Alysse Aallyn

Category: #Mysteries

Twists & Turns

  • Sleeping Orchid – Creative Bootcamp for Sensitives & Empaths with Alysse Aallyn

    Passion – Courage

    If This Archetype Chooses You – It’s Time to Release Your Power. Do you dream of fantastic feats? Sports? Circuses? Meritocratic competitions? Or are you held back from “fear standing up in front of the class?” Your psyche yearns to muster passion, the fuel for courage. Passion is what propels us forward when it would be safer to hang back. Why?

    Passion Makes You a Creative – From your youngest years, you recall that boiling collision inside of you, caused by shaming, praising, and an endless re-directing. It is in maturity that we begin to make sense of our passions and to see clearly that not everyone is born with the same ones.

    Define Your Passions – Passions evolve while you grow in character as a person. We are constantly re-defining “The Problem”, as well as the Self with which we see the problem. You will “graduate” from one passion to another until you find Compassion, its highest form. This life trajectory is cause enough for Celebration.

    Passion’s Worth Defending – Intense caring means you’re staking out ground in the universe. The desirable – justice, truth, art – whatever it is – is so important it needs advocates. You become aware that it’s under attack from people who, for personal reasons of their own, find its existence inconvenient. “Those who fail to stand up for something will fall for anything.”

    Passion Gives You Courage – Defending anything is extremely scary. You can expect to experience every sort of pushback. Studying all these possibilities is the beginning of your education as a creative.

    Have You The Courage of Your Passions? Sometimes we want something concrete, but most of the time it is the adventure itself that we really seek. We long to be transformed into an athlete of endurance who can far further faster, learn more better and imagine deeper and more vibrantly.

    Fear is a Reaction, Courage is a Decision – Even if you don’t like to fight with your fists you must fight with your mind, with your longing, with your desire. So much is impossible, yet humanity attempts the impossible every day, and a surprising extent of the time, we succeed. Our well-being, our future, depend upon this passion and this courage. Be as wily as a serpent and as gentle as a dove so that your power morphs to encompass the difficulties that you face.

    Broken Creatives – Will your heart and your courage be broken? Many times, says the fable. But light comes in through the broken places. You will flex and bend. You will evolve and grow. Your passions will change. You will rise above your passions. Your courage will strengthen and evolve. YOU WILL FLOURISH and the beauty of your effort, of your dream, joins together with all the other glorious human resolutions and accomplishments to power the planet.

    Creative Danger – Derailment is common. It is endemic. It is not the end. We live in a capitalistic society where some deliberately harness the passion, the courage, the imaginations of others to benefit only themselves. It is heartbreaking to put all your keenest insight into discoveries and achievements that only buy baubles for billionaires. Soldiers can find themselves giving everything for Very Bad Ideas. Artists watch their best installments torched and trashed. All of us face the shock of old age – if we are lucky. You need a shock absorber to upgrade your courage.

    Creative Opportunity – The hum of the universe provides the refreshment we need. There is still much peace and beauty in the green places, and the eyes of children provide all the light we need. To be strong requires exercise – Push-relax, push-relax. Nutrition has the same requirement. There’s a time to eat and a time to fast and each of those spaces is holy. The less we take, the less we require, the finer tuned becomes our mechanism. The more there is to share. Share with holy people who recognize and honor the gifts of God, not those who try to inspire hate, divisiveness and violence. Naturally we have sore places – we are creatives! We all need to give and receive the magical healing of a loving touch. Let that courage be your passion.

    You Are Not Alone – Someone has your back. Find out who: among the people who love you, among historical figures, famous thinkers and contemporary philosophers. If you can’t find a group, start a group. True friends give each other courage.

    Models & Mentors – “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.” – Brene Brown

    “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage” – Anais Nin

    “Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute for experience.” – Paulo Coelho

    “It takes courage to become who you really are.”
    – e.e. cummings

    “Courage is contagious” – Billy Graham

    #Haiku: Devourer of Hearts

    Scaling hearts
    For final judgment:
    Soured hearts
    Desiccate;
    Passion hearts
    Burgeon

  • Sleeping Orchid – Creative Boot Camp for Sensitives & Empaths with Alysse Aallyn

    Meditation – Mindfulness

    If This Archetype Chooses You – It’s time to open your Third Eye and access your Inner Wisdom. We may physically live in the Now, but it is our greatest good fortune as a species that we can enrich our present with powerful visions of past and future. In our dreams, we can expand this to universal pasts and futures. “Now” serves as the lens through which our Body stays focused. To be absent from the Now is to miss the key to ecstasy that is our birthright.

    Patience Multiplies Wealth – Wealth can be psychic, emotional, spiritual as well as physical, financial and actual. Eating unripe fruit robs us of our harvest. Therefore, we learn to settle into the Now, line up our Past, Present, Future with our Conscious, Subconscious, & Unconscious levels. It’s a trick we master through the practice of meditation, which is the opening the Third Eye. The first step is Emptying. Push your thoughts, memories, worries away. Concentrate solely upon your breath. If this is too hard, choose a mantra (such as “Thank You” or “Namaste”) or a piece of music without lyrics (Marconi Union’s Weightless is fabulous for this.) Just celebrate the emptiness, the Nothingness. As thoughts come to you, release them like balloons. Celebrate You.

    In the Control of Your Own Mind Lies all Freedom. Without it you are a slave, whatever the world may think. Buddhists call your mind a “wild horse” that must be tamed. Learn to greet the Now as an old friend who knits everything that is “you” – all the scattered psychic pieces – back together. You can FEEL the healing.

    Risk It – In our new digital world it’s very difficult to claim Time for yourself. Can you turn off all the flashing lights, the alerts, the signals, the seductions, the threats? You absolutely must learn to do that, you must feel “important” enough to do it. It’s a lifelong job that soon becomes a respite you greet as an old friend. Turns out, feeling entitled is the most difficult part of the task. Tell others, “This is my recharge time. It’s absolutely critical.” Twenty silent minutes per day. Alone. You. Finding Eternity – and the Eternal You – through the Now. It doesn’t come easily. It comes through your infinite willingness, your scrupulous patience, your holy dedication. Don’t give up on You.

    Give Up Your Competitiveness. – Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Surrender your expectations. Push away the sadness, the depression, the loss, the anxiety, the rage, the worry. All can be released into the universe, floating away from you to pop harmlessly in the stratosphere. You are alone now with the infinite. Slowly you begin to feel the pleasure, an indescribable ecstasy in which your ordinary human body becomes incandescent. Suddenly you want better things for yourself. More sleep. Better dreams. Healthier food. A world of love and joyous possibility. Dip your toe in that completeness, twenty minutes per day. (Or more, if you can.) Now you have a glimpse of Heaven.

    Creatives Tune In to their Energy Source – Creatives learn to treasure their peaceful daily meditations as a source of strength. If you allow the pool of your mind to settle, you will be able to see deeply. I personally prefer eyes-closed meditation. Concentrate on your slow deep belly breaths. If a thought jumbles past, think the word, “Clear”. Keep breathing. Keep clearing. You will feel rooted to the soil, grounded on the earth. The energy will start to bubble through you.

    Creatives Stay Focused – Split focus – sometimes called “multi-tasking” – is the current work modality for a reason, and the reason is that it diminishes your psychic power. If you focus your full attention on anything or anyone, you will begin to feel the power flow between you and this object/idea/person. This is scary at first, but you will get used to it. Living beings (plants included) flourish under this attention and the connections that are made last forever.

    Creatives are Mindful – Understanding the power of the Now is your creative strength. You are entirely here, entirely present in this moment. You have completely accepted your current incarnation. There will be time, alone with your Training Journal, to savor the past and call upon the future, but for this moment you know how to be entirely present in the Now. It is unbelievably powerful. It feels like Love.

    Models & Mentors – “What you think, you become. What you feel, you attract. What you imagine, you become” – Buddha

    “You can’t stop the waves but you can learn how to surf” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

    “It takes courage to say yes to rest and play in a world where exhaustion is a status symbol” – Brene Brown

    ‘You are the silent watcher of your thoughts. You are the stillness beneath the mental noise. You are the joy beneath the love and pain” – Eckhart Tolle

    #Haiku: Meditation – Mindfulness

    Joyous
    Breath
    Supports
    Eternal now:
    Blossoms spirit;
    Sparks
    Thoughts,
    Shared
    Dance

  • Sleeping Orchid – Creative Boot Camp for Sensitives & Empaths with Alysse Aallyn

    Torpor – Addiction

      If This Archetype Chooses You – Uh oh. Something’s preventing you from launching on your quest. Time to wake your Sleeping Orchid, but…It’s hard to even formulate goals with this monkey on your back, chattering in your ear. What is it?

      You’ve Become Too Attached. To … what? Investigate. Something’s controlling your mind, controlling your actions. Take it slow as you consider. Is this attachment harming your principles? Values? Relationships?

      The Creative’s Fiercest Battle – Do you dream of imprisonment? Blank walls? Chains? Our neurocircuitry mandates habit-making behavior, but our intelligence recognizes entrapment, and our dreams send out distress signals. If you’re human, there is no way to avoid addiction. Welcome to the unpleasant Club!

      We Are Wired for Addiction – If there’s no escaping it – that means you will have to fight this battle. But the good news is, this is exactly how you become Free. Anyone who hasn’t done it is still a slave to their hormones, instincts, patterning – just as animals are. Here’s the very thing you become a Creative for – your best chance to develop a free will and a free soul.

      Study Your Opponent – Turns out we have tremendous choice over what we become addicted to. Some addictions are less corrupting than others. Visit an AA meeting and the consumption of sugar and tobacco is outright alarming. Are you addicted to gambling? Do you work in sales? Were you raised in a ritualistic faith? We easily become dependent on praise, on safety, on gratification, and our brains (and our general health) show our dependency. They threaten and panic when the “treat” is withdrawn.

      Creative Challenge – This parasite doesn’t care if it kills its host. If you fear you are approaching a cliff-edge, you probably are. One test is to go on a “retreat” where your customary gratifications are not available, and attempt to form new gratifications. See what happens! Does your personality threaten to disintegrate? Great time to ask yourself: who am I really? This is such a good idea, we should build it into our lives, periodically. Just to keep us recognizing that cliff-edge where Soul and Self become separated and Free Will is lost.

      Creative Danger – We always live with the possibility that we will lose our autonomy. We want to evolve, we know we SHOULD change, but we CAN’T. There’s no shame in needing outside help. This is the purpose of interventions, to demonstrate to our eyes and ears that we are harming ourselves and our relationships. Denial is a powerful defense mechanism, especially when we think we’ve finally found a substance/process that “magically” allows us to live on our particular cliff-edge – a dangerous job, risky sexual behaviors, risky recreational behaviors.

      Worst-Case Scenario – is that our addiction becomes our identity. We always have the choice of refusing to listen to our interveners – giving up on our relationships just to keep up our self-abuse. Some hardened wretches tell anyone who listen that life itself isn’t worth it without their life-threatening self-abuse. They choose to die as slaves.

      Creative Opportunity – You not only CAN free yourself, you MUST to deserve and preserve your Creative Power. It is your spiritual obligation to live this territorial existence as an enlightenment opportunity. Familiar with the saying, “Live simply so that others may simply live” ? That mandates sharing. That means ALWAYS studying your consumption, NEVER allowing yourself to turn into a greedy pig and scheduling time to be alone with the universe and with God. To check on the hardiness of your Soul.

      Models & Mentors – “You can’t defeat the darkness by keeping it caged inside you” – Seth Adam Smith

      “All addictions are ways to not feel our feelings”
      – Ellen Burstyn

      “Sometimes you can only find heaven by backing slowly away from hell”
      – Carrie Fisher

      “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out”. – Robert Collier

      “The most common way people give up their power is thinking they don’t have any” – Alice Walker

      #Haiku: – Addiction

      Brain cells beggared;
      Lovelorn
      Oxytocin receptors misfire:
      “Feed me!”

    1. Sleeping Orchid – Creative Boot Camp for Sensitives & Empaths with Alysse Aallyn

      Danger – Risk

        If This Archetype Chooses You – Look out. Are you a worrier? Anxiety driven? Haunted by nightmares and worst-case scenarios? Do you wake up gasping and trying to forget what you’ve just experienced?

        You are Alert – Nightmares mean you’re paying attention. Life is scary, but we need to grow, and growth requires we learn to cultivate risk if we are ever to expand and venture outside our comfort zone.

        The Number One Complaint About the Freedom of Becoming a Creative? – Fear management. The only way to manage fear? Become a Creative.

        Study Risk Intelligently. No point being afraid of dragons if dragons are only symbolic. No point being “afraid” of “foreigners” if the man telling us to be afraid has a reputation for befriending people and then fleecing them.

        Managing Fear:

        1. Don’t rely on rumor and innuendo
        2. Dangers must be proven Real
        3. Dangers Need to be Historically verified by data: “How likely is injury?”
        4. Assemble likely risk-avoidance strategies that have performed well for others in your situation.
        5. What exactly is your situation? Quantify.
        6. Know who your friends are
        7. Be prepared to alter strategy to maximize success and to learn from mistakes

        Creatives Train – Creatives accept, identify and study the challenges. They learn to make sophisticated risk assessments and pick their battles cleverly. To do that, creatives need a Purpose. You get to find out who your friends are. Friends want the best for you, but the relationship must be reciprocal. You have each other’s backs. Know the difference between a Team and a Gang. Gangs work to suck power from individual members and concentrate it in one individual. Teams work for the success of all. Coach can’t win if the team doesn’t win.

        Creatives Test – their and mental physical abilities constantly against life’s games & mazes

        Creatives Transform – The physical pleasure of meeting the moment cannot be overstated. Soon the training itself becomes a rush of joy. You are making love to the universe and the universe loves you back

        What About Defeat? – There are no defeats, there are only lessons. Everything is practice for The Greater Contest.

        Won’t You Ultimately Lose? Truly, we all die, some sooner, some less dignified. This is where your purpose upholds you. Study your models. What allowed Nelson Mandela to be “captain of his soul” after more than 20 years in brutal captivity? Are we just bodies? Or are we also souls? Are our souls so easily defeated? Can we also train, test and transform our souls?

        Remember – a caterpillar’s “defeat” is a butterfly.

        Models & Mentors – “Extreme Fear can neither fight nor fly.”
        – William Shakespeare

        “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear” – Mark Twain

        “If you try to get rid of fear and anger without knowing their meaning, they will return stronger” – Deepak Chopra

        “We’re more often frightened than hurt, and we suffer more from imagination than reality.” – Seneca

        #haiku: Everything

        Everything you’ve
        Ever wanted
        Is on the other side
        Of fear

      1. Butterfly Language for Caterpillars – Soulmate Seeking with Alysse Aallyn

        The Daisy = LOVE “Is love real?” “Love Waves”

                    Love is the secret. Love is the answer. Love is what we say we feel when we look into the Soulmate’s eyes According to our long, rich tradition of romantic literature, it’s a connection/identification with someone else so powerful (and so rewarding) you would walk through fire for that person. 

                    Biblically defined as:

                    “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” 

                    Love is the opposite of the winner/loser “fuck you” ethos. 

                    Love is patient. We can’t expect the Soulmate to be on the same page with us immediately, or all the time. We must work out our differences, analyze our difficulties and strategize        solutions. Love takes time.

                    Love is kind. We handle each other gently, with care. Thoughtfully, with reverence. Slowly. Savoring.

                    Love does not envy. We are not competitive with each other. When we wrestle, it is in play, for joy, not because we want to         trounce the Soulmate or knock the feet out from under the Beloved.

                    Love does not boast. We are not seeking to impress each other. Love is not a hierarchy where we can lift our status above the Loved One.

                    Love is not proud. We can admit fault. We can say we are sorry. We can weep with the Beloved and we can begin again.

                    Love does not dishonor others. There is no “score”, no winner  and no loser. We don’t take tattletales of the Beloved to friends, family, social media or the public space. 

                    Love is not self-seeking. It is not transactional: “what can I get out of this” “you are not giving enough” “you are not making me look good.”

                    Love is not easily angered. We resist anger, touchiness, rage over our wounded narcissistic self-importance. If we are angry we cannot join, touch each other, embrace whole-heartedly or solve problems. When you get angry over a problem, now you have two problems. 

                    Love keeps no record of wrongs. When we say, “I forgive you”, we mean it.

                    Love does not delight in evil. We do not seek the diminishment or disrespect of the other. Popular “bondage” and “sadism” games that memorialize the helplessness and subjection of the Other are dangerous, volatile and can be triggers of past dangers and will map out a bleak and lonely future.

                    Love rejoices in the truth. The truth evolves because our brains evolve. Truth is a process as our lives are a process. We are all heading for an end goal – both together and separately – if we        can   figure out what it is. Truth is our ally in this dilemma, because it tells us the real results of all our strategies which allows us to calibrate our efforts and improve our outcomes.         We must speak truth to each other and we must grow in stature enough to dare to speak truth to Power.

                    Love protects. We shelter. We nourish. We steward. We cherish. We assess. We unite.

                    Love always trusts. We believe. We have the best assurance that God is good and that truth, justice and love will win in the end.

                    Love always hopes. Things will get better tomorrow. We will         work towards constant improvement.

                    Love perseveres. We will never quit. We are in this for the long haul.

        Meditation:  I am part of all I have met  – Tennyson

        #Haiku: Love Waves

        Sound travels forever

        Like love;

        Stars’ boundless dance

        Launched

        By mortal hearts

      2. Butterfly Language for Caterpillars – Soulmate Seeking with Alysse Aallyn

        Cherry Blossoms = Paradise=BLISS “Love the Magician”

        Finding your bliss: Cherry blossoms promise: “Good things to come.”

        Everyone’s Paradise is different. For some it will be just like church, for others it’s the eternal “fish-fry” described in Green Pastures.

        Some people say it will be a place without animals, enemies, insects or unbelievers, others say it will be just like Earth. Some think it’s an endless loving embrace, others say a “roll in the hay” with “70 virgins.” (Imagine that being appealing!)

        These ideas are understandably small and based on limited and very individual human knowledge. This makes Paradise a mental construct; some kind of an existence of all joy and no pain. We can almost barely imagine that. What we can’t seem to imagine is a Paradise where all participate; in other words, how can we feel joy if “wrong thoughts”, “impure behaviors” and “bad people” are rewarded?

        Jesus was asked this question and his answer sounds suspiciously like “get over it.” He told a long story about toilers in the vineyards paid the same amount no matter how late they showed up, just because the owner was so full of generosity and joy.

        Something to think about. I personally treasure the idea that Paradise is a place where “every tear will be wiped away.”(Revelation)

        Once we have faced up to our personal inadequacies, admitted the power of our global longing and contemplated the possibility of severance, are we ready to surrender to bliss? Cherry Blossoms guarantee that ecstasy is coming. But what is ecstasy – how uncomfortable will it be and how will we recognize it?

        Ecstasy is the blurring of our boundaries into the beloved. Time vanishes, there is only the ecstatic present. You have experienced this before. Disappearing in to the safety of a loving parent’s arms you felt connected to them in a galvanic way – you and they were part of each other’s being. This is the connection Jesus offered when he called God “Daddy.”

        A mature connection with the Beloved is even more powerful, because we get to be both parent and child, recipient and giver, all at once and in the same moment. What joy!

        Meditation: Long live the weeds and the wildness – Gerard Manley Hopkins

        LOVE THE MAGICIAN

        The Magician is a Capricorn
        Bleeding cock’s milk from nipples
        Pale like mine but
        Maler.
        Illusion, he says is memory
        Of things that should have been.
        Doves and rabbits he entices
        From sacred groves between my legs
        Placed by ruse, and freed by art.
        When he dies, passion turns his eyes
        To quarters.
        He hears the world but faintly
        Through his one good ear.
        The other turns to me,
        Safecracker’s daughter.
        Trust the magician, voices tell me
        He knows when to drop the dice.

      3. Butterfly Language for Caterpillars – Soulmate Seeking with Alysse Aallyn

        The Gazing Ball = PROPHECY “You Are Not Lost”

        “Who can foretell the future?”

        If you could, would you?

        Would you find yourself performing all the same actions all over again?

        What do you most regret? Sometimes grief lies in wait for us at our happiest moments. What would you change, if anything? How about altering your Soulmate, fellow traveler on life’s journey? Would you roll those dice again?

        Skeptics say a stopped clock is right twice a day, but whatever the causation, sometime prophecies come true. A creeping suspicion bubbles up out of nowhere – manifesting as reality. We guess restlessly at “The Truth.”

        This glittering gazing ball at the center of our garden reflects our hopes, wishes and dreams, one of which is that it confers the gift of prophecy. We know we must be right about some future event; but if we share our knowledge too often we are discredited or disbelieved.

        Perhaps all we need is to cultivate our gift; forget “knowing”; concentrate on the blur of memory and project it forcefully into the future. Think about past, present and possibility, making all our choices with our Wisdom Eye fully open. It could be that the answer to the question we seek is already known to our Soulmate if we can only learn to trust and understand.

        What fresh new worlds might we create with our clear shared minds?.

        YOU ARE NOT LOST

        Do forests think?
        These trees know where they are
        In spite of all our attempts
        At subjugation
        We are all still here
        In spite of prophets who
        Calculated chances of survival
        With the eye of a murderous god
        Every one of us
        Who has ever been
        Is still here

      4. Butterfly Language for Caterpillars – Soulmate Seeking with Alysse Aallyn

        The Pond = JUDGEMENT “Devourer of Hearts”

        “Does truth ever come out?”

        The Pond may reflect what it sees, but we know it has depths. There are things in there, moving around, looking back at us, possibly making calculations about us. The pond is deep enough so that we could swim – and never touch bottom.
        When we look into a mirror, is the mirror looking into us? We know the answer is always Yes as long as we have a Soulmate. We function as each other’s mirrors. World within world; bubble within a bubble; our vision alters. We learn from each other what Truth really is.

        Truth lies just beyond our vision, but luckily our Soulmate provides eyes in the back of our head. The Truth will out. The Pond waits quietly, knowing someday it will repossess. Hidden creatures study us as we study them. We remember what it is like to dip beneath it surface and gaze back at the blurry universe – blurry now – where some breathe air. Goldfish will nibble at our skin while spiders tangle in our hair. Someday we must acclimate to a different ethos. Appearing in your spread, The Pond means Judgment is coming. It can be good or it can be bad: it is up to us.

        Because that’s what we’re scared of, isn’t it? We know how we make judgments: Interestingly, in our everyday life it seems like “judgment” is constantly changing. There’s appeals, and reconsiderations and every now and then some “delivered and done” decision is disinterred and we all publicly agree: “That was wrong.”

        So, like a lot of “finite” things, “judgment” is a “concept”, just like the theory that if you keep dividing a distance in half you’ll never reach zero. We’re afraid of “bad” judgments, that’s the truth; because we judge ourselves harshly: “Why can’t you do anything right?”

        And we are cognizant of a Group of Others – lets call them by their true name – bullies – who are actively seeking tender vulnerabilities they can exploit. Once they realize what a mess we are won’t that be the Final Judgment we can never recover from?

        We are a fearful species. And a lot of our fears, it turns out, are hardwired. Behavioral experts pointed out a hundred years ago that children are automatically afraid of things like snakes and cliffs but not speed or electric light sockets. Fear isn’t rational.

        And since we are a social species it only makes sense that at least some of our fears would be “social” in nature. But here’s the rub: defensiveness ramps up anxiety and most – if not all – of obsessive behavior is engineered to distract us from anxiety! We’re pigeons pecking at ourselves! So we’re not doing ourselves any favors by getting hysterical about “what other people think.” Better work on maintaining our calm and maintaining our wellness program. Remember, soulmates can save each other.

        Haiku: Devourer of Hearts

        Scaling hearts
        For final judgment:
        Soured hearts
        Desiccate;
        Tantric hearts
        Burgeon

      5. Butterfly Language for Caterpillars – Soulmate Seeking with Alysse Aallyn

        Orchid = UNIQUENESS “In the Butterfly Pavilion”

        “Singletons”

        You will never rub the edges off each other, says the Orchid – and that is a good thing. You don’t want to. We’re not here to “bland out” or diminish each other. We are here to enhance and free each other.

        We pay homage to each other’s special qualities. Naturally it helps to know where each other is headed but not even the Self really know that. Ultimately, we are mysteries to each other.

        We must be each other’s Map and each other’s Mirror. The challenge is to accept and honor each other’s strangeness; singularity. You were drawn together for a reason. Sometimes it prickles and we feel ourselves shrink, or even withdraw. That is the rhythm of the tango we have undertaken.

        Many Soulmates welcome costume and role play to try to express the range of interests, the force of questions, the eagerness of exploring and adventuring we will always have. The key is to be aware of the rhythms of advance, retreat, resist, re-fashion, re-remember. Expect these. They are necessary to our continued growth. Our relationship is a greenhouse and we must check constantly on the health of our tiny plants. Fill air and soil with love and…release.

        In the Butterfly Pavilion


        This evening you said you wished
        I was more conventional.
        I bowed my head. I did not speak.
        Outside the animals leaned together,
        Holding breath
        To hear my answer.
        The cats-tongue ferns
        Swelled up like swords, pushed out the stink
        Of possibility while
        The rabbit-blooded lawn curled back: 
        Sows littered in the cyclamen
        Phlox flamed  
        Dwarf stars
        Broke free
        Spew molten ore
        Across a sky now
        Darkening to night.
        Nighttime is my kingdom.
        I fold my hands in my sleeves and
        Wait.

      6. Butterfly Language for Caterpillars – Soulmate Seeking with Alysse Aallyn

        Foxglove = MEDICINE “Alyssum”

        “Intervention”

        We find ourselves now in an endless pandemic, a New Normal caused by our aggressive human interference with our planet’s wildlife. By a miracle the same pharmaceutical companies that have been competitively bleeding all of us dry have come up with a vaccine that seems effective at keeping most of us out of the hospital. Wouldn’t want to kill the golden geese!

        But it doesn’t work if you don’t take it and, wonder of wonders, a substantial number of Americans have become suspicious of the medical establishment! Since insurance companies have been advertising for years that healthcare is “our choice” based on “what plan we can afford” I for one am not surprised.

        This is the only possible end result of a gated health care system that actively despises “Public” health as “radical socialism”!

        So where is our Soul & our Soulmate in all this, our little, fragile, mortal, human body that drew the “medical intervention” card only this morning? “Medical intervention” is represented in the Tantric Garden by the humble foxglove.

        Foxgloves contain digitalis, the building block of cardiology care. Where do we stand on intervention? We may create a “perfect world” with our Soulmate but does that mean we can let no one in? A moment’s thought convinces that we must keep the freshening breezes of this world blowing as long as we are in this world! “Help” will always be needed and hopefully, offered.

        Can we learn to trust the Helpful Intervener? We don’t want to create a love nest so fragile it is threatened by any outsider. Instead, we want to make certain we avail ourselves of every good advancement and improvement opportunity in our oh so imperfect world.

        ALYSSUM

        What wound is this?
        Flowering? Flowering?
        I wake at two am
        Immobilized –
        A curvilinear clamp
        Half hoop clenching
        My right side.
        .

        It could be the strain of
        Fishing for a future
        Hooking sky through a
        Porthole window or
        I could be over-organized. The
        Doctors dismissed me in
        My mother’s name.
        “You dare to be angry?
        You dare to grow old?
        You are a false alarm.”

        I say a prayer to the great night heron, that
        Pregnant thief of dreams –
        Solitary hunter calling to collect me.
        Dream he rises
        To unleash the silken sinews
        Of submission from my torn and
        Tethered wing –
        Feathered like a revelation
        Stippled like the phases of the moon
        Birthing spirit, coming
        Coming, coming
        In his cloud of fire.