Dear Soul on the Other Side of the Screen,

When I read Virginia’s astrological insight for this upcoming new moon in Leo, I couldn’t help but think of my gratitude for the last week in the redwoods where we gathered for the Qoya retreat focused on Embodying your Sacred Work. Inspired by the quote by Khalil Gibran, “Work is love made visible," we took the idea of sacred work as making love visible and danced with it throughout the week.

Our morning Qoya class themes were Sacred Connection, Your Work Has Worth, Gratitude for Love, and Go Be Who You Are. Our afternoons were filled with rituals that took us outside in humble reverence to the redwood trees. We ended the week in an amphitheater surrounded by these ancient wisdom keepers, learning from their example, as you can’t get much more visible than a redwood tree! As each person shared their relationship to their sacred work at the end of the week, my heart was on fire, and it felt like theirs were, too.

As we embrace the lionsgate of this Leo sun season and this new moon in Leo, I offer these questions: What ignites the flame in your heart? What delights you and fills you with so much love that from your place of fullness, you naturally begin to imagine how you can support others on their path? In what ways do you make love visible in this world?

Our Qoya resident astrologer Virginia Rosenberg has some suggestions on how to play with the energy!

The New Moon in Leo July 31, 2019 (11:11pm EST) stokes the embers of the heart. Sheer joy. Our heart’s blood pulses through veins, spreading through the body and animating emanation. This moon is Sun and mycelium. The boisterous light of a central star, boldly and instantaneously shining through hyphae. Tying diverse ones together. Connecting everything. We are playing telephone, communicating with each other through invisible roots and high wires. Laughing at jokes. Sharing cheshire cat smiles. Sending substances needed for healing and growth. We are sun-soaked and basking. Picking peppers and peaches. Tasting the juiciest and ripest of fruits. Flames fly in full color. This is the kind of lusty chaos that precedes creation. Passion ignites insurrection. We are celebrants singing our songs of freedom. Calling the old to fall to the Earth and dancing in the ashes. Performing the drama, the ritual, the creative combustion of life. Love spreads like wildfire. Lawless. Untamable. Burning hot. Covering ground. Melting edges. Love is the innumerable YES. It surpasses the ‘no’ and spirals life upward from root. Love is not what we are turning away from - it is our ecstatic choice. Love is the light we possess and the Way we give to grow things. It is the song and the dance. The shout we send to the rooftops. The caravan we ride on the generative path. We live for the love of it. We watch the sunset on previous empires. Readying for sunrise on new days, bringing new ways of living. Our hearts are beating drums, greeting the fresh eternal sun with their song. Us. Our hearts, beating. Performing incredible acts of unparalleled creative capacity. We came to play.

Qoya emphasizes the inquiry of noticing: when we are most connected to spirit, how do we embody our souls in this world? Qoya stands for the possibility that our bodies can be great allies to help navigate our lives, considering our bodies are what make our human incarnation possible!

For example, you can scan this email, reading the words about this new moon and intellectually explore it or you can create an experience for yourself to embody it! Something that delights your senses, that stretches time, that deepens your connection to self, spirit, others, community and nature!

Because it’s Leo Season, I say go on the side of being a little dramatic, as if you were cast as the lead in the movie that is your own life. Put on a song that you can’t not sing along to, exploring Qoya karaoke! Maybe film yourself and send it to a dear trusted friend and dare them to send you one back! Feeling upset, maybe do the dance Hearts Break So They Can Open which invites some cathartic drama dancing while jumping on the couch!

We often explore in Qoya the freedom that there’s no wrong way to move your body, which allows you to focus less on how it looks and more on how it feels. The way you know you’re doing it right is when it feels right to you.

There are so many moments in our daily lives when we go against what feels authentic. Qoya classes are a place to remember how to listen to your body and explore what it feels like when you stay in resonance with your self.

May you have many invitations to feel your heart on fire this new moon and always.

Wishing you a beautifully wise, wild and free new moon!

With love,

Rochelle

Want to become a Qoya teacher before the end of 2019?

There's still time! We have several Initiation trainings (including an online training!) coming up in August and September which leaves you with plenty of time to teach your 11 practice classes to friends and family before the Intensive with Rochelle Schieck at the Menla Mountain Retreat Center in upstate New York near Woodstock this November.

Click here for all the dates and details, and please hit reply on this email with any questions.

Qoya and Writing Retreat in Miami

October 20 - 17, 2019

Join Betsy Blankenbaker Murphy for a weekend of Qoya and writing at the renowned Standard spa and hotel in South Beach, Miami.

Initiation Teacher Training will also be offered!

Click here to learn more.

Qoya Retreat for Teens

August 11 - 16, 2019

Send your teen girl to Badass Girls Camp with Eliza Reynolds in Plainfield, Massachusetts for a week of belonging, adventure, and shining her unique light.

Click here to learn more.

To continue diving into the energy of this moon, you may also be inspired to check out the Embodied Astrology: Leo course which includes an introductory video to give you an overview of Leo's aspects, a Qoya Movement Ritual so you can embody your own personal relationship to Leo, an integration video with an exercise to apply in your life, worksheets with journal prompts, and a blessing for deep reflection.

Click here to learn more.

Love this blog?

Enjoy more Qoya movements, rituals, and philosophies in our online course, A Call to Create, which helps you embody the wisdom of our book, Qoya: A Compass for Navigating an Embodied Life that is Wise, Wild and Free.

For free support, check out our library of movement rituals, our free e-course 10 Days of Qoya Love, the Lifestyle of Reverence podcast, or browse the archives over on our blog.

RETREATS TO REMEMBER YOUR ESSENCE

Qoya Retreat for Teens with Eliza Reynolds: August 11 - 16, 2019

Miami Retreat with Betsy Blankenbaker Murphy: October 4 - 6, 2019

India Retreat with Rochelle Schieck: October 13 - 22, 2019 - SOLD OUT

Bali Retreat with Betsy Blankenbaker Murphy: October 20 - 27, 2019

Collective Retreat in Costa Rica: March 28 - April 4th, 2020 - enrollment opens soon!

INITIATION TEACHER TRAININGS

French Online Initiation with Claire Garin: August 19 - 21, 2019

Online Initiation with Sara Ballard: September 7 - 15, 2019

Miami Retreat with Betsy Blankenbaker Murphy: October 3 - 6, 2019

Studland, England with Sonja Lockyer: November 2 - 3, 2019

New Zealand Initiation with Samar Ocean Wolf Ciprian: November 23 - 24, 2019