The Return

SoulCollage card I created before my Vision Quest 
(yep...that's me in the drivers seat) 

Returning from journeys out into the world can be challenging. Being out on the open road, exploring foreign lands, and being alone in wild nature offers a sense of newness in everything; a permissioning of expansion into the Now Adventure. 

Returning home from a Vision Quest is an interesting loop around in the spiral.  We move forward then come back. We are changed and new, then put back into old to cultivate transformation. 

Coming back from a Shamanic Journey is similar. There is such a visceral and ethereal understanding that emerges when we do journey work; inspiration and soul stirring messages infiltrate the core of being and ignite the Aliveness of Now.

Returning home from these types of adventures can be disorientating. Our return holds up a mirror to see forms and constructs we have created with our life. Often times, the life we return to seems limiting, restrictive, flat, boring. We may find ourselves slipping back into old ways, writing off journey expiernaces as memories to simply reminisce about.

The Return is an important part of the Hero's Journey. On Vision Quests and Shamanic Journeys you are provided a magical potion; one that must be consumed, digested, and metabolized for its full effects to take place. Journey work calls us to bring what we discover on our journeys back into our daily living, back into our communities and how we relate with others, and into living our soul service to the world. 

This week I honored my return with ecstatic dance at Rhythm Sanctuary. Before entering, I gazed up at the starry sky, remembering my relationship to them on my recent journey. Deepening my gaze, I expanded into the space between the stars, breathing in the Great Dark Void and the expansion this space encourages in me.  

SoulCollage card I created to capture 
the experience I had
on my journey and in my dance. 
Potent Medicine. 

Learn how to make SoulCollage cards
to honor life experiences and understandings 
Intro to SoulCollage Playshop 
Denver, CO  More Info 

My dance begins. Embodying the Great Dark Void 

I expand in all directions, into no-thing-ness. To Be. 

My aura reaches out in all directions 

To touch stars around me, my fellow dancers

made of star dust and cosmic wisdom, are radiating 

Swirling through the universe at their own velocity.

I connect with other, a universe of sacred brother. 

Body to body we move through cosmic void 

Expanding and reaching out towards one another. 

His front body pressed to my back 

Our arms up-stretched, eyes closed, 

Breath Connected, Hearts Open, We Expand.

Then BAM...another universe merges with us. 

The fullness of another presses up against me. 
I am a star between two universes. 
We stay open. We Expand. We Breathe. 
Our stars pour into one another. 
A new universe is created through our dance
We engage in ecstasy
These two men and me. 

They lift me over their heads

I am spinning around shoulders. 

4 man hands support me. 

The Dark Void encourages me to stay open. 
It feels good to be supported by strong men
that love me. At one point, my mind kicked in, 
Fear of falling....I hesitate; 
He says, “I’ve got you” 

What a wonderful thing to hear from the universe. 

My abdomen rips open and so much joy spills out. 

I start laughing. 

I pulsate with gratitude. 

What A Beautiful Return.