I have been blessed with good, wise teachers, not the least of
which is my mother who left me her very secret writings, stuffed
into my gutted childhood record player box with it’s black handle
and latch. My name was scrawled all over it shouting from the
shelf where she’d left it for me. For Nora. For Nora. For Nora…
Many things stand out, but as an old woman myself now, this is
most precious. “The most important thing in life is the Mystical.”
Those words felt old and full of vibration. A lineage. A koan I’ve
followed since she died when I was thirty-nine. It rang true in my
bones. Her words were like a hand on my back, guiding me
deeper.
Now
As an old woman my passion still is exploring the restoration and
feeding of the Soul and Spirit in our impoverished culture. Many
writers have distinguished Soul’s direction and towards the earth,
while Spirit’s is the heavens. While they can never be severed, I
find this distinction helpful. Soul descends, Spirit transcends. The
full human being and culture attend and honor both sources of
wisdom realms.
As an old woman, my passion is understanding Grief as a path to
deep compassion and open heartedness. Grief is not a pathology
or a problem to be solved. Grief is part of love and it hurts. It
hurts terribly. The shattered heart needs respect through witness
and holding in order to be integrated into life after loss without
losing the tender heart it reveals. Grief is seeded with its own
deep intelligence.
My beloved, Allan G. Johnson, died in 2017, after thirty-seven
years together, plunging me into an apprenticeship to the deeps
of grief where I have lived for many years. My foundation
crumbled and I descended, as willingly as I could, to the depths of
soul, mourning his life, and the life I lost when he died.
Since Allan’s death, I’ve been writing and process painting my
way on the never ending path of living with grief. I’ve studied The
Bodhisattva way with Natural Dharma, engaged in Megan
Devine’s It’s OK that You’re Not OK, writing group, studied grief
education with David Kessler and participate in Mirabai Starr’s
and Willow Wild Heart, understanding the thresholds of grief
as a Spiritual Path.
While I am not a medium, I have studied in intensives with
Suzanne Geisemann and have an understanding of mediumship.
I am currently compiling writings and paintings into a book whose
working title is Abiding at the edge of Mystery.
In 2024, at seventy-five, I moved to Keene, New Hampshire to be
near my beloved niece, and an active progressive community.
I live a simple life, slowly putting down roots, seeing a few clients,
writing and painting and practicing meditation. I am currently part
of a Sangha (community) with Anne Dellenbaugh practicing
Mystical meditation work on behalf of all beings and the Cosmos.
I am licensed in New Hampshire as a LPC, Licensed Professional
Counselor.
Then
I have practiced depth psychotherapy for near forty years,
studying traditional theory and practice at Wesleyan and Antioch
Universities with postgraduate work in body oriented gestalt
therapy, self psychology, women’s developmental theory, feminist
therapy, Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, and Working with
Spirit Craniosacral Therapy with Michael Boxhall.
I have also studied Wise Woman healing and Women’s
Spirituality for 20 years, in intensives, tutorials, apprenticeships,
and at Women’s Mystery Schools. For many years I worked with
Vicki Noble, studying Women’s Spirituality and Tibetan Buddhist
practices for western women. With Lama Tsultrim Allione at Tara
Mandala I have studied the Chod practice, completed the Kapala
Training, and am certified in the Feeding Your Demons practice.
Since 1998, I have worked with Deena Metzger on the
discernment of spiritual guidance through the integrated practice
of divination, story, dream, event, and life experience. This work
has been profound in shifting my healing focus from ego to soul,
from human centered to All Our Relations. I have also worked
with Patricia Reis for many years in the soulful work of diving into
the dream narrative and story. In 2010-2012, I was a student at
the Orphan Wisdom School studying The Mandatory Arts of
Living and Dying Well with Stephen Jenkinson.
Beginning in the ‘90’s, for thirty eight years, I offered Women’s
Full Moon and Holy Day gatherings, Dark Goddess study groups,
and Dakini circles. and in 2003, following Quan Yin’s instruction
in a dream, my partner and I, with the help of community women,
built Women’s Temple, In Her Name on our land in Canton, CT.
Where, for many years, I gathered women for Holy Day
ceremonies, various workshops, guest teachers
and Sunday morning gatherings. It was a truly Holy space, made
so by women’s devotion, prayers written in the walls and on the
foundational structures carried our intention to make a safe space
for women to revere the Holy Mother, learn women’s history ,
engage in transformational practices and honor The Mystery.
Writing:
The Bone Woman Blog www.norajamieson.com
Deranged, Weeping Coyote Press, August 2014
Anthologies:
Sisters Singing: Blessings, Prayers, Arts, Song and Sacred
Stories by Women