Spirit Stories ~

The Trauma Sensitive Series

Not just fairy tales:

Stories of real miracles, metaphysics, alien encounters, astral travel and personal transformation!

What is Spirit Stories?  

Spirit Stories: Not just fairy tales is an ongoing community spiritual story telling event in Portland, Oregon. Spirit Stories provides a place for people to openly and publicly share stories of empowerment, metaphysical experiences and deep personal transformation. That which was once unsafe to openly discuss, is now safe to share with others in an intimate, yet public space. 

Quantum Possibilities lay at The Space Between ~ an intimate local coffee shop

Spirit Stories is hosted by Khora Coffeehouse, centrally located on E Burnside and 28^th, across from the small park where Christmas Trees Portland pops up each winter to bring in the holiday season. Written on the wall of this coffee shop is the name’s definition: “Khora” means (1) the space lying between two places or limits, (2) to have space or room for holding something and (3) a space, neither existing nor not existing, but an interval between in which two forms were originally held. This place is where quantum possibilities lay and for this reason, I call us, those who fall between science and spirituality into the place where these two intersect, Quantum Travelers.

I, Christy Garvey, owner of Earth Magick Copper Crowns and the creator and host of Spirit Stories, am on a mission from spirit to connect Quantum Travelers practicing Quantum Shamanism. Spirit Stories brings together Quantum Travelers to empower story tellers and give reminders of hope to those listening in an intimate audience. Khora coffeehouse is owned by the most lovely couple who have the most exceptionally cheerful and friendly staff working on their team.

Trauma Sensitive storytelling for those Sensitives healing personal trauma  

When I first moved to Portland in 2015, I enjoyed attending storytelling events around town.  Unfortunately, as I started learning about trauma therapy and healing many of my own traumas, I stopped going to storytelling events. Why was this? The stories at these events were filled with themes of continual abuse, self-loathing, and toxic behaviors. After these events, I started to find myself feeling more hopeless, stuck and confused than before I had even entered the room. My own self-loathing raised as I drained my beer glass.

One event however, inspired me and introduced me to a different way of holding storytelling events. It was an event put on by The Returning Veteran’s Project. This group, RVP, ensured the aspect of transformation in each and every story shared by the Veterans. At this event, some deeply traumatic experiences were shared by Veterans and yet I did not feel that my own trauma was triggered. In fact, I felt safe inside my body and drink water instead of beer. This is when I felt the true meaning of trauma sensitive and started to analyze the difference between this storytelling event and the previous events I had been to. And let me tell you, it wasn’t location, because all of the storytelling events I went to, including RVP’s were held at East Burn’s basement bar venue.  

Sharing TRANSFORMATION is the key to helping those who feel stuck, see a potential way out

What I found when comparing RVP’s storytelling event to the general PDX storytelling events, was only one difference: RVP’s stories by Veterans had transformative aspects and the stories at the general PDX storytelling events did not. The general PDX storytelling events had aspects of trauma, but never went into a positive place of healing. The stories told by Veterans moved from a place of trauma to a place of healing.

This lead me to believe that the stories filled with themes of continual abuse, self-loathing, and toxic behaviors that did not move beyond these themes of trauma, caused me to feel stuck in those negative feelings. The story went into a negative vibration, pulling up all of my own traumatic experiences, and then left me there. On the other hand, the transformative stories by the Veterans shared an experience moving from a place of trauma (feeling stuck, overwhelmed, hopeless) and THEN to a place where someone has overcome the traumatic experience (hopeful, self-compassion, alive). As a result, I experienced the transformation along with the storyteller.

Therefore, trauma sensitive in application to storytelling, is not staying fake positive, is not ignoring trauma nor acting as if it didn’t happen, and it’s not minimizing traumatic experiences. It is saying what happened and how it was horrible and then moving into the positive aspects gained from an experience. This is Trauma Sensitive Storytelling.

But wait, am I being a victim by saying the way a person tells a story affects me because I have trauma?

MIRROR NEURONS ~ The science behind the idea that we are the media we consume

We humans experience and enjoy media because of what are called mirror neurons. Mirror neurons allow us to observe as if we experience something ourselves. Our nervous system does not know the difference between what we witness and what we experience ourselves. This is how the healing of others can become our own healing. This is also how the unprocessed trauma of others can affect those who already feel out of balance. Because of mirror neurons, when we watch a movie or we read a book, we experience the story as if we are in the story. 

The unconscious and unintended harm of “Black Magic Storytelling”

Most people, when they share a story, themes from small wounding’s to intense traumas show up in their dialogue. This was the case at most story telling events in Portland. For me, as the listener, the storyteller brought me into a place to re-live trauma, and then did not pull me out of that trauma. This is one aspect of what I call “Black Magic Storytelling.” While that label has a whole lot of charge due to a history of negative connotations, my spirit guides have defined “black magic” as anything which is going into trauma but not transforming the trauma into light. People in today’s age, unconsciously and innocently practice “black magick” in this way.

Our RESPONSIBILITY as Storytellers

I believe that it is the responsibility of any storyteller to maintain this type of integrity and trust with its audience through sharing only stories that have come to resolution. Stories that are unresolved are for licensed and paid therapist. In fact, that’s what RVP, The Returning Veteran’s Project does: they help Veterans connect with licensed therapists who volunteer their time to work with Veterans. Those Veterans sharing their stories at that RVP storytelling event had been working very hard to move from a place of trauma to a place of healing.

Everyone is working through traumas and we never know what might trigger another. I used to drink and share about my trauma, bringing others into a low vibration and pulling up all their trauma too. I didn’t know how to move the story to transformation because I was still looping in the trauma. I didn’t realize I was stuck in my own trauma and that there was another way because this type of storytelling felt common in the bar scene. Now I believe that accountability for sharing the daily story of our lived experiences in a vibration of transformation is just as important as doing this publicly.

If a person is still in the middle of a trauma, this is a completely acceptable, place to be. When this state is reflected in any story, it is a sign of unresolved trauma and a clue that additional therapy and/or private community to continue working through this trauma is needed to complete the story. Sharing an incomplete story on a public platform will most definitely create unintended harm for the audience.

Spirit Stories Storytellers inspire the notion that fully healing trauma is cool, is possible and it leads to a life worth living

For others who are also sensitive to the way a story is told and the energy and intention behind a story, Spirt Stories maintains the integrity of sharing stories through an empowered lens where we each honor the struggles we’ve been through while remaining individually responsible for our own actions, behaviors and decisions. To maintain this form of deep integrity, storytellers are selected beforehand. If you have interest in sharing your story of empowerment, please reach out to me through email here.

At the kickoff Spirit Stories in October of 2019, four women shared their amazing experiences of personal transformation and metaphysical experiences. Margaret Pinard, author of The Keening, The Grasping Root, and Storm Wrack & Spindrift, shared about her path as an author and this link to her passion for Celtic and Pagan traditions through historical fiction. I, Christy Garvey, writer and owner of Earth Magick Copper Crowns, shared about overcoming an extreme anxiety to public speaking by healing a traumatic past life death which happened in the military. Kindra Flavin, creative artist @alien.energy.artwork and yoga teacher, shared about a series of alien encounters, including an up close and personal UFO sighting. Thérèse Schwenkler, author of The Unlost blog, shared about her real experience with fairies while she attended a shamanic vision quest as a supporter.

We hope to see you there and to hear one of your stories someday!

Spirit Stories started out as an in-person quarterly event and will return sometime after the 2020 pandemic as a monthly in-person event in Portland, Oregon.

For the moment Spirit Stories continues as a blog series within The Frog Blog here on the Earth Magick Copper Crowns website. Contributors to the Spirit Stories Blog share stories of transformation.

Would you like to share a story? Please reach out to me through email here to get in touch about sharing your story on the next blog for Spirit Stories: Not just fairy tales.