A Process to Dance Your Soul Home

Collection: Dance

When you hear the word ‘soul’, what is your first association? Soul is a complex and much-debated word, that often brings up strong feelings. Without going into religious or philosophical discourse, it is often associated with the breath, and with that mysterious spark of life force that animates the body. I discussed soul in a previous post Triad of Life Force, Spirit and Soul. Today I write about soul as a fluid concept, an essence that can get dispersed and also retrieved, and propose a light self-retrieval through dance as remedy that you can do by yourself.

Fluid Soul

I’d like to start by proposing soul as a fluid concept, more ‘process’ than noun (Hillman 1975 in Williamson 2017). Soul thirsts for journeying into the depths, and into the enchanted realms, where it finds nourishment. 

At times, soul can ‘disperse’, or ‘dissociate’, when we face challenging experiences. Paradoxically, in order to keep soul intact, a part of it leaves the body. In shamanic paradigms, this is called soul loss (Ingerman 1991). This happens to each of us, many times. It might be unnoticed like a little breeze or rip through us like a full-blown storm. 

I believe these parts go to soul school where they continue learning, until we’re ready to call them back. We can do this in different ways. Traditionally, a shamanic practitioner performs a soul retrieval for a client (see Ingerman 1991, 2003; Villoldo 2005). Maureen Roberts uses the word ‘self-retrieval’ on the continuum between shamanism and psychology. She likens this to the Jungian process of individuation (Roberts 1999). Robert Moss (1996, 2012) uses dreams as a tool for soul recovery. In this post I discuss retrieving your soul through dance. 

Moving has always been – among many other things – a tool of self-inquiry for me. You could almost say a diagnostic tool. As I’m moving, I’m folding into a space of tuning in, observing, witnessing, checking in with what’s going on for me. It’s almost like entering the quantum web or the akashic records, where I have access to information that normally eludes me.

Sometimes I become aware of a moment in the past, in which a part of my soul was no longer able to stay connected, through an active choice or sudden experience.

I’ve danced my soul back spontaneously, or through longer movement dialogues of understanding, letting go of the energy of the original event, and adapting my habits as invitation for my soul piece to return.

Call your soul essence home

Here is a recipe for dancing your missing soul pieces back, which you can easily and safely do on your own. Familiarise yourself with the steps first, with a light situation. Perhaps you lost some of your power in a verbal interaction, or you said yes when you really wanted to say no.

1. Start by finding a quiet spot. Feel your feet on the ground, and remember that you are carried by the earth. Awaken your senses, and observe what you notice through sight, hearing, smell, even taste, within your body and around you.

2. Become aware of your luminous energy field, an egg-like shape that stretches about as far as you can reach with your hands, and also extends under your feet. In its whole and relaxed state, it is permeable and transparent. Information can come in and go out. Through and beyond that, you perceive the world around you.

3. Explore this field all around you, above and below you as well with your hands, senses, or your imagination. When you feel familiar with this field and its texture, explore if there are any differences. You might perceive this as gaps, or holes, in pictures, melody, colour or even as a sense of ‘thinness’ in your field.

4. When you have found such a spot, imagine your hands first as antennae. Through the ‘gap’, you try to pick up a radio wave from the energy matrix all around you. The wavelength you are looking for resonates with your own soul. Is there a piece out there that is now ready to return? It may feel like a gossamer stream, a laser beam, or a subtly scented smoke. It can be anything. You will recognise it intimately because it belongs to you. Feel its texture, its quality. Feel the direction of energy in it. Pick up any information about it that you can. What colour is it? How does it smell, taste? Is it pulsating or steady? You don’t have to think about this, simply let information filter through you. 

5. If it feels right, you can invite this strand back into your body. Listen out for a sense of permission, a ‘yes’, a ‘curiosity’. Be perceptive, and do not manipulate this. Sometimes it is not yet time for it to return. If you perceive a block, a sense of ‘no’, a hesitation or refusal, then acknowledge it with gratitude and leave it for now. In that case, you repeat the process until you find a piece that is ready to come home. If you don’t find any at all, then simply continue with steps 7 and 8.

6. Let the thread that is ready to return, flow into your fingertips. You can gently pull it in towards a specific body part; breathe it in and swallow it; or massage it into your skin. Your hands will know what to do. Then firmly knead it into your body, muscles, bones, so it becomes part of you again. 

7. When your process feels complete, repair the membrane of your luminous energy field. Again, with your hands as sensitive tools you imagine plastering, weaving, glueing or otherwise mending any holes, rents or tears, until it is whole again, shimmering with aliveness and vitality.

8. In your own way, give thanks for what you experienced, and bring this to completion. Notice how you feel now, and consciously return to the physical reality of your body. Afterwards, pay attention to your energy for a few days, and observe any synchronicities, dreams, or unusual encounters. If you have received any concrete cognitive or visual information, address how you can integrate this in your life and start making changes accordingly.

If you try this – please let us know in the comments how you get on and what you find. Here’s to whole-ing the soul!

The small print...

This post is adapted from my article Kieft, Eline (2020), ‘Four body- and nature-based practices to move your life force’, Dance, Movement & Spiritualities, 7:1&2, pp. 35–45, which is available in the public domain: doi: https://doi. org/10.1386/dmas_00015_1. In this form, it first appeared in the Feminism and Religion blog.

• Hillman, J. (1975), Re-Visioning Psychology, New York: Harper & Row.

• Horwitz, J. (1996), ‘Coming home: The Shaman’s work with soul-loss’, Sacred Hoop, 13, pp. 16–20.

• Ingerman, S. (1991), Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self, New York: HarperCollins.

• Ingerman, S. (2003), ‘Tracking lost souls’, in G. Harvey (ed.), Shamanism: A Reader, London: Routledge, pp. 355–64.

• Kieft, E. (2020) ‘Soul Loss and Retrieval: restoring wholeness through dance’, Chapter 6 in Williamson, A. & Sellers Young, B. (eds.) Spiritual Herstories: Soulful research in dance studies: Intellect, pp. 180-206.

• Moss, R. (1996). Conscious Dreaming. A Spiritual Path for Everyday Life. New York: Three Rivers Press.

• Moss, R. (2012). Dreaming the Soul Back Home: Shamanic Dreaming for Healing and Becoming Whole. San Francisco (CA): New World Library.

• Roberts, M. B. (1999), ‘Re-visioning soul retrieval: The spectrum of active and passive healing in Shamanism and Jungian psychotherapy’, http://www.jungcircle.com.

• Villoldo, A. (2005), Mending the Past and Healing the Future with Soul Retrieval, London: Hay House.

• Williamson, A. (2017), ‘Falling in love with language, in phenomenologies’, in S. Fraleigh (ed.), Of the Body in Performance, Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.