Tea with the Muse

Cosmic Cowgirls Creed We areWomen Between Worldstransforming Lives into Legendsand these are the 13 standsof our communityWe areInspired RevolutionariesWe do our own work,choosing to do whatever it takesto be truly who we are nowand who we are becomingWe areCosmic ConnectorsWe have been called to gatherin red thread circles,trusting that our paths have led usto one another and this circleWe areMysterious MusesWe are feisty seekers,living from a space of muse-led inquiry where we gather insightsand take inspired actionWe areIntentional CreativesWe choose to consciously createthrough unbridled self-expression,moving ideas and energy into formWe areEveryday AlchemistsWe embody our capacityto be at cause for transformation,collaborating with quantum potentialin art, poetry, dance, song and ritualWe areDangerous ThinkersWe create our own innovative culture,challenging systems and paradigmsWe are both pattern-breakers and pattern-makers who stand for freedom for allWe areGenerous VisionariesWe transform our stories into teachings, seeking to uplift the. mythology of our kin,our families, communities, beloveds, and EarthWe areCourageous RebelsWe dance between worlds,weaving the irreverent and the sacred,taking our own mighty standsand respecting the stands of othersWe areBlazing PeacemakersWe believe in justice, safety, equality, equityand care for all living beingsWe encourage a global inter-generational circlethat is spiritually and culturally diverseWe areUnique IndividualsWe hold true that each personhas their own informationand a sacred responsibility to theirown piece of the red threadWe areLegendary WeaversWe are badass mystics, edge-walkersand mavericks living in the mystery,who choose to author our own futureswe claim a chosen lineageWe areRadical SovereignsA Cosmic Cowgirl chooses individual insightsand her own creed to live byWe are a community that does not require completeagreement in order to stand, dance and create togetherWe areWild-Hearted WomenWe are born to love!We choose to be fully self-expressed beingsin this rodeo of the soul!With our bare feet on the red earth,our heads in the stars andour hearts on our sleeves!And we all said, YAHOOOO!Dear Ones, Today, February 22nd at 12pm PT, we honor the works of our Legend Students during our LIVING LEGEND GROUP EXHIBIT presented by Musea Intentional Creativity Museum in connection with the Intentional Creativity Foundation 501(c)3.Register for your Complimentary Ticket Here.Join us at 10am HT | 12pm PT | 3pm ET | 9pm CEST | Next Day 7am AEDT | 9am NZDTWe will unveil 14 years of the Cosmic Cowgirls' LEGEND course and the artwork of over 100 women showcased, including an amazing display of over 100 legendary images!The Cosmic Cowgirls have been serving up Legendary Lives since 2008 with thousands of women taking the course around the world. This is an opportunity to witness the archetypes of women who accessed their true voice and story through a framework of living their most epic Legendary life.These paintings will have a huge impact, expanding your mind, heart and ability to consider what is possible for your own life, should you choose to claim a new story that you create on your own terms...Admission is complimentary and we look forward to gathering in community for a truly Legendary event! Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

The White Birds of the Bone-HouseI want to light a sparkin the darkenedbone-house of beingI want to look aroundwith golden eyesthat see in the darkTo see what is herethat I haven't seeninside the cave of methere is storywaiting to take wingI hear that there is a cage in uswith a thousandwhite star-birds flappingagainst their constraintswaiting for us to open the doorMy ancestors keeppointing, their long fingersextendingpast the gossamer garmentsthey wear now"look here, now hereCHILD! There it isCan't you see it - ?"But....But...I complainSometimes I don't wantto be spoken toin grey-misted mysterySometimes cage and bird talkdon't make me feel goodI want plain speak that showsa clear path and guidelinesof how to stay on trackI want you to be with meI want to feel you nearI want some tea timewith you near enoughfor me to smell youI want to complainand have you listenas If I was laying on yoursoftened lap with heapsof embroidered pillowsunder my sleepy headWhy didn't you tell us -You can chooseconsciousnessand open the greening portalto the inside worldwhere the red poppies grow wildI don't remember you tellng me:You can design your identity,just open the treasure boxwith the broken lockWhy didn't you teach usto summon the selfand change our identityby showing up for thefestival of colored lightsand that broken down nightswill only last so long?Did you tell meand I missed it?Must we discovereveryting ourselves?Inside of here...if we can ever figure outwhere 'here' is:There aremany women dancingand soft pink beds to rest uponfor as long as we needBut the path is washed awayfrom that last hard rainYou know,the one that washed awaythe two rocking chairsI didn't sign up for a raceI don't know what this isbut I don't rememberbeing invited to a competitionto get ahead, be more, do moreThere has to be another wayThere has to besomething more hereWe must be morethan we appear?You mean,the instruction manualis encoded within meand to read itI have to learn a new languagemade of soil and fur and sun?You mean the path only revealsas each foot falls into wet earth?But wait...you told me all you couldand you love me even if I amcomplaining with the tears soakingyour between-world fabricsI lay with you so longeven the stitches from yourinvisible garment imprintmy facewhen I wakeWhen I awakeWhat I seeamazes meSo today I wrote thisto tell you about itHow each person, opensthe portal throughreleasing theirown trapped birds...sometimes they get caughtin your throat on the way outsometimes they don'tLook up!The white birds ofthe darkenedthe bone-houseare setting themselves free...with or without me I give thanksI give thanksI give thanks Now to learn how to liveconsistent with what is knownwhile being aware that most of itwill remain unknownnot because it is withheldbut beacusewe weren't ready yetLet us ready ourselves!Let us ready ourselves!Let us ready ourselves...the time for expanding ourcapacity to love is hereif you write poetry with a firey penif you pray with paint-stained handsthe birds will begin to flyPray for me! Pray for me!I too, I willI will pray for you!Shiloh Sophia(painting layer from Tempo painted yesterday - with graphics added) Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Listen now | Inquiries into loving more + why anti-racism work might not be landing for white people + story about my mother's inter-racial marriage when I was 8 and more to ponder with your cuppa tea.... Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Dear Ones! Today I have a potent invitation for you. An invitation to claim your time back from the 7 days a week, 8 housr day, M-F, blah blah time paradigm. Now I know most of us have to work. That said. There is a way for you really be sovereign in how you spend your time and it requires planning. I just spent 3 hours working on my calendar for the next six months, it is a ritual in claiming space for you. Even doing the planning lets your whole self know you are choosing to claim your time. In 2022 I worked 7 days a week most weeks. I was trying to get ahead from getting so behind during COVID. Well. It didn't work. I kept getting more behinder. So I am trying something different - I am reclaiming my time. I hope it works. lol. Once you start working that much it can be hard to slow down. Ten days in Mexico and a little bitta tan and saltwater and time with real people was a perfect inspiration. I mostly just don't want to live my life like I was living it. I LOVE my work and this community - but it isn't working really to sacrifice my time. I want more time without computers and more time with my local village. So I am sharing this with you and an inviation to join me in claiming your time. My color-coded 2023 for the rest of the year calendar includes: *One and a half hours of creative time per day for the Tea with the Muse - for me this is drawing, writing and designing time. *Cafe and Happy Hour as a bookend to single every day. Cafe is usually between 7-9. Happy hour is usually between 5-7. With My Love. *Days off - one or two per week - that means no appointments at all, unstructured time. * One Week per month with no virtual appointments at all * 2 Weeklong vacations from work per year booked - oh yes! * Weekly financial review and planning - important! * Studio Days for specific arts like painting and writing #musedays * Friendship windows for luncheons and slumber parties * Swim times + Lunch times five days a week * Nature time at Wild Water Creek * Half hour breaks betwen calls when possible * No more than 3 zooms in a day on zoom days and only two zoom days a week if possible. Sometimes three if I have private clients. * 8 Feast Days - Solstices and Equinoxes and cross quarter peak days * New Moons and Full Moons * Two community calls per month to connect While that sounds really structured, and it is - in this there is freedom in knowing I have space. I have been living by what my calendar says for about ten years - and while I would - like almost everyone - prefer nothing on my calendar - my life just isn't like that right now. So to create freedom and flow I need structure. Perhaps the biggest change which will take about 6 months to put into place (and that impacts all of you). I will be having two primary calls per month with our virtual community. One will be Imprensiva - Society Membership with Jonathand and myself - we are focusing on the Quantum Cascade - and one will be 'Shiloh time' - still picking the name for this circle - and I am planning on doing it for 50 years - to create the pattern in the field of space and time. The 'Shiloh time' (as Virginia calls it) will take the place of me needing to be on calls in every program - it just isn't working and I am too spread out. I know our community will honor this change as it begins to unfold. We have been trying for years and doing better - but there comes a time when we just have to say - okay - something new. I am thinking of you all today. Wishing you all health and wellness and spaciousness. I have so much gratitude for each of you in my life and in our life. May every Musea Studio be humming with the joy that is Intentional Creativity. If you feel called to share - your response to what I am sharing or an action you took for you - please do. I know those who love me will be happy to hear me stop saying how I am working 7 days a week lol. Even the idea of 'spending time' needs a change. I don't want to spend my time at all. I want to experience time in my life, not spend time. My time isn't really for sale. Not really. I choose what I do with it. The sooner I can really live this reality - the sooner time will be on my side. Time is on my side. I don't know that there is any 'side' to take it from because this is not a competition with two sides. That said for today I claim time is on my side and that I have all the time I need. Today I will experience the last day where I have back to back appointments from start to finish. I got up a 4 so I could map out my life. Today there is little time for lunch or swimming. Looking at my schedule today was my inspiration - no more. So thank you busy day for being my teacher and my catalyst and my invitation to everyone else to join me. With joy and the love that flows between us and a wink from the Muse XO Shiloh Sophia Two Cups of Coffee in Careyes, Mexico IF you aren’t in the imusea app and you want to join us you can: search imusea in your app store and you will find us and it is freee

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Here is the audio transcript if you wish to read with a cuppa instead ❤️Dear Ones,I wonder if you find yourself thinking about the different worlds that we seem to inhabit as a self, but largely unconsciously. It's almost like we become aware of worlds as we become adults because we've lost some connection to it somewhere between childhood and adulthood. We stopped seeing and dreaming in the way that we used to when we used to have imaginary friends and imaginary worlds.I can't help but wonder if we wouldn't have a different world at large if children were truly taught to keep their imaginal world front and center as a way of thinking and being. We're not very old, eight to 12 depending on the culture that we're living in, sometimes even younger than that, before we start to create a disconnect, whether that's conscious by adults in our space, I think largely unconscious, or just in a desire to sit into being inside of a structure.If we don't act like we're present and participating in culture, we sometimes are told we're daydreamers. We're told to stop making things up and stop pretending. We're told to grow up and use our adult voice. We're taught not to use our outside voice inside. But while all this is happening and has a relative level of logic to it, something else is being lost. We don't even know enough about it to talk about it.Many people have to become adults and be able to afford education in order to start thinking about the imaginal world they left behind as a child. So many people we work with in our intentional creativity community can remember the moment they put down a crayon. That's how significant that moment is. If I ask them what was happening in that day, or even what they wearing or who was there, they often have this almost supernatural vision of themselves in that moment.We're yet to determine why that image is so absolutely looming and huge in our lives. Why that moment would be so big that we would actually stop creating, sometimes until we're adult. I have different theories about why I think that moment is so significant.One of them is that, until that moment, we are largely connected with our imaginal world, and move freely and easily between imagination and what others around us perceive as a kind of reality. When someone becomes critical of our creativity, which in many cases is an externalized version of our internal world, whether that's drawing, singing, dancing, playing, make-believe, when that in any way gets criticized, when it had been largely encouraged before, but nobody told us when we were going to stop being encouraged to be imaginative. There was no warning. We get surprised.In that moment, something happens, a rupture, that it could take the rest of someone's life to repair, if we even know to do it. It's almost like we're caught in the act of somehow not being connected, somehow not being connected to the reality that the adults around us have been enforcing. It's a moment, it's a flash, it's a rupture, and we start to, in a way for many of us, become concerned about ourselves.It could be a moment where self-trust is lessened and where we recognize a stark reality between what we think of as our imagination and what we are now crashing into as the reality in which everyone else is living and somehow we weren't. My mother, Karen, used to think of this moment as a time when many people would start to think they were just a little bit crazy and had to hide and pretend to behave in order to fit in.Over days, months, or years of trying to fit in and not invite that imaginary friend to the lunch table anymore, because now there's real friends to behave and act normal with, we actually start to lose trust with that internal world. And then later, as we go on in education, we're criticized if we're not connected to our creativity and our imagination. We're criticized if we're too structured, too A type, too left brain. And so this tug of war between imagination and reality is set in place and barely ever do we actually talk about it in a way that can be understood and healed.In the work of intentional creativity, the invitation is to reconnect to the imaginal world while still being connected with the resonant world. I call it resonant world because I don't want it to be an external world from our internal world. External inherent in the vocabulary actually indicates separateness.If we could move from our inner world to our imaginal world and then into a resonant world, we would be able to navigate what we experience as internal and imaginal, and relate it and bring it into harmony with the resonance of those people, places, things, animals, energies, archetypes, creatures, symbols, and stories all around us. We would have a sense of place in the cycle of things and a sense of our own place. It would be resonant and we would seek for contextual resonance by choice, and our imagination would give us contextual relevance.One of the things I have to watch myself with wh

Hi Ya’ll ~ today I decided to turn my letter from the red thread café into a podcast. Discover the super cool things happening at Musea right this minute!SS ❤️⭕️❤️🍫 Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

A Vigil to Honor My FatherThe Greening Side of ThingsWhen I think of youit is always the deepest color of greenNot the green that the sun kissesto make it glow with lightThe green on the underside of the leafwhere the spider dwellsThe dark under the logwhere the salamander sleepsThe green on the inside of a treewhere only the elvin ones can seeOnce, once I told youyou went wrongwhen you should have gone rightYou are a poet like my mothernot an outlaw for a PaYou were a mystic gone wrongand finally you took the wrong turnfor the l last timeWhat were you feelingin those last moments?I hope it was a burst of joythe one you always left this world to seekI hope you saw the colored lightsthe ancients send out as beacons to the lostBut then perhaps you never lost your wayinstead honored your brokenand beautiful greening way.I think of you often,with neither anger or regretand most daysI just wish I could have shown youthat I see the magic tooYou weren’t the one who showed mebut I always knew you saw it tooOne day you came to my housefor breakfast unannounced I had prepared a quiche and as yousat to eat in silence – you saidThis is what I really really neededand I just didn’t know it.Thank you.I hoped you would see in meall you hoped I would becomebut you never saidYou just told me you prayed for meand I also – pray for you.I would like to think on you as ancestorbut when I reach in the spaces betweenit is only the greening I seenot the identity that was youYou have returned to the soiland I will honor you here in green dirtwith the passing of each season.Rest well father of the greening Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

A message from me at the sea… Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

What’s blooming? What’s being turned in? What colors are you noticing that are different from a few months ago… Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Dear OnesI wrote this today. I have so many things I would love to share with you. Big big stories as big as redwoods and small stories as tiny as a baby ant!But for today, just this poem, and an invitation to join me for a complimentary class on the Wheel of the Year on Sunday with my friends Lavender Grace and trish o’malley,The painting below became a kind of fortelling of something I will share with you on Sunday about Wild Water Creek on Sonoma Mountain. We were adopted by a creek and I want to tell you why….Love,Shiloh Sophia The painting is called The Birth of Sonoma Mountain.p.s. You can now make a contribution if you want to Tea with the Muse. People were pledging even though I didn’t have the button turned on. It’s all still free, I am not going to make exclusive content for the time being. But thank you, those of you who offered even when I didn’t ask. The Wheelhouse of the MotherDo you see those planets danglingfrom the hem of her garment?Oh! When she dances, how glorious!The stars sprinkle through her skinShimmering in the black silenceBearing witness to ancient storiesHer face is so radiant, you can’teven see her eyelashes most daysjust a twinkle here or thereThe moon is her beauty markand depending on the dayshe shows us a glimmering crescentShe is like that, just dazzling…our most amazing motherfilled with the beauty of creationHer breathe the airHer love the fireHer dreams the earthHer songs the water Her stories the coreHer family the cosmos All of it is her great bigbeautiful bodyMe? Oh I’m her daughter andI live here at the mouth of a waterwayMoving up and down the mossy rocksin rubber boots and flannelKeeping company with the redwood,the oak and the wild grapeHaving tea with deer and doveand pink cake my lover madeI used to live in caves before housesI used to spend time, instead of timespending me, long long agoI was wild once, you know and in my soul I am stilland so are youDo you remember how we played?I must remember, and you too,That we are more than we appearto be, we shall seeDid you see that bird fly by?To remember who I am I mustmake parties, feasts and dancesEight times a year, then I rememberWill you come to supper with me?I follow the patterns of her sun,her moon and her feisty eclipsesI watch her face for my actions andI count the days on hands and kneesI am part of creation creating itselfThe milky sky high-way is ourhome and if we really know thatwe can see how this unfoldsThere are stars under my skinThere are rivers flowing in my heartThere are people I have yet to meetThere are stories we, beloved one,are yet to tellI believe, I believeMother will show me the wayWe live here safely in theWheelhouse of the MotherFor A.S.G. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

“We must refocus our collective memory. The necessity for this has never been greater as we discover that the path of 'progress' is extinguishing the very conditions for life on earth.” Marijah Gimbutas Dear Ones, I am inviting you to join me LIVE for a ritual to end the dominance era plus design a personal path of practice. Part history + Part Story + Part ritual + Intentional Creativity process. My friend Anasuya Isaacs will join me for this experience. Recently over two hundred women joined in this ritual live a part of a class - and we wanted to offer it to all of you as well. All spiritual traditions that are welcoming are welcome. See you in circleShiloh Sophia Cucuteni Culture - The Cucuteni–Trypillia culture, also known as the Tripolye culture(c. 5500 to 2750 BCE) Eastern Europe.This image has the word dream time, a brand across it - but this image can’t really be copyrighted can it? Leaving it for now. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Hi! I’m sharing about how I work with my theme for the year. What’s yours? My personal theme for the year is: I am connected! Thinking of you ❤️ Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Happy New Year to each of you. Today’s riffing with the Muse is an invitation to inhabit your imagination. With love, Shiloh Sophia Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Good Morning! I had a significant inquiry arise about patriarchy being a trauma response last night after studying all day long. My heart started beating and my mind spinning. There was a softening in me I hadn’t had before. Since I, with many others work to complete the era of domination all the time. A trauma response to a cataclysmic natural event like a flood? I wonder what I would spend my time on if I wasn’t trying to bring right to where there is wrong?Anyway I dove into more and more research and was even more compelled. Maybe this has been spoken before - I don’t know - I am not going to look yet - I want to form my own opinions first and hang out in the right brain heart feeling - what if we are acting like this because we have been hurt - it was normal to form a patristic structure for a while but it has gone on too long and moved into areas we never dreamed we were capable of. This audio is my unformed morning thoughts as I prepare to welcome 200 women into painting their version of the Divine Feminine today. I have put questions with floods in certain places until I can do more research. Join us here today - or in a week complimentary session - The End of the Domination ERAThis and other things like a good cuppa coffee,Shiloh Sophia Link to the Goddess Timeline Link to join us for MATRICA Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Father Christmas and Rudolph are thought to be, based on historical evidence, a take-over from stories centered in the feminine. For me, these stories are worth being told and it is a part of my own geographic heritage.I am not going to duplicate the text, it’s in the audio. However you honor and celebrate these times - I hope you will look into the not so distant past and find the missing mother, who isn’t missing at all. We have been behaving as motherless children, and we are not. Not at all. I declare the end of the dominant era in my own life. From here, we heal. I call this journey and this information - Matrica. I have to start somewhere. Why not start at the source, the mother. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

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My family has so many stories…here’s one that has informed most of my life. What started as a criticism became a family legend. A fun listen, and hopefully a laugh with a cuppa something good….Shiloh Sophia Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Dear ❤️ Hearts ~ sharing how I’m feeling today about Musea University starting… Shiloh Sophia Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

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Freedomby Shiloh SophiaThe unsolved mysteriesof the heart are always presentIt doesn’t matter how many timeswe have been loved or been hurtStill, the heart is a grand mysteryWe cannot control itwe cannot make itdo what we wantWe cannot predict whatit will feel or seeBut there is one thingwe can doWe can listen to our heartand what it has to sayWe can listen to the heartsof those around usWe can be a healing presencefrom one another and the earthWe can practicefalling in love with mystery,in the infiniteness of not knowingWhen we stop tryingto figure it outwe can find freedomIf we listen to our heartour heart will listen to usThis is the journey of a lifetimeand our heart is the guideHow blessed are weto be able to listen closelyand lean into love Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

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The Perfect StudioThe Perfect Studiohas a door that closes There’s enough room thereto not have my back to the doorthe kitties are presentThere’s a big tableto spread out and make a messmarked with years of creativityOf course, there’s a comfy chairthat is big enough for meto sit cross-leggedor even better,a chaise loungeA rug that’s colorfulthat I can get paint onand splash as I choose Bright leafy green plants to surround me andkeep me companyA candle that smells goodAn altar that changesevery time I come in A chocolate stashA fuzzy robe covered in paint A tall bookcasefilled with inspiring images and storiesA wall of photos of people I love A sign for the door that says: The MUSE is in,so don’t come inYet also people who respect that signand people who can come infor tea because I like thembut only when they are invitedThere’s a teapotwith tea seaping that smells so goodthat my lover madeand a handmaid cup from a friend There’s a jar of local honeyfrom people that I knowand bees I am sure to cross paths withon my morning walksThere’s music that makes me danceThere’s lots and lots of paintsand pens and pencils and charcoaland places to playThere’s a stack of empty notebooksawaiting my pen and storyThere’s a window for seeing farAnd when I get up really early,seeing the starsThere’s always a jar of waterawaiting my brushIt’s an invitation and a blank canvasor one that’s ready to be painted overAnd of course TIMETime to spend there, hereIntentional Creativity timeI want to have tea with the Museas I chooseWhat about you?What kind of studio is perfect for you?Shiloh Sophia Dear Ones,The photo above is our ‘film set’ and while I paint there when I am teaching, it isn’t my personal studio. I feel so grateful to have so much space to work in, but I also share this space and rent this space - and I can’t close the door - or make a mess and keep it messy. This has been a strange phenomenon for me - to have all this space to manage and use to teach in but not have it be personal space that I don’t have to share. I have moved my studio at our campus likely 40 times at least in the past few years - and this particular set up just happened because we converted the actual film studio into a dorm. My actual studio here we rented to another artist. While I am super glad she has it, I don’t have it and I miss it. So I am just coming to terms with this feeling - of not having a room that I can mess up and keep messy that no one can come into with a closing door where I can paint and be messy and be a mess. #hotmess seeks room for rent lol. A film set is not a personal studio. This feels important for me to just acknowledge so I can move on. And since we rent the space I try to ‘un-shiloh’ it on a regular basis, which again means I am continually moving my personal space and items around. I know, I know many people don’t even have one place to paint, so is it really a problem? Get over it I say, but then I am not being honest. I need a big open space and place to work and dream and invent. Because the companies I run and the offerings I create come out of my own mind/heart sacred studio space which is mapped to the physical space where I work things out. So today I am just owning this need for a closing door so I can see what else wants to come forward. To be able to dream into what I would really like. Sometimes I get up really early and go paint in the classroom or the gallery - but I always have to clean it up and make it nice again right away. So am I really asking for a space to be messy? To cry? To experiment while not making product or on the camera? A place I can have a private slumber party? I don’t know. I just know that writing this down was important for me. I have so much - I truly do. And something is needed and I am just exploring that. I also feel that sharing it may spark something in you too - about what you need. Even if you can’t create it right now - you can make a perfect studio list and honor it. Intentional Creativity is this - being intentional about writing this poem and sharing this and it moves energy - and creates a clearing for something new to emerge. I feel better already. I started writing this in New York and finished it this morning during cafe’. Blessings dear one, and may be get to the studio…Shiloh Sophiap.s. the above film studio photo has a quilt from Sumaiyah and a painting by Sue in it and I am finally making the wall behind my chaise lounge personal with photos. I will not move them….I will learn to occupy in a good way. p.p.s. I am also wondering if my next studio will be around pottery - I have spent years potting in the past and I miss it. Maybe I am seeking something else. Musing on it. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Shiloh Sophia by Jonathan McCloud @the MoMa and Fur Breakfast by Meret Oppenheim Le Déjeuner en fourrure Au the MoMa Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

#letthemusechoose Tiny Portal: Choose one of your more abstract paintings or an under-painting layer. Look at it with a soft gaze. Imagine that one part of it suddenly becomes a portal door and lights up! WOWZA there it is! Honor this arising. Be surprised....(Muses love to surprise you) One word of advice - the Muse does not want to be dominated in any way - but if you are in a particularly tender or tempermental place you can request - 'only loving or kind messages to appear' - no one can guarantee compliance - but it does set the tone. Muses can have a bad attitude at times. Okay so let's continue....for some of our Muse Choose I ask you not to read the whole thing first, for this one, go ahead and read it and then begin. Ready? With a heartful intention to see or hear something fresh from your Muse - invite your imagination to OPEN the tiny door slowly and see what is waiting for you there. How does the door open - try to watch it - does it swing? Pop? Flow? Glow? What do you find? Is it a note? An image? A symbol? The first line of a poem? A new tool? A dare? An invitation? An oracle reading? What has the Muse left for you to find? Once you see it/know it/hear it - ask more about it. Why this message and why now? Journal as you choose. If you don't see something or hear something just hover there in the "not knowing" and then choose to reveal something from within your subconscious space and place it there. This works too! Share the painting you chose or the tiny portal and what you saw, if you want, with us in the imusea app (search for the app in your appstore imusea). We learn by doing and also by sharing. Sharing helps to shape the content of what gets revealed and strengthens the portal practice. Even if the message you got is odd or you don't know the meaning yet - attempt to 'trust' it enough to be with it without needing to change it. Over time we develop a pathway of trust with our inner world and our subconscious via the hand of the Muse will continue to show us more and more. If we doubt too soon and with exasperation we ask - WHY the f-ing yellow banana? Why did I hear that bell? I don't want to see that old symbol again etc..... then the trust doesn't get to grow. The Muses might be testing us. They do that. Instead consider deep curiousity and surprise - WOW the yellow banana again - tell me more! OH that bell, where is that sound coming from anyway and how does it feel in my body? AH! That symbol must be something special - let me draw it out. (If you are new - come post and join us in the imusea app and share your image and what you discovered)In Intentional Creativity we work this way with imagination development. By intentionally using our own paintings as the mythical landscape to journey through. The power of suggestion aka "tiny portal" coupled with the personal tangible image and the anticipation that the Muse will really communicate this way with you - is a practice. For some of us we have been developing the faculty for years - and for others of us it is new. This is a core aspect of our practice here and I invite you to really try it. Ciao! Shiloh Sophia This is a tiny portal from was a painting exploring communicating with the ancestors. I opened the white curve and it shimmered. Behind it was an image of my mother's hands. She was in my dream last night. The message is to be close to her today in my spirit. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

The muses, the graces and the flurries are stirring things up again and they are feeding my my own medicine. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

“An average human looks without seeing, listens without hearing, touches without feeling, eats without tasting, moves without physical awareness, inhales without awareness of odour or fragrance, and talks without thinking.” da Vinci “There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” da VinciWe went to see a da Vinci exhibit in the Blue Ridge mountain territory. These quotes really struck me as both true and harsh. Did he really mean “classes”? Perhaps not like today. I know that part of my sacred work is to invite seeing and encourage deep feeling. So on this rainy day I invite you to look outside and see, with me…to choose to be one who sees.With ♥️ and rain,Shiloh Sophia Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

I am thinking of you today.... Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

My mom taught me that I had choice. This phrase "the great adventure' inspires my life and this painting by the same name. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Dear Ones, Generations of women have been taught and programmed to believe we don’t matter. The suicide rate for girls is getting younger and younger. No matter how many articles we write about it and how much therapy tries to address the root cause of the issue of irrelevance, it persists and insists. But not just in young girls. In most of the women we actually know, there is a deeply embedded framework of feeling like our voice is silenced, even and especially from ourselves.This message came through early this morning and is for you. We are in a four day event with women and families from around the world so it is ever so important to share with you. This asked to be spoken. I listened. I hope I am speaking to someone who needs to hear it. I sure did. ~ Shiloh SophiaFor you Grandma and you Mama. I love you ever more each day. Thank you for providing good mothering soil for me to grow up in. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Painting by Shiloh Sophia: CeremonyIntentional Creativity is mindulness in motion Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Oak Tree Covered in Moss at Wild Water Creek, Sonoma Mountain, CaliforniaIntentional Creativity is mindfulness in Motion Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Wild Water Forest, Sonoma Mountain, California Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Enter the Portal of CompassionDear OneI often wonderwhy some people care so muchand some people don't care so muchIs it possible to teach compassionor do we have to awaken to itthrough personal experience?Compassion is as mysterious as grace,a gift to the Human Spirit from the Divine SpiritA way to open consciousness rooted in loveCompassion is elusive to teachor to compel, when someone is adverseto this kind of heartful careand loving kindnessAt times we almost seem afraid of it,What might happen if we love that much?Might it hurt? Yes it can hurt, and it can healWhat needs to happen to open the heart?To say to Life and to feel in one's own life"May all beings be peaceful.May all beings be happy.May all beings be safe.May all beings awaken to thelight of their own true nature.May all beings be free."When I sing these words from the Metta PrayerI always cry, because I really really reallyfeel it and really really really mean it with my whole beingIs that so strange to feel? So uncommon?I remember the day my heart openedSince that day I have not ceased to do my partto open hearts too, to a deeper level of caringMostly it is a long journey to teach this,not because people don't care but becausethey are truly busy, truly challenged, truly afraidand find this life difficult to navigateI do understandI want so much to speak of the quiet joythat comes from loving so much evenso much that it hurts sometimesI want to sepak to what is possiblewhen compassion comes to live in your homeI want us to care moreOh I have plenty of places where I amchallenged to care - usually when there islying, cruelty, rudeness, lack of care or witness,addiction without acknowledgementIt challenges me to find new placesas I lean into my edgesIt isn't that those of us who are teaching love,have it all sorted out and can share it with youso you can do as we do - not soRather, those of us in teaching love,learn to love moreand that is pure joyI just want us to care moreand I also want to care moreand allow my actions to follow that careMay the portal of compassion be openedto every being who is ready to receiveMay the portal of compassion be a tenderteacher to every being ready to give more loveMay the portal of compassion show usthe way to be human togetherand fall in love with CreationEverything that is on this earthwas given by grace, given freely,this is our paradise givenOh please let us know this withour whole soulPortal of Compassion - 2022 Painting just finished by Shiloh Sophia Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

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Dear Hearts,How do you wake up each day? Do you pick up your phone? Listen to the news? Rush to the shower? Grumble about what is before you? The most sacred of all things for humans is the awareness of choice....So today, or tomorrow since you may already awake today lol, may you find a way to wake up slowly and savor.Big Love,Shiloh Sophia Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

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Dear HeartsI just wanted to extend a soft word of encouragement today - an invitiation to choose beauty. Blessings wherever you are and whatever you are dealing withBig Love,Shiloh Sophia Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

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Painting: Cloud Portal Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Too Much Woman Watch out!A wide load womancoming through!She laughs too loudTalks too longWears too much redWalks too heavyDances too wildHowls too crazy at the Moon.Hips too bigCleavage way too in your faceToo much glitter flyingGives too muchToo big for her britchesToo smart for her own goodHer hair is definitely too bigShe is a too much womanShe apologized too longSo now she’s just too muchBut without the apology partSometimes too much is too goodWatch out! It’s a wide load woman coming through!She’s a piece of work!Why not?Shiloh Sophia#intentionalcreativity#inspirationalpoetry #toomuchwoman#cosmiccowgirls Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Quantum Café This is a quantum cafébetween tomorrow and todayYou will find us herewaiting for you since foreverThis is the Red Thread Cafe located in every place in the worldincluding in the most important place of all,your own heart and imaginationWhen you arrive, you can’t miss me,watch for the cowgirl hat with a red roseand the blue shirtand the kickass red bootsI will be the one with my heart on my sleeveThis is a place to gather yourself up,pull up a chair and have tea with the MuseYou will see, you will be in good companyWe are the Cosmic Cowgirlsgathering in the glory of Intentional CreativityPerhaps you heard the call? There are ancient stories to be told under the smiling moon!There are new stories rising upWe are women from the future!Be welcome here, you may already be a member! Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Behold!The Muse deals in riddles and ritualswhen she invites you to tea with uncertainty.Will you show up?The Muse has a bit of a limp these days,and is only willing to work with thosewho are edge-walkers, fire-breathers, circle-callers and skin-dancers.She will even invite you to sit in her chair.The Muse doesn't have a preferencefor whether you are brave or afraid.Makes no difference to her,only that you show up like you mean it.Between the mythical and logicalthere is a holy wild place anticipating your presence. The imaginal domain awaits your full attention.The Seat of the Muse straddles both worldsIf you are truly interested in what it takes,you will need to position yourself so you can see in all directions at once. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

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Beyond Punishment and RewardWhen you think of the word and the meaning of up, what's the very next word that comes to mind?Is it down, or something else? And if it was something else, what would it be? When you think of the word…right? What do you think of next? Do you think of the opposite? Do you think of left or do you think of wrong? Where does your mind naturally go to when you consider words that have meanings, that appear to have opposite potentials When you think of the word here,As in I'm here, then where are you?Or where am I? Are we also here? Are we there? Are we over there? When you think of suffering, What comes to mind? What comes to heart? Is it pleasure or the release of suffering? We've largely been living in an enforced either/or construct, even though we're all aware of AND. Every concept has a spectrum of possibility.Yet humans through education and certain religions have come to create a kind of forced polarity competition and separationThis has resulted in a way of thinking and being that could be an illusionWhat do you think? Does it feel like an illusion, the vacillation between the either/or?For this politician or not for this politician, for this vaccination or not for this vaccination, a good person or not a good personEven when we generalize about regions of the world, this state is that color, this state is that color. and that means what?Generalizations about entire countriesas if that somehow impacts the soul of each personDoes it? What do you think?How much sovereignty does the individual have in determining their identity and their outcomes and what is the path of practice or the way to determine one's relationship with one's identity? Can we truly author it or are we just simply stuck with what ended up happening based on our life story? Do we truly reap what we sow? We want to think so, but then we wonder how people who are sewing, terrible things like the poisoning of water, the extraction of gas through the blowing up of rocksWe want to think that, what? What do you want to think about those activities? Have you even made that and either/orhas it informed your activism? The riddle of being is hereWe can't understand how someone who could be a part of extraction that leads to collapse…How could they do that? Don’t they also have a familyand why are they not reaping what they're sewing or experiencing the karmic wheel sooner? Why aren't they stopped before they do more damage? Sometimes we wish it's more quick, whether we acknowledge it secretly or otherwiseWhat way do you live? Do you go about your day from waking, to dressing, to eating, to walking, to working, to being with the pets and the children, and your lover, your mother, your fatherWhat approach is it chosen or a default setting? I don't know about you all, but I'm interested in exploring something other than up/down, here/theregood/bad, left/ rightand the punishment and reward structures that have been seeped so deeply into our consciousnessSuch that we can barely get out from under it to think an original thoughtWhen I think of my path of practice, starting with leaving the corporate world, leaving the corporate education system, going to the mountain to study at the age of 24 now being 52 and what have I got to show for myself other than a chosen approach, but I guess that's what I was looking forAn approach, an approach I call intentional creativity, which isn't just a way of making art, but actually a way of living lifeAnd at the root of it is inquiry to question ourselves, our thoughts, our defaults, our hopes, our dreams, our desires, our relationship with suffering, our very relationship with up and down and not just to arrive at a middle path, a place of neutrality or even inner peace when the rest of the world is at war, but actually to just be at cause for doing the thinking at allFor asking the question, How might I free my own identity from the punishment and reward structures set up by power-over systems, by people I wouldn't invite to my dinner table?Why would I allow the worldview of peopleI wouldn't want to share a meal with,to shape my consciousness any further than I absolutely had to..?There comes a point a reckoning in all of our lives where we simply say enoughI must learn to think my own thoughtsI must discover the way to compassion on my own terms, but not just own as in alone, but on your own within the context of community itself,there's a continuity hereThere's a morphic field been building many, many, many, many years, many thousands of people practicingAnd there's an opportunity for the kind of discovery and waking and being that I know many of us seek because you tell me and because I seek it with youSo let us go forward together on a path of practice, an inquiry, discernment, the awakening of true compassion and the exit in each our own time from punishment and reward.What fertile deep, delicious place might existif we weren't always trying to avoid suffering in this life or the n

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

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