January newsletter

January Newsletter
 
The first weekend of January 2025 ~

to use a friend’s words : The Tree of Life put on a white cloak

NAKED SIMPLICITY

 
Happy New Year - 2025!


Don’t worry if a ‘new start’ doesn’t feel aligned for you in January - we have plenty of other options throughout the year to ‘begin again’.  Perhaps the growing season New Year which doesn’t really start until Ostara - Spring Equinox, in March feels better for you or perhaps the learning season New Year feels correlated to the start of the new academic year in September, is your time for new beginnings.

Or perhaps intuitively your body, your nervous system, YOUR FLESHY KNOWING prefers another time of year.  

Beyond mind this knowing is rooted in your embodiment spirituality.

And this is the main message and theme I’ll be working with this year -

OUR FLESHY KNOWING : BEYOND MIND  

 
The Divine Nervous System
 
My latest Aberdeen University Practical Theology Hub blog - The Divine Nervous System - published on January set the scene and theme for 2025 perfectly.

Categorised as body theology & feminism you can read two extracts below blog in full by clicking here 
 

Making Love with the Divine
 
There is a whole chapter on ‘The Divine Nervous System’ in my book Making Love with the Divine: Sacred, Ecstatic and Erotic Experiences’ - which was considered so taboo when published but Girl God Books in Feb 2023!  No its not a sex manual!

I am hopeful that 2 years later we’re ready for it!

 More about the book : Making Love with the Divine 
 
The body – particularly the body of woman – remains firmly in the grip of the Patriarchy. Controlled, blamed, and ensnared in the narrative of The Fall, the fleshy encounter is deemed unholy and entirely separate from divinity.

Making Love with the Divine starts the process of unravelling and undoing this insidious and false programming, showcasing and story-telling the sacred, erotic, and ecstatic experiences of today’s ‘ordinary’ women, narrating and reflecting upon their accounts of day-to-day communion and union with the Divine. Inspired by their sharing, practises are offered in each section of the book for the reader to begin to forge their own unique and direct pathway of lovemaking with the Divine.

This book sanctifies the human mammal – our animal journey of ‘in and through’ and is an antidote to the poisonous lie that the Divine is ‘out and up’ and accessible only through religious or spiritual instruction. Making Love with the Divine bridges the schism of sacred and mundane and reinstates the extra-ordinary nature of everyday living and existence.

"Making Love with the Divine invites us to explore our experiences of the erotic current that animates our bodies and our lives. A current whose natural flow and vitality is often stifled, distorted and shamed within patriarchal culture. This book seeks to open up the conversation by asking us how we experience our own sexuality and eroticism, and how this flow of aliveness can be a portal to feeling the divinity inside of us, and beyond us. Based on her research and clear devotion to this path, Kay Louise Aldred has created a supportive year-long workbook that provides a practical framework for anyone who feels a call towards liberating their body and deepening relationship with their sacred erotic aliveness."
-Carly Mountain, Sex and Relationship Therapist and author of Descent & Rising.

 
Making love with the Divine and The Divine Nervous system, evidence EMBODIMENT SPIRITUALITY is part of BEING HUMAN


THIS IS OUR FLESHY KNOWING : BEYOND MIND

And to link it to my work last year, our education system needs to teach us about this and how to access these parts of of ourselves.  

EMBODIED EDUCATION, the paradigm I advocate for, blends metacognition, intuition and intuition, to support this.

More about the book : Embodied Education

 
This year I intend to start to sew together all the above ideas and creations & weave them into all of my future work, training and interactions in whatever sphere or forum:


OUR FLESHY KNOWING : BEYOND MIND

EMBODIED EDUCATION & EMBODIMENT SPIRITUALITY