Through The Portal

In this Through the Portal conversation, I’m joined by Carolina Wilke, co-founder of Sacred Business Flow, for a live journey into the heart of creation itself.We explore how destruction and renewal dance through every business, how embodiment anchors vision, and what it means to trust the unseen currents guiding our path.Carolina shares the luminous story behind Sacred Business Flow, and together we step through an inner visioning portal—into a world where trees and humans pulse with one radiant heart.→ Explore her work and the Harmony Map at sacredbusinessflow.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit livelovemaria.substack.com

In this engaging conversation, Andrew Dunn, founder of the School of Wise Innovation, delves into the powerful intersection of innovation and wisdom. He discusses the journey from chasing visions to embodying them, emphasizing a right relationship with our aspirations. Andrew reveals how his programs focus on aligning human creativity with Earth's intelligence and shares insights from a guided vision journey that connects abstract ideas to tangible experiences. The discussion also highlights the shift from digital tools to grounding practices in nature.

In this Through the Portal conversation, Maria Gehrke is joined by Makenzie Darling, founder of Movement Maker, for a luminous exploration of sacred leadership, ancestral healing, and the art of birthing the new earth. Together, they journey through embodiment, weaving modern strategy with ancient wisdom, and remembering that we do not have to hold our visions alone. This episode feels less like an interview and more like a ceremony — a space where movement becomes devotion and leadership becomes love in action. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit livelovemaria.substack.com

In this first Through the Portal live session, I sat with Jim Palmer, founder of the Center for Non-Religious Spirituality and author of Deconstructionology.Together, we explored the journey of leaving religion, healing from spiritual wounding, and rediscovering a form of spirituality that feels alive, embodied, and self-authored.It began gently—two voices meeting across a digital threshold.The soft sound of a dog in the background, laughter, and the warmth of welcome.A shared breath before stepping into a conversation about loss, liberation, and the quiet courage it takes to rebuild the sacred from within.Currents of the Conversation00:01 – The Call to BeginJim shares how his own search for belonging began in chaos — an abusive, alcoholic home — and how religion first appeared as refuge. Yet that same system later became constricting, a framework that could not soothe the ache within.00:06 – The Crisis and the CrossingAs a megachurch pastor, Jim confronted the limitations of theology. Despite all the teaching and programs, people still suffered — and so did he. This honesty led to walking away from both religion and ministry, allowing him to rediscover what was truly real.00:09 – The Compassionate RebuildingThrough years of listening and guiding others, Jim founded the Center for Non-Religious Spirituality — a space for those untethering from doctrine to heal, explore, and cultivate authentic spirituality.00:11 – The Embodied TurnJim speaks of realizing that deconstruction isn’t just cognitive — trauma lives in the body. True healing requires embodiment, creativity, and somatic awareness. This recognition became the bridge to our collaboration: bringing art and embodied vision into spiritual reconstruction.00:32 – The Visioning MomentWe entered a short visioning meditation, crossing an inner portal to glimpse Jim’s symbolic landscape. What emerged was a world of regeneration — composting pain into fertile soil, stepping from numbness into color, from despair into creative renewal.00:42 – The Design SpaceJim shares images of composting and rewilding, of faith in life’s regenerative cycles. He describes a “design space” where people can metabolize suffering into wholeness — co-creating with life itself, rather than collapsing into meaninglessness.00:50 – Words from the VisionIn his inner landscape, the words arose like seeds: rewild, regenerate, reconstruct, freedom, wonder, liberation. The sacred, he says, is no longer confined to belief but found in relationality — the mycelial networks of life itself.Echoes from the Circle“Trauma is stored in the body. Leaving religion isn’t just a change of mind—it’s a reclamation of self.”“What’s missing for many is not belief, but belonging—to their own body, their own truth.”“The most important reconstruction isn’t about forming new doctrines, but cultivating a new relationship with yourself.”“All the hardship we experience can be composted into growth, if we trust life’s regenerative cycles.”Roots and RealizationsThrough Jim’s story, a deeper rhythm emerged: the truth that spiritual healing mirrors the patterns of nature.What decays is not lost.What falls away becomes nourishment for what is to come.Leaving religion, for many, is a sacred composting. The breaking down of inherited beliefs, the grief of lost community, and the long, tender work of re-rooting in authenticity. Jim spoke of this as a design space for wholeness—a fertile field where people can metabolize pain, not bypass it.Our guided meditation opened a vision of that regenerative landscape:the soil rich with the remains of old certainties,new shoots of curiosity rising through.Color returning.Life humming again.It was here that the essence of the work came into view—not a rejection of spirit, but its rewilding.Not a turning away from meaning, but a re-entry into it, grounded, embodied, free.Offerings & Mentions* Center for Non-Religious Spirituality — a sanctuary for those deconstructing from organized religion.* Deconstructionology — Jim’s Substack community for exploring post-religious spirituality.* Upcoming six-week workshop series co-facilitated by me & Jim: Creative Reconstruction — an embodied, intuitive complement to the deconstruction process.Meet Jim PalmerJim Palmer is an author, spiritual director, and founder of the Center for Non-Religious Spirituality. His work supports individuals healing from religious trauma and discovering a spirituality rooted in freedom, empathy, and self-connection.You can find his writings at Deconstructionology or learn more about his programs at nonreligiousspirituality.com.Closing BlessingMay this conversation remind us that faith does not belong to any one system.It is the quiet pulse of life renewing itself through us—again and again.The doorway we opened together still shimmers,waiting for the next travelerready to cross into their own rewilded becoming.With Love,Maria Visual Bard | Creator of the Embodied Vision Portal livelovemaria.comSubscribe to My Secret Garden newsletter, weaving art, mindfulness, storytelling, and insights toward a vision of a better life and world. Rooted in values like interconnection, reciprocity, and abundance. Reflections and gentle guidance for visionary individuals and regenerative groups who seek to bring depth, beauty, and belonging into their work.Rooted in connection, guided by vision—here’s how we can co-create to nurture and embody transformation, vision, and the community connection that elevates it:* Discovery CallA free 30-minute call to connect, explore your needs, and see which offering best supports your path. Schedule here →* Through The Portal - Susbtack LivesJoin me live as vision, creativity, and conversation unfold through meditation, dialogue, and intuitive painting. Guests share their work while experiencing their vision in a new way.Schedule a discovery call here →* Visual Essence ScribingDuring your gathering, I quietly create a sketch that captures its essence—leaving you with a poetic visual reflection to share and remember.Schedule a discovery call here →* Embodied Vision Portal for GroupsA 90-minute session with grounding meditation, a sharing circle, and live vision painting to strengthen bonds and anchor your shared purpose.Schedule a discovery call here →* Embodied Vision Portal for IndividualsA deeply personal three-part journey to clarify, embody, and stay aligned with your vision. Includes:– A 60-minute guided session with visualization and reflection– A personalized integration journey, with postcards along the way– A final detailed watercolor painting as your lasting visual portalSchedule a discovery call here →Land AcknowledgementI acknowledge that the land on which I live is the ancestral home of the Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, and Menominee peoples. These Indigenous communities cared for this land long before the arrival of European settlers and continue to contribute to its cultural and ecological richness today.I invite us to honor the enduring presence and sovereignty of Native peoples and commit to learning from and supporting their voices and leadership. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit livelovemaria.substack.com