Hello Community,
I just recorded this spontaneous poem inspired by what is happening in our local and global communities. I call it: Return of the Village Healers. The idea for this theme has been rising in my art for a few years now and was the inspiration for The Cura Council 8 Ceremonies on the Wheel of the Year AND the local Sonoma Cura Council Gatherings at MUSEA.
This painting, called The Council has been off and on my easel since 2021. I’m in love with it - I will do another post explaining the meaning ~ but for now ~ what do you see? The image and the feeling represent the healing in community theme as we look into the past and the future and choose how to show up in the present. The under-painting for this was my course called Maverick.
I have delightful news to share with you. Will you slow down with me and take this in? It’s important to me and to The Cura Council and the evolution of the healing arts.
If you value these communications and the 8 Ceremonies of the Year (the next one is March 21) then consider becoming a contributing subscriber to make it possible.
As a part of The Cura Council in real time in real action and activism rooted in love ~ we formed a Healing Arts Collective here in Sonoma with offerings both in person and virtually. We have ten healers, artists, and leaders who have been meeting to prepare for our big reveal - offering our healing arts products, services, and ceremonies - from people I KNOW and APPROVE. You will be able to book right with us, to work with them!
You can meet with them in their studios around Sonoma County and the Bay Area, you can meet with them in our Blue Zone Sanctuary at MUSETTE and over Zoom.
Imagine joining us for your healing needs and desires - Functional Medicine Coaching, Embodied Meditation, Bodywork, Energy work, Astrology, Botanical Ceremonies, Enneagram Coaching, Intuitive Readings, Herbal Remedies, Speaker Salons, Wine tastings, Supper Clubs, Medicine Painting, Heart-Based Entrepreneurship, Nutritional support, Circles, Music, poetry and Seasonal Ceremony both private and in community and so much more!! How does that feel as you read it? or Listen?
I will be offering private sessions with Medicine Painting at the easel combined with embodied meditation on the massage table. Exciting right!? It has been many years since I offered private sessions. In a future post, we will reveal your options for working with us! I only have two per month so give it some thought if you want to work with me, but guess what - THERE ARE MANY OTHER HEALERS BESIDES ME AND I WANT TO SHARE THEM WITH YOUUUUUUU!
This photo was taken this week, this painting, She Sees the Unseen just went home with a healer from the community for her sanctuary!
The healers are returning to the village of Sonoma right on the plaza—just half a block from where my mother and grandmother had their own dress shop. We are starting with 4 months and will bring it into our 500-year vision. You are a part of this mission because we are listening to your requests for trusted connections. We also know you value real-time hands-on and hand-made offerings. The healers had to move to the edges, now we move back to the center.
I am writing this to you right from MUSETTE ATELIER & APOTHECARY, our gallery on the Sonoma Plaza. We just changed the name to include the context of the village healers and the many wonderful medicines and remedies we carry here. Jonathan has been making remedies for a few years now, as well as wonderful teas. We are also starting to carry other incredible medicinal remedies and supplements including hemp-based CBD.
Heal with the Council ❤️
The Healing Arts Collective will be hosting podcasts on Tea with the Muse so if you are not a subscriber there - please subscribe to hear from all of us!
Here’s the perfect next step for your healing journey - On March 1 we have INSPIRED starting - last chance to sign up for this trauma-inspired course with two of my dear friends who are doctors.
A full calendar is coming next week!
Join me in celebrating healing in a time of great change!
❤️ Curate Shiloh Sophia
Questions about events? support@musea.org. Questions for me shilohsophia@musea.org
The Apothecary with Jonathan’s products!
THE VILLAGE HEALERS
Grandmother Speak to us of Healing
Long long long ago
and not so long ago
The village healer
was a colorful thread
in the fabric
that wove our day to day lives
and loves of the community
together, to gather
Long long ago and
not so long ago
those carrying the gifts
of remedy for what ails us all
began to be silenced
That silencing is as alive today
as it was when the burnings began
Who knows the meaning of this plant?
Who knows the meaning of this plant?
Who knows the message of this moon?
or this star? Or this cycle? Or this season?
Who knows the remedy for a broken heart,
a broken system?
Those of us that survived
got quiet but continued on
We moved out to the edges
You will find us
in the deep woods,
in the wild valleys
in the haunted forests
in the kitchens with drying herbs
by the seaside collecting seaweed
in the artist's studios with colors flying
and on the dance floor
molting our feathers and skins
We DO appreciate our solitude
our hermitage of silence and resonance
We like to believe that the people who
who need us can find their way to our door,
Mostly, but not always, mostly they
can find us
You have spoken
you were looking for us and
we were looking for you
We the village healers
feel the call to be rewoven
into the fabric...as essential
We who tend the body, the soul, the mind,
the energy, the heart, and the hearth
We who are carrying gifts
were sustained by the
gifts of others in the community
but now we have to ask
and ask we must
When the intuitive moves to the fringe
and becomes a merchant of healing
it changes us and we often struggle
with charging for our basic needs
The need for us always continues to grow
But we too have needs
Where can the trusted healer be found?
Can you count them on one hand?
Are you looking for one?
Are you one of the village healers?
Yet again the alchemists are lighting
the fires beneath the cauldrons of change
We are summoning ourselves
We are summoning the village healers
and those who seek the village healers
Can you hear the drum?
Can you feel the calling in your own belly?
Can you smell the herbs seeping?
Come now, come on, gather with us
The return of the village healer
has been sounded like a clear bell ringing
We who choose
have replied with our yes!
We are mystics of the animystic
Yes, we speak to stones
we are in love with trees
water opens intentions within us
we speak fox and eagle song
we are from here in earth
and from the stars that go on and on
We are gathering
The doorway to find us
is arched and open
and we have answered the call
Will you join us?
Will you join us?
We are here,
we have answered the call!
Shiloh Sophia
Return of the Village Healer + Super Delightful News 🙌