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Reflections

Category: Abbess love notes

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Women Mystics & Ancestors + Prayer Cycle ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, Tomorrow I start teaching a 4-week e-course on practicing with medieval women mystics for the lovely team at Spirituality & Practice. Teresa of Avila, Julian of Norwich, Mechtild of Magdeburg, and Hildegard of Bingen will be our focus and each week brings a set of practices to help encounter their wisdom and deepen into our relationship with the holy.  The period of time in Europe, especially between c. 1000 and c. 1600, saw a flourishing of mystical experiences in both men and women. We have the stories and texts composed by many of these women left

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November 1, 2026

An Expressive Arts Journey with Your Ancestors ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, This Friday, October 30th, we are hosting a mini-retreat for the Celtic feast of Samhain, and the Christian celebration of All Saint’s Day on November 1st and All Soul’s Day on November 2nd which begin a whole month in honor of those who have died. Wisdom Council members Betsey Beckman, Kayce Stevens Hughlett, and Te Martin will be your guides. Kayce offers the following reflection and invitation. _________________________________________________________ Turning our Sight and Soul toward the Ancestors I did not know the way, but I knew the answer was yes.  Do you know that response? The tingle

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October 25, 2026

New Poetry Book Launch + Prayer Cycle ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

St. Hildegard Has a VisionFirst came the whirl of colorand the cosmic song intensified,a symphony of music and imagerevealing the heart of the holy.You were often ill between visions,drinking tea as medicine.Your visions showed you the worldis so much more expansivethan what we see with dulled eyes.You saw the universe as an egg,full of potential, greening life forcepulsing through everything,knew this wonderdespite your ill health, knew it in your limbs, your heart, your eyes. Hours spent in bed, prone, vulnerable,prepared you to receive this gift.Is this what can happenwhen we surrender fully?What can enter through the open heart?–Christine Valters Paintner, What Enters Through the

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October 18, 2026

New Prayer Cycle Video Podcast! ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, We are absolutely thrilled and delighted to release the first day of our new video podcasts for the Cultivating Seeds of Liberation prayer cycle! We are so grateful to Wisdom Council member and dear friend Betsey Beckman for all her video work and editing in putting these together. She invited many guest dancers to be a part of this project and helps us to bring the dance of liberation alive for all beings! She also provided generous financial support, which along with many other donations and wonderful Sustainers, which help us to continue to offer

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October 4, 2026

Nourishment in the Orchard ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, Tomorrow, we begin a 7-week journey with the fairy tale The Handless Maiden! I mentioned in last week’s love note that I first fell in love with this story about 20 years ago and it continues to speak to me. It became woven into a profound series of synchronicities that led me into a deeper relationship with Mary and the sacred feminine.  In 2012, soon after John and I had first moved to Vienna, Austria on our grand midlife adventure and pilgrimage, I was co-teaching a class called Women on the Threshold where we told

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September 27, 2026

The Handless Maiden ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, On Monday, September 28th we begin a 7-week journey with the fairy tale “The Handless Maiden.”  You may or may not be familiar with it. There are over a hundred versions of this story which have appeared throughout Europe and other parts of the world, so it is an important story, one that can speak to our experience on many levels.  It is a story that first found me when I was living in Seattle, about 20 years ago. I participated in a workshop with a Jungian analyst where we spent the week embodying this story through

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September 20, 2026

Mourning Pages: The Write Way to Grieve

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, This Friday, September 18th, we are pleased to welcome Wisdom Council member and Lift Every Voice Book Club conversation partner Claudia Love Mair to lead us in the retreat Mourning Pages: The Write Way to Grieve. Below is a note from Claudia Love and an adapted excerpt from her forthcoming book. Adapted Excerpt It started with a simple announcement of his death on social media. I met my carefully curated community of creatives, spiritual folks, ride-or-die friends, and family on Facebook. . . . After that, I wrote very little. Those first seventy-two hours were

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September 13, 2026