"Writing Starts in the Body"

Written By Sally-Shakti Willow

Writing & Thriving for Visionary Writers: Caroline Carey Interview

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In this video, Sally-Shakti Willow speaks to Caroline Carey about writing from the body, writing her first book 'Ms'Guided Angel', and revisiting that book recently to redraft and republish it.

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Caroline says that for her, writing starts as a dance, a drum journey, an emotion in her body. When Caroline puts her words onto the page, it's a form of inner enquiry that can result in both magic and meaning.

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Telling her own story in Ms'Guided Angel was a process of finding her voice and empowering her own sense of self-worth. After publishing that book, Caroline received many messages of empathy and support from other women with similar life stories. Women who then felt encouraged to tell their own stories after reading the book.

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Recently, Caroline has reworked that book from the wisdom of her later experience - to distil the Medicine of her story in a way that brings together the archetypes of the Maiden, Mother and Crone.

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The resulting new book, 'Ms'Guided Angel - Revisited' brings together parts of Caroline's story from multiple previous books and the lived, danced, drummed Medicine of her own life experience.

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In this rich conversation, we speak about writing, publishing, editing and redrafting the book - as we weave in and out of Caroline's shamanic way of life that she shares through her teaching at Middle Earth Medicine Ways.

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You can connect with Caroline at Middle Earth Medicine Ways here: https://middleearthmedicine.com

Sally-Shakti Willow

Writing my PhD in Utopian Poetics showed me what it means to be a writer. I wrote four books of poetry and a 50,000 word thesis, and I started journaling as a way to ground and heal myself.

While I was studying, I also wrote and maintained the Contemporary Small Press website, writing regular reviews of new fiction and poetry published by small presses. I was on the judging panel for the 2018 Republic of Consciousness Prize for literary fiction from the small presses. So I was reading a lot of great writing too. And I co-developed and taught a series of workshops called WELLBEING WHILE WRITING for doctoral researchers at the University of Westminster.

WELLBEING WHILE WRITING used practical techniques from Creative Writing pedagogy to support PhD students of all disciplines with the work of WRITING their thesis. I also used my knowledge and experience of yoga and meditation to provide MOVING & BREATHING FOR WELLBEING workshops to graduate students at the University.

I’ve been teaching English since 2004 and I’ve been teaching Creative Writing at the University of Westminster since 2017.

https://www.writingthriving.com
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