Lovely to hear some of your experiences Camilla and insights from this momentous workshop. I know about the trickster energies that are also needed now in all its forms and names.
Susan, yes—the trickster energy is essential right now.
Not chaos for its own sake, but sacred disruption. The energy that loosens what’s rigid, exposes what’s false, and restores aliveness where things have gone stale.
I’m so glad you shared this. It feels like you were immersed in wisdom, curiosity, and community. What a rich journey. Grateful for your gifts regardless of how they are named. 💕
Yes, exactly that immersion—being inside wisdom, curiosity, and a living circle where something real could emerge. The naming of my original medicine came out of that aliveness.
I’m deeply grateful for your seeing, Leah, and for the way you honor the gifts without needing to fix them in place. That kind of spaciousness is part of what makes reweaving possible. 💕
Me too, Leah. Grateful for our connection, and looking forward to our Substack Live and discussing your book, Earth and Soul: Reconnecting Amid Climate Chaos🔥🙏🐦🔥
Wow! What a beautiful, powerful unfolding! Thank you so much Camilla, for sharing your FUNENJOY story with us. I love, love, love how your medicine revealed itself through laughter and fire, and how the whole circle rose to meet it.
"The Living Flame" and "The Hot Chocolates" land so deeply for me right now ... especially this week ... and like Danielle, there’s so much in the Heyoka path I recognise in myself too. I can already feel how this new naming will carry you forward. 🙏💖
You are such a kind and generous reader, Deborah. Thank you so much for your presence here in the community of this Substack! I’m really grateful for the way you listen with your whole body, not just your mind. That kind of witnessing is part of the medicine too.
It means a lot to feel met in this way, especially around laughter, fire, and that mischievous Heyoka thread that tells the truth sideways and keeps things alive. Naming it felt like striking a match; feeling the circle rise to meet it felt like confirmation. 🔥
That was very interesting, thank you for sharing. Your story resonates with me on a few levels, for my own soul purpose is about helping others to understand the concept and to explore their own. Additionally I have been told I may be a Heyoka (I had never heard of the term prior to this - I was told it meant sacred clown), but having your post I now see there is much more to it and to variations on this, which are well worth exploring for myself. Thank you.
Thanks, Lulu. I love how you’re holding this as an inquiry rather than a label—that feels important. These patterns show up differently for each of us, and if this opened a door for you to explore your own soul purpose more deeply, then I’m glad it found you.
That makes so much sense, Lulu—and it comes through in how you’re engaging with this.
Helping others realize their own soul purpose isn’t about leading from the front or naming it for them; it’s about creating the conditions where recognition can arise. That’s quiet, powerful work. The kind that doesn’t announce itself loudly, but changes people anyway.
I’m really glad this opened something for you. Keep following the curiosity—it knows where it’s going. ❤️
Love it! And it reminded me of the ‘70s band Hot Chocolate, whose biggest hit, “You Sexy Thing” started with the inexplicable line: “I believe in milk cows…”
It did not. The word was “miracles,” as I discovered whilst singing it, loudly and lustily, in front of some friends.
Maybe I could be your co-chair of the Koshare Society?
This piece glowed for me. The Hot Chocolates made me smile, and The Living Flame felt like a spark landing exactly where it needed to. I recognized myself in the Heyoka threads you named -- the layered perception, the paradox, the way truth sometimes arrives all at once like weather rolling in.
Your exploration of the Koshare opened something too -- that Sacred sideways humor, the way they keep the ritual alive by refusing to let it calcify. It felt like being reminded that the Sacred breathes best when it's allowed to laugh. I love finding the humor in things - it is a reminder not to let things get too serious.
And I'm so looking forward to A Balanced Earth as it continues to take shape. Your writing feels like sitting near a hearth -- warm, alive, and quietly transformative. Thank you for sharing your medicine so generously. It's a gift to witness. XO
Danielle, I love this: "...the Sacred breathes best when it's allowed to laugh." YES! Humor as the antidote to rigidity, not a distraction from reverence.
I love that image of sitting near a hearth; that’s exactly the kind of warmth and quiet transformation I hope the work offers. I’m deeply grateful for your witnessing, and for the very generous way you reflect the medicine back with such clarity. Thank you🔥🙏🐦🔥
Congratulations on finding your new version of your inner medicine, and on bringing it forth with humor (and chocolate!). Your descriptions of Heyoka and Koshare were illuminating, and your realization of your medicine coming from the living flame resonated. May your living flame burn steadily and with bright intention. Blessings!
Thank you, Susan♥️🙏 That means a lot coming from you. What I’m learning is that the flame isn’t about force or spectacle—it’s about warmth, clarity, and the courage to burn away what is false while illuminating what’s already true. Humor (and chocolate) help keep it human, and embracing FUNENJOY🥰 I’m grateful for your witnessing and blessings, and blessings bouncing back to you too.
So well said! "It's about warmth, clarity, and the courage to burn away what is false while Illuminating what's already true." And of course, humor and chocolate! Without which life is so much less fun and joyful. :)
Prajna, I love that; living flame with chocolate. That feels exactly right. 🔥
And yes, the laughter was everything. It softened the edges, melted the intensity, made the whole thing human and holy at the same time. Without laughter a retreat can become earnest, but with it, it becomes alive.
It's very interesting to learn about the Koshare as I'd never heard of them until I read your excellent essay. It brought to mind our modern day comedians such as Kimmel and Colbert who use humour to shine light on the holes in our cultural and political structure. These are important roles in our society. Well done figuring this out about yourself Camilla!
Donna, I love that connection—my husband loves watching Colbert, Kimmel, and Seth Myers nightly and I enjoy it with him sometimes too.
Humor really is one of the safest ways to speak dangerous truths. The Koshare weren’t just entertainers; they were cultural correctives. By exaggerating the cracks, they helped the community see itself more clearly.
At its best, comedy doesn’t just mock—it illuminates.
I’m glad the essay opened that doorway for you. And yes… I’m still learning what it means to carry that flame without taking myself too seriously🥰🔥🙏
And yes, the Kóshare feel like permission slips — for irreverence, for joy, for poking at what’s too tight. I’m glad the levity came through. Sometimes laughter is the most honest teacher in the room.
And yes… the Hot Chocolates were too good to keep to myself🔥🙏
I love this Camilla. What a wonderful retreat, sounds nourishing and transformative all at the same time. Appreciated the exploration into both Heyoka and Koshare, the trickster energy fascinates me, I'm sure I have a bit in me as well. And I love that you landed on the living flame. That which generates warmth, is the creative spark and is a passionate force... and can bring big transformation.
And the chocolate metaphor was right on. Food metaphors work really well. Put fire and chocolate together you get hot chocolate! Or cacao. I did a cacoa ceremony a year ago! Powerful - the fire and chocolate.
Julie, thank you 💛 It really was both nourishing and transformative—one of those spaces where things can soften and sharpen at the same time. I love how you name the trickster as something many of us carry; and yes, it feels less like an ego identity and more like an energy that keeps life from hardening.
And yes to fire and chocolate—hot chocolate, cacao, ceremony, warmth that opens the heart and stirs creativity. I’m grateful for the way you’re walking the liminal and for your reflections🔥🙏
I appreciate that, Shellie. From what I've read about Heyoka, it didn’t feel like something to claim so much as something to learn from and brush up against. I understand that in the Lakota culture, Heyoka carries a gravity and rigor that deserves respect, not casual adoption.
What emerged for me was warmer, more relational—laughter and fire as invitations, not shock. I’m grateful for your discernment here, and for naming that difference clearly. ✨
Here's to one of the "sweetest" women I know, and I love that you are now a chocolate. A fitting term.
What a great gift to give yourself, this time of looking inward, pondering and growing. Deep admiration for you, Camilla. May you continue onward with your own special kind of grace.
Stephanie, thank you 🥰 That means more than I can say, especially coming from you.
And yes, I have a sense that this is one of the best gifts I've ever given to myself. I highly recommend both Gail's class, and the Modern Elder Academy.
And yes, a little chocolate always helps😎
I’m grateful for your witnessing and for the grace you model so beautifully, Stephanie. Sending love and sweetness right back to you🔥🙏
Lovely to hear some of your experiences Camilla and insights from this momentous workshop. I know about the trickster energies that are also needed now in all its forms and names.
Susan, yes—the trickster energy is essential right now.
Not chaos for its own sake, but sacred disruption. The energy that loosens what’s rigid, exposes what’s false, and restores aliveness where things have gone stale.
Thank you for naming that current🔥🙏
I’m so glad you shared this. It feels like you were immersed in wisdom, curiosity, and community. What a rich journey. Grateful for your gifts regardless of how they are named. 💕
Yes, exactly that immersion—being inside wisdom, curiosity, and a living circle where something real could emerge. The naming of my original medicine came out of that aliveness.
I’m deeply grateful for your seeing, Leah, and for the way you honor the gifts without needing to fix them in place. That kind of spaciousness is part of what makes reweaving possible. 💕
Having never met in person, I feel like we're weaving a collaboration across the miles. And I am very grateful for that.
Me too, Leah. Grateful for our connection, and looking forward to our Substack Live and discussing your book, Earth and Soul: Reconnecting Amid Climate Chaos🔥🙏🐦🔥
Wow! What a beautiful, powerful unfolding! Thank you so much Camilla, for sharing your FUNENJOY story with us. I love, love, love how your medicine revealed itself through laughter and fire, and how the whole circle rose to meet it.
"The Living Flame" and "The Hot Chocolates" land so deeply for me right now ... especially this week ... and like Danielle, there’s so much in the Heyoka path I recognise in myself too. I can already feel how this new naming will carry you forward. 🙏💖
You are such a kind and generous reader, Deborah. Thank you so much for your presence here in the community of this Substack! I’m really grateful for the way you listen with your whole body, not just your mind. That kind of witnessing is part of the medicine too.
It means a lot to feel met in this way, especially around laughter, fire, and that mischievous Heyoka thread that tells the truth sideways and keeps things alive. Naming it felt like striking a match; feeling the circle rise to meet it felt like confirmation. 🔥
That was very interesting, thank you for sharing. Your story resonates with me on a few levels, for my own soul purpose is about helping others to understand the concept and to explore their own. Additionally I have been told I may be a Heyoka (I had never heard of the term prior to this - I was told it meant sacred clown), but having your post I now see there is much more to it and to variations on this, which are well worth exploring for myself. Thank you.
Thanks, Lulu. I love how you’re holding this as an inquiry rather than a label—that feels important. These patterns show up differently for each of us, and if this opened a door for you to explore your own soul purpose more deeply, then I’m glad it found you.
Thank you. Well actually my soul purpose is about helping others to realise their own. ❤️
That makes so much sense, Lulu—and it comes through in how you’re engaging with this.
Helping others realize their own soul purpose isn’t about leading from the front or naming it for them; it’s about creating the conditions where recognition can arise. That’s quiet, powerful work. The kind that doesn’t announce itself loudly, but changes people anyway.
I’m really glad this opened something for you. Keep following the curiosity—it knows where it’s going. ❤️
Love it! And it reminded me of the ‘70s band Hot Chocolate, whose biggest hit, “You Sexy Thing” started with the inexplicable line: “I believe in milk cows…”
It did not. The word was “miracles,” as I discovered whilst singing it, loudly and lustily, in front of some friends.
Maybe I could be your co-chair of the Koshare Society?
Bridget, this is too funny! We ended the class with a dance party blasting “You Sexy Thing” 😂
Also, we played Beast of Burden by Rolling Stones and a new friend said her friend used to sing, “I’ll never leave your pizza burning.” 🤣
As for co-chair of the Koshare Society… this feels less like an appointment and more like a recognition😁 Welcome aboard. 🐄✨🔥
Dear Camilla,
This piece glowed for me. The Hot Chocolates made me smile, and The Living Flame felt like a spark landing exactly where it needed to. I recognized myself in the Heyoka threads you named -- the layered perception, the paradox, the way truth sometimes arrives all at once like weather rolling in.
Your exploration of the Koshare opened something too -- that Sacred sideways humor, the way they keep the ritual alive by refusing to let it calcify. It felt like being reminded that the Sacred breathes best when it's allowed to laugh. I love finding the humor in things - it is a reminder not to let things get too serious.
And I'm so looking forward to A Balanced Earth as it continues to take shape. Your writing feels like sitting near a hearth -- warm, alive, and quietly transformative. Thank you for sharing your medicine so generously. It's a gift to witness. XO
Danielle, I love this: "...the Sacred breathes best when it's allowed to laugh." YES! Humor as the antidote to rigidity, not a distraction from reverence.
I love that image of sitting near a hearth; that’s exactly the kind of warmth and quiet transformation I hope the work offers. I’m deeply grateful for your witnessing, and for the very generous way you reflect the medicine back with such clarity. Thank you🔥🙏🐦🔥
Congratulations on finding your new version of your inner medicine, and on bringing it forth with humor (and chocolate!). Your descriptions of Heyoka and Koshare were illuminating, and your realization of your medicine coming from the living flame resonated. May your living flame burn steadily and with bright intention. Blessings!
Thank you, Susan♥️🙏 That means a lot coming from you. What I’m learning is that the flame isn’t about force or spectacle—it’s about warmth, clarity, and the courage to burn away what is false while illuminating what’s already true. Humor (and chocolate) help keep it human, and embracing FUNENJOY🥰 I’m grateful for your witnessing and blessings, and blessings bouncing back to you too.
So well said! "It's about warmth, clarity, and the courage to burn away what is false while Illuminating what's already true." And of course, humor and chocolate! Without which life is so much less fun and joyful. :)
Living flame with a good dose of chocolate
Perfect landing
The retreat sounds delicious. And the laughter is the most essential ingredient.
❤️🔥
Prajna, I love that; living flame with chocolate. That feels exactly right. 🔥
And yes, the laughter was everything. It softened the edges, melted the intensity, made the whole thing human and holy at the same time. Without laughter a retreat can become earnest, but with it, it becomes alive.
Grateful you felt the landing🔥🙏
It's very interesting to learn about the Koshare as I'd never heard of them until I read your excellent essay. It brought to mind our modern day comedians such as Kimmel and Colbert who use humour to shine light on the holes in our cultural and political structure. These are important roles in our society. Well done figuring this out about yourself Camilla!
Donna, I love that connection—my husband loves watching Colbert, Kimmel, and Seth Myers nightly and I enjoy it with him sometimes too.
Humor really is one of the safest ways to speak dangerous truths. The Koshare weren’t just entertainers; they were cultural correctives. By exaggerating the cracks, they helped the community see itself more clearly.
At its best, comedy doesn’t just mock—it illuminates.
I’m glad the essay opened that doorway for you. And yes… I’m still learning what it means to carry that flame without taking myself too seriously🥰🔥🙏
I agree wholeheartedly and love the term cultural correctives.
A truly FUNENJOY post, Camilla. I enjoyed the levity as much as I did learning about the Kóshare. Thank you for sharing the Hot Chocolates with us :)
Michael, that makes me smile.
And yes, the Kóshare feel like permission slips — for irreverence, for joy, for poking at what’s too tight. I’m glad the levity came through. Sometimes laughter is the most honest teacher in the room.
And yes… the Hot Chocolates were too good to keep to myself🔥🙏
“Sometimes laughter is the most honest teacher in the room” — I couldn’t agree more. That’s why I’m always so funny…. Hehehe :)
😂🤣😂
I love this Camilla. What a wonderful retreat, sounds nourishing and transformative all at the same time. Appreciated the exploration into both Heyoka and Koshare, the trickster energy fascinates me, I'm sure I have a bit in me as well. And I love that you landed on the living flame. That which generates warmth, is the creative spark and is a passionate force... and can bring big transformation.
And the chocolate metaphor was right on. Food metaphors work really well. Put fire and chocolate together you get hot chocolate! Or cacao. I did a cacoa ceremony a year ago! Powerful - the fire and chocolate.
Julie, thank you 💛 It really was both nourishing and transformative—one of those spaces where things can soften and sharpen at the same time. I love how you name the trickster as something many of us carry; and yes, it feels less like an ego identity and more like an energy that keeps life from hardening.
And yes to fire and chocolate—hot chocolate, cacao, ceremony, warmth that opens the heart and stirs creativity. I’m grateful for the way you’re walking the liminal and for your reflections🔥🙏
I'm glad you didn't land on Heyoka. I've had some Lakota teachers and the idea of this wasn't as warm and engaging as you are. 😉✨🌀✨
I appreciate that, Shellie. From what I've read about Heyoka, it didn’t feel like something to claim so much as something to learn from and brush up against. I understand that in the Lakota culture, Heyoka carries a gravity and rigor that deserves respect, not casual adoption.
What emerged for me was warmer, more relational—laughter and fire as invitations, not shock. I’m grateful for your discernment here, and for naming that difference clearly. ✨
Here's to one of the "sweetest" women I know, and I love that you are now a chocolate. A fitting term.
What a great gift to give yourself, this time of looking inward, pondering and growing. Deep admiration for you, Camilla. May you continue onward with your own special kind of grace.
Stephanie, thank you 🥰 That means more than I can say, especially coming from you.
And yes, I have a sense that this is one of the best gifts I've ever given to myself. I highly recommend both Gail's class, and the Modern Elder Academy.
And yes, a little chocolate always helps😎
I’m grateful for your witnessing and for the grace you model so beautifully, Stephanie. Sending love and sweetness right back to you🔥🙏