SomaticExploration- Octavia Butler's Earthseed:God Is Change

In this guided somatic rest mediation we utilize the inspiring writings of Octavia Butler, who is inviting us to go under/beyond a static perception of what god is and isn't, and discover an experiential co-created god. In this 25 minute recording, taken from an MIE class, we slowly and gently connect with the words of the poem / Parable of the Sower experientially, as living words. In doing so, we discover an embodiment of the teaching. "Life, Shaping life... God, Shaping God... All that you touch, You Change. All that you Change, Changes you. The only lasting truth
Is Change. God Is Change."

Transcript

Just staying conscious of or bringing conscious attention toward I might say the sitting body here or the leaning back body or the laying body and just taking a moment to factually include our bones maybe from the feet up so the feet the bones of the feet just saying hi to them including that area in our in our conscious attention and feeling the contact that the feet have with whatever the feet are connected to whether it's floor or tucked under yourself or propped up somewhere just feeling the heaviness of the feet wherever they are positioned and consciously noting that contact the place of contact and letting the nervous system be conscious of that contact at the solidity underneath the feet or the heels the solid ground so to speak and we invite the nervous system to attune to that solid ground however simply you're experiencing it in a factual way right now the nervous system likes solid ground so to speak and then to feel the the legs the the bones of the legs from from the feet so letting your attention move upward gently and slowly and feeling whatever the legs are connecting with however however they are for your context until eventually you get to the the back of the thighs or the sit bones where there's again more solid or overt support and letting the nervous system attune to that to the solidity here this safety of the chair safety of the bed safety of the floor wherever you're positioned the floor is or the floor wherever you're upon is likely quite solid likely quite safe on a very practical level and we invite the nervous system to attune to that and including back to the spine again based on context your back will be making contact or it will not be so just in your own context noticing the back of the body the back of the head and if there is support behind you to really let your nervous system receive that support that solid support if you don't have that behind your body just noticing the solid support under the sit bones and maybe the space behind your back bringing in the arms to the arms are here making contact however they are feeling their weight they're making contact based on the field of gravity and just settle the hands and then we consciously call in breath and for you to consciously connect to the part of breathing or the aspect of breathing that feels safe and easy for you so if that's just the nostrils staying there if it is the lower part of the body into the pelvic floor you can include that if it's in the chest hanging out there so in whatever way you feel comfortable and ease with including or being aware of breath happening also right now not so much the quality per se of the experience of breath but the fact the factuality that breath is is also a never-ending experience that we we are having it's a it's a it's a consistent experience part of our experience a dependable part of our experience so you'll be noticing that the breath is always in movement it's always coming and going it's always flowing again the experience may not be fluid but the breath itself is never ending in a human being just like in a creek the water carries itself around boulders over rocks etc it moves it's always fluid water is fluid and so breath too is fluid we just notice that movement and it moves the body in different ways we can feel that in some areas of the body will be more solid so we can feel this both movement and stillness in our experience a stillness and kind of solidity in certain parts of our experience and then at the very same time there's this movement so in some ways we have this change change of breath the change of our experience is happening here as the breath comes in and out we can watch that the ribs change the nostrils change the temperatures as the breath comes in and out the the belly changes as breath comes in and out and there's other changes here a change of sound the words that I say keep changing the letters maybe some sound in your own environment is coming and going just like my words are coming and going and then there's also some constancy that my my voice doesn't really change in terms of tone or texture so to speak there's some consistency in my voice even when the words are constantly changing so again we have this paradox of familiarity and constancy and and change you might feel different changes in other areas of your experience through your legs or arms or undoubtedly in your mind right thoughts coming and going images coming and going maybe scents different scents or visuals or tastes coming and going and again at the same time the chair probably stays kind of the same or the floor stays the same or the bed stays the same so we have this change and unchanging the same time I'm going to slowly call forth this poem by Octavia Butler she uses the word God in her languaging and you can replace that with a word that might feel more true for you she uses it in the sense of a wisdom that is larger than the smaller self and this poem is called Earthseed here we are energy mass life shaping life mind shaping mind God shaping God consider we are born not with purpose but with potential all that you touch you change all that you change changes you the only lasting truth is change God is change very curiously letting those words reverberate in your own direct experiences of this moment of change that is shaping change life shaping life one moment weaving into the next one breath breathing into the next aspect of breath here we are energy mass life shaping life mind shaping mind God shaping God consider we are born not with purpose but with potential all that you touch you change all that you change changes you the only lasting truth is change God is change continuing to invite yourself to be curious of these words as they are already known in your experience right now as you're sitting or laying as you're breathing as you're experiencing as you're thinking as you're breathing or perhaps as breath is breathing you and taking time here to continue to stay with this moment's unraveling this moment's creation that is never ending always in potential always in creation always in change and being still here as long as you'd like to take this in and then when it feels and you're called to to maybe write some things down or put some of your insights onto into form just taking care here to let this gestate as long as you'd like