Glad Greetings!

My name is Aravel.  Welcome to my labyrinth of webpages!  If you found me through my essay in the Nomadic Women Anthology, that’s really cool and thank you for taking a look at what I’ve got here.  If you found me another way, amazing!  How ever you got here, I’m glad you’re here.  I’m grateful to connect with you in mind and spirit through writing.   If you are so moved, feel free to contact me directly via the info at the bottom of the page.

Come in and explore what else is possible in life when you leave the known world behind.  I offer up stories of my experiences, explorations and experiments in hopes they help you find new ways of being that suit you well in harmony with the larger world.

About me in a nutshell:

I live in my van, traveling mostly along the west coast of the United States.  I travel with a collection of gongs, singing bowls, chimes, drums, and other instruments.  I am deeply in love with this planet.  Being alive in this bursting speck of beauty in this phenomenal cosmos is truly a miracle to me.  I celebrate regularly, engaging with nature as much as I can.  Ideally I would spend all my time outdoors in semi-wilderness.  I’ve come close to that ideal for periods in my life and hope to get back to that again soon.

The path I’m inviting you on:

Human experience on this precious planet is far greater than modern western culture admits.  We’ve been locked in to violence, overwork, isolation, exhaustion, ecological devastation, and strictly limited beliefs.  I find this to be a cosmic-level tragedy.  On the scale of our galaxy, much less the universe, this planet is an infinitesimal oasis of life and color and music.  In a way it can be viewed as a miracle, or a happy accident, or that we won the astronomical odds.  So much beauty, love and delight is possible yet as a species we’ve built a so-called civilization that throws it away and maintains systems of suffering.  The Earth offers many ways out of those systems.  Many of us have followed them.  We reach out to those ahead and behind and beside us so that we may all keep going and more people will join the quest.  My main areas of focus are on consciousness via introspection and expanding awareness, countering restrictive conditioning and trauma, embracing your own experience, and really enjoying being alive.  Life is an unfathomable gift waiting for us to engage.

Freedom in community:

It’s important to hold each other lovingly and lightly so we may each follow our own gifts rather than co-create yet another paradigm trap.  There is a saying in some healing circles that goes: “we do our individual work together.”  It’s a bit of a conundrum.  The idea is to co-create the conditions and experiences for each of us to set ourselves free.  No one can do it for us.  There is power, opportunity and encouragement when we do this work together.  But we must be vigilant of noticing and refusing the old habits of conforming to constructs that hold us back or repeat suffering.  Habits like dogmatic controls, hierarchies, and needing to have all the answers or the ultimate truth. 

Why I write:

It can be tricky to find a group of people to do this with.  Access, safety and just finding each other are significant roadblocks.  So I’m putting what I can online as an access point to the collective quest.

My role:

My favorite thing to do with people is co-creating ceremonies and journeys traveling the inner realms.  Whether it’s exploring consciousness and reality, healing wounds, finding guidance, or enjoying our life in this world, I’m here for it.  I’ve found that the instruments I carry are some of my companions facilitating the work or experiences I offer.  Sometimes I am just the bell ringer!  Sometimes my love is broadcast through the gong into the wider cosmos.

More about me and what you’ll find in these writings:

I am as much into science as I am into mysticism.  Although I do play with some pretty far out ideas, I don’t seem to be the stereotypical “woo” or new age person.  I sometimes get on my soap box about the rampant toxicity and nonsense in those realms.  I do my best to apply my critical thinking and media literacy skills to ideas I come across rather than perpetuate conspiracy theories and misinformation.  I am careful to differentiate fact, theory, speculation, belief, and dogma.  Curiosity is one of our most useful traits to keep our minds open and not hijacked. 

My favorite science topics are cutting edge cognitive science, quantum theory, recent advances in botany, and learning about interesting things that cross my path.  I also enjoy epistemology and examinations of free will and identity.

The mystic in me likes to experiment with metaphysical possibilities and explore what I can do with my consciousness.  Do we have a default mode network in our brains that we can be free from?  What are the effects of DMT spikes at key moments in life and death and in dreams?  What if reincarnation actually happens?  What can rituals and invocations do beyond their psycho-social influences?  What do I choose to believe or not believe and how does that affect my life?

I relate strongly with having a transcendent soul and inherent skills beyond my social personality.  Shamanic-type practices have been far more effective in my complex healing journey than any western mainstream medicine and therapy ever were.  In that sense, I go with what works even if we can’t explain it scientifically (yet.) 

Besides, the need to have everything explained and verified severely limits one’s experience.  Analysis brings you out of presence within experience.  Also, it’s a vestige of the white patriarchy to exert superiority and control.  There is far more to existence than we can thoroughly explain.  Explanations of unusual experiences tend to deplete them of their beneficial effects.  So why do it?  Why does there have to be a right or wrong answer to everything?  (I think that’s a social construct.) Stay curious.

Fly, Be Free, We’re Here

Take what I say in these pages as suggestions and hints of things to try, signs of progress, and as solid hope for beautiful change.  Most of all, may my words provide encouragement to engage your imagination, your desires, your intuition to move into the vibrant life you suspected or dreamed of being real.  We can’t get there if we don’t try.  In this culture, trying to get there is a rough road.  Many people will try to stop you, cast derision, or threaten ostracization.  Take heart that you’re on the road that you’ve wanted to travel.  You are not alone.

Blessings ~~~

~ Aravel

What kind of stories or info would you like to jump to?

Or go to my travel blog about the beginning of my Summoneo Journey

Click here for descriptions of services I offer!

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Contact me:

360-328-1193

aravel@thinningtheveil.info