Somatics & Mysticism
I’m often asked how somatics and mysticism are linked and it took me a while to find an answer that felt right. It felt obvious to me that these two realms were connected but I didn’t have the language to explain it. I’m learning that language now.
For me, deepening my relationship with my body has always been a part of my spiritual practice. My intuitive hits show up in my body. Full disclosure, life was not always like this for me- I was very cut off from my body for many so this took time, practice, and trauma work. I share that because it feels important to name where we come from rather than letting people assume we are just *naturally* super talented or centered or smart or in their body or spiritually tapped in. That might be true for some people but that isn’t my story. My spiritual practice was a pathway into embodiment and vice versa.
Anyway, circling back now, somatic and mystic pursuits feel disconnected for many because the way “somatics” is being practiced in the mainstream is a little on the clinical end. I’ve studied with some of these more clinical institutions and there are some great practical applications to be gleaned there but the richness is missing. The same is true for how many people in the spiritual or wellness world talk about spiritual practice. We see a lot of lists, formulas, and how-tos. Linear marks to tick off rather than widening our vantage point and seeing the whole web.
When we’re clinical or rigid, there’s no magic left anymore.
And it’s okay if that’s what happens when you show up to ritual space or to somatic practice. Sometimes we just feel rigid. Or are gripping to expectation. We’re human- it’s all part of the human experience. We make room. We notice. We get curious. Somatically and spiritually this can apply.
A little background: The term “somatics” comes from the Greek root “soma” or “of the body”. It’s a broad term and there are many ways to practice somatics, stemming from various ancestral lineages and philosophies. We all have ancestors who practiced “somatics”- who practiced body-based awareness and healing in a way that was a part of everyday life. It was woven into culture in a way that didn’t need to have a name to differentiate it from other daily activities. Colonization has created an environment where many of us have become divorced from those practices. This is why “somatics”, as we now understand it in the West, feels like a road back home to so many of us.
As we attempt to bridge the gap between body, mind, spirit, psyche, emotions etc, we have to simultaneously understand the systems of oppression that created these gaps. This makes a somatic practice both an individual and collective one. In many circles, somatic teachings have become clinical and/or ignore (or flat-out appropriate) the wisdom of many BIPOC spiritual traditions and customs- many of which are still intact- that it borrows from.
A different approach is politicized somatics. It’s a more integrative approach. Not just mind/body integration. But whole body (emotional body, spiritual body, physical body, and so on) alongside our community, the collective global body, the Earth, human and non-human kin. This lens takes into account more than the individual and holds a vision of collective liberation for all bodies.
We can engage in the active pursuit of understanding our own lineage traditions, while still drawing from accessible schools of thought around somatic teachings and practices. Finding ways to name, honor, and be in a state of reciprocity with the lineages that have informed my healing and my practice is still something I’m figuring out. It’s a living, breathing, ever-shifting practice and I am a forever student. I feel all of this needs to be named when we are speaking about somatic and spiritual practices.
Much of what I’ve learned about somatics began indirectly through birthwork. I have learned a lot from a few wise teachers and mainly from being with birthing bodies. I believe this is where I began to witness, firsthand, how to be in a deep relationship with the body. It was also where I found the language to name what it feels like to be in between realms. Straddling worlds or connecting disparate notions and seeing how they relate to each other is the esoteric end of my spiritual practice- one I only really deepened after doing birth and intimacy work.
Understanding the mechanisms of the human body- my own individual body and the variance of bodies in general- was a doorway for me into this work. Holding the nuance and power of bodies gave me a big “a-ha” moment into the work and realms I wanted to explore.
My spiritual practice is a blend of what I named above and what I’ll name below. Earth-based practices and rituals are a crux of my spiritual practice. This includes observing the seasons and wheel of the year, cycles of the moon, folk herbalism, astrological transits, dream work, elemental beings, blood mysteries, and tarot.
Reciprocity with the Earth and the lineages I draw from is another part of my practice. Again, both spiritually and somatically. As a white person living on Turtle Island, I have absolutely been spiritually hungry and grabby! Leaning into understanding my ancestry and the history of the lineages I come from is not only repair work to that end, but is also personally fulfilling spiritual work.
My ancestral practice is a spiritual practice. It’s an anti-racist practice. It’s a somatic practice. It, like everything else I hold dear, is in service to our collective liberation. Understanding our histories. How we got here and why. Who was, and is still, affected by that. When I engage in ancestral work, I am not only reclaiming the ways of the people who came before me, I am also actively in pursuit of dismantling the systems that created this need for reclamation work.
Spiritually, I do not come from a specific tradition or lineage. Much of what I know has been taught to me by other mystics, teachers, and healers. What I’ve learned from them, alongside my own embodied understanding of how to be connected to the ether, is where my spiritual practice comes from.
Being connected to old ways, ancient wisdom traditions, my ancestors and my body helped me find some stable ground after a lifetime of trauma. It is a confluence of these things that contribute to my well-being and growing sense of wholeness- it would be impossible to me to strip them apart into individual strands.
They are woven together and this is the tapestry of my life and practice. And you have a tapestry too.
The name Weaver + Rose is a nod to how all of these practices are woven together. (They are also both ancestral names- a favorite great uncle on my mom’s side, and my father’s birth mother.) I practice privately and in my work with clients and students. My 6-week course RETURN dives into a lot of what I’ve written about here and is a great introduction into my work and how I practice and teach somatics. The Fall Cohort opens September 1st and begins September 15th- if this is of interest to you, hop on the waitlist here.
In the meantime, here are some questions for you to reflect on:
How did your ancestors process grief?
If you don’t know, do you know the history of that lineage? What happened so that this wisdom tradition wasn’t passed down? How might you begin to mend this?
If you are connected to culture outside of the construct of whiteness, can you spend some time reflecting on the resiliency of this lineage? What are some wisdom traditions that you are now the keeper of?
When do you feel most like yourself?
What does a tree have to teach you?
How does your body let you know you feel safe and seen?
For me, the answers to these questions are not only spiritual. Not only somatic. They are a blend of these practices and perhaps many others too. There is a web of knowledge and support to tap into. When I sit with my ancestors, the otherworld, the trees, non-human kin etc I’m able to feel a sense of belonging in my body- I feel I am a strand of that web. We have an opportunity to anchor the wisdom we learn from that web into our body and use it to come back to a sense of wholeness. Our centers. Our place in relationship and in community. A sense of belonging.
I almost don’t see a difference between somatics and mystical practices at all. To me they are inextricably linked.