“Aha! What happens in the sky is related to what happens on the earth is related to what happens to me in my daily life, and I can attune to it through my body, and it can make a difference. What a miracle. How come nobody told me this before?”
VIcki Noble, Author - Shakti Woman
1. THE WHOLE PERSON PHILOSOPHY
ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदम् पूर्णात् पूर्णमुदच्यते |
Ohm poornam-adah poornam-idah
That is Whole, This is Whole,
poorna-aat poornam-udachyate,
From the Whole emerges Whole.
पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ||
poorna-asya poornam-aadaaya
From Whole, take (remove) Whole ,
poornam-evaa vashishyate
the Whole Alone remains (is left).
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ||
Ohm. Peace. Peace. Pace
The pedagogy of the She Stands Tall Project facilitates a Transformative Experience based on a Whole-Person philosophy that supports you to explore, engage in, express, and embody the integration of the six aspects of Human Development namely
- Physical (Body-based),
- Mental-Emotional (Mind),
- Intellectual or Psychological (intelligence),
- Relational(Social),
- Creative, and
- Spiritual (or Transpersonal)
It happens in, a way that the Creative Arts, the Body (Physiology), the Participant Interaction (Relational), and Spirituality as an Embodied Knowing - all become part of the Transformational Experience.
2. THE Transpersonal CONTAINER
"What if we honoured our own experiences, made them part of our research story, wrote about the deepest, most vulnerable parts of ourselves? What if we could support each other to find our authentic voices and those of our co-researchers? What if we incorporated the stories of how we were led, given information, and supported by dreams and synchronicities?” - Clements, Ettling, Jenett, & Shields,
If Research were Sacred.
All the offerings of the She Stands Tall Project unfold within the five stages of the Qualitative Transpersonal Research methodology of Organic Inquiry (OI). Organic Inquiry is rooted in the transformative power of listening to, presenting, and narrating individual stories about significant life experiences.
It consists of five stages:
- Sacred - Preparing the Ground
- Personal - Planting the Seed
- Chthonic - The Roots Emerge
- Relational - the Branches Grow
- Transformative - Harvesting the Fruits
Organic Inquiry harnesses the cyclic rhythmic movement of Nature innate to all of life. Within a seed is held the entire possibility of its outcome. Before we plant that seed, we prepare the external conditions that support the seed to fulfill its destiny. It involves preparing the soil, weeding the land, and building the nourishing quality of the soil with water, manure, microbes, and other things. Into this prepared ground, the seed is planted.
Then one has to wait in the above, while the seed navigates its destiny in the below - under the ground - in darkness. In its time, the seed gets pregnant and bursts open. The roots emerge and strongly anchor down. This supports the Shoots to slowly move upwards - towards light. It breaks ground, and rises up. It needs to grow in cooperation with all the other life that is in and around it. It gives, takes, and receives from this eco-system in its own nature. Then in its time, it is strong and ready to birth its own gifts (fruits, flowers, etc) into the world. These gifts become ground for new seeds, and the entire process begins all over again.
Organic Inquiry as a method supports this organic journey. It is linear, cyclic, expansive, deep and recursive. Within each stage the possibility of a new cycle opening is inherent. So while there is a linear cyclic flow, the process of Organic Inquiry can catapult a ripple effect that can go backward and forward, inwards and outwards, upwards and downwards. It is both time-bound and timeless in its unfolding.
3. BEING-DOING RHYTHM OF LIFE
All the offerings of the She Stands Tall Project brings awareness to the four linearly cyclic phases of the Dark-Light Rhythm that in-forms the rhythm of everything in natureThe majority and is integrated into the womb biology of a wom(b)an. It is captured in the image on the left side.
It consists of four phases namely
- BEING PHASE
- BEING TO DOING PHASE,
- DOING PHASE,
- DOING TO BEING PHASE
Majority of life on Earth is intrinsically mapped into this rhythm. It is programmed into their cellular biology and informs their health, sleep-wake cycles, mating and nesting cycle, hunger and hunting cycles, and also, settling and migration cycle. Most of life in alignment with nature
walks this rhythm with the changing light of the sun and the moon around the Earth. This Being-Doing rhythm is also, coded into the Human cellular biology. We are born as Human Beings and yet, Modern humans live like we are a 'Human Doing' to the extent of forgetting to rest, sleep, exhale, and slow down. Most people in modern times are exhausted, numb, over-stretched, over-activated, and running from one thing to the other without any time for settling and integration. This has to do with the internal trauma map that caused early disconnection and dissociation from the body.
Through the offerings of the Sh Stands Tall Project, the awareness is brought back to this Being-Doing rhythm of nature inherent in our body again and again. This rhythm is mirrored in the offerings of the project in the way it is held, and hosted. There is a major emphasis on slowing down - taking as many exhalations and pauses as you need. It is customary for participants to often yawn, feel sleepy, become present to their vulnerability, tear up and want to cry. Dreams become vivid. Menstrual Bleeding or Ovulation can get triggered. It is the Being-Doing rhythm of the body re-aligning itself.
All our offerings are also, aligned on the Wheel of the Dark-Light Rhythmic Compass (Womb Wheel). It is often referred to as the Wom(b)en's Inner Navigational Compass. All our offerings make room for Wom(b)en's bleeding rhythm, her life cycle stage, and encourage wom(b)en to speak about it, claim it, and make room for herself on it.
4. The WAY OF THE CIRCLE
"The Circle has healing power. In the Circle, we are all equal. When in the Circle, no one is in front of you. No one is behind you. No one is above you. No one is below you. The Sacred Circle is designed to create unity. The Hoop of Life is also a circle. In this Hoop, there is a place for every species, every race, every tree, and every plant. It is this completeness of Life that must be respected in order to bring about health on this planet." - Dave Chief, Oglala Lakota Tribe
When we sit in a circle, we are equal. Every face is seen and visible. There is no hiding. The Knowing Field circulates in the open space of the circle, and a phenomenological vulnerability effortlessly opens and becomes available and present as we look around, make eye contact, and hold each other. We become mirrors for each other.
Each connection on the circle holds a part of the greater truth and together we experience the Wholeness of Life - the present, the absent, and the hidden. Circles hold ancient and primal signatures of tribal community life. As we gather more and more in ways of the circle, the forgetfulness begins to wane, and an ancient remembrance begins to awaken.
5. RITUALS AND RITES
"Like tossing a pebble into a pond, ritual has the potential to change the energetic patterns of our lives with ripples that extend out to the greater world around us." - Ruth Barret, Author, Women's Rites, Women's Mysteries
Rituals are as ancient as life on Earth.
Every species navigates its movement in Nature through the enactment of some rituals. Rituals are not just about honoring and celebrating rites of passage gateways, and victorious moments, it also, supports us to walk through liminal - in-between space, despair and depression, separation and loss, and death and dying. Rituals are especially essential in a Wom(b)an's life as she is navigating the waxing and waning rhythm of her Womb. One way or the other, she will be drawn into some ritual. When she is unconscious, the rituals that emerge can be destructive and harmful to herself and others. On the other hand when she is able to choose it herself then she becomes an Agent of Change in her own life.
Our work supports wom(b)en to explore rituals outside the context of formalized religion to also, re-form, and re-create rituals as an expression of her own knowing in-formed by her feminine cyclic intuition. In fact, Conscious Ritual creation makes it possible for a wom(b)an to pause, allow space, see, acknowledge, and exercise her power of choice by making every event - happening in her life from the mundane (brushing one's teeth) to blood mysteries (namely birth, menarche, consummation, pregnancy, giving birth, menopause, cronehood, death and dying) to celebrating wins to navigating losses a moment of autonomy, consent, choice, and responsibility.
6. CREATIVE ARTS CONNECTION
"The expressive arts are particularly suited to bring forth imagery, movement, sound, and writing that heighten our awareness of our polarities and transcend them. By their natures, the creative arts help people approach their feelings and thoughts at a symbolic and metaphoric level. This level, in turn, makes it easier to integrate and transcend our dualistic patterns. ." - Natalie Rogers, Creative Connection.
Creativity is our most innate primal instinctual life force energy.
It is vital to our existence. It needs exploration and expression. It needs to flow. In all the offerings of She Stands Tall Project, this opportunity of creativity is available, included, and explored. We especially focus on the aspect of the Wild Dark Feminine creative impulse that wanes and waxes through a Wom(b)an's blood mysteries. It holds within it a primal, wild, raw, sensory essence that is inclusive of all the polar flavours of life and death. We support wom(b)en to explore, engage and embody into this intuitive instinctual primal creative self-expression energy while processing her fear, shame, and resistance towards it.
We include an exhaustive body of creative self-expression in isolation and in combination - not limited to visual arts, words & metaphors, collage creating, sculpting, movement, cooking, ritual making, divining, using voice and singing, story-making, chanting, doodling, body mapping, and more. Every wom(b)an has the freedom to explore, engage and inhabit in her creative inkling at her own pace.