The Great Ballcourt Initiation – Spring 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. For the Mayan people this ceremony was played out on…
Read MoreThe 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. For the Mayan people this ceremony was played out on…
Read MoreThe Great Ballcourt Initiation – Spring Fast (Postponed until 2022)
The Ballcourt ceremony is considered an “advanced program” in the Practice of Living & Dying (PLD) and is the only one in the series that has a prerequisite. We ask that people have already completed a full-length PLD course, or that they have already done a 3-day or 4-day solo wilderness fast.
Read MoreThe 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. For the Mayan people this ceremony was played out on…
Read MoreLet Go into the Mystery: The East Shield of Living and Dying
Throughout time and cultures, people have crossed borders of their ordinary lives seeking contact with the Mystery. An experience of Oneness, it is beyond any fixed identity. Called by many names, known in a myriad of ways, yet it is ungraspable. In the wide-open view of this Mystery, living and dying are fundamentally interdependent. So…
Read MoreThe Nature of Illness, Loss and Death
The pandemic has recently brought the nature of illness, loss and death sharply into our collective consciousness reminding us that no human, no matter how healthy or resourced, is immune to drastic and traumatic change. Some of us are cracked open in sudden ways, through a life threatening illness, an accident or the loss of…
Read MoreQueer Men in the Life Lodge: Forgiveness, Apology & Reconciliation
Imagine you, as a queer man, living in a community that has its own “Death Lodge,” a place where a dying person can rest and receive the visitors who come to say goodbye. This is the natural place of “making it good” with your people so you can cleanly move on, and they can let…
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