Storytellers & Alchemists Community
Storytellers & Alchemists is a community of women embarking on a journey together. We gather to reflect, listen, and explore life through story, imagination, and shared presence. It is a space for heartfelt, thoughtful conversation, gentle inquiry, and creative engagement, where each woman is welcomed to walk her own path while learning alongside others. Here, we value depth over performance, curiosity over rigidity, and deliberation over quick fixes. The community unfolds through shared reflections, creative practices, and monthly gatherings that invite meaning to emerge in its own time. but each one of us is guided to her own path.
In a perfect world, I would have loved to invite you to sit around my kitchen table and chat as we share morning coffee or afternoon tea, or as we chop our fresh vegetables, season the chicken, and bake a cake. Or, maybe gather in the living room sharing our stories as we embroider our dresses or cross-stitch a table cloth… This is what the women in my culture used to do as they share personal narrative, along with tales and wisdom that passed from generation to generation… everyone is welcome: family, friends and neighbours; children, teenagers, adults, and elders; rich and poor; simple and sophisticated, we all gathered together with love and care.
So, I invite you to come as you are … let’s weave our stories… and build a healing loving community.
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We will be following the 7 Valleys journey, a journey of our soul towards true joy and freedom. At its core, it is a journey of love and service.
Although, I am big on plans and structure, this time, I am stepping out of my comfort zone and embracing not-knowing. I don’t have a specific plan, or a structure for this community - at least not yet - let’s embark on this journey together and see where it lead us. We have one destination The Abode of Peace but each has to navigate her own path.
If you want to join us, click below and hop along.
The 7 Valleys Journey
A Journey of Love & Service.
The Storyteller Archetype: What’s a Storyteller?
 We make sense of our life and our sufferings through stories. Our pain stems from our disconnection from those stories… disconnection from our core self, from the Divine, from our true life meaning & purpose. Stories bridge the gap between the life we experience, sense, and feel on one hand and the spoken words on the other. Stories put into words what we cannot express and sometimes cannot fathom or accept. They help us understand ourselves and others, connect with ourselves and others and more importantly connect with our creator and our life meaning. Stories weave wisdom into the fabric of our daily existence. And as we weave our stories, we choose the images we want to emphasize, the lessons we want highlight, the voices we want amplify, and the big picture we would like paint.
Stories reach out to a basic instinct woven into the fabric of our nature since the beginning of existence and until the end of time. Some stories are ageless and timeless, they speak to our souls and touch our hearts, they connect us, and assist us as we strive on our path reassuring us that we are not alone in our striving, in our joy, and in our sufferings.
True Storytellers are the keeper of wisdom, the guardians of tradition, the shapers of worldview, the meaning-makers. As we weave our own stories - we shape our lives and transmute our hearts and souls from the heaviness and darkness of the copper and lead to the light and luminosity of gold.Â
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The Alchemist Archetype: What’s an Alchemist?
 On a physical level, alchemists transform base metals, like lead and copper, into pure gold. They transmute the impure ore into noble and precious mineral by means of various cleansing tools and in conjunction with the intense heat of their kiln.
On a metaphysical plane, alchemy is the art of transforming the soul, allowing it to remember its original nobility and turning its chaotic, heavy and dark state into harmony, light, and luminosity. Alchemists work on the outer to transform the deep inner core. They pull the soul from darkness to light drawing on the fiery intensity of the spirit.
Alchemy is inevitably a chaotic process working against the dark side of nature to impart purity and luminosity. It requires prudence, wisdom and patience. It also requires courage and trust. An alchemist never knows what will transpire out of her boiling vat. Alchemists enchant the world with their creative energy.
Yet, alchemists are not immune from the peril of their dangerous craft. Like pride contaminates love, and self-deception poisons knowledge, greed and envy are the greatest toxins that corrupt an alchemist’s soul.
Join the Community!The Artist Archetype: Who is an Artist?
 “God is beautiful and He loves beauty.” Artists can’t help but experience and create beauty everywhere around them. They are enchanted by the Divine signs of love and splendor in everything and everyone. Artists are creative people. They are passionate about expressing this creativity in various areas of live. They are intuitive and enjoy -or wrestle with- a wild imagination. They have an intense desire to convey what they experience beyond the five senses. They are thus contemplative and reflective.Â
Artists always add a beautifying touch to their environment: home, kitchen, work, neighborhood… They might not know how to paint or even how to draw a stick figure. There are hundreds of ways art expresses itself in their lives: carefully crafting their words in day-to-day interactions, noticing the birds chirping on their window still, the pause they take when they see a dandelion popping out of the sidewalk crack, the music they listen to, the strand of parsley they add on the side of the dish before serving it, the yellow scarf they choose to complement their outfit, the patterned pillow they throw on the dull sofa to bring it to life…
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About Your Host
Amira Ayad, PhD, RP is an author, psychotherapist, and spiritual care practitioner whose work explores the relationship between the body, emotional life, spirituality, and the search for meaning.
She is the founder of Women Whispers Academy, where women are invited to listen to their body’s whispers before they turn into screams. Drawing on years of clinical practice, spiritual care, and integrative health work, Amira creates spaces - through books, journals, workshops, expressive arts, and retreats - where transformation is facilitated through storytelling, listening, reflection, and embodied awareness rather than fixing or forcing change.
Amira holds a Master’s degree in Pharmaceutics, a PhD in Natural Health, and a Master of Psychospiritual Studies from the University of Toronto. Her work weaves together science, psychology, spirituality, creative imagination, and lived experience, offering a compassionate and integrative approach to healing and personal transformation.
She is the author of several books, some of which have been translated into more than ten languages and read and taught by thousands worldwide.
She lives and works in Canada, offering talks, workshops, and retreats both online and in person.
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