Workshops & Retreats
for 2009

April 1, 2009

I have been listening for what Spirit is calling me to teach this year in my shamanic workshops. In my journeys I am frequently taken to the Canadian Great Bear Rainforest where I spent ten days this past September with my ElderBear Clan sisters. I was listening to River, walking with Bear, soaring with Eagle, and spawning with Salmon. There was no laptop, no email, no radio, no television, and no phone. In the great teeming silence, I seemed to hear the plants growing, trees stretching and clouds breathing.

Periodically I reflected on the fact there are few places so undisturbed by the human footprint and where Home is possible for the many species with whom we share this planet. It seemed Bear was saying: “We have had to separate ourselves from the humans for our own survival. We can share Earth together more intimately when the humans rediscover their own wilderness natures and know we are meant to evolve together.” I left the Great Bear Rainforest deeply restored and with a commitment to focus more on conservation as a spiritual necessity for without tending these kin, our human families shall also wither---we need one another.

Three weeks after returning home, Dan Jordinelli and I led a workshop at a Los Angeles Animal Shelter. In Circle did we also rediscover the kindred spirit that binds us to our animal companions. It was truly a blessing to help heal the wounds of these animals – wounds incurred mainly through neglect and betrayal but also by the effect of a broken economy. Many of the animals in this particular shelter came from people whose homes had been foreclosed and their animals were not able to move into their new dwellings.

In my dreaming now, I see the wild and the domestic animals wandering together….sometimes seeking to connect with the humans; other times simply sharing the same search for Home somewhere…and they are part of the current global restlessness acknowledging that we are seriously out of balance and must restructure our priorities and our very selves.

In previous newsletters, I have addressed what contemporary shamanism might offer in this Present Age of economic and environmental crisis. There are many ways we can bring shamanic healing into our communities and beyond these borders. Perhaps our most pressing priority is to do those spiritual practices that enable us to tend the fires of Hope and Inspiration. As long as the Fires of Hope and Inspiration are burning, the creative Spirit has channels for moving visions into the world. From such visions do we create new structures that enable the many communities of Earth to prosper. The shaman’s way does not predicate that any one person must be visionary or create new structures – and actually there is a marvelous unpredictability in shamanic communities as to ‘from just where shall the needed vision come.’ But as long as there is prayer, dance, song, and trance, vision will come. You can take THAT to the bank!

And during this challenging time, how in our shamanic community shall we give Voice on behalf of the Animals and other Beings – which means giving Voice on behalf of their habitats, migration routes, and water-ways (river, ocean, and lakes). I raise this issue because during these last two to three years, I have felt especially pestered by Spirit to call those interested together in Circle on behalf of the Animals. Obviously this does not preclude my work with humans nor does it shrink the importance of shamanic healing within our human community. The other day I was sharing with a friend this ‘calling’ from the animals to do more with and for them. She responded with the concern that people might feel guilty to be caring about animals when there is so much human suffering. And I wondered, “Why does it have to be one or the other?” Can we not tend our relationships with both? And don’t we need to be doing both!? Is not the health of one profoundly intertwined with the health of the other? Thus, as Susan Gilliland and I prepare for the workshops we will be teaching this year, we are giving some special attention to this issue of tending other Beings. And as we prepare for these workshops, we will periodically be posting articles on this subject at my website www.shamanicvisions.com
And we invite others to send in related materials or descriptions of personal experiences on this subject.

Overview of the June and July Workshops

June 26 – 28: Shamanism and the Medicine Wheel Way
(see description)

July 17 – 19: Giving Voice to the Animals – Healing Our Souls
(see description)

July 23 – 26 Buffalo and BearMedicine for our Present Age
(see description)

The essential questions that focus the issue of “Us and Others” are:
Who are we within the web of being and becoming?
Where are we within this Web?
How do I weave with others of the Web?
How do I walk the Web with intention and clarity of purpose?

The three weekend workshops in the Santa Cruz Mountains focus these issues in different ways. Each workshop has its own integrity and fullness. However, the two workshops in July were intentionally chosen to be consecutive weekends. In the past, some participants have traveled considerable distance for a weekend workshop. It might be that some people will want to take both workshops since together they focus on giving Voice to the animals and on discovering certain medicine powers of the animals. The first workshop occurs from Friday through Sunday while the second takes place Thursday through Sunday. Those registering for both can continue with lodging at the retreat center between the workshops and use this time to do individual explorations of the land within the area. By participating in two or three workshops, individuals will deepen their relationship with the beings and spirits of the land in which we will be working---such deepening can always lead to Visions from the Spirits of Place and an increase in wisdom.

These weekends we will be gathering in the Santa Cruz Mountains: still home to Lion, Bear, Deer, Elk, Hawk and Eagle along with many other creatures. We may not see them in their previous plenty but they are here and their presence felt. We gather in the midst of a Redwood and Oak forest which, at one point, has a grand view to the distant mountains. There are places of Shadow and others of Sun. The retreat center has a large Medicine Wheel, a Labyrinth, water collecting ponds, and trails for wandering---for discovering and being discovered by Beings of Place.

 June 2 - 7
Shamanic River Trip (Green River)
Contact: Carol Proudfoot-Edgar: cedgarbear@aol.com


August 7 - 9,
SHAMANISM AND MEDICINE OF THE NORTHEASTERN WOODLANDS
at a lovely retreat center just  outside Philadelphia. Please see description.
You can contact the coordinator Gail Walker at email: GW 8215724@aol.com
Gail will send you the necessary registration forms and workshop materials.

Other workshops and workshop materials will be updated here from time to time.