Posts by Tess Howell
Tam Willey
Tam Willey (they/them) is a nature-based guide, exploring themes of belonging and attention through story and immersive ways of being together that support a culture of reciprocity and relational kinship. Tam has been part of the Wild Mountain community since 2019, supporting and participating in Queer Quest and Queer Mirroring. They have been actively guiding,…
Read MoreTess Howell
Tess Howell (she/her) is a Soma-Source Dance Rites of Passage Facilitator, a Spirit Rock somatics teacher, and has trained in Buddhist Eco-Chaplaincy to facilitate working deeply with nature as place of non-denominational prayer and praise. Tess was born and raised in the UK and grew up deeply steeped in the practice of honouring the Celtic…
Read MoreCO June Queer Quest
For over the last decade at the Queer Quest, groups of people from every part of the queer community have gathered on the land to celebrate our stories and step into the fullness of our queer bodies and selves. This healing space has been a refuge and a reminder to all that being queer is…
Read MoreFour Seasons of Storytelling: Weaving Our Stories around a Celtic Year
How do we find meaning in our lives? How do we make sense of our identity? One way, common to most humans, is to tell stories about who we are in the world, which is forever evolving. In this second year of Four Seasons of Storytelling, we will follow the Celtic calendar through an entire year, September 2027 to September 2028, as we grow ourselves back up with the retelling of stories that span the arc of a lifetime.
Read MoreThe Four Directions of a Queer Man: Forgiveness, Apology & Reconciliation
Queer people don’t grow up as ourselves, we grow up playing a version of ourselves that sacrifices authenticity to minimise humiliation & prejudice. The massive task of our adult lives is to unpick which parts of ourselves are truly us & which parts we’ve created to protect us. —Alexander Leon, epigraph found in Last Call, by Elon…
Read MoreThe Great Ballcourt Initiation – Fall Fast
Death is the ultimate agent of transformation—be it a physical death or “the little deaths” encountered throughout life. Indigenous cultures developed rituals to aid and guide people through these stages of change and renewal, utilizing the power of death to enhance and intensify these experiences.
Read MoreNM Fall Vision Fast
In increasing times of unrest and uncertainty it can be a common human experience to gravitate towards more “certainty” rather than less. Yet, in the Zen tradition “not knowing” is most intimate. The natural world reminds us of this intimacy and offers us refuge. There is something waiting to find us but in order to be found…we sometimes must first admit we are “lost”…
Read MoreNM Mirroring the Four Shields of Human Nature: The Art of Story Telling and Listening
Telling one’s own story is an ancient art. Nowadays, we have forgotten how to listen and how to tell. Yet the very survival of our species depends on our ability to communicate with each other in such ways as to be mutually enriched by the telling and the listening. If we cannot tell with expression, our life is mute. If we cannot listen like a mirror, we cannot reflect back the wholeness of the four shields — the body, soul, mind and spirit of the teller. The best stories are about human nature — that is, the human of us which is, after all, nature in her basic manifestations as physical, psychical, rational, and spiritual. One of the best ways to create a four shields story, if not the best, is to put people in contact with nature in the raw.
Read MoreThe Elder’s Journey: The Four Shields of Elderhood for Women
Throughout the ages, elder women have enjoyed sitting in circle to weave the rich tapestries of their stories, stories that continued to warm and inspire people across time and culture.
What about us, now, in our time? As women in all stages of growing into our greater years, there is a growing passion and a commitment to tell our own stories
Read MoreCA Mirroring the Four Shields of Human Nature: The Art of Storytelling and Listening
The need to share and listen to stories lives deep in our bones. And yet, in today’s fast-paced world, many of us have forgotten how to truly speak from the heart—or how to listen in a way that honors what is being shared. But storytelling is more than art—it is an act of survival. It’s how we make meaning, connect with one another, and find our place in the larger web of life.
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