AQUA ODYSSEY
Body Re-Enchantment
Kona, Hawai'i
aqua (n.)
"water," late 14c., from Latin aqua "water; the sea; rain," from PIE root *akwa- "water." Used in late Middle English in combinations from old chemistry and alchemy to mean "decoction, solution" (as in aqua regia, a mix of concentrated acids, literally "royal water," so called for its power to dissolve gold and other "noble" metals). As light greenish-blue color.
odyssey (n.)
c. 1600, "Odyssey," title given to one of the two great epic poems of ancient Greece, from Latin Odyssea, from Greek Odysseia, the ancient name of the Homeric poem telling tales of the ten-year wanderings of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, seeking home after the fall of Troy. Figurative sense of "long, adventurous journey" is recorded by 1889.
EXPLORE
"Just sit there right now. Don't do a thing. Just rest. For your separation from God, from love, is the hardest work in this world."
-Hafiz
BODY RE-ENCHANTMENT
Embody Your Organic Codes
Access your body’s primal memories of wholeness, interconnectedness and wonder in this innovative session combining bodywork, ritual, sound healing and nervous system recalibration to nature’s original organic codes with the help of pua’aehuehu, esoteric Hawaiian fern medicine.
THE CORPUS CALLOSUM CHRONICLES
Bridging the Gap Between Imagination & Logic
Fire goddesses, mountain rain, deer in the meadow and encounters with shark gods in sacred bays, Jen Lighty's weekly Substack newsletter brings readers into an enchanted world where ferns speak and everyone can become the shapeshifter they truly are.
WHALE ROAD PRESS
Books To Sing Us Home
Founded in 2022, Whale Road Press will release its first title in 2023, Piko: A Return to the Dreaming, by Jennifer Lighty, an account of a 21 day ceremony telling stories to a small body of water in the Pu'uhonuanu au Honauna, on Hawaii'i Island that explores colonialism, humanity's severance from nature and ancestral trauma through a mythopoetic lens.
FLOW HOME
"The session I had with Jennifer was far more powerful than I could have ever expected. As someone who researches and receives all kinds of healing sessions for a living, I was truly blown away at the depth of Jennifer's process and her capacity to guide me to such a deep layer of my inner psyche.
-John Burgos, host of Beyond The Ordinary
THE CORPUS CALLOSUM CHRONICLES
Weekly dispatches from the edge between ocean and lava.
ABOUT JEN LIGHTY
Poet, Story-Carrier, Guide
Born in Japan, I crossed the Pacific before I was one year old. I've often wondered if that primal journey is what set me forth on a wandering path of discovery around the world.
Attuned to water and flow, somewhat of a shapeshifter, I resist defining myself, but I will say I know I'm a poet, through craft and sensibility.
Some other skins I slip on and off are bodyworker, essayist, mystic, scholar, diver, singer and mentor. At one point I lived in the world of degrees, competitions and awards and had some small successes, though not enough to keep me in it when another world called, though I'm proud of my achievements and grateful for the opportunities I was given. I received a BA in English from George Washington University where I received The Academy of American Poet's College Prize. In 1998, I graduated from The Bread Loaf School of English, Middlebury College with a Master's in English. In my heyday, I was a work-study scholar (aka waiter) at The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. I had brief stints in two poetry MFA programs, Warren Wilson College where I met many extraordinary poets and teachers, and San Francisco State where I drank beer in the day in North Beach cafés wishing Ferlinghetti would emerge from the shelves at City Lights. I also studied privately with renowned teacher Fran Quinn for five years.
During those years in the wilderness, I published two books of poetry, Siren and Bluebell: The Apocalypse Diary. Numerous poems and essays appeared in US journals and a couple of British, Earthlines and The Island Review. The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts gifted me with a fellowship grant in poetry and in 2017. Finishing Line Press published my chapbook, Breaking Up With The Moon. My poem "That Which There Are No Words For" was nominated for the Pushcart Prize by The Beloit Poetry Journal and reprinted by Verse Daily. Thrush Poetry Journal nominated me for the Best New American Poets anthology.
I've been leading workshops and retreats and working with individual clients for the past 15 years.
In 2020, I graduated from the Pacific Center for Awareness & Bodywork on Kauai with 775 hours of training as a trauma-informed somatic bodyworker. Skills I bring to sessions include deep presence, curiosity, active listening, and emphasis on helping my clients realize their own agency in our sessions and life.
Through the power and grace of my hands, I am here to guide through touch: on the massage table, in the water and on the page, which in these days is often the internet where I publish weekly articles on how myth, poetry and story can bridge the gap between imagination and logic that has resulted in our distorted world.
If you'd like to book a bodywork ceremony or aquatic session I am in Kona, Hawai'i. I also offer online mentorships for poets and anyone else who wants to explore their own domain through language.
All the info can be found here on this site. Enjoy the exploration and thanks so much for finding your way to Aqua Odyssey!