The Golden Key to The Lost & Found
Poseidon speaks & An Introduction to how to Create Story Ceremonies
Greetings dear humans,
In this letter you will find:
An Invitation to attend a JOURNEY HOME STORY CEREMONY & a guide for how to create your own.
A video story: The City of Joy (perfect for when Fear is messing with your head)
A poll re: your opinion about the next article I develop.
First thing is first: !!!!!THANKYOU!!!!! for the support and encouragement you showed in that last email. Thank you to all who filled out the survey, you inspired me to bring you something delicious and of value to you. (FYI: You agreed that you wanted fictional stories and excerpts from the books I am writing— and so you will find both in this storyletter). Want to give feedback?
Greetings from the wake of a recent trip to Greece where I facilitated a workshop on initiation.
The reason that called me there + what happened once I got there = serious Soul Scrubbing.
There is something about walking on land and swimming in water that gave birth to some of the most powerful and influential stories that are walking the earth in our time….
It woke up another aspect of who I am as a human, and as a storyteller.
AN INTERLUDE: A Poll
I am pitching a few articles to magazines and am curious if you would be interested in either?
(…cont)
So there I was— having just led a retreat on initiation,
and by saying yes to impulse of life — I was being initiated by life as well.
Initiations are designed to show you what you are made of— and I was seeing it all— the good, the beautiful, and the ugly. With the distractions of everyday life absent: there was nowhere to hide from the things I didn’t want to see.
And when I finally really looked — it was a relief.
To stop the show, to slow the momentum, and take the time (isn’t that a great expression, as if you can take time away from something else) and really decide:
is this the ride of life I want to be on?
So there I was on the island of Santorini.
Legend has it that this is the place of Atlantis. They say— and have archeological information that links Platos’s stories to legends that indicate that this was Poseidon’s Kingdom.
So there I was — praying for help— as one does. And while swimming through the water my prayers were answered as I heard:
“The Golden Key To The Lost & Found. That’s the title of your book.”
I wish I had thought of the title myself. Thank you Poseidon. (I had a much more complicated title that no publisher jumped on.)
The rest of my travels were led by that same story every where I went.
Every time I stopped to listen, to the sand between my toes,
to the whispers in the wind,
to the song of the sea,
to my dreams…
a story was there, ready to be caught.
I look forward to sharing these stories with you around the fire— in person and online in STORY CATCHER: A JOURNEY HOME STORY CEREMONY.
The evening will be a combination of stories of my personal journey, along with the old mythic stories of the land I walked, along with a few new stories that I caught along the way.
You can expect to be guided through story, down a path where you can explore your own journey. This is interactive, participatory, but not forced.
What is a journey home story ceremony?
This is a way of ritualizing the process of bringing the stories home. So often when we make pilgrimages, we clear the cobwebs, and experience clarity, direction, or inspiration —
it is easy to have profound mind opening experience far from home— but bringing it all back— anchoring it in our day - to - day lives, that is when the real work begins.
A story ceremony is a way of anchoring the transformations we experience elsewhere into our every day life.
The words must be spoken out loud in the place of our home.
Witnessed by those who know and love us.
Why? Because every ancient religion said that the world was sung, spoken, and chanted into being. Our reality is formed through the building blocks of language.
So when you have a moment when the windows of the soul are cleared — repeating it, sharing it with those who can reflect it back to you when you return, this provides you the mechanism of integrating the change into your every day life.
SO YOU WANT TO HOST YOUR OWN STORY CEREMONY….
When is a good time?
Story ceremonies support moments of when you are crossing a major threshold and you want the new version of yourself to be seen, witnessed, and held by your community. Here are a few examples of when you may want to create a ritual for yourself or a beloved:
A significant birthday
A pilgrimage or major travel
After the death of a beloved
Transition in career
A major self imposed life shift: a choice to live a life of sobriety, a loss of significant weight, the healing of a weight disorder
Any threshold where who you were before, is different than who you are now.
INTERLUDE: [Story] THE VILLAGE OF JOY
Enjoy this short audio story— it is particularly helpful in those moments when Fear comes knocking on your door.
HOW DO STORY CEREMONIES “WORK”?
The technology of ceremony is big magic in that we are in field consciousness, and what can happen for one can evoke and tap into what is living in all of us. A transmission can occur. So when one attends another’s ceremony, you might receive the medicine of it. (I say might… because we are on our own rides, and what you are open to is up to you).
Story ceremonies integrate rituals that embody different aspects of all of our stories.
When we ritualize the teaching of the story, we are able to take the spirit of the teaching, and bring it into this dimension through the embodiment of matter. What does that look like?
On our INITIATE retreat, it became apparent we needed to release the good girl archetype, (that voice that is constantly seeking approval and asking for permission). We created a ritual where we put our lessons about how the good girl lives in our lives into a universal expression by talking about it through a mythic story. Then we molded the good girl into clay, as we did so, we imbued the archetype into the clay, with the intention of transferring the energy that was living in us into the molded clay.
And then: we held a funeral, read a eulogy, blessed her life, and quite literally: buried her. (below is an image of the grave site.)
Do you have a pattern you want to break?
Do you want to….
Claim a part of yourself that has been lost along the way?
Commit to your life work?
Is there an aspect of your shadow that you are wanting to integrate?
These are the themes that will be in the upcoming Story Catcher Journey Home Story Ceremony on June 29th.
For those who are in LA, please join me in Topanga Canyon. Not in LA? It will be hosted online as well. This is a live story ceremony and there are no recordings.
Want to Host Your Own Journey Home Story Ceremony?
Here are a few things to consider:
The invitation: Make sure that people understand your intention, and what is being asked of them. Some ceremonies are focused on the teller being witnessed, some are participatory, all require full presence from start to finish, and are not to be treated casually.
Know the Arc of Your Journey: A story ceremony is not a performance. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have a plan. You will want to guide people on a journey with focus and precision. Be respectful of people’s time and capacity to focus. Create a plan for how to take me on the journey of who you were, what happened to create a shift or change, and who are becoming.
Music: You may want to bring in an ally or partner to bring music to your experience. Song, dance, drumming, sitting by a fire, are universal expressions of being human.
Incorporate the elements: The nature of ceremony is to create a focused space to collaborate with the unseen world. Consider how you will engage the elements of earth, fire, water, and air to support your intention.
Consider Ritualizing the Shift: Put into physical form a metaphoric expression of your intention. For ex: burying something you are ready to release, or breaking a plate to represent a pattern you want to break.
These suggestions are designed to get you into the mind set, and are not the beallendall. If this is something you want to develop in more detail, this will be covered in great detail in a book I am developing, or we can work 1:1. But for now this should wet your whistle.
Do you have questions? Examples of how you work with story to ritualize your intentions or bring healing to a situation? I want to hear your thoughts, examples of how you bring ritual and story into your life, and questions!
If you feel inspired to subscribe, thank you. Your support of the arts is sincerely appreciated and makes all of this possible.
May your journey be blessed,
and may you have great dance partners all along the way,
Leah