Every day is a journey.
The journey itself is home.
Matsuo Basho (1644-1694),
Wayfarer, haiku poet
It is not enough to live, to experience life.
To be fully alive, we must also reflect on life;
and go beyond reflection to integration.
Jungian-Senoi Dreamwork Manual
The Spirit of This Journey
The work of Soulfaring exists for those who are ready to make a commitment to the clarity, creativity, insight, and healing of aligning with the Deep Self.
Aspects of the Deep Self are unknown to us, and are ultimately unknowable. The pivotal concepts of the personal and collective unconscious (from Jungian psychology) suggest that we are each connected to vast, bottomless reservoirs of energy whose depths can never be fully plumbed. Yet, each of these domains of energy and imagery have an uncanny way of providing us with what we need to know, when we need to know it. The challenge is in our receptivity and willingness to explore, track, and work tangibly with what arises.
Many of our inner riches and solutions are concealed beneath what we might call the accumulated "dust" of the frenzied, world-influenced conditioned self. Through this work, this "dust" is gradually swept away allowing for aspects that are ready to emerge to be revealed. This principle of muddled-concealment / gradual-revealment underlies the human journey, is part and parcel of consciousness, and is also mirrored in the Way of Nature and the cycle of the seasons. Coming into greater conscious congruence with the hidden gifts, insights, and truth of the Deep Self is what this work is about.
While some actively seek out this process of investigation and tutelage with the luminous-enigma of the inner depths, others may stumble into it due to life circumstances of unforeseen change. Sometimes the process of psychospiritual change arrives involuntarily. Whether this takes the form of a life-altering "cosmic rug-pull," or through more of a subtle-yet-growing feeling that one is standing at a threshold, it can feel disorienting at times.
A 'Threshold Time,' as I call them, can begin in different ways for different people. We may know it from feelings of disillusionment, grieving something we can't quite identify, or perhaps we are standing in the middle of our life (midlife) and find that we are profoundly disenchanted because our First Half of Life choices now feel empty or without direction and vitality. It is often in the midst of personal unraveling that we begin to sense some kind of calling that is stirring within us.
Three disciplines that can be of assistance while navigating a Threshold Time are spiritual counsel, life-path coaching, and dream tracking.
SPIRITUAL COUNSEL (sometimes called "spiritual companioning" or spiritual direction) is a sacred dialogue about the essence of your spirituality and the numinous dimensions seeking to root and emerge within your life. Here, spiritual counsel is held in the spirit of the anamcara (an ancient Irish and Scots Gaelic word for "soul friend"). This way of relating is a dedicated, active attunement to the spiritual themes and questions stirring within your life, and a conscious, experiential exploration of these themes in order to assist you with gaining clarity, insight, and peace.
LIFE-PATH COACHING is a form of mentoring characterized by a collaborative process of investigation aimed at assisting you to clarify goals, identify and overcome obstacles, and achieve personal, creative, and professional aspirations so that your life can come into greater congruence with the directives of your soul. Because "life-path" is a broad subject, we take a "prismatic approach" by exploring your life-path as different facets, each warranting attention.
DREAM-TRACKING is a practice of gaining insight from the "inner mystery school" of the soul by discussing and working tangibly with both dream images and sequences as well as the deeper intuitive awareness of your ongoing process. This work helps enable you to become more deeply fluent in your own dreaming language, to understand the deeper insight of your dreams, so that you may more consciously carry dream-insights into your life.
Though it can be helpful to think of spiritual counsel, life-path coaching, and dream-tracking as distinct disciplines, with different sets of tools, naturally these areas of focus often overlap in the journey of Soulfaring.
Actively exploring what is stirring within our inner depths can be one of the most nourishing, strengthening, clarity-building, and path-defining experiences in life...
...IF we slow down for it.
If we are fully present for it...
If we are honest with ourselves...
If we are willing to learn...
If we give ourselves permission to engage in the art of contemplative awareness combined with sacred inquiry...
then change doesn't just happen to us -- our Process aligns with our calling and we become allies with the Spirit of Change.
Consciously tracking this Process, and gradually coming into greater congruity with it, is what I call Soulfaring : a Jungian-informed, Nature-inspired, Spirit-led approach to spiritual direction, creative mentoring, life-path coaching, and adult metamorphosis.
If you feel you are called to such an exploration, or that there isn't anyone in whom you can confide your feelings, your confusions, or your calling, this Wayfarer stands at the ready.
In our work together, instead of you continuing to ask questions like: "What's going on with me?", we'll normalize the sometimes confusing processes of inner change and explore other questions, Quest-I-On Questions, such as:
What's trying to happen through you?
What is the nature of the Process you are in, and what is it trying to teach you, and others?
What is the gift that is uniquely yours to bring into being?
People Who Benefit Most From This Work
People involved in life transitions or undergoing initiatory change
Individuals assessing (or re-assessing) beliefs (spiritual clarification)
People seeking to develop a deeper relationship with their inner world, inner guidance, and dreams
HSPs (highly-sensitive persons) and HEAPs (highly-energy aware persons) just beginning to learn about their traits or needing support (Explore: Are you an HSP?)
Creatives working to seed and root a project, or those seeking to work through creative blocks to move a project forward
Individuals who have experienced spiritual abuse at the hands of a "teacher" or alienation within a toxic "spiritual" community, who are trying to find their way to a path they can call their own
Those fellow travelers interested in cultivating a Nature-oriented spirituality or a contemplative-meditation practice
Wayfarers who have actively chosen to follow a solitary path a.k.a. "hermiteering" (but who still need support on their way-within-the Way)
I work with people of all religious affiliations, sexual orientations, gender identities, and ethnic heritages. Among the diverse backgrounds of people with whom I have worked are:
caregivers, therapists, ministers
leaders in organizations
people exploring self-empowerment and defusing old, outworn "messages" of family-of-origin
entrepreneurs cultivating a conscious business or public offering
chaplains and chaplains-in-training
actors, artists, musicians, poets and writers midwifing the spirit of a project
animists, contemplatives, and Wayfarers of various traditions
individuals traversing the disorienting landscape of midlife
people involved in a process of spiritual formation
individuals simultaneously feeling a calling and confusion about that calling
Some journeys (and some phases of a journey) have to be made alone. At other times, however, it can be helpful to journey with someone who understands the nature of deeper callings, dreams, inner terrain, the path of seeking, and the mysterious process of change.
To learn more about the flow and rhythm of this work, and how it could support you, read: The Flow & Process