Tea with the Muse

A call to ecstatic love - spontaneous riff for you - take a loving action today! Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Good morning everyone! Today we are welcome Dr. Jeffrey Rediger to Musea for a livestream on the 4 Pillars present in spontaneous healing. You can always find everything we’re up to at www.Musea.orgToday’s episode introduces a new F word in the stress response lexicon. I recorded this yesterday in preparation for today.Today’s image is the Morning Sunrise from the hot tub. This is one of the places I pray in the morning and watch the morning arrive.❤️ shiloh sophia Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Dear One,Happy Saturday - here is some Rogue Wisdom from my upcoming book - Rodeo of the Soul. Blessings on your day and all you do and who you are. With heart,shiloh sophiaSapienta By Shiloh Sophia 2021 - Available at Musette Atelier and Apothecary Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Come on over to The Cura Council if you want to join us today! Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Sending Blessing Beauties,I love calling you beauties. Because you are beautiful to me. I have been working on this post for a few hours - and I do it for you, for us, for the Muse, for the Ma!I am inviting you to join us for The Cura Council Ceremony on February 1 that will have a Celtic Poetic flavor with stories of Brigid. We gather virutally at 10am, featuring Lavender Grace with drum and Kathleen Brigidinia, with story. For those of you in Northern California we have circle at the Ranch at 6pm. February 1 is thought of as the first day of Spring in some places, including Ireland, and it is half way between Solstice and Equinox so a cross-quarter day, or what we might call a Peak Season.You can sign up at The Cura Council to get all announcements. This is my other substack that centers ceremony, futurism, activism, community and the wheel of the year.Today’s episode started with waking me up this morning. I am here three hours later finally ready to share it with you. Yep it can take 3-5 hours to get you a post if I really do it the way I love to. There are so many steps, so much technology, so much time, and yet it is a part of my devotional practice. For the post, I found this old painting of mine from over 15 years through googling Shiloh Sophia, Mother Art. I don’t know what it is called…yet I love the feeling.blessingsCurate Shiloh SophiSign up for the 8 Ceremonies of the year hereLearn about all upcoming events from MUSEA University hereSupport this publication, letting artists and poets and storytellers know their work matters to you…Churning Butter of RemotheringToday the paper white narcissus called to us and we answeredWe bowed our heads at their glorious entry into a landscape of black branched trees against a soft velvet skyThey are sending us a herald to SpringA garland for St. Brigid's head, offering the hope we need at the start of FebruaryThe start of February in the old country was the beginning of Spring, and we needed to see it, even if most of the buds stayed wrapped tight in their little fisted nestWe, we walked with the full moon overhead in a blue sky.We were amazed at the verdant green of the meadow, the softness of the meadow's hair looked like a mermaid's mantle after a sea stormWe heard frogs calling to one another, a call and a response that delighted usChildlike, we listened for their songBrigid, will you churn the sweetness of the butter for us and pour us a good measure of ale?(Continue listening and or reading along)Have you noticed the transcript button? You can watch it move on the text as you listen, it’s a really cool newish feature. I am still working with it because it is hard to edit so there are some discrepancies.Tea with the Muse is here for your delight and encouragment. An invitation to beauty in hard times. Poetry, paintings, possibilities and passionate musings. Sharing of your resources is always received with the utmost of gratitude. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Hello to you! I am coming by today to share my WHY for a trauma-inspired approach.Join us for INSPIRED - you will be inspired looking at what we have dreamed up!Here at MUSEA we are ready to take trauma-informed to the next level. We all have work to do to heal - let’s try a fresh perspective.BlessingsShiloh Sophia Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

The Tenth Muse andthe Midnight of New BeginningsThe Muse is at the back door of your heartShe opens it without a sound and enters in with bare feet covered in red dirtShe holds all the colors in her nimble fingersShe strokes you gentlyYou feel the colors blendingShe causes your wild animals to stirYour body is filled with the passion of sunset orangethe melancholy of blue sky turning pinkthe longing green of soft moss after too much rainShe opens you to magenta with a kiss on your open lipsYou can feel it all the way inside the wilderness of youA pulse, a power, a paint color you can’t even seeA pulse, a power, a paint colorIn the depth of your forest your animals awakenYour black bear blinks and nurses her cub with white milk in a pink caveYour tiger roars from deep within the stone enclosureand moves out solo onto ochre soil to huntYour swan chooses a mate forever, opalescent feathers flowingBut it’s the snake that surprises you, she always doesShe is licking the airtesting to see if you are paying enough attentionThe Muse always brings her own weatherAre you paying enough attention?You have a crush on the Muse and for good reasonEven your wild animals are no match for her colorsAs you accept from her open hand,the color bone black, you shiverIt’s the black you know you need to use nowto paint your bear!You are afraid, and rightly soShe wants you to go deeper,to go darker into that caveShe wants you to drink her milkTo suckle the teat of lifeShe wants you to renew yourselfShe is here to help youShe is here to help youYou don’t really like the word help.but that is what she is here to doShe is wielding brushes of hog hair,magic wands to make your worlds awakenYou aren’t sure you want to be that awakeYou don’t know if you are readyThe soft brush she uses on your arm,the hair from some exotic animal long agoIt’s the brush from Paris in the shape of a ram’s hornIt is the horn itselfShe is smoothing the hairs as you begin to breath rapidlyWhat exactly is she inviting you into anyway?The lines of creativity and sensuality blur and blendYour heart stirs as your thighs turn to liquidThe tiger leaps ahead, her black stripes blinding orangeThe swan’s open black beaks to make babies with red nostrilsThe snake is the color of midnight with a pink tongueYou smooth the canvas with an open palmYou kiss the fibers and you breathe a prayerYou dip the brush into liquid black with flecks of gold and You beginYou just begin again and again and againThe Tenth Muse, The Muse of Painting and Pleasure has visited youYou are covered in black fur and white feathersYou have your own pink tongue to flickYou begin YouThe Midnight of New BeginningsIs upon youBegin beloved with honoringWhat makes you come fully aliveWhere do you come more fully alive? This is the place to begin the painting of your lifeThe Muse is at the back door of your heartShe opens it without a sound and enters inwith bare feet covered in red dirtYou aren’t exactly sure what she is inviting you intoBut you just say YES, YES and YES!~Happy New Year Dear Hearts!This is an excerpt from the book, Wishbone Tattoo.Blessings on your new beginnings. Those of you in Temple, this is your Invocation to the MUSE.Starting my new year at the Beach, and yes, it is warm enough for bare feet.Love me some California. SS Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Hello Community,Today’s topic, pleasure, had me crying right away, lol. I want so much for us to have access to pleasure in our Path of Practice, and as a way to navigate pain and increase the quality of life. You might think I work too much - but you will hear the truth in how I navigate my day to day in this episode. AND how I want to share it with you. We have a lot of pain ahead of us - so it seems like a really good idea to choose pleasure along with everything else. Over 100 of us are starting the New Year together with a focus on honoring our body and spirit connection through Temple. Videos start January 1 but our first Live and recorded broadcast January 4. Everything is available at your fingertips :) And if you aren’t joining us for TEMPLE - STILL listen in so that you can CHOOSE pleasure for yourself in the coming months. What have we got to lose? A lot of joy is what we have to lose. ALSO today join us LIVE for our MUSEUM Show - CURA -FUTURA - you don’t want to miss this! It’s complimentary and recorded.I am going to take the rest of this month in quiet time - so I will see you next year dearest ones!Let’s explore,Shiloh Sophia Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

A morning poem for. your enjoyment. Have a beautiful day! Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s message is just a quick hello and invitation to more pleasure! Thanks for turning in❤️www.Musea.org Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Dear Ones,I think a lot about what women have experienced in our lives and the evolution of our rights. I am grateful to be raised by women who were laborers, carpenters, seamstresses, potters…even plumbers. My mom Caron used to brag that her mother Eden could plumb a whole house and shoe a horse lol. She could also fix most machines, made our clothing and could feed us from her garden. I think about how the brain development of our ancestors and grandparents would be so different than it is today, simply based on the way we use to labor. I love to labor and use my body and I know it is because of what they taught me - to use my hands and my body. I do not know the origins of this photo but I read that they are in men’s overalls - I have a pair like those myself, and that they are Dutch women. Today’s episode is just a teensy story about remembering to truly hold the vision and how Intentional Creativity can help us do just that. Shiloh Sophia Who wears the pants: On May 28th, 1923, the US Attorney General declared that it was legal for women to wear trousers anywhere. Women dressed as men for many reasons: practical necessity, fighting in wars, independence, safety from rape and murder while traveling, orientation or identity, etc. Legal restrictions and punishments were necessary because, “by wearing pants, women appropriated male dress, and by association, male privilege, and power.” Punishment ranged from burning at the stake to prison time and using sexist character assassination: for wearing Turkish trousers, Frances Wright (1795-1852) was called “The Great Red Harlot of Infidelity, The W***e of Babylon, The Voluptuous Preacher of Licentiousness, The Priestess of Beelzebub, Miss Epicene Wright,” etc. Dress codes were used as a loophole: female senators were banned from wearing trousers on the senate floor until 1993. (Fischer, Gayle V. ""Pantalets" and "Turkish Trousers": Designing Freedom in the Mid-Nineteenth-Century United States." Feminist Studies 23.1 (1997): 111. ProQuest. Web. 10 Apr. 2023) LINK“Good mental health and clear thinking depend upon our ability to store and manipulate thoughts on a sort of “mental sketch pad.” In a new study, Yale researchers describe the molecular basis of this ability and describe how a breakdown of the system contributes to diseases such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease.”LINK Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

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Hello! Today I am sharing one of our root stories with you and inviting you to StarSong - our annual community gathering! https://musea.org/starsong/ Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Event Horizon By Sue Hoya SellarsDear One,This is one of my favorite Sue paintings. For those of you who don’t know, Sue was my other Mother, I call her my Earth Mother, she was also my mentor and my painting teacher. She is the one I learned about Intentional Creativity from. To really see what is going on this image you need to look really close - see the trees at the top of the Event Horizon, then the one at the edge on the right is starting to bend. According to sources, the event horizon is the spherical outer boundary of a black hole, loosely considered to be it’s surface. Nasa says that the gravitational influence becomes so great, that not even light is fast enough to escape it. In a black hole, the escape velocity is equal to the speed of light. The theory of general relativity that we are familiar with says that nothing can travel faster than light….at the speed of light….Therefore nothing inside the event horizon can ever cross the boundary and escape beyond it, including light. In other words if we happened to travel there - no message would be able to get back from where we came. But then….who knows? We are learning more and more as we discover the James Web imagery with such granularity. I love comparing the Hubble images, which I grew up with, with the Webb.Theories say that anything which goes beyond the event horizon is simply added into the black hole. Also since time distorts close to the boundary, it appears to be moving slow. Black holes result from the death of a big ole’ star.Why am I telling you this today and how is it connected with consciousness? Good question. I can’t say for sure to be honest. I woke up today thinking about this painting of Sue’s and how she as always reconciling the cosmic sciences with spirituality. If she was here to ask a question I might say - Can you map the reality of the event horizon with awakening? What is the correlative.I know she would have an answer. I however do not. It is like this sometimes. I have a feeling in my body, then I see an image. Then I think of you. Then I turn on the recorder. Sometimes it is a clear prescription and a clear map and others, like today will leave me in deep inquiry about the connection between the event horizon and waking up, or as I said in the spontaneous transmission, waking in.Perhaps in this offering on the altar of the great mystery - an answer - or at least a better question will occur for me, or for you. Perhaps you know - what might the event horizon have to teach us about what it means to wake up in this body and navigate this wild experience of soul? I have heard it said if you can’t find the answer, ask a better question. Working on it. Because I am concerned at the level of consciousness I see, and I know there are more options, and I am committed to discovering the path to awakening with my work that anyone who chooses can take. I am here to wake and waken. It’s an honor. As I say in the transmission - awake for me means you are as awake and aware at any given moment as you can be - according to your soul’s invitation. There isn’t a hierarchy, it is individual and personal according to each person. Can I tell if people aren’t awake yet? People ask me. Well usually yes, but only according the level of my own awakening journey. Mostly you can tell in what people say - and how fixed their beliefs are - how rigid their worldview - how they treat others….I have a whole list but that might be for another day and another event horizon.Blessings to you and big love on the edge of awakeing,Shiloh Sophia Me and my cousin Bridget, that I was raised with like a Sister. Here we are at Wild Water Creek on the new moon. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Callings come with a thumpThey rattle your dreamsStartle you to attentionCallings don’t creep up all quiet and niceThey don’t ask if you are readyor wait for an invitation to arriveThey aren’t concerned so muchwith the dramas or the traumasthat you use as your reason…why notWhat is the reason why anyway?The reason you hesitate orWill not say yes to the call?Callings come with a bumpThey stir up your mediocrity andSummon your courageous partsCallings come through youLightning sparks in yourdarkened bone-house of beingSuddenly you are turned onand tuned in and shakingin your cowgirl bootsCallings can scare you and certainly will dare you and they do require your attention and devotionCallings don’t go away, dear oneCallings come from insideThe nature of callings is to ariseArise! Arise! Arise!There is a risk if you say noIt might go dormant for a month or 2Or 10 years, Don’t miss this, baby!Callings request a level of presenceIn the one being calledThey are temper-mental creatures!So if you are brave enoughand you make an offering onthe altar of Big ChangeOr you can also call theMuse for tea and see if sheIs in the mood to helpI will warn you thoughOnce it starts to ariseit will begin with a thumpYou will feel that throat lump!Your heart will pump it up!And you are off into the stars baby!I will see you there! I work in the cosmic callings departmentHere at the mothership of lifePerhaps you have seen me?A mystical muse-infused characterHere to activate sacred assignmentsI have been waiting for youI knew you were coming onto the pathHow then, shall we begin?Arise! Arise! Arise!Shiloh Sophia JOIN us for our annual community gathering centering on callings and community and your earth-star being nature. This painting is my “work in progress” for ORIGINS Intentional Creativity Guardian Training at MUSEA University. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Do you ever feel like the life you have doesn’t quite fit who you are? Are there these moments where you question everything you know? This episode is a call to honor the wild one within in the “safe” and sacred container of creativity. Get a cuppa tea and join me in an inquiry 🌿 Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Good morning to you 🌈☀️💧The spontaneous spoken word of this episode is inspired by a quote from my mother, Caron McCloud! It’s an imagining of my teen self speaking to her…. “The point is you have to design a point for yourself”~ Caron McCloudimage from Flow Nouveau painting on Equinox Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Dear Ones ~ What is your relationship with time, rest and renewal? I am sharing my practice that I have worked with since my early twenties about chosen and bracketed rest. As well as I work with painting in relationship to this choice. I also share the qualities of FLOW that can be chosen. And how I sometimes move between the computer and the easel - there is goodness to share with you here.If you want to join us this weekend to “REST” into creativity and experience flow with Jonathan and myself - either in Sonoma or virtual. This is how we are spending our Equinox - with our community - Flow Nouveau - we call it Medicine Painting.The above photo is from last week, at Wild Water Creek with my dear friend Amber. with heart,Shiloh Sophia Here is the painting I am working on - and the kind of painting we engage in to induce chosen flow….Hello everyone! Today I am sharing about my relationship is the time and rest! Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Dear Ones,Every day of our relationship since 2013 Jonathan and I have Cafe’. Cafe conversation is what happens at Tea with the Muse and I learned it from Sue Hoya Sellars. In this case, we are are both the Muse sparking the inquiry. The idea is to pause in your life and see where the conversation takes you…to allow the Muses to have their way with you. To see what arises. We were having an early morning cafe (in Napa yesterday) and I was talking about how much cause I have or don’t have in my life at this time and how that feels. Lots of things seem able to be influenced (mood, exercise, creative time) and lots of things don’t seem to be able to be influenced (taxes, inflation, world news). And he started responding with some interesting ideas so I said - Can we film an episode? Sometimes he agrees, and sometimes he does not lol. Cafe is not structured, we talk about everything under the sun, and the moon!Blue Moon Blessings to you! We share this with you from our heart and cafe to yours. Shiloh and JonathanA few links for you Color of Woman Applications Due nowOur upcoming complimentary seminar Ultra MetacognitionOur class happening virtually and in Sonoma that he mentioned: Flow Nouveau LEGEND Clan Cura - October 1 Blue Moon Meditation - lives on The Cura Council Podcast and you can also see the wheel of the year there that we use.He took this photo and we just loved how to sun arc came through…. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Dear One, My mother Caron offered a gift to almost everyone she could. Her level of appreciation for beauty of every kind, let me tell you, was astonishing.And so I was raised by a woman who saw beauty in everything and called it out. We would be walking down the street and her entire face would break out into joy as she saw different people and places and things, and exclaimed “How beautiful you are!”. How often people were surprised by her showed me just how precious this was.One of the last things that she shared with us before crossing the rainbow bridge is that "mattering matters" and to never miss an opportunity to let someone know that they matter.And so today that's what I'm doing with you. Whether you feel like you're my people or not, I'm letting you know that you matter. I spent my morning meditation inviting you to be with your people, to look for us, to see us, to be with us, and to let yourself be seen, to know that you matter…Finding your people begins with a decision to be seen, to be seen in your messiest places, and also to be seen in your gloriousnessto be seen when you'reputting things together and also when you're pulling things apartwhen you find your people, it's like breathing an air that you knew existed but weren't sure you'd ever find. It's a discovery that there are people as strange as you are, but in completely different ways. Finding your people isn't just that you like the same songs, although you might or that eat the same foods although you might, or that you want the same things in life. It's less about affinities toward preferences and more about a feeling. The closest way I could describe it is like a groove. It's like that point in the evening in a concert where all the popular songs have been worn away and you're a little bit tired and wondering if you're gonna head home, and all of a sudden it's the song you've been looking for and you feel it in your whole body and then everybody's moving. It's a feeling. Sometimes I feel it less with individual people and more with whole groups of people, like atThat evening concert under the Twinkle Lights, under the moonlight, when the beat is so blue that you feel joyful and so does everybody else. It's a wink from an elder with a hat pulled over one eye and flip-flops, even though it's cold and they wink at you and you know they see you and you let them see you. It's the child running up to you that belongs to the parents who don't know you and they apologize, but you have a moment with the child where there's an understanding. It's this moment as I'm recording this, as an unbelievably huge and gorgeous white bird flies over my head and reminds me this is my people. My people aren't just people. My people are birds.My people are tigers I've never met. Of course, they're not people, but at the same time, when I look at them, I see myself in them. It's something from the wild. It's a remembrance of a time before this time it's a call to belonging to something bigger than neighborhood and fashion sense, and which apps you're a part of in community and which things you like from everybody else. It's a call to a feeling. It's a feeling that I don't know if anyone on this planet ever escapes because somehow we're always looking for it. We think it's a place because we've just been traveling for so long and sometimes you find it in a place like when I think about the Bay Area, I think I'm a child of the Bay. It's my place and I like visiting other places, but as soon as I smell the salty sea of San Francisco and see the golden gates, I know that's my place. That doesn't mean everybody there is my people, but I see my people there all the time and we say hello. As we pass by on the streets, we share pleasantries and what I really wanna do is say, I see you.I've missed you. I'm sorry about your father, your mother. I heard about your child, your work. How's the hip, the foot, the hand, the finances. How are you feeling about what's been coming out around here, about the stories that have been told about us, about you, about the evolution of the species or notfinding your peopleI'd love to say is an easy thing, but it isn't always so easySometimes at the festivals when the rainbow flags are flying and the tie dye is dancing and the corn is piping hot and the barbecue smells so good and you've never been hungrier in your life and suddenly everybody's dancing and you're like, yeah, my people. Sometimes in church when the soloist is riffing in a way that nobody expected and everybody's in an ecstatic cascade of delight and you're like, yeah, that feeling, that's a feeling of belonging to a people, but also to a song and a place and a space. I remember that feeling from the first time I went to Glide church and the choir started coming down the aisle and their tie-dye robes singing, “Celebrate good times - Come on. There's a party going on right here, a celebration…”and I started crying. My peopleLooking for your people is a favorite pastime

Dear Ones,I know that I am one of the people in your life that ‘rains on your parade’ through asking you to keep questioning the norms. I hope I provide sufficient encouragement and creativity to balance out the times I ask you to pay attention and labour towards justice. I am not apologizing, I am acknowledging. As a community and those of you who are listeners here, I want us to be as awake as we can be about the power structures present in the places we live, especially ones that seem invisible, or that would be unpopular to bring up. Like - can’t we just have a 4th of July, Thanksgiving or Christmas without Shiloh busting our myth? Well. Sometimes. But mostly I am going to bring it up. As part of our work and financing revolutionary work, we are having a gathering focused on justice and creativity a week from now - through the Intentional Creativity Foundation in collaboration with Sacred Echoes of the Well - Musea’s Black, Indigenous and Women of Color sisterhood. I hope you will join us. Thinking of you. Of us. Of my hope for justice that just keeps moving through me.Shiloh Sophia RESOURCES Smithsonian article that is updated with Native stories regarding the 4th of July https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-american-indian/2020/07/01/do-american-indians-celebrate-4th-july/“Jefferson's reference to Indigenous people as "merciless Indian Savages" was in his 27th grievance against King George, in which he accused the king of encouraging "domestic insurrection" by Native Americans against white colonists.” Russel ContrerasArticle on the line in the Declaration about Native Americans - have you even read it and did you know this was in here? https://www.axios.com/2023/07/04/merciless-reminder-indigenous-history-july-4 “Black people in the early years of the United States had a complicated relationship to the Fourth of July holiday, Spires says, confronting a “national double-speak” in which white Americans celebrated their freedom of political expression while supporting the enslavement of Black people.” Derrick Spireshttps://news.cornell.edu/stories/2021/07/july-fourth-and-early-black-americans-its-complicated Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Dear Ones,This is my wedding to Jonathan in 2014 in the Cathedral of my Ancestors. A most glorious day and I am so grateful that three of my four parents were with us!Having them leave the physical form on the planet and enter the realm of the ancestors, has been such a journey of grief, and acceptance. And also immense gratitude, because they all taught me so much. They shaped me in immeasurable ways and were not abusive to me. I feel very blessed to have had a great relationship with my parents. At times, things were challenging with my father because of his lifetime of addiction. But in the larger ways that matter, love flowed between us.Our community right now is in our annual event where we have a rites of passage in paint called Legend. One of the things that happens in legend is big shifts become available. I’m ready (I hope!)!I’m sharing my story with you so that I can be heard on this change and also potentially provoking you to consider your own relationship with your family, or what needs to be complete and composted so you can open towards what’s coming!thinking of you with love❤️ SS ❤️ Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

An exploration of the gift of how I came to teach painting. The struggle, and Blessings. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

What does SOUL mean to you?No one taught us so what does it REALLY mean?Let’s dive in….. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

How is it possible I could be speaking to you? This sensual emotional center is something I want to share with you Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

An invitation to explore legacy and lineage and our bodies of work, and how we choose to shape them. Photo ~ the first graduating class of Color of Woman Teacher certification in 2010 ~ this is the place where I first shared the deepest Teachings that had been passed me in image and word. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Tune in to hear behind the scenes reasons for why I do what I do…. And my invitation for you to join me. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

In this podcast I talk about things like…* the first time I encountered consciousness* awareness as a conscious choice and not a default setting* how we don’t always use ‘sub-consciousness’ in our community and what we say instead to link to imagination* unconscious behaviour according to my two moms ( racism, sexism, capitalism)* my mother’s only two rules and how she let me change my name* a movie that was life-changing for me (Warrior Marks) and how it informed my work in Intentional Creativity* a very sad wedding I attended and how it connects with suffering* an invitation to see self-expression as a way to work with coming into being Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

What choice do you really have in life? Where are you not being at choice in your life?How does Self-Expression translate into a choice?Come listen and have some tea with the MUSE today! Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

How does the Soul reveal itself through you?I rise in the dark. It is so early in the morning it is still nighttime. The dark of the moon and the mist reveal no brightness. Yet my Soul stirs me to take up the pen. Who is doing the talking here? I wonder. I want to write a poem but something else is being requested. I submit and write the first sentence…“Every single one of us comes into this life as we are.”From there the pen flows without stopping, as energy moves into form, organized in black words on a white page. I co-create with the life force flowing through me. I want poetry because of the liminality it brings, but instead I get the hard questions, the provocation that challenges beliefs, and the call to more awakeness than we had before. Here are this morning’s pages, perhaps they may be of service to you in your own discovery process, and always in service to the Great Work being lived out in each of us, whether we are conscious of it or not.~Every single one of us comes into this life as we are.This is what we call our Soul, our innate ‘us-ness’ seems to ride in with our incarnation. We come in with our own flavor and sass and sometimes a bad attitude and sometimes an innate call to do the work of saving ourselves and others.All of us are carrying innate qualities, like imagination and identity –and the soul in which our being has being-ness. A conversation with our Soul is something we all need to have… But how do you do that?How does each one of us navigate arriving here and not really coming in with a map of where to go and how to get there? Well. That is THE Question of Questions. How do we navigate this thing called life? How does it work and who lives in here?How I experience my relationship with my Soul is how I live my life – yet it is through a veil – sometimes clear and at other times hidden. I always say that being awake means: As awake as our soul is willing to be at any given time. To me it seems as if soul moderates what we can handle, and safely integrate. Kindness seems to be the mode of the soul towards us, and…creativity.Self-expression is one of the ways we can get to know our soul-stuff. When we create, who we are gets revealed in the visible world and we can take a look. Soul cannot be understood in abstraction and the mental constructs only – our body is the prism through which the currency of soul is reflects true colors.The idea that the Soul is carrying information specific to it, seems possible. But can we say for sure? Do we need to assert surety? Can mystery be included when we speak of the Soul? For me, mystery must be included whenever we are speaking of soul, and the work of the soul. When we are born, we inherit a cultural familial framework and dna package that we did not choose. Or did we? What is your belief about it? Whatever it really is, my belief is that no one here really knows.Do you think we have access to knowing if we have pre-destined choice?I always feel unease when someone asserts that they know we agreed to whatever it is our soul is experiencing. Maybe for some of us, but for all of us? Is it true universally that we chose our challenges this life? This belief feels rigged and life doesn’t feel rigged to me. There seems to be much more organic influence happening – less control – not more.I know I want to engage with coherence with what is possible for me. How can I learn the power of my own soul without needing to assert I know what is going on here.... Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Hello everyone! A little something uncommon today as Jonathan asked me some questions about my approach to business (we are starting a 6 week course today.) In this convo I share a story about sleeping under the drawing table while my grandmother and mother worked all night. Whether you are in business or not, this should be fun to listen to and tune into cafe with us. This is our daily ritual and it truly is the foundational fabric of our entire life….Have a great day and a good morning, with heart,Shiloh Sophia Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

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For all upcoming events go here: Study Intentional Creativity and the Power of Imagination here Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Dear Ones,Today I am sharing my poetry writing practice and the results of it from today - as well as a personal sharing. AND I am inviting you to notice what framework you are looking at your life through - to get it conscious for yourself. Today’s poetry prompt was an open gate, a metaphor that allowed this poem and to come through. It could just as well be an open window overlooking Florence like this photo that Jonathan took in 2019! This was our last trip before ‘shelter-in-place’ was a thing. We haven’t really travelled since then and things have been on the rough side for us for quite a bit. So I am noticing that gates, windows and doors are showing up a LOT.I am still not sure what the open gate really meant for me today but it is in the exploring of it that that poems sometimes spring out. I am still on the despair and desire theme too. Maybe you will write a poem in response or your own? That is another practice, reading any poem and then using something in it, even one word or a feeling as a jumping in place. Sending love for your day,Shiloh Sophia ~~~Open GateBetween the apple treeand the dappled blue spruceThere is an open gateIf you should find yourself thereon the edge of thingspause with respectbefore just walking on throughOn the other side of the gateyou can never be surewhat you may find waiting Usually it is somethingyou have wanted to avoidand you just can’t anymoreand despair is Just. Right. There.ORYou find somethingyou have desiredall your life andsuddenly there it is…Only now you aren’t sureyou want what you thoughtyou wanted beforeThat is because who you werebeforejust isn’t who you are nowBefore.Before is the place whereyou didn’t know just what lovewould ask of youwhen you agreed to share yourselfin exchange for a chanceat a heart filled with impossible lightLight that cannot be containedThat desire you have been nursingwas before you needed spectaclesto read the evening poetry by firelightSometimes if you look into the flameswith a soft and sleepy gazeYou can even see the open gateand your despair or desirewinking and twinkling through This opening is not a sentenceor a summonsThe open gate is finally comingto the awareness of choiceWhen you gain awareness of choiceyou garner favor with the poetsWe all want that!Oh… all the times you thoughtyou didn’t have choicewhen you actually didcan sometimes bea stunning reckoningbut then you hear your lover’s voicecalling from the other roomand you realize you would risk it all againand again and againTheir heart is the openingand there is no gate neededat all between youYou just must rememberwho they arewhile not forgettingwho you have becomeand how they have becomemore of who they areNo one said there would bea clear path through thewild garden of berries andbramble bruises and skinned knees on the way to the open gateThe open gate is awarenessof choiceand the acceptance of loveand the writing of this poem for youRight here between the guardiansof the apple tree and the dappled spruceThis love isShiloh Sophia Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Sacred Encounter - Painting by Shiloh Sophia Dearest Hearts,Oh so many things. Drinking tea and watching the sunrise and thinking of you. If you have read Jonathan’s substack, The Intentional Table then you will know what ecstasy and despair I am speaking of. Breathing a sigh of relief, and drinking tea that he has made for me. I am thinking of you and knowing all that you are also going through. “Then a woman said, speak to us of joy and sorrow. And he answered:Your joy is your sorrow, unmasked, and the self same well from which your laughter arises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.” Khalil Gibran, The Prophet I remember reading this when I was a young woman and asking myself the question, Is this true? In order to have the amount of ecstasy that I'm seeking…Ecstasy that the poets speak about and the painters paint about, and the dancers twirl about, and the gardeners plant seeds about, Must I also have the sorrow? Is it true? Is it true that the counterpoint to the critic, the voice of meanness inside has a sister called the Muse? Is it true?Well, now, at this time in my journey, as I reference that quote by Kahlil GibranI will definitely affirm that my ecstasy and my despair are riding to and from the roads of my life on the same horse. It continues to perplex me as this horse of ecstasy and despair, trots in and out of every single day, the depth, the impact, the emotional and somatic swinging from laughter to tears. Sometimes in the same second, an orgasm could turn from laughter…to absolute tears. Bad news could make you shudderand then you feel a sense of absolute soul, soul filling, gratitude….The body could be in pain so deep, you wonder when it will ever leave. Will you ever feel the same again? And then you feel a sense of relief for whatever reason at the pet of your dog or your cat, or a sunrise through a cloudy day…And there it is again, a sense of freedom. Moments later, the pain returns. What an experience as a human being to navigate this juxtaposition between ecstasy and despair. This horse of ecstasy and despair comes be-jeweled into my life and shimmers as she waits for me to hop on. She does not promise safety, but she does promise she will carry me through the ecstasy and despair. My only consent to riding this horse is that I recognize both for what they are, to be clear on the distinctions and to begin to notice when one flips to the other.And… watch that switch time! Pay attention to when energy becomes matter and matter becomes energy. Dance on the equal sign as it changes. And if you can learn to be soft enough to notice the change, it won't take you so much by surprise. You won't feel as crazy. You'll know that joy and sorrow are sisters and the ecstasy and despair, are sisters. You will know, this is just part of the human experience.You won't need to resist it so much. You may even learn to welcome it. You may memorize the reality that this despair can turn into ecstasy in time. You will not be able to control the timeline and that pisses us off. But if we can pay attention to the alchemical moment of change, then the horse of ecstasy will let us ride and ride and ride. And when despair comes, her shimmering jewels will remind us… as they dim down into darkness, only a glimmer of light remains, but still a glimmer because you memorized the brightness that was there before -and to not demonize one or the other or exalt one as better or worse. To see both simultaneously as the human experience, then something happens…..I wish I could say it's understanding, or even better… peace, but it's more like just being here and not resisting being here. When ectasy comes, throw open your arms. When despair calms, throw open your arms. And when that horse rides…with youholding on for dear life, remember, you carry both. Life isn't doing this to you. Life is happening through you. No, you cannot control it. But yes, you can enjoy the ride.This is our choice as humans. Will we choose it? I will.Shiloh SophiaOn another note…applications are closing today if you want to hop on a horse named desire for sovereignty with me - GLOW here Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Hello Dear Ones,Yes it’s true, the 500 year Circle, The Cura Council is open today. What is happening on that thread is different than this one. Time will tell if I keep both - for now Tea with the Muse will remain poetry and stories and prayers. The Tea with the Muse podcast today tells the story of WHY I am doing this - and how it all started with hearing the cries of the world and saying yes to my sacred assignment (after I yelled at God)The Cura Council is focused on the longevity and committment to village. And I had to do it today - in honor of my Mama Cloud and it being the anniversary of her walking into her future. To be honest I felt like I didn’t really have a choice - I have been putting it off for a very long time. So here I am, showing up. The reluctant priestess finally gives in. I am surrendering in trust. Hugs all around,Shiloh SophiaBelow is a video of Mama Cloud….at a Color of Woman Gathering Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Has anyone ever told you 'you don't need to save the world' ~ this is for you...I am offering another view and an invitation to inquiry.... Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

You made it! You are here on earth,with earth, and with us“Here" is a place we spend our livesdiscovering and coming intoWhen you pauseto comment on the clouds to your loveramazed at the miracle of sky blue andwhite poofs that make you smile When you point at the moonto your child, and make the shape of moon with your lips...drawing out the mooooooon, like this When you take a picture of yourselfin a beautiful garden to send to your friendWhen you sip this cup of coffee with something close to reverence When you ask the Divine for a sign,even a small one,just a teensy weensy one(because you don’t want to be rude)and an entire person revealsthey are the sign sent!Then you are practicingBeing HereMaybe you stopped believing in the divine order of things because you mistook the hard stuffas some kind of lack of affirmationI don’t know who made up the storythat it shouldn’t be hard here but clearly that isn’t the case Just being in a body requires so much care and it often hurts to be in here and it also feels so good tooWe were given pain and pleasureStill…you are hereThis is where here isIt is a wild garden of a place, isn't it? Who knew? You aren’t a stranger hereeven though it is sometimes strangeto be here, like this with all our curiosity and confusionand unmet needs for big loveand our desire to be seen as we learn to see ourselves Being here is precious and precarious but here we are and I just wanted tomention that being here with youis way better than being here without youYou make here a wonderful place to beShiloh Sophia Painting in process - A Ribbon of Hope Running through Her Mind"The first noble truth of the Buddha is that when we feel suffering, it doesn't mean that something is wrong. What a relief. Finally, somebody told the truth. Suffering is part of life, and we don't have to feel it's happening because we personally made the wrong move." ~ Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times❤️For those I love and that love meShiloh Sophia P.S. a few complimentary calls coming right up if you want to be on a live line with me and us…https://musea.org/university/ Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

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Today I am holding the first circle of a 500 Year Circle. I’ve been in council circles since I was five years old. We have already been running circles from the past twenty years through Cosmic Cowgirls. This is a story of continuity that weaves the past, and the future and the present. And choice. Always choice. Join us today here: we have a complimentary call today gathering called Re-mothering and we also have our yearlong Sisterhood of the Red Madonna for those who want to paint with me and us starting. With love, let’s begin on Spring Equinox on the eve of New Moon - sounds like a good time for new beginnings, don’t you think? Now it is time for cafe with my LOVE and my kitties who are waiting for me to put this futuristic device called a computer down.Blessings on your day, dear hearts!Shiloh Sophia Thank you Mamas. Thank you Carmen. Thank you community and friends. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

When I really look at the way that our lives are designed around their lives, it helps me see the patterns that I need to adopt myself. Play more, nap more - come meet Frida (seal point) and Diego (lilac point) in my morning musings Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Dear Ones! I hope you enjoy cafe this morning with Jonthan - let’s ride the equal 🟰 sign together! To explain my point - of noticing how energy works - I’m choosing these three paintings as a framework for looking! The close up is part of the customization. I completed these yesterday and they are going to their new homes soon where they can resonate energy as it is perceived by their new collectors. Join Jonathan and I every month for a live conversation Learn More as part of our Intentional Creativity Museum (501c3) We are a hundred percent volunteers - your membership fee goes entirely to be a part of funding the work of centering on the work of women and our stories and our livelihood. Choose the Society level to hang out with us - the next call is coming up tomorrow night - join us for happy hour. Have a gorgeous day!Shiloh Sophia “Somewhere between action and reaction there is an interaction, and that’s where all the magic and fun lies” Tyson Yunkaporta Correction Footnote - Aboriginal Rock Art - in the recording we talk briefly about an amazing book, Sand Talk, by Tyson Yunkaporta - which does not speak on rock art -but does talk abou the limitation oflanguag e- I wanted to set the record on the mistaken comment. Instead of editing it out - a husband and wife may differ in our awareness. I am the cave art geek! Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Dear Ones,Today on International Women’s Day I am writing with an inquiry about your relationship to the Divine Feminine…is She included in your life? Your tradition, your practice, your faith walk? There is no tradition on the earth in which She isn’t present, even if She has been hidden in the places you have been practicing, look deeper, She is there. Always here. The Divine Feminine isn’t returning to us, we are returning to Her. She has always been there/here.Here are Musea one of the ways we are WITH Her in our lives is through making “Her” in our own images, the places within us that ache for re-mothering, and the images we carry in our collective history. I have been painting Her since my early twenties as a form of devotion, and a rites of passage. Today, pause with me to look for Her in your own life. Is She nature? Earth? Mother Life? Divine Mother? Sometimes, poetically speaking, I feel the Father must be very lonely for Her - but then I know it isn’t the “father” or the masculine that removed Her, it is humans. Yep, us again, only we blamed in on them. Both of them, Mother and Father, taking the rap for our need for power-over structures to keep things in place that benefit the few. What a great tactic for oppressive structures - remove the mother from the children - and then watch who we have become. What a tangled story we must each unravel for ourselves - and hopefully - at times together in sanctuary and sisterhood. Shiloh Sophia Curious? Explore Sanctuary Red Madonna Sisterhood 2023 here - we have been leading this community if women seekers and teachers since 2011. You can read my entire writing on this topic on this page link. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

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Hello Everyone - May this podcast about Medicine Painting be illuminating and inviting.We start today if you want to join us to experience healing and intuitive awakening through Intentional Creativity https://musea.org/apothecary-2023/Blessings on your day Shiloh SophiaCosmic Hand - this is my hand painted by Sue Hoya Sellars in 2000 Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

This is just a little check in from me to you… a word of encouragement Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe