This voice will carry us out of chaos and safely home
Week 5--in which we listen to the voice that can lead us out of the chaos and carry us safely home
Beautiful Ones,
So much has happened this week, that it’s hard to focus on any one thing or even any ten things. And that, we must remember, is the point. When chaos and fear and crazy-making ideas assault you every day, every hour… When they disturb your sleep… When they penetrate your skin…
You freeze. And when you’re frozen, you can’t think. You can’t figure out what to do. Sometimes you can’t even decide what to make for dinner.
I know this condition. I know it all too well.
That’s why, when I look at what’s happening right now, I can feel the pain and see the suffering—and know there is a way through.
I can hear the insane ideas spewing out of people’s mouths, remember that I bore equally insane verbal abuse, and still found a way through.
So this is want I want to offer today: not a rehash of the insanity, you can see plenty of that everywhere you look.
I want to talk about a powerful way to come in out of the chaos, connect with your voice, and find your way safely home.
I am familiar with what is unfolding because it is a macrocosm of the firehose of abuse and threats thrown at me as I tried to navigate a life-threatening divorce. I didn’t have a name for my ex-husband’s behavior then. But I do now. It’s narcissism. It’s control on steroids. It’s patriarchy at its worst.
Narcissists don’t let anyone else win. And they never let someone they consider an opponent walk away whole and intact. They need to inflict pain. Even if that pain bites them back. Narcissists need to take everything: house, possessions, friends, money, business. And most important, they need to remove any sense you might have once had of safety, security, dignity.
But I did get away. Because I did one thing.
I activated and listened to the extraordinary voice within.
Sound familiar? It’s the subtitle of Writing Down Your Soul, the book that transformed the practice of writing from journaling in the alpha brainwave state to mystical dialogue in theta. Tens of thousands of people have read Writing Down Your Soul and pressed it into friends’ hands. Why? Because deep soul writing works. It changes lives because it opens portals into the mystic allowing new and radically different information to flow effortlessly.
I activated that voice for the first time 27 years ago. And when it began to speak, I listened. And as I listened to its guidance, wisdom, comfort, and grace, my life began to change.
Not because the voice gave me any answers. This is important. The voice did not seem interested in the least in solving my problems. No, the voice wanted to pose questions. Questions I had never asked myself. Big, juicy, scary questions.
Here's just one that upended my life. The voice insisted I ask myself: What have I been unwilling to see? A perfect and powerful question for that moment in my life. And a perfect and powerful one for all of us at this moment as well.
As I sat in my living room, day after day, drinking tea, scribbling frantically, swiping tears, everything I thought was important began to dissolve. And as all that was swept away, a new life, a delightful life, a life overflowing with purpose and meaning and joy slowly came into form.
Listening to that “extraordinary voice” has led me all the way to today when I embrace my calling as a prayer artist, mystic witch, and fire keeper of the ember that holds the memory of a different way of living. A time before misogyny, before slavery, before patriarchal theocracy, before forced submission to control and domination.
That’s not wishful thinking. It’s science.
We humans have shared this Earth for over 100.000 years. And for 95% of that time, the archeological record demonstrates that the Mother, the Goddess, was the center of life. Women were revered and held leadership positions and, because no weapons have been found in ancient graves, the conclusion is we lived in peace.
Everything changed with the arrival of warlike tribes who worshiped a male sky god who spewed thunderbolts, demanded obedience, and forced tribute. Suddenly the archeological record became full of heroes parading proudly before the vanquished in chains.
My point is that the way we live today is not the way we once lived. And it doesn’t have to be the way we continue to live.
But that leads to the question of how.
How do we come in out of the chaos?
How do we find a new way to live.
The short answer is we activate and listen to the extraordinary voice within. But there are many ways to do that. Over the last 27 years, what began as a writing practice has expanded and morphed and evolved.
And in the seven ART intensives in The Witch Sequence, we have explored all of them.
And not just in writing.
We have discovered that the voice is alive and present and waiting to be noticed in corners of paintings, felt through our hands on the original womb labyrinth, seen and heard in experiential journeys. The voice continues to surface in deep soul writing of course, but also in sketching, oracular readings, symbols, smells, synchronicity, sound, and dreams.
The voice is a multi-sensory magical presence. We just have to learn how to listen.
- In ART 1 we learned how to listen to the voice of our body’s natural intuitive senses.
- In ART 2 we discovered how easy it is to drop into mystical theta around the clock activating the voice in countless varieties and forms.
- In ART 3 we played with prayer, real prayer, and discovered it is an essential part of the life force in our mitochondria.
- In ART 4 we stepped back in time to hear the voice of the myrrhophores who helped us remember the healing powers of the sacrament of anointing.
Now, we stand on the threshold of the next ART intensive.
- As we walk the fifth circuit of the ancient labyrinth, we will activate and listen to our ancient wise oracular voices of the ancestral past.
- And listen to our sacred prophetic voices speaking to us from the future.
- And, perhaps the biggest surprise, the voice of the oracles alive in our natal charts. They’re right there hiding in plain sight.
This will be the richest and deepest activation and exploration of the extraordinary voice within that we have yet encountered.
And the timing couldn’t be more perfect. If you’ve been listening to the forecast, you know that everything comes to a head in March. And March 2 is when ART 5 opens. Cathy Stevens Pratt and I didn’t plan that, but we can’t miss the perfection.
This is the voice we need to listen to right now.
Your personal prophetic, oracular, divination voice is just the voice you need to tone down the chaos and find your way safely home.
Last week I invited members of the first four ART intensives to register. As promised, now it’s your turn. Cathy and I spent four months developing the unique, multi-disciplinary content.
When you click on the link to the information and registration page, please watch the video Cathy and I made to introduce Divination.
Then, notice how the page is divided. The top half is an overview of The Witch Sequence, the seven gifts, and the labyrinth. The bottom half, below the blue banner, is full of information about ART 5 Divination.
Do register soon so you have time to read the Welcome, Prayer and Labyrinth Handbooks I’m creating for you. And watch a few bonus videos. It’s a feast. A feast that activates the voice we need so desperately right now. The voice of wisdom, possibility, and love.
to coming in out of the chaos and following the sacred voice safely home
Janet
PS 1: if you missed last Sunday's newsletter on the hemisphere's of the brain, it's a lovely introduction to one aspect we'll explore in ART 5.
PS 2: The first four ART intensives are on sale through the end of February. Take advantage of this sale to experience them before ART 5 opens in March.
Click on the link, select On Demand, put any intensives you wish in your cart, and enter coupon code ARTSALE to receive an additional 22% off the already reduced OnDemand registration fee.
website: janetconner.com
facebook: janet conner prayer artist
YouTube: Janet Conner