Let 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 too is our recognition of being wholly and completely interconnected with it all.
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 MoreCO Mirroring the Four Shields of Human Nature: The Art of Story Telling and Listening
Who is this miracle speaking to me? And who is this miracle listening? What amazingness are we creating? Out of gray matter a star spark of thought leaps between synapses into the air, and pours through gray matter, into my heart: how can I not listen generously? ~Marilyn Nelson The shields of human nature turn…
Read MoreCO Two Week Training
In these times of change and uncertainty, it is crucial that we show up for our community in ways that truly serve. The world is calling us to listen in new and old ways to connect with the land and each other for personal and collective healing. We are being called to show up in…
Read MoreCA Women’s Vision Fast
Perhaps you are one of the many women called to this ceremony. Maybe it is time to move deeper into the questions: What is asked of me? How do you source myself? How do I recognize the ancient myths guiding my life? What is drawing me toward the threshold? A descent, incubation, or an emergence? Is this a time of letting go or a time to reclaim? What do I offer in service to the greater?
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 MoreFinding Purpose and Meaning through the Practice of Living and Dying
Life is the primal impulse towards a never ending search for vitality and also the struggle to survive. Without death the life force could not exist. It has been said we come into the world with death beside us. And in the end our physical death is the ultimate rite of passage. This begs the questions: What is my relationship with my own mortality? How does the certainty of my own death inform my life? What are contemporary practices to support living and dying in these complex times of cultural and environmental crisis and “the great separation” from self and nature?
Read MoreAZ Mirroring the Four Shields of Human Nature: The Art of Storytelling and Listening
This Program is an invitation to all humans who are willing to share stories and experience the gift of mirroring stories of empowerment and wholeness. This program is also specifically appropriate for direct care professionals such as: wilderness guides, counselors, coaches, and teachers to name a few.
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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CA Mirroring the Four Shields of Human Nature: The Art of Storytelling 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.
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