A 6-week journey of embodied writing salons to inhabit your body, give voice to your untold stories, and re-member your first tongue — the Wordlessness that came before the Word — the currents of deep inexpressible feeling (eros) expressed through the body as poetry, metaphors, and images of the salt and grit of your ordinary life.
“… by writing her self, woman will return to the body which has been more than confiscated from her… Censor the body and you censor breath and speech at the same time. Write your self. Your body must be heard. Only then will the immense resources of the unconscious spring forth.”
- Helene Cixous
Giving Voice to the Unseen & Untold in Women
​
Raised in an overly rational, reductionist culture, we have no language to communicate that which is the invisible source of our deepest and non-rational power as women.
Women are body (vessel) and deep inexpressible feeling. Stirring with currents that have no name, we feel-sense-know the power of this force. However, when we go to open our mouths to share or explain, our minds cannot give voice. Rational words fall short, and so, too often, we fall silent, internalizing that our lives and stories don’t matter. Why?
Because our everyday rational language — rooted in the measurable, quantifiable, and provable — is too small to hold the infinite, invisible currents of our inner lives.
And so rather than going mute, we must create our own language: a body of words emerging not from the rational mind, but erupting from the body — from the non-rational wellspring that all creativity comes from, which the body is a portal to. Poetry, image, myth, metaphor — these are tools that are big enough to carry the invisible currents of our lives.
And so we open our bodies, and give voice, writing down the bones of our lives. And as we practice pulling the invisible into language, word by word, we heal the ancient split (between body and spirit, nature and culture, etc) that severed us all long ago. We find God while we are rolling corn tortillas, or when we give birth to a child new worlds pass between the towers of our legs (Audre Lorde). Writing in this way becomes subversive, a birthing act, offering passage into a much needed otherworld — where the body is sacred, where pain is a portal, where the sacred lives in the tiniest moments of our ordinary lives. Come tell your story.
What is Gateless Writing?
Gateless writing is a writing method that helps people (both writers and non-writers) drop beneath the conditioned, critical mind, and write from the "river beneath the river" — the non-rational place beyond the mind that all creativity flows from. Through a combination of guided meditation, writing prompts, and a nourishing container of only positive feedback, participants are supported to drop into their bodies and write from their authentic voice, free of the fear of judgement. Because there is absolutely no critical or “constructive” feedback in Gateless whatsoever (we only emphasize what we genuinely appreciate and find strong in each other’s writing), our inner critic can turn off, allowing our creative muse to roam free. This is not a workshop on “how” to write, but rather a curated space of ideal writing conditions to support anyone (even non-writers) to tap into their creative genius within. There is no expectation to be a “good writer”... only to drop into your body and witness what words want to be spoken through you. These are deep spaces for authentic soul-encounters with yourself and others.
Each call includes:
1
Movement-Meditation
A movement-meditation to music or some other guided meditation to drop out of your mind and drop into your body — the portal to the wellspring that all creativity flows from.
2
Writing Prompt
Feminine creativity is responsive. A reading of poetry or prose* + a writing prompt to stimulate your creative process. Writing time is brief (25-35 min) to protect from the inner critic.
3
Nourishing Feedback
Receive feedback on what we genuinely loved & found strong in your writing (there is absolutely no constructive feedback in this model whatsoever so that your creative genius can roam free).
4
Authentic Connection
Bathe in the creativity and distinct essence of other writers. Leave feeling connected, nourished, inspired, and deeply fed by the authenticity and soul in each other's writings.
*Writings may vary among poetry, myth, and prose and touch on themes related to the female body and experience such as the womb, motherhood, birth, Eros, the sacred in the ordinary, pain, death through life, life through death, rebirth, periods, miscarriage, aging, reclaiming the forbidden, remembering the earth, and mythic themes such as Eve, Persephone, Inanna, etc.
New to Gateless Writing?
Join the next free salon to give it a try:
March 10, 2025, 6-8pm ET
Online on Zoom
Register below:
NEXT 6-WEEK SERIES:
March 17, 2025 - April 21, 2025
Mondays, 6-8pm ET
Online on Zoom
