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Ceremonial preparation

 

Please bring these items with you to our gatherings - whether Feral Embodiment or Feral Council:

• Candle

• Bowl of Water

• Personal Talking piece

• You are welcome to come adorned as one who you are apprenticing to or an aspect of your Mythos or a Dream Character that you want to get closer to.

• You might want to journal for a few minutes, go for a short wander or spend time with a wildish creature.

• You might want to tell a dream to a more than human one.

• Please arrive in sacred silence.

 

 Feral Embodiment 

• Please make sure your space is safe to move and you have removed furniture or anything that might slip on. Wear clothes in which you can move. 

• You might want to have a resting nest for your movement time, During the hour if something intense moves through you, you might want to titrate by stepping out and laying yourself in your nest for integration and resourcing. And then, joining the movement again once you are ready.

• Children are welcome for the movement practice in order to widen the reach of this other way of being with the world, integrating our embodied entanglement into all our ways of being.

 

Feral Council

• Spend some time before the council to shift consciousness through meditation, setting intention, going for a wander or spending time with a wildish creature, speaking a prayer, singing, movement, artwork or images.

• You might want to create and step over a threshold into sacred time.

• You might want to turn your computer into an altar or portal between the worlds.

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Council Etiquette

 

• Talking Piece - Because this council is virtual (and we are not physically sitting with each other with the ability to pass a talking piece earthwise), we will be inviting popcorn style participation. The person who has finished speaking will offer a question to the group that the muse has whispered to them. If that question is alluring (or even repulsive to you) then you can jump in and begin to offer your share. This will allow for spontaneity and speaking from the heart (unscripted). Then once you have finished your share, you would offer a question to the group and so on and so forth. 

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• Lean of Speech - by this we mean that we go to the heart of the matter (mater - matter - mother). Time is precious. So a nice thing to consider is what truly longs to be spoken, or even what might I be trembling to speak. 

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• Listening & Speaking from the Heart - when we are listening or sharing, let that listening and sharing come from the heart (ears & eyes of the heart). ​​

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• Expressing Personal Experience - it can be easy to slip into using a royal "we” pronoun or "you" (i.e. "we can feel hurt/excited when....” “When this happens to you, you feel scared” vs. "I feel hurt/excited/scared when..."). We invite you to express from the standpoint of "I". Two reasons - firstly, we won't all share the same sentiments, opinions, or experiences, and so out of respect for each other and the spaciousness of experience please do speak from "I". Secondly, using "we" can be a way to diffuse the potency of what we are sharing/expressing because it might feel risky or vulnerable to speak. It is of great service to ourselves and the alchemy of our share when we stand bravely and vulnerably in our truth and speak it to our fellow feral creatures. Likewise, those of us receiving what is shared will also be in-formed by such truth-telling. 

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• Shadow, Projection, Wound, Trauma oh my! - we are all complex beings with a multiverse of lived experience. Listening to another's share can be evoking, provoking, inciting, and triggering. This is a part of the delicious alchemy of Councils, lifting up what might have been muted or forgotten for us to tend to. It is a part of our ever-ongoing work of healing. And the more we tend to our own healing as it presents, the more nurturing generative adults we are able to be for ourselves, our families, and the world. Prior to our gathering, it can be helpful to spend a few minutes rooting into your own psycho-spiritual resourcing and deeper mythos so that you are able to show up more fully for yourself and others. If you have any questions about this please do reach out! 

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• Feral expression of Emotion & the Body -  Shares do not have to be verbal communication - you may want to somatically express yourself through movement or gesture, you may show emotion, like crying, or wish to remain silent and be witnessed in that silence. Or it might come in the form of a poem or song. There is no one way to share. Emotions (particularly anger, grief, and shame) are a part of our humanness, our animality and help to convey the truth at the heart of things. Valorized expressions of such emotions are often in a militarized, patho-adolescent form (i.e. violence and abuse). Emotional and somatic expression have been oppressed, particularly for womxn, lgbtqia, and folx of color. We intend this to be a safe and generative space where emotions (and somatic expression) can be conveyed in its raw truth. By this we mean, you may feel called to scream in the middle of your share, or let the full ocean of grief inside of you flow while jumping up and down. Our emotions and our bodies are places of great power and sovereignty. Let us honor them when we feel called to, and when we feel capable of it!  

• ​Vegas Rule - what is spoken and shared with this group remains with this group. Please do not share what anyone else has shared. You are more than welcome to share your own share, and even your experience of another's share (but please do not share what someone else has entrusted to our group). 

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• Asking Permission - you may feel really moved by someones share, and feel compelled to reach out to them about it. Please honor each other by asking permission first. By this we mean, you might email a feral creature from this group and say "I really loved what you said on Saturday about .... Would you be open or interested in connecting. I would love to share with you." And this means that anyone of us can respond with "yes, I am" OR "no, I'm not feeling called to that right now." Please  honor your "no's". And also be curious within yourself where your "no's" are coming from - some good ol' self-tracking.

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• Inclusivity & Accessibility - Some of us may have children, partners, animals, friends, helpers etc. in the background throughout our council. This is to ensure inclusivity and accessibility for all. If possible please wear earplugs to keep other’s sharing confidential and reduce background noise for the council. 

 

 

Feral Embodiment Etiquette

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In addition to the above for the break-out zoom dyads...

• You are welcome to go on your own journey, let it unfold as it is happening for you - even if it means you don't follow our suggestions. 

• There is no need to hold back, no need to push

• We encourage Body Based - Self tracking - who is showing up? Critics, escapists, rebels, wounded ones - welcome them and let them flow through. They have their own intelligence that we, at Feral Lunacy, seek to honor.