Valerie Harms

“I found myself in a dark wood” ~
Dante before envisioning The Divine Comedy.


When we stand at a crossroads and need to make a transition, we must first enter the dark night of the soul. Out of confusion and seeming chaos the new path emerges.
Everyone has difficulties—some inordinately hard but all essential to their calling. We struggle in relationships, work, health, and with how to live meaningfully. We must make transitions—literally die to one way of life and be reborn into another.
When we feel a failure or have a loss forced upon us, only one hope offers solace — that of starting over. The hope and dream of these moments of total crisis are to obtain a definitive and total renovatio, a renewal capable of transmuting life. Even the nonreligious in the depths of their being sometimes feel the desire for this kind of spiritual transformation.

When we must die to the old way and be reborn to the new, the rites of mysteries and the images of myths bring us comfort. They help us to get out of the purely cognitive mode and find truths in deeper, soulful ways.— Read More 

Samhain is a good time to hex your tormentors and to dialogue with your ancestors.

The PDFs are on the topics described below. All are inexpensive but drawn from my (long) years of experience. If you want to order one or more, just pay via Paypal and notify me. (You can pay at Paypal without having an account).

1. Inner Wisdom of the Body, Tips for Befriending it. If today you are often judgmental toward your body, it’s time to ally with it as you experience intimacy, sickness, sensory pleasures (music, food, fabrics, etc.), and stages of life. You will be helped in healing. 2 pages, $5, PDF.

2. Dreams are like Fed-Ex Messages from Your Soul. Tips for Understanding Them. Dreams may seem like impossible riddles but if you only work with a few a month, you will benefit from the rich flow of imagery from the unconscious. They correct your passage in life. 5 pages, $5, PDF.

3. Animals as Power Figures. Wild and tamed animals live all around us but have you stopped to think about those who live inside you? I offer you 10 techniques for working with animals as wisdom figures in order to enable you to live your life more powerfully. 3 pages, $10, PDF.

4. Rebirth Symbols. Rebirth is about renewal, resurrection, and transcendence after life delivers a blow. I describe symbols and rituals drawn from the world’s myths and religions that have helped people heal since time immemorial.
7 pages, $10, PDF. Read More 

from my book Your Soul at a Crossroads:

Symbols of Renewal and Rebirth

Here is a personal glossary of universal symbols that appear in dreams or stories about change and renewal. They will naturally appear in your soul work in the right time for you. Even if we aren’t aware of the symbols in the way defined below, they rest in our ancestral memory and animate our souls. Sometimes we even use them in colloquial conversation without thinking about it. You can use this chapter for possible guidance in regard to renewal and rebirth.

Vessel—The vessel is the womb. The female body is such a container. The uterus and the oven are both vessels. Pottery/vessels used for the gathering of food and water from early cultures had breasts. The funereal urn is also a vessel. Projected outward, it symbolizes the world, the cosmos.

Erich Neumann in The Great Mother wrote that in the beginning of civilization the Feminine was seen as the creative principle that encompassed the whole of the world. She was nature in which all life arose and achieved its highest transformation in the form of the spirit. “Later the patriarchate postulates the reverse just as one-sidedly; namely, that the male seed is the creative element while the woman as vessel is only a temporary abode and feeding place.”

In Christianity, the vessel became the baptismal font and the chalice of the Last Supper. Read More 

Symbols of Renewal and Rebirth excerpted from my book Your Soul at a Crossroads
may your life be filled with renewals in 2015...

Here is a personal glossary of universal symbols that appear in dreams or stories about change and renewal. They will naturally appear in your soul work at the right time for you.

Vessel—The vessel is the womb. The female body is such a container.

Vulva—The vulva, yoni, or vagina is the place of putting in the semen, which jumpstarts procreation and birth. Through it passes all human birth.

Fire—Used to create vessels and tools, to fry/broil/roast food, it is thus an agent of transformation. Emotions and conflicts, religious and sensual desire, heat our temperature; containing them allows inner fires to work their changes.

Water—Our bodies are mostly composed of water; water covers most of the planet’s surface. The water cycle moves between the heavens and earth. Water is considered the mother/creator of all life. Because it dissolves most things, it’s been a primary image for the swallowing of our egos. The ever-changing waters of the soul’s journey sustain and refresh.

Egg—The incubator and newly born, the container of life.

Seed—In the cycle of life or inner transformation, life begins in the spring with the seed.; the seed puts forth tender shoots (while many die or get trampled on); with luck the seed blooms; it then must wither and die and endure the cold dark winter in order to be regenerated. Inner growth follows the same cycle: first we are lit up by the seed of inspiration; then we struggle to make a project a reality; we all like success or the blossoming stage, but equally important is the passing away of the bloom and facing the empty unknowingness before the new seed can be born.  Read More 

While my lifetime mentors have been Ira Progoff and Carl Jung, other authors have stirred my soul. These include: Marie Louise von Franz, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Anais Nin, Robert Bly, David Whyte, James Hillman and more. I highly recommend any of their books.

Am excited to have new blog on Huffington Post about my book...
Article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/valerie-harms/silence-the-soul_b_4192659.html

7.26.13
My take on the Intensive Journal Method
The structure and theory behind it were developed by therapist, Ira Progoff, in the late 1960s as a non-judgmental, psychological, and spiritual tool that people could use on their own. Far more dynamic than ordinary diary-keeping, the Journal method is “one of the unique inventions of our time,” Joseph Campbell said.
I agree. It works, and I wish everyone would benefit from it as I have for the past four decades.  Read More 

A lovely group of women attended my Soul Writing workshop on Sunday. They were all so eager for tools for deepening their spirituality. I love to relate to people on that level and am grateful for their energy.

Tune in to listen to this interview....http://www.voiceamerica.com/Show/Episode/51766/the-link-between-the-inner-world-of-our-imagination-and-the-outer-world-where-we-encounter-animals