Relational Embodiment
If we want to speak language of agency, of self + community determination, of cycle-breaking the perpetrator/victim/savior triangle dynamic, we MUST bring intentional, awareness to relationality.
Greetings friends,
This Substack arrives to your inbox illuminating resources in the theme of RELATIONAL EMBODIMENT, as I round out the tail end of recovery from COVID and on the heels of the South Node / "Tail of the Dragon" Libra Solar Eclipse. 🌞🌚🐉
📌 Table of Contents:
Dharma concept up first
Clickable links to local events, healers & resources in the middle
Ongoing embodiment offerings at the end
We're fully in the "let that shit go" fall season, typical marketing vibes of commercialized "wellness," and for mostly (albeit usually shallow) well intentioned reasons. However to anyone out there (you perhaps?) that's ever thought "just let it go" sounded trite, idealistic, impossible or even ludicrous perhaps, especially during multiple ongoing genocides, systematic erasure of essential human rights, and the rapid decline of environmental safety & resources, there are actually very profound reasons why we should choose to hold onto some things.
So which is it? Let go? Hold on? 🤔
While the Buddhist in me appreciates the practice of impermanence & non-attachment, the Witch in me really appreciates finding a really cool rock for my altar.
And still yet, the queer somaticist & anarchitect in me stands back & says fuck those binaries.
Libra season's symbolic scales remind us to "weigh" opposing forces to find the "balance" of justice. Shallow liberation practice keeps us at odds with what's on the scales (ahem, red/blue, donkey/elephant). Meanwhile liberation practice at depth reminds that we are the scale itself, we are what is placed on each end, and we are all the empty space & air that surrounds the scale. ⚖️
We are all and nothing at the same time, and in other words, we are an entire field of causal relation. 💥🌱
Every single bit of the embodiment, liberation & systems change work I do in the world grounds at depth. When I myself am put to the test of "letting shit go," (which has happened in the last month in very poignant ways, it is eclipse season after all) it is always so that deeper, more authentic, more Whole, RELATIONAL EMBODIMENT can occur.
If we want to speak language of FREE WILL, of agency, of self + community determination, of cycle-breaking the perpetrator/victim/savior triangle dynamic, of "we keep us safe" into material existence, then by Mx. Justice, we MUST bring conscious, intentional, awareness to the ways we are in relation to embodiment:
Embodiment of relation to our physical vessel.
Embodiment of relation to complexity, nuance & paradox.
Embodiment of relation to the natural world, of non-human languages.
Embodiment of relation to our values.
Embodiment of aligning our actions to our values.
Embodiment of relation to and with each other, centered around our complex values.
Relation to the embodiment of the ancestral wisdom that each of us is granted access to by virtue of being a breathing human being made out of earth, air, fire, water & time, regardless of the last several centuries of narrative of our known family (or occupied territory) history.
Today I am sharing this somatic wisdom as the spark of the seed of RELATIONAL EMBODIMENT that I am currently planting deeper into my fall & winter months because I know everything I release now to the soil to decompose will be cyclically part of next year's crop too. 🍄🌎♻️
Recommended resources to nourish your own deepening, RELATIONAL EMBODIMENT:
❤️🔥 ACTIVATE - Participatory liberation practice:
Collective Liberation Zone Weekend STL - a groundbreaking initiative to unify and empower our movement for collective action and justice. I will be on site offering liberatory somatic practice in the healing tent 3:15-4pm, & nervous system first aid during Protest-101 on the field.
🎧 LISTEN - Podcasts I'm listening to:
Bridging Healing and Activism (w/ Noëlle Janka) on Wider Roots Podcast - The political IS spiritual, the spiritual IS political, they have never been, nor should ever be, separate. You'll appreciate this listen if burnout & chronic illness derail your activism, or if your wellbeing practice feels shallow without liberatory justice roots.
😌 EASE - Events to nourish your nervous system:
Nervine: Restorative Soundbath + Integrative Tea Service - Andy of Triangle Wellness Bodywork teams up with Miranda of Salt & Violet to somatically tune your nervous system through vibration & plant medicine. I've received healing from both of these St. Louis healers separately, but never together! I can only surmise this pairing will be nothing less than Divine.
🏳️🌈 CONNECT - Community to get to know:
Queer Hearts Health Fair - By queer hearts, for queer hearts. This 3rd annual, FREE health fair held at Tiny Postcards in Dutchtown is a low key event meant to cultivate community connection & radical healing (outside of the medical industrial complex too I might add). I'll be offering a somatic, liberatory embodiment demo at 5pm.
❤️🩹 SURVIVE- Somatic first aid to learn:
Eclipse Season Somatic Survival Guide - And just for good measure, here's my FREE guide to support your nervous system as we finish out this eclipse season. No meditation required, utilizes the four elements of nature, sillyness & playfulness included.
In solidarity,
-Deanna Sophia Danger-