Beautiful Things

 Beautiful Things, beauty, creativity, inspiration, Writing
Apr 172013
 

1. There’s a moving scene in “How to Cook Your Life” where Zen teacher & chef Edward Espe Brown speaks about sincerity. He says “Sincerity is the quality where you let your imperfections show.” Indeed, when we look at the origin of the word; ‘sin’ means without and ‘cere’ means wax. So even though we may be banged up and blemished by life, we allow ourselves to be seen without polish.

Sincere Teapots, by Toko-pa Turner

2. The effusive perfume of wild hyacinths.

3. The sound of Craig‘s flute winding up the stairs into the good rafters of our house, like a memory of truth.

4. A man running after his hat in a storm.

5. The passion of Sufi music, with its quickening tablas and seductively climbing oud.

6. A magical little cafe & gallery called Kizmet, tucked away in the deep south end of our island, which took my breath away for its lived-in beauty; the kind of beauty that can only come from living slowly into relationship with something.

Kizmet Cafe, by Toko-pa Turner

7. A beautiful passage in David Whyte’s The Three Marriages where he speaks of the welcoming face. He describes how, through the discipline of kindness, a face becomes welcoming, then bringing “things running toward him, especially the part of the world that might be shy and innocent; might be reluctant to trust itself to the world.”

8. Showing up with tenderness for the expanding and contracting ways of the heart. Instead of armouring against the unknown, allowing our vulnerability to encounter the edges of life. This is what David Whyte calls “the good kind of peril.”

9. My friend Catherine speaks of the flurry of insights that come like snowflakes by the thousands, which melt on her mittens when she tries to capture them.

10. How a friendship can make us rich! With its gifts of tenderness, generosity of presence, new forms and languages to elevate our experiences, the extra muscle for to carry our important pieces.

Share
 No Responses »

New Moon in Aries

 art, beauty, consciousness, creativity, dream interpretation, dreaming, dreams, events, Writing
Apr 102013
 

 

Happy New Moon intrepid dreamers!

I have a dear friend who calls this the ‘horns of the bull’ moon, which I find so apt considering the fiery, active energy that comes available to us at this time. For many of us, these long winter months have been about doing the hard, internal work of shedding old habits and patterns, sealing up our energy leaks, and tuning in to the deeper sense of direction that only arises from ashes. And now, we are ready to grab on and go!

As well as a couple of announcements below, you’ll find some beautiful art, poetry and wisdom to touch your brave heart in my April Newsletter.

In my biggest news, a gorgeous group of women will be making the great journey to the UK this August to come together in Dreaming Council for a retreat I am offering called Embodying the Dream. There are a handful of spots left if you’d like to join this magical circle!

And by popular demand, I’m happy to announce new dates for Dreamwalking: A 4-week online Course on Dreaming. It tends to fill up quickly so be sure to register early if the timing feels right for you.

Lots of love,
Toko-pa

Share
 2 Responses »

Embodiment

 ambiguity, art, consciousness, creativity, grief, paradox, Writing
Apr 032013
 

This is the true meaning of Embodiment: To show up with wholehearted presence for this moving encounter with life. Instead of clambering towards ever-furthering horizons or withdrawing into distractions and addictions, showing up for those absences in our lives. Welcoming our fears and discomforts as necessary conditions to creativity. Loving the gestation as much as the harvest, even while remembering the barren season that must follow.

Share
 1 Response »

Night Raptures

 beauty, consciousness, creativity, dreaming, dreams, inspiration, paradox, Rumi
Feb 162013
 

Millions of people around the world report awakening around 3 a.m. for no reason. For many, it is a frustrating interruption in an otherwise restful sleep. But what if you could learn to release resistance to these mysterious awakenings? What if the night has secrets to whisper to you? What if that is the magic hour in which to move “back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch,” as Rumi writes.

Indeed, my most powerful teachings have come through at that time, many of which I might have missed had I kept sleeping.

I call them Night Raptures. Sometimes difficult to explain, these experiences are like catching glimpses into the perfection of everything.
For those brief moments when the ego is retired from guard, we are given sudden access to the allness – a pure and sensual passion for everything just as it is. Like a giant parade, organized in its chaos, in which every last one of us is celebrating this gift of being alive. Don’t go back to sleep!”

Share
 4 Responses »

All This and More

 art, beauty, creativity, inspiration, poetry, Writing
Feb 032013
 

I want to be guided by older-ups. I want babies to be born where old people die. I want to be sandwiched in the middle of a messy togetherness. I want to be warned before I do something stupid. I want to be forgiven when I do it anyway. I want wisdoms to be tapped out on my eardrums and not Googled. I want transitions to be recognized by fire. I want gifts to be educed from children. And teenagers and adults and I want to mean something to my community. I want to get drunk on substance morning and night. I want to hear your dreams. I want to raise a revolution for gentleness. I want to call out the bullshit on consensus reality. I want to get rich so I can billboard the highways with validations.

I don’t want to be another faker. I don’t want to show you my good side and hide my humanity. I don’t want to dole you out my Self in digestible status-chunks. I want to challenge you in long, drawn-out rituals and still find you interested. I want to feed you seventeen course meals made with spices I crushed. I want to recite you circular poems, each beginning cutting a deeper grasp. I want to make you feel something, even if it’s awkward. I want to sing you songs which are ancient and new. I want to carve stories in trees with tools my elders fashioned. I want to keep sharpening them. I want to find places we’ve never been. And then, I want to return there, but backwards.

I want to shuffle up words so we don’t sleep through them. I want to learn things and then be splashed into never forgetting. I want to make you feel seen. I want to hold your pounding heart in my gentlest of hands. I want to make your thing feel like my thing. I don’t want to miss a moment. I want to dig at the bottom and find it false. I want to turn up unknown depths. I want to stand in this hurricane and sing the sweetest, most naked song you can bear. I want to be alive with you.

Share
 15 Responses »

Beautiful Things: Baskets

 art, Beautiful Things, beauty, creativity
Jan 212013
 

For those who have been following my slow initiation into the World of Handmaking, you know that I’ve had a long yearning to make baskets! Last summer, I even tried teaching myself using wild grasses from my garden (and the internet).

This past weekend I had the enormous fortune to study basketmaking with a master. Like many  geniuses who hide away in the forest, Joan Carrigan lives on our timid little island and is one of the world’s greatest (and sweetest) teachers of this ancient artform.

This two-day workshop took place at Jane Stafford Textiles, a gem of a venue, founded mostly for weavers. The walls are lined with elegant looms under a rainbow spectrum of threading spools. Jane’s hospitality was above and beyond anything I expected, warming our weekend with sweetness and luxury.

Remembering

The moment the reeds were in my hands, I felt a deep familiarity. Of course there was a learning curve as I tried to discipline the reeds, but for the most part I felt I’d done this with my womenfolk for lifetimes.  The only thing missing was our weaving songs.

Joan’s teaching style was so clear with experience that I felt guided at every proverbial and literal turn.

Once I learned the 3-rod-whale weave, I was unstoppable – my fingers flew and my mind went silent. By the end of our first day together I had something that very nearly resembled a basket being born.

 

 

Nature’s Bounty

The next day, Joan introduced us to her wild collection of natural materials. Other than the reeds, which are native to Asia, Joan harvests all her own materials, plucking wild rush from the lake in her canoe, making alliances with tree fallers for sustainable cedar bark, and twining seagrass by hand.

Here you can see  I’ve created a band of twined seagrass and two rows of red cedar bark.

Next I attempted a technique called French Randing, which is a diagonal weave using short, flat reed pieces.

Before I knew it, I had made a beautiful basket which I’ll cherish forever.

Heart and Hands

It’s amazing how mysterious handmaking seems until we put our intention to it and realise that these ancient technologies live in our bodies and, with some gentle guidance, our heart and our hands can be coaxed back into remembering their symbiosis.

I am so deeply grateful for Joan’s teaching, which has returned this language to my fingers. I’ll never look at my autumn garden the same again!

Share
 9 Responses »

Embodying the Dream: Women’s Retreat in Wales

 dream interpretation, dreaming, dreams, events, myth, visions, women
Jan 092013
 

 

Embodying the Dream

A 4-night Dreaming Retreat for Women

Dates: Aug 1-5, 2013
Place: Snowdonia, Wales

In ancient times, our ancestors saw no separation between us and the cosmos. Nature and humanity were inextricably linked and it was our prayers that kept the sun and moon rising, our rituals which ensured the rain to fall on our crops, and it was our songs which brought the planets into right alignment.

Sadly, the Elders who once passed on these ancient customs – wisdom they’d received from their own dreams – have all but vanished. Now it is up to us to become those Elders, to nurture the seeds of our dreams and provide a meaningful inheritance to the young ones who will follow us.

In this 4-night retreat we will be living as a Women’s Dreaming Council in the mystical serenity of Cae Mabon, a secluded fairytale village to ourselves in Northern Wales. In our daily sessions we will listen deeply and respectfully to our bodies, engage with the wisdom from our Dreams and enact ritual and song around a sacred fire together under the moon. Along with these central practices, we will also have free time to get to know one another better and explore the vast beauty of our inner & outer surroundings.

 

Secure your place (and the earlybird discount) with your $250 deposit. See cancellation policy below.

 

 

 

 

 

Sample Daily Schedule

Until 10am             Silent Morning Practice (& serve yourself Breakfast)
10 – 12:30 pm        Dreamsharing
12:30 – 1:30 pm    Delicious, healthy lunch
1:30 -  3 pm            Dream Workshop
3 – 5:00 pm            Free Time or Group Adventure
5:00 – 6:30 pm     Delicious, Healthy Vegetarian Dinner
7:30 – 9:30 pm      Sacred Fire (ritual, song, invocation)

The schedule may change according to what serves our circle most. Thursday August the 1st is our arrival day (anytime after noon) – we will have a brief session at 5pm before dinner, and a sacred fire to open the ceremonial space for Dreaming. Checkout will be on Monday August 5th before noon.

Cae Mabon

In December 2011 John Thackara in his ‘Doors of Perception’ blog wrote: ‘Sites such as Cae Mabon are like the region’s antibodies, playing a vital role in healing the crippling disconnection within Western culture between body, soul, spirit, and place.’

Cae Mabon is nestled at the foot of Elidir Fawr in an oak forest clearing by a little river that cascades down to the nearby lake. The summit of Snowdon lies just five miles to the southwest as the crow flies.

At the heart of Cae Mabon is a thatched Celtic Roundhouse. With a fire in its hearth and smoke rising from the thatch it’s been the home of many convivial evenings of song, story and chat.

Circling the Roundhouse is a family of seven elegant natural dwellings – a strawbale Hogan, an oak and slate Longhouse, a cedar log Lodge, a cob Cottage, a redwood Chalet, a Hobbit Hut and a cedar Cabin. Each is unique, snug and subtly lit by solar power.

A renovated barn contains a fully equipped kitchen and a spacious eating and meeting room. There is a fine composting loo, a stylish washroom, a thatched shower hut and, stunningly located by the river, a luxurious hot tub.

Accommodations

You will be dreaming in one of Cae Mabon’s 7 gorgeous eco-dwellings:

Hogan: 
4 single beds; can be made into one double and two singles. (sleeps 4)
Longhouse: 
One double bed, one pairr bunk beds (sleeps 3)
Cob Cottage
: One double bed, bunk bed and single bed (sleeps 3)
Lodge: 
Same as Hogan (sleeps 4)
Chalet: One single and on pairs of bunk beds, one loft (sleeps 4)
Hobbit Hut
: One double bed, one single  (sleeps 2)
Cabin
: One double (or twin) room, one single room  (sleeps 3)

*Comfortable beds are provided with top sheets, pillows (with pillow protectors) and a spare blanket, but guests have to bring their own sleeping bags and towels.

To learn more about each of these beautiful, natural buildings, click here.

 

 

Food

Included in the retreat are three delicious & lovingly prepared (buffet style) meals every day. All food is vegetarian, organic wherever possible, with lots of raw options. If you have any dietary restrictions or needs, please contact Toko-pa to make special arrangements.

 Travel

AIR
The nearest international airports are in Liverpool (just under two hours away) and Manchester (just over two hours). There are train services from both airports to Bangor station, but you may have to change twice. Birmingham airport is about three hours away.
TRAIN
The nearest train station is Bangor (Gwynedd). There is a good service to Bangor from Euston, London, which can take as little as three and a half hours. It takes about 25 minutes to drive from Bangor to Cae Mabon. Taxis cost between £20 and £25. Check http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ for train times.

CARPOOL
Once you have registered, you’ll be invited to join a private Facebook Group where you can arrange carpooling with other Dreamers, and/or a pickup from Bangor Station by Cae Mabon hosts (passengers are asked to contribute £5 to cover fuel costs.)

 

Registration

Before March 31st: $750 CAD (earlybird discount)

After March 31st:    $850 CAD

Registration is only available to graduates of Toko-pa’s Dreamwalking Course. If you haven’t already taken the Dreamwalking Course and want to attend, contact me at dreamquestion@gmail.com and we’ll work something out.

Space is limited to 20 women for this event

Deposit: You will secure your place (and the earlybird discount) by sending us a $250 deposit. See cancellation policy below.

Includes: Includes 3 Meals/Day and 4 Nights Accommodations

Does not include: Airfare to UK, Transport to/from Cae Mabon, additional activities and outings.

Cancellation:

In case of cancellation before March 31st you will forfeit 50% of your deposit as an administration fee.

In case of cancellation after March 31st you will forfeit 100% of your deposit as an administration fee.

We are not responsible for any changes in the exchange rates throughout the year.

After June 1st there will be no refunds.

In case of sickness, you may transfer the course fee (minus deposit) to a future course (you can only transfer the sum once, and there are limited courses available for this kind of transfer.)

We are financially responsible for the retreat so we ask you kindly to respect that we cannot make any exceptions to this agreement.

How to Register:

Click the Register Now button to pay your deposit of $250 via PayPal. As soon as I have received your deposit, I will send you a confirmation and information about the next steps.

The balance of your tuition can be paid anytime before June 1st, 2013.

 

 

 

 

 

Share
 No Responses »

Dreaming in 2012

 beauty, consciousness, creativity, dreaming, dreams, grief, inspiration, women, Writing
Jan 032013
 

Someone recently asked me, “In your Dreamworking practice, have you seen a collective theme in the kinds of dreams people had in 2012?”

I paused for a moment to reflect on the epic tapestry of dreamers I’ve been blessed to work with in this last year, and the answer crystalised.

“The Rise of the Feminine. In men and women alike, there is a tenacious chipping away at the internalised, calcified Patriarchy to rouse the long-Sleeping Beauty of the heart.

AP/Kevin Frayer

Dreamers are toppling patriarchy’s worst tyrants; Perfectionism, Prestige and Power over others. We are learning to live unsplit-off from our vulnerability and our sacred endowments.

Grief, long-stopped up in the body, rushes like a torrent yearning for self-love, fertilising everything. The child-heart remembers its innocence and belonging.

We are drawing out the sudden shoots of creativity, vitality and empowerment. We are coronating our inner-authority. We are wearing red and letting our voices be heard. We are, like an ecosystem, carrying our responsibility together.”

I can’t wait to see what we dream in 2013.

Share
 No Responses »

Birthing New Traditions

 art, beauty, consciousness, creativity, grief, inspiration, myth, Writing
Dec 242012
 

Though I loved the coziness of a fire in the winter’s dark, the reunion of far-flung beloveds, the feast of epic proportions and other shared rituals, at a certain point I had to admit to myself that the painful disappointments of Christmas far outweighed its joys in my family.  Like many commercial holidays, it was a loaded time for my family; rife with tensions, the ensnarement of obligation and, in the end, dashed hopefulness.

It wasn’t until my mid-twenties, after many sad Christmases alone, that I decided to take the holy power back. Starting from scratch, I began to build new traditions for myself, focusing on aspects of the holiday that I cherished, growing them outwards from there.

At the time, I lived in Kensington Market, a colourful enclave in the heart of Toronto populated by artists, merchants and bohemian types. Every year they had a magical parade on the Winter Solstice when the streets would fill with freaky people, bands played on the rooftops with drums and trumpets, and everyone hoisted their colourful, handmade lanterns into the night sky. The whole thing culminated in a terrible-wonderful bonfire, when we burned our precious creations and boogied-down in the snow.

I loved lighting the longest dark of the year, celebrating our endurance and honouring all that we were releasing in the fire, and decided to adopt the Winter Solstice as my new tradition. Unlike the Christian holiday, observing the ancient astronomical event made deep sense to me. While it took some time to develop a relationship with it, eventually Solstice displaced all that old tension and loss, infusing this time of year with new life and love.

Instead of buying presents, now we roast a giant bird for our friends, gather musicians to fill our night with song, light our home with lanterns and, instead of cutting down a tree my partner and I build one from scratch using bits we find on the forest floor; branches, spirals of honeysuckle and fallen boughs of fir.

We observe the sacred aspect of the holiday by gathering in ritual around the fire to honour our grief and our loss through storytelling moistened with tears, witnessed by those who know  – and we express our deep gratitude for the returning of the light. This year we were blessed to gather with like-hearted friends, in a gorgeous tipi they raised on their land for to birth their own new traditions.

Photograph by Christopher Roy

While there are still times when I find myself mourning what never could be in my family of origin, now in the balance the joys far outweigh any disappointments. A blessed holiday to all of you and yours!

 

 

 

Share
 10 Responses »

A conversation with Moon Woman Rising

 consciousness, creativity, dream interpretation, dreaming, dreams, inspiration, women, Writing
Dec 182012
 

Tree of Life by Enkel Dika

Over the last few weeks, I’ve had the special fortune to be interviewed in depth by Aja Blanc who runs one of my favourite blogs, Moon Woman Rising on the deep & tender Art of Dreaming.  Here is an excerpt:

“So many of us feel a deep longing to offer our gifts to the world, to contribute something meaningful to the deficits of our time, but there are so many sources offering spiritual guidance that it can be hard to know who to trust. But as a student said recently, “The beauty of Dreamwork is that it connects me to my inner teacher, who I know is guiding me to live my life according to me!”

And that’s just it – we can think of dreams as Nature, naturing us by way of symbols and stories. There is no outside guidance more creatively genius, or tailor-made for our personal growth – we just have to re-learn the language dreams are speaking, which is the mother-tongue of the soul. Despite the richness of the Sufi tradition, my own family home was very troubled and I left at a young age. With no parental guidance I was, in a sense, forced to turn to my inner world and very quickly learned that it was a source of powerful wisdom and it was rooting for my greatness!

People are often blown away when a dream tells them that they are a writer, or a healer or whatever their vocation may be – because it confirms their greatest hope. The dreams show them that it isn’t fanciful – they must follow that secret passion with a life-or-death commitment. One of the first things that happens when people get into this work is the releasing of shame around dark dreams, which seem to contain perverse or violent images, but which are often speaking to the ways in which we are being violent or dismissive of our own hearts.”

To read the full article and have a chance at winning a Private Dreamwork session with me, click here to get to Moon Woman Rising’s blog.

Share
 No Responses »
 Older Entries