Tending the Village Heart: Our Annual Cycle of Rituals
Art and ritual are among the oldest and most expressive forms of connection between the human and more-than-human world. The great Paleolithic cave paintings revealed a world rich in awe, beauty and wonder. Our lives too, need to participate in the ongoing creation of the cosmos. To be connected to the vitality of this energy is to experience oneself lifted along on the current of life affirming waters. Art and ritual are among the primary means by which the soul experiences the radical sense of its aliveness.
Our practices need to unite the inner and the outer, the personal and the communal. Art and ritual combine beautifully to offer us a truly indigenous framework for our living here. Art is the personal/ transpersonal expression of the creative flow of our soul. Ritual is the pitch through which the personal and collective voices of our longing and creativity are extended to the unseen dimensions of life, beyond the point of our minds and into the realms of nature and spirit.
These annual gatherings are experiments in the creative process as it pertains to our soul’s unfolding nature and as it relates to the cultural imperatives that we find imaginative and creative responses to the critical challenges of our times. A heart rich with images, metaphors and stories is what is so essential. The creation of beauty whether in words, movement or images stirs the heart and draws us intimately into the arms of life. Come, "let the beauty we love, be what we do."
Pieces of Gold, Holy Longing: Calling Our Souls Back Home
We long for a reunion with the lost aspects of soul life. Soul loss can be felt in many ways: an emptiness, a lack of joy and vitality. Our sense of creativity, sexuality, imagination, power or spontaneity may feel diminished and we sense something essential is missing. You are invited to join a circle of concerned hearts to restore the wholeness that is our birthright. Utilizing the potent tools of singing, writing practice, movement and ritual, we’ll call those pieces of soul life back home. Through a beautiful Reclaiming Ritual that we will share, our lives are once again made sacred.
Fire in the Voice, Song in the Soul: Reclaiming Our Lives From the Predator
Our voice belongs in the world; in fact it is one of the most intimate expressions of our connection with the world. Our voice carries our stories, our wounds, our longings and as such is a primary metaphor for the soul’s life. Too often however, our voice feels restricted. The generous song of our soul gets blocked before breaking into the air and the fire in our voice smolders; the fierce heat of our life flickers and dwindles concealing our passion. We frequently hear another voice encouraging us to live small, cautious, safe. We walk in the world apologetically, looking for approval. But at what cost to our full lives? Who is this “other” that acts like a thief in the night stealing our life? What does he/she/it want from us and is there a purpose to be found in this encounter? Using the power of singing, writing practice, movement, community and ritual, we will challenge those energies that constrict our spirit, helping us toward completing the unfinished business of our adult lives.
The work with the Predator is central to the recovery of the indigenous soul wherein we are able to feel the genuineness of our authority and our authenticity. This is more than a psychological process; it is a mythic journey into the core of our soul’s aliveness. To meaningfully address this crucial challenge is to take our “place in the family of things.”
Gratitude for All that Is: Annual Thanksgiving Ritual
For the past fifteen years, we have gathered to offer our thanks together, to the green world, our ancestors, the animals, the stars and moon, to all those that bless our day to day lives. We have created a ritual that opens our hearts to the deep value of gratitude and have felt the beauty of being together in village for the purpose of saying thank you. This simple gesture has become a touchstone in our soul life together, one we return to again as a way of keeping the long-standing agreement between spirit and humans; to acknowledge the continuous flow of gifting into our lives. This year marks our fourteenth season of gathering together to offer our prayers of gratitude. You are invited to celebrate this special event with family and friends, both old and new. We will participate in the great round of life where we return our thankfulness to the earth, to one another and the unseen world for the abundance in our lives. Come join with others in our mutual love of this earth. We will once again share poetry, song, ritual and community, stand in the majesty of the redwoods, listen to the song of Dutch Bill Creek and ease into the ongoing conversation with friends. We look forward to seeing you in this celebration of Gratitude and Life! For more information, contact Kim Wardwell at [email protected].
Our practices need to unite the inner and the outer, the personal and the communal. Art and ritual combine beautifully to offer us a truly indigenous framework for our living here. Art is the personal/ transpersonal expression of the creative flow of our soul. Ritual is the pitch through which the personal and collective voices of our longing and creativity are extended to the unseen dimensions of life, beyond the point of our minds and into the realms of nature and spirit.
These annual gatherings are experiments in the creative process as it pertains to our soul’s unfolding nature and as it relates to the cultural imperatives that we find imaginative and creative responses to the critical challenges of our times. A heart rich with images, metaphors and stories is what is so essential. The creation of beauty whether in words, movement or images stirs the heart and draws us intimately into the arms of life. Come, "let the beauty we love, be what we do."
Pieces of Gold, Holy Longing: Calling Our Souls Back Home
We long for a reunion with the lost aspects of soul life. Soul loss can be felt in many ways: an emptiness, a lack of joy and vitality. Our sense of creativity, sexuality, imagination, power or spontaneity may feel diminished and we sense something essential is missing. You are invited to join a circle of concerned hearts to restore the wholeness that is our birthright. Utilizing the potent tools of singing, writing practice, movement and ritual, we’ll call those pieces of soul life back home. Through a beautiful Reclaiming Ritual that we will share, our lives are once again made sacred.
Fire in the Voice, Song in the Soul: Reclaiming Our Lives From the Predator
Our voice belongs in the world; in fact it is one of the most intimate expressions of our connection with the world. Our voice carries our stories, our wounds, our longings and as such is a primary metaphor for the soul’s life. Too often however, our voice feels restricted. The generous song of our soul gets blocked before breaking into the air and the fire in our voice smolders; the fierce heat of our life flickers and dwindles concealing our passion. We frequently hear another voice encouraging us to live small, cautious, safe. We walk in the world apologetically, looking for approval. But at what cost to our full lives? Who is this “other” that acts like a thief in the night stealing our life? What does he/she/it want from us and is there a purpose to be found in this encounter? Using the power of singing, writing practice, movement, community and ritual, we will challenge those energies that constrict our spirit, helping us toward completing the unfinished business of our adult lives.
The work with the Predator is central to the recovery of the indigenous soul wherein we are able to feel the genuineness of our authority and our authenticity. This is more than a psychological process; it is a mythic journey into the core of our soul’s aliveness. To meaningfully address this crucial challenge is to take our “place in the family of things.”
Gratitude for All that Is: Annual Thanksgiving Ritual
For the past fifteen years, we have gathered to offer our thanks together, to the green world, our ancestors, the animals, the stars and moon, to all those that bless our day to day lives. We have created a ritual that opens our hearts to the deep value of gratitude and have felt the beauty of being together in village for the purpose of saying thank you. This simple gesture has become a touchstone in our soul life together, one we return to again as a way of keeping the long-standing agreement between spirit and humans; to acknowledge the continuous flow of gifting into our lives. This year marks our fourteenth season of gathering together to offer our prayers of gratitude. You are invited to celebrate this special event with family and friends, both old and new. We will participate in the great round of life where we return our thankfulness to the earth, to one another and the unseen world for the abundance in our lives. Come join with others in our mutual love of this earth. We will once again share poetry, song, ritual and community, stand in the majesty of the redwoods, listen to the song of Dutch Bill Creek and ease into the ongoing conversation with friends. We look forward to seeing you in this celebration of Gratitude and Life! For more information, contact Kim Wardwell at [email protected].