“If you want to change the world, you have to change the metaphor.”

~ Joseph Campbell

Letter #755 Includes

• This isn’t a test Poem and Painting
• What metaphor are you living in? with 3 steps: Message from Shiloh Sophia
• Do you want to join our Intentional Creativity online community, it’s free and on FB (for now) – Red Thread Cafe Classroom : A community for women creatives to share what they are working on – come on over!

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This isn’t a test.

There are no check boxes

that you missed.

No arbitrary line

that you have already crossed.

No way to fail this.

This isn’t based on who is smarter

and who has more value.

This idea is a dangerous illusion.

 

This isn’t a race.

There isn’t a starting gate.

There isn’t a finish line.

There isn’t a prize for

going faster, better, longer.

There is no where to get to.

Exiting the race may

mean you enjoy this day

a whole lot more.

 

This isn’t a game.

There are no other competitors

that you need to beat.

No made up rules by someone

who didn’t have your best interest

at heart. No way to lose.

Even not showing up

doesn’t mean you lose.

This isn’t a game at all.

 

This isn’t a dress rehearsal.

You don’t need to spend your

time looking good and acting normal.

You don’t need to look like

you are the best one for the position.

Just being who you are, isn’t easy,

but it guarantees this isn’t a dress

rehearsal that you can fail.

You already got the gig,

the one for which you are perfect,

your own life.

 

This isn’t a fight.

There is no one to beat up.

There is no referee calling

the shots. There is nothing

to win. That doesn’t mean

there aren’t causes to defend.

Don’t enter the battlefield

with bravado and promises

of doom and dread.

It has never turned out well

for us in the end.

 

Start singing with your

whole heart about this.

There is no winner

if anyone loses. We know this.

The alternative is inherent

in releasing the

sword wielding mentality.

Reclaim your consciousness

from the over-culture.

Today would not be too soon.

 

Stop trying to get ahead

since it is costing you everything.

Is it time for a leap of faith,

without an objective to get ahead?

Who would you be being

without objectives and goals

to define your invented reality?

Maybe an even better idea

would arise. You never know.

 

Yes, we will die anyway.

Turns out that isn’t the point.

We might end up living

instead of racing, pretending,

fighting. That sounds lovely,

doesn’t it. Where is that

freedom…we know it exists.

We never stop looking,

yet it is closer than we thought.

 

Don’t make a bucket list.

There is no list. There is loving

what you love and in that,

everything. What if we missed

the point? Is there a point?

We keep making up new

stories to justify the cruelty.

Yet as cruel as we are to

ourselves, we should start

right. here.

 

This isn’t what we once thought.

Changing the contextual metaphors

may be one of the most important

decisions of our lives.

Shiloh Sophia

The word overculture is from Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes:

“I coined the word Overculture many years ago to speak about the grid that the overculture slams down or sometimes subversively dreams down over the spirits and souls of human beings… in order to diminish them, set them into matchboxes, exhort them to behave, or else.”

Note this is a reposted poem and image from two years ago, but seems appropriate today as well…

Comment on Artist Shiloh Sophia

Here are two offerings from me for you, completely free. Chances to learn more about Intentional Creativity and to experience it.

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Explore Your Metaphor – 3 Step Process

1. Be in inquiry about the one you are living in.

2. Identify the origin story for validity and insight

3. Be in inquiry with yourself about if that metaphor can be changed to something more powerful for you, or strengthened and put to use

This can be great to do with Metacognitive Drawing as well to gather deeper insight into the unseen.

A Letter from the Red Thread Cafe #755

Dear One,

We get to choose our orientation. Often our orientations are defaults from past experiences. We kind of ‘fell’ into them and then one day woke up to the reality that we were ‘inside’ of a frame. We can spend a lot of time trying to get out of the old metaphors.

That is why today, I am sending a LEAP image. Use the image as inspiration to FEEL that feeling in your body when you are ready. First, let’s look at the metaphor you have running….in the background.

Can you imagine yourself LEAPING out of your old metaphor?

First, identify the metaphor. These metaphors are not just concepts, they have energy that informs our choices, and over many years become deeply ingrained.

What metaphor are you living in? Is it unconscious? Chosen? Default? Old news? Ready for a new one? Current political and climate happenings of all kinds can throw us into survival. And while some aspects of that may be true (for many of us, other species and earth), survival can be a challenging place to ‘work from’. By ‘work from’ I mean your actual perspective. Think of seeing the world through cosmic goggles, like a filter through which you ‘tint’ everything. Those rose colored glasses….can come in handy these days. Your consciousness is informing this seeing. And you can DO something about it. Those who do something about how they see, change how they act and what they create.

Are you in a race, a dance, a dare, a fight, a battle, a weave, a garden, a test, a path, a journey, an adventure? IF we can get conscious about how we are operating, we can change the operating system and exit the matrix that is not actually supportive. The old metaphor served a purpose but maybe that is done now? Check with yourself. You can ask Yes/No.

Being in a battle or fight isn’t bad or good, it just is. It is the NOT KNOWING IT IS THERE that can be confusing. Then we can begin to create new cultures with the others that are waking up.

“When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else.” Toni Morrison, Thank you for your offerings of life and wisdom to all of us. Rest in Power and such good work done.

Next, consider the ‘origin story’ of your metaphor. Where did it come from and who were you with? How did it get created? This is often super curious and not intended to trigger old memories, this metaphor arose out of experiences – but in a way, floats both above and below the conscious mind – like a framework.

I myself live in a ‘battle journey’ metaphor. I am here to ‘save something’. For me that doesn’t mean I am constantly fighting, it means I am aware of there being something going on that needs to be saved and which is precious. I have added ‘journey’ to that because I am on a path ready to defend justice. My saving work is to bring creativity. Because creativity is the fastest route to consciousness that I have ever seen. When people create with intention, they wake up quicker.

Once you know your metaphor you can use it instead of it using you. Each time I try to change my metaphor I feel a risk of losing my intensity, my compassion, my love. I am just not ready, yet. This dynamic of ‘battle’ started in the womb for me, when my mom Caron and Sue, my other mother and teacher, chose to step out of the patriarchy. Yep. It started then. I imagine I will step out of it soon, but before I did that I wanted to hang out with it for a while to see how I can use it for my good… All the positive thinkers and do-gooders in my life want me to pick a new one, and or let a new one pick me. I am just not ready, my metaphor fires me up for action and passion. I am not being used by it…I am using it. I am a stand for protection, transformation and delivery from suffering, and I am WILLING to go into the uncomfortable places to bring the medicine I carry.

For yourself, consider a new metaphor and see if your old one is ready to be released. And if so, what new one might be ready to come in? Also, you could just hang out in the mystery before choosing a new one. (big deja vu here for me). You can also write and draw about it – writing to you about it today has helped me get more conscious and to ask again, am I ready to lay it down and what am I going to pick up.

Sharing my metaphor with you feels vulnerable and like you will judge me. But I am telling you the truth so perhaps you can tell yourself the truth. It was my default setting that I discovered during a class called Apothecary when a double headed axe showed up in my painting!!!

What comes to mind and heart when I think about changing my metaphor is that I want to pick up that life is a dance or a love affair, but then….I feel I have to keep watch. My hypervigilance to serve informs every aspect of my business, and I feel grateful to have a job that serves me and thousands of others as well. How I hold those I serve is the metaphor of ‘circle’.

Want to join our circle? It’s free and we have a free call per month as well. If you are a woman and wish to be connected with other creatives who are indeed waking up and doing their work, come share or join our online circle. In the upcoming free classes we have, this will be the place we share about our process. This group is about supportive community and inspiration for the journey. We prefer shares about change and healing and don’t engage in classic politics, religion or self promotion unless you are an Intentional Creativity teacher.

My two upcoming offerings are EXPLORE, a zoom call to learn more about how Intentional Creativity can work for you with a $300 give away. And Artist Archetype, an invitation to the metaphor for artist.

We also have INCREDIBLE classes coming up at our MUSEA Campus in Sonoma including DIVA X and TREE WOMAN – come see.

My trip to New Jersey for about ten days was really surprising. Honestly, I never had it on my list to visit New Jersey. But you know what? This business trip turned into a pretty rocking out Vision Quest style experience. Culminating in this gathering with these INCREDIBLE women who made me laugh so hard and cry. And made me feel just about as welcome as any group I have ever experienced. I am truly and deeply grateful for our red thread connection – it was true, it was real and we all felt it. A GLORIOUS day was had by all.

When I got back I wrote to the community: “I keep pondering whether to write out all that happened, including the red rose that would not die even though for two whole days it was out of water in a cowgirl hat. There were so many synchronicities if you can even call them that, there are almost too many to count. After being overwhelmed by love from everyone, late last night, I was locked out of the hotel, I saw people inside, they let me in, and yep, they knew me….one was the best friend of one of my students. So we sat and had wine and wept and laughed some more.”

Once I stopped complaining about all the challenges which were also part of the experience, and realized it has become a modern day vision quest, complete with scorching heat, lack of sleep, lots of walking, being dropped off at the wrong destination, being lost over and over, eating food and water I would not normally consume and walking in a corporate context for 4 days…yep it was a quest. I got to teach and offer my gift of visionary business on the last day and that was awesome. OH so much more to say but this is too long already!

Here is Christine, Leslie, me, Adrianne, and Carole, members of the Intentional Creativity Guild!

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