeying out into the unknown guided by our inner impulses, instincts and rhythms. This journey is a solo one, inviting us to be curious, innocent, and present. It’s a deeply personal and daringly courageous adventure. |  Partner Dance | We then move into relationship with another. Into Heart. Into Aphrodite’s realm of Love and Devotion. At this, the Third Turn, we prepare to meet and be met. We nourish our partnerships and conscious collaborations, and learn to lovingly dance our way out. We learn to move on with compassion, kindness and forgiveness. |  Collective Joy | In the Fourth Turn, we shift our focus from one-on-one relationships to being in community. It’s about finding our people, and sense of belonging. It’s the healing of collective joy and play. Here, we become both mirror and mirrored, to amplify our gifts and celebrate the circle. We gather, unite and shine. ** |  Magic of Letting Go | The Fifth Turn of the spiral is about the magic of surrender and its healing power. We learn to yield and shed what no longer serves. It’s here where we let Oya, the Goddess of Tornados, sweep us clean, and release the grip of our inner critic and perfectionist. We give it up. We let go. We do it with love. |  Touch the Wild | At the Sixth Turn, we arrive after the release, ready to invite Wild Woman, and all that is wild, to guide us to a life with abandon – feral and free, spontaneous and juicy. Without script, apology, or regret. To be free, to feed our soul. To howl at the moon; run with the wolves. |  Return to Self | And now, at the Seventh Turn - having met ourselves, another, community, and life - we return to self, to love. Here, we bring back home the medicine we’ve gathered, and integrate the experiences and lessons of our journey. We find the truth of who we are. We find acceptance. We find gratitude. We see the sacred. |  Share Your Light | At the Eighth Turn, our personal experience of the return to self longs to express and fulfil itself outwardly. We become of service. We share whatever goodness we’ve found, to be a source of light for others. To radiate and reflect, and be the divine mirror we are born to be! |  Holding it All | And as we prepare to enter the process and cycle back around, we come to a potent liminal space. (Check out the Epilogue.) Here, we take a moment to pause, reflect, and honour the ways in which we can and do hold it all – the dark and the light, the tender and the wild, the mundane and the mystical. Everything. Feel it. Know it. Be with it all. | There it is - the full spiral. We begin with soft curiosity, and complete with gratitude, being a loving witness to the sacredness of our journey. But keep in mind, as spirals go, this ending is really just the beginning, the pre-requisite for the next whirl around the sun. The spiral dance keeps going. And so it is!" | At this moment, where are you on the spiral? Are you at the First Turn, internally focused and quietly listening for answers? Are you at the Sixth Turn, feeling super energized, wild and expressive? Or maybe you're at the Fourth Turn, looking for community to play and connect with. Wherever you are, may you honour that place, and trust that this too shall pass. It always does. | *If you ARE longing for play, creativity and community time, join... Sunday, Nov 7, 1-5:30pm ET on Zoom (Come and go as you need. Come with our kids, pets, spouses.) These extended sessions are designed to offer a more spacious time to CREATE; while keeping the same basic format as our regular Open Studio sessions - with dance breaks and closing circle. $20 each
Fall Open Studio Members: $15 each | Follow me on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest Follow me on Spotify and MixCloud Find me on Facebook Watch me on YouTube | If you found value and joy in this Love Letter, please SHARE it. | |
