Somatic Literacy — Teaching Seed
Saved 2026-09-25 at Becca's request ("I wanted it here for myself"). Not for publication — this is the curriculum core for a practice she may teach later.
Status decisions (9/25)
/somatic-practice (the essay "Intuition, Energy & the Felt Field") = the public account. Publishes now.
This protocol = the curriculum. Held until Becca is ready to teach. Her rule via her own Physics Backwards essay: explanation can be carried without becoming capacity — the account markets the teaching, the protocol IS the teaching.
No renaming of the Capacities. Earth stays Perception ("What is here before I explain it?" — world-perception, not only interoception). Somatic literacy is the instrumental core of perceptive capacity — the body as the instrument through which everything else is perceived. It already exists by name as one of Inner Gravity's six dimensions and a row in Soma & Sky's translation table.
A draft page ("Somatic Literacy") was built 9/25 and delivered in chat — DO NOT INSTALL until teaching begins. Suggested slug at install: /somatic-literacy (an old retired page may hold that slug; overwrite it then).
What is being taught
Not body regulation. Not a sequence of somatic exercises. Developing the body as an instrument of perception without turning sensation into certainty. The body gets the first word, not the final word. One-line version: How to catch meaning before you've finished turning it into a story.
The core practice — From Sensation to Meaning
Notice the interruption. Something changed. Don't explain it yet.
Locate it. Where is it happening? Pressure, warmth, pulling, opening, bracing, heaviness, movement?
Find the verb. What is it doing? Pulling? Protecting? Reaching? Closing? Holding? Turning away?
Follow the association. What word, image, memory, person, place, symbol, or story appears?
Resist premature meaning. Don't immediately decide what it means.
Enter relationship with it. What happens if you stay with it? Does it change? Does another word fit better? Does the person you're working with recognize what you're noticing?
Let reality answer. What happens when the interpretation is tested in life, relationship, evidence, or action?
Teaching example
Someone feels contraction while talking about their job. Do NOT teach: "Your body is telling you to quit." Teach: "Something changed. Where did you feel it? What happened immediately before it? Was there a word, image, memory, thought, or sensation attached to it? Don't explain it yet. Stay with the movement." Then: "If the sensation had movement, what would it be doing?" — Contracting. Bracing. Pulling away. Reaching. Holding. Dropping. Expanding. The verb principle: instead of turning sensation into a noun (anxiety, trauma, intuition, blockage), first ask what is the body doing?
How the protocol maps onto the framework (for course design)
Steps 1–2 → Presence + Earth (the interval; encounter before explanation)
Step 3 → the verb principle (Symbolic Literacy's "nouns hold still what life keeps moving")
Step 5 → DPT's interval (interpretation must not acquire authority prematurely)
Step 6 → answer-back; "Does this touch anything for you?" — the client remains the authority
Step 7 → corrigibility ("reality is allowed to correct it")
The Capacities · Earth
Somatic Literacy
Developing the body as an instrument of perception — without turning sensation into certainty.
This is not primarily body regulation, and it is not a sequence of somatic exercises.
It is the practice of learning to work with what the body registers — before explanation arrives, and without letting sensation harden into conclusion.
The body gets the first word,
not the final word.
An Example
Someone feels contraction while talking about their job.
One kind of somatic teaching would say: Your body is telling you to quit.
That turns sensation into certainty in a single step.
I work differently:
Then perhaps:
If the sensation had movement,
what would it be doing?
Reaching. Holding. Dropping. Expanding.
Instead of immediately turning sensation into a noun —
— first ask:
What is the body doing?
From Sensation to Meaning
Notice the interruption.
Something changed. Don’t explain it yet.
Locate it.
Where is it happening? Pressure, warmth, pulling, opening, bracing, heaviness, movement?
Find the verb.
What is it doing? Pulling? Protecting? Reaching? Closing? Holding? Turning away?
Follow the association.
What word, image, memory, person, place, symbol, or story appears?
Resist premature meaning.
Don’t immediately decide what it means.
Enter relationship with it.
What happens if you stay with it? Does it change? Does another word fit better? Does the person you’re working with recognize what you’re noticing?
Let reality answer.
What happens when the interpretation is tested in life, relationship, evidence, or action?
Somatic literacy is the instrumental core of perceptive capacity: the body is the instrument through which everything else is perceived.
It does not replace the other capacities. It is where they begin.
What this practice teaches, in one line:
how to catch meaning before you’ve finished
turning it into a story.
Want to work together?
Everything on this page is part of how I work — there’s no separate booking for it. We begin with an Orientation: ninety minutes, by video or in person, where we talk about what’s bringing you here and decide together whether there’s a useful way to continue.
Book an OrientationI’ll send a short note beforehand asking what you’re hoping for, so we can use the time well.