Through The Portal

Through the Portal — with Tylney TaylorIn this episode of Through the Portal, Maria Gehrke sits with strategist and coach Tylney Taylor for a spacious, embodied conversation on sense-making, leadership, and the courage to trust what the body already knows.Together, they explore the tension between left-brain strategy and right-brain intuition, how real clarity emerges through integration rather than analysis alone, and why meaningful decisions are often somatic before they are rational. The conversation culminates in a guided inner-vision journey, where Tylney steps through the Portal into a symbolic landscape that reveals a simple but powerful message: you’re already here—you just have to let it out.This episode is an invitation for founders, leaders, and change-makers to slow down, listen more deeply, and reconnect with the inner signals that guide aligned action.Topics explored:Strategy as uncovering, not inventingIntegrating intuition, embodiment, and analysis in leadershipSomatic decision-making and collective intelligenceFear, authenticity, and letting deeper work be seenInner vision as a source of clarity and directionGuest:Tylney Taylor — Strategist, coach, and guide for mission-led founders and leaders. Tylney blends strategy facilitation, execution empowerment, and embodied sense-making to help people build work that matters without losing themselves in the process.Host:Maria Gehrke — Visual Bard & creator of the Embodied Vision Portal 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

Through the Portal – with Joey Clifton & Solomon Mehta-SladeEpisode Theme: A journey into play, resilience, and collective tendingIn this episode, Maria is joined by Joey Clifton and Solomon Mehta-Slade, co-founders of the Change:Maker Collective, an online community supporting purpose-led people who feel overwhelmed or isolated in their mission-driven work.Together, they explore:The origins of the Change:Maker CollectiveWhy play and experimentation are essential antidotes to burnoutHow resilience grows through connection rather than isolationRhythmic, seasonal community practices that support sustainable impactA guided visualization into their inner landscapesThe meadow, the woodland, and the communal fire that emergedWhat it means to live the change together — not as a slogan, but as a lived experienceMaria also creates a live, collaborative artwork based on Joey and Sol’s visions, weaving their imagery into a shared piece that reflects their purpose, their joy, and the community they are co-creating.About the Change:Maker CollectiveThe Collective is a supportive home for freelancers, founders, solopreneurs, and mission-driven humans who want to do good and feel good while doing it. The community offers weekly sessions, somatic practices, co-working, coaching, and a steady web of connection that helps members feel resilient, rooted, and inspired. 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 episode, Maria guides guest Adam Dickinson — a former FBI analyst turned intuitive guide — through a conversation about inner transformation, embodied intelligence, and learning to trust the signals that come from beyond logic.Adam shares how heartbreak became the doorway into meditation and deeper awareness, how the Akashic Records became a surprising tool for clarity, and why integrating intuition with rational analysis leads to more aligned decision-making.Together, Maria and Adam enter a guided visualization, exploring Adam’s inner vision space. What emerges is a vivid scene of homecoming, warmth, community, and a clear message: slow down and trust the path unfolding.This is a gentle, spacious episode for anyone navigating change, seeking clarity, or wanting to better understand the bridge between intellect and intuition. 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 episode of Through the Portal, Maria guides guest Edward Zaydelman into an inner visioning practice that reveals the deeper currents beneath his work in regenerative land projects and community building. Together, they explore belonging, purpose, relational development, and the courage required to step into bold new possibilities. Includes a guided meditation and a rich conversation on creating both inner and outer ecosystems that support human flourishing. 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

Today’s Through the Portal session brings you into conversation with Rebecca Weston, a twelve-time Camino pilgrim and guide who helps people 45+ prepare for their own pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago.In this episode, we explore what makes the Camino such a powerful container for transformation — not only through its landscapes, but through its community, its rhythm, and the way it quietly rewires how we move through our lives. 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 Through the Portal conversation, I met with Jacqueline (MamaJ) Hollows to cross the threshold between vision and embodiment.From working in UK prisons to founding The Impact Activator, Mama J shares how she learned that money is simply another expression of love and how activating others can ripple healing through entire communities.Guided by visualization, a luminous inner landscape unfolds for Mama J: a wall of smooth bright stones, a mountain, an eagle in flight, and a single message: “Be bolder.”This episode explores what it means to build belonging stone by stone, to trust the unseen resources that arise when we follow our hearts, and to remember that we are never alone in the work we are called to do.Listen if you’re longing to:Reconnect with your purpose after a season of changeBelieve again in the flow of support and divine timingFeel the courage to be bolder in your own visionConnect with Mama J:The Impact Activator on SubstackLet Them Feel It — BookWing of an Angel — Book 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 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