Play School just finished and now Teletubbies has begun on the TV. I notice that 3 year old Aiva has abandoned the television (and her Grandma) to attempt to stuff as many soft toys as possible into her doll’s house. This got me thinking about creativity and innovation. Where on earth (or beyond) does that come from?

I know many innovators and creators and sometimes identify as one myself. I also notice now that Teletubbies speak no discernible language. What’s that about?

In any case, I attribute my creativity to my natal moon – I was born on a Day 3 Moon, which is reputed to be the most creative day of the Lunar cycle. A few days after New Moon (Day 1), it is a very potent day for going within and bringing forth juicy newness. 

And now the Teletubbies are jumping down a big hole and managing to discernably say Bye Bye. 

I guess this is topical for me (creativity, not Teletubbies) coming home from Ireland and wondering/dreaming into what I will do next?…Life wise and Callings wise. It’s Eostar soon (Spring Equinox here in the southern hemisphere) which is also a time of the birth of the new.

So there’s a few things coming that I am excited about – and more next year. Take a look at events and happenings below.

Now we have moved on to something called Moonbaby (great name) and Aiva is hungry and has decided she wants Grandma’s eggs for lunch.

Until next time…many blessings for the coming of Spring/Autumn and all things creative.

“Psychodrama can be seen as a bridge between shamanism and psychotherapy…Moreno’s life and work embodied a confluence of magic, science and religion.”

R.J. Landy in “Drama Therapy: Concepts, theories and practice 1986 
(note: J.L. Moreno was the creator/founder of psychodrama)

Back in 2015, when I was working towards some sort of integration of my ways of being in the world (professionally and personally), I wrote an article for the Australia Aotearoa New Zealand Psychodrama Association (AANZPA)’s annual journal, called “Psychodrama: Descendant of the Shamans.”

It was the story of my Vision Quest with the School of Shamanic Womancraft (now called Wilderness Solo-a solo journey of 3 days and 3 nights being on the land and with myself). 

What interests me now, is that I wrote it 6 years ago and the journey that I have travelled since then has been a further and further integration of the two ways of being.

The Attitude of a Warrior
Psychodrama is described as the Theatre of Truth. And “to shamanically heal, one must take on the attitude of a warrior, a warrior for Truth, who faces challenge and is willing to do what is right, rather than what is comfortable.” – (Brighid’s Healing- Ireland’s Celtic medicine traditions by G.McGarry).

Drama of the Soul
Psychodrama has been described as the Drama of the Soul. “On the psychodrama stage everything has soul and spirit. On the magical psychodrama stage we do not separate realities. Psyche and materia are the same thing – everything comes alive.” – (Psychodrama, Surplus Reality and the art of healing” by Moreno, , Blomkvist and Rutzel, 2000)

The Integration of Psychodrama and Shamanism
I am a working and living integration of psychodrama and shamanism, and I continue to be called by Moreno’s words:

“There is…A first universe which contains all beings and in which all events are sacred. I liked that enchanting realm and did not plan to leave it, ever.” 
‘The Theatre of Spontaneity’ by J.L.Moreno 1983

…And everything always remains “All about Relationship!”

Are you aware of the cyclic nature of your life?

Living with aware consciousness means being alert to the cyclic phases that are pertinent to you in any one moment and being conscious of the choices made in that moment. 

Do you know:

• When is the time for planting and nurturing the seeds of creativity or creating intentions and plans for those intentions to come alive?
  Spring – 3am-9am, New and waxing Moon, Days 3-9 of the menstrual cycle, Maiden time: 0-25 years old.
• When is the time for holding the space for the growth of your seeds and intentions and celebrating the fullness of their reality?
  Summer – 9am to 3pm, Full Moon, Days 10-16 of the menstrual cycle, Mother Time: 26-50 years old.
• When is the time for harvesting the riches of the cycle, for examining their worth, for sharing in community
  Autumn – 3pm-9pm, Waning Moon, Days 17-24 of the menstrual cycle, Maga time: 51-75 years old.
• When is the time for letting go? For rest and completions? For endings? This is the time when the ground is prepared for the next cycle- the letting go, the bones, become the mulch for the next plantings.
  ​Winter, Dark Moon/New Moon, Days 25-2 of the Menstrual Cycle, Crone Time: 76-100 years old)

If we do not live with the cycles consciously, they happen anyway

At the age of 54, when I joined the School of Shamanic Womancraft – first as student, then apprentice and now teacher, the Wisdom of the Cycles became integral in how I lived my life. As a woman in the last months of my menstrual cycle at 54, I had lost the opportunity to integrate the living wisdom into that particular cycle. The diurnal (solar), lunar (moon), seasonal and life phase cycles have had riches of wisdom to offer in my personal life and in my work.

I understand that if I do not live with the cycles consciously, they happen anyway-the wheel keeps turning. What I have come to know in my work as a Counsellor and Psychotherapist is that far too often, the cyclic consciousness is suppressed, stuck, or wounded. Our responses become Shadows which we do not or feel we can’t know. Pushed aside, these shadows can often lead us in an unconscious and painful dance.

Whilst the teaching of Cyclic Wisdom is central, it is also critical to recognise and call home the shadows that are often created by this suppression, stuckness and wounding

Mental health issues are often linked to a shadow wound

In Western medicine these “shadows” become diagnostic labels which are most often treated with medication: the effect of which is to suppress even further the psyche’s response. (A note: I am not anti-medication for mental health as such-sometimes it is a necessary and life saving/life enhancing gift of western medicine).
However, in working with the cycles, I have noticed that mental health issues are often linked to a Shadow wound at certain times of the life cycle:

• In the maiden time-the Shadow wound is often to a person’s sense of identity and might result in personality disorders
• In Mother time-the Shadow wound appears to be in relationships and sexuality
• In Maga time-the Shadow wound appears as disorders of mood, for example depression and anxiety.
• In Crone time-the Shadow wound appears as fear of letting go, fear of death, undealt with grief.
• In the Centre of the wheel is Trauma-Which occurs often and is often relegated to the Shadowlands.

Shadow wounds or issues might occur at any time

You might raise quite a sweat trying welcome home your exiled shadows, or you might find loving assistance and support makes all the difference.

My upcoming workshop on Shadow Cycles

If you are interested in learning more about Shadow Cycles and mental health, join me in the Shadow Cycles series of workshops (all online currently), beginning with an introduction on 12th March and commencing the teachings of the Cycles and Shadow Cycles from Samhain in May.

There will be learning about the Cycles, the Shadow Cycles and approaches for integration. The workshops will involve personal work with your own Shadowlands, and will also be useful to broaden your skills if you work in the field of Mental health in a professional capacity.

Regardless of your purpose for attending, be prepared to dive deep and connect with your own Shadows, and be aware that you will be in a safe, confidential container of a group of like minded women.

For more information and to book click here. 

On the cusp of the new calendar year, I find myself deeply resting. There is a sense in me of deep need for rest. Preparing for the wheel of time to keep turning. 

I have been contemplating David Whyte’s poem “The House of Belonging” (this is an excerpt- the full poem is at the end of this blog):

“This is the bright home
in which I live,
this is where
I ask
my friends
to come,
this is where I want
to love all the things
it has taken me so long
to learn to love.

This is the temple
of my adult aloneness
and I belong
to that aloneness
as I belong to my life.

There is no house
like the house of belonging.”

For a long time I felt I did not belong on this land of Australia.

I belonged with my family – a very large and noisy family –  who live here. I was born here. But I always felt drawn to the land of Ireland. And it’s true that I do feel most at home there – spiritually – and “in my skin”- in a way that has been so hard to find here in Australia. 

I realise that the bones of my ancestors are not here. The layers of earth under my feet do not contain them. And yet my home is created here. The bright cords of my heart’s love are here. My parents, my siblings, my children and grandchildren and my beloved partner. 

• 

• 

Here in these mountains “is where I want to love all the things it has taken me so long to learn to love.” I am here. It is now, and “there is no house like the house of belonging.”

At the end of the Calendar year and moving into 2021, may you find your house of belonging, and may the year to come hold love and many dreams-come-true.

---

“The House of Belonging”

BY DAVID WHYTE 

I awoke
this morning
in the gold light
turning this way
and that
thinking for
a moment
it was one
day
like any other.

But
the veil had gone
from my
darkened heart
and
I thought

it must have been the quiet
candlelight
that filled my room,
it must have been
the first
easy rhythm
with which I breathed
myself to sleep,

it must have been
the prayer I said
speaking to the otherness
of the night.

And
I thought
this is the good day
you could
meet your love,
this is the gray day
someone close
to you could die.

This is the day
you realize
how easily the thread
is broken
between this world
and the next

You might have noticed the picture of the sculpture (The Age of Maturity) at the top of my Psychodrama webpage (and above, here). Quintessential Longing. It was quite difficult to find a picture, but I love the yearning in Camille Claudel’s (1864-1943) work. The soul-full faces and bodies. The movement. My favourite is La Valse (below).

Have you heard of Camille Claudel? She was a lover of Auguste Rodin (he of “The Kiss’ (below) and “The Thinker”)- She was his Muse

I have read a lot (not recently though, so be warned that what I write is shaped by the peculiar prisms of my memory) about both Rodin and Claudel. I have been to Paris many times now and my favourite museum has always been the Musee Rodin. I know that Claudel had deep longings and passions. I know that they said she was mad and imprisoned her in an insane asylum (apparently an all to frequent residence for passionate women back then). She loved Rodin and she learnt from him (and he from her). She was his Muse (perhaps he was hers) and he rejected her. She longed for him. By all accounts he was cruel to her. Undoubtedly she suffered.

So then I wondered……. what is a Muse… and who or what is mine?  Am I rejecting of her, cruel in my not listening to her? Having recently been encouraged by the wonderful writer Geneen Marie Haugen (more on Geneen in another post) to apprentice to my Muse, I have begun this exploration.

I glanced at her and took my glasses off- they were still singing. They buzzed like a locust on the coffee table and then ceased. Her voice belled forth, and the sunlight bent. I felt the ceiling arch, and knew that nails up there took a new grip on whatever they touched. “I am your own way of looking at things,” she said. “When you allow me to live with you, every glance at the world around you will be a sort of salvation.” And I took her hand. (When I met My Muse by William Stafford)

“I am your own way of looking at things”…. WILL you allow me to live with you? This is my Longing and my Question. I know the answer to be YES.

This is where Psychodrama takes me as I follow my Longing.