One Wedding Anniversary, Three Invitations and a Celebration – October 2020
By Susannah
Dear all, by the time you read this, we will have celebrated our 31st Wedding anniversary; 31 years married and 34 years together. What a journey! And now, along with so many others, getting to know relationship in the time of Corona and what it’s like to be together day in day out. As I write that I’m aware of those who are living solo in the time of Corona, and the duress of that. I’ll come to back to this thread later. Just wanted you to know I’m aware of you!
As the adventure and the deepening of our dance together continues, we are frequently reminded of the power of what we call the ‘shadow marriage’. What that means is that just in the way in which the beauty of our souls mutually recognise and support the other, so the opposite is also true. My pain stories and unconscious survival strategies inevitably re-enforce Ya’Acov’s, as do his mine. Over and over again we have to re-learn the lesson that seeking to find out “who is to blame?”, “who began this?”, “who caused this fracas?” are not useful questions. They do not lead anywhere other than more pain and suffering, through more masked aggression, thinking it is simply being self-protective, until one of us is big enough to take responsibility and lead us back into the sunlit lands of possibility and healing.
And the places we are travelling, the vibrations of love, tender joy, fierce passion and deep mutual understanding, are such a harvest, such a wonder, such a blessing. I am deeply grateful that we have each actively chosen commitment, and for all the support and love we have received on so many levels. I am grateful for the resources, practices and understandings that we bring to bear on our recalcitrant selves, that shed gentle light on the knots we can get wound up within. I have only heard one couple speak about the wonders of how a long-term love affair being able to grow more and more exquisite in the way we are experiencing. And this is Prof. Jake and Dr Eva Chapman, who keep lighting the path and demonstrating for us how strong one has to be to stay true on the path of love. The good news is, the rewards can be truly incredible.
Whilst here we are revelling in our Dartmoor sanctuary tending (and being tended by) our chickens and ponies and land, we’ve nevertheless been experiencing what feels like reverberations of the anxiety, fear and pain of these times. We feel these in the world wide web vibrationally, even when we take a holiday from the news. Whether this is our own anxiety, which it certainly includes, we feel that we are experiencing (and why wouldn’t we, given how inter-connected we all actually are) the vibration of our species trying to come to terms with the massive changes we are living within. Over and over again we have discovered how naming what we are experiencing has helped re-unite ourselves with the good ground of steady being. We have been using and needing our practice like never before.
Three invitations:
ONE
As you may have heard us say, we’ve been preparing an online version of our work for a few years. It was due to go live last April and so it did, with the courageous founder members who took the leap with us before we’d fully arrived in recognising what this 21 Gratitudes Study Hub actually was going to be. Thank you to those founder co-explorers!
If you are onboard, you will know how we are travelling on this odyssey around the 21 stations (thus ’21 Gratitudes’) of the Movement Medicine mandala month by month. We visit each station conceptually and experientially as our monthly focus shifts from gateway to gateway.
Making these videos of ‘nutshells of wisdom’ (thank you Kristin Glenewinkel for this naming) is such a beautiful way of sharing our understanding and love for this life. Sharing the live classes, ceremonies, and drum prayers with the Hub members is feeding a rich tapestry of inter-connection which has only just started as we work out, in consultation with Hub members, what is possible and what is needed.
What we have only recently realised is how profoundly we are on this illuminating journey around the mandala ourselves. The Mandala represents a vision of the different aspects of the human relational universe. Each gateway is like a lens, a prism, through which to enquire into one aspect of our own relationship with the whole of life; to enquire, learn, experience, heal and grow. And, so as we ourselves bring each gateway (aspect) into focus for ourselves each month, we are profoundly on this voyage, this odyssey, ourselves, together with the members of the Hub.
At the same time as being an ongoing odyssey around the inner and outer universe, the Hub is also becoming a library of resources about each of the aspects of Movement Medicine in which you can find explanations, practices and inspiration to go on growing your embodied consciousness of yourself and your purpose and direction AND your knowledge of Movement Medicine. And all of this, from home and at an accessible cost!
So, why am I telling you all this? First of all, I am proud of our work and the development of this form of it! (can you tell?!). I am happy that we’ve created a way to share the depth of this work around the world in an accessible way. And the Study Hub doors are opening again soon (October 26-30). If you are interested in Movement Medicine, if you valued working with us on the dance floor in the old days, if you want to in the future, I think it’s a no-brainer to begin now. We’d love to welcome you into this growing worldwide community of embodied learning.
Go here and sign up if you want to be sure to hear when the doors open for a few days on the 26th October!
TWO
At the beginning of lockdown, I heard a whisper in my ear to make a course about Embodied Listening. Speaking with Zoe, a nurse who was aware of what the NHS was facing and thinking about my Dad, and all the people who would be in isolation for god knows how long, made me recognise that listening skills could be a very important survival skill. In a time when so many of us are literally ‘out of touch’ with others, deep listening is the new hug.
I realised that the listening practices which we teach as a normal part of Movement Medicine ‘in the room’ are not skills that are normally taught or known. I had an extraordinary time extracting this Embodied Listening course from my consciousness and committing it into videos, audio practices, and in writing. I feel that, through this, I’ve made my love for our humanity manifest in a way that is accessible and useful. Whether you are wanting to deepen your relationship with yourself, support with making zoom calls with your family and friends more meaningful; whether you are wanting to deepen your intimate relationship, enhance all your communication skills, work with a practice buddy on the Study Hub, and/or skill up with these powerful tools for collaborative living – it’s available and it’s here.
I invite you to partake in this medicine for our times.
THREE
News from the Music Medicine shop:
- We are open again to send out orders in the post
- We have autographed copies of Ya’Acov’s book, Shaman, a profound and practical invocation of the Inner Shaman.
- We also have autographed copies of two extraordinary new books by Eva Chapman: Butterflies and Demons and Sexy at 70, A Spiritual Quest.
- Invocation (smudge oil) is available again. Please note, because of its nature Invocation cannot be sent overseas. Invocation is regretfully only available by post in the UK.
- We have our normal full range of glorious downloadable music and CDs, some of which are guided movement meditations to hold you in your practice.
You are invited to browse in the shop and perhaps let something find you that brings joy and medicine into your or someone else’s life.
Lastly, the Celebration:
The Movement Medicine Association is launching its new website on the 10th October. I am aware in myself of such a strong need and desire to be together in the flesh dancing again. As different areas come out of lockdown, it will be local classes with local teachers which are safe and possible first, and some are already happening, sometimes outdoors. We are so happy that so many extra-ordinary Movement Medicine teachers are bringing this work into the room, the forest and into online spaces.
The new website is beautiful and will help you to find your most local events. All the teaches and facilitators we have trained rock and so does the new website, which will be a one-stop shop, where you can find out whatever is going on globally with Movement Medicine.
Congratulations to Camille Barrios and the whole Movement Medicine Association!
I wish you well in these extra-ordinary times, whether you are meeting the rigours of solo time, or the rigours of being face to face within your family or relationship.
Don’t forget to dance!
With love, Susannah Darling Khan.
October 2020
Upcoming Events With Susannah:
16 October: Menopause – The Great Awakener: When Alexandra Pope interviewed Susannah and Ya’Acov on the topic of the menopause, this was the result. It’s a deeply personal sharing about the journey of the (Susannah’s) menopause and how it has affected both of them and their relationship.This interview is in the context of the Red School’s online course focusing on the landscape of menopause. It’s free! The interview will be available from 16 October HERE.
19 & 21 October: Life is Movement – Embodiment Conference with Ya’Acov & Susannah. Online.
During this FREE online event, both, Ya’Acov and Susannah, among many other world class teachers and leaders in embodiment, share about their journey and teachings in the field of conscious embodiment within in a wide range of contexts.
Click HERE to enrol for free.
26 – 30 October: The doors of Susannah and Ya’Acov’s Movement Medicine Study Hub open for a moment. This is where S and Y are pouring their creative love and teaching right now. They have taken care that it is priced accessibly. Leading up to the week of the open doors there will be lots of free events. Join the Wait list here to make sure you hear what’s going on!
Any time: Learn with Susannah in the intimacy of your own home. Her Embodied Listening course is a beautiful deep set of teachings to learn, and practice, and includes deep work with your own Wise Elder.