Community Retreats About Contact

Iva + Emily = Ivily 

Here is a little story about us:

Once upon a time, a little girl and her sister flew through the stars. They had volunteered to leave their beloved homeland for a mission on a distant planet. The two little girls held hands as they hurtled through space, past meteors and rivers of light. They promised each other that when they landed they would always stay together. They were headed down to a place called earth where they would get to embody love, create, play and sing. They didn’t really know about the other stuff yet. 

When they arrived on earth, things were not always as they had imagined they would be, and they lost each other for many years, but one day, in Teotihuacan Mexico, they found each other again. They were flooded with such happiness, tears of relief and joy. They didn’t really remember their flight to earth anymore, but they did remember their heart’s desire which was to create beauty and love. Emily, who lives in Mexico, calls this Ometeotl. Duality merging into oneness. Iva, calls that love. The big love. Which is the meaning of Ometeotl.

For many years the two created retreats for others trying to remember who they are through a process Emily and Iva  called Shamanic Creativity, and The Book of Dreams. But what they longed for was a consistent community of like minded Ladies who were trying to find their way back to their own inner secret gardens, where the bond deepens and the exploration deepens and the inspiration to create and explore is safe and wild. 

Then one day, after re-reading the book “The Secret Garden,” by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Emily said, “it’s the Creative Ladies Secret Garden Society!” And Iva said, “that’s it, and if we long for this community, then let’s create it and invite our soul sisters to join.” 

We can play, and create, and share, and remember our connection to the natural world, and chat with animals, and flowers, and work out the hard stuff, delight in the triumphs, and support each other while we remember who we truly are. We can find the courage to speak that out into the world. 

The two girls giggled. It will be a secret but the light will shine so brightly that people will wonder what’s going on.

And so, Creative Ladies Secret Garden Society was born! 

And what a gorgeous community we are already! 

Our mission together is to support, guide, and validate each person’s unique, creative birthright through a signature process we have developed and used with great success in our own lives and also shared with 100s of beloved seekers, artists, and dreamers. 

STAG WOMAN - The Story

Stag Woman is our “Mother Ship” identity under which our community Creative Ladies Secret Garden Society lives. Why Stag Woman? Isn’t this a contradiction in terms? Aren’t stags male? Well, in the shamanic intuitive multi-dimensional world we live in, we have found that there are many things that are “both and, “ as nature herself strives for a balance between opposites, between what we describe as “masculine” and “feminine,” between “active” and “receptive.” In the Nahuatl tradition of central Mexico, there exists the concept “Ometeotl,” which refers to All That Is, Source, Origin, but ultimately means the “Divine Energy of Duality Merging into Oneness.” 

The “deer people” and stag woman have been a part of Iva and Emily’s lives for many years, serving each one individually as a spirit guide in shamanic journeying for decades, a guide of compassion, strength and beauty through the wilderness of life. Iva has many visitations from the deer nation at her Dreaming Horse Ranch in North Carolina, where they commune with her horses and donkeys between the pine trees on a regular basis. Emily lived in the frequent company of deer in her Montana neighborhood growing up and they marked her childhood as much as her conversations with the trees she sat in for hours on end. Deer represent a quiet invitation to connecting with your natural intuitive power and the ability to commune with your own heart. 

Stag Woman is a powerful symbol of union. Like the flower has its roots in the Underworld, its stem growing up through the Middle World and its petals opening to the Upper World , so the Stag Woman has her hooves upon the earth, her body in nature, and her antlers connecting like antennae or reverse roots to the celestial realms. She is interconnected with all of creation and serves as a guide for us to find ourselves balanced and centered, grounded and open, recognizing our innate connection to the essence of life itself. Stag Woman is a messenger from Origin, reminding us to find ourselves again on the Axis Mundi, aligning ourselves to the highest good. 

Dreaming with Stag Woman, we receive this message and offer it to you as you join us for our community, for our courses, for our retreats, for our heart-filled invitation to connect!

“The luminous golden sands of time are moving gently in a steady stream. I am a watcher and an emissary. I am your innermost essence that is as old as infinity. We have been watching since the formation of the continents, since matter was made, since the weaving of the earth you now call home. I have appeared in many aspects always with the intention of maintaining the alignments of this home with the cosmic order. Your awareness is growing now and you will begin a process of rapid remembrance and awakening. Do not worry about your mind’s doubts. Your ability to perceive beyond the restrictions of time and space are real and you do not need anyone external to you to validate your capacity for large scale change always with the intent toward galactic alignment for the higher good. Your gentle strength is your foundation, your affinity for the Great Mother archetype is your ally, and your divine light can never be extinguished. Have faith.”

Creativity is the heart of every humans experience on earth. 

Stagwoman holds that space for each of you. 

In all of our offerings we work with a powerful energy called golden orb healing. It is a specific and powerful healing energy gifted to Ivily to assist us in assisting you. 

We love you 

Xxx

Ivily. 

Iva

I look at life through my lens and let the world speak to me. 

Along with co-facilitating and creating the Book of Dreams process and Creative Ladies Secret Garden Society with Emily Grieves, Iva is also a photographer, writer, equine-guided learning facilitator, filmmaker, and owner of Dreaming Horse Ranch.

Iva and the herd live together on Dreaming Horse Ranch in North Carolina and combine creativity and connection to the natural world to guide people on the heroic journey to their most authentic selves.

Iva has been initiated into the Andean Q’ero, Paqo tradition as an earth-based healer and is also a Reiki Master and a certified HeartMath facilitator. Iva received a BFA degree in theater from Emerson College, and a MA degree in Equine Assisted
Learning from Prescott College.

Iva made the film, The Road to Q’ero a journey home, with her son Jack Peele about their inner and outer journey with the never before filmed ceremonies of the Q’ero people.

Iva was honored to give a TEDX talk in Loveland Colorado about her learning with the Q’ero. 

Along with finding her at Stagwoman.com you can also find her at www.dreaminghorseranch.com

Emily

I pick up a brush and let the beauty of the world flow through me. 

Emily K. Grieves (de Reyes Contla) is an artist, healer and certified Intentional Creativity® Teacher. She received a BFA degree in art from the University of Montana in 1993, and studied art history in Berlin, Germany, as a Fulbright scholar. She explores symbolism, dreaming and devotion in her artwork and teaches others how to incorporate healing intention into their visionary and creative practices. As of 2004, Emily makes her home in Teotihuacán, México, where her paintings are influenced by the cosmological imagery of the ancient pyramids and her relationship with the Divine Mother. She is dedicated to honoring the culture and ancestral wisdom of Mexico and to a lifelong exploration of “Ometeotl,” a pre-Hispanic concept of the Divine energy of Duality merging into Oneness. Together with her husband Victor and son Marco, she owns the hotel and retreat center Villa Las Campanas in the village of San Sebastián Xolalpa in Teotihuacán. You can see Emily’s artwork at www.EmilyKGrievesArt.com.