This is the first part in a series called 31 Days of Soul Medicine. For more information and to sign up for the daily emails, click here.
Introduction
“A traveler am I, and a navigator, and every day I discover a new region within my soul.”
~Kahlil Gibran
Hello, spirit traveler.
If you’ve been called to do this soul work -- and if you’re here, you’ve been called -- it’s because your soul spoke and you responded with a holy yes. Trust this.
Introduction
“A traveler am I, and a navigator, and every day I discover a new region within my soul.”
~Kahlil Gibran
Hello, spirit traveler.
If you’ve been called to do this soul work -- and if you’re here, you’ve been called -- it’s because your soul spoke and you responded with a holy yes. Trust this.
Soul work is deep, deep work. Living in such superficial times, we ache for this work we cannot name. Living so far from the language of our souls creates, not soullessness, for we can never lack soul... but rather, a soul sickness. Soul sickness is like being homesick for your one true life. Always here, but never home. Still, in the shadow behind you is your soul. It may cast no shadow of its own, and yet it is an indestructible, ever-present part of you.
The soul is also essentially unknowable, one of the Great Mysteries. Yet in our seeking and striving to communicate with it, we deepen our experience of life. The soul’s call does not provide an easy fix to any problem, or even a linear path for us to follow. To quote Thomas Moore: “Care of the soul is not solving the puzzle of life; quite the opposite, it is an appreciation of the paradoxical mysteries that blend light and darkness into the grandeur of what human life and culture can be.” Our soul’s call does not promise a destination, an end-point where you can put up your feet and say you are “done” with the work of life and soul. It is a conscious path, which is richly rewarding, but rarely easy.
This is to say: Soul work only works, if you work it.
I cannot show you the way of your own soul, but as gatekeeper and initiator of the mysteries, I can hold open the door between the worlds. Are you are willing to enter and follow the trail by the shifting lights therein?
The language of the soul is not the language of the ego, or of the rational mind, or even of the verbal mind. However, those of us who are highly verbal (like myself) can access soul using this language, and this is my primary method of conveying to you that which cannot be conveyed. What matters more than my words is your ability to hear them with your soul’s hearing. During the 31 days you’ll be discovering the many ways in which your soul might try to communicate with you, and how to acknowledge and honor its messages. Be open.
You can engage this work simply by showing up and reading each day’s medicine. You can further activate each day’s soul work by journaling or creating art on the day’s theme. Additionally, on most of the days you will be provided with an idea for a soul craft or two to work the medicine -- the work of your own hands invokes soul -- and recommended resources for deeper work, should you choose to take it further.
It is my deepest wish that this work will give you the strength to set foot on the path of your fate and start living in the house of your soul.
Opening to Soul Work
When a brain surgeon goes into the operating room, he dresses appropriately for the job and he scrubs in. He does not show up for his work under the influence of illicit substances, and under the best of conditions, has not even consumed caffeine.
We are not brain surgeons, but as practitioners of soul-work we should consider our mental states very carefully. Some may think altered states brought on by a substance can enhance soul-work, but just as often the same substance has been invoked to numb the possibility of experiencing our souls fully. Consider thoughtfully what you put into your body during this time, and approach the work with a pure mind and heart.
You might want to create a small ritual to invoke the start of your soul-work: this can be as simple as lighting a candle, closing your eyes, and saying a short prayer, or as complicated as a purifying bath before proceeding. The important thing is to come to this work with a sense of entering sacred space.
The Prescription -- Your Daily Dose
Most days during this series will provide you with:
- a medicine story or quote
- a prompt or question to ponder
- an optional soul craft to deepen your exploration of the day’s medicine by doing hands-on work
- recommend resources relating specifically to the day’s medicine
Each day is designed to be “medicine” that can stand on its own… but the first three days are The Foundation, and ideally you will do these three before moving on to any of the others.
Day One: The Door
Foundation: What is Soul Work?
To tell you what soul work is, I must tell you what it is not, from the perspective of your modern, worldly mind. It is not the type of work meant to engage your Type A personality. It is not cramming for a test, memorizing facts just long enough to pass and then move on. It is not something to put on, then scratch off, your to-do list. It is not that kind of work.
But it does require a willingness to drop down inside of yourself. And thus it is work because going within is something most of us resist. Often we do not want to know what it is in there. We do not want to find out something about ourselves that we find frightening. And most of all, we do not want to get so lost within that we go mad and cannot return to the realm of the living, in the here and now.
I will admit that, though I am well acquainted with soul work, sometimes I find myself completely stuck when faced with a question to answer in my journal practice. If I have not grounded and centered myself beforehand, the mere sight of the question makes me go blank. Makes my knee start quaking out of a desire to soothe and comfort the fear of what might be underneath the question. I cannot focus or sit still, and so I engage my body-mind rather than my verbal one, and I go off and dance to some good music. This is soul work, too, usually.. but it can also be a diversion. Only those of us who truly know ourselves can say which is which.
Rx
Our lives are rich with stories and experiences that have contributed to who we are, right now, in this very moment. All experiences that have changed us, whether we perceive it to have been for good or ill, have been soul making experiences. The realm of the soul doesn’t distinguish “good” from “bad”, for it is a cauldron of richly layered spices, and should your recipe be missing a single flavor or nuance, it could spoil the whole stew. So we do not judge what goes in, but acknowledge, which is a major component of soul work: it is what it is.
There may be one or two specific ideas, worries or loves in your life right now that are nudging you onto this path. They might be a new affair of the heart, or perhaps a lifelong struggle with health or a relationship. But in the experience of one or more of these events, wounds or loves, if you squint and relax your eyes for just a moment, you will see The Door.
Under the gentle guidance and poetic mysticism of Melissa Fernandez, I am working through Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ Women Who Run With the Wolves --again -- as part of The Way of the Wild Woman ecourse. Dr. Estes describes the door to the soul’s work -- in her case to the Wild Woman -- this way:
"I’ll tell you right now, the door to the world of Wild Woman are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door, if you have an old, old story, that is a door. If you love the sky and the water so much that you almost cannot bear it, that is a door. If you yearn for a deeper life, a full life, that is a door."
I have considered this for quite some time, and recognize that I have many doors. Some are wounds a lifetime deep, others are passions that hold me in their grasp.
I imagine a doorway made of bones. These bones, as we will come to learn, represent that which can never be destroyed. They can be taken apart and buried apart from another, in the four corners of the topside world. But they will remain, as bones do, until a song rises that calls them to itself and re-assembles them in a place where the life force is invited back in. That is soul work.
The bones of my life, my wounds and longings, called together once again, create the doorway.
I have a wound so deep I rarely speak of it. It’s a physical problem that the eye can’t register, so no one has to know my secret shame. I carry my invisible scar with the knowledge that my disability has cut me off from a significant experience of life that others have and mostly take for granted. When I imagine the doorway of this wound, I see that it has teeth trying to stop me from stepping over the threshhold. Yet I know, on the other side of the door, the shame of the wound drops sharply away and there is simply The Truth.
I have always had a passionate nature. I am rarely bored, as the world is so full of grand ideas and beautiful things and people and music and books and.. I can never get enough of it all. These loves and passions can also be doorways. One of my primary loves that keeps circling back again and again is a desire to fully understand the Sacred Feminine. So that is another door.
Prompt
As part of our foundation work for these 31 Days of Soul Medicine, I ask you to ponder what is The Door for you? What leads you to this place on the trail, longing to go beyond? What soul making experiences make up the very bones of your life, and as such, the tapestry of your doorway?
This is the framework from which you enter the work of your own Soul Medicine.
Recommended Resources
Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype,
by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes.
Care of the Soul: A Guide to Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life,
by Thomas Moore
To tell you what soul work is, I must tell you what it is not, from the perspective of your modern, worldly mind. It is not the type of work meant to engage your Type A personality. It is not cramming for a test, memorizing facts just long enough to pass and then move on. It is not something to put on, then scratch off, your to-do list. It is not that kind of work.
But it does require a willingness to drop down inside of yourself. And thus it is work because going within is something most of us resist. Often we do not want to know what it is in there. We do not want to find out something about ourselves that we find frightening. And most of all, we do not want to get so lost within that we go mad and cannot return to the realm of the living, in the here and now.
I will admit that, though I am well acquainted with soul work, sometimes I find myself completely stuck when faced with a question to answer in my journal practice. If I have not grounded and centered myself beforehand, the mere sight of the question makes me go blank. Makes my knee start quaking out of a desire to soothe and comfort the fear of what might be underneath the question. I cannot focus or sit still, and so I engage my body-mind rather than my verbal one, and I go off and dance to some good music. This is soul work, too, usually.. but it can also be a diversion. Only those of us who truly know ourselves can say which is which.
Rx
Our lives are rich with stories and experiences that have contributed to who we are, right now, in this very moment. All experiences that have changed us, whether we perceive it to have been for good or ill, have been soul making experiences. The realm of the soul doesn’t distinguish “good” from “bad”, for it is a cauldron of richly layered spices, and should your recipe be missing a single flavor or nuance, it could spoil the whole stew. So we do not judge what goes in, but acknowledge, which is a major component of soul work: it is what it is.
There may be one or two specific ideas, worries or loves in your life right now that are nudging you onto this path. They might be a new affair of the heart, or perhaps a lifelong struggle with health or a relationship. But in the experience of one or more of these events, wounds or loves, if you squint and relax your eyes for just a moment, you will see The Door.
Under the gentle guidance and poetic mysticism of Melissa Fernandez, I am working through Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ Women Who Run With the Wolves --again -- as part of The Way of the Wild Woman ecourse. Dr. Estes describes the door to the soul’s work -- in her case to the Wild Woman -- this way:
"I’ll tell you right now, the door to the world of Wild Woman are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door, if you have an old, old story, that is a door. If you love the sky and the water so much that you almost cannot bear it, that is a door. If you yearn for a deeper life, a full life, that is a door."
I have considered this for quite some time, and recognize that I have many doors. Some are wounds a lifetime deep, others are passions that hold me in their grasp.
I imagine a doorway made of bones. These bones, as we will come to learn, represent that which can never be destroyed. They can be taken apart and buried apart from another, in the four corners of the topside world. But they will remain, as bones do, until a song rises that calls them to itself and re-assembles them in a place where the life force is invited back in. That is soul work.
The bones of my life, my wounds and longings, called together once again, create the doorway.
I have a wound so deep I rarely speak of it. It’s a physical problem that the eye can’t register, so no one has to know my secret shame. I carry my invisible scar with the knowledge that my disability has cut me off from a significant experience of life that others have and mostly take for granted. When I imagine the doorway of this wound, I see that it has teeth trying to stop me from stepping over the threshhold. Yet I know, on the other side of the door, the shame of the wound drops sharply away and there is simply The Truth.
I have always had a passionate nature. I am rarely bored, as the world is so full of grand ideas and beautiful things and people and music and books and.. I can never get enough of it all. These loves and passions can also be doorways. One of my primary loves that keeps circling back again and again is a desire to fully understand the Sacred Feminine. So that is another door.
Prompt
As part of our foundation work for these 31 Days of Soul Medicine, I ask you to ponder what is The Door for you? What leads you to this place on the trail, longing to go beyond? What soul making experiences make up the very bones of your life, and as such, the tapestry of your doorway?
This is the framework from which you enter the work of your own Soul Medicine.
Recommended Resources
Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype,
by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes.
Care of the Soul: A Guide to Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life,
by Thomas Moore
