Posts by Tess Howell
The Great Ballcourt Initiation – Fall Fast
Death is the ultimate agent of transformation—be it a physical death or “the little deaths” encountered throughout life. Indigenous cultures developed rituals to aid and guide people through these stages of change and renewal, utilizing the power of death to enhance and intensify these experiences.
Read MoreNM Fall Vision Fast
In increasing times of unrest and uncertainty it can be a common human experience to gravitate towards more “certainty” rather than less. Yet, in the Zen tradition “not knowing” is most intimate. The natural world reminds us of this intimacy and offers us refuge. There is something waiting to find us but in order to be found…we sometimes must first admit we are “lost”…
Read MoreNM Mirroring the Four Shields of Human Nature: The Art of Story Telling and Listening
Telling one’s own story is an ancient art. Nowadays, we have forgotten how to listen and how to tell. Yet the very survival of our species depends on our ability to communicate with each other in such ways as to be mutually enriched by the telling and the listening. If we cannot tell with expression, our life is mute. If we cannot listen like a mirror, we cannot reflect back the wholeness of the four shields — the body, soul, mind and spirit of the teller. The best stories are about human nature — that is, the human of us which is, after all, nature in her basic manifestations as physical, psychical, rational, and spiritual. One of the best ways to create a four shields story, if not the best, is to put people in contact with nature in the raw.
Read MoreThe Elder’s Journey: The Four Shields of Elderhood for Women
Throughout the ages, elder women have enjoyed sitting in circle to weave the rich tapestries of their stories, stories that continued to warm and inspire people across time and culture.
What about us, now, in our time? As women in all stages of growing into our greater years, there is a growing passion and a commitment to tell our own stories
Read MoreCA Mirroring the Four Shields of Human Nature: The Art of Storytelling and Listening
The need to share and listen to stories lives deep in our bones. And yet, in today’s fast-paced world, many of us have forgotten how to truly speak from the heart—or how to listen in a way that honors what is being shared. But storytelling is more than art—it is an act of survival. It’s how we make meaning, connect with one another, and find our place in the larger web of life.
Read MoreCA Fall Vision Fast
The twelve day immersion ceremony involves four days of preparation, four days and nights of fasting alone, and four days of incorporation in Death Valley. (Payahüünadü), at Baker Creek Campground, and the solo threshold phase of the ceremony will take place in Death Valley National Park (Tüpippüh Valley).
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Queer Storytelling and Mirroring: Training on Queer Becoming and Belonging
In Queer Mirroring and Storytelling, we will look to offer safe spaces in both our human circle and in the more-than-human world, so we each may unearth our stories of belonging in diversity, to let them grow into lighthouses for the past, present, and the future.
This is an experiential training, and will request that you “wear two hats”; the hat of a student of Mirroring Storytelling, and your own very personal Queer Being hat! Through this dual perspective, we will cultivate, share, give and receive, the stories of our own queerness, while practicing the Art of Mirroring through a queer lens.
Read MoreDark Nature: The Initiatory Descent into the West
Dark Nature is a seven-day initiatory immersion into the West—the season of descent, endings, and inward turning. Together we explore how life initiates us through loss, disruption, and change, and how meeting these passages consciously shapes our character and capacity to love. Through daily council, time alone on the land, and an overnight solo vigil on the fifth day, participants engage the lived arc of descent and return. Guided by the teachings of the West, this work strengthens our ability to remain present in uncertainty, release what no longer serves, and allow transformation to take root—restoring vitality within ourselves and within the communities we belong to.
Read MoreWalking Into That Good Night: Exploring Our Relationship With Dying & Death
Physical death is the ultimate rite of passage that we are preparing for on some level throughout
our life. Sometimes this “preparing” looks like denial; sometimes sudden illness or life-threats
surprise us into looking squarely at the inevitable truth. The more consciously we can turn our
attention to our mortality, the more able we are to turn our life’s focus toward that which truly
matters to us during this one precious lifetime.
CA Spring Vision Fast
The twelve day ceremony involves four days of preparation, four days and nights of fasting alone, and four days of incorporation. The prep and post fast portions of the program will be held in the Owen’s Valley (Payahüünadü), at Baker Creek Campground, and the solo threshold phase of the ceremony will take place in Death Valley National Park (Tüpippüh Valley).
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