*The Poetic Dance of the Ecstatics*

 

What else can we do but dance in the madness?

Sing

Smile

Hug each other

Show kindness

Be there for one another

*A Gray Day of Hope*

 

It's Earth Day. And the First Day of Summer in Iceland. A public holiday. Despite all that, today feels very gray and gloomy to me. Dingy. Musky. Mousy. Colorless. Bleak. Barren. But, perhaps it's just me.

~

A gray overcast day

Murky rivers

Heavy flow

The Icelandic summer has begun

We’re through the winter maze

We’re not lost. We're alive. 

How amazing!

Yet death lingers

To the naked eye

Bare branches

Standing solemnly

In a row

Worn

And torn

Old leaves 

Old growth

Once full of flavor and colour

Heartbeats of seasons passed

Now showing again

Lifeless

Death, peeking through

From underneath the snow

 

Not all things beautiful are bright and blue

 

Sometimes you have to look,

forage your inner landscapes

for your brilliance 

Your magic!

Sense your inner sparkle

In the subtleties around you

Oh yes

What a relief!

There it is

A fellow dragon in a tree

A golden plover flying free

See there!

A single flower in the stream

A yellow glow 

Glistening in the flow 

Of forever

And on its banks

From underneath the shrubs

Something new is emerging

Oh and look at those trunks!

My stubs?

Yes, I too am an elephant!

Grounded.

Seagulls and ravens are battling in the sky

I hope their young ones are ok!

I know (moping)

Nature has its way

I have to relax

Mind my own business

Just witness

 

As the circle of life

Unfolds all around me

Evolution in spiraling motion

The center 

A song in my heart

༄ Sóley ~ Photos, my own

*Sister Soulbird*

 

A poem woke me up this morning. a gentle birthday kiss.

It's a poem to our younger sisters. I wanted to send them Love & Encouragement

~ Sister Soulbird

She gently stroke the surface of the water

mesmerized by the effects of her tender touch The ripples gradually reaching far and wide ~ Oh yes! Sweet sister Sister soulbird Your powers are magic amplified Within you burns a divine flame protected by the sacred waters You are a healing balm Pure and potent Within you the greatest gift resides The ability to nurture hold and listen Attentively with all your porous sensibilities So remember always sweetest sister that within you you carry medicine great power and holy magic ༄ Sóley ~ Photo by Yoann Boyer 

*Tender New Beginnings*

Spring is here, we just passed the equinox. Hail to New beginnings. 

Ok, so here's the truth. The bare truth. The naked truth. 

I've been out of it for the last 9 months or so. Out of the "game". The game being, my devotion to entrepreneurship,  and all my entrepreneurial efforts. 

Entrepreneurship has taken its toll on me.

I felt depleted. 

Deleted.

*Untaming the beast*

 

❤ God, I missed blogging!

In the world of social media, everything has become so tamed! We think we’re getting wilder, that we’re coming undone, and yes we are, but within yet another form that’s restraining our movements - within a system with dos and don’ts, an order of some sort that disguises itself as a ‘friendly helper’, someone that is going to lead us through the maze. Hold our hands, show us the way - guide us so we won't go crazy in this modern era of Instagram stories, and Facebook Lives, Youtube channels, and TikToks. But on the way, as we walk this guided path, so brilliantly ‘illuminated’ by our friendly guides on a commission, we get locked into just another set of rules, how we should do things, and this is cool, this is not cool, this is in, this is out, you have to do this and oh my god don’t do that! Once again the form seems to have ensnared us into its grip. 

*The Spiritual Restraints of Belief Layers*

I'm raised by hippie flower power parents. 

In retrospect, it feels like I have spent my whole life wondering "What is Universal" as I was exposed to a multitude of different spiritual paths and colors whilst growing up. 

And, they were all dressed in very different robes, each of those spiritual traditions. 

So now when writing this text, pondering the esoteric lessons of my childhood, it feels like I was being taught to recognize the divine in everything. 

The deep learning was to see and understand that a certain someone would only recognize the divine in him or herself, through a teaching, or a grain of wisdom, when ‘it’ was clothed in, let's say, red for example. And then that another certain someone would only recognize ‘it’, see his divine reflection in it, if it was clothed in, let's say blue. And also, that those colors could or would change over time for them. That at one point in their lives, the Indian teachings of  North-America would unlock something magical within them, a remembering would occur, a quickening happen, then at another point in their life, they would feel drawn to the Indian teachings of the East, to Hinduism, or Buddhism or to another Eastern wisdom tradition, just to give an example. They wouldn’t be able to explain the shift, only that it was unlocking a new piece of their 'wholeness' to them.  

This is all so natural. Everything, every path has a teaching. It catalyzes an unfolding. ‘Becoming’ is occurring for that person, a notion I touch upon in my poem, The Spiral of Becoming. This whole post actually echoes the essence of Songs of Anu Poetry from the Heart where the main topic is the question about what is spiritually Universal.  

So ultimately we may come to a point where the paths have become layers, layers that may have started to inhibit us, like being dressed in too much clothing, which restrains our movements. Then the many different belief systems have started getting all mixed up, like threads getting tangled up in a knot, or around us, and we simply get stuck.

This may happen if we jump from one system to another, never giving ourselves the permission to slow down and devote ourselves to one specific path for a prolonged period of time. Never allowing ourselves to delve deep with a specific wisdom system and start practicing its essence. If that’s the case, that we’ve piled on so many different spiritual belief layers that we feel we are drowning from the heaviness of so much accumulated knowledge, an alternative route to diving deep, is to simply drop it all ~ find ourselves beyond any belief at all. 

My stance on this whole thing, is that I believe (yes, pun intended with the word choice ;) that what is most important for us all, and for each individual, is to find inner peace. And, yes, that it can just be so darn difficult to experience peace when working with many sets of beliefs in one’s life.  

So yes, I do think that ultimately when we have journeyed as spiritual seekers for a while, and we feel the journey has helped us in discovering many deep truths about ourselves, that the next move is to call off the search! We can of course keep on journeying, we will always keep on journeying, that is the nature of life, but that the next phase of the journey must be to decondition. 

Though it's been said that what you seek is already within, the seeking is such a big part of the journey - and we shouldn't be discouraged to go on that spiritual journey by anyone who believes he or she knows better. Yes, the journey of self-discovery is the journey of zero miles, but in order for us to live and experience, and taste the fruit of life, the journey, the seeking is essential, and that is awesome! Otherwise, we wouldn’t reach that quiet space inside. 

What we learn on the ‘seekers spiritual road’ is among other glorious things, perseverance and endurance. Stamina. And through getting to know so many different spiritual belief systems, which at their core are all illuminating paths supporting our flight into freedom, each one deeply authentic in its own radiance, the journey has hopefully taught us to be broad -and open-minded, but above all else to be humble and open-hearted. Both toward others, but perhaps more importantly toward ourselves to begin with - that we have learned to show ourselves patience, acceptance and tolerance. Soothing softness. It is the medicine of the strong. 

So when we’ve called off the search, and we’re sitting comfortably in the center of our own lives, wrapped in loving self-compassion, our strong inner core working as our compass as we journey on, we feel how empty we have become, but yet so full! Hallow, hollow, holy. We’ve made space inside for the sacred, for the divine to flow through us.  

Fill us with grace. 

♡

 

*Healing ~ Telling the Truth Without Blame or Judgment*

 

Blessed be the full moon with its illuminating wisdom.

Truth. The last one standing, as Oriah Mountain Dreamer once wrote. I love those lines. Truth is in our hearts. We want to come clean.

It is often hard to tell the truth. It could be us coming clean about wrongdoings toward another – us confessing something to someone we love or care about, apologizing for a deed that we committed, a phrase that slipped our mouth. Or even for having shown carelessness, that we did not pay attention, that we weren‘t being mindful. Sometimes we figure it out ourselves, and we sense the truth wanting to be expressed and come forward. Sometimes we need to be reminded. We‘re asked by another to listen to what‘s truth to that person. We can‘t neglect that. We need to honor that. When there are hurt feelings, the feelings are always real, there is truth in those feelings, no matter the cause. The cause is always debatable.

We live in such a diverse world, with war, peace, illness, health, politics and religions, different views, values and virtues, that the cause for hurt, sadness or anger will always be something different to different people. It will always be something the conditioned mind may want to debate about. But the hurt itself should always be honored. Showing emotions is the soul telling its truth. Emotion is language. It is one way for the soul to express itself. There are many more, but sensing emotions is a clear sign that the soul is expressing its truth to us.

“I'm sorry if I hurt you”, was part of a reply I once got from a friend I felt hurt by. Those seven words cut me even deeper. The fourth word was the dagger. If.

I was hurting, there was no doubt about that. And hurting because of specific actions my friend had done. So, no "if" about that. Whether my hurt was justifiable or not, remains a question. Whether I was being too dramatic, too sensitive, overly fragile or even whether I was misunderstanding the whole thing or not is also debatable. But I felt hurt by my friend. That was my truth. That was my soul expressing herself through my hurt feelings. Therefore, receiving the "if" made me wonder. It made me doubt myself. Doubt my feelings. Doubt my soul. Doubt my truth. I don't want to doubt myself like that ever again. I was heartbroken. That was the truth. My truth. 

At that time, I felt it could have been so easy for my friend to just say, “I’m sorry that you are hurting”, or, “I’m sorry what I did hurt you” no matter whether she felt she had hurt me or not. I know that sounds a bit presumptuous of me, and I also know this is a play of words - including the "if" is often used in this phrase. Maybe today she wouldn't have used the "if". Who knows. We live and we learn. Nevertheless, at that time the energy of resistance was potent in the reply, and the "if" only highlighted it. My friend wasn’t ready to hear the truth that what she had done had hurt me. Whether what she did was done intentionally or not. That didn’t matter. 

I've often wondered about my own use of the "if" word in the "I'm sorry" sentence, in the past, whether I've used it as to protect myself against my own faults, or the other person's. At least, I'm elated to be able to report that today I'm extremely mindful of my "I'm sorry" sentences. I treat them with massive respect. We live and we learn. 

My point  ~ Simply acknowledging another person’s hurt, and skipping the "if", opens doorways for two hearts to communicate and share feelings. To skip it is a compassionate and gentle approach, akin to saying “I do care about your feelings”, “Please tell me more" - "You matter a lot to me”. Furthermore, it is also such a beautiful, open, and humble approach to resolving family issues and drama between friends, to say to oneself “I don’t know exactly if I’m to blame or not, and I certainly didn’t intend to hurt someone, but despite that I really want to heal that hurt by meeting the person whos hurting heart to heart”. 

To acknowledge that someone is hurting because of something we did, no matter how insignificant or trivial it may seem to us, invites higher vibrational energy into the circle, benevolent frequencies, angelic beings of compassion and grace. They assist in the resolution and healing. The angels of Grace.

Whether it’s us confessing to another that we feel hurt by that person, or if it’s us apologizing to another for our wrongdoings, we can never be sure of the outcome - the consequences of us coming clean. We are daring the unknown by baring our truth. But one thing is for sure, we will feel lighter. We will have opened our hearts. We will have surrendered to the mighty flow of sincerity.

You may be wondering about my old friend, whether we made up or not. The truth is, we did and we didn’t. So it is. Sometimes it is so hard to reveal one's innermost feelings. And for me, that is no exception. I'm reflecting and learning, and the naked truth is, I unintentionally hurt people too. And I want to use the opportunity and say from the bottom of my heart to anyone who may be reading this who I hurt once upon a time or I will hurt in the future ~ I am so sorry I hurt you 🦋

And so it is with all inner truths, not just the truths behind hurts,  it's also a matter of us thinking, fearing, that our truth, our authenticity will be rejected. Our honesty. So we ask ourselves why speak our truth if our truth might not be accepted, let alone simply heard by another? So we guard it, the truth, with our lives. But in the end, the truth will come out. It always comes to light. In one way, shape or form. If not in our lifetime it may surface further down the family or ancestral line. Both honest beautiful truths about our essences, and the deeper darker varieties.  

I love Angeles Arrien's "Tell the truth without blame or judgment" sentence. That's the energy of the Visionary. Authenticity. To just be honest. Simply telling one's truth. No blame or judgment involved.

It can be pretty normal for us humans to have to weed our way toward the truth that resides in our hearts. It's because whatever it is we don't want to face, whether it's something rather trivial or something very serious, whatever that specific truth may be, it will reveal something about us we would rather keep in the dark - as revealing it will make us vulnerable. Vulnerable to criticism, to blame, to anger, even to loss. We may have locked the truth up in a little box in our hearts, and then we grew rose bushes around it to protect it even further. Both beauty and thorns are its protectors. And that’s alright. It’s OK. Sometimes we are not ready to tell it. Tell it as it is. Time is also a factor here. 

At a time in our life, we may fear we may not be able to handle it. We fear we might even hurt those around us by telling our truth, and that we may face opposition from our circles. That we may lose what we have if we reveal our truth. Friends. Family. Harmony. Therefore what we are afraid of losing is often peace and community. We don’t want to wake the Beast of Truth whose sleeping potion is the silence that keeps the peace. We know if we are clumsy, we may lose our friends. We may even lose our family comfort. Light truths. Dark truths. We keep a lot locked away in our hearts. Both our secrets and authenticity. 

So I urge us all, also myself, to heed Angeles' words, and be more brave and talk from our hearts, our cores. "Telling the truth without blame or judgment - is the visionary’s way of giving voice to what we see, and bringing our creative fire and our authenticity and truth to the world."

In Iceland, we often quote our beloved poet, Einar Ben or Einar Benediktsson, with his words "Aðgát skal höfð í nærveru sálar", and we say it with much heart every time. It means that when we are with another soul we should be mindful in our communication, that we should take care not to hurt another with our words or deeds. I think that goes beautifully together with telling the truth without blame or judgment.

In Love and Grace

Yours Sóley ✨

 

  

A New Year Power Act

 A New Year Power Act ~ The Weaving of the Old with the New

South Iceland, January 3rd 2019

☆ A Wondrous New Year to You, Shining Star ☆

What better way of flying through the gates of a new year than with Grace and Gratitude? With Clarity and Overview? ‘Easy does it’, is a magical mantra to recite when embarking on a new adventure around the sun. It is like a nourishing balm for your Mind Body and Soul. A gift to a ‘newborn star’.

*You Are The Veil!*

A few months ago I woke up on a Sunday morning and quickly found myself standing on the living room floor in my baggy PJ’s burning sage and waving a feather in the air. 

As I walked around the room, distributing smoke, smudging, talking to the angels, chanting a spontaneous prayer of rinsing and healing, I witnessed an inner dialogue commencing in my whole being. 

*Angel Cola*

Yes. It’s one of those stories. A miracle tale. Involving God, Jesus, and the lot. Mhmm. Absolutely. So, if rainbows and unicorns and ‘mushy’ talk is not your cup of tea I suggest you skip this one.

~

Valencia city, May 2017

Doubt! BAM! God damn it! Why now?

Absolute immobilizing fear! Why does doubt have that horrendous paralyzing effect on one’s being?

*But, Who Are You?*

“I call myself an entrepreneur, a heartpreneur, a femmepreneur. Artist of the Heart. Writer, Poet. A Visionary, CEO, a Founder. Identification! Looking for it, searching for it. When dropped, our true individuality comes forth, the individuality of oneness born from our creator's compassion, born from true love between earth and spirit, our soul ~ 

*In the midst of Sisterhoods, let's not forget our Friends*

 

El Faro, Southern Spain, May 2016

I had a friend once. We shared deeply and passionately. Then we became ‘sisters’. 

I don‘t know what happened exactly. Well, now I’m lying. I know exactly what happened. But the story weaves itself wide and deep, between countries, continents, and lifetimes, involving many, and involving none. Therefore multi-layered and laden with human life lessons, soul stirrings, and healings. 

*The Baby Post*

 

Elviria Hills, Southern Spain, April 2016

My 36th! No whoops, I just celebrated my 37th birthday! :)

After turning 32, I‘ve usually been off by a year or two when asked my age. The years, the age, it all just seems clustered together under one big roof with an even bigger thirtysomething sign on top.