A New Possibility is a collaborative learning and healing community that explores the interface of consciousness, spirituality, cultural change, and personal/planetary healing. ✨ JOIN US! As a special gift, you'll receive our Five Spirits eBook Primer — a guide to the Taoist map of the human psyche with insights & practical tools to support your own wholeness. ✨
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September is Magic!
Published 7 months ago • 4 min read
What do you remember when you think “September”? Is it that early morning when the first chill hits and you pull a favorite sweater from the back of your closet? Is it sharp yellow pencils and a new notebook? The scent of ripening apples in a bowl or first falling maple leaves in the park? Stepping outside at night and hearing the echoing call as a flock of geese make their way south along the invisible magnetic highways of the stars?
For Earth, Wind & Fire, September is magic: a time to celebrate the power of love, and here at A New Possibility we’re taking up the challenge!
If you are ready to remember the magic of September, show up for the kickoff of this year's Inner Healing Circle where we'll begin our exploration of dreamwork, archetypes and astrology. Then stick around for more inspiring conversations, mythical writing, yin yoga and professional development as well as the alchemy that happens when real live humans join in healing community.
To get an even better idea of what we’re up to, read on for a Q&A session between me and Carmen Tanaka! With love, Lorie
A: “The mentorship was a necessity that found me rather than something that I decided to create. It began in 2004 when a group of five students at Tri-State College of Acupuncture expressed a desire to understand more about the Five Elements and Five Spirits and my work with patients in the treatment room. I organized the curriculum based on the Five Element Wheel and we were underway.”
Q: After teaching the mentorship for over 20 years, how has it changed and what parts have stayed the same?
A: “Over the years, the program has evolved but no matter how the structure and content changes, it always comes back to soul work! The question I keep asking is, 'How do we combine traditional Chinese medicine, depth psychology, plant spirit medicine and alchemy to heal the parts of us that cannot be seen or measured and yet contain the essence of who we are?' As the answers to this question deepen, so do the participants, and so do I!”
Q: For someone on the fence, what guiding question should they ask themselves to know if the mentorship is right for them?
A: “Am I ready for alchemy—for my life and practice to change in unexpected (sometimes challenging but always interesting) ways?
Am I prepared to discover what it means to live from my darkness as well as my light?
Do I long to touch my patients at the soul and spirit levels and yet feel that I lack the skills?
In addition to learning new concepts and skills and being part of a vital healing community, am I prepared to dig into my own inner work as a way to transform the outer world?”
Q: Through holding space for mentorship participants, what’s one unexpected lesson you’ve personally had to learn or unlearn?
A: “The biggest and most important lesson has been that people grow at their own rate. Sometimes I work with a patient or student over many years and don’t see much change. Week after week, month after month, the same depression. The same self-pity. And then, boom! That same person calls me one day out of the blue and tells me their whole life is different. This kind of surprise encounter happens pretty frequently and it has taught me to be patient and trust in kairos (right timing).”
Q: If the mentorship were a living organism, what qualities would it embody?
A: “The fact is that the mentorship is a living organism! It has grown continuously since its inception. It requires ongoing care and nourishment. It adapts to changing conditions in the outer world. It has “given birth” to many subsequent versions of itself as participants discover their own alchemy and develop their own unique way of practicing and teaching Alchemical Healing.
I would describe the mentorship organism as a highly intelligent, many limbed, octopus-like being with an uncanny ability to open tightly closed containers, crack codes, suss out interesting nooks and crannies, self-regenerate and make other beings feel better!”
Q: If your community network had a soundtrack, what kind of music would be on it?
A: “Actually, it does have a soundtrack! Here it is!”
Q: How do you replenish yourself so that you can continue stewarding this work?
A: “Play is one of my biggest restoratives! Being ridiculous with my granddaughter, swimming in the cove with Benjamin, inventing a crazy fizzy cocktail with homemade black currant syrup from the garden or a late afternoon meditation with watercolor paints and brushes. I call it play when something is fun, doesn’t have a set goal, makes me laugh and kicks me out of a funk.
Replenishment also comes from witnessing my patients, students in the mentorship and members of our community heal, transform and discover their Tao. To simply be in this work is a blessing and a replenishment all on its own!”
Q: Alternative health care practitioners often go into practice because of a passion to care for others, what are your favourite ways to care for yourself?
A: “Really listening and caring for my body has become increasingly important as I age. Taking time to stretch, shake, roll and move is a necessity rather than an option. As is preparing and eating food that nourishes my body and delights my senses. Having time alone as well as time with people who inspire me to think differently and are up to cool stuff in the world.”
Learn more about our Level 1 Mentorship program!
Read about the Practice at the Crossroads Mentorship and apply here.
RSVP for this free info session here (September 20 @ 11:30am ET)
Join Lorie & Benjamin on Zoom
These events are only accessible to members of our Inner Healing Circle membership.
A Global Community of Alchemical Healers and the People They Serve
A New Possibility is a collaborative learning and healing community that explores the interface of consciousness, spirituality, cultural change, and personal/planetary healing. ✨ JOIN US! As a special gift, you'll receive our Five Spirits eBook Primer — a guide to the Taoist map of the human psyche with insights & practical tools to support your own wholeness. ✨
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