Shamanic
Retreat - The West: Earth Medicine
with
Leo Rutherford, Dawn Russell, & Andy Raven
February to
July 2006
A
Call to Spirit
The Earth Medicine course starts with a call to Spirit for guidance and
direction for our journey, clarifying and stating our intention, making
a clear commitment. We look for the blueprint we were given by Spirit
and the difference between that and the beliefs we were taught by human
teachers.
Puberty Rites
Few of us were guided through this difficult transition in any sensible
way as the religious mores of our culture around sexuality have been
an absurd travesty. (I am yet to meet someone who was helped and guided
constructively at this time of their life.) We will create a Rite of
Passage with the aim of re-experiencing that transition in a healthy
life affirmative way and healing left over wounds. We will work with
the Lovers Medicine Wheel to see into all the loving possibilities of
a balanced culture, and we will Trance-Dance and Journey to retrieve
soul energy trapped and lost at this time, energy that can be unlocked
from negative beliefs and learned habit patterns.
Earth Medicine
The course is about the Element Earth and our relationship with the Great
Mother upon whose robe we walk. Our bodies are created out of her and
we have this priceless opportunity in life to experience the matrix of
existence from the inside. We know that it is easy to feel powerless
and banished from our home yet in truth we are power-full and this is
our home.
The West Direction
The West direction of the medicine wheel symbolises the inner, the hidden,
the dark and mysterious. It takes us to face our death and invites us
to dare to make death an ally and guide instead of an enemy. By coming
to accept death as just one more transition (albeit a major one), we
can dare to live life fearlessly from the centre of our truth, to challenge
and defeat tendencies to inertia, fear of life and unnecessary premature
ageing.
Community
The West is the direction which brings home to us that we are not alone,
we are part of community, part of the earth and earth's ‘dream
of life’. We all come from the same spirit-source and we walk upon
the ‘robe of Mother Earth’ in bodies made out of earth-substance.
'in Lakech’ (Mayan saying) - ‘ I am
another yourself , you are another myself’
Our challenge is to dare to accept responsibility for ourselves and our
life, to bring ourselves into full collaborative connection with our
human sisters and brothers, with the Earthmother and her kingdoms, and
with Spirit, and to make our ‘power’ a real experience. To
'dream' and responsibly co-create our reality.
Joy and Happiness
Our real ‘power’ is about how we ‘sit’ in the
truth of ourselves and how we give what we have to giveaway. It is in
what we give to others, to the collective, in service of the unfoldment
of All-That-Is, that brings the greatest joy and happiness. This is the
meaning of love - the act of giving for the benefit of others. And who
are others? They are ‘other ourselves’.
Quest for Vision
Having worked to heal the effects of the past we embark on a traditional
vision quest to seek guidance and illumination on the future. The traditional
vision quest consists of three phases.
• Severance - separating from the stuff of everyday life. For this we work
with you individually to help you prepare practically, emotionally, mentally
and spiritually.
• Transition - alone in nature fasting and being with the infinity of existence.
• Re-incorporation - the return bearing gifts of unknown things which help
to reveal your Sacred Dream and access the energy and determination to live it
- regardless. We tell our stories around the fire and in so doing, the lessons
show themselves as each person’s story reflects upon everyone else’s.
It is as we manifest our Sacred Dream-life into the everyday that we become part
of the Universe’s Give-Away and can begin to live from the simplicity of
abundance.
Power-Full
The final part of the course is about becoming power-full and making
a difference for the benefit of all, and doing this in a very practical
and immediate way.
In Summary our work together will include becoming a sacred community
circle, sharing responsibilities, becoming guides and healers for each
other. There will be a sweatlodge, vision quest, dance, trance dan ce,
shamanic journeys , trance postures, personal work in the circle, and ‘The
Void' - a movement experience in silence.
Areas of focus include:
• The Soul's purpose in being in body.
• Earth awareness.
• Rites of passage especially puberty.
• Bear medicine - Co-creative ’dreaming', accessing instinctual wisdom
through altered states.
• Intimacy, relationship and sensuality
• Community, co-operation, sharing from a place of empowerment.
Residential except for 1st weekend in London. June camp week in mid-Wales.
Costs: £1565 by instalments. Full
brochure and booking - Eagle’s Wing: 01435-810233.
February to July 2006
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