Village Wisdom, Village Dreaming

Gathering the Threads of Authentic Community

The longing for community runs deep in all of us. To have a place where we can feel in our bones that we belong and are known is one of the most essential needs of the soul.

The intentions of the Ritual Village Training are to develop the practices and forms that are necessary for sustaining our lives. Becoming familiar with the ways that have evolved in our long journey of becoming human reminds us of the fundamental ingredients required for healthy lives. This original matrix consisted of an experience of belonging through village life, an abiding connection with the wild edges of nature, an intimacy with the sacred, and a knowledgeable awareness of one’s life purpose. This over-arching reality comprised a holding space large enough to draw out our most potent and holy selves. This expanded identity was capable, in turn, of participating in the widest possible range of relations with a living and animated cosmos.

The creation of a non-local village is a powerful and transformative response to our collective crisis of isolation and alienation. Living as we do in the belly of a soul-eating culture, we face enormous pressures every day to adjust, accommodate and abandon our essential self. Coming into the shelter of village is one way to protect our intrinsic value and restore our indigenous soul. The indigenous soul carries the ancestral memory of the original matrix and of our place in the world. By connecting deeply with this unforgotten wisdom in the psyche, we are able to reimagine a “technology of belonging,” weaving us into the strands of the great living community. This move alone breaks the trance of isolation and brings us into radical connection. This is further strengthened through the very process of our being together, listening to one another, attending to the places of grief and pain that inevitably wend their ways into our souls, and reflecting back to each other the tremendous beauty we carry in our beings. Becoming familiar with each other’s most authentic nature is a powerful soul value and this essential self becomes most transparent in the practice of ritual.

The village training includes the following:

• Understanding the architecture of ritual, that sacred gesture that opens us to the world of spirit and the ancestors
• Creation of adequate modalities to address the pain and grief of living in a culture disconnected from soul and heart
• Working with our emotional bodies, quickening our ability to respond to grief, conflict, joy, etc.
• Deepening our ability to respond in undefended ways, thereby increasing our capacity for compassion and community.
• Finding our deep story and the gifts we came here to share with the community
• Listening to the dreaming earth to divine and develop meaningful rituals to navigate the cycle of the year
• Breaking free from the insidious conditioning of private pain and into a communal recognition that where our wounds lie, there we will also find our medicine
• Developing the practices that encourage us to come home to our souls: creativity, ritual, movement, nature, story, etc.
• Expanding our understanding of identity to include the great story of the indigenous soul offering each of us the widest range of possibilities for relationship
• Becoming clear about the edges we carry that hinder our free movement into community
• Working with the Predator, the energy that impedes our movement into our adult lives. This is the unfinished work from incomplete initiatory events
• Coming home to this ground, developing a familiarity with place that allows us to listen to the earth and the voices of our kindred others - the animals, plants, stones, clouds, etc.
• Cultivating the rich and textured terrain of gender to restore respect and value among men and women.
• Strengthening our resolve and ability to respond meaningfully to the violence and insanity of our addictive/consumptive culture.

There will be many other areas we will attend to. This journey, however, is challenging. The difficult terrain of Communitas, that shared communal space that is connected through ritual and an intimacy with the sacred, is a hard won attainment. Nearly all of the conditioning we receive in our lives takes us in the opposite direction. Overcoming that conditioning and learning to think like a village will be part of our great adventure.

The format for the training includes a once monthly Saturday meeting from 10:00 – 8:00. This format reflects a growing awareness of the need for greater continuity in the teaching/training. The daylong gatherings will provide a chance for us to experiment with the material that we have covered and for us to work with what emerges during the day in greater depth. We will also spend two weekends together, the first halfway through the year and the second at the end. We will utilize ritual, group work, small group or clan work, teaching, singing, and creative process, to support our efforts towards true and lasting community. We will also have guest teachers on occasion to assist in taking the work to ever-deeper levels. The cost is $125 a month. There will be a small additional cost for the final weekend due to the fact that it will be at a retreat center and will need to cover lodging.

The Ritual Village Process presents a unique opportunity for deep psychological and spiritual work at a time when our communities are in great need of skilled individuals capable of responding with integrity and beauty to the crises we face. Please consider joining a small group of people in this sacred task. As Rumi says, “Be with those who help your being.” This is not a therapy group, but a process focused expressly on the creation of a sustainable, non-local village. If you are interested in participating in a village and would like to begin one in your area, or have questions, please call me at 707.568.5803. I look forward to the opportunity that lies ahead.

In peace,

Francis