Showing up Safely: Practical Protest Info

Protest Safety & Strategy: Best Practices for Showing Up Wisely

Hey friends —

If you’re planning to attend the No Kings protests (or any other public action), take a deep breath and read this carefully. Protesting is a sacred form of community expression and resistance. It can also be risky — especially now. The suggestions below come from seasoned organizers, legal advocates like the ACLU, and radical communities like Reclaiming who have long practiced grounded, protective action in volatile settings.

Please adjust based on your local conditions, risk tolerance, and role. Some of us show up as marshals, medics, legal observers, clergy, or quiet anchors. All roles matter.

🖤  Before You Go

• Tell a trusted person where you’re going, when to expect you back, and what to do if they don’t hear from you. Consider designating them as your emergency contact.
• Write emergency numbers on your body in sharpie (e.g. National Lawyers Guild legal support line, local jail support, trusted friend).
• Charge all devices fully the night before if you’re bringing any — and seriously consider not bringing your usual phone.
• Consider a burner phone (cheap prepaid, with no identifying accounts or contacts). Use it only for critical communication or documentation — with no traceable apps, biometrics, or history.
• Download key tools in advance:
  
• ACLU’s Mobile Justice app or Signal (end-to-end encrypted).
• Offline maps.
• PDFs or screenshots of your rights.

🧤 What to Wear and Bring

• Wear plain, nondescript clothing (dark colors like black or grey) to reduce the chance of being individually identified later through video or photos.
• Avoid logos, unique accessories, or visible tattoos. If needed, cover distinguishing features.
• Good shoes (running or hiking shoes) that allow you to move quickly and comfortably.
• Mask up — for health, anonymity, and protection from tear gas. Use an N95 or similar with goggles or wraparound glasses.
• Bring eye protection (swim goggles or safety glasses) and a bandana soaked in vinegar or water in a sealed bag to cover your mouth/nose if tear gas is used. Do NOT wear contact lenses.
• Do not bring children to potentially escalated actions. If you do bring them to peaceful day rallies, have a backup adult, exit strategy, and regroup plan.
• Pack light and smart:
  
• Water (plus snacks or electrolyte tabs)
• Small first aid kit
• A bandana or scarf
• ID only if necessary (many advise leaving it behind unless you’re undocumented or at high risk)
• Cash (not cards) if possible
• A printout of your rights and legal support info

🚨 On the Ground: Staying Safe

• Stay with a buddy or affinity group — never walk alone.
• Keep calm, move with intention, and avoid reactive behaviors. Escalation is often initiated by provocateurs.
• Do not pick up or use objects that appear placed for destruction or disruption. These are often “plants” to justify police action.
• Follow trained marshals, de-escalators, or protest chaplains. Look for vests, hats, or armbands indicating role.
• Watch for provocateurs: people trying to incite violence, or escalate confrontations. Don’t engage. Move away. Signal marshals or peacekeepers.
• Keep your phone off or on airplane mode unless urgently needed.
• If filming police, know your rights: You can record public officials, but don’t interfere. Say “I do not consent to a search” if asked to unlock your phone.

📵 Phone & Data Safety

• Turn off biometric unlocks (face/fingerprint). Use a passcode only.
• Disable facial recognition & geolocation.
• Delete personal, identifying data from any phone you bring (contacts, photos, social media apps).
• Don’t text about protest plans. Use encrypted messaging apps like Signal or avoid digital communication altogether when organizing.

💚 Sustaining the Work

• Make room for care and grounding — this is a long-haul movement, not a single moment.
• Practice debriefing with trusted companions after actions. Check in emotionally and spiritually.
• Be kind to yourself. You don’t have to do everything. Show up in the ways you are called and resourced.
• Donate to bail funds, medics, and legal defense funds even if you can’t march.

🧠 Know Your Rights

• You have the right to peacefully protest in public spaces.
• You do not have to answer police questions beyond identifying yourself if required by local law.
• You can record police, but they may try to intimidate you not to. Be discreet and firm.
• You have the right to remain silent and to an attorney. Ask for one immediately if detained.

 ACLU resources by state: https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights

Let’s show up in love and strategy — not fear.

Let’s protect each other. 

Let’s build the world we long for.

Please share other tips here, particularly from groups with experience and knowledge. I’ll add them! 

See also:

A piece from Wired on surveillance technology used against protesters and what you can do about it. https://youtu.be/lL34WpoETds?si=6UYtAUblTNQpCzwt

Good advice at this FB post: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AoKUX7FLv/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Praxis and Embodied Experience: Learning by Living in Spiritual Tending

Living What We Learn in Spiritual Tending

Spiritual direction is not just something we think about—it’s something we live with our bodies, breath, and being. Both Ignatian spirituality and many Pagan traditions share this: a conviction that experience is sacred text.

Praxis refers to the integration of theory and experience. The Collins Dictionary defines it as “practice, as distinguished from theory; application or use, as of knowledge or skills.” In religious and educational settings, it means that we learn not just by thinking or reading, but by doing—by living—and then reflecting on that lived experience.

Praxis is a feedback loop: we live, reflect, adapt, and then live again with deeper wisdom. Spiritual companions don’t just talk about sacred presence—they practice it, noticing how it moves through their lives and those they accompany. Praxis is how spiritual companions grow.

In spiritual direction, this looks like noticing what arises in a session, praying or journaling about it, shifting how we hold space, and returning again—more aware, more grounded.

Ralph Waldo Emerson put it this way:

“The true preacher can be known by this, that he deals out to the people his life,—life passed through the fire of thought.”

I’d substitute “minister” for “preacher” here.

Note on language: I use the word minister here to mean someone called to sacred service or care. Spiritual Companioning is a ministry—whether or not one is ordained. If another word fits better in your tradition, use that!

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Embodied Prayer: Moving from Performance to Presence

Our bodies are not incidental to our spiritual lives. They are the ground of spiritual life. Body prayer—whether through breath, movement, stillness, or dance—is one way to engage the Sacred through lived experience, rather than performance.

This might be as simple as bowing with gratitude each morning, walking slowly in silence, or using breath to center before a session.

Betsy Beckman, in Awakening the Creative Spirit: Bringing the Arts to Spiritual Direction, writes:

“Whether we like it or not, we all have bodies. Our bodies carry emotions, memories, wounds, joys, and celebrations…

Nevertheless, as spiritual directors, we might ask the question, ‘Why do we dance?’

…To dance is to open ourselves to a deep wisdom that is beyond us, holding us, binding us together in intricate, energetic beauty.”

In this, Betsy echoes ancient traditions and modern somatic theology. The dance of life is not a metaphor—it’s a practice. A praxis.

Performance isn’t necessarily “bad”; in fact, sometimes we do need to “fake it 'til we make it” in many parts of our lives, and there are contexts where it is absolutely called for. However, the intention in SD work is presence.

The Korean dance troupe from Keimyung University perform the Drum Dance

Mysticism and Embodied Experience

So often, when thinking of mystical experience, people think of the solitary practitioner experiencing solitary one-ness with the divine. Mystical experience can be deeply individual, but it’s just as often communal, embodied, and even ecstatic. In Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy, Barbara Ehrenreich invites us to remember the power of communitas:

“The self-loss that participants sought in ecstatic ritual was not through physical merger with another person but through a kind of spiritual merger with the group.”

“To dance is to say yes to the sensual nature of life, infused with the movement of the ever-creative Spirit.”

This form of mysticism is rooted in movement, music, ritual, and shared presence—not in escaping the body or intellect, but inhabiting both more deeply.

Mysticism, in this sense, isn’t only a mountaintop moment—it’s dancing with others at ritual, singing in circle, weeping with a seeker. It’s sacred communitas. For spiritual companions, this collective joy is not a distraction from the sacred—it is one of its forms.

 For spiritual companions, mysticism isn’t just an experience to admire in others—it’s a praxis we’re invited into ourselves.

Try It:

• Reflect on a time when you “learned by doing” in your spiritual life. What did that teach you about God/Sacred/Spirit/self?
• Try a simple body prayer: Stand or sit. Breathe deeply. Let your hands rise as you inhale and lower as you exhale. What arises as you move? What shifts in your awareness?
• Recall a time when you were part of a ritual, service, or gathering that felt mystical or alive with spirit. What was happening in your body? What connected you to the others?
• Consider a body prayer that includes some Robin Wall-Kimmerer readings/quotes (she write rhapsodically about sacred strawberries) and then eating a strawberry. 
• Or attend a Tea Ceremony.

Consider: Where might your own practice of spiritual direction need more embodiment, more experience, or more reflection?

As always, this work begins with the body, with presence, and with the courage to let experience teach us. Praxis isn’t something we arrive at—it’s something we live, moment by moment, in sacred relationship.

Beloved, you are whole, holy, and worthy.

Rev. Amy

Holding the Hour: Structuring a Session in Spiritual Tending

Holding the Hour: Structuring a Session in Spiritual Tending

What actually happens during a session of spiritual direction or companionship? The honest answer is: it depends.

There are rich traditions—especially within Catholic and Ignatian models—that offer formal structures for direction sessions. But those models are not the only way. And while some explorers may arrive ready to talk for an hour, others need silence, art, a focused question, or a shared listening for the Sacred.

This post offers flexible ways to structure a session—not to script it, but to hold it. Think of these as tools in a basket or items on a menu: not every session will use them all, and not every seeker will need the same shape each time. The goal is not to be helpful, but to be present. The structure is not about performance—it’s about hospitality.

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Begin with Hospitality and Consent

Every session begins with welcome—through a warm space, gentle tone, or clear boundaries. But beyond the outer welcome, there is a deeper one: an invitation into shared discernment.

Questions like:

“Would it serve you to begin with silence today, or to talk a bit?”

• “Is there anything you’re hoping for in our time together?”
• “Would you like to begin with a grounding practice or go straight into reflection?”

This is where consent-based practice lives—not only in logistics (like touch, time, and confidentiality), but in relational flow. Your presence invites—not insists.

Possible Structures for a Session (Pick One or Combine)

Think of each of these as a possible rhythm for a 50-, 60-, or 90-minute session. Each has its own gifts. You might find one becomes your “home base”—but it’s always possible to adapt or blend.

Agenda by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 

1. The Open Conversation Structure

Begin with silence or grounding

• Ask an open-ended check-in: “What’s alive for you spiritually right now?”
• Follow the seeker’s lead—listen deeply, reflect back, ask evocative questions
• End with silence, a blessing, or an invitation to continue reflection

Best for: Seekers who process through dialogue and reflection

Watch for: Temptation to “solve” or over-interpret

2. The Practice-Based Structure

Begin with consent around a focus: e.g., lectio divina, journaling, guided imagery

• Move into the practice, with the seeker choosing pace and depth
• Allow time for shared reflection
• End with integration or stillness

Best for: Seekers who want experiential exploration

Watch for: Pushing through discomfort rather than pausing for consent

3. The Silence-Honoring Structure

Begin with a simple prompt or shared intention

• Hold shared silence (10–45+ minutes)
• Invite optional reflection or journaling
• End with spacious check-out: “What would you like to take with you from this time?”

Best for: Seekers familiar with contemplation, or seeking rest and mystery

Watch for: Companion imposter syndrome—remember, you’re not being paid to do, but to be with

4. The Three Movements Structure

 (adapted from many traditions)

• Remembering: “Where has the Sacred met you since we last spoke?”
• Receiving: Listen to what’s emerging now
• Responding: “What is yours to carry forward?”

Best for: Seekers who like rhythm and continuity

Watch for: Treating the structure as a checklist instead of a flow

5. The Discernment Structure

Begin with prayer or grounding

• Explore a question the seeker is holding (big or small)
• Use discernment tools (e.g., body awareness, values clarification, spiritual autobiography)
• End with integration: “What feels clear—or unclear—for now?”

Best for: Seekers in transition or facing choices

Watch for: Rushing toward clarity or feeling responsible for “answers”

What About Imposter Syndrome?

Many new companions wrestle with this question: Why would someone pay me to sit in silence with them?

Here’s the truth: your presence is the container. Your attunement, your trust in the Sacred, your willingness to wait—these are gifts that many seekers don’t have in their daily lives. Spiritual companionship is not therapy. It’s not coaching. It’s not fixing. It is deep, non-intrusive, sacred witnessing.

When you co-hold space for journaling, silence, or art, you’re affirming that their direct experience of the Sacred matters more than your advice. That’s profound.

Choosing Your Default—and Letting It Shift

You may find yourself drawn to one of these rhythms as your “default.” That’s good. Let it be your home—but don’t confuse it with the only path.

Discern session by session:

• What would most serve the seeker’s relationship with their sacred?
• Is a shift needed today—more structure, or less? More silence, or more interaction?

Let your care be shaped not by how to help, but by how to honor.

Try It

Create your own session menu. Name 2–3 session shapes you’re drawn to.

• Which feels most like “home”?
• Which feels risky but potentially fruitful?
• Which one might serve a very different kind of seeker?

Keep this menu nearby when preparing for a session, especially with a new explorer. You’re not planning their experience—you’re preparing your capacity to meet them.

Beloved, you are whole, holy, and worthy,

Rev. Amy

Stages of Faith: Invitations, Not Instructions

What if the way we make meaning shifts and flows—like tides rather than steps?
The idea of stages of faith can be helpful, not because it tells us where we “should” be, but because it shows us the diverse ways humans experience and explore meaning. These frameworks offer gentle maps—not rating systems—for understanding how we and others might be engaging with spirituality at a given moment.

Rather than labeling anyone or measuring spiritual “progress,” these models invite curiosity. They help us, as spiritual companions, offer invitations and questions that resonate with the way someone is currently making meaning.

Gentle Models, Not Judgment

The idea of stages of faith can be used like a bludgeon or used to denigrate types of meaning-makeing. Some models are deeply infused in the 'white savior' or modernist world views. As with any model, seek out more than one to shake up your assumptions, and stay open to real, lived, experience.

A stage of faith isn’t a rank. It’s not about being more advanced or enlightened. It’s just one lens for understanding how a person—sometimes a child, sometimes an elder—makes meaning, seeks connection, and responds to the sacred.

We move in and out of stages. Life challenges, spiritual experiences, trauma, and growth can all shift how we relate to our beliefs and practices. Even within one day, we may dip into different modes of spiritual meaning-making.

Understanding common patterns can help us walk beside others more gently.

Key Models of Stages of Faith

Fowler’s Stages of Faith

James Fowler’s classic work maps six stages of faith development, from early intuitive experiences through reflective and universalizing faith. His work, based in Piaget’s cognitive development theory, comes from a particular time and culture, but still offers a foundational framework.
📘 Summary: https://deep-psychology.com/stages-of-faith-james-fowler/

Ken Wilber’s Integral Stages

Wilber’s “holonic” model emphasizes how each stage includes and transcends the one before. He charts stages from egocentric awareness to deep transpersonal insight. His work can be especially helpful in understanding post-rational and pluralistic spiritualities. For me, his work opened my mind to the idea of stages as a spiral instead of stair-steps. 
🌀 Summary: https://www.institute4learning.com/2020/02/05/the-stages-of-life-according-to-ken-wilber/
🔍 More detail (in Ken Wilber's words): https://web.archive.org/web/20230606092815/https://www.kosmosjournal.org/article/integral-spirituality-2/
🌱 Reflection blog: abeltaine.blogspot.com/2017/09/thats-primitive-sorting.html

Other Models of Spiritual Growth

There are other helpful models, some drawing from world religions, psychology, and personal development.

• Kirstie Pursey’s Seven Stages offer accessible language around awakening and integration:
  learning-mind.com/spiritual-growth-stages

• Roger Gabriel’s Seven Stages (Chopra Center) blend Eastern and Western spiritual frameworks:
  https://www.consciousevolution.tv/spiritual-evolutionary-training/the-7-stages-of-spiritual-development-the-chopra-center.php

• (As a Counter-Example) M. Scott Peck’s model as summarized by Inas Younis:
  patheos.com/blogs/altmuslim/2018/03/five-stages-of-spiritual-growth

• Unitarian Universalist metaphor-based models offer poetic imagery for unfolding spiritual lives:
  uua.org/tapestry/youth/wholeness/workshop2
  Google Doc UU metaphor model

Why It Matters for Companionship

When we sit with seekers, these models can help us tune into what kind of meaning-making might be most resonant. For example:

• Someone in a mythic-literal stage may find comfort in ritual or traditional stories.

• A reflective seeker might need space to question inherited beliefs.

• A transcendent stage seeker might speak in metaphor or paradox.

We don’t need to diagnose a stage. But we can listen for how someone makes meaning and offer tools, stories, or silence accordingly.

Trauma and Shifting Stages

People healing from trauma may revisit earlier stages, question previous certainties, or struggle with the concept of “faith” altogether. That’s not regression—it’s sacred work.

Stages of faith models shouldn’t be weaponized. Instead, they can offer us gentle language for being present with seekers exactly where they are, helping them uncover which metaphors, stories, or questions feel life-giving now.

Try It: A Reflective Practice

Choose one of the stage models above. As you read:

• Ask yourself: What resonates? What doesn’t?

• Where do you see yourself right now?

• What invitations might be helpful to someone who makes meaning differently than you?

Remember, these aren’t “levels.” They’re languages. Try to hear what each stage is trying to say about the sacred.

Beloved, you are whole, holy & worthy,

Rev. Amy

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For Further Exploration

• Fowler, James. Stages of Faith – A foundational model of faith development, exploring shifts from childhood belief to universalizing faith.
https://web.archive.org/web/20240528184134/http://www.psychologycharts.com/james-fowler-stages-of-faith.html

• Dillard, Joseph (summary). Understanding Wilber’s Developmental Stages – A helpful overview of Ken Wilber’s framework and its implications for spiritual practice.
https://web.archive.org/web/20250315101928/https://www.integraldeeplistening.com/understanding-wilbers-developmental-stages/

• Pursey, Kirstie. The Seven Stages of Spiritual Growth – Clear and simple stage descriptions grounded in self-discovery.
https://www.learning-mind.com/spiritual-growth-stages/

• Gabriel, Roger. The Seven Stages of Spiritual Development – Describes an inward journey of unfolding wisdom through multiple traditions.
https://web.archive.org/web/20240808024230/https://chopra.com/blogs/personal-growth/the-7-stages-of-spiritual-development

• Beltaine, Amy. That's Primitive Sorting – A personal reflection on how the Wilber model supports multi-tradition spiritual growth.
http://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2017/09/thats-primitive-sorting.html

• UUA Tapestry: Stages of Faith Development – Introduces a poetic, metaphor-based framework used in Unitarian Universalist formation.
https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/youth/wholeness/workshop2/167602.shtml