Crafting Regia Alas

The last year has been one of oscillation, of metamorphosis, of cycle, of expansion and contraction. My return from studying abroad was a punctuated contraction, a collapsing into myself and the world I had made in multiple ways. I found my singularity and am now beginning to ride the reverberating wave back out into expansion. Part of my next cycle of elongation was the manifestation of Regia Alas.

In March of this year (2019) I fulfilled a choice I have been manifesting for a couple years now, this choice was to give myself a visual representation of the wings I have been moving towards my entire life. These wings are now depicted in the form of a Common Swallowtail Butterfly etched in the black line work style between my shoulder blades. This particular butterfly has been a symbol for me since I was a child – it represented my great grandmother (whose name I bear) watching out for me, and in the most genuine way I believe in this butterfly being the same shape as my own soul. This is the same butterfly you see as my logo for this site. In the same way the butterfly is the image of my soul, I am also using its image to help carve a space in the world to help manifest my dreams and share my heart words.

So the Swallowtail Butterfly is my wings – my alas, which is the latin word for wings – and my name, Regina, means queen in Latin. Regia is queenly, and so combining the two gave way to the name Regia Alas – queenly wings. When I was a child, I would create worlds of my own. I had expansive maps and family trees for each pretend game, each toy, and I would spend hours in this beautiful state of play. What I have discovered in the last year is that my design work and writing comes from the same creative well inside of me. My creation as a child was what I now understand to be my flow state, my space where my brain is optimizing its actualizing powers and I am allowing my soul to live through me. This same creation is what has fueled the crafting of this space. I came across a quote from Danielle Doby a couple of weeks ago which says:

In creating this website, I have tried to do exactly that – make my work a direct extension of my heart space. I believe in authenticity, in showing up, in living with your full humanity behind your work, and this space is a deliberate effort to bring those values into the world and into my life. This is a place for me to build momentum and hold space for complexity. It is a space for my creative output and input, a place to keep me connected to the deeper seeking going on inside.

I believe creation is an act of courage. The creation of this place is a challenge to myself to keep practicing vulnerability, to live fully as myself, to be afraid and to show up anyway. While I was in India I learned that the Tibetan word for female warrior is pawmo and it is translated as: one who cultivates bravery. The way I cultivate my bravery is deliberately choosing courage. I need to put myself out there and watch the world open from this leap. I am choosing to do the thing that terrifies me and sustains me. I am choosing courage in this act of creation and in the maintaining of this heart space. Crafting Regia Alas is all about creating a life I need to live, and about letting my soul and deeper purpose live through me.

I have woven bits of my heart and soul throughout this website, and I hope you find resonance in these pages. I hope you feel called to keep searching for that deeper call within yourself. I hope you recognize you are a pawmo, and that it is always a beautiful time to cultivate bravery.