I’ve been invited to join Liz Koch of Core Awareness in discerning the mysteries of uncertain times…through the archetypal movement of Yin and Yang.

Myth and Movement nourish our Soul. With the cycles of rising energy, zenith, entropy, decline and incubation and into rising energy and creation again we find rhythms vital for deepening our relationships to life.

“The longing we feel toward the wild, and the journey it sets us on requires not only deep listening but also a force of desire. A longing of the soul that moves us along. It is not given freely but requires that we inhabit the fullness of our Self. This is where the power of archetypal gestures comes into play. In traditional Chinese Philosophy (as I’ve learned it) longing is a Yin aspect of the heart, risk is the Yang aspect. When in the archetypal warrior form we draw the bow but do not immediately look where we are aiming, this is the iconography of risk – of aiming our hearts toward a place we cannot fully see. We cannot know how it is all going to work out or what will happen, but we do know we MUST aim and risk our hearts in the direction of our desire in order to stay alive. Conversely, in the Yin heart form, when we make the shape of.the flame in front of our bodies and reach slightly, toward the horizon and then pull back in, this is the acknowledgement and cultivation of longing toward a circumstance that has not yet arrived, yet feeling it’s possibility we stretch our heart into its potential. Our feminine reach for the wild necessitates that we must also return to a true expression of yang” ~ Sarah Byrden

Our starting point is a story given to us by Mythologist Martin Shaw known as Valemon the Bear (see and listen to it here: https://emergencemagazine.org/feature/valemon-the-bear/)

Bears and women in the woods is a very old motif. The great contadora Dr. Pinkola Estes speaks about Bears as the ultimate creature of cycles representing the Great Mother.