Tim and I just returned from another fabulous week long wild heart painting retreat in the Borrego Springs desert. And this was our SIXTH retreat in 5 months!

WHEW!!

Before the pandemic we had an incredibly busy retreat schedule… one year we hosted FOURTEEN retreats! Which was a lot of fun, totally exhausting and not something we wanted to repeat anytime soon.

But I’m really glad to be in person with folks again. As much as I truly appreciate being able to teach online, there’s nothing like the profound transformational magic that happens when a group of people dedicated to inner exploration through the expressive arts gets together in real time and space, in a powerful natural environment, like the desert or mountains or near the ocean, to do this sacred healing work.

And, apparently, since I can’t seem to get enough of being on retreat, Tim and I have ANOTHER one scheduled, this time in the foothills of the Sierras, coming up SOON!

This upcoming retreat is called The Inner Art Of Goddess Creation and it is different in many ways from our painting retreats.

First of all, the painting retreats are more open ended in terms of a theme. Everyone who comes to one of those retreats is there to work on something very personal to them using the intuitive painting process. So there can be as many themes as there are participants in each of those workshops.

But The Inner Art Of Goddess Creation is a guided journey, using the expressive arts, into discovering, naming, expressing and bringing to life your mythical self. And everyone who attends this retreat will be on that same inner expedition.

Now you might be asking yourself, given that the world is on fire, with so many political , social and cultural systems and teachers and beliefs about how we thought the world worked and who we thought people were, and who we thought WE were, collapsing and dissolving at a truly alarming rate, why does going on ANY kind of inner journey even matter?

It reminds me of something I once heard a meditation teacher say, which is that ideally, we should be meditating an hour a day. But when things in your life get really busy and overwhelming you should up it to TWO hours a day.

Which always makes me laugh, because it seems so true and so impossible all at the same time.

But what happens to most of us is exactly the opposite of what this teacher is suggesting. We can get so caught up by the sturm and drang of the outer world that we lose connection with our inner life, putting it on the back burner, promising our soul that we will give her attention again when things calm down.

We become glued to our phones or other news sources, where we can’t take our eyes away from the next explosive drama on the world stage. Getting more and more agitated by things we see and feel but can’t control. And feeding the part of us that already feels powerless and even hopeless.

But the truth is that this inner work of finding and living from your center matters MORE THAN EVER during these incredibly falling apart times.

Of course we need to be paying attention to what’s happening in our communities, both locally and nationally and doing what we can to both understand this pivotal historical moment and taking steps to fight back against injustice while also caring for ourselves and our communities.

But we also need a vision for the future that we want to create. And to be in community with other folks who are also wanting to bring that new world into being.

However, it can be hard to connect with that visionary part of ourselves when we’re trying to do that visioning from our very familiar, day to day, mundane personality.

This is where our mythic, archetypal self comes in. There is a part of us that is more magical, more bold and less constrained by what we … or others… think is possible. This part is not afraid to dream and to dream BIG! It’s not afraid to be “unrealistic”, to challenge existing paradigms, and to use imagination to lead the way. To claim ourselves as something bigger than our “normal” identity and to use our ingenuity and capacity for reinvention to expand our sense of both assumptions and potential.

When I first brought my Creative Juices Arts business into being, something else was born at around the same time and that was this mythic part of me who became known as the Wild Heart Queen. She was definitely me but also SO MUCH MORE than me.

She was like a future, expanded self who invited me at every turn to step into the archetypal qualities associated with being a queen. She radiated confidence and was very grounded in her sense of inner sovereignty. When I started to doubt myself or lose my capacity to believe in my dreams and visions for my future, she was always there to step in and reconnect me to my creative source again. And to remind me of who I REALLY was.

She has been a partner and a guide on my journey to create the life and world that was not only best suited to my own souls growth but to also support me in bringing my gifts to my larger community.

And I am totally convinced that I would not have created even HALF of what became a very thriving business and tailored-to-me life without her at my side.

She is the reason I created the Inner Art Of Goddess Creation as a process to help other folks connect with and reclaim their larger than life mythic selves. And to bring these magical selves to full technicolor life in a circle filled with other mythic beings waiting to be born through the community matrix of outrageous support, encouragement, challenge, creativity, play and love.

So I hope you can join me in the foothills of the Sierras in May. And I so look forward to meeting who shows up once the door is opened into this inner mythic realm of your psyche, soul and spirit.

Time is short. Space is limited. Grab your spot in this upcoming retreat by clicking on the image below.