WELCOME!
Beltane: We Are Flowers

Come in, come in! I’m so happy you’re here. The season of Beltane, also known as May Day, marks the midway point between the Vernal Equinox and the Summer Solstice. Beltane falls on May 1st, but Beltane Season lasts all through May! This ancient holiday highlights themes of cross-pollination, radical self-love, the pleasure of the senses, and what it means to truly thrive.

Table of Contents

PART ONE: DIGITAL CONTENT

• Story of the Season: a Homily for Beltane (audio & PDF)

• The Great Wide Open (video)

• In the Studio (video)

• Collaborative Alchemy Podcasts: Seasonal Conversations (audio)

• Fuel for the Fire: Writing prompts, links, reading lists, Spotify playlists, etc.

SPECIAL INVITATION:
My book, The Creative Alchemy Cycle, published this year with Tehom Center Publishing and I’m about to embark on a Summer Reading Tour! I’m traveling up and down the west coast from June 5 - July 3 and would LOVE to see you in person. Here are the tour dates and locations!

PART ONE: Digital Content

Seaonal Focus — Embodiment Practice

This season we’re focusing on embodiment as a creative practice. We will be exploring themes of creative flow and pleasure activism. We’ll connect deeply to the senses as a tool for liberatory creative expression. So grab your watercolors and let’s commune with the flowers as we talk color theory, olfactory portals, and sense-memory.

Calling You Home — A Homily

This is a great place to begin. For each of the eight bundles that make up the Creative Alchemy Cycle, I write a seasonal story to set the container for the bundle. These homilies are my way of practicing alongside you and using the creative alchemy tools to create my own work. You can download a copy using the button below and/or listen to the audio.

The Great Wide Open

My creative process always begins outside. This is where I weave the outer landscape with the inner one. We’ll walk through flowering orchards, chase bees from bloom to bloom, and enjoy the green hills of Eastern Oregon. We’ll also spend a little time in the boggy hollows of the Wallowa foothills searching for mushrooms among blooming wild strawberry.

In the Studio

After viewing The Great Wide Open, let’s head into my studio. This is where I metabolize, incubate, and process all the elements which make up my current state of creative alchemy. This season, we are connecting to the senses! Grab your watercolors and let’s commune with the flowers as we explore color-theory, olfactory portals, the chakra framework, and sense-memory.

Collaborative Alchemy Podcast

Collaborative Alchemy is a series of conversations with artists, thought leaders, activists, farmers, educators, creatives, and other polymaths where we tell our stories, expand our histories, and hold space for new ways of being. The podcast is on pause this season and will hopefully resume in early summer. In the meantime, please enjoy the rich catalogue of conversations below!

Fuel For The Fire

Writing prompts and further exploration, links, reading lists, spotify playlists, etc. Click on the images or buttons below to view, visit, or download.

Gratitude.

BLOOM
by Emily Dickinson

Bloom — is Result — to meet a Flower
And casually glance
Would cause one scarcely to suspect
The minor Circumstance
Assisting in the Bright Affair
So intricately done
Then offered as a Butterfly
To the Meridian —
To pack the Bud — oppose the Worm —
Obtain its right of Dew —
Adjust the Heat — elude the Wind —
Escape the prowling Bee
Great Nature not to disappoint
Awaiting Her that Day —
To be a Flower, is profound
Responsibility —