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Some Soul reading
The Soul Bird, Michal Snunit. Robinson, London
Care of the Soul, Thomas Moore, Harper Perennial
Anam Cara, John O’Donohue, Bantam Books
The Last Frontier, Exploring the Afterlife and Transforming our Fear of Death, Julia Assante, New World Associates
Bring White Beads when you call on the Healer, Marian Lindkvist.
Embracing Your Inner Critic, Turning Self-Criticism into a Creative Asset, Hal and Sidra Stone, Harpur
Assert Yourself, Gael Lindenfield, Self Help Associates.
Some Soul Stories
{slider Sioux Creation Story|closed|blue}
The Creator gathered all of creation and said, “I want to hide something from the humans until they are ready for it. It is the bit of them that makes me real to them. It’s too precious for them to find too easily”.
The eagle said, “Give it to me, I will take it to the moon”.
The Creator said, “No. One day they will go there and find it”.
The Salmon said, “I will bury it in the bottom of the ocean”.
The Creator said, “No. They will go there too”.
The buffalo said, “I will bury it on the Great Plains”.
The Creator said, “They will cut the skin of the earth and find it even there”.
Grandmother Mole, who lives in the breast of Mother Earth and who has no physical eyes but sees with spiritual eyes, said, “Put it in inside of them”.
And the Creator said, “It is done."
Retold by Mary Smail 2012
{slider Buroogandi's Soul - an Indigenous story from Australia|orange}
Being a shy young man, Buroogandi seldom drew attention to himself. People thought him strange and he was often teased. It was thought that this did not worry Buroogandi because he did not offer a word in defence. However nothing could be further from the truth because the teasing made him doubt his own value.
Disturbed by self doubt, Buroogandi visited the Wirrinun, the tribal Wiseman. “It is your Soul, Buroogandi” he said. Buroogandi questioned this, “I have no Soul, Uncle”. But the wirrinun assured him that everyone has a soul. It controls our thoughts, our emotions and so our behaviour. Without it we could not exist. The Wirrinun told Buroogandi that his Soul was anything he imagined it to be and if he preferred to see it as a shy timid dove, then so it would be!
Over and over these words rang in Buroogandi’s head. “Your Soul is anything you imagine it to be”. Suddenly he made up his mind and raising his shoulders in defiance he shouted to the sky, “ I will not be a dove. I am bilyara! I am eagle with fire wings”.
From that moment a change took place so that when the day of his ceremony came, the day of his Bora, he danced not as kangaroo, not as emu, not as wallaby but as a powerful eagle and this remained true to him for ever.
Retold by Mary Smail 2014
{slider Sinann|red}
In days when the everlasting ones still walked in Ireland and the light of enchantment could still be seen, there was deep well of wisdom. People came to it, but stayed only long enough to skim the surface of the water. They took this and turned it into knowledge and then power, inspiring others without being inspired themselves, seeking only power.
Sinann, born of the sea, came wild. Unstoppable, unknoweable and ungovernable she came. When the well waters sensed her coming, they rose up to meet her. A mighty wind blew through Sinaan. The land was storm tossed as the well waters, recognising her coming, rose up to meet her and flowed free, available for all. No did they belong only to the Knowledge Holders, who were terrified at this new position.
And that is how it is now, for those who will resist stopping at the surface and let the wisdom of Sinann blow through them and on freely to others.
Adapted Mary Smail October 2010
{slider The Jesus Room|green}
The Jesus room is not a chapel
or a church or a shrine
Or anything like that.
It is not even sacred ground in town or garden.
The Jesus room is inside the head,
inside the heart, inside the body,
Inside the feelings, but no one knows
Quite where the exact location is.
It is not really a room at all
And the Jesus discovered there
Does not come care of religious dogma
Or some archbishop or priest
Or politican or minister
Or anybody like that.
Indeed when you go into the Jesus room
You will find no one there,
Only space… emptiness… energy.
You will, however, feel the vibration
If you are very still and quiet.
And as you tune in to the power of the place
You will sense a presence, a mystery,
You will hear the poetry of the Jesus room.
By Christopher Woodland.
{/sliders}
Psyche and Soma – Soul-making through Sesame Drama and Movement in Therapy
Expressions of interest in 2018 training
Psyche and Soma is a part-time course for people with an existing license to practice with others, who want to attend to the notion of the human soul through the well acclaimed Sesame way of working. Sesame uses stories, sound, movement, the use of touch, spontaneous play as a way of allowing body and imagination to speak for inner core wisdom – what is often called the soul. It draws from Jungian theory of the dreaming, story-making unconscious and from the work of James Hillman and Marian Billy Lindkvist.
The course runs on Friday and Saturday modules over a period a year. Graduates of the course will receive a CPD Certificate can use the title Sesame Practitioner on successful completion. More info at http://www.sesame-institute.org/psyche-and-soma
Course Leader
The course is founded and led by Mary Smail, a senior Sesame Dramatherapist and Psychotherapist with many years of practice and training therapists. She was Director of the Sesame Institute until 2015 and is co-author of Myth and Fairytale in Dramatherapy (2013). Mary now works for Re-Vision Counselling and Psychotherapy and in private practice under the name of SoulWorks UK. www.marysmailsoulworks.co.uk
Psyche and Soma Wales and London 2018
We are asking for expressions of interest in the course which will start in September 2018. Expressing interest does not mean you are making a commitment. Please let Mary Smail know –
Proposed dates Wales (to be confirmed)
28-30 September 2018, 10 & 11 November 2018, 12 & 13 January 2019, 9 & 10 March 2019, 11 & 12 May 2019, 29 & 30 June 2019, Summer project, 14 & 15 Sept 2019, 19 & 20 October 2019
Psyche and Soma London
The course will run again in London when there is sufficient interest – please let Mary Smail know if this would be of interest to you.
“Behind your image, below your words, about your thoughts, the silence of another world waits. A world lives within you. No one else can bring your news of this inner world. Through our voices we bring out sounds from the mountain beneath the soul. These sounds are words.”
John O’Donohue.
A Student writes
The Psyche and Soma Course. It's the most illuminating educational experience from which I will ever have had certification. Imagine if you will exploring the depths of who/what/how/why you are using movement and voice and music and play and touch and journalling and image-making and research, and doing all this to help you reach others. My aspiration in the sessions I run with children and adults has long beet to alleviate suffering, resurrect joy and (re)establish self-reliance. Because in this course we do everything we aim to use with others, I am spending a lot of time in my innner realm of soul. And doing that, I will be better able to truly b e with those whom I teach and guide through soul play. Deb Barber Jones
