When the last big bundle of the pedophile papers dropped earlier this year, I knew it was time to gather a circle of women. It was time to acknowledge how systemic misogyny impacts the way we see ourselves and move through the world.

Across the globe, the gruesome underbelly of society is being exposed—revealing a pervasive disregard for the tender wholeness of life. It wounds us all. And we needn’t wait for leaders and institutions to acknowledge their complicity in order to face our own.

In these last few months, I’ve been reckoning the ledger of my own heart, untangling the legacy of harm inside myself, and undertaking the gentle work of reconciliation.

I’ve come to recognize that grooming is not limited to predators. In fact, it happens all the time without any awareness of the consequences. Consider the possibility that all of us have been psychologically conditioned for so long that the conditioning itself has become invisible.

For millennia, patriarchal cultures of separation and control have vilified our bodies and our intuitive ways of knowing, isolated us from our naturalness, and distorted our sense of belonging.

Normalized social grooming compels loving parents to teach their children to abandon themselves in order to fit in and stay “safe.” While the specifics of that conditioning can look quite different for boys and girls, the encouragement to reject and mistrust our innate ways of being happens to us all.

What “unacceptable“ parts of yourself have you learned to hide?

A photograph of me at age three reflects the essence of my own childhood conditioning. I’m seated at the breakfast table, hand propped under my chin, frowning over my cereal bowl. A construction paper face is taped up on the wall next to me. On it, my mother has drawn a frowning expression. On the flip side is its smiling opposite.

For years I imagined the flip between happy and unhappy faces was a playful game between me and my mom. On one level, it probably was—but it was not only that.

I’ve wondered: Why, in a lifetime of images, do I keep recalling this one photo?

My recognition: Some part of myself is trying to get my attention.

I’ve come to see the paper face ritual in my childhood kitchen as well-intentioned grooming. My loving mother was blindly passing on a devastating legacy—one she’d inherited long before me. She was teaching me to cover up the messy parts of my humanity, to hide inconvenient and unwanted feelings, and to perform in ways that please others. The ultimate other to please was always men.

Around the time that photo was taken, my parents were approached by the bishop of their church. He’d been concerned about the amount of attention I was receiving for the cute outfits my mother dressed me in. He worried that praise for my clothes would distort my values. A sensitive observation, to be sure. As the story goes, Bishop Bang encouraged my folks to compliment me on my sweet smile—adding something about how my smile reflects my sweet spirit.

Here’s the rub: the hidden message within his genuine care and concern is that girls are supposed to be sweet and agreeable. If we’re not compliant and smiling, we’re not reflecting goodness—or something like that. At the very least, I received the message that feeling sad and angry makes adults uncomfortable—and smiling pleases them. I was being conditioned to hide my naturalness. I was learning that my innate responses were not signals worth hearing, but defects to overpower.

One can argue that compliance makes civilization possible. It’s a common belief that if humans are to live together harmoniously, we must override the primitive and selfish aspects of our human nature.

Yet it seems possible that our so-called “base impulses” may not be born of nature. They may be expressions of an unnaturally inhibited self—distortions that arise in response to being controlled or overpowered.

Perhaps we are collectively expressing an existential wound held in place for so long that we think it’s natural.

I’ve been wondering: What can we do with a wound this old and vast?

It’s a question that wants company. My longing to be held in that inquiry prompted my notion of a women’s circle. A healing ritual. I asked Lisa Iversen—a gifted teacher, facilitator, and wise friend—to guide us.

The intention was to make visible the ways we’ve internalized patriarchal messages and shaped ourselves around male approval—to help something old unwind so something new can be woven. Lisa suggested we call the gathering Hospice for Patriarchy: Unwinding the Male Gaze.

Healing happens where two or more are gathered in love. By setting a date and naming our intention, Lisa and I initiated something—a field of healing. And ancient patterns of disempowerment began to surface almost immediately.

In the weeks leading up to the event, countless small moments, conversations, and dreams revealed to me dynamics I thought I’d unwound years ago. They were lurking in my psyche—less pronounced, to be sure, but still very much part of the show.

A dramatic example arrived just days before we gathered. It was dinner time, and I made an ordinary choice. Something I’ve probably done a thousand times. Simply put, I overrode my body’s clear signal regarding what to eat. It was an expedient choice that allowed me to stay in harmonious conversation with my partner, Stephen, and sidestep the need for deliberation. It was the kind of small, unbidden surrender I’ve made my whole life.

This time, that pattern of dismissing my internal knowing became alarmingly clear. An hour after dinner, a large bony protrusion appeared on my left hand, then my stomach expelled the meal and my left eye swelled up as if stung by a bee.

My body made visible a lifelong pattern of self-override.

Two days later, sixteen women representing four decades of life sat together in my living room. The lump on my hand and swollen eye held steady—reminders of what was urging me to host the gathering.

With skill and care, Lisa directed our focus toward receiving support and blessings—we had all experienced enough harm, there was no need to re-traumatize ourselves in the name of healing. She drummed and guided us into a journey in which each woman met with the girl she once was.

My girl-self arrived wearing a gypsy-style dress and bangle bracelets—small, tender, about five years old. I recognized her from a photograph I’d recently found. Her parents were divorcing. She and her mother had moved into an attic apartment. She had good friends and moments of real happiness. She also experienced complex feelings that had no safe place to land. In that moment, I couldn’t say for sure whether she was fully there or hiding part of herself.

Decades later, here we were, face to face. With my adult-self held by the beat of the drum and a circle of women, my girl-self received a long-awaited blessing—permission to be fully herself. It came from an ancestral source more vast and authentic than any of the adults around her, who were living inside their own forms of self-suppression and unable to bestow that kind of blessing.

Lisa’s drumming concluded and we gathered in pairs to listen and share. The house softly hummed. My heart was full. It seemed to me that a room full of girls were finally exhaling, after decades of holding their breath.

The next morning, the hard knob on my hand was melting like a mound of butter. My eyelid was less swollen too. Something important had happened in that circle and my body reflected it—a reconciliation, a kind of healing. Yet healing is a process.

In the days that followed, the old pattern of self-override showed up again—sneaky as ever. Each time I saw it, I laughed, let Stephen in on the joke, and made a different choice.

Later that week, Stephen and I sat together in another kind of circle, facilitating our bi-monthly support group. Stephen guided us into 30 seconds of pure squiggle—eyes closed, pen moving, no intention. Then we gazed at our scribbles, the way you might look at clouds or tea leaves, and waited for a character to appear. Through a creative process, we developed those characters, and engaged them in imaginal dialogue—a kind of inner conversation.

Within my own squiggles, a female figure appeared. Twisted like a pretzel, she wore tiny ballet shoes and her hair was pulled tight. I named her Henrietta. She looked cranky. I invited her to speak. She didn’t hold back. She was angry about being twisted. She urged me to feel that twist in my own body. I did. My inhale was uncomfortably constricted. So I uncrossed my legs and, together, we took some deep breaths.

Henrietta now sits at my desk—a totem. She reminds me to breathe, to be kind to myself, and to trust my body’s wisdom.

We do not learn to honor others by overriding ourselves.
We learn to honor others by coming home to ourselves.

That paper face in my mother’s kitchen didn’t make me a better person. It made me a better performer. As children we’re subtly taught that a performed self is better than an authentic self. That our inner authority is unreliable. That it’s safer—even wiser—to look outside ourselves for validation, answers, and direction.

Of course, as children, we depend on adult authority figures to survive. The problem is that we are rarely taught how to align with the wise authority inside ourselves. It seems to me that the shift from outer to inner authority is the mark of real maturity.

In my own life and my work with people, I’ve witnessed that the more comfortable we become in our own skin, the less willing we are to hide. The more we trust the inner authority of our bodies and intuition, the less vulnerable we are to manipulation by outer authority.

Coming home to myself is a lifelong practice. It involves recognizing when I leave myself, naming that departure with compassion, then returning—as best I can in the moment. Each time I do, I’m mending the wound of separation.

I am grateful to that circle of women and our girl-selves. What we set in motion continues to unfold. The little girl in the gypsy dress is free to be herself. She knows I’m here breathing with her.

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I remember a recurring scene from my childhood—my parents in the front seat driving home from somewhere, me in the backseat staring up at a night sky. Stars dotted the darkness and the moon seemed to follow us. Something about the unknown vastness of it all would stop my ordinary thinking. If God created the world, I wondered, who created God?

The question was a crack in the floor of the known world. Through it, something mysterious breathed.

I noticed that most adults didn’t seem troubled by such questions. They moved through the world with a kind of resolve—following protocols, honoring conventions, accepting givens. My big questions were generally unwelcome in school, especially in math class—where, with a degree of impatience, I was encouraged to follow the procedures without asking why.

Some questions don’t want answers so much as they desire company.

Who do you think you are? is one such question. In childhood it can often be heard as an accusation—a form of shaming to put someone back “in their place.” Yet, when asked with genuine wonder, it is an invitation to look more closely at the mystery of being a self at all.

Wonder questions are what the Wheel of Wisdom encourages. And it offers good company for sitting with them. It coaxes us to step back and appreciate the vastness of life—like the night sky.

The Wheel asks you to consider that life is unfolding within three octaves or realms of existence: Nature, Human, and Soul. Each octave has a different quality of energy, distinct ways of knowing, and an equally vital relationship to the whole.

In the Nature Octave, existence is collective and instinctual. Plants and animals participate in an intelligent choreography of balance—following the movement of life without the burden or benefit of individual self-conscious choice, as we think of it.

In the Soul Octave, existence is more luminously collective. Individuated aspects of a single source move in accord with what we might call divine will. Here too, the individual serves the whole, though at a different order of being.

Then there is the Human Octave—the realm we inhabit. In a sense, the human form is like scuba gear, in that it allows the higher, faster energy of soul to travel and learn within the slower, denser realm of nature. The Human Octave provides the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual conditions that allow soul to perceive a distinct self that is capable of acting either in harmony with nature’s collective balance and soul’s divine will, or doing something altogether different.

The capacity to choose is what makes us distinctly human—
and it’s made possible by something we call ego.

Ego has acquired a bad reputation—particularly in spiritual circles, where it is often cast as the enemy of enlightenment, the obstacle to experiencing the divine. Some traditions have even suggested that having a strong sense of self is morally shameful. It is a perspective worth examining—and, I think, worth questioning.

The Latin word ego simply means “I.” It refers to the invisible, intangible aspect of a human being that feels, acts, and thinks as a self. Far from an obstacle to remove, the Wheel of Wisdom sees ego as a vital part of the 'scuba gear' that allows soul to travel where it otherwise could not—to perceive, to choose, to learn within the human realm.

The distinct ability to make choices is what we call free will—and with it comes a distinctly human responsibility. If used to shame the self, the question Who do you think you are? maligns the very instrument that makes human experience and human virtue possible.

The Latin word centric means “pertaining to a center.” Egocentrism, then, is not simply having a strong sense of self, it is what happens when the self-making instrument malfunctions and places the self at the center of everything. The scuba diver keeps breathing and moving, but cannot see or hear or appreciate the vastness of the ocean—access is lost to the very experience the gear was meant to enable.

Ego creates the experience of a unified self, capable of choice.
Egocentrism cuts the self off from what it’s here to experience.

A self that knows it is part of something much larger—the mystery that breathed through a childhood crack in the floor—is able to act with genuine freedom. It can choose in ways that honor the whole. However, a self that has forgotten its place within the whole thinks it’s a closed system and accounts only for its own continuity, its own certainty, its own comfort. It doesn’t perceive or value what lies beyond its own edges.

Is that moral failing or a failure of perception?

We could say that egocentrism, at its root, is a kind of forgetting. It’s a narrowing of vision that misinterprets the part for the whole. That misperception has consequences—sometimes brutal and devastating. I’ve come to see egocentrism as a wound. A lost sense of belonging. One that’s often passed on and infiltrates cultures. Individuals can forget their place within the whole. So can societies.

When an entire civilization organizes itself around the assumption that human desires are the measure of all things—that nature exists to serve us, that other beings are our resources, that Earth is a backdrop for human ambition—it is operating egocentrically. Not out of malice, necessarily, but out of a very old forgetting.

The consequences of that forgetting can be seen in the destruction of ecosystems, in the accelerating financial gap, in the brittleness of institutions that once seemed sturdy. We might say that our zero-sum thinking and reflexive contempt for what we don't agree with or prefer are symptoms of a civilization that has forgotten its reason for being. Our life-enabling gear is malfunctioning. Remembering may be how we repair it.

A restorative question might be:
What becomes possible when we remember?

This question, like my childhood wondering about who created God, wants company more than an answer. In moments of genuine curiosity, our willingness to question accepted givens can open a crack in the floor of the known world, through which something larger can breathe.

Our egos are not the enemy of remembering. They are instruments through which remembering is possible. A self that knows it is part of something larger—one that holds its own individuality respectfully but lightly—is able to perceive beyond its own edges. It can make choices that honor the whole. It can meet others in the field of belonging, instead of the theatre of opposition.

The Wheel of Wisdom invites the ego to perceive itself
as a significant and beautiful part of a vast mystery.

Who do you think you are? is a worthy question. When contemplated with genuine curiosity, humility, and the willingness to be surprised, it opens a path to remembering. Remembering keeps us connected to the wonder of the night sky and what truly matters. In a world that values certainty and diminishes what’s unknown, that is a radical act.

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I’ve written a lot about belonging. My work provides a map and compass to find our way into the felt experience of it, because I think belonging matters. In fact, I think it’s central to every dilemma we face in our personal lives and our world at large.

My view is based on a definition of belonging that the Wheel of Wisdom helps me see, feel, and practice. It reflects two words that make up the word belong:

be—to exist or be present,

and

long—to extend a great distance, as in lifelong; also, a strong wish or desire, as in longing.

Existence itself is powered by a mysterious, inexplicable desire, a longing that we cannot fully know or apprehend.

As I’ve come to see it, belonging begins the moment something comes into being and extends until the strong desire that brought it into being is somehow fulfilled.

Seen this way, belonging is not the result of fitting in with a particular style or group, or with a certain mode of thinking, feeling, or behaving. It’s not a judgmental or moral proclamation. We don’t belong due to our faith or status. We belong because we exist.

The perspective that everything belongs recognizes that some aspects of life appear to nurture or revere the mystery of existence, and some aspects of life appear to diminish or denounce the mystery of existence.

It’s certainly my intention to support life, yet my words and deeds have both nurtured and diminished it. This is part of being human. Nurturing doesn’t make us good, and diminishing doesn’t make us bad. We are far more complex.

When I’m stuck in the binary trap of good vs. bad, it’s difficult for me to see or acknowledge the kindness of people who do harm. It can be equally difficult to see or acknowledge the harm done by people who are kind. Either-or thinking keeps me from seeing a fuller spectrum of reality.

If I’m willing to see and honor life’s complexity, I become aware that all truths are partial truths. Every individual perspective reflects some degree of truth, yet none expresses the Whole Truth.

Consider what might change if we treated all people and situations as if they exist to fulfill a hidden longing within life’s sacred wholeness.

One example of living as if everything belongs comes from longtime peace activist Louis Vitale. On one particular day, when Vitale and his group arrived at a nuclear testing site to engage in non-violent protest, they were met by a row of police officers defending the site against trespass. Vitale kindly approached their line and informed the officer in charge that the group was there to protest and many of them were prepared to be arrested. Vitale then asked if the officer had requests of them.

Grateful to be asked, the officer wondered if the protestors would be willing to refrain from going limp (becoming “dead weight”) when they get arrested. He explained that having to lift and carry limp protesters doesn’t prevent arrest, but it does hurt police officers’ backs.

Vitale saw no value in vilifying or penalizing police officers. The protest was meant to expand minds and hearts, not narrow them. So, although the protestors did disobey police orders by crossing the line of trespass, they did not go limp or otherwise resist arrest.

The arrests happened. Nuclear testing was not stopped. Yet seeds of hate were not sown. Othering did not rule the day. In fact, there was surprising cordiality between the officers and protestors, and we don’t know what ripple effects that might have created.

Of course, this one instance of practicing inclusion does not account for all the chaotic and often violent complexities in our world. What it does do is model an embodied attitude that allows something unexpected to emerge.

Living as if everything belongs may seem impractical or impossible. Inclusion will require immense patience. It will slow us down. But we will not know what radical inclusion makes possible until we relinquish the habit of exclusion.

Consider the marvel of parallax vision. When the physical act of seeing involves two eyes, the left eye views the world from one perspective and the right eye views it from a slightly different perspective. When these points of view come together, a new perspective is possible—vision expands and depth is perceived. Depth adds complexity.

To see through the eyes of belonging is to include life’s depth and complexity. That presents challenges, and it also gives rise to new realities.

Humans are well-practiced at fighting, shaming, and trying to vanquish whatever we deem unacceptable—perhaps especially, parts of ourselves. In doing so, we overlook life’s preciousness. When we see through the eyes of belonging, life’s preciousness is savored.

Of course, some aspects of life are vastly more challenging to include than others. Seeing this way requires practice. I’m suggesting it’s a lifelong practice. One that is worthy of heart, mind, will, and spirit—and honors the sacredness of being.

My practice begins by connecting to my own felt sense of belonging. The Wheel of Wisdom has helped me map that inner territory, so it’s now easier to find my way. When I actually feel my own belonging, my energy is aligned with the current of life, and something besides outrage, handwringing, and bypassing becomes possible.

By stepping into a practice of presence and radical inclusion, we step out of the anguished history of exclusion, and create an opening for the future to emerge.

The future will arise in the field of belonging. That’s why belonging matters.

Beyond our sensory experiences of separateness and our binary notions of “right” and “wrong” there is an inclusive field in which the future is possible. When we can navigate our own sense of alienation and find our own way back into the field of belonging, it becomes possible to meet others there. We might be the first to show up, but our presence will invite others to join us there.

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Have you considered the help you receive to live your life?

Our human existence is made possible through the help of countless others. We are completely interdependent by nature. Yet our human myth of self-sufficiency alienates us from the wonder and magic of that truth.

While the most essential help comes to us without request, I’ve found that there is enchantment in the act of asking for and receiving help from the web of life. It enhances the experience of being alive…and it strengthens my sense of belonging.

I’ll give you a personal example. One day last week, I awoke feeling heavy and burdened. A tenacious cold virus had taken up residence in our household for several weeks. In addition to some uncomfortable physical symptoms, I felt oppressed by lethargy and relative isolation. I felt pulled toward a kind of depression.

That’s when I remembered to ask for help!

Misery was my signal that I was out of touch with life’s magic—I’d lost contact with my felt sense of belonging to life. So I turned to the “key of belonging,” a four-fold reality that’s central in the Wheel of Wisdom (image below).

Before I tell you about the help I received, I’d like to share with you one way to use the key of belonging to ask for help. Perhaps you’ll be inspired to try it…

Asking for Help Turns the Key

1. Ask for Physical Help
   With eyes closed and palms on legs, breathe rhythmically and feel the earthy groundedness of your body. Ask the Muse of Somatic Belonging—the consciousness of Earth—to reveal a pleasurable sensation, no matter how small.

   

2. Ask for Emotional Help
   With one hand on chest and the other on belly, sense the flow of water within you. Ask the Muse of Intimate Belonging—the consciousness of Water—to soften your heart and connect you to tenderness.

   

3. Ask for Mental Help
   Place palms over eyes and breathe air into the darkness. Ask the Muse of Social Belonging—the consciousness of Air/Space—to disperse stagnant thoughts and create an inner spaciousness to clearly perceive your current place in life.

   

4. Ask for Soul Help
   Rest hands palms up and be still. Ask your Soul—the consciousness of Light and Infinite Belonging—to surround you with peaceful loving presence. Allow Love-Light to radiate from the core of your being into every cell.

Once you feel reconnected to this nourishment, you could ask for other help as well—like creative inspiration to address a problem, direction to navigate a situation, relief from a burden, or insight into a specific area of your life.

I’ve found that some help comes immediately, unless I’m resistant to receiving. Other help takes time to show up…but it does come!

Receiving Help Opens the Door

The help that arrives often looks different than expected. But if we can receive the help that comes, if we allow ourselves to be reoriented, a door opens.

That is the practical magic of asking and receiving.

On the morning I felt weighted and directionless, having spent much of the prior weeks in bed, I asked for help and allowed myself to receive it. I welcomed a subtle sense of belonging—in body, heart, mind, and soul. I let it re-orient me. The felt sense that I’m connected to something vast helped me perceive my situation in a new way.

After asking for help, new insights or ideas tend to “drop in” effortlessly, and I might encounter a wonderful synchronicity. Often I’ll experience a rush of compassion for whomever I’m struggling with—most often that turns out to be me.

It’s a Revolving Door

Last week, once I allowed myself to feel re-connected to the mystery of life, the next bit of help I received was heart opening—a wave of compassion for the person who was struggling. With neither self-pity nor self-shame I acknowledged that I was feeling bereft of the meaningful engagement I wanted. That simple act of kindness named a truth that further shifted my mood. Next, I received an influx of energy and inspiration to share this practice with you here.

However, those shifts didn’t last forever. The motion of life is an ever revolving door—a continual cycle of ebb and flow. Some days I could sustain a felt sense of belonging while I felt sick and unable to do what I’d prefer. That’s when I used my hibernation to reflect and allow feelings of grief, for all that’s passing away, to do the slow and quiet work of changing me. Other days, when I repeatedly sank into a hole, I asked for help repeatedly!

Whenever I asked, help arrived.

Help has come in the form of inspiring movies, thought provoking book passages, connected conversations, deep breathing, a purring cat, Christmas pancakes, pink streaks in the morning sky, and the fragrant beauty of a yellow winter rose.

Help is anything that re-connects me to a larger reality, anything that helps me appreciate or peacefully accept “what is.” Help is whatever re-awakens me to the magic of our interconnectedness and the boundlessness of belonging, which includes every experience we have and transcends every story we have about it.

Now that I’m feeling better, I’d love to know how you ask for help. Also, if you do try using the key, please tell me what happens for you!

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You are a spark of Divinity in the throes of activation.

The Wheel of Wisdom invites you to remember that you are lit from within. Dark times call us toward an inner spark that warms and connect us, when we allow it.

This meditation is a gesture toward Infinite Belonging, the bright center of your being. May that light melt what’s frozen or stuck, so the water of love can flow.

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Welcome to the consciousness of the Wheel of Wisdom.

The sacred geometry of the Wheel’s mandala holds insights into cosmic archetypes that shape the natural world and color your human character (personality). Those archetypes express your relationship with belonging. You entered this world with a unique constellation of those archetypes—influenced by your ancestral and soul lineages. How you work with the archetypes, how you use their darkness and light to grow and expand, is the work of this lifetime.

The Wheel reflects your soul’s earthly mission to journey from unity to individuation to unity—all while you are in human form. This is not an easy feat! Yet doing so is more possible now than ever before.

The Wheel of Wisdom illuminates what appears to separate us. It provides an orienting map to traverse the bewildering landscape of earthly kinship and alienation, and helps to activate the felt sense of belonging that comes when you embody your rootedness, perceive your innate safety, and radiate your purpose.

If you’re curious to know more, these posts are a good start: part one & part two.

If you’re ready for insight into your personal constellation of belonging, learn about Wheel of Wisdom mapping sessions and oracle consultations here.

As an oracle, the Wheel speaks through a deck of 40 illustrated cards and an accompanying book—tools for self-learning and divination. Working with the Wheel helps you align with your higher wisdom and work with the benevolent forces at play in your life. That strengthens your sense of belonging and empowers you to respond creatively to a world that’s in need of your full participation.

The Wheel heralds an era of new creative potential. Humanity is in the throes of what has been called “ascension,” a process of dissolution and awakening. We are being urged to co-create a new paradigm of greater love, harmony, and wholeness. The Wheel and its Muses of Belonging are here to support our awakening, helping us live into our best potential future.

I’m glad you found us. Your questions and your comments are welcome!

~ Helen

About

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Your story begins before time.

Before you were swaddled in a tiny human body, before you had a shape or identity of your own, everything that would become you was blissfully floating in the luminous womb of All That Is. For all eternity you might have remained that way, undistinguished within divine imagination, but you did not. You were conceived as a spark of consciousness. Ignited by a desire to know, you pulsed and grew into an individuated being of light. Let us call you a soul.

In the realm of your beginnings, you grew with delight. In undulating light and vibrating coos, you rippled and resonated with everything around you. With tender instruction from those who emerged before you, you learned to expand your light into great shimmering waves of imagination. For all eternity you could have remained there, in the blissful realm of pure radiance, but you did not. You were eager for the opportunity to pour your luminosity into a physical body, in the legendary realm of Earth.

You were informed of the troubles and the triumphs kindled by human feelings.

You were warned that the power of earthly senses will inhibit the capacity to retain soul awareness in human form. You understood that adversity would seem immense and the risks daunting. Still, you thrilled at the idea of artfully crafting a human self, a unique lifetime to contribute to the expansion of consciousness.

With myriad preparations in place and the date of departure fixed, you awaited your moment to jump through the eye of the needle. In a fiery union of soul and nature your conception ignited a big bang, propelling your human crossing.

The light of divine consciousness merged with earthly matter, giving way to your embryonic form. Suspended there, in primal warmth, you grew, before mounting pressure prompted your initiation. You emerged and, within seconds, your lungs transformed, enabling your first autonomous act: breathing.

With every subsequent breath you have created your very own human life.

Your creative materials include a colorful array of archetypal energies—qualities of being that you use in distinctive ways. How you work with these archetypes, and how others worked with them before you, is now shaping and filtering everything you perceive.

However, you who read these words have chosen to live in a time of planetary transformation. The perception of separation that has been primary in the human experience is rapidly decreasing. You are in the throes of what has been called ascension—an accelerated process of incrementally incarnating more of your soul light, and awakening to the truth of who you are and why you are here.

With practice, you will learn to transmit the radiance of unity far more than the shadows of imagined separation.

Yet you are not meant to transcend your individuality. Distinctions will always be indispensable in the process of human learning. You and your fellow humans are here to artfully craft individuated selves who uniquely contribute to and expand All That Is.

The Wheel of Wisdom is an ally in the (r)evolution of human consciousness. It holds a mirror for you to recognize yourself as Human, as Nature, and as Soul. Witnessing and welcoming more of yourself, you naturally live in greater harmony with fellow humans, with all beings of Earth, and the entire Cosmos.

We are in this story together.

Next up, meet Infinite Belonging →

The Light of Infinite Belonging

Fire is an element closely related to your light body—the most divine aspect of your humanity that we could call your Highest Self or Soul. Pure light shines brightly at the core of your being. This brilliance animates every molecule of your existence, connecting you to the entire cosmos and your Infinite Belonging.

Undaunted by human turmoil, your soul light waits patiently for you to become quiet enough to hear its message of enduring love, compassion, and peace. When beckoned, its radiance will faithfully illuminate every darkness.

This card invites you to become aware of yourself beyond ordinary consciousness and welcome the abiding presence of your soul. You can begin right now. Try closing your eyes and noticing your breath. Articulate an intention to attune to your Infinite Self, then patiently listen for subtle, internal responses from your own luminosity.

Practice: Embodied Radiance
Duration: 7–11 minutes
Intention: Sense your light-body and attune to Infinite Belonging

Listen to audio guidance for this practice:

Step 1 – Settle Into Presence (1–2 min)

• Sit or lie down in a position that your body can sustain without effort.

• Let your weight sink downward, as if gravity is inviting you into deeper trust.

• Close your eyes and allow three slow exhales to soften your belly, your shoulders, and your face.

• Inwardly acknowledge: “I am here.”

Step 2 – Feel the Ember Within (1–2 min)

• Place one hand on your sternum and the other on your belly.

• Sense the warmth there, beneath your hands.

• Deepen your awareness of this internal ember—steady and alive.

• Inwardly acknowledge: “My light is always here.”

Step 3 – Let the Light Expand (3–4 min)

• With each inhale, feel this ember subtly brighten.

• With each exhale, feel its warmth gently widen and spread…down your arms, across your ribs, and the length of your spine.

• Let this warmth begin to feel less like it’s in you and more like it is you, allowing its light to expand beyond the boundary of your skin.

• Notice the sensations—like changes to the warmth, tingling, a sense of spaciousness, or a subtle vibration or hum.

Step 4 – Reverent Recognition (2-3 min)

• Keep breathing and sensing how this radiance that’s warming you is expanding and merging with the radiance of everything that seems to be beyond you.

• Relish the sensation of being a luminous breathing body—part of an all encompassing luminosity.

• Inwardly affirm: “I belong to All-That-Is. All-That-Is belongs to me.”

• When you’re ready, slowly open your eyes and allow everything around you to meet you with radiance.

Journal Prompts

• “When I sense myself as light, I notice…”

• “When I remember that my radiance is shared with everything…”

Meet the Muse of Somatic Belonging…

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In the Human Octave, Archetype Nine inverts when you abdicate presence from physical reality and dissociate from Somatic Belonging. When out of contact with your environment and body, you are unable to feel your own life force, your needs, your desires.

Inverted Nine anesthetizes the liveliness of anger that is trying to assert a boundary. Unfelt energy accumulates and may erupt in destructive ways. Anger indicates that a limit, need, or preference wants to be acknowledged. Doing that needn’t cause harm, but it will underscore distinction.

Harmony expresses your freedom to turn the discord of difference into music. This card is an invitation to deepen your somatic experience of being alive.

When considering the Inversion of Archetype Nine, it can be helpful to review the Soul Octave, Nature Octave, and (un-inverted) Human Octave to help you align with this archetype’s natural expression of belonging.

Practice: Practice: Permission to Feel
Duration: 7–11 minutes
Intention: Reclaim liveliness by honoring feelings/sensations

Step 1 – Contact the Signal (2-3 min)

• Sit or stand in somewhere you’ll be undisturbed.

• Take a breath and come to a place of stillness.

• Bring to mind a recent moment when you felt avoidant, quietly irritated, disconnected, or numb.

• Without analyzing, touch a place on your body where you now feel sensation.

• Direct your breath into that sensation.

• Inwardly say: “I am allowed to feel this.”

Step 2 – Allow It to Move (3–5 min)

• Give your body permission to show you how that sensation would like to move.

• It might be a simple gesture. It could be stomping, shaking, stretching, pressing, curling.

• You can’t do this wrong. Let your body lead.

• Feel the energy of that sensation expressing itself—not as violence, but as life-force energy reclaiming its direction.

• Inwardly affirm: “My feelings signal my belonging.”

• Repeat this process as many times as you’d like. Find a new bodily sensation each time and let that sensation express itself through movement.

Step 3 – Return to Presence (2–3 min)

• Return to stillness and gently lengthen your spine.

• Lace both hands over your heart or lower belly.

• Breathe deeply into the inner space you’ve reclaimed.

• Whisper: “I belong here, in this body. I am free to feel and to move.”

Additional Journal Prompts:

• “Avoiding conflict costs me…”

• “Allowing myself to feel energies of resistance…”

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Archetype Nine at the Human Octave carries the gifts of receptivity and equanimity. Balanced, tolerant, and collaborative, Nine’s accommodating ways help to loosen and shift rigid divisions. Its gentle energy serves as a natural intercessor between divergent people, situations, and states of being.

Even if the Nine Archetype is not an obvious aspect of your character, Nine is at work whenever you assuage opposing forces. It helps you to resolve disputes by embodying the soothing qualities of equipoise amid internal and external strife.

Somatic Belonging for Archetype Nine is the freedom to cultivate peace. This card indicates that the gifts of Nine are active right now or that they are needed. Allow Nine to relax what is too tight, to refocus what’s too fuzzy, and to regain a natural state of equilibrium.

Practice: Practice: Inner Intercessor
Duration: 5–8 minutes
Intention: Cultivate equanimity in the presence of tension

Step 1 – Notice the Dissonance (1–2 min)

• Sit comfortably with eyes closed. Breathe naturally.

• Gently scan your inner world for opposing desires, conflicting thoughts, or a situation with no easy answer.

• Identify and name “two sides” of this tension.

Step 2 – Create Space Between (2–3 min)

• Visualize these two sides as figures seated on opposite sides of a round table.

• Now imagine yourself—the wise, grounded aspect of you—seated between them.

• You are not the conflict. You are the intercessor.

• Deepen your breath and offer your presence to both sides.

• Inhale and affirm: “I make space for both sides.”

• Exhale and affirm: “I do not need to choose a side.”

Step 3 – Find the Motion of Peace (2–3 min)

• Gently rock your body side to side—small, even movements. Let this be soothing.

• Feel the motion in your balance—your active equilibrium that is present, not passive.

• Inwardly affirm: “Peace is active. Peace doesn’t collapse to one side or the other. Peace includes both.”

Journal Prompts:

• “When I imagine sitting between opposing parts, I notice…”

• “For me, equanimity feels like…”

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In the Nature Octave, Archetype Nine is the domain of fluidity and combining. Nine exudes the Power of Blend, illustrated in estuarial ecosystems, where fresh water and saltwater come together to create a balanced home for diverse lifeforms.

From microscopic organisms to vast galaxies, the entire universe is templated by the Principle of Synergy at the Soul Octave, and empowered with the capacity to intermingle at the Nature Octave. Although boundaries between all things are porous, some degree of distinction is required in order to blend.

This card urges you to fully inhabit your body and acknowledge your own energy, so that you are present to your Somatic Belonging. Engaging with the tactile pleasures of physical reality will naturally improve your capacity to harmoniously mix with others.

Practice: Threshold Breath
Duration: 6–7 minutes
Intention: Feel what it’s like to stay balanced at a threshold

Step 1 – Find the Edge (1 min)

• Stand with your arms by your sides at any threshold—between two rooms, between indoors and outdoors, between water and dry land.

• Place your LEFT foot on one side and your RIGHT foot on the other, letting the center of your body bridge the two.

Step 2 – Breathing Sides (3 min)

• On an inhale, reach your LEFT arm out to that side of the threshold, and lower it back to your side as you exhale.

• On your next inhale, reach your RIGHT arm out to that side of the threshold, and lower it back to your side on your exhale.

• Continue this alternating arm movement for several more rounds of breath, letting it be slow and steady.

• Pay attention to how you feel, noting differences you experience between sides.

Step 3 – Blending Breath (2–3 min)

• Rest your arms by your sides and breathe comfortably.

• Close your eyes and feel both sides of your body.

• Be aware of both sides of the threshold—the temperature, breeze, energies.

• Let these differences mix within you and become a conscious part of your experience.

• Inwardly affirm: “I can meet and mix without losing myself.”

Journal Prompts:

• “Something I found surprising while doing this activity…”

• “When I feel the energy of both sides…”

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Nine is a story of culmination. As a divine idea, Nine is equilibrium and equipoise amid divergent forces.

Within the Soul Octave, Archetype Nine is Divine Harmony. It conveys the Principle of Synergy—the magic that is possible when multiple entities collaborate to create something greater than any of them could on their own.

If you draw this card, consider that there is a grand, euphonic blending underway in your situation right now. Archetype Nine is encouraging you to be present to the fullness of your internal and external worlds. Take inspiration from the central triangle within this geometry and notice that you are stable and whole unto yourself, even while you dance with the differing points around you. Synergy is not about losing track of yourself, it is being fully yourself while becoming even more.

Practice: Practice: Drawing Harmony
Duration: 7–11 minutes
Intention: Sense your inner balance amid outer influences

Step 1 – Draw Your Triangle (2–3 min)

• Draw an equilateral triangle—as balanced and centered as you can.

• Let this triangle represent YOU in your most stable, present, and balanced state.

• Inside the triangle, draw symbols or words that reflect your wholeness.

Step 2 – Surrounding Forces (2–3 min)

• Around the outside of your triangle, draw six or more different marks—these could be dots, spirals, or any other shape that wants to come through.

• Let each shape you draw represent a distinct person, situation, or aspect of life that is prominent for you right now.

• Follow your internal sense, as you make these shapes different sizes and place them at different distances away from your triangle.

Step 3 – Notice, Reflect, Harmonize (3–5 min)

• Step back and look at your image:

  • Do you feel a sense of balance here?

  • Is there something you feel pulled to change?

• Adjust or re-draw the image, as needed, to increase your inner sense of harmony.

• You might affirm: “As I dance with these energies, I am balanced in myself.”

Journal Prompts:

• “One thing this activity reveals…”

• “To feel myself as distinct, and also part of a greater harmony, I…”

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Anger is a natural response to any breach of boundaries. When you are connected to Somatic Belonging, your anger will fuel right action and justly address trespass. However, without the felt sense of Somatic Belonging, the gifts of Archetype Eight invert and trigger incendiary reactions to any encroachment or limit.

The rush of anger might feel empowering, temporarily, yet it indicates you are feeling powerless or exposed. Somatic Belonging is not freedom from exposure. It is the freedom to chose how to respond, and the kind of protection that comes with interconnection.

Trying to overpower vulnerability weakens you and causes pain. This card is an invitation to notice if your resistance to tenderness is creating tension, and to soften your shield.

When considering the Inversion of Archetype Eight, it can be helpful to review the Soul Octave, Nature Octave, and (un-inverted) Human Octave to help you align with this archetype’s natural expression of belonging.

Practice: Softening the Shield
Duration: 7–9 minutes
Intention: Transform reactive anger into steady, connected strength

Listen to the practice with eyes closed:

Step 1 – Notice the Armor (2 min)

• Sit or stand with closed eyes and breathe naturally, letting yourself settle in.

• Bring to mind a recent moment of anger or defensiveness.

• Where does that tension live in your body—jaw, shoulders, fists, chest, belly?

• Inwardly acknowledge: “This tension is a shield. This tension limits my choice.”

Step 2 – Disrupt the Tension (1-2 min)

• Gently jiggle or shake your body for a full 30 seconds or more.

• Take several deep, cleansing breaths as you move.

• Come to stillness and feel the inner effects of your movement.

Step 3 – Breathe Open Space (2 min)

• Place one hand over your belly, the other on your chest.

• Try on this affirmation: “Softness sets me free.”

• With each gentle inhale, feel warmth spreading through your body.

• With each relaxing exhale, imagine the edges of the tension shield softening.

• Allow each breath to create more space in yourself for choice.

Step 3 – Practice Gentle Power (2–3 min)

• Recall again the same moment that triggered your anger or defensiveness. This time visualize yourself staying connected to the flow of your breath and softening your body rather than tensing it.

• Imagine yourself responding from a place of inner spaciousness, without creating a tension shield.

• Sense how your grounded presence protects your ability to make choices, free of tension or harm.

• Inwardly affirm: “I choose sovereignty that honors connection.”

Journal Prompt:

• “When I don’t shield myself with tension, my true power feels like…”

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Within the Human Octave, Archetype Eight is direct, self-reliant, and exudes confidence. This maverick energy is swift, action-oriented, and enjoys a challenge. With abundant vigor and generosity, Eight yearns for justice and eagerly defends liberty.

Somatic Belonging is expressed through Archetype Eight as unmitigated contact with physicality. Its tactile nature takes pleasure in trail blazing to determine its own fate. Regardless of its prominence within your character, the energy of Eight is active whenever you assert your sovereignty. It drives your aims to overcome limitation, and empowers your magnanimous gestures to safeguard the sovereignty of others.

This card suggests that the power and determination of Archetype Eight is active in your situation, or that its energy is needed. Be strong in your intention to respect, serve, and protect self-determination for all.

Practice: Sovereign Beings
Duration: 4–6 minutes
Intention: Honor self-determination in yourself and the other

Step 1 – Claim Your Ground (1–2 min)

• Stand tall with feet shoulder-width apart.

• Keeping knees slightly bent, make stabilizing contact with the ground.

• Let the top of your head lift upward, like a golden thread connects you to the sky.

• Inwardly acknowledge: “I am free. I am connected to this Earth.”

Step 2 – Sense Another’s Ground (2 min)

• Bring to mind someone with whom you have a conflict or boundary challenge.

• Imagine them standing on their own patch of ground nearby.

• Notice how they belong to their ground as much as you belong to yours.

• Inwardly say: “You are free. You are connected to this Earth.”

Step 3 – Experience the Bridge (1–2 min)

• Visualize a golden bridge of light appearing between the two of you.

• Notice how this bridge doesn’t collapse your boundary or erase theirs.

• Inwardly say: “Self-determination is a birthright we share. I honor this connection between us.”

Journal Prompt:

• ”If I truly respect self-determination in myself and others…”

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The Nature Octave of Archetype Eight is the domain of action and vigor and caries the Power of Resilience. Bears embody endurance when they adapt to their life conditions and hibernate in winter months. However, bears are not comatose in their dens. They sleep a great deal and conserve their strength, retaining just enough muscle to defend themselves and even give birth during the coldest season.

Somatic Belonging endows you with the power to keep going. Like everything in the natural world, you’re designed to withstand a measure of adversity. It strengthens your resolve and helps you grow.

This card suggests that your current situation is fortifying your resilience and urging you to evolve. Bear is a reminder that your body knows when to rest and when to act. Heed its intelligence and you will have the strength to endure and thrive.

Practice: Micro-Hibernation
Duration: 6–8 minutes
Intention: Restore your energy and cultivate resilience

Listen to this practice:

Step 1 – Rest into Earth (2–3 min)

• Find a comfortable position—sitting or lying down.

• Close your eyes and let your body be supported by Earth.

• Inhale gently, sending breath toward a place of tension.

• Exhale slowly, releasing weight into the ground.

• Inwardly affirm: “I am free to rest and replenish.”

Step 2 – Breathe with Nature (2–3 min)

• Imagine yourself in a natural place you love—perhaps beneath trees, on soft grass.

• With each inhale, feel the energy of Nature flowing into you—quietly renewing.

• With each exhale, release back to Earth whatever is not serving your life-force.

• Notice the rhythm of giving and receiving, effort and ease, action and rest.

Step 3 – Rise Renewed (2 min)

• When ready, slowly make your way to standing.

• Feel the contact your feet make with the ground—strong and stable.

• Feel how you are subtly replenished by connecting with your earthly nature.

• Take another deep breath and stretch in any way that feels good to your body.

• Inwardly affirm: “Balancing rest and action makes my body resilient.”

• Repeat this practice throughout your day and notice the effects.

Journal Prompt:

• “When I pause instead of pushing, I notice…”

• “If I fully honor my body’s need to rest and to move…”

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Eight is a story of determination and strength. As a divine idea, Eight is the action and fortitude that yields abundance. Archetype Eight at the Soul Octave is Divine Power and the Principle of Will—the energy that directs all things.

Physical force is easily depleted, but the force of intention is inexhaustible. Your strong intent to support divine will with free will multiplies your power. It ensures that you are not working alone.

This card indicates that now is the time to fortify individual power with a higher order power. That is the essence of self-mastery. The squares within this geometry offer you a subtle clue. Call upon Archetype Eight to summon the inner stamina and outer composure needed to be an instrument of collective betterment. You might be amazed by the graceful power your actions will have when you do.

Practice: Mountain of Will
Duration: 5–7 minutes
Intention: Activate the power of your interconnection

Step 1 – Stand as Mountain (1-2 min)

• Stand (or sit) with your feet firmly on the ground, about hip-width apart.

• Feel the weight of your body settling downward.

• Sense your body’s resonance with a mountain—solid, steady, enduring.

• Inwardly affirm: “The mountain and I are made of Earth.”

Step 2 – Feel Earth’s Current (2–3 min)

• Bring awareness to your breath.

• With inhale, sense Earth’s current rising up, filling you with vitality.

• With each exhale, release strain and force—let your strength be easeful.

• Inwardly affirm: “Earth’s strength flows through me.”

Step 3 – Align with the Greater Good (2 min)

• Sense yourself as one peak in a vast mountain range, part of a larger landscape.

• Sense how your well-being is connected to the well-being of the landscape.

• Inwardly affirm: “My will moves with Earth’s will, for the good of all.”

• Savor this strength and connection that is here for you…that is you.

Journal Prompts:

• “When I feel Earth’s current moving through me…”

• “Aligned with the greater good, my actions…”

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Within the Human Octave, the energies of Archetype Seven invert when you evade life’s difficulties. By avoiding the unpleasant aspects of reality, you disconnect from Social Belonging and merely skim the surface of life. In trying to avoid temporary discomfort, you sidestep the longer-lasting pleasures of relating and being alive.

When Archetype Seven is disconnected from belonging, your fear is elusive and the thought of being trapped by unpleasant consequences makes it difficult to commit to any choice. This indicates that you are at the threshold of greater depth, which requires trust. If expansion is what you seek, can you tolerate some discomfort in order to expand and deepen your joy?

When you consider the Inversion of Archetype Seven, it may be helpful to review the Soul Octave, Nature Octave, and (un-inverted) Human Octave to help you align with this Archetype’s innate expression of belonging.

Practice: Making Space for Joy
Duration: 6–8 minutes
Intention: Compassionately meet discomfort

Step 1 – Name the Avoidance (2–3 min)

• Sit quietly and bring to mind a person, situation, or feeling you’ve been avoiding.

• Say silently: “I am safe enough to see and feel what’s here for me.”

Step 2 – Breathe Into the Edges (2–3 min)

• Become aware of tension in your body—jaw, chest, low back, shoulders, etc.

• Gently place one or both hands on the place of tension.

• Let your breath meet that tension on the inside, while your hands meet the tension on the outside.

• Imagine that your hands, your breath, and your awareness—together—are generating safety and light.

Step 3 – Choose One Brave Step (2 min)

• Ask yourself: “What is one step I can take to meet what I’ve been avoiding?”

• Whisper: “I trust myself to meet life fully.”

Optional Journal Prompts:

• “A hidden cost of my avoidance is…”

• “If I turned toward this instead of away, I might discover…”

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Archetype Seven in the Human Octave transmits enthusiasm and an insatiable appetite for learning. Bringing an expansive and optimistic outlook, this free-spirited, visionary energy enjoys novelty. Seven generates big ideas and can perceive future potentials that are radically different from what is here now.

Even if these buoyant traits are not foremost in your character, Archetype Seven is at play whenever you feel upbeat about the future or when you can see the proverbial silver lining in a dark cloud.

Social Belonging for Archetype Seven is the security that comes from knowing every new day brings opportunities for betterment. This card indicates that invoking your inborn imagination and aspiration will benefit your current situation. If you allow yourself to trust life’s magic, it will become visible everywhere.

Practice: Grounded Optimism
Duration: 5–8 minutes
Intention: Open up to joyful potential

Step 1 – Breathe & Relax (2–3 min)

• Sit or lie down comfortably.

• Close your eyes and let your breath naturally expand.

• Feel your body supported. Let each breath soften something.

Step 2 – Recall Delight (1-2 min)

• Remember a time you were pleasantly surprised by something unexpected—like finding money in a coat pocket, joyful connection with a stranger, an unexpected compliment, a random act of kindness.

Step 3 – Invite Future Magic (1–2 min)

• Visualize waking up tomorrow and encountering a day full of delights—like synchronous conversations, surprise opportunities, unexpected beauty, generous gestures given and received.

• Allow yourself to feel optimism and lightness through this imagining.

Step 3 – Anchor Optimism (1 min)

• Place a hand on your belly and whisper to yourself:

  • “I trust life to unfold magically. I’m open to encountering life’s delights.”

Optional Journal Prompt:

• Recall a time when something unpleasant or unwanted led to a surprise blessing. What surprised you? What did you learn?

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At the Nature Octave, Archetype Seven is the domain of expansion and potential. It is the Power to Learn through play. Life itself can be viewed as a sacred game in which the Principle of Joy, templated at the Soul Octave, is a foundation for learning and developing in the Nature Octave.

If you are neglecting the evolutionary imperative to play, allow yourself to be inspired by the joyous dolphin approach to life. These highly social and intelligent beings are animated by jaunty curiosity that motivates them to keep learning and expanding their capacities, and to have a good time in the process.

This card beckons your mental agility to perceive every situation as an opportunity to learn and grow. In the grand adventure of life, allowing yourself to be filled with wonder will expand your perception of Social Belonging in delightful ways.

Practice: Joyful Learning
Duration: 6–8 minutes
Intention: Reawaken playful curiosity as part of belonging

Step 1 – Engage in Playful Movement (2–3 min)

• Stand or sit with freedom to move.

• Begin a simple, playful action—like wiggling your fingers, wobbling your head, tracing circles with your toes, making a figure-eight with your hips.

• Let your movement feel childlike and unstructured.

Step 2 – Invite Curiosity (2–3 min)

• Continue the movement, letting it become enjoyable—try making the movement bigger, and smaller, and more fun!

• Lightly consider: “What is this play teaching me?”

• Notice whatever images, insights, or associations arise spontaneously.

Step 3 – Let Curiosity Soften You (2 min)

• Finish by placing your hands on your heart and affirm to yourself:

  • “It is safe for me to learn joyfully.”

Optional Journal Prompt:

• “When I allow learning to be playful…”

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Thanks for your appreciation!

What the Cohort Will Be

This will be an immersive year of cultivating embodied coherence, relational intelligence, and soul remembrance—facilitated by Helen Lowe, guided by the Wheel of Wisdom, and co-created with everyone in the circle.

Our year of experiences will be more than a curriculum—it will become a lived understanding that you can draw from for the rest of your life. As you deepen your connection with yourself, with others, and with the larger web of life, “belonging” moves from a mental concept to felt reality—something you can reliably return to and embody at any time.

Using contemplative inquiry, creative discovery, and sacred ceremony, we become a circle of planetary service—contributing to the evolution of human consciousness through our shared coherence.

You will be invited to compassionately encounter yourself in an initiatory field that is gently shaped by the living intelligence of the Wheel of Wisdom.

You’ll be guided to:

• Discover how the Wheel’s Nine Archetypes dance within you (and everyone)

• Grow your awareness of the Wheel’s Three Octaves of being

• Allow the Wheel’s Three Muses of Belonging to guide you toward wholeness

• Recognize the Wheel’s Living Geometry at play in everything you see

• Develop a relationship with your Cosmic Self and the unseen world guiding you

You’ll be supported to:

• Cultivate perspectives that enrich your relationships and your work, whatever your current role or field of service

• Recognize and develop your gifts, and share them with greater confidence and equanimity

• Enjoy your innate creativity and let it be in service to the world

• Bring forth a new endeavor or deepen your path of creative service

You’ll gain the means to:

• Recognize early signals of “disconnection”—in yourself and in others

• Respond to those signals with less reactivity and greater clarity, peace, and compassion

• Appreciate and honor yourself and the living world you’re part of

• Strengthen your trust in life and in your highest self

Structure of the Cohort

The rhythm of our year together balances in-person and virtual gatherings, and is designed to support integration of new practices and insights into your daily life.

• Five Gatherings in Bellingham, WA (non-residential):

  • Sep 20–21, 2025

  • Nov 1–2, 2025

  • Feb 28–Mar 1, 2026

  • Jun 6–7, 2026

  • Sep 19–20, 2026

• Monthly Zoom Calls (Sunday or Monday evenings)

• Private Online Space for shared practice, reflection, and mutual resourcing

When we gather in person, we’ll engage the Wheel of Wisdom through ceremony, creative inquiry, movement, nature encounters, and shared reflection.

Zoom gatherings offer a means to deepen the discoveries made during our weekends—to ask questions, share insights, and tend our relational field.

What You’ll Encounter

• A safe, sacred, welcoming container in which to meet your edges, feel your authentic experience, and express your wholeness

• Facilitated activities that elicit your innate creativity and intuitive knowing

• Well-paced practices to support embodied understanding of the Wheel’s living geometry—including Three Muses, Nine Archetypes, Three Octaves of being, and more

What You Might Experience

• A soft unraveling of outdated identities and new intimacy with your multidimensional self

• Trust in your body’s intelligence and life’s sacred mirroring

• The movement and integration of emotional energies

• Inner spaciousness and a greater capacity for stillness and playfulness

• Increased peace, joy, and appreciation

• Delight in the inexplicable “magic” created through our circle

This isn’t a solo journey. We breathe and turn the Wheel together. In doing so, we serve the greater field of Earth.

Practical Considerations

Time Investment

• 5 in-person weekends (10 days total)

• 12 two-hour monthly calls (24 hours total)

• Optional solo and shared practices between sessions (1–4 hours per week)

Support Materials You’ll Need

• Internet connection & quiet/sacred space for Zoom calls

• Wheel of Wisdom book and oracle deck

• Journal and personal altar materials, as desired

Financial Integrity

Although the world’s economic systems are largely out of balance, my aim is to create a financial agreement that:

• Honors your individual circumstances

• Honors what I’m offering, which is part of my livelihood

• Acknowledges the current financial system and invites a new one yet to come

Sliding Scale: $3,600 — $4,500 for the Full Year

• If finances are your barrier to joining, reach out, a limited number of generous scholarships are available!

• If you have financial abundance, paying the higher end of the scale helps make scholarships possible for those with less financial resources.

• Monthly-payment or 5-payment plans are preferred.

• Snacks and coffee/tea service are provided during our weekend gatherings.

• Lodging and meals are not included in this fee.

The Invitation

The Wheel of Wisdom calls us to become a vessel of coherence, through which we expand our enjoyment of life and serve something far greater than ourselves.

If you feel drawn toward this journey, contact me and let’s find the next step together.