Posted July 23, 2013 by Marg Herder
At the 2013 Wild Goose Festival Teresa B. Pasquale will lead “Mystic Soul Movement + Meditation: Finding the Roadmap to Your Inner Contemplative” practice on Friday, August 9, at 5:30 pm at The Chapel. An additional “Wilding” event titled “Mystic Soul Embodied-Chanting Prayer” will happen Thursday 4:30-5:30 pm (optional 30 minutes of yoga stretching prior to this event), and Saturday 7:30 – 8:30 am, and 6:30 – 7:30 pm.
My partner, Lisa DeWeese, is a yoga teacher. She decided to become a teacher after two years of faithfully attending yoga classes. Ongoing yoga practice has changed her life in many ways. She’s more fit, of course, but she’s also more patient, more self-confident, and less prone to succumbing to frustration. I appreciate the way her study of the Yoga Sutras (a collection of philosophical statements that provide a guide for quieting the mind and attaining Kaivalyahe, the direct intuition of the Real-existence) has helped her to become an even more interesting participant in the psychological and theological discussions that I crave like cheese popcorn.
I didn’t expect to find a yoga teacher in the Wild Goose mix, so I wasn’t even looking. But right there it was, in one of the presenter bios: “Teresa B. Pasquale is a trauma psychotherapist, yoga teacher, writer, ‘crooked’ mystic, and creative ministry conspirator.” That was all pretty cool stuff. Especially the “crooked mystic” part. So I emailed her, and like the others I contacted, she was all in.
I did a little research online so I could come up with some good questions, and when I found out her book, mending broken: a personal journey through the stages of trauma + recovery
Well, the book was excellent. It was one of those books where I kept highlighting passages in the text because difficult concepts were so well illuminated. It’s a casual distillation of a type of spiritual journey that is almost always portrayed with needless drama, and the simplicity makes it all the more powerful. It was fearlessly honest, and this yoga teacher named Teresa B. Pasquale wrote so close to the bone that in reading how she found her own healing, I found more of my own.
I will tell you that she works as a trauma therapist, is the co-founder of a faith community for people in their 20s and 30s called SEEK{ers} (with a special focus in trauma/addiction recovery), and is co-chair of the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida Young Adult Community.
She has a new book coming out soon, The Mystic Soul, Past + Present + Eternal: discovering the roadmap to your inner contemplative. Perhaps she’ll even have it at Wild Goose.
Her “official” 2013 Wild Goose presentation is Friday, August 9, at 5:30 pm. “Mystic Soul Movement + Meditation: Finding the Roadmap to Your Inner Contemplative” is described on the Wild Goose website this way:
“God is accessible to us in mind+body+spirit in breath and meditation. In silence all denominations and faiths can find connection; in breath we can encounter the essence of the divine. Explore the path to your inner divine through gentle yoga-based movement, relaxation techniques, and guided contemplative prayer. These practices will teach us how to slow down, move inward, and meet God in the space of silence and breath. Silence is for everyone, and so is an experiential relationship with God. Teresa will guide us in practice while gently accompanied by songstress and mystic lyricist Peyton Davis–her ministry co-conspirator.”
She is also presenting “Mystic Soul Embodied-Chanting Prayer” several times. This presentation is one of the Wild Goose Festival’s “Wildings” (which are less formal workshops and presentations). Teresa describes it as “a Yoga-Lakota-Taize-influenced prayer practice.” That sounds too good to miss! “Mystic Soul Embodied-Chanting Prayer” will be offered as a pre-festival opening from 4:30-5:30 on Thursday, August 8 (with an optional 30 minutes of yoga stretching from 4:00-4:30), and again at 7:30-8:30 am on Saturday morning, and 6:30-7:30 pm Saturday evening. Wild Goose attendees will have to check for posted locations for these and other Wildings. This particular practice also features Peyton Davis.
Teresa was kind enough to tell me a little about Peyton Davis (I’m always interested in the musicians). Teresa explained that Peyton is a music therapist and massage therapist who works as a Hospice body worker and is Teresa’s musical counterpart in the SEEK[ers] worship service. Peyton, the daughter of a retired Episcopal priest, sings and plays guitar, and “exhibits an amazingly therapeutic-like intuition” in leading worship music. Peyton and Teresa collaborated on a song “Mending Broken,” written as a musical companion to the book.
As with the other Wild Goose presenters and musicians I’ve interviewed, I think you’ll really enjoy reading Teresa’s answers to my questions. As you’ll see, she talked a little about yoga, but she also talked about feminism, spiritual wounding, grace, and transcendent moments. Check back tomorrow!
Index and links to content about the 2013 Wild Goose Festival.
