You can listen here 

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I am longing for a world where we have forms of language that recognise and respect the deep feminine and women’s experience for the good of us all. Poetry is one form that can reach to the heart of the matter. It has the capacity to speak to parts of us that are dormant, denied or forgotten and can lead us into deeper intimacy with ourselves.

About Jouissance

Jouissance is a selection of poetry that I have written over the past 5 years that wants to be spoken and shared. The idea just wouldn’t leave me alone, so eventually I followed it and here I am.

If you would like to know more or pledge click this link https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jouissance/jouissance-poetry-of-the-deep-feminine 

Thank you for being a part of it!

Carly x

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Join me on Sunday 3rd December for the last Full Moon of 2017 to consciously welcome in the end of the year and reflect on the months gone by…..

Once upon a time it was commonplace for people to have parties, hold rituals, make love and dance under the light of the full moon. The moon offers a different kind of light to the sun, a light that can illuminate deep feelings, longings and directions that are not always visible in the bright light of day. This Women’s Retreat day will give space to stir the cauldron of your inner being, to uncover, nourish and behold whatever needs to be felt, celebrated and released as we journey towards the end of the year. Through yoga, dance, poetry and creative reflection we can liberate our inner most expression and evoke and nourish the inner landscapes of our being.

We will begin the day with meditation and yoga followed by lunch and a sumptuous and restful yoga nidra. In the afternoon, we will work with dance, poetry and reflective work in partners and in circle. You do not have to have any knowledge or experience of working with poetry before. Like movement practices, poetry is a form which can cut through to the heart of things, thereby taking us beyond our habitual patterns and awaken us to fresh experience and perspectives.

“At night, I open the window
and ask the moon to come
and press its face into mine.
Breathe into me.

Close the language-door,
and open the love-window.

The moon won’t use the door,
only the window.

– Rumi translated by Coleman Barks

A wonderful way to spend the last full moon of the year, clearing a pathway towards 2018.

Date: Sunday 3^rd December

At: Instinctive Health, Kelham Island, Sheffield

Time: 10.30 – 5.30pm

Cost: £28 early bird if booked by November 5^th £35 thereafter.

To book click here and scroll down to the bottom of the page

Note: Anyone interested in signing up for the new Year 1 Butterfly group starting in January, this retreat will have a flavour of the butterfly work and would be a good opportunity for you to experience the space I hold and feel into if it is the course for you. You can find out about Butterfly course dates and content on the Butterfly page. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to get intouch. 

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The thrash of the tiger
Is held so quietly within
the stillness of her striped form.
Soft muscularity,
Terrifying black, gold beauty.

Would my hand dare caress
Her silken curves,
Her pulsating chest,
The vicious magnificence of her passion,
Deadly and divine
With no transgression
Sensuous jugular enclosure
a powerful embrace,
Enters the darkness in rapture
Overpowered by grace.

Meditative feline
Stalk the deepest depths of being
Heart roars, erect claws,
Mortal flesh trembling.
Golden mirror of my soul
I know you could consume me whole
Untamed beast flying wild
She honours her nature
Like an innocent child.

What is the mirror that you hold
Hidden in your black and gold
Devoted to your enticing grace
Your ferociousness holds no distaste
You hold the power of the passion
Unashamed and unrationed.

If I am you and you are me
We are the perfect symphony.

~ Carly Mountain

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We are living in a time of mass movement of so many refugees, so many women and children forced to leave their homes. There are horrendous wars and within this mass abuse and rape of women and children. Thinking of all those who are displaced and lost and in pain today, its hard not to recognise that we need fierce feminine, we need the roar of the lioness. Chameli Ardagh articulates this with such humour and grace in her TED talk. I have posted it before but is worth posting again. Have a wonderful day.

The post A Call for the Fierce Protectress on Mothers Day appeared first on Carly Mountain.

I’m done. I am taking my masks off. I do not want to pollute my system or our water with those chemicals anymore. I am done with the violence of the beauty industry, to the earth, to animals and to myself.

Change is life. And to age is a privilege.

If we are to walk a life of meaning we must do just that, walk it. And there are many ways to do that. We are after all transmitters and I find myself asking everyday “What do I want my transmission to say?”. So many people have said “you are so brave”. But isn’t it odd, that it is brave to be natural, to be seen as I am? I have finally realised that to let the earth shine through me is the most beautiful I could ever be. It’s not conventional, it requires a letting go of looking to those ideals for a sense of worth.

Ultimately we hold the keys to our own cages. Age brings wisdom. Women as they ripen into the autumn and winter of life are often mocked for being menopausal, or are “traded in for a younger model”, get the sack whilst their male counterparts work on in their distinguished gentlemanly aging. And we perpetuate it with surgery, hair dye, dieting, grasping outwardly for some resemblance of summer that we think will make us desirable, empower us and make us feel we have a place. I am not saying that enjoying looking after our appearance is wrong, it can be a beautiful way of taking care of ourselves. But, it is worth checking in with who we are doing it for and what our choices are based on.

You can’t grasp power from outside, you tap into it from the inside. We are abundant, we are earth, we are love.

So enter the reign of the wolf, the wild, the free.

Grow old with grace. And be the change you wish to see.

* Since writing this post I have re-dyed my hair. I was grey for about 3 years and it felt really important to make the statement. I still believe much of what I say in this piece. I would love to see more ageing women feel comfortable in their grey hair. But I also realise the importance for freedom to change and freedom to choose. I am still not happy to put chemicals on my head or in the water….but I am human and imperfect so sometimes I make selfish choices.

Here is to freedom of expression in all it’s forms and embracing our imperfections as compassionately as we can. 

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