ButterflyYou! Holiday 2013 Issue

December 2013

Happy Holidays!

January 2014

Butterfly You!

Emerge! Express your Unique Gifts in the world

Poem Transformation

Article

BLOG REVIEW

Lynn Serafinn Butterfly Woman

Holiday Gift!

Excerpt from:

“I chose to live from my Art!”

Angelina & the Law of Attraction Inspirational Novel

Go from Caterpillar You to Butterfly You! You were born to delight the world with the beauty of your Essence.

Emerge in your true colors.

Express your unique gifts in the world.

Join the MagicMark your Life Community Your Life-creation Daily Toolkit Manifest your dreams > Embody your Purpose > Express your gifts

Click here to Join our FREE community!

Section 1

ARTSpirations

IN THIS ISSUE

Transformation Illustrated poem by Maria Mar This beautiful poem takes you through the shift of perception that transforms you from Caterpillar Self to Butterfly Woman. Page 8

Free your True Voice, Own your Creative Mojo

Section 2

Wield your Wild, Woman!

How to Own your Value Find out why it is so difficult for you as a woman to own your value and discover three things you can do to strengthen your “value muscle.” Learn to melt the “Impostor Accuser,” “The Judge” and other inner bullies into oblivion. Own your unique value in the world. Occupy your place of authority. Page 14

Section 3

Ride express from your problems to your potential

Holiday Gift!

Includes Ceremonial Steps

Excerpt from inspirational novel In this Holiday Issue I’ve merged this section with the storytelling section to give you a Holiday Treat, an excerpt from Angelina & the Law of Attraction, my newly published inspirational novel . In this excerpt, Angelina has to name her own value right at the start of her DreamQuest in order to save her DreamSelf from fading. Page 21

www.dreamalchemist.com

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Section 4

Your Dream Crossover

Sacred Feminine Leadership, Creation and Entrepreneurship

Experts Say! The Business of Dreaming

BLOG REVIEW

Why & How to Self-publish your Book Lynn Serafinn If you are committed to expressing your unique voice and talent in the world, this article series from Lynn Serafinn’s valuable blog is for you.

Whether you are an author, spiritual teacher , healer or expert, you have an important message to share with your Tribe, and you probably have a book in the making, if not ready for publication. This is the best time to publish your own book!

Lynn is a book coach and marketer with a high sense of ethics. She tells it as it is, and in this article series she debunks many myths that keep authors giving their power away to publishers and subsidy presses and gives you a primer to publish your book yourself. Find out why this is important and how to do it. Page 25 Includes three resource sidebars and

Tip Spots

Featured Inspirational Story

Angelina & the Law of Attraction Maria Mar

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The story of Angelina’s encounter with the mysterious Alignment Effigy continues. Angelina, helped by the wizardly lady Dragonfly Diva, must use the power of naming to find an Alchemical Key that will allow her to bring the Shadow Castle’s bridge down and rescue her DreamSelf from the Shadows that hold her captive. Page 34

www.dreamalchemist.com

Section 5

IN THIS ISSUE:

Featured Butterfly Woman Featuring

Tanya Torres Tanya’s story is a tender blueprint for your journey from “Caterpillar Self ” to “Butterfly Woman”.

So many spiritual, creative women are repeatedly told that our unique gifts and creative talents will not provide for us.

We are pressured into careers and jobs we don’t like in order to “make a living” at the expense of living our purpose and loving our life.

Includes CLUES to use story as a blueprint

“I choose to live from my art,” artist-writer Tanya Torres declared when she was confronted with cancer and realized that art gave meaning to her life. Follow Tanya from the agonizing doubts that plagued her youth to her emergence in her full colors, a woman who embodies her purpose and lives her dream in delight every day… and use this story as your blueprint to grow wings! Page 47

This magazine is published by

ShamansDance Publishing & Productions Like the shamans of old, we dance, tell stories and create ceremonies of transformation that empower women and their communities to release fear and limitations and express their beautiful essence, tapping into their full potential. The Dream Alchemist is one of our sites.

219 E 97th Street, New York, NY 10029, USA Tel. 715-303-7326 Email: maria@shamansdance.com

www.dreamalchemist.com

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Editorial This Holiday Issue is a lovingly crafted gift for you and your girlfriends! Check out the holiday specials that allow you to receive a gift when you give one… and enjoy the story excerpt from my inspirational novel. It’s all about owning your value.

Maria Mar

I’ve been empowering women to make their dreams come true, embody their purpose and express their gifts for four decades. The core obstacle for most women is that they do not believe or own their value. Some women intellectually know that they are valuable. But that’s not nearly enough. You must know it in your heart and own it in every fiber of your being. Only this certainty allows you to take risks, take steps and go out there and share your unique gifts, message and purpose. That is the gift that the feature article brings, How to Own your Value. Lynn Serafinn’s step-by-step walk-through will help you publish your book next year. Tanya Torres’ story is a blueprint for your journey to become Butterfly You!

Find Maria in Social Media

TIPS Download this magazine and schedule the reading into your calendar so that you take advantage of each article.

To print: Select the “Scale to fit paper” option, as magazine is 10X13 size.

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Section 1

ARTSpirations

ARTSpirations In this section, we feature art, poetry, and ARTchemy™* to help you turn on the magic!

* ARTchemy™ is art as alchemy, by Maria Mar, the Dream Alchemist www.dreamalchemist.com

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Great Holiday Gifts for you and your girlfriends!

Great Holiday Gifts This holiday issue features magical, life-changing, creative gifts for you and your girlfriends.

Digital gifts can feel a bit “abstract.” That’s why we’ve created a beautiful line of egreetings featuring Maria Mar’s art. Once you pay, you can personalize and send a beautiful egreeting that will warm your loved one’s heart before the gift arrives. Perfect for friends that live far or those you won’t see in person… or for an added surprise!

Give & Receive Specials Wherever you see this badge, you can get your own gift when you purchase one for your girlfriends. You download your own gift immediately, then send the egreeting to your friend. We will deliver the gift directly to your friend.

Girlfriend Holiday Specials

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New Year New Me!

Sometimes sharing transformation with a friend gives both of you courage to live your dreams. Check out the New Year, New Me live online events that you can enjoy together to transform your life in the coming year… at a fraction of the cost for each of you!

www.dreamalchemist.com

Transformation

By Maria Mar I was again crawling down into the mud, opening yet another wound in the wrinkled, earthen body.

Once again I burrowed deeply, Devouring the memories, Releasing the toxins.

How ordinary, lowly, disenchanting!

How un-heroic, run-of-the-mill: my life.

How silly to dream of blossoms in the wind and succulent clouds while stuck to the bottom of the sludge.

My heart took insult drumming madly, so feverishly that for a second I did not feel the rest of my body warble into madness.

Trembling frantically, I broke down.

I became chaos.

One by one my old cells died.

I was terrified.

How far away from your Dream is your life now? Why? How can you move closer to your dream? Find out how to Shapeshift into your Dream in this shamanic journey with Maria Mar. (See Page 10.)

Chaos-Metamorphosis Art by Maria Mar

www.dreamalchemist.com

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But in the midst of my panic I became strangely calm.

Then I felt elated.

I enthusiastically released my old self.

I made it easy on death to devour every inch of mud clinging to my being.

I was humming a hymn to my death. Humming a high-pitch song.

A dream of wings and blossoms.

A dream of rainbow colors and eyes that flew into the light.

A dream of changing winds and pollination.

I became imaginal while my old self became mush.

I had often imagined flying to be hard.

I had sometimes imagined it easy.

But I had not imagined flying to be NOW. Now, as my wings unfold, Now as I take to the wind.

Now, as I drink from the flower On which I once crawled.

If you like visual art, visual storytelling, infographics and all things visual, I got stunning Pinterest Boards. Pin Maria Mar!

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Great Holiday Gifts for you and your girlfriends!

New Year New Me!

Shapeshift from Caterpillar to Butterfly • •

• • •

•

•

Close the distance between where you are and where you want to be.

Learn the secret language of your BodySoul and discover the source of disease, self-sabotage and other inner obstacles in your body.

Discover what's possible in your life with a shift of posture & perception.

Raise your vibrations and land your dream in your life, right now.

Discover why your actions are ineffective and how to charge your actions with electro-magnetic power.

Shapeshift the energy patterns that Links to playsheets hold you back. Master the art of and egreeting show transforming your world. up after payment.

Go from Caterpillar You to January 7, 16, 18 Butterfly You!

Regular Price $125 USD Early Bird Special

$99 USD ONE SEAT Use Discount Code: 99EARLYBIRD Valid until December 30, 2013 This is a half-day LIVE online intensive shamanic journey with Maria Mar. Immerse yourself in a deeply relaxing, uplifting experience that generates immediate transformation.

More dates.

Girlfriends Holiday Special

$170 USD TWO SEATS $80 discount. One payment with one credit card or PayPal Account for the same date.

Includes: Live video journeying with Maria Mar, Slide presentation for retention, Playsheets to apply knowledge, Chat Interaction and conversation breaks for individual guidance and Q&A session.

www.dreamalchemist.com

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Great Holiday Gifts for you and your girlfriends!

Inspirational Novella

An inspiring story that takes you in a magical journey of discovery to find and heal the wounds you’ve inherited that steal health, wealth and love from you.

Break free from your family karma and personal history.

A story to change your story and claim your victory!

Only $25 USD Gift one and get yours free!

Walk the Sacred Feminine Storytelling Path to transformation.

Buy Now! PDF format

It is Christmas, and the shaman prepares to visit her Aunt Emma. Why is she feeling so stressed out? Why is her stomach churning? Why is she forgetting where she put her things? At Aunt Emma’s Night Wolf, the shaman's Power Animal, follows the scent of a Shadow that has been stealing the shaman's health, wealth and love.

Once more, she is frustrated by Aunt Emma’s constant refusal to receive help. But this time, Night Wolf shows the shaman her own refusals as the she-wolf tracks down the family karma.

As a reader, you witness the multiple dimensions in the shaman's psyche: the Hunter Power Animal, the conscious mind, the Inner Children, the Wise Woman and the Victim who still carries her learned limitations. As you witness the shaman’s struggle, you gain understanding of your own karmic challenge, with a resulting increase in self-compassion.

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READ MORE,

www.dreamalchemist.com

Section 2

Tips and tools for the woman who dares to dream BIG and live it!

www.dreamalchemist.com

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Great Holiday Gifts for you and your girlfriends!

•Discover the Essential Gifts with which you were born •Own your value now, as you are •Clarify your life purpose.

This series of three audios takes you into a peaceful shamanic journey that energizes each of your cells with the experience of the intrinsic value of your Unique Essence.

•Know and feel that you are a success right now •Dissolve the emotional blocks that stand on the way to your success •Enjoy peace of mind and relaxation •Achieve a genuine sense of fulfillment

Not for slow connections.

Our audios are downloadable in MP3 formats.

They are from 20MB to 49.7MB

•Experience a deep appreciation for the authentic value you bring to the world •Find new spiritual measures to value your achievements

Only $45 USD

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Immediately Downloadable

www.dreamalchemist.com

Buy Now! MP3 format

How to

Own Your Value

You are having trouble owning your value because you have a Herstory of centuries of being devalued, invisible and deprived of human rights. It’s time to break free!

Why is it so difficult for you as a woman to own your value? Why do you feel like an impostor, as Dr. Valerie Young revealed in her book, The Impostor Syndrome.

• If you doubt that the book, art, service or product you are creating will be purchased.

• If you doubt that your input will make a difference.

• If you doubt that you really are qualified to fulfill the purpose for which you were created...

You are not alone.

Did you know?

“Once again the gender wage gap remains statistically unchanged in the last year. Women's earnings were 76.5 percent of men's in 2012…” National Committee on Pay Equity

Women have a Herstory of being excluded as citizens and even humans, being denied the vote and their human rights for centuries. This Herstory is embedded in your cells, transmitted from your female ancestors. Even today, by modern standards, we are still the "Second Sex" as Simone de Beauvoir observed in 1949.

This is your social Herstory, which is then reflected in your family Herstory.

Remember when your brother was playing baseball and you were washing the dishes? That's still happening today at work. This inequality affects you.

You need to recognize how it affects you and then find ways to break free.

www.dreamalchemist.com

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So no. You are not crazy or deficient.

You are having trouble owning your value because you have a Herstory to heal and you are healing it by working on feeling, experiencing and owning your value. That's your life journey. It’s a process, not a project. It’s not a school subject that you either pass or fail.

Be kind to yourself.

Did you know?

In my 40 odd years of helping empower others, I’ve seen consistent difficulty in recognizing their value in three groups: women, artists and people who come from an undervalued working class.

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In this article I share three things you can do to strengthen your "value muscle" and to melt the Impostor Accuser, the Judge and other inner bullies into oblivion.

1. Collect proof of your value Bring all the testimonies from readers, clients and fans into a file, treasure box or webpage. Read them in silence as you inhale and out loud as you exhale. You may want to record yourself as you do and play it back to yourself for 30 days, especially before falling asleep. Let it sink!

If you don't have any testimonies, start collecting them or get your friends' testimonies.

www.dreamalchemist.com

Give yourself permission to deserve what you want!

2. Understand your Purpose Life Blueprint Do a Life Review. If you do it in ceremony, it may be done in a week-end. During this Life Review, you will develop your Sacred Purpose Life Blueprint.

This blueprint is a three-dimensional design where three blueprints intersect. These are: • Choices Blueprint • Personal Medicine Blueprint • Bloopers Blueprint

Here’s a quick view of the process . You may want to use transparent paper for each blueprint, using different color markers for the lines. This enables you to see the overlaying design.

Step 1: Creating your Choices Blueprint 1. Write down or draw a map of the important crossroads you faced in your lifetime since early youth until the present, and the road you chose at each crossroads.

2. Write down why you chose that particular road at the time and keep moving until you have a map of all your crossroads and choices.

RESOURCE: Enjoy an affordable ebook with stories, tips and exercises to give yourself the permission to want what you want and know you deserve it.

Packed with insights , stories and exercises to give yourself permission for success.

Only

$15 USD Kindle Edition

www.dreamalchemist.com

Downloadable PDF format

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You are Perfect for your Purpose Your life is a sacred blueprint that includes your inherited limitations and wounds as well as your skills, experience and strengths. Every choice you’ve made, every challenge you’ve overcome and even your mistakes are part of your Sacred Purpose Blueprint.

Go back to each crossroad and use another color to indicate a deeper design operating in your choices that you were not aware of then, but can see it now.

This is your Crossroads and Choices Map. Once you finish it, it may look messy with all the data. Pull out the essential information about each crossroad and its role in the overall design. Spread this information into another paper as a route map. This is your Choices Blueprint.

Step 2. Do your Personal Medicine Chart

1. Do a time chart naming the Emotional Wounds you've had in your lifetime and the major life challenges you've faced.

2. Now use another color to indicate in this timeline how and when you transcended, learn from or transmuted each wound. This is your Personal Medicine Blueprint.

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Step 3. Do your Bloopers Blueprint Do another map of your big bloopers and so-called mistakes. Include anything you regret or feel ashamed of.

This is your Bloopers Blueprint.

Study these three maps carefully and lovingly, as you would study an archeological find that reveals how a culture lived.

Observe how the choices, wounds and Medicines connect to form the Unique Transformational Value that you bring to the world. Assess the role of your bloopers in your ability to help others.

www.dreamalchemist.com

Know that you are perfect for your purpose!

3. Confer with your timeless self.

Drawing on the previous maps, draw a timeline and divide it into 5 to 10 segments defining important periods in your life, as an artist's retrospective.

Time Travel to the Past

Time Travel to the Future

1. Breathing slowly and deeply, hold a stone in your hands or lap that anchors you in who you are now, in the present.

Transfer your consciousness to you 5 or 10 years from now. Call on your Higher Self to show your best potential.

2. Travel to each segment. Visit the you who lived at that time and space. Hear her truth as she felt it then.

3. Once you listen, respond by informing her of the greater picture drawn by her acts in time. Give her perspective.

4. Repeat with each segment.

Return to the present 1. Sketch a timeline of your present, this year. Depict your current junctures, choices, actions, challenges and feelings.

2. Place the rock on the corner of the map and hold in your hand a crystal or feather.

1. Listen to your Future Self as she tells you how the current situations played out; what you learned and achieved and how you grew from the experiences.

2. Ask her any question and stay still and silent until she answers.

As you come back to the present, hold the stone in your hands. Feel that you are an infinite being playing in a finite timeline to experience alternatives that contribute to the evolution of the universe. That's pretty big. And so are you, a holographic drop in the ocean of infinite unfolding life, a drop of divinity.

If you like this article, you’ll love my blog. To visit it, click here. You can subscribe to any of my newsletters to help you grow your goals, live an inspired life or enjoy creative delight..

www.dreamalchemist.com

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Angelina and the Law of Attraction is an inspirational story about a woman who is on the verge of giving up on her dream and unique gifts to “settle down,” make money and satisfy other people’s expectations.

Angelina is taking the train to what she believes is her destination, ~her new corporate job~ when she meets a magical lady who guides her to her true destiny.

The ordinary train ride becomes a quest for Angelina to find her DreamSelf, the part of her soul that carries her dream and that is now sequestered and rapidly fading.

Will Angelina have the wisdom to spot and release the obstacles she has unconsciously created in her life? Will she have the courage and stealth to save her DreamSelf and become her most cherished Dream?

Find out!

•If you love fantasy or women’s fiction, you’ll enjoy this story.

•If you are applying the Law of Attraction to your life, this story is a must read. It reveals shamanic details on how to flow the Law of Attraction using your Sacred Feminine aspect to dissolve obstacles and quicken your manifestation. READ MORE.

Large soft cover, 464 pages

Printed Book $25.00 USD Regular Price

PRE-ORDER NOW To enjoy it for the New Year

For only

$18.50 USD Plus shipping and handling Includes an online book signing party!

PRE-ORDER NOW!

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Section 3

Catch the Dream Express Ride from your pressing problems to your brightest potential.

In this section you get some treats and previews from

Angelina and the Law of Attraction inspirational novel and the

Catch the Dream Express A journey that reveals shamanic secrets in the Law of Attraction that you can apply to create the life you want now

www.dreamalchemist.com

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Holiday Gift Angelina must see and name her own value in order to get the Alchemical Key that lets her into the Shadow Castle where her DreamSelf is held captive.

Previously: Angelina manages to catch the Dream Express, but as she walks into the second wagon she finds a giant, monstrous head.

Much to her chagrin, Angelina recognizes her own countenance in the live, angry head. Guided by Dragonfly Diva, she musters the courage to walk through the biting jaws and finds herself facing the impenetrable Shadow Castle. There she finally spots her DreamSelf, held captive by the Shadow Scouts and shimmering out of existence.

She looks for a way into the castle, but the only entrance is the bridge and it is closed. A system of chains and pulleys keeps it shot. These chains are guarded by the Bridge Guardians, each uglier and more menacing than the other; and each holding an Alchemical Key needed to enter the castle. Angelina has managed to defeat The Executioner.

Now she faces the only good-looking Bridge Guardian, The Champion.

Her task is to fetch the Disk of Dream Retrieval, a feat that promises to deliver the second Alchemical Key held by that Bridge Guardian.

Will she finish the task on time?

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www.dreamalchemist.com

Inside this Book Excerpt from the inspirational novel

Angelina & the Law of Attraction

Chapter 12 The Champion’s Key “It’s already late afternoon, and I don’t have a clue,” Angelina mutters as she goes around the Disk Thrower yet another time, placing a pebble in the pockets of her blazer, which are now full of pebbles. There must be at least 12 pebbles there! She has examined his features so many times, in so much detail, that she could sculpt him with her eyes closed.

“Where is the damn disk?” Angelina asks for the millionth time. “No other statue comes remotely close to being the Disk Thrower but this one. He seems to be throwing something. But what? His hand is empty! There’s no disk anywhere.”

Ceremonial Step 1: Fetch 12 pebbles, or pennies. Each stands for a value in you.

Angelina carefully scans each of the already familiar features. Two large, well-grounded feet hold the muscular legs. His stance reminds Angelina of the twined trees at the foot of the Goddess.

He seems to have grown roots deep down on the earth.

The well-built torso, light and finely tuned, rises like a tree trunk seeking the light. There is a large, round medallion in his chest. Perhaps a medal earned by his feats. The chain holding the medallion must have broken. The medallion seems to be made of gold, but it is opaque and rusty now.

www.dreamalchemist.com

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“Right now, there is something missing in me that does not allow me to get to my DreamSelf, no matter how hard I try.”

Angelina must admit that of all the Bridge Guardians, this is the only good looking one.

She observes his muscular body leaping forward, his right arm raised and the hand opened as if…

“That’s it! I’ve been saying it over and over, but I wasn’t really hearing what I was saying,” Angelina exclaims. “As if he had already thrown the disk. I am too late. The disk is gone.”

If only Dragonfly Diva was here, the news would not be so devastating. She would think of something brilliant, as always. Angelina, on the other hand, can only think about how hungry she is, how tired she feels and how clueless she remains.

“I’ve been lucky so far,” Angelina concludes. “But I’ve run out of luck, and I obviously do not have the wits. Now that the Alignment Effigy is expecting more from me, because I did so well

What will happen when I go there empty-handed? Will she crush me?”

Where is Dragonfly Diva? It is obvious to Angelina that without the magical old woman she is incapable of achieving one single task in the quest.

“Maybe it’s not the right time,” Angelina considers.

She looks at the missing left eye of the Disk Thrower. A pity, for the rest of the statue is intact, and it’s the only one she really cares to look at.

“Poor Champion,” she mumbles.

“So handsome, and yet there’s something essential missing in you. I mean, an eye is essential for a thrower. You and I have that in common, Champion. Not the handsome part, of course, but the missing part. Right now, there is something missing in me that does not allow me to get to my DreamSelf, no matter how hard I try.

before, boy will she be disappointed!

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Ceremonial Step 2: Observe the dialogue and running thoughts that steal your capacity to feel and name your value.

www.dreamalchemist.com

Continues in page 36.

Section 4

Your Dream Crossover Sacred Feminine Leadership, Creation and Entrepreneurship In this section, you look at the story you are telling yourself now that holds you back, undermines your leadership or makes you doubt your capacity to grow a business that embodies your purpose and expresses your unique gifts.

Then you transform that tale into the story of your success and the expression of your purpose and talents.

This section includes an inspirational story and advice from a business expert to help you live your dream. www.dreamalchemist.com

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Experts Say! The Business of Dreaming

Blog Review by Maria Mar Blog Post Series: Self-publishing: A 10-point Must-do Checklist for Authors Author: Lynn Serafinn, book coach and book marketer If you have a purpose to fulfill, then you have a message to deliver. The best medium to deliver this message is often a book. But for many authors and experts, this brings doubts, fear and conflict. Will they publish me? Will I like what they do with my book? Will my book reach my audience?

For the first time in history, YOU have the power to become the leader of your own book publishing! In this article series, Lynn Serafinn, book coach and book marketer, gives you a walk-through.

Creating a book can be so overwhelming that many people die with the dream inside while others give their power away to mainstream or subsidy publishers . These publishers take most of the money, but is what they offer truly worth that much?

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I am passionate about you using the many resources that are now available for you to create, publish and market your book in a way that benefits your Tribe, your purpose and you. Lynn Serafinn’s blog series helps you do this, step by step.

www.dreamalchemist.com

“Far from making an author a ‘second-class citizen’, I believe selfpublishing has many advantages over going with a publisher or a subsidiary press like Create Space, Balboa Press or iUniverse.”

Written by book coach and marketer, Lynn Serafinn, Self-publishing: A 10-point Must-do Checklist for Authors is a 4-part series of top tips on how to make your selfpublished book look like it’s been published with a major publisher.

Lynn’s article series gives you an overview of the tasks involved without trying to make it falsely easy.

Lynn Serafinn

Get your ISBN!

Advantage No. 1: You make far more money on each unit sold when you go 100% self-published.

This initiatory walk-through is spiced with lots of useful details that point you in the right direction and may save you time, mistakes and money.

“Most publishers pay between 7%12% of retail in royalties. Subsidiary presses typically pay 50% of net.

With self-publishing, you earn 100% of net,” declares Lynn.

Lynn starts the series by listing three main advantages of self-publishing over the options of publishing via a mainstream publisher or subsidy publisher:

I know that a lot of authors believe that if a publisher produces their book, all they’ll have to do is write.

Self-publishing then seems grueling.

Choose your book categories based on the BISAC official classifications to ensure that your book is placed where you want in stores and libraries.

www.dreamalchemist.com

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The belief that a publisher is like a “fairy Godmother” who takes care of everything related to your book, leaving you free to” just write” is a fairy tale. As long as you live under this spell, your book will be cursed. Wake up!

Nothing is farther from the truth. Even mainstream publishers now will tell you that marketing is the job of the author.

Think about this for a moment. They are holding the ISBN and file of your book, so they are the legal publisher and the legal recipient of all money for the book. But they will not promote it past some few tasks for 6 weeks at the most.

If you have to do the marketing and promotions, why not keep the profits? This was not possible before, and writers were doomed to work for a buck per book. Not any more! The odds are now on your side through self-publishing.

Lynn offers an example of what can happen with the income from your book in the instances of other-as-publishers or you-as-publisher. I’ve made a table to give you a quick view. You can check her detailed description in the article series.

250-page book sold at $20

Mainstream Publisher

Subsidy publisher

You-as-publisher

Breakdown of production costs Wholesale discount*

50% = $10

50% = $10

50% = $10

(-) Printing cost

$4.50 per book

$4.50 per book

$4.50 per book

(-) Royalty for author**

$2.00 per book 7%-12% of retail

$2.25 per book 50% of net

$5.50 or + per book

Publisher makes

$3.50

$3.25

$5.50 for YOU!

Which means

* Wholesale discount’ is the price that Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. PAY the publisher . If you are selling a $20 retail book to wholesalers at a 50% discount, they pay the publisher $10. ** When going with a traditional publisher, you would normally get 7-12% of RETAIL (between $1.40-$2.40), but 7% is more likely when you’re a new author with a larger publisher.

Remember, YOU will be doing the marketing in ALL scenarios. In the first scenarios, however, you won’t have the money to do it. It must come out of your royalty, so you end up earning a dollar or less per book. In the self-publishing scenario, you can set aside a part of your income for the promotion and production and still earn more.

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www.dreamalchemist.com

Advantage No 2: “Selfpublishing gives you 100% artistic freedom.

“While subsidiary presses don’t generally interfere with your artistic process, they also don’t tend to offer a whole lot either,” Lynn reveals.

“Publishers (mainstream and small presses) can provide a lot of artistic input, but they can also take control of it. If you go self-published and hire the right designers and editors (or maybe even a self-publishing adviser) for your production team, you can produce something you feel is truly ‘yours’. It also permits you to be in complete control of the dates for your book launch and to drive the image/brand behind it,” Lynn concludes.

This is important, especially if your message extends beyond your book. You want to be able to plan live events, speaking events, online events, perhaps a book launch or virtual blog tour and even engage your partners in a joint venture partnership launch. All this needs coordinating, and if your book timeline is out of your hands, then your hands are tied to do the very promotion you need to get the book out!

Self-publishing = increased income + increased freedom + increased control + increased growth.

Advantage No 3: Selfpublishing also gives you the potential for growth.

“Your publishing enterprise could turn into an actual business with time,” Lynn foresees. “You will have the flexibility of negotiating wholesale deals with shops, entering publisher contests and maybe even bringing other authors into your company. While that’s not something that may be on your mind when you are publishing your first book, it at least leaves the door open to possibilities.”

Self-publishing offers you increased income, freedom, control and growth.

What’s not to love about that?

www.dreamalchemist.com

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But in order to reap the benefits of self-publishing, you need to know the craft.

Here are the 10 steps Lynn walks you through to ensure that you do it right.

1

Choose your title and subtitle meticulously

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“Your title is the ‘hook’ that will make people remember your book in the plethora of others on the market. Your subtitle is the ‘promise’ you will bring to the reader.” Lynn Serafinn

3

Find an excellent cover designer

In my own book marketing journey I’ve learned that a book IS judged by its cover!

Cover design is a specialized design knowledge, and in my experience, there are many bad designs out there. Don’t miss Lynn’s tips to find a good cover designer.

4

Create a publishing company

“Now you are thinking that all you want to do is publish THIS book. But soon you will realize that the more books you publish, the more people you reach and the more profit you make.

Plus there are printers and other services that do not deal with individuals; only with publishers. It’s not that hard to do this, and it can make all the difference.” Lynn Serafinn

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Find a professional book editor and proofreader

“There’s no way you can see your own errors, especially in 200+ pages that you’ve written and reviewed hundreds of time. You lose perspective and miss mistakes, and this gives a bad name to your book and to you. It lessens its value on the readers’ eyes.”

Lynn Serafinn

5

Get your ISBN numbers Here’s where I get really pissed off by the lies that socalled self-publishing companies tell authors. When I began searching for publishing solutions, I was told that I’d be the publisher, but they kept the ISBN! Well, I found out that the legal publisher and owner of the book as a product is whoever holds the ISBN. Get crystal clear on this with Lynn’s specifications, so you don’t get deceived.

www.dreamalchemist.com

6

Set up your title with your print-on-demand company

“Now, with the dawn of digital printing, the cost of set-up is radically reduced, and we have the ability to order our books on a ‘print on demand’ basis (POD). POD means exactly what it says: your printer can print ONE book at a time for you.”

Lynn Serafinn

8

Obtain endorsements for your book

“Your endorsers should be experts in the same or similar field as the subject of your book. Preferably, they should be other authors or well-known personalities.”

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7

Work through your edits and proofs

“Learn to relish the challenges your editor gives you as a valuable learning experience.

Do not see his/her suggestions as criticisms but as tools to make you a better writer. This is why choosing the right editor is so important. A great editor is not only a master of words, but is also unafraid to ‘give it to you straight’.

Of course, you have to be prepared for this—emotionally AND in terms of time.

BLOCK OUT a month of your time to go through your editor’s edits.” Lynn Serafinn

Create effective back cover, back pages and META copy

Picture this: Your would-be-reader liked the spine and took the book out. She loved the front cover. Now she is emotionally ready.

She will next flip the book and examine your back cover. What you placed there transforms her from browser into reader….

Or not! Get Lynn’s tips to make this a YES! Read Lynn’s detailed, juicy steps to selfpublishing, with timetable and resources at: http://spiritauthors.com/news/self-publishing-a-10point-must-do-checklist-for-authors-part-1/

10

Format, upload and order your proof

The manuscript is ready for design and formatting. Once this is done, upload to the printer. Lynn reminds you to order a proof and examine it carefully. If all is well, you are ready to go!

www.dreamalchemist.com

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Resources at Lynn’s

Printing, distribution, self-publishing and fulfillment

Books, newsletters and resources to help you self-publish

Lightning Source (http://lightningsource.com) This is Lynn’s printer and ours, too. You can get your book printed with them and then when a customer orders at your site, the printer gets a notice, prints and sends the book.

Recommended book: The Publishing Game Book series Author: Fern Reiss My self-publishing bible! http://www.publishinggame.c om/

Find out information RJ Self-publishing on how to market your http://www.selfpublishing.co book! m/home/

Hire Lynn for your marketing or book launch

Vervanté http://vervante.com/ Excellent for videos, audios and bundled products. Book printing prices are too high.

Dan Poynter http://www.parapublishing.co m/sites/para/ John Kremer A treasure chest of information and resources http://www.bookmarket.com/

LYNN SERAFINN, MAED, CPCC is a certified, award-winning coach, teacher, marketer, social media expert, radio host, speaker and author of the number one bestseller The 7 Graces of Marketing — How to Heal Humanity and the Planet by Changing the Way We Sell and Tweep-e-licious! 158 Twitter Tips & Strategies for Writers, Social Entrepreneurs & Changemakers Who Want to Market their Business Ethically. She is listed in the Top 20 of the Top Marketing Authors on Twitter by Social Media Magazine and was a finalist for the prestigious Brit Writers Awards. She also received the eLit Book Awards Silver Medal in Humanitarian and Ecological Social Affairs, as well as the Bronze Medal in Business and Sales.

Lynn’s eclectic approach to marketing incorporates her vast professional experience in the music industry and the educational sector along with more than two decades of study and practice of the spirituality of India.

Her innovative marketing campaigns have produced a long list of bestselling non-fiction authors through her company Spirit Authors. Lynn is also the Founder of the 7 Graces Project CIC, a not-for-profit social enterprise created to train, support, mentor and inspire independent business owners to market their business ethically, serve society and planet, and restore all that is best about humanity.

Lynn’s gift for you: a free 90-minute Twitter class at http://tweepelicious.com

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www.dreamalchemist.com

Meet the Sacred Storyteller Maria Mar

Enter the story! www.dreamalchemist.com

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Angelina & the Law of Attraction

A woman’s ride from her pressing problems to her brightest potential

Continues from page 22

Ride with Angelina in her DreamQuest to rescue her DreamSelf, imprisoned in the Shadow Castle. Will she find the second Alchemical Key? Only her choices will tell!

Maria Mar

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Continues from page 22 “By now, I should be finishing with the last key, but here I am unable to find the second one.”

“Bad timing. That’s it. One must recognize when the time is not right,” Angelina adds.

“You know what? I am not ready,” she concludes. “That’s the honest truth, Champion. I am not ready. I need to think this carefully. Perhaps I could go home and give it a try next year.”

Ceremonial Step 3: Draw two points in a blank paper, one for where you are and one for where you want to be. Observe the distance.

Name the self-doubts that create that distance.

“This is not me!” The DreamSelf is screaming. “This cannot be me. This woman has never been, is not and will never be me. There has been a terrible mistake!”

A mounting terror is possessing Angelina.

“Feeding the Dragon again?”

Dragonfly Diva asks, fluttering behind Angelina.

Could it be that the woman in the castle is not really her DreamSelf? Angelina feels all wrong for that powerful, creative writer.

How can a woman so dumb that she cannot find a stupid disk in a statue have the imagination to write anything worthy of being read by millions?

“My God, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing!” Angelina shrieks. “How could I allow myself to slide into such despair after only two hours? You go away for a little while, and I lose all faith and strength. Say it. Just come on and say it out loud. I’m spineless!”

Angelina can see the scene. She finally manages to free the DreamSelf, and when the woman sees her up close, she begins to yell.

“How often do you say this to yourself?” Dragonfly Diva asks, looking at Angelina curiously.

Angelina feels like a specimen under a microscope.

Did you know?

This story is embedded with shamanic secrets of the Law of Attraction and secrets from the Sacred Feminine School of Wisdom that you can apply to your life.

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“I…I don’t know…often enough, I guess,” Angelina confesses.

“Have you already forgotten the Dragon’s Key?” Dragonfly Diva asks.

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“Are you kidding?” Angelina protests.

“I will never forget that key. It was earned at great peril. The key is Attention.”

“That’s the key alright,” Dragonfly Diva says as she takes out a sandwich from her bag and offers it to Angelina, who eats it ravenously. “But a key alone does not open anything, does it?”

“What do you mean?” Angelina asks, fearing that she is not only failing this task, but may be shown to have failed even the ones she thought she had won. What could she have missed in that ordeal? She must not let Dragonfly Diva know that she doesn’t know.

“What can a key do by itself?” Dragonfly Diva asks.

“Of course,” Angelina laughs. “That is so obvious. The key goes into the keyhole. It needs the keyhole to open the door. Jajaja!”

“Laugh all you want, Angelina. But attention is only as good as the place where you place it,” Dragonfly Diva declares.

“You spent most of the time in the Dragon Wagon placing it in your fear. That didn’t help a lot, did it?”

“There she goes again, making me feel small and stupid,” Angelina thinks.

She has to admit that the magical lady is right again. She made the

Ceremonial Step 4: Write those self-doubts between the two points. For each doubt, name what you are feeding with that thought and where you are placing your attention.

salamander into a dragon by feeding her fear. And now. What is she feeding now?

Despair. Defeat. Visions of rejection.

That’s a biggie in her life, Angelina admits. Rejection. She remembers the numerous rejection slips she keeps in a tiny drawer in her desk. Rejection from publishers, from total strangers. Still, they hurt like old rusty lances stuck deep into her heart. Each rejection slip took away a piece of her confidence, until she had none left.

www.dreamalchemist.com

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Just remembering the rejection slips has taken away her appetite and the little energy she had left. Hunched, a hung neck and heavy shoulders, Angelina sits at the base of the statue, brooding.

“See the blind spot,” Dragonfly Diva whispers into her heart.

Angelina stands up, climbs the base of

the statue and looks through the hole in the skull, right through the Champion’s left eye ought to be.

“This is the blind spot, isn’t it?” she asks, hoping not to be completely off.

“That is his blind spot, but what is yours?” Dragonfly Diva asks.

Angelina is looking through the hole at the Great Mirrors that reflect the landscape into the castle. She imagines the Shadow Scouts watching her through that reflection, knowing her every move. They must be laughing at her right now.

“I am blinded by fear,” Angelina confesses.

“Fear of what?” Dragonfly Diva asks.

“Fear of rejection,” Angelina admits. “I am fine as long as I am working alone. I can see the truth and the beauty of what I write. I appreciate it. But the moment I

37

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“It is time you place your attention in your own self-vision and reclaim what you know to be true about yourself.” begin to imagine how others see me, how they will interpret what I write, how they will judge me, then it all crumbles.”

“What happens then?” Dragonfly Diva inquires.

“I believe that they will judge me and find me defective. I won’t be good enough. They will laugh at me. They will ask for their money back,” Angelina admits, her eyes on the heels of the statue. It is so humiliating to admit this about herself!

“You are seeing yourself with others’ eyes, Angelina,” Dragonfly Diva reveals.

“It is time you place your attention in your own self-vision and reclaim what you know to be true about yourself.”

• “That’s easy to say,” Angelina snorts. “Don’t you think I know that I should do this? But I don’t know how to do it.”

• “Fire the pebbles,” Dragonfly Diva instructs.

Ceremonial Step 5: Find a common theme in your self-doubts. Draw an arch that encompasses the distance between the 2 points and name it for that common theme.

Is she flying off the handle again?

This magical lady can go off when Angelina most needs her.

“Grab a pebble,” Dragonfly Diva instructs.

“The only person madder that this old woman is me,” Angelina mutters to herself as she grabs a pebble from her pocket. “That’s why I go along.”

“Place your left hand on your heart.

Touch your Ancestral Heart. That’s it,” Dragonfly Diva instructs as Angelina does what she says.

“Look through the hole in his left eye,” Dragonfly Diva continues. “Look at yourself with your own eyes, and name your virtues. When you see a virtue, then throw a pebble through his eye.

“When I see a what?” Angelina asks.

She heard everything the lady said, but the entire concept of her virtues confuses her.

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“You do have some good points, don’t you?” Dragonfly Diva asks.

“I…I suppose,” Angelina stutters.

“Name them. Your virtues. Your basic goodness. Your accomplishments. Your strengths. Your qualities. One pebble for each,” Dragonfly Diva explains.

Funny. She has spent so much of her energy and time defending herself against others’ criticism. But she herself has never taken time to look at her good side.

Right then and there, Angelina realizes that she has been her worst critic.

“I see the beauty of our world,” Angelina declares, tiny tears wetting her lower eyelashes.

Ceremonial Step 6: In another piece of paper, place two chips or quarters where the dots between the spaces stand. Name a virtue and place a penny or pebble in the paper to represent it.

Write the name under it.

Use the 12 pebbles. As you look at your virtues, bring the quarters closer together to indicate how much more possible you FEEL your dream to be now that you stand on your strengths.

She has badgered herself more viciously and consistently than anyone ever could. But she has never named her goodness. Not once.

Angelina takes a deep breath and releases a long exhalation. As she looks through the empty left eye of the Champion, she sees one of the Great Mirrors up on the fortress. As she focuses on it, she catches the reflection of the landscape. Beautiful bushes and red and yellow hibiscus dance gently in the breeze,

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just behind her. In spite the turmoil inside her, Angelina is moved by the beauty around her. In spite the turmoil inside her, Angelina is moved by the beauty around her.

“Bravo!” Dragonfly Diva applauds, using her wings to clap, and elevating herself above the statue. Her enthusiasm is contagious. “Throw a pebble!”

Angelina throws a pebble through the Champion’s eye. Her body suddenly merges with the Champion’s body.

She feels his strong muscles and stands in his strong bones. Her left hand is on his chest. Something pulsates under it.

It’s the medallion. It is getting warm.

Angelina picks up another pebble from her pockets and looks again through The Champion’s missing eye.

A few feet from them, she sees a mother squirrel helping her baby with its first nut.

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“I am kind. I like to help others. I do not like to harm or mistreat other people, but to uplift them,” Angelina proudly says. As she names this, she feels her heart in the Champion’s chest, warm and happy. She feels her own kindness rising from the depth of her soul. The medallion spins under her left hand. Angelina throws a second pebble through the missing eye.

“I see the hidden truths behind every day appearance,” Angelina says. “I can feel people’s true feelings and can respond to their invisible needs.”

As another pebble flies through the Champion’s missing eye, the medallion gets warmer and spins faster under her left hand. It’s as if the medallion was the Champion’s heart and was being brought back to life.

She is truly enjoying this ritual. Her whole body feels alive and strong, and she feels that her smile begins deep inside her.

As she throws the pebble, the medallion detaches from the Champion’s chest.

“The medallion is the disk!” Angelina realizes. She is infused with strength and courage.

“I am courageous,” Angelina declares. “I dare to take risks and embrace change to accomplish my dreams.”

Another pebble flies through the Champion’s missing eye and the disk spins very fast. Angelina takes her hand off her chest. The disk floats towards the Champion’s hand.

“I name truth and beauty to nurture them in the world, in my soul and in the souls of others,” Angelina exclaims, throwing another pebble through the missing eye.

“I am a creative, unique, extraordinary human being,” Angelina boldly declares. “I am my own person, and I am full of delightful surprises and passionate, exuberant energy. I am a poem unfolding.”

Did you know?

Storytelling engages the Female Way of Knowing and has been used by the Sacred Feminine School of Wisdom for centuries to pass the Female Power Secrets to generations of women.

www.dreamalchemist.com

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The disk reaches the raised hand of the Champion. Angelina is engulfed in vertiginous movement. Her now highly tuned muscles respond in fractions of a second. The disk barely rests on the hand. It flies into space. It knows its destiny.

Angelina realizes that the Champion’s left eye is not missing or broken. It is resting miles ahead, on the target. Like a magnet, it guides the disk to its destination. The disk is gone. The target has been hit.

She falls back from the statue’s base and lands on the dust road. There’s something glowing in her hands. It’s a golden key.

Second Alchemical Key: See yourself with your own eyes and feed your self-value

As she deposits the second Alchemical Key in the Dream Basket, Angelina feels that peace is spreading inside her, like a healing balm.

“I’ve been fighting the world,” she realizes. “But it was not the world who failed to value me. It was me who refused to embrace my own true worth.”

“You have retrieved the second Alchemical Key,” The Alignment Effigy declares as she comes alive with a crack and fixes her blue glance in Angelina. She is actually smiling!

“You have launched the Disk of Dream Retrieval into the castle. A formidable feat,” The Alignment Effigy announces.

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How to grow wings

Shape your trust to fit the fullness of your heart.

Cover with the sheer, unbreakable fabric of faith.

Grow a feather from each feeling of gratitude.

Leap and fly.

From Diary of Now, 2007 Maria Mar www.dreamalchemist.com

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Maria Mar The Dream Alchemist Catch the Dream Express if you refuse to give up on your dream and want to ride from your pressing problems to your brightest potential.

You’ll be riding through each station in the Dream Express route with Angelina, guided by a magical lady!

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Me!

Monthly conversations that help you apply the shamanic wisdom in your daily life, share your progress and learn from other’s stories.

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Butterfly Alchemy

The Universe brings what I am.

It’s better to be than to want.

If I become a flower, A flower with wings, I’ll feel right at home In my blossoming dream.

If I become a leaf, A leaf with wings, I’ll fly in the wind And land with ease In the delicious pollen, And I’ll fit right in!

From Diary of Now, 2013 Maria Mar

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www.dreamalchemist.com

Section 5

Butterfly Woman

Tanya Torres In this Section we feature a woman just like you, who is undergoing her metamorphosis from Caterpillar Self to Butterfly Woman.

This issue features the Holiday 2013 Butterfly Woman,

Will you be the next Butterfly Woman? Submit your entry to the Butterfly You! Contest.

See page 61.

www.dreamalchemist.com

Butterfly Woman

My dream has always been the same. Since I can remember I’ve always wanted to be a visual artist, and to live every day doing what I love to do: art.

The Caterpillar

My caterpillar stage could be said to begin when I was 17 years old. I always knew that I wanted to study art, but there were few opportunities available where I lived in San Germán, Puerto Rico.

As a child, my father bought me art books to learn from. Then I kept buying them for myself. I learned how to draw people with a book. I also went to art events or programs, eager to learn.

Tanya Torres with her Butterfly Woman Wings!

Follow Tanya’s Story!

Use it as a blueprint in your journey from Caterpillar You to Butterfly You!

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Once I graduated from High School I dreamt of attending the Escuela de Artes Plásticas (School of Visual Arts) in Old San Juan. But then my mother decided to move to New York. Although I didn’t want to move, I agreed because I thought I would have more opportunities to realize my dream.

www.dreamalchemist.com

Tanya Torres The Hunger When we moved to New York, I was hoping that I would go to an art school, but I ended up at the high school where my mother was teaching.

The counselor at that school told me that I was too old to go to the art high school I wanted to attend, so I stayed in my mom’s school and had a dreadful time there. I saw my dream sliding away.

Mary Magdalene of the Flaming Heart by Tanya Torres, Oil on canvas, 20" x 16", 2012. Sold to Migdalia Santiago

The terrible thing was that the art school I dreamt of attending was right besides this high school. I would see the art students go by and I would feel enormously sad. I began to feel that because I had not gone to that art high school, I was not prepared to attend a college specializing in art.

Tanya Torres as her Caterpillar Self, struggling between her dream of being a visual artist and her learned beliefs.

Collage created by Maria Mar based on Tanya’s story.

CLUE What are you passionate to learn about? Don’t let anyone tell you it’s not possible!

One day I started talking with a student from the art high school and I found out that what the counselor had told me was incorrect. I could have applied and been accepted even if I already was in the 11th grade. That broke my heart, but it was too late. I was close to graduation.

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Isolation and Lack of Support In high school, I felt alone and isolated. I did not know English well, so no one would talk to me. I felt invisible, like an alien. It is hard to pursue your dream in an environment where you feel anonymous and unsupported.

At that time, a teacher who saw my talent and vocation gave me an application to a program for high school students at The Cooper Union, a very prestigious art college. I applied and was accepted. There I took formal drawing classes. I think this was the most significant experience in my art career.

Whispers of Heaven by Tanya Torres, Oil on In just a few classes, I created the base for my canvas, 20" x 16", 2012. future as an artist by learning to draw well.

But I was not adjusting well to the city. I also After graduation, I returned to Puerto felt really lonely and scared traveling to this Rico and went to study at the Saturday program.

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez I began to feel depressed and got sick with Campus. As I took the basic curriculum, I was considering bronchitis, and I had to leave the program. becoming an engineer, but I began to The instructors called me several times, have serious difficulties. The difficulties insisting that I should return. But I did not were not academic. For me, the return. educational material was a breeze. But Limiting Beliefs and Inner Wars in my heart I knew that engineering Loneliness and isolation were the reason I was not my purpose. did not return. But there was another reason CLUE working backstage in my mind. I had What limiting beliefs about your assimilated the belief that it is difficult to capability or the possibility of manifesting your dream keeps you make money from art and that you need to from committing 100% to it? Find have another profession to make a living. and heal your Inner Wars!

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Something inside me did not allow me to study that subject. I remember that I would watch a young guy who attended classes with his black art portfolio. My soul longed for that!

I went back to New York and registered at The City College of New York to study Computer Sciences, even though I knew that I wanted to study art. I still believed that art did not make money. I considered architecture because it had an art element, but in the end, I decided to study Art Education. The decision felt right because as a high school student in Puerto Rico, I would dream of creating an art school in my town. And I could spend most of my time doing art!

This back and forth was the result of an inner war that was taking a toll on me. The desire in my soul was to study art. But I was trapped in the belief that art did not make money, so I tried to study something practical.

Other People’s Expectations This was exacerbated by the expectations others had of me. I was smart. I graduated in two years as a valedictorian, even though at the time I barely spoke English. Everyone around me expected that I would study something more “prestigious.” No one would recommend that I study art. At the time, I did not recommend it myself.

Powerful Hand of the Tree of Life by Tanya Torres, Oil on canvas, 20" x 16", 2012.

CLUE What expectations and measures of success steal your faith in your dreams and goals? Recommend yourself to yourself and find your unique path.

Tanya Torres’ Intention The intention I want you to support through prayer, meditation or drawing is this: “May my artwork help bring more love, peace and joy into people’s hearts through a new series of paintings dedicated to Mother Earth.

www.dreamalchemist.com

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The Chrysalis Learning

In spite of my inner war and loneliness, I would still take any opportunity to learn art techniques, go to museums and attend any available program. I took as many art classes as I could.

Feeding the hunger Another thing that served as my chrysalis was my writing. I always kept notebooks where I wrote about my desire not only to make art, but to live from my art. This in spite the fact that at the time I was still developing as an artist, and often could not even think of what to do for my next piece. This is a type of artist’s block that is common in young artists, but it can be worrying when you are just starting. The writing always helped me gather ideas, which often came out as poems. Then I could combine the diary writing, poetry and drawings to create art pieces.

I also spent long hours in the printmaking workshop. The atmosphere of collaboration was really good for me. Having people around me who had similar dreams and talents was very nurturing.

Inriri by Tanya Torres, Oil on canvas, 20" x 16", 2012.

CLUE Stay true to your feelings!

Persist! Take classes where you meet like-heart people.

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As a result of staying true to my feelings, I accumulated a treasure chest of art techniques and knowledge. I finally graduated and went for my M.F.A., or Master of Fine Arts. The pressure to study something else still weighed on me because I had received a Mellon Fellowship for undergraduate studies in Art History. But after taking a semester off, I made the difficult decision to become an artist. An M.F.A. was a requirement for the only other thing that I thought I could do to make a living as an artist, which was to become an art professor.

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Dream Laboratory My writing skills and education background helped me to get a job as an editor of educational materials. My husband and I decided to buy a building in Manhattan. It needed a lot of work, but it could provide me with the main thing I would need to be an artist, a studio.

1n 1999, I opened a creative space in the first floor of the house in East Harlem.

It was an art workshop and gallery called Mixta Gallery. I was still working as an editor to make the money we needed to fix the building, but I was able to make enough money with an illustration project to pay for the renovation of the first floor and turn it into Mixta Gallery.

Through Mixta Gallery I met people that loved art and emerging artists that were working in different fields. We were poets, painters, photographers, musicians and other artists. We collaborated, exchanged ideas, showcased our work and encouraged each other.

Creative Infusion

Sacred Heart of the Earth, 20" x 16", oil on canvas, 2012.

This was a creative infusion. Being among kindred spirits gives you freedom. They understand your need to create and this‌ Wow! This gives you an amazing happiness.

I felt that I could finally breathe in peace.

Now I had support to do my projects. If I had an idea or an event, the other artists would collaborate. They would clean the space, do promotion and prepare the work. I was no longer alone. We all benefitted from our mutual support and we began to mature as artists.

CLUE Build up confidence and a network! Join a collaborative, association, membership or project where you work with others using your gifts.

www.dreamalchemist.com

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My Growing Up as an Artist The collective exploration and laboratory stage can be intoxicating. But one must not get too attached to that moment. The creative effervescence and other people’s appreciation of your work generate an ecstatic experience. But, as glorious as this may feel, your dream summons you to grow. If you stay in that stage, you will not mature.

Tanya Torres showing the Mary Magdalene in a beautiful installation that includes an interactive hand-made miniature book

You get a sense of how and for what you want to be recognized in the world. You identify your uniqueness.

As you share with others in a collective environment, you begin to discover what you want to do and how you want to do it. If you stay immersed in the collective effervescence, you may miss your own path. But if you listen to your soul, your desires and your body of work, you begin to recognize how you want to express yourself. You also get a sense of how and for what you want to be recognized in the world. You identify your uniqueness. It is time to become a professional.

Up till now, the gallery and collective work had served me as a laboratory and workshop. During that

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time I saw the difference between amateur artists and professional artists. The professional artists arrived at the gallery with work organized and labeled. They publicized their shows and their work. They brought a variety of artwork for different budgets. They dressed well for their openings. I always observed them, often interviewed them, and learned a great deal from them.

The Break in the Chrysalis Right at the moment of climatic creative passion in the collective that worked at Mixta Gallery, I was diagnosed with cancer.

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Emergency as Emergence Disease helped me to step back and look at what was happening with detachment.

Life halted the collective cycle, giving me an opportunity to think about what I needed for my own life.

When I got diagnosed, I was 31 years old, was married and had a son, had invested in a building that was now an asset, and worked as an editor of educational materials.

I was doing art, but I was still doing it “on the side.”

My illness became a window through which I saw life and death and understood how I wanted to live. I saw that if I truly wanted to live, I needed to place my art first. I had to let the gallery go because it was consuming precious time and resources that I needed both to heal and to develop further as an artist. In order to realize my dream and make a living from my art, I also needed to stop working as an editor, a job that was stressful and not what my soul longed to do.

Dream Discipline During my M.F.A. studies, I created a discipline; an essential part of an artist’s career. To obtain an M.F.A., you must immerse yourself in studio work, set up a work schedule, and present a body of work at the end of each semester. This helped me create the discipline that you need to become a professional ~a discipline that dictates how you use your time, energy and attention, and how you set goals and deadlines to create your body of work.

The Four Daughters of Eve , Oil on Canvas, 36” x 24”, 2003.

CLUE Emergency can be an emergence if you find the source of what is creating imbalance and allow your soul to be your personal compass, leading you to a life where you embody your purpose and express your unique gifts in a way that makes YOU happy.

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Finding you Ecstatic Zone I had been given the worst news of my life, that I had cancer. Then my nurse called me again to let me know something even worse. I t seemed that I had another type of cancer in addition to the one I had been diagnosed with.

I started painting to escape from the bad news, and to my surprise the painting that came out of my brush was the most beautiful and positive work I had done.

Up till that moment my work was very dramatic and focused on my sadness and the problems and tragedies of the world. Perhaps the popular myth that the artist has to be tortured in order to write or paint was operating in my psyche.

But at that truly tragic moment, the images I created were of women bringing life into the world. Sensual, exuberant, creative and beautiful these women were full of love and life. As I painted these women, I felt happy and immersed in harmony.

Over time I developed my slogan, which expresses my artistic purpose:

Art for love, peace and joy!

It was during this time that I decided to dedicate my life fully to my art. It became a matter of life and death. While making art life was beautiful, bright and harmonious, even if I had to go to chemotherapy and hear bad news. And death was not an option. I had a young son to live for, and I had my dream, too.

Butterfly Woman As I emerged from my disease I also emerged from my chrysalis. I had not seen myself or my art as spiritual until then.

Now, however, I opened my mouth and I would be amazed at the spiritual wisdom that spontaneously came out!

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Cesarea at Dawn, Oil on Canvas Board, 20: x 16�, 2002.

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Butterfly Woman in Flight!

Living my Dream Today, I dedicate all my working time to my art and I make a living from it. Every morning I go up to my atelier and do what I love, just as I dreamt.

Butterfly Delight I enjoy constant happiness and fulfillment. I feel that I am living my life purpose. I am fulfilling my vision as an artist and human being. And I am having fun!

Visit Tanya at: Website/Blog: http://www.tanyatorres.com Etsy Stores: Originals, reproductions and Jewelry: https://www.etsy.com/shop/tanyaetorres Greeting Cards and Mini prints: https://www.etsy.com/shop/YellowButterflyShop

My art studio is equipped with everything I need to create whatever I want: art paper, canvas, printers, computer, sewing machine, fabric, tiles, beads, and a rainbow of colors.

It’s my playground!

Join Tanya’s Art Lovers VIP CLUB See new art pieces first and get 10% off in Tanya's Etsy Store forever by joining Tanya's VIP Club!

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Featured Resource

MagicMark your Life Private Session

Unclip your Wings Ignite the powerful metamorphosis from Caterpillar You to Butterfly You!

Apply the fun, creative, spiritual practices of the MagicMark your Life tm system and principles to your current situation.

•Find out how you may still be trapped in the Caterpillar Mindset without even knowing!

•Debunk the stories and myths that are creating a reality where you play small, second-guess yourself and hold back.

•Get a firm grip of your Human Creative Palette and learn to use it every day to transmute your obstacles into stepping stones to your Dream.

•Discover that you are a radiant gem right now, shake the old dirt from your radiance and be dazzled by a charismatic, expert, bright Butterfly You! •Activate your Personal Compass and move forward!

•Achieve this in a month with my ongoing love, support and shamanic tools and teachings from the Sacred Feminine Wisdom School.

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Maria Mar www.dreamalchemist.com

Why curl, hide, can

Master the art of shaping your life into your dream.

and Fly now!

The MagicMark your Life Private Session with course materials and follow-up support allows you to address your current obstacles from a place of power. Activate your Creative Genius to see the life lessons, seize the possibilities and own your authority.

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Become Butterfly Woman!

In this private Guidance Session artistshaman Maria Mar guides you in the juicy process of using your creativity to transform your current situation, to create new solutions and master the art of shaping your life into your masterpiece.

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crawl or when you fly!

•One-month private online support and direct communication with Maria Mar. I can only see 10 women each year for this service.

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$500 USD Click here to register.

After registration, you will land on a page where you can book your appointment. You will begin receiving course material and direct communication with Maria Mar immediately.

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I went from Caterpillar Self to Butterfly Woman.

That’s why I can help you in your metamorphosis!

I’ve done it so often it’s become a way of life.

Here’s my last journey: I went from homeless to the CEO of my own corporation! The .I Ching has a number that means both Emergency and Emergence. Do not confuse where you are at with who you are. No matter your conditions now, you can EMERGE because the Butterfly You is growing within you right now.

Maria Mar is the creator of the Butterfly You ! magazine. Here are some juicy bits about her.  She is a storyteller. Whether in her writings or performances, her stories are journeys of instant transformation.  She is an alchemist that creates ARTchemy; art as alchemy. If you are a crafty chica, you will love the arts & crafts alchemical projects Maria creates to help you express your mojo and achieve manifestation and transformation, as well as specific life or business goals.  She is a mystical, ceremonial poet. Her poetry is created as a ceremony for deep insight into your soul and radical healing of limiting patterns.

 She is a Woman of Power. She was trained as a shaman and underwent her death and rebirth .  She loves dancing, writing and sharing poetry, enjoying the beauty of the natural world and having rich conversations with other Butterfly Beings.  She is the CEO and founder of ShamansDance Publishing & Productions.

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Join the MagicMark Your Life Tribe!

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Join the

ButterflyYou Fall 2013 Contest Calling all spiritual, creative women who are working to serve the world through the expression of their own unique gifts and talents Share your story of how you shed Caterpillar You and embrace your Butterfly Self.

YES! I join the

Butterfly You Contest

Click the button to fill out the form and read the instructions and terms.

If you are selected, you receive: •A face-to-face interview with Maria Mar to share your Butterfly Woman Story. Maria will transform this interview into an article and you will be featured in an issue of the magazine.* •A MagicMark your Life Private Session with Maria Mar to explore how to fly higher, strengthen your wings and increase your expressive power to embody your purpose and live ecstatically. (2 hours).

In return, you agree to: You agree to participate in the promotion of that issue of the Butterfly You! Magazine, promoting it in social media and to your list for the launching week. *You need Skype and a webcam for this.

What to do: Submit your Butterfly You story summary in any of these formats: video, writing or audio, plus at least one full-figure, frontal facing high resolution photo. (To give you the Butterfly Woman Wings). You also need to submit your social media, blog, site, articles, videos and stores URLs, so that we can appreciate what you are sharing with the world.

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Submit your entry, get instructions and terms here.

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Featured Art

Sacred Heart of the Earth

By Tanya Torres

Enjoy the art and the story of the Holiday 2013

Butterfly Woman