The Weaving Wisdom Garden: The Rhythm of Expansion
A Collaborative Publication Pollinating Poetic Expression
Spring Spiral: The Rhythm of Expansion
May 24, 2023
Thank you for bringing your Heart to receive the Weaving Wisdom shared through this Garden of Poetic Expression.
Enjoy the works of heart contributed by inspired Weavers and follow your curiosity to explore their personal realms of creativity through the links provided with their names. The deepest intention of this publication is to strum resonance through nourishing expressions and enliven the ether as we cultivate connection with one another. We would love to listen with your reflections in the comments and spark inspired conversations that ripple the medicine in all directions.
© Rachel Fae
Substack:
Butterfly Wisdom
We are all
seeded by love
Unlocking growth
when ripe and ready
To open,
soften first
Then follow the voracious appetite of curiosity
Bite by bite
unlock the growth
Curiosity follows desire
Body is the compass
When stillness is the only direction left
Dive into the cauldron of dissolution
Courage
The call of the heart
Past resistance
Toward everchanging oneness
Trust the impulse toward wings
Toward flight
Toward freedom
There is no turning back
may the glory of color
beckon your adventure into the sky
Fly shimmering radiance
through unknown realms,
dear blossom with wings
lit from within
There is no time
Only this ever expansive dance
This breath
© Jeannie Mckenzie
Website: http://www.jeanniemckenzie.com/
Weaving Wisdom: A Channeled Message from Tulip Poplar
Received by Amanda Nicole
May 2023
all you need to know is:
the answer is in opening
wider and wider
that’s it
that’s all
it’s not really so complex:
the reciprocity
the giving and receiving
you just give
you just receive
and then you give more
and then you receive more
and then
and then
and then
More
expansion:
it is the nature of things
the contraction only exists
in service to the expansion
Everyone and Everything
will only become more and more
Who They Are
the possibilities are infinite
the space is infinite
you are infinite
they are infinite
we are infinite
the constriction comes
when you do not allow yourself
to breathe
let your lungs fill with air
inhale
now exhale
see?
an exercise in expansion
again and again:
inhaling, you receive more
then what?
exhaling, you give more
you wouldn’t believe
how far and wide
you can be
will be
and are
as you breathe in
feel yourself expand
beyond the boundaries
beyond your body
breathe into the space between us
can you feel it?
limitless room for expansion
in and out
in and out
set your pace
find your rhythm
and then?
just breathe
© Amanda Nicole
Website: http://alchemillas.com
Substack:
The Cycle of Becoming
Unless you leap with both feet at once
You’ve got one foot in the past
An uneasy paradox
The balance between being
Led by faith into the future
Or taken by
Fear to yesterday
A place on the infinity loop of time
You needed to revisit
The reclamation of a piece of Soul
On the journey into wholeness.
But if you glue your legs together
And, choosing the quantum route,
Take flight into nothingness
It’s important to stay focused
Full-body gaze on the Light
Otherwise you’re liable to end up
Swallowed by a black hole.
If that’s where you find yourself, then
No fear, just
Dive right in.
It’s an initiatory invitation you’re encountering
A gateway of possibility
A portal to the Mystery
Rebirth is just a breath away.
Another route not often-mentioned
Is my personal favorite:
The way of lightning
The pathless path of the luminous void
Available only in the present moment
At the center of the candle flame.
Pierced by the tip of the serpent’s fang,
Here comes illumination!
A freight train of ecstatic dismemberment
Euphoric decimation
Meditating in the charnel grounds
Of the former self
Tossing hunks of ego
To the Love Dogs
Chanting songs of union and reunion
Allah! (The blissful cry)
Amen! (The exalted prayer)
Om! (The unstruck sound)
The language of the Heart
Pulses between form and formless
The universal vibration
Calling you home.
© Valeria McCarroll, PhD
Website: http://www.valeriamccarroll.com/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/somadelics/
The “I”, deeply satisfied
I meet myself
In this moment
Anew
But not brand new
For I am a culmination of everything I’ve been through
As well as not.
See, I’ve lived with health and wholeness being my guide
For a long time
And I’ve developed a safe space for my Inner Child to reside.
In this way I have cultivated a deeply restorative life for her
which unbound her from the painful past she endured.
She endured!
Because I nurtured her
and continue to do so.
Expansion has this incredible gift
of allowing you to extract the wisdom
From all of your experiences
Denying nothing
While leaving whatever was “dis-eased” behind
Once you are well
Inside.
Have you ever noticed you are more “well” when you are “sick”?
You are more “sick” when you are “well”?
We eat more consciously and deliberately, rest more, and nurture ourselves when we are sick.
We push ourselves too fast and too hard, eat mindlessly, avoid, and distract ourselves when we are well.
For me, True Expansion is when we come into Alignment
Our Inner expands to meet our Outer.
The Outer expands meeting the Inner
Together they reflect this amazing reciprocal dance.
I’m not sure if we can have True Expansion without Integrity.
True Expansion from my experiences
Requires polishing the mirror
Where the One that Witnesses within
Is the One Alive and participating in this embodied existence.
When our personal and professional merge
And our Truthful Nature,
Essence of our Soul,
Anchors, Embodies, Recognizes
She is the One.
All that was compartmentalized and separated
Returns to the One.
As within, so without.
I Am that I Am.
As above, so below.
Expansion grows
us from within
Expansion grows
us far and wide.
They are an inseparable pair
That demand complete honesty and integrity
To Dance
The Ultimate Waltz
That twirls us into extraordinary places
Beyond our imaginations
Revealing more of us with every step
Left right
Left right
Forwards
Backwards
Side to side
This journey of a lifetime
Expansion as our Guide.
The “I”, deeply satisfied.
© Nicole Lynn, FLOE, Facilitating Love On Earth
Website: Floe.love
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/facilitatingloveonearth/
IG: http://www.instagram.com/floe_facilitatingloveonearth/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/facilitatingloveonearth/
Wild Cathedrals
Light-eating spirits,
flora are ancestral forces.
Photosynthesizing,
they make divinity
visible to our blunt human sight:
Beech trees open their
copper arms
touch hair
greet and bless.
Silvery glade ferns bow,
exude antediluvian perfume.
Curling grapevine tendrils swing
in the wind of our passing.
The central flame,
the green light, rooted
ever-rising
is the mitochondrial matrix.
Its combustive heat
fed by pacifist chloroplasts
turns stardust into flesh:
Damsel-fly snaps open
peacock green wings
she is an elegant
kabuki dancer
suspended in flight
above the creek.
Bear cub strolls the path
a granddaughter walked last eve.
Coyote’s signature is written in
morning’s creek-side mud.
The still point
~ empty core of life’s axis ~
is the central beam
of wild cathedrals.
It holds up the night sky
to become evening’s intimate roof
the only dome
vast enough to carry
human dreams.
© Sharifa Oppenheimer
Website: https://www.sharifaoppenheimer.org/about
Sleeping Beauty and the Bear
Once upon a Trickster time, when diesel-machines delivered scant food rations, there lived a family with three grown daughters. The parents warned of dangers in the Forest outside their piedmont town. But the youngest daughter decided to brave the stormy Mountain in search of more winter food.
She came to a hedge of wild Roses, and gathered what cherry-wide hips she could reach. The thorns pricked her fingers, and she left them a droplet of blood. A Bear watched from the Forest, smelling her offering with the wisdom of ages. He made her a small hole in the base of the hedge, and on hands and knees, she entered the Forest.
She sang in a Blueberry patch as she picked in the rain. Her heart thundered when she saw the Bear, but he just bent the tallest bushes for her. When she had picked all she could carry, the Bear urged her on up the Mountain, through a thicket of Devil’s Club. Crawling under their spiky, broad leaves, she pricked her finger on a thorn-covered stem and a drop of her blood soaked into the soil.
Higher up the Mountain, she stumbled into a Nettle patch. When her hands brushed the stinging plant, she fell to her knees in pain, and her tears washed their leaves. The Bear took a bite of the Nettles and spat the pulp onto her hands, easing her pain. She smiled at him for his kindness.
Around them, the Forest shuddered in the wind. Rain turned to snow as they climbed. She thought to return home, but the Bear brought her to his dry, sheltered den. At his invitation, she crawled in on hands and knees. He wrapped around her with his teeth, claws, and fur. A cub-child took root as they fell deep into winter’s slumber.
She awoke in the dark, contracting in labor. The Bear stroked her furred belly with his clawed paws. His even breath helped her relax. She rose onto her paws and pushed her baby out into the long-clawed cradle of the Bear’s calloused paws. They ate her placenta, her blood soaking into the den floor. She slumbered again as her cub-baby suckled, and awoke in the black-haired arms of a man.
In spring, they found the Mountain had slid, tearing up trees, and toppling the town. Where she had harvested and left drops of blood and tears, the Nettles, Devil’s Club, and Roses grew thick. They walked sometimes as Humans; they walked sometimes as Bears. They raised their cub-child in the Forest, among others who had chosen to shift how they lived when the Mountain invited them home.
© K. Héenmouth
Substack:
IG: @k.heenmouth
EXCERPT FROM THE SOULFLOWER PLANT SPIRIT ORACLE
Rosemary • Clarity
(Rosmarinus officinalis)
Who are you, really? Rosemary infuses the body with warmth and vitality, bringing security and clarity to the spirit, especially when it has lost connection with the physical world. Rosemary helps you to feel fully embodied and grounded, so that you are better able to remember who you truly are.
For centuries, Rosemary’s ability to increase circulation and strengthen blood vessels has made her one of the most common herbs used for boosting memory and improving mental focus. She is also an enduring symbol of friendship, loyalty, and remembrance, and her easily recognizable aromatic scent makes her a superstar in the kitchen, the heart of the home.
Her energy is warming and grounding and joyfully welcomes us to come home to ourselves. She wants us to feel alive and fully inhabit the bodies that house our infinite souls. She reminds us that home is not where we live or where we come from; rather, it is being fully embodied, connected, confident, and comfortable in the home that is our physical body. There can be no security, otherwise.
What is around us, who is around us, and where we find ourselves, as well as our circumstances and situations, are always going to change. That is the only certainty in life. We may not like or welcome change, but it is a fact of life and not something we have any control over.
When you’ve had a difficult day, Rosemary invites you to relax and put your feet up, to pause your worrying and mental gymnastics, and to be fully present in your body. Sit by the cozy fire, and remember that your challenges, your difficulties, and even your wounds, as well as your accomplishments, joys, and successes, are what give your life its unique flavor. They are the spices of your life!
Sometimes, it is extremely painful to live in our bodies. We may feel depressed, lost, or wanting to escape, especially as many of us have experienced significant trauma—trauma that we carry in every cell of our bodies, not only from our own histories but also handed down from our ancestors and even from other lifetimes.
We can feel broken, disconnected, and searching for something or someone to fix us, to make us feel whole. It is not simple or easy, but in order to find that sense of wholeness, that sense of peace, of belonging and connection that we are longing for, we will have to look inside.
Look within for clarity. You are the divine in physical form, and home is where the heart is—literally. There is something deeply comforting about that.
Where do you feel most at home?
Affirmation: I am strong and resilient and living the fullest expression of my life.
© Lisa Estabrook
Website: http://www.mysoulflower.love/
Mighty Network: http://www.communitygarden.love/
The Pulse of Life
Behind the leafy long curtains
In the corner of the glade,
The pulse of life sits among the kinfolk,
Learning the fairy trade.
The learning isn’t so easy,
Yet isn’t also too deep,
So the pulse of life ignites her engines,
Her magic starting to seep.
She trickles and she stumbles
Around the hills and caves,
The pulse of life begins her journey
Through elements she shall brave.
Sometimes she feels she’s hungry,
Sometimes she feels she’s sad,
The pulse of life engages her care
And goes to find a comrade.
“I’m here,” she softly whispers,
“It’s me, your little friend.”
The pulse of life goes straight to your ear,
“On me you can always depend.”
“It’s time for me to go farther,
It’s time for me to grow,”
The pulse of life makes her passioned plea,
Allowing her whole heart to glow.
Where did you catch this moment?
Where did you find yourself?
The pulse of life will take you regardless,
The sweet little elf on your shelf.
“So are you going to help me?
Will you relieve this need?
The pulse of life curls up around you,
To see if you’ve agreed.
Of course you’ll help this angel,
You’re delighted to assist,
The pulse of life leaps into the air,
Her worries now fully dismissed.
“We’ll build a brand new world now,
We’ll do it all, you’ll see.
With me by your side, there’s nothing to hide,
We’re forever wild and free.”
“Thank you for this new world,”
You lovingly say to she.
The pulse of life simply meets your eyes,
“I love you, now go be me.”
© Jillian Joy
Substack:
Website: https://www.joyjourneys.org/
White Bear
I see you.
Then hesitate.
You have the habit
of invisibility. Living
in a landscape with no where
to hide.
A drift,
ice cracks and shifts,
water’s whisper, we sleep.
We ride on dreams
to rainbow coloured fish,
tossing here, there,
here, there,
on current’s spiral
of endings – beginnings.
We greet Seal of Soft Eyes –
soul’s sadness, diving to icy
still darkness, surfacing for a moment,
breathing.
Far below Narwal sings long
notes as timeless
as the dark slit of her eye.
(Once a photographer came with pictures.
He had caught you into your den
where you birth your children on land, away
from the uncertainty of ice flows.
Inside it was white, blue and smooth. Like an icy womb.)
Does the chill reach your bones?
Emerging…
You reach, stretch, dance, expose
your human form, and puck
morning star from winter’s long night.
With black claw accustomed to ripping seal’s skin
(red blood seeping into white snow)
you pierce my heart and place her light
within.
When sky turns to sun’s embrace,
her jealous fire extinguishing all other stars,
I rise and know how to be
in a landscape
where there is
nowhere
to hide.
© Abrah Arneson
Website: http://www.abraherbs.com/
Molecular Expansion
did you know
when caterpillars cocoon
they dissolve into liquid
every segment, every cell
of their bodies
dissolving into an
unrecognizable pool
that can only be described
as mush.
and then slowly this
indescribable soup
begins to solidify
morphing into
the recognizable wings
and antenna of
those beloved butterflies
we look for every summer,
flying swiftly.
to become something
new they must become
completely undone.
this. this is what grief
does to the human heart.
melts us into
an unrecognizable,
indescribable
sorrow.
I feel my very cells
being remade
becoming something new
in the chrysalis
of deep loss.
somehow these creatures
manage to fly
after this cellular breakdown.
maybe I will too
© Raine Stillito
Substack:
My art and writings are deep longings to render and depict what can’t be expressed! The ethereal, mystery, divine feminine, what is behind the veil. Call it hopeless or a wild goose chase. They may be failed endeavors, yet a certain aspect of this amazing enigma is revealed if only for a moment. And something else does transpire for me in the process. I change, I burn like the phoenix to rise again, but now with a deeper understanding of this amazing mystery we are all entangled in. Yes, I will continue to draw, paint, collage & write. I have too! It has become a dance with life’s untamed nature. I never know what is going to show up. These intimate glimpses into the wild unseen.
Liminal Star Tetrahedron
This collage is a depiction of the liminal forces at play. A merging of the feminine and masculine, earth and cosmos, matter and spirit, immanent and transcendent, inward and outward, solid and ethereal. A field generated by the tension of pulling together and pushing apart, contraction and expansion bringing in the liminal.
Creativity from this place is sooo powerful. As many of you already know. Where the ideas, insights and impulses meet the doing, forging and actualizing. A gentle fierce movement between the two where time both stops and speeds up.
© Julie Schmidt
Substack:
Website: https://www.liminalwalker.com/
Dancing Through the Apocalypse
While the ground is still under your feet
can you feel it with your soul
and yet not be destroyed
for the grief it carries
but be buoyed by the seeds of life
still germinating within?
Can you see yet around you
the disease-riddled forest swaying
or the dwindling numbers
of geese flying South
and send your blessings with their journey
in spite of endless hits to your own heart
as the world falls apart around you?
And as the world burns
it still turns
life remains held in the balance tilted.
Even now, you are supported.
The reason for your life
moves through you all the same.
Steps only you can take will be
your dance through the apocalypse.
Shake violently
pirouette and collapse.
Get back up and find your grace
to slow dance with death
slam dance with life
interpret the song of your purpose
in whatever steps are required of you.
A million dances in each land
will keep the planet spinning.
Embrace the madness swirling around us
moving through it still.
This cacophonic symphony is our life’s work.
We mustn’t sit down before the crescendo.
© Earthdancer
FB: https://www.facebook.com/EarthdancerPoetry
Thank YOU for TUNING IN with these beautiful Poetic Expressions.
Your presence is deeply appreciated. We would love to hear what was strummed in You. Give a moment and share in the comments!
The Weaving Wisdom Garden is published monthly and themed to support remembrance of our cyclical nature by following the Seasonal Spiral.
Brewing in the Creative Cauldron for next month:
Embodied Reception
publishing June 21, 2023
Please consider sending in your creative works of heart! This creation is woven through your participation. For details about the theme, the guidelines and the contribution process, visit:
https://www.weavingwisdom.love/pollinating-expression
Love,
Rhiannon
So much rich expansive energy to tune into here. I’m loving the vibes that are alive in this holy attunement. It’s an honor to be among all of you and your medicine.
Love the many woven threads in this collection. Delightful to be one of the threads. Thanks Rhiannon.