Every once in a while I will drop in on the alumni conference calls hosted by The Western School of Feng Shui. Just recently the one that aired was hosted by Western School founder Terah Collins and her guest Evana Maggiore. Evana is a 1996 graduate of The Western School of Feng Shui, I graduated four years later in 2000.
Evana’s Fashion Feng Shui book titled Dressing the Whole Person was written in 1998 and our school was promoting her book when I attended there so I bought an autographed copy for myself.
Terah and Evana have co-inspired and co-mentored each other crisscrossing their inspirations for all these years. These are two extremely accomplished women and it was really lovely to hear the exchange and their support for each other in the Feng Shui call. It was also great to hear Evana explain the concept of her first book and her subsequent books on Fashion Feng Shui. The Boston Globe recently listed Evana on the top 100 best-dressed Bostonian list, with the added acknowledgement of dressing with intention.
This is a snapshot of her book; Evana has taken body shapes, hair color, eye color, skin color and created elemental archetypes. Each of these archetypes is supported by colors, styles, shapes and fabrics. If you visit her website there are several areas to read and get the general idea of her concept. It is actually quite cool.
Visit fashionfengshui.com to find your own body type archetype and your complimentary elements translated into fashion and style.
In their conversation about dressing with intention Terah asked Evana about her writing some new material and Evana mentioned that she was planning on taking her water element clothes (creative, flowing, diaphanous) with her to Puerto Rico where Deepak Chopra was hosting a retreat. This caught my attention because a friend of mine has been talking about taking this retreat with Dr. Chopra that is inspired by his book The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire.
I stepped up and bought his book for $16.50 and I am half way through reading it. Yes I realize it is not Puerto Rico and I certainly do not get the honor of meeting Dr. Chopra but I will at least be able to understand where my friend wants to go, literally and psychologically.
If you were around last year when I read Eat, Pray, Love, you will remember it takes me a while to get through a book these days. What is most fascinating about Dr. Chopra’s book is that he refers to "desires and Archetypes" and dedicates a chapter to it.
Here is a small excerpt from the book -The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire;
“The Purpose of Archetypes”
"These days, we tend to seek symbolic archetypes in celebrities, but we need to nurture a full expression of the archetypes in ourselves. They are part of what creates us. This is the stuff our dreams are made of. This is the stuff of mythology, of campfire stories, of legends. This is what inspires great movies. In Star Wars Luke Skywalker is the expression of the archetype of the eternal adventurer, willing to take risks to explore the unknown. Princess Leia is like Artemis, the independent huntress, the protector. Yoda is the wise seer, the keeper of powerful knowledge who is connected to the non-local intelligence. These are figures of our collective imagination, ancient archetypes in futuristic form.
Archetypes are vital to understanding and defining who we are, individual expressions of a collective consciousness. Mythology is the wellspring of our civilization. One of the consequences of depriving people of mythology is that they join street gangs. Why? Because gangs have a leader, they have rituals, they have initiation rites - the stuff of mythology. Our children are joining gangs in search of a mythical experience. Whenever somebody does anything remarkable - when astronauts walk on the moon, when a pilot embarks on the first solo flight across the Atlantic - these are mythical quests, Jason in search of the Golden Fleece, Icarus soaring in his wings of feathers and wax. From Persephone’s abduction by Pluto to Orpheus seeking his bride among the shades of Hades, to Apollo, and all the stories of Celtic mythology-this is the deepest wellspring of civilization and identity.
Gangs and movies and soap operas and celebrities are seductive precisely because they strike this mythic chord. But they are second-class substitutes for mythology. Real archetypes are enacted by people like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, anyone who reaches beyond daily life into the realm of the wondrous. They are able to achieve greatness because they tapped into the collective consciousness, which gave them the ability to see several event lines simultaneously and predict the future based on choices in the moment. In Sanskrit, these are referred to as 'siddhis', which means supernormal powers - extrasensory perception, synchronicity, telepathy-all products of the non-local domain. These are the powers that bloom as myth.”
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In a separate talk Dr. Chopra offered the following thoughts: “Unconsciously we are creating the same energy patterns. An average person thinks about sixty thousand thoughts a day. Unfortunately 95% of the thoughts you have today are the same ones you had yesterday. You keep creating the energy patterns that give rise to the same physical expression of the body.”
Knowledge is empowerment. What you focus on grows……
Have a beautiful day,
Photo: 'big picture' PKM
Joy,
Rena
www.talktotheturtle.com
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