releasing

from my newsletter, january 2017. You can subscribe here.

I've been a terrible penpal. Truly.

I suppose you can say, I haven't been writing about my work, I've just been doing my work. This autumn I started not one, but two psychic development circles with women. What amazing, interesting, gifted women! And each circle has its own personality and beauty. It is always a gift to sit in circle with women open to Spirit, honoring their path. I have also been diving deep into my second certification with Pixie Lighthorse in Earth Medicine School. It is very personal work that will bring me closer to you.

One of the beautiful questions Pixie asks us is "Who are you? Who are you not?"

Who am I?

I'm a mother.

All day, I am elbow deep in diapers and kid toys and listening to violas being played and having balls thrown at my head and eating around multi-day games of Monopoly with my three wee ones, but I also mother in circle. I nurture my clients. I set healthy boundaries with them, and give them gentle direction. So, yeah, mother seems to fit.

I am a daughter of the Earth.

When I was a child, I would run to the nearest wood, even if it was two tree deep, and construct long stories about the kingdoms there. I would curl up on a patch of moss and sleep. I would climb vines, and swing down and take journeys into the woods, studying footprints and scat, searching for arrowheads and interesting rocks, collecting bones and feathers. In my circles, I guide women and men into shamanic journey, I describe the scene to them, which often looks like the woods around my grandmother's house, the stream to the right and the deer trail which is perfectly suited to me and you together, the fallen tree we need to step over. When I walk in the woods, I am the most me-eyes full of wonder and awe.

I am a bone picker. 

Vulture picks through death. My beautiful Vulture totem isn't for the faint of heart, but her job is invaluable. She transmutes death, the rotting unusable parts of us. She finds the goodness in the most unlikeliest of places. My job with clients is to pick through all the stuff, the assets and defects, the things no longer serving--can we let this go? Are you ready to have a sky burial for this anger that once served the purpose of justice, but now holds you back from love? Can we release the stuff that clutters your art desk? Can we let go of your sabotage? 

I have been doing this for myself this autumn. As my autoimmune issues flared after a particularly stressful October, I found myself looking at it all. What needs to go? What needs to stay? What no longer serves, but has been here so long, I don't think is possible to go. I felt such weight on me, emotional, mental, physical weight. I began praying each morning with another person, staying accountable, then I decided to release my hair. It was holding energy, heaviness, and clouds of bubbles. Truthfully, it felt like a dead limb. So, I started slowly. 14 inches came off. I wrapped it into bundles and mailed it to a place that makes wigs. My hair was still at my shoulders. A few weeks later, I went to my friend and said, "It is still too heavy. It needs to all go." And when it all went, I was naked. Standing in front of everyone. Where is my sorceress hair? Where are the curls, the twists of fate, the curious streak of whiteness underneath? Where is the cover I had so you didn't have to see me?

When we release, we not only stand with lightness, we also stand with vulnerability. Who am I when you take away my anger? Who am I when you take away two feet of hair? Who am I when you take away the boxes on my art table and I can create again? Am I still me?

Who am I?

Who I am not is that I am not someone who uses hair as an identity. Who I am not is someone who is ready to hold onto something that holds me back from allowing the world to see who I am.

I am the bone picker and this first bones I have to pick are my own. 

I intend to write more to this beautiful newsletter, and write more about myself and write more about why I do what I do and how to live this life. What do you want to hear about? Who are you? What bones are you picking? What are you releasing?

Email me and let me know you too. angie@themoonandstone.com. I also have been revising my website, so check it out and let me know what you think. Under Events, I have the local Central Pennsylvania events coming up. I also do on-line readings and distance healings, so check that out too.

With love, Angie

PS. I am headed to the Tucson Gem Show in February (from the 2nd to the 8th). Are you going? I'd love to meet you and connect in person, so pop me an email (angie@themoonandstone.com) and we can figure out a time. I can't wait!