Laura Bruno on Women Go Raw

Dr. Ariel Policano just featured me on her popular site, Women Go Raw. You can read the full feature here. Thanks, Dr. Ariel!

Goodbye Sonoma County, Goodbye California!

Those of you who read my Sonoma County Moving Story, know that Stephen and I arrived in our current home through a series of synchronicities that caught our attention in a big way. Although people always consider me “very Sonoma County,” I have felt strongly since moving back to California that we were here more for Stephen than for me, especially in this little 1111 house. I have been receiving so many concerned emails that I thought I should make a public announcement regarding some unusual aspects of our divorce.

First of all, yes, the divorce is still amicable. Beyond amicable. It feels blessed and like the most synchronized event in both our lives. If you know how much we live by synchronicity, this really says something! Secondly, yes, I know about Stephen’s relationship with Shana Dean, and they have my full blessing and joy. In fact, I set them up. I have been friends with Shana since May 2008, but we became very good friends once Stephen and I moved to Santa Rosa on Summer Solstice 2009.

The more we hung out, the more I noticed her compatibility with Stephen. As Stephen and I continued to discuss our relationship, I kept seeing (in my mind’s eye) Stephen and Shana together. Then Shana had a psychic reading (with someone else) describing a soul connection with someone who sounded exactly like Stephen. I promptly introduced them — insisted they meet, insisted they explore this, and they finally did. Although it sounds weird to outsiders, and is admittedly a little strange even to the insiders(!), everything’s moving along smoothly and blessed, and their relationship has freed me to move back to the Chicago area much sooner than expected. I am so excited for this next phase of all our lives. Really, truly joyful, so please rest easily on that front. This is Spirit in action, not a tragedy. 🙂

My mom sent me something via email yesterday — a meditation/study from a Christian publication called “The Upper Room.” The piece focused on the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire that led the Israelites through the desert so that they could travel by day and night and never lose their way. I have had so many synchronicities, signs, nudges and miraculous arrivals of resources to get me back to Chicago/Evanston that I do feel like I’m following a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. And there’s plenty of manna to go around, too!

For all the amazing events since our Summer Solstice move, this all has kind of an eerie familiarity to me. In 2001, I went through a similar series of Divine interventions to get me out of Chicago/Evanston and into Seattle. Money arrived at the last moment; bizarre coincidences grabbed my attention; the right people appeared at the right time.

For years and especially in recent months, I have felt like I’m walking a labyrinth, retracing steps I took many years ago, but with the awareness and maturity that comes from a long journey to center. I’ve had a vision of the endpoint, but it didn’t make sense given all of life’s twists and turns. In a labyrinth, “The way in is the way out,” a phrase that has haunted me for at least a year. When drifting off to sleep, I would hear this phrase; when waking up, I would think it.

I’ve written about my dreams and “obsession” with doors and portals — even started painting them! Beginning with the Full Moon in Gemini on 12/12/2008, I’ve sensed that something massive was shifting in my life. I’ve received glimmers of what, but I had no idea how things would reorganize to get me there. After another year of walking the labyrinth, twisting and turning, yet always remaining step by step on a clear path, I’m beginning to find myself close to the entrance.

But the way in is the way out, and the way out is the way in. In returning to Evanston/Chicago, I can feel things coming full circle in a hugely positive, fulfilling way. I feel like someone who journeyed to Chartes Cathedral instead of going all the way to Jerusalem — taking the long pilgrimage there and then slowly, meditatively walking to the center of the labyrinth and back out, then home again. I even painted a labyrinth from Chartes Cathedral on a block of wood at my parents’ house, just waiting for them to ship it to me in my new home. Whenever I get that Victorian House I keep seeing with all the doors painted by me, I think I’ll also paint some kind of labyrinth on the living room floor! In any case, my life feels so blessed and so touched by the Divine that words cannot do it justice. It’s a feeling in my heart, and I hope you will join me in feeling grateful for the beauty and fluidity of life as I say goodbye to all the people, places and things that have formed so much of my last nine years:

Goodbye Sonoma County

Goodbye San Francisco, Bodega Bay and Mendocino

Goodbye Stephen Bruno

Goodbye Shana Dean, Cecilia Benjumea-Kinzie, Tania Marie , Cassie Margraf, and Karen Lang

Goodbye Cafe Gratitude and Monday Night Live!

Goodbye Living Light

Goodbye Monterey

Goodbye Seattle

Goodbye Seed and Slice of Life

Goodbye Petaluma Raw Food Potluck

Goodbye Sedona

Goodbye Lake Tahoe, Reno and Timothy Glenn

Goodbye Oregon Coast and Ashland

Goodbye New Mexico

Goodbye Photography

Goodbye Pacific Ocean in all your Majestic Beauty and Power

Goodbye Cacao for Breakfast — Okay, maybe not; I might never say goodbye to cacao for breakfast 😉

Hello family, friends and loved ones as neighbors again!

Hello Lake Michigan

Hello feeling grounded

Hello Karyn’s Raw and Cousen’s Incredible Vitality

Hello four seasons

Hello short flight to see my niece and nephews, sister, brother-in-law, parents and grandmother

Hello Life in all your crazy, twisted, amazing abundance!

Many Blessings! I leave California on Saturday, February 6 [2010]

http://www.internationalrenaissancecoaching.com

Big Changes and Some New Classes

First, I want to assure everyone that things feel very much in tune and blessed — in fact, so heavily synchronized that even Stephen and I are shaking our heads: the big news is that Stephen and I have decided to file for divorce and actually did so on New Year’s Eve 2009. We’ve just been awaiting the right time to make a public announcement. Synchronicity upon synchronicity has said that today is that longed for “right time.”

Our relationship has always been primarily based on friendship and healing rather than the full spectrum of marriage. He helped me heal from my brain injury, and I helped him move through his horrendous ordeal with Lyme Disease. We both feel so grateful for each other’s help and support. Once he healed last year, though, we were forced to take a good look at our relationship and what we both wanted from a marriage. After nearly 12 months of discussion, we found that there is still a great deal of love between us, but we have not been in love for a very, very long time. Some key compatibilities are missing, and we both want more. We’ve compromised for years due to health, but we recognize that the degree and nature of these compromises results in neither of us being able to live fully as ourselves.

Our decision is mutual and we’re both excited about moving on with our lives. We will stay friends and will still cross refer to each other, but I will be relocating back to the Chicago area by our lease end on July 1, potentially much sooner.

With Stephen well and only a limited time of geographical proximity, he and I have decided to offer some classes together before I move. If you’ve ever wanted to experience the compatibilities we do have as teachers, along with the complementary bits of knowledge we offer, the next classes would be a really good chance to tap into that. Please see details below regarding the weekend of February 20th and 21st in the SF Bay Area.

Perhaps one of your last chances to take classes from both of us at the same time, same place! Before Stephen got sick, we used to co-teach all our Reiki classes, and in honor of that, we’re offering a combined Reiki Level 1 and 2 Class on February 20th from 10-6 in Santa Rosa. Class size is limited to 10 students, and because there are two teachers, cost is $400 if prepaid by January 31; $450 afterwards. Stephen taught me Reiki in 2002, and he brings his own slant from having studied with Buddhist monks in Vietnam. If you have already studied Reiki with me, but not with both of us, we will offer a $100 discount on this class for you. It’s sure to be different than any we teach individually.

More fun on Sunday, February 21st: Intuition and Essence Workshop, SF Bay Area location TBA: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Laura will teach how to awaken and enhance your own intuition with a focus on Medical Intuitive and Soul Messages; Stephen will teach on Essence and the Seven Qualities of Essence. Cost is $333 if prepaid by January 31st; $383 afterwards. To register for either class, please click here.
or email us at: stephenbruno@yahoo.com or brunoleaf@yahoo.com.

Hope to see you there!

* A little update: things have synchronized so fast since posting this that we will no longer be offering these classes. I am moving to Chicago by mid-February, possibly sooner.

Door Number 2: The Alchemy Door

Please see the important update below from December 2014. This door no longer looks quite the same and has totally different, flowing energy now.

Please also note, the colors look much more yellow in these pictures than the actual door; in person it looks more dreamy and muted. I used a combination of acrylic paints and oil pastels, and the oil pastels seem to photograph more intensely than the acrylics. Anyway, these photos give the general idea:

The Alchemy Door by Laura Bruno

Alchemy Sun

The Androgyne

Phoenix and Peacock

Follow Your Bliss

While I designed the first door as a portal, this one embodies some key principles of Alchemy, which I’ve studied since I read Plato’s Symposium during my senior year of high school. I became so fascinated with the union of opposites that my college honor’s thesis explores Mercury, Hermes Trismegistus (the father of Alchemy), the mythical Phoenix, and Plato’s story of the Hermaphrodite as they relate to Archangel Raphael. This door features something called the Androgyne, a union of sulfur and mercury (that which burns and that which is volatile), and a union of masculine and feminine. (I modified the image from something I found in the Book of Symbols.)

The phoenix and peacock at the bottom also represent a union of masculine and feminine, as well as the ability to regenerate. The phoenix rises from its own ashes, and the peacock’s tale symbolizes the all-seeing eyes of God, as well as the inner astral world. (I modified the bird images from some I found here, because I liked the calligraphic feel to them.)

The words at the top are the Hebrew Tetragrammaton, sometimes translated as JHWH, Yahweh, or “I Am That I Am.” The bottom of the door includes a favorite quote by Joseph Campbell, “Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.” I had intended to paint the back and may do so at some later time. For now, though, this door seems complete. I hope you enjoy it. 🙂

Many Blessings and Happy Transmutation!

December 2014 UPDATE: Well, it took awhile, but the door did eventually complete itself. I painted the back shortly after originally posting about the door; however, the door constantly reminded me that something was keeping the alchemy in check. On Christmas 2014, for a variety of reasons too long to explain here, I felt led to repaint the top of the door, replacing the demi-urge with Sophia, written in a Rune System whose letters emphasize the Sacred and Divine Feminine, as well as matrilineal heritage. As soon as I shifted the door from a patriarchal “I Am That I Am” to the dynamically creative Goddess embodied in our planet, the door came alive. That’s the only way I can describe it.

The door is already in place in our very carefully arranged, small living room, so I apologize for other objects in the photos. I can only move them so far out of the way. 🙂

Alchemy Door with Sophia in Runes

The energy of our entire home has shifted with this seemingly simple revision. It was not actually a simple process, as it involved many layers of paint, along with brown marker to dull down a too bright red. The net result of that process, however, was that the Runes got traced and retraced many, many times, amplifying the intended shift. Our home feels lighter and with more feminine flow now. The door’s energy also feels like it cycles up and back down and up, like a Tantric circuit, rather than having a patriarchal energy bearing down upon it and keeping the process from completion.

I did not expect it to take me nearly five years to complete this portal door, but due to several other simultaneous developments in our world, Christmas 2014 felt like exactly the right moment to do so.

New York City Event with Laura Bruno

Yep, I’m on the East Coast! First time since May 2007 and We Like It Raw is hosting an event for me and Tisa Dolan on January 23rd. If you can make it, we’d love to see you there! Many thanks to Dhrumil for arranging things. 🙂

What: We Like It Raw NYC Tribe Meetup with special guests Laura Bruno and Tisa Dolan
When: Saturday, January 23rd, 7:30pm till way past midnight
Where:
Sun In Bloom
460 Bergen Street
Brooklyn, NY 11217
(718) 622-4303
(Trains: B,Q to 7th Avenue & 2,3 to Bergen Street)

Dinner: Chef Aimee Follette will be preparing a fantastic raw food meal for all attendees from her new Sun In Bloom Cafe. Cost per plate will be $40.00

Family Style Menu:

Sun In Bloom

SIB’s Kitchen Dinner Menu

Tasty Hors d’oeuvre

Fresh Salsa & Flax Chips

Live Bread with Hummus and Roasted Vegtables

SIB’s Fabulous Kale Chips

Passed Hors d’oeuvre

Special Live Soup

Family Style Entrée Courses

Appetizers

Divine Bella ( An Aphrodisiac Salad)

‘Couture’ Futomaki Roll

Entrées

Rockin’ Veggie

‘Full on’ Southwestern Burrito

Bloom Burgers

(All wrapped in a Collard Green Leaf)

Dessert

Assortment of SIB’s Tantalizing Raw Chocolate Truffles

&

Chocolate Chai Spiced Cake.

RSVP: Dhrumil@welikeitraw.com

Podcast: Laura Bruno on KZYX

Hi there! I’ve finally gotten this uploaded from its original CD. Please click here to listen to a radio interview of me on May 11, 2009 by Kristin Suratt of Women’s Voices. This is one of my favorite interviews to date due to the amount Kristin managed to squeeze into one hour! Topics covered:

1. Synchronicities that lead me to write If I Only Had a Brain Injury, including Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.”

2. What it felt like to go from Type A multi-tasker to single-focused (if that) brain injury survivor.

3. How I became a Medical Intuitive.

4. Agnosia and hypersensitivity after trauma.

5. The value of Chopin for brain waves.

6. Information on a raw food diet for healing, plus how and why I made the switch.

7. A sneak preview of my new novel, Schizandra and the Gates of Mu. Please note that the publishing information has changed since the recording of this podcast. The book is now available through International Renaissance Press and can be found in both bookstores and online. It will also soon be available through Shazzie.

8. Myth and healing.

9. Herbs for Lyme Disease, Migraines and Vision.

Kristin’s a fabulous interviewer with a knack for incorporating just the right musical interludes and questions. Many, many thanks both to Kristin and also to Dhrumil Purohit for helping me convert this into MP3. Enjoy!

If you’d like to link to this podcast, the link is: http://files.welikeitraw.com/audio/laura-bruno-kzyx.mp3

http://www.internationalrenaissancecoaching.com
http://www.lazyrawfoodist.com
http://www.ifionlyhadabraininjury.com

Schizandra Review in Sedona.Biz

SEDONA, AZ (July 14, 2009) – When I sit down with a book, I want a good return for the time I spend reading it. I want a story that intrigues me and invites me back to hang out with the characters, revisit the action, or ponder questions that arise during my journey through its pages.

Author Laura Bruno, a former Sedona resident, has exceeded my expectations with “Schizandra and the Gates of Mu.” This is the first of a series of books featuring the heroine, Schizandra. After reading the first few pages, I put aside my other tasks and spent the next hours reading through to the end. I was not disappointed. …

Read more here.

Many thanks to Karen Lang and to Carl at http://Sedona.Biz.