Month 2: Wide Open Arms: Exploring Ecological Entanglement with Bear Ryver and Liz Deligio
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Say, who owns this house?
It's not mine.
I dreamed another, sweeter, brighter
With a view of lakes crossed in painted boats,
Of fields wide as arms open for me.
This house is strange.
Its shadows lie.
Say, tell me, why does its lock fit my key?
From Home, by Toni Morrison
Our time together locating and following Venus’ journey through the night sky does not require any knowledge of astronomy or any belief in astrology.
It is an opportunity to see what emerges for you in the spaces of ecological + belonging when you form a daily practice of finding this luminary in the night sky and witness Venus’ descent, disappearance, and reemergence.
What arises in you as you find and track the luminaries on your horizon? How does it change or not your sense of place and belonging?
We will accompany this daily practice with another old art - the art of florilegia collage and journalling.
Florilegia is the practice of “gathering flowers” (literal or metaphorical) in a journal or other chosen repository.
The flowers could be actual flowers pressed into a book, they could be favorite lines of poems, favorite images, etc. The practice is to compile what speaks to you, calls to you, appears as a flower, an insight, a spark in one place. To guide this practice we will a collective space to share, create, and celebrate what comes to you with open arms.
Many of you may already have such a practice - we are excited to learn from you ! If this is your first time keeping a journal or collaging we are here to offer practical support. We will engage this practice over the next 3 months (June - August). As we enter into a different rhythm together our hope is to co-create a space that supports attuning to the ecologies we inhabit as Morrison describes as a “deeper, brighter” sense of home that is eagerly waiting for us with open arms.
This kind of collaging is an embodied practice that supports addressing the kind of somatic and psychological fragmentation that comes with ecological and relational ruptures. It allows us to bring together disparate pieces and experiment and explore what emerges from our imaginations and bodies
Liz Deligio is a community psychologist with over ten years of experience in the psycho-social accompaniment of impacted communities. Liz has worked with communities throughout Chicago and internationally. She began her career accompanying communities impacted by the loss of public housing. As she pursued a Masters of Divinity and then later a Ph.D. in community psychology, her work became more expansive, focusing on state violence, memory, and collective healing.
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Bear Ryver is a professional astrologer helping his clients hone strategies for grounded growth and embodied empowerment by bringing them back to the BASICS. Winner of OPA’s Most Promising Astrologer in 2018, Bear has lectured at conferences like NORWAC and ISAR. He holds certifications in Hellenistic, Electional, and Horary astrology, and specializes in Intersectional Astrology. He was a teacher for the Portland School of Astrology, and has volunteered as a mentor for AFAN. When he’s not talking stars or pulling cards, you can find him climbing rocks and playing guitar.
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