Creativity and Spirituality: the Enduring Path: inner work

30 January 2015

A New Video and TeleSeminar from Emily Hanlon

Writing Workshop: Tales of the Crone As Told by the Crone

How do we access the wisdom of a life ― wisdom gained through love, risk, successes, failures, challenges met and challenges refused?

How do we process and grow with our heartache, passion, laughter and the constant cycles of birth, life and death that are our constant companions?

In my new six month TeleCircle, Tales of the Crone As Told by the Crone, we will do this in a very particular way: through storytelling, whether it be as fiction, memoir, myth, fairytale, poetry or allegory...

And who is our storyteller?
The Crone who lives within each of us and, in her wisdom, compassion and humor, has been a lifelong companion, whether we acknowledge her or not. And when we acknowledge her, what then?

To find the answer, please watch my new video: Tales of the Crone As Told by the Crone.
View on YouTube.

The TeleCircle meets every other Thursday, starting March 5 at 7 pm eastern time and runs for 2 to 21/2 hours. Each session is recorded.

Early Registration: 12 TeleCircles plus one private session: $600.

Early Registration ends on February 10. Fee after February 10 is $700.

Circle is limited to 10. All TeleCircles are recorded.

Register Now. Save $100 when you register by February 10

Email Emily: emily@emilyhanlon.com

phone: 914.962.4432

02 May 2012

Slowing Down on a Fine Wind... Simplicty, Acceptace, and Surrender

"A fine wind is blowing the new direction of time through me. If only I can let it bear me, carry me." ~ D.H. Lawrence

As many of you know, I have collected quotes on writing, creativity and the inner journey for many years. I call these Messages from the Muse. Recently, I wrote on the above quote.

This is something I have felt so often, and usually attribute it to my work. It leaves me feeling anxious. My mind insists, "Get on with it. Just do it! Let me just do it and finally break through!"

Do what? I am now wondering, and I am left with the feeling that I have missed something. And I have! The "new wind" had little to do with "work". I realize I never had to work so hard, push so hard. I simply had to be patient and let the fine wind do its work -- or its joy!

Slowing down, a sweet opening...
I think I am finally allowing change to bear me, carry me in its own mysterious way. I want to slow down. Do less. Such a sweet opening. I feel less anxious about simply being and allowing -- surrendering to what is. It seems that my focus is softening. Not everything needs to be seen and known.

How wonderful this feels. I smile with it, and know that it spreads slowly within, like honey on a warm day, carrying me to exactly where I am. Peacefully... sweetly... moment to moment, without regret.

Say "Yes" to simplicity.
If only I can let it bear me, carry as I say yes to simplicity, acceptance, and surrender of my will to a greater knowing/not knowing within me.

02 March 2009

A Story of Two Emilys: One Young, One Old

She was so pretty, so young.
I envied her wake-up skin and uncombed hair that only made her more lovely.

I went to pay."Your name is Emily," she said. "Mine is, too. When you opened your wallet to pay, I saw your name."

We laughed. "Such a popular name now," I said. "When I was a kid, I was always the only Emily."

"I know." She smiled. How could she know? She was so beautiful and young with her wake-up skin and morning uncombed hair. I missed my beautiful young self. Every morning I stare at my wrinkles and graying hairs that I can no longer count.

We chatted about being Emily. "The most popular girl's name for the last seventeen years," she said. Seventeen. She hardly looked more than seventeen. I paid for my coffee and left.

The yearning for youth and its beauty flowered like a dying rose.
And I said, "What have I forgotten?" To my amazement, the answer flowered like a lotus.

You are Emily.
She is you.
All is one.
You are she.
You are you.
You are old.
You are young.
You are dying.
You are born.

The flower grew beyond my being, embracing me. And yet, my mind still yearned.

24 January 2009

Running with Beauty: A Grand Aventure

"I hide myself inside myself and then I try to find myself..."

When I was a little girl, I loved this rhyme that my mother taught us: "I hide myself inside myself and then I try to find myself..." There were more words, but these are the ones that have remained with me all my life. I loved the idea of hiding myself inside myself. I remember giggling and giggling as the giddy ballerina in me turned round and round in circles singing this to myself...

Lately, the rhyme has been coming back to me with an understanding that became quite visceral the other day. I was walking my dog on a beautiful trail and paused on a bridge overlooking the reservoir. The sky was a brilliant blue. The branches of the bare trees held the stark beauty of winter; it seemed to me that the branches were reaching skyward in prayer.

17 April 2008

Trust the Inner Journey

We journeyed to our "source", asked for images and let the images speak. Barbara Livingston's image was a swirling yin/yang. This is what the image wrote:

swirling down

swirling up

the direction does not matter

it is one and the same

breathe deeply

the mist obscuring the path

trust in the journey

the destination is not your purpose

you are not a visitor here

participation is necessary

the stillness is your guide

the questions need not be asked

their answers already written

04 April 2008

The Enemy Within

If you are a Trekkie, you might remember the very early “Star Trek” episode (#5) entitled “The Enemy Within.” Although dated—it was aired on October 6, 1966 (Stardate 1672.1)—it is a perfect example of Picasso’s quote and the core work of this book. I quote from the video jacket:

A transporter malfunction causes Kirk to be split into separate beings: one compassionate, the other savage. Spock and McCoy suffer along with their friend as Kirk confronts a side of his nature no man should see. His only hope for survival is to reunite his two selves.

Kirk has to destroy his image of himself as a “good” man if he is to survive.
Kirk’s savage or what I would call primal self gets split off. This is the enemy or beast within. This is the side of us the Inner Critic doesn’t want to let out. This side of Kirk is lustful, greedy, murderous; he incarnates all the deadly sins. But without his primal self, the “compassionate” side of Kirk begins to wither on the vine. He loses his ability to make a decision much less be in command of the Enterprise and, because of his indecisiveness, some of his crew are threatened with death. The compassionate side of Kirk, the Captain in Kirk, cannot function without his primal self. And the primal self, while at first roaming the ship and leaving havoc in his wake, also begins to weaken and soon is close to death.

The Embrace of Wholeness
While Kirk would like to let this side of him die, Dr. Spock points out that he cannot. He needs this part of him if he is to survive. It is this part of him, tempered with compassion and intellect, that makes him a leader. In a very touching finale, the two sides of Kirk not only unite but embrace one another, and the compassionate side of Kirk accepts his darkside with love. Only then can the real Captain Kirk step forward and take control of the ship once more. In essence, Kirk has to destroy his image of himself as a “good” man if he is to survive. He has to let his crew see that he, like all humans, has this self seething with all the primal instincts, and more importantly, he has to embrace, to love his darkside.

27 February 2008

Creativity Is a Connection to Soul

Creativity as Mediator Between the Worlds

Creativity is a mysterious journey that connects us to the unseen worlds.
There was a time when all people had access to the unseen worlds, although it was the shamans, story tellers and healers who mediated between the worlds as they journeyed into the Mystery and interpreted the images found there.

As a culture we have lost the connection to our instinctual nature.
Today we have our contemporary journeyers into the cosmic unseen worlds--many creative people are such journeyers--but as a culture we have lost the connection to our instinctual nature. With the development of the human brain and the march of history, the pendulum has swung so far that an overwhelming majority of people do not consider the journey into the unseen worlds a possibility, much less a necessity...

22 February 2008

Guidance for the Inner Critic

Love and honor yourself always and you will do fantastic work.

Here is a letter that Irene Kessler wrote to her Inner Critic. I was so moved, I asked if I could reprint her.

Dear Inner Critic,

What you have said to Irene is not reality and harsh and there is no reason to be harsh. The best things happen when you come from love.

Love and honor yourself always and you will do fantastic work. You have it in you and you see that in bits and pieces of writing you have already done.

Before you write, love yourself. Fill your being with compassion for yourself and the world. Shine a light on yourself and the universe. Know they are there to help and guide you and that is the strongest force there is. Nothing can override it. Go and write my child, and be happy.

18 January 2008

Who Am I? Who Has the Answer?

“You can live a lifetime and, at the end of it, know more about other people than you know about yourself.” -- Beryl Markham

Who am I? Who is the I who calls you home?

Most of us have a nodding acquaintance with the true self, the one who is hidden behind doors to which our ego has the key. The ego would like us believe that the hundreds of thousands of often critical thoughts it feeds us and the accompanying whirlwind of emotions are the true stuff of our being. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The ego keeps us prisoner of its neurotic habits
The ego keeps us stuck in patterns that do not serve our true self. Much if not all of the ego’s life is as unsubstantial as smoke.

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