WELCOME!
Litha: We Are Fire

Come in, come in! I’m so happy you’re here. The season of Litha, also known as the Summer Solstice, marks the longest day of the year. It is the peak of the solar year, with the Sun at the height of its life-giving power. For those of us in the northern hemisphere, the Summer Solstice falls this year on June 20, 2024. This ancient festival honors fire, solar energy, and life lived at (literally) full tilt. It’s time to release old energy and fan our inner creative flames.

All Creative Alchemy Cycle bundles are self-guided. I’ve created this landing page as a home base for us as we journey through the season of Litha. We’ll also meet in person on Sunday, June 30th at 10am PST (scroll down for the link.) Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

Table of Contents

PART ONE: DIGITAL CONTENT

• Story of the Season: a Homily for Litha (audio & PDF)

• The Great Wide Open (video)

• In the Studio (video)

• Collaborative Alchemy Podcast Episodes

• Fuel for the Fire: Writing prompts, links, reading lists, Spotify playlists, etc.

• Further Connection: Monthly Community Zoom Call / Recording (links)

NOTE of ENGAGEMENT:
Please do not share the link to this page with others. This content was created just for you. Thank you for your respect and understanding.

PART ONE: Digital Content

Seaonal Focus — Activist Practice

This season, we’re tapping our innate creative gifts to take action and make the kind of change we want to see in the world. Since it is the peak of the solar year, with the sun at the height of its life-giving power, the Creative Alchemy Cycle asks that we consider our own power. My hope is that this bundle invites you into a deeper relationship with your own values and serves as permission to use your creative process as a catalyst for justice. Prentis Hemphill, a somatic therapist and activist who came to prominence during the Black Lives Matter movement, refers to something they call “touching the dream,” which is the idea that we are practicing in real time the future we wish to bring into existence. Let’s practice touching the dream together. 

Calling You Home — A Homily

This is a great place to begin. For each of the eight bundles that make up the Creative Alchemy Cycle, I write a seasonal story to set the container for the bundle. These homilies are my way of practicing alongside you and using the creative alchemy tools to create my own work. You can download a copy using the button below and/or listen to the audio.

The Great Wide Open

My creative process always begins outside. This is where I weave the outer landscape with the inner one. We’ll take the to Blue Mountains, harvest Artemisia Tridentata, and visit the Oregon coast. We’ll also spend some time at Eagle Creek Orchard musing on the why and how of thinning fruit trees. Apples, daisies, and red poppies are our teachers this season.

In the Studio

After viewing The Great Wide Open, let’s head into my studio. This is where I metabolize, incubate, and process all the elements which make up my current state of creative alchemy. This season, we are practicing release as we cover paint layer after layer. This is an intuitive shedding process, where our ability to let go of “outcome” allows the painting to emerge.

Collaborative Alchemy Podcast

The Collaborative Alchemy Podcast features conversations with artists, thought leaders, activists, farmers, educators, creatives, and other polymaths. This is a place where we tell our stories, expand our histories, and hold space for new ways of being. This season for Litha, I’ve curated three powerful conversations that relate deeply to our creative work for justice and belonging. Happy listening!

“Now that I’m heading into 50, right in the mid-point of my life, I’m looking at and thinking about belonging in new ways. If you had asked me at the beginning of my creative journey about belonging, I would have described it as being accepted and being welcomed by a community. And now, especially as an activist, as an edge dweller, as someone who has skin in the game, belonging is really about self-reclamation and claiming spaces and naming them for ourselves.”

— MindyTsonas Choi

“I think to tell stories is to give a life or to recognize the life of others. If we don't tell the story of the soil, if we don't tell the story of bodies of water, or other creatures, or other communities, or other humans, to a certain extent, they remain objects. we haven't been centering their stories, so we don't have facility with that kind of seeing and that kind of knowing.”

— Dr. Jennifer Atkinson

“Pardon my language, but it’s a literal goddamned miracle that most Black people in this country who are descendants of the Middle Passage actually even exist. And I wanted to show people [through my work] what that miracle meant, embodied, in real time.”

— B Merikle

MARK YOUR CALENDAR
Invitations for Further Connection

The CREATIVE ALCHEMY COMMUNITY CALL for Litha 2024

Sunday, June 30th from 10:00—11:00am Pacific Time via ZOOM

Join Zoom Meeting at the link below:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84604932642?pwd=EoXsoRNr9g0hVWeskBCXgJZfhldsHb.1

Meeting ID: 846 0493 2642

Passcode: JOY