Integrating Thauma
A Trauma-Informed Journey
From Ground to Grace and Back
Trace the octave of freedom
to love in ten easy pieces.
Preface
A note on belief
How do wounds become wonder? You should know going in that this guide offers more questions and paradoxes than answers, for it is the spirit of inquiry that can crack the chrysalis and let us soar.
Root System
Find ground
Philautia · Muladhara
slidesWhen the world feels upside-down, backwards, and inside out, it's no wonder our feet can hardly touch the ground. No wonder we feel separate, divided, and alone. So we have to ask: what sets us apart?
Leaning
Desire well
Éros · Svadhisthana
slidesThe modern world loves progress. When we are feeding our lives into the machine, we can feel so driven. But who is driving? It's clear that desire pulls us into the choices we make, but I can't help but wonder: what draws us?
Freeing Will
Begin within
Ludus · Manipura
slidesBetween desire and action there is a chasm where choice occurs. Sometimes we steer the ship, sometimes the sea takes us. And as we sail forth, a question continues to land: how do we choose?
Metronomics
Play along
Philia · Anahata
slidesAll is vibration, pulsing and throbbing in cascades of waves and tones. And each of us beats out a rhythm in the cosmic song, at times off-beat, or in syncopation, or in thunderous unison. Together we might want to know: what are we playing?
Scare City
Be enough
Pothos · Break
slidesWe emanate from an infinite field of abundant possibility, and yet often an insidious feeling of scarcity creeps in. Debts to pay, karma to burn, rules to break. It begs the question: whose dream is this?
Song Redemption
Hear and be heard
Storge · Vishuddha
slidesTruth is arbitrary. Truth is universal. Truth is personal. Truth is dead. We wait on tenterhooks for armageddon, apocalypse, disclosure — but could it be that we already know what needs to be said?
The Deep Well
Open Your Eye
Pragma · Ajna
slidesIt's turtles all the way down and up and in and out, right? I may fervently believe in a fractal scalar hologram or a TESCREAList simulation or an eschatological flaming compost pile in the center of the Earth, but until I really know, I keep asking: what am I not seeing?
Aloha World
Zoom out
Agape · Sahasrara
slidesAgápē sometimes leaves me agape. If I am the walrus, then who is the walrus? Tusk question. Seriously though folks, we need boundaries to make sense of our lives, and I can't just be all love all the time, can I? Where is the edge?
Entify
Expose Your Self
Xenia · Crisis
slidesIf I peel the onion all the way down — shedding beliefs, nationality, ethnicity, race, gender, species, name, flesh, mind, awareness — who is left? Who was I when I was dead, before I came back to life? Who am I really?
Love Remains
Remember
Meraki · Vasundhara
slidesSay Laozi had it right. Say this all comes from nothing and everything. Say I'm the one witnessing the first turtlewalrus come to be and the last one perish all at once. I might never be able to bear the grief of having lived and lost so much, unless I get amnesia somehow… (boop) Where do I begin?
Sources
Guides and resources
Thinkers, texts, and traditions that shaped this guide.
