Eros is my Hearth
Plus exciting festival news and erotic offerings!
Hello fellow erotic explorer
I hope you are finding warmth and connection in the last of these cold wintery days.
This season has invited me into my depths and I have cherished the quietness in which to nourish and savour the slowness of presence and spaciousness in which my pleasure and aliveness thrives.
Winter is a time in which I prune off what no longer serves and cultivate the fertile soil from which my deepest desire may soon thrive.
I am excited to again be nurturing the seeds of many beautiful new offerings all of which I will share with you here over time.
As you may have noticed I have moved my newsletter to Substack!
This is partly an act of protest against social media that continually blocks and deactivates my accounts because I talk about sex and pleasure.
Partly a commitment to my writing and intention to share offerings that contribute to the liberation of pleasure and bodies.
And partly a willingness to be vulnerable and open myself personally as way of cultivating community and meaningful connection.
My intention is to be in the alchemy of Eros with you all as we each re-member our bodies and our relationship with each other.
With love
Susan
Eros is my Hearth
Life is meant to be a date with the Erotic.
A flow of aliveness and connection to vitality.
An expression of creativity and beauty.
Being in this moment, now and embracing the pleasure before us.
This is our essence.
Lost in the mind-field of life.
Trapped in the constant grid to be more, do more, have more.
We have lost our way.
The Erotic seems a far-off destination for many.
Something unavailable or rare.
Something that requires another or a special occasion.
An indulgence.
A luxury.
Unreachable.
Beyond.
What if in fact, we began to recognise that Life is a constant invitation to the Erotic and we already have all that we need to find it.
That we have and are enough in our own being.
That the Erotic is something we could cultivate and tend to by simply making intentional space and skill.
In the words of Esther Perel, “eroticism is an art…but it is also a practice.”
It is available to all of us.
We simply need to begin by pausing, noticing and connecting to the pleasure before us.
My world over the past few months has become small.
I have created spaciousness in doing outwardly less and inwardly more.
I spend much time alone and in doing so have found a deeper well to the Erotic.
I feel it in my bones and blood.
It flows through my breath.
It is wordless but its sounds resonate beyond my being.
It delights in the way I move and responds to my touch.
It is embraced by the sunshine and rests deeply in the warm waters of a scented bath.
It is savoured on my tongue as I linger over a delicious meal.
Each day I intentionally tend this altar.
It feeds all that I do and am.
Eros is my hearth and daily practice.
I am drawn to where its energy flows and here I devote my attention and time.
Eros is my ally.
It is my creative force.
A place from which I write, draw and play.
I share it with lovers and the work that I do.
It feeds me and all those and that which I love.
It is a fuel.
A source.
My centre.
Each day it has a different tone.
A unique flavour and invitation.
At times it feels exuberant and wild like the wind.
Other days, it is still, deep and quietly powerful.
It enlivens me when I feel low.
And demands that my self-judgement take a back seat.
It is my self-care and nourishment.
It opens me wide and allows me to let go.
It turns me on and some days, puts a mischievous sparkle in my eye.
It dares me to be bold.
And requires me to meet my edges of shame as I leap.
Its source is my body.
My longings.
My soul.
It encapsulates my dreaming and daring.
At times it is easily found.
Simple, abundant, evident.
In a memory.
A story.
A song.
Other times I must slow down and find a thread of its momentum to gently pull.
It is messy and requires a container to harness and hold it.
It is easy and hard.
It requires a tension from which it finds a pulse.
It calls me forward and fuels my passion and purpose.
Some days I find myself lonely in the smallness and quiet of life.
I long for connection and stimulation.
Enlivenment sometimes feels easier to find entwined in the bodies of others.
So here and now, I am invited to deepen.
Find my own way and the allyship of Eros within myself.
In the trees and wild land around me.
In the expansive night skies.
In the flickering flames and smoldering ambers.
Luminosity abounds.
The orgasmicity of Life surrounds us.
When I centre the Erotic, Life flows.
Its beauty in each moment.
Its creative expression in all that I do.
Eroticism is not an add on for me.
Something to get to in due course.
A nice idea.
A luscious evening.
It is my Hearth.
Please choose what feels good for you.
Choice matters to me. So please take a moment and honour what feels in alignment for you. An action to unsubscribe is as valued to me as passing this newsletter onto to another. Our world needs people who notice, honour and take action on their desires and limits. You will find the unsubscribe button at the end of this newsletter.
Words of appreciation…
I love hearing how people transform their lives with what they learn from our time together. I received this in an email recently.
“I’m so incredibly grateful for everything you have taught me about embodied consent, actually saying no to things that my body is telling me isn’t right and also learning to ask for what I want. I’ve put all of these things into practice the last few weeks, and they’ve kept me safe and been so empowering. I know that without having done this work with you where we practiced it over and over, that there would have been very different outcomes with difficult situations I’ve encountered with work recently. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you for being such a champion of this work for women. I’m forever changed for the better from it. “ Jess M.
Updates + News…
SAVE THE DATE…
FEAST - The Festival of Embodiment and Sexual Transformation is back!
Yes! We are excited to be holding this incredible opportunity to learn and be in erotic community with like minded folk again early next year. FEAST offers access to some of the best Sexological Bodyworkers and Somatic Sex Educators in Australia. Not to mention abundant pleasure and experiences that are held with skillful integrity, and a community culture that values the richness and celebrates the joy of diversity.
Tickets will be released in the next two weeks.
Stay tuned for more information. www.feastunlimited.com
For now….here are the dates!
22-25 May 2025
Northern NSW Hinterland
Work with me…
I offer individual or couple sessions in person at my home-work studio or via zoom. Now is a great time to invest in your erotic self with somatic and embodiment practices. Sessions are uniquely designed around your learning and intention and we dip into my tool kit of Sexological Bodywork, Somatic Experiencing and Embodied Consent, in a way that is most useful to you.
I am your companion and resource on a journey of re-membering your authentic erotic self.
For Practitioners…
Melbourne Trainings:
I am delighted to be in Melbourne from the 10th to 13th September 2024 to offer, in collaboration with my dear friend and colleague Kendra Russell, three workshops for those interested in somatics, sexuality and healing the impact of sexual trauma. These workshops are designed for practitioners working the gendered violence sector and are run through the Statewide Peak - Sexual Assault Services Victoria.
We will be offering Foundations in Feminist Somatics for those new to embodiment and Untouched - Practical Tools to Resource Victim / Survivors of Gendered Violence to reclaim sex and intimacy.
I am also available for professional supervision.
Please reach out if you are interested.
You write so beautifully, Susan. Love seeing you on Substack 🧡
Lovely observations! I am going to take a passage from this and write it in my journal. The part about finding eroticism in the stars and everything else. Loved that, Susan!