As a storyteller, a story collector, a healer, a creative expressionist, and a woman who has experienced tremendous trauma, abuse, and addiction, I have learned the importance of finding opportunities in every situation that crosses my path. I have learned to embody my work and invite you to share in the experience of it. Years of research, self-healing, therapeutic practices, studies of Ecopsychology, transpersonal psychology, art, activism, ancestral healing, and somatic therapy have taught me that at the end of the day, what truly matters most is radical self-love and radical connection to ourselves and nature. I am sharing with you now an excerpt from my thesis in Ecopsychology on the value of storytelling and its healing power.
As a doctoral student, I am continuing this research because I have learned that it is through our stories that we find our way back to ourselves. It is through story that we offer safe spaces for each other to heal, reconnect, renew, and reclaim. The only way out is through, and we must remember who we were before they told us who we had to be if we want to heal. I believe that story and love, or how we do this.
“Much like the art that I create, and the words on this page, life is ephemeral. Every challenge that we face, every blessing that we experience, and every joy that we feel, are all temporary. Let us not keep our stories to ourselves. Let us make sure that our stories don't die with us. Our stories are what keep us alive. It is through the stories that we tell and share with others, that the magic of life continues long after death. Our stories, in essence, create immortality for us all. If we keep our stories to ourselves, we no longer continue to exist. It seems to me that when we can make sense of our suffering, it somehow strengthens us to get through it. Our story helps us make sense of our suffering, and it connects us to each other’s suffering, allowing us to recognize that we are never alone.
Story is a type of magic; it is the alchemy that we use to heal ourselves and each other. “Magic is based on patterns of energy and their interconnections, on synthesis more than analysis. In magic we are always making connections, linking ourselves with other forms of being, identifying with what is outside of us rather than separating from it.” (Starhawk and Spretnak, 1994, p. 181). I truly believe that we are magic, that nature is magic, and that the world is magic. If we are to be the change, that we need to see in the world, then it must begin by making connections and decreasing the separation, not only from ourselves but from everything outside of us also. Changing the world is an inside job. We may not see this change in our lifetime, however, if we can find the magic within ourselves, and spread that magic out into the world, there will be profound change. If “the wild things and places belong to all of us.” (Lanham, 2016, p. 154), then we all have a responsibility to inspire the connection between all wild things and wild places. My identity is most certainly deeply rooted in this belief, and the responsibility of growing, sharing, and empowering all that is wild. The “wild feminine” is one of the best ways that I can summarize this. To embrace the wild places within myself first. Decreasing the separation between my wild spaces and the Earth inevitably creates a magical connection. This connection will be carried into the world on the whisper of the wind, the seeds of the plants, the wings of birds, and flying insects. I am the wind, the spreader of seeds, and so are you. The core of who we are is deeply rooted in history, culture, and ancestors, and at the core of our being, is our ...Story.
In closing, I would like to share this last quote from Alex Gray, who states, “The great uplifting of humanity beyond its self-destruction is the redemptive mission of art” (Grey, 2013). Our stories are our “art”. I believe that redemption and regeneration can only come by first emptying the vessel of the self-destructive and limiting beliefs of the individual. Only then can it be filled with the limitless expansion of consciousness that can only come through the creative expression of one’s soul and a deeper connection to the world. Only then can the great uplifting of humanity fully begin to occur. As we empty our vessels of destruction and refill them with our unlimited creative expression of the soul, the Universe cannot help but expand and allow for, the now full vessel to be gently poured out into a world filled with limited, oppressive, and destructive beliefs. Only then will we see the negative spaces between ourselves and everything else slowly being filled with love and the profound expansion of the collective consciousness take effect. We must pour our stories out into the world, spreading seeds of connection and immortality. We must always remember that our stories, or seeds, connect us circularly to death, rebirth, growth, suffering, vulnerability, and transformation. Through sharing our history and our healing, we awaken to our true selves and use them to heal the world” (Moon, 2024). In truth, we are creating....
One Story
Author: Jamie Moon
Professor of Arts and Humanities
MFA-Interdisciplinary Arts
MA Ecopsychology (32 completed hours)
Social Justice Artist and Humanitarian Advocate
References
Grey, A. (2013). Cosmic creativity: how art expands conciousness. Documentary:TedTalk.
Lanham, D. J. (2016). Birding while black. In D. Landham, The home place: memoirs of a colored mans love affair with nature (pp. 151-158). Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions.
Moon, J. (2024). Finding beauty in broken shells: the stories that we tell. Boulder: Naropa University.[published thesis]
Starhawk and Spretnak, C. (1994). Conciousness,politics, and magic. In C. Spretnak, The Politics of Women's Spirituality. Doubleday.
