I want to tell you about a new psychology, The Psychology of Homecoming. "Coming home" is a beautiful spiritual theme that has been a part of human consciousness for a long time. Homecoming is a spiritual return, the journey of a soul. It is a dying that does not necessarily involve the body, rather it is a dying into self. Life, as I see it, is a soul's journey that extends beyond every life in both time and space.

Soul appears to be able to have a great deal of influence on the way a life unfolds, but soul is subtle. It works in ways that can be extremely challenging to recognize. When we learn to recognize its subtle ways, we are in a position to create a dialog with our soul, and die into it and its life.

My personal and vicarious experiences of life continually show me that the necessary dialog is between soul and ego. The ego and the soul see things in markedly different ways. The soul knows, the ego thinks it does. When we can get our ego and our soul to talk with each other, we heal. When these two opposing vital complements of life come together and collaborate in developing the experience of the life, they create a greater degree of wholeness in that life. The Grand Homecoming Theory brings ego and soul together in a vital, sacred, harmonious relationship that reaches out in exploration of the synergistic power of sharing and finds its great, and natural, creativity.

The Grand Homecoming Theory
Every finite, individual life is a part of the journey of an eternal soul. Finite ego, confined to that finite life, is, at first, unaware of the soul and its journey. Ego believes its journey is all there is. Ego is essential to the journey of the soul, and the soul knows that. Healing begins when the ego discovers that soul shares with it the life of that human being. When ego finds out it is essential to that journey, healing proceeds exponentially. The partnership of soul and ego is one in which soul, never sleeping, holds the ego in its cupped hands and lovingly allows the ego to get its rest. In this situation, fear and its handmaiden, anger, yield to love and its handmaiden, compassion. The shared existence of ego and soul becomes a healing life... a sacred journey of that life coming home to Itself.

To elaborate, ego believes its journey is all there is, after all it has done a remarkable job of navigating the rough, often turbulent, and sometimes dangerous river of life. When ego looks back on the life it has navigated it can congratulate itself for its navigation skills. When ego finds out that it is the navigator for the journey of the soul, it knows that it is no longer alone and it can rest.

The dialog with the soul begins when you commit yourself to listen to it gently with love and compassionate care. It must be, for the soul is so soft, light and shy that it dances butterfly-like out of reach of hard hands and harsh minds. The ancient Greeks called the soul psyche… their word for butterfly. They also named a goddess Psyche, and made her the personification of the soul. Soul knows it can afford to dance away from harm because it has eternity with it. Butterflies have great strength and powers of endurance… for their size. For us, who are giants to a butterfly, there is but one way to catch a butterfly without harming it… in a web of gossamer. So circle your soul in a web of love similar in texture to that fine, soft, sheer fabric with which you might catch a butterfly. Embrace it… encircle it lovingly; so that it will hover within that circle. There, in safety and love, it can tell you what its journey is all about. It can tell you how to come home.

Poet's Corner:          top
Poems and Writings by HOPEr's

HOPE Group News          top
Eastport, ME: A new HOPE group has started at in Eastport, Maine. This group is meeting on Thursdays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Call 853-0888 for more information. Guide Scott Withers, PA-C, is the past President, Administrator, and Medical Provider of Medical Service of Eastport, a Rural Health Center providing Family Practice Primary Care Medicine, Occupational Medicine, Attitudinal Healing-and now a HOPE Group! and Reiki treatments are available on site.
New London, NH: The long-time HOPE group in New London, NH, has closed it's doors. We are sorry to see it happen, but are so happy for guide Wendy Gilker who has graduated from the Kushi Institute and is now doing consultations and classes on Macrobiotic cooking. Good luck to Wendy, and to her co-guides Peter Phippen and Bree who brought so much to the HOPE process in New Hampshire. Good luck to all of you from all of your HOPE family.
Other Groups: If you would like to have the news about your HOPE group printed in Ripples, let us know. We welcome articles, poetry, stories, and black and white line drawings for this publication! Call 207-743-9373 or email it to us!

Circling the Soul Presenter Receives Certification
Becoming a presenter of Circling the Soul: Coming Home to Yourself™ workshops is a process that requires a lot of dedication on the part of the apprentice. Jennifer A. Lyons, of Bowdoinham, has completed this process and will now be presenting Circling the Soul workshops.

Jennifer is in private practice as a counselor and is a teacher and guide for individual and group processes. Her past workshops co-facilitated with Rev. Brad Mitchell of the Unitarian/Universalist Church in Brunswick were "The Gentle Arts of Spiritual Development" and "Developing a Healing Presence." Jennifer presented "The Techniques of Transformation" at the Bowdoin College Jung Seminar in 1997. Most recently she and her husband, Bob, presented the story of their relationship, "A Bicycle Built for One" at the Jung Seminar in December 1998. She is a graduate of the University of Maine and has a Master's in Transformational Counseling from Southwestern College in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

We welcome Jennifer to the Circling the Soul family. She has helped greatly in fine-tuning our training program that brings an apprentice in the Circling the Soul workshop process to the senior apprentice level and finally to certification. Click here for a schedule of up-coming Circling the Soul workshops.

HOPE'S Board of Directors becomes the HOPE Wisdom Council:          top
In an effort to include more of the people who are the "movers and shakers" for HOPE in the decision-making body of HOPE, the HOPE Board of Directors has evolved into a new group of people that we are calling the "HOPE Wisdom Council." The Wisdom Council consists of past Board members: Fran Browne, Laurie Cartier, and Steve Thompson; new Board members: Jean Libbey, Colleen Reynolds, Libby Thompson; and, of course, HOPE's Founder, Ken Hamilton, MD.

New members were elected to HOPE's Board of Directors in November. They are:

Jean Libbey of Auburn, a HOPEr from the South Paris group. She owns and operates The Sewing Network in Auburn. We welcome her business experience.
Colleen Reynolds, the Farmington HOPE Group Guide. Colleen is a guidance counselor in the Farmington school system and brings her vast knowledge and experience with HOPE, HOPE Groups, and schools to the Council.
Nona "Libby" Thompson of Hallowell, a guidance counselor in the Hallowell school system. Libby has been involved with the Hallowell HOPE Group since 1988. She brings lots of creative energy and enthusiasm to the Board.
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Annual Fund Drive          
HOPE's annual fund drive is under way. Through a direct mail appeal and now this request in Ripples, we are asking our supporters to consider a donation to help with the operating costs of HOPE Your generosity makes it possible for us to continue providing services. Please consider one of the following levels of giving:

Friend: Up to $50
Supporter: $50 - $100
Patron: $100 - $500
Benefactor: $500 and above

This year those who donate $50 and above receive a set of butterfly note cards; $100 and above receive a Guided Imagery tape of your choice; and $500 and above receive both. Please let us know your choice of tape. If you need a list, call the office at 207-743-9373 for a catalog, email us at hope-at-hopehealing.org