Deep Imagery: Deep Imagery Workshops

What: May Day Reflection
When: 10:30 am Mountain Time
Where: Online with Zoom

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZElf-6hrTsvGtAoEshJMc6b6-ZeLtyepcJn

Payment Options: https://marydiggin.com/product/online-event-donation/
Suggested offering: $20 per session

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Taking inspiration from the Celtic mythologies, this year, after a year of pandemic and change, I invite you to a journey to meet a guide to your own inner flame, to meet the light that will sustain you, the fire that can feed all the other fires within you, that will heal you, protect you and give you energy for the longterm.

Bealtaine (May Day/Beltane) is the Celtic festival that marks the beginning of Summer, the season of light. It occurs six months before Samhain or Hallowe’en, the festival that marks our entry into winter. As such, Bealtaine is an important festival, associated with fire, luck, protection, and light.

Like Samhain, it was regarded as a time when the energies of the otherworld were particularly active. Like today, Mayday carried many positive connotations for the Celts, but the festival was also a time of ambiguity. It was a liminal time when the veils between this world and the other world were lifted. Traditions of hospitality were reversed. Nothing was given away as to give something away was to give away your luck. Bealtaine was a vulnerable time, open to disruption by darker forces. The traditions developed were ones of protection and healing, designed to lessen the powers that could harm and strengthen the powers that could help.

The traditions included building large fires and running cattle between them for purification; decorating cattle with flowers; decorating May branches for the protection of the home; lighting hearthfires from a central, sacred flame; spilling milk or blood to keep malice, from either human or Sidhe (faery) away.

In the Lebhar Gabhala, the Book of Invasions, the Nemedians are the third Peoples to come to Ireland. One of their druids, Mide, is said to have lit the first fire on the Hill of Uisneach, which lasted for seven years. Uisneach is regarded as the center of Ireland and is visible from 20 counties. During those seven years, every Mayday, the fires of each Tuath were quenched and lighted anew from the fire at Uisneach.

This year, I invite you to a journey to meet a guide to your own inner flame, to meet the light that will sustain you, the fire that can feed all the other fires within you, that will heal you, protect you and give you energy for the longterm.

About Deep Imagery

Imagination is a gift all people have. Some look to it for inspiration for art, or writing, or their creativity. Depth psychologists describe it as a function of human psychology, as part of their psyche. In Deep Imagery, a form of integrative, interactive imagery based on the work of Dr. E.S. Gallegos, we understand imagery as the part of us that knows our inner world intimately and can best guide each of us on the path to our wholeness.

In a deep imagery journey, we call for a guide, which is often an animal, to lead us through what we need to experience in the journey. The direction is always to healing and to whatever can be healed in the journey.

How do I need to prepare?

Mostly, you need to take care of the practicalities.

• Make sure you have a good internet or phone connection in the space where you will journey.
• Be in a space where you will be undisturbed for the duration.
• You may lie down or sit. Whichever you choose, make sure you will be comfortable.
• Have a blanket or someway of staying warm, if you need it.
• Since we are connecting online via Zoom, make sure I will be able to see you or at a minimum, see your face while you journey.

“He saw the Secret, discovered the Hidden,
he brought information of (the time) before the Flood.
He went on a distant journey, pushing himself to exhaustion,
but then was brought to peace. (1.5-8)”

From Shadow to Light: Healing the Heart Wounds of Grief and loss
Loss is an inevitable part of life. Grief is our human response to loss and is a natural part of the healing process. The reasons for grief are many. We can suffer the death of a loved one, human or animal, the loss of health, of a job, of a home, or the letting go of a long-held dream. And nowadays, many people suffer from ecological grief as a response to the changing climate and loss of animal and plant life and habitat.

Loss is an inescapable human experience, and dealing with a significant loss can be one of the most challenging times in a person’s life. The grieving process can last a long time. Recent research has shown that intense grieving often lasts from three months to a year, and many people continue experiencing profound grief for two years or more. It is common to think there is something wrong with us if our grieving “lasts too long,” but the grieving process needs its own time. It claims our attention, mentally, physically, and spiritually and, when engaged with fully, can move us into new and powerful places in ourselves.

There is no linear path through grief. It spirals in and out of our lives as needed. We create a relationship with grief as we navigate through loss and pain. Like all other relationships, our relationship with grief changes as we change. Keeping this relationship healthy requires us to give it some ongoing attention, to learn new skills, and to keep growing. As we engage with the shifting territory of grief, we can come to appreciate who we are in ourselves more profoundly and glimpse once more the mystery at the core of life.

In this workshop, we use myth and deep imagery journeys to explore grief and to move our process from the shadows of pain into the light of wholeness. Engaging with the mythic imagination is to meet the wisdom of humanity woven into story form. Our ancestors also knew what it is to grieve. In this workshop, from the mythology of Mesopotamia, we will meet Gilgamesh, who, after the death of his friend Enkidu, goes on a long journey. Then, from the Greek myths, we will meet Demeter as the grieving mother and Achilles, the warrior bereft at the death of his best friend. From Irish Celtic mythology will meet Mis, the distraught daughter, whose grief at her father’s death, catapults her into a journey through wildness and rage, and back again to peace.

By embracing the mythic imagination in these stories, we will begin to reimagine ourselves as Mis, Demeter, Gilgamesh, and Achilles remind us of the possibility of change. We will explore our relationship with grief through the mythic lens and allow it to guide our process over the time we have together. By engaging with these myths, through the deep imagination, we will find our unique, individual way forward through the losses we have encountered in our lives. We will come to see that there are many ways of imagining our relationship with grief and loss, no matter its cause in our lives. And through this exploration, we will return to living more richly, in a world that is filled with challenge and sorrow.