On Returning Home to Our Bodies

Pushing back against a consumerist, pleasure-centric somatics industry that privileges product over process, writer and somatic facilitator Abigail Rose Clarke reminds us that truly meaningful embodiment practices nurture our relationships among self, nature, and community. 

Combining the rigor of the scientific method with the poetry and lyricism of movement and somatic studies, Abigail’s somatic learning system—The Embodied Life Method—centers the body as a guide through today’s seemingly uncontrollable social and environmental challenges, reclaiming it as a source of liberatory comfort in times of great uncertainty, opening pathways to possibility. 

In her latest book, Returning Home to Our Bodies, Abigail guides us in harnessing the vitality of curiosity and experimentation, accessing nature as a guide to possibility, embracing the necessity of difference, exposing the lie of universal isolation, uncovering the truth of endless capacity, and exploring awe as a driving force for transformation. 

Join Abigail in a conversation with second generation astrologer, intuitive, somatic educator and practitioner Renee Sills that imagines a world beyond systems of domination, marginalization, and isolation to nurture embodied, whole-community liberation. 

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Abigail Rose Clarke is an author, somatic educator, writer, and artist. She has an inordinate amount of love for octopuses, the moon, and her extensive collection of anatomy books. She is the creator of The Somatic Tarot and The Body Oracle decks, and the author of Returning Home to Our Bodies: Reimagining the Relationship Between Our Bodies and the World (world release date: January 9, 2024, with North Atlantic Books and Penguin Random House).  

She has developed what she calls The Embodied Life Method, which centers on the relationship between body and culture, and how we can use the inherent wisdom of our bodies to be in direct conversation with our creativity and our aliveness. When we do that, we dismantle oppressive systems and build a future that is lush and generative and deeply relational.

Abigail does not teach that embodiment always feels good, because it doesn’t. Her work prioritizes exploration over assumed results, because the body is always adaptable and always adapting. Our creative efforts should do the same, and they can, when we are in relationship with our own bodies.

In a world of such rapid change, Abigail teaches embodiment as a practice and a responsibility. As the world changes so dramatically we are tasked with the enormous responsibility of remaining present to the world as it is, which requires us to remain present to ourselves as we are. From here, the way forward becomes possible. You can learn more about Abigail’s work and approach at her website and on Abigail’s Instagram.  
 

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Renee Sills is a second generation astrologer, intuitive, somatic educator and practitioner, and the founder of Embodied Astrology—a community-based, hybrid platform exploring intersectional astrology and the synthesis and application of astrology with other forms of knowledge, healing, and creating. The throughlines of their work involve ongoing investigations of interrelatedness, spirituality, mindfulness, creative agency, and the adaptive processes and queering of human bodies and consciousness in times of apocalypse. Renee’s work weaves together and between the realms of astrology, mysticism, bodywork, healing ritual and participatory art. She seeks to proliferate (through all means possible) accessible, adaptable, embodied practices that reawaken enchantment, empathy, and environmental interrelatedness.  Learn more about Renee's work here.
 

We are grateful to our Bookstore Partner

Marcus Books is the nation’s oldest Black-owned independent bookstore celebrating its 60th year. Marcus Books’ mission is to provide opportunities for Black folks and their allies to celebrate and learn about Black people everywhere. Learn more about Marcus Books.

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