True confession.
When it comes to groups, I like to Zoom.
I’d never Zoomed in my life until the pandemic forced me to host the mystery school gatherings online in 2020.
I was hesitant at first.
I mean, Zoom, like all social media, spreadsheets, and online calendars, falls under the category of “computers”.
And historically I didn’t really do “computers”.
But once I got the hang of it, I noticed something profound.
I preferred it.
First of all, I could show up to class with garlic breath, burn incense, have snacks, refill my teacup, and blow my nose without anyone even noticing.
(and so could everyone else).
Plus, group bathrooms breaks took only 5 minutes.
But mostly, I could “hear myself think”.
I was not affected by the “emotional weather” of anyone in the group.
If there was a “squeaky wheel”, I couldn’t hear it.
And this is important, especially if you’re like me.
I am, by self-admission, one porous motherfucker.
Meaning, I feel nearly everything — all the moods & emotions in the room — and I can’t help it.
On one hand, this makes me relatable, sympathetic, and emotionally intelligent, which are great traits to have.
But it’s also draining, distracting, and disorienting.
Zoom, then, allows a deep degree of sovereignty.
Everyone gets to be in their own atmosphere.
Which means everyone, me included, can show up with some degree of emotional weather (because we’re human) and rest assured that we’re not gonna get it on anyone.
Having a sovereign atmosphere lays the groundwork for really authentic expression, excavation of deep, personal territories of the psyche, and an intimacy with the Self.
This is Mermaid wisdom at its finest.
Of the Darkwood archetypes, The Mermaid is the wisdom of the Self; capital S.
This is the wisdom of independence and free expression, the holy ferality of your own divine weirdness without any noise from any peanut gallery.
When you can hear your Self, you’ve tapped into your Mermaid wisdom.
When this wisdom is tapped, you can explore, traverse, and expand far afield into the realms of Selfhood, creating pathways to wisdom and expression that no outside noise can overpower.
It is the singular, true note of the soul.
In my experience, when I can hear my Self and soul, I am in the garden of the divine; serious proximity.
And when I am in the garden of the divine, I can hear that singular note as well, and not only that, I can hear it harmonizing with my own.
And that’s why I like Zoom. 🙂
So, in honor of Mermaid season and the harmony of Self, soul, and the divine, I’m hosting a Writer’s Group.
On Zoom.
All you need is pen & paper.
And as much as I like islands, I’m not lobbying to be one.
In the Writer’s Group we’ll certainly enjoy our sovereign atmospheres, but we’ll also weave together our writing to produce poetic distillations that I call “magic minds” — a constellation of all the participants’ subconscious magic.
The magic minds end up working like divinations.
And what are divinations if not the harmonies of the soul and the divine.
I’d love to write our way across the threshold into the Dark half of the year together.
love and Mermaids,
xo
kv
PS: Our local free newspaper, The Mountain Xpress, just announced that the Marshall Mermaid Parade won best of the Cultural/Arts Events!
PPS: This is me as Marshall’s first mermaid in 2008…that’s eighteen years ago.