Rupture - rituals to return from the edge

This podcast features conversations inspired by Joy Thunder’s upcoming book of poems, I Will come for you.

We talk of ritual, love, community, overcoming trauma, and the work of sacred s3xuality. We welcome you to an intimate peek behind the scenes, with guests who have inspired the poems and walk among their pages.

In this episode we reflect on the chapter called  - Rupture - Not there with Levitie, and talk of our time in spaces of fragility and loss .

I recorded this at the closing of another season of community life on Samothraki. By then Levitie and I had shared 8 months on this Greek island of savage windblown beauty, living in one communal room, caring for temple spaces or hibernating in a vast home with 8 other people.

We talk about the portal of grief, as individuals and community, and how we coax each other back into the home of our bodies. We talk of our teachers in the art of love, in sweetness and the poison, and the rituals that helped us return from the edge of pain and loss.

“[my parents’ love taught me] an ability to go through the rupture and repair cycle”

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Episode Notes :

- The Spirit of Intimacy - Sobonfu Somé

- Levitie reads this poem written by Joy:

Brave new world

I sometimes wonder
Did I choose to wander
This sweet, sea-swept orb
Just to contemplate a million endings?

I drive another resident of my heart
To the endless roll of waves,
Where the ferry’s jaw 
Lies open and waiting.

I need dry eyes
And one hand to steer,
One to touch you still,
Your fingertips hover 
Over mine,
The exact spots that strum guitar strings.

“I can leave one lover,
But nine?
I cannot contemplate
That grief just yet.”

I’ve fed so many of you
So many of me
Into hungry goodbye rafts and roads

Today my stomach is punched
My deck tilted.
I fill my lungs deep
With this fresh absence.

To have known
An exquisite face of harmony
And let it go,
The shape dissolves 
Yet leaves its imprint -

A scar from a sacred wound

That says
Together
We have seen the seas open.

Is this why the winds
Bring us to each other?

Our ability to become
This brave new world
That emerges between us?

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Levitie

Levitie is a certified Shamanic Breathwork Facilitator, yoga instructor (500+ hours), professional organizational facilitator, and transformational guide. She leads groups and individuals to the heart of their own wisdom, and provides tools and guidance to assist them to transform their lives, and our world, for the better. She lived with daily episodes of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) for over a decade, and has cultivated extensive knowledge and tools to assist others in coming back into the present moment from an activated state.

Levitie believes we live our best lives when we stay in flow and consciously connect with Life. For her that means daily intentional spiritual practice, deep personal work, inner listening, intuitive living, and conscious relationship to self, each other and our world. Join her to spark the fire of transformation with joy and levity.

Levitie’s website.

Read some of Joy’s poems here.

Song credits - Minor with Cricket by Audionautix.com CC BY 4.0