::Workshop & Special Event Descriptions::
SATURDAY EVENING KEYNOTE SPEAKER - 7:30-9pm
(DJ'ed DANCE PARTY FOLLOWS PRESENTATION)
GROUNDING A SUSTAINABLE WORLD VIEW
with Peter Champoux
The evening’s program will explore the music of the spheres that
permeates the entire solar system, including the Earth, both crust and
core. Sustainable cultures require an underlying structure—aligned with
the natural world—to invigorate them. Peter will present his pioneering work on landscape and planetary geometries
to offer a wholly new way to experience, know, and co-create with
‘Earth-sense’. He calls this new art and science Gaiagraphy, a study of
Earth-consciousness with its vision of spiritual beauty that transforms
our boxed world into spheres of radiance. Beauty and nature’s geometries
permeate our Earth forming patterns of sacred geometry not unlike those
found in the daisy, iris, and honeycomb. As form follows function, drawing nature’s patterns into our own cultural
patterns will ensure sustainability. For human culture to endure it must
reflect the great circle of life that is Earth.
FRIDAY EVENING FEATURED CLASS - 7:30-9pm
(CONTACT IMPROVISATION JAM FOLLOWS CLASS)
THE ART OF DOING LESS: An Entry into Contact Improvisation
with Kristen Stake
When faced with a challenge, we often ask ourselves: “What should I do?” A more appropriate question in Contact Improvisation can be “What is already happening?”—in the body, in space, and in time. In this workshop, we are going to practice not-doing as a way to calm the nervous system and drop into our dancing. We will find the richness of what is already present through breathing, rest, and witnessing. Basic listening and partnering exercises will bring us into open dancing, in which the ordinary can become extraordinary.
EARLY MORNING FEATURED EVENTS
(7:30-8:30am, SAT/SUN)
PLANT SPIRIT YOGA: Journey to the Spirit of the White Pine
with Lydia Russell-McDade
Join Anusara-inspired™ yoga teacher and herbalist, Lydia Russell-McDade on Saturday morning as we deepen our connection with the tree of Peace: the White Pine. Together we will flow and breathe through a series of calming and strengthening yoga poses designed to focus our awareness and awake our own healing potential. Through this practice we will connect to the energy of deep calm and rooted presence within as we embody the ancient wisdom of this powerful teacher tree. This will be a moderate level yoga asana practice and is not recommended for those with serious injuries or limitations. Please bring a yoga mat if you have one, a blanket, and any other yoga props you may have.
PLANT SPIRIT YOGA: Journey to the Heart of the Rose
with Lydia Russell-McDade
Join Anusara-inspired™ yoga teacher and herbalist, Lydia Russell-McDade on Sunday morning for an inspiring and uplifting Plant Spirit Yoga Journey to the Heart of the Rose! Together we will flow through a graceful and strengthening series of yoga poses, designed to reveal the heart-opening nature of the Rose and to bring alive its healing essence within our own bodies. We will be focusing on backbends, learning to safely and courageously open our hearts while staying aligned and rooted in our deepest truth! This will be a moderately challenging yoga practice and is not recommended for beginners or those with serious injuries or limitations. Please bring a yoga mat if you have one, a blanket, and any other yoga props you may have.
THREE HOUR WORKSHOPS - FRIDAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY
(9:30AM-12:30PM or 2:30-5:30 PM)
PERMACULTURE FUNDAMENTALS
with Lisa DePiano
Permaculture is the use of ecology as the basis for designing integrated systems of food production, housing, appropriate technology and community development. It offers a holistic approach to increasing ecological health while growing social equality.
Using slide based lecture/story telling and games we will lay out the ethics, principles, tragedies and techniques of Permaculture design. You will walk away with a framework for understanding the connections between social and ecological health and a process for designing solutions. We will look at examples of this work being done locally, nationally and internationally.
Using slide based lecture/story telling and games we will lay out the ethics, principles, tragedies and techniques of Permaculture design. You will walk away with a framework for understanding the connections between social and ecological health and a process for designing solutions. We will look at examples of this work being done locally, nationally and internationally.
READING THE BODY
with Margi Flint
In this workshop, we will be exploring the meaning of the facial lines, colors and blemishes of the face, nails and tongue as a way of reading the body’s signals in regards to disease processes. This will be an engaging, dynamic and interactive presentation and includes some very traditional and valuable tools for knowing how to read the body and translate that into a more specific herbal protocol for healing. The second edition of the textbook titled The Practicing Herbalist, meeting with clients, reading the body will be available for purchase and inscription.
PRIMAL CONDITIONING
with Aaron Justice Cantor
Awaken primal intelligence and prepare your body and mind for anything.
Use the ground, gravity, momentum and nature to simultaneously develop core strength, flexibility, balance, coordination, relaxation and endurance.
Use the ground, gravity, momentum and nature to simultaneously develop core strength, flexibility, balance, coordination, relaxation and endurance.
INVASIVE PLANT MEDICINE
with Timothy Scott
Based on his book INVASIVE PLANT MEDICINE, Tim Scott will demonstrate the ecological benefits and healing abilities of invasive plants. Contrary to conventional thought, these prolific plants are actually serving essential environmental needs by protecting disturbed areas, enhancing biodiversity, purifying ecosystems, and revitalizing the land. While at the same time, these widespread plants are also providing inhabitants powerful healing remedies, which in many cases have documented medicinal uses for thousands of years, and are desperately in need today.
THE DIVINE EMBRYOLOGICAL LAWS
with Michael Dunning
Everything you will ever need to heal yourself and become Whole was given to you
before your birth. Each of us received the divine gift of the breath of life - the movement of the Nefesh that precedes the moment of your incarnation and
transcends your death. The healing effects of the Nefesh have been directly perceived since ancient times as the embryological laws – laws that mirror Nature
and the Cosmos. In the Egyptian mysteries these laws were conveyed through the story of Osiris, and depicted in the image of Horus and in the ritual of the King’s
Placenta. The pre - Celtic Druid priests harnessed the power of these laws in the Serpent’s Egg and the Chinese Sage cultivated a ‘divine embryo’ through advanced
practices of embryonic breathing.
There is much to learn from the shards of these wisdom traditions but we do not necessarily, or exclusively, have to go backward to find the healing and transformative potential transmitted through these laws.
The beauty of the embryological laws is that they are available at every moment and ironically, seem to bring our healing to us from the future rather than from the past. To perceive them we must travel deeply into our blood and at the same time learn to slow down enough to make a shift outside of our overwhelmed nervous systems. We must change the way we perceive. Michael believes that the embryological laws offer a paradigm shift in perception and healing, leading away from distraction and destruction and towards a renewed path of western spiritual development.
Based on his direct initiatory experiences in Scotland and on his studies in holistic -occult embryology, Michael will offer a series of vital practices to help us to re-tempo our perception to the movement of creation and of Nature as it is expressed in andaround the body through the manifestation of these embryological laws. These practices will re-align your neuro- immune -endocrine perceptual system to the healing tempo of the divine embryo.
There is much to learn from the shards of these wisdom traditions but we do not necessarily, or exclusively, have to go backward to find the healing and transformative potential transmitted through these laws.
The beauty of the embryological laws is that they are available at every moment and ironically, seem to bring our healing to us from the future rather than from the past. To perceive them we must travel deeply into our blood and at the same time learn to slow down enough to make a shift outside of our overwhelmed nervous systems. We must change the way we perceive. Michael believes that the embryological laws offer a paradigm shift in perception and healing, leading away from distraction and destruction and towards a renewed path of western spiritual development.
Based on his direct initiatory experiences in Scotland and on his studies in holistic -occult embryology, Michael will offer a series of vital practices to help us to re-tempo our perception to the movement of creation and of Nature as it is expressed in andaround the body through the manifestation of these embryological laws. These practices will re-align your neuro- immune -endocrine perceptual system to the healing tempo of the divine embryo.
LISTENING TO THE WILD
with Sean Donahue
The world is alive and speaking to us. All we have to do is remember how to listen.
We are all born knowing this simple truth, and begin our lives in a world rich with meaning. But in our culture, the voices around us are quickly drowned out by electronic noise, and we are taught to ignore the bits of song we still hear on the wind or risk insanity. Eventually we reach a point where we no longer trust our own senses.
But for some of us the vibrant memory of the world we knew as children is stronger than the fear of madness. The wildness of our souls can be recovered, just as a forest can grown from an abandoned field.
Through discussion, meditation and direct experience of the natural world, we will explore:
-- How our culture separates us from our wild selves and how we can reclaim them
-- Engaging nature through engaging our senses
-- The use of the heart as an organ of perception (drawing from the work of Stephen Buhner)
-- Developing and deepening relationships with the plants that grow around us
We are all born knowing this simple truth, and begin our lives in a world rich with meaning. But in our culture, the voices around us are quickly drowned out by electronic noise, and we are taught to ignore the bits of song we still hear on the wind or risk insanity. Eventually we reach a point where we no longer trust our own senses.
But for some of us the vibrant memory of the world we knew as children is stronger than the fear of madness. The wildness of our souls can be recovered, just as a forest can grown from an abandoned field.
Through discussion, meditation and direct experience of the natural world, we will explore:
-- How our culture separates us from our wild selves and how we can reclaim them
-- Engaging nature through engaging our senses
-- The use of the heart as an organ of perception (drawing from the work of Stephen Buhner)
-- Developing and deepening relationships with the plants that grow around us
HOT EARTH LIQUID BODY: Warming the Core and Balancing the Heartbodies
with Lani Nahele
Together we will surrender to the penetrating heat in the wood burning sauna.
We will sound into the layers of our beings and open our pores of receptivity.
Then we'll take this inner warmth and awareness outside to the trees to exercise our cellular grounding between earth and sky, our bones and organs, our circulation and the breathing trees - drawing from and combining nature, QiGong and Body-Mind Centering for integration and enduring tools of support.
Finally, we will record our journeys with words, drawings or any other preferred method.
We will sound into the layers of our beings and open our pores of receptivity.
Then we'll take this inner warmth and awareness outside to the trees to exercise our cellular grounding between earth and sky, our bones and organs, our circulation and the breathing trees - drawing from and combining nature, QiGong and Body-Mind Centering for integration and enduring tools of support.
Finally, we will record our journeys with words, drawings or any other preferred method.
TALKING WITH TREES: EXPLORING THE MEDICINE OF THE TREE NATION
with Darcey Blue French
Join
herbalist, tree lover and plant whisperer Darcey to dive deeply into
the realm of the tree nation. Trees have long occupied a sacred domain
in human consciousness and in our relationship with the land. What
would we be without the trees? Just as the World Tree connects all
three worlds- dream world, surface world, and spirit world, the trees
around us can help us to work in all three realms of our own lives.
In this interactive workshop we will learn about the medicines from the trees- herbal healing medicines for our bodies, and spirit medicines for our soul. We will practice simple ways to connect with and work with the energy of the trees around you, receive their teachings, and make medicines from their branches, barks, leaves and fruits. We'll discuss folkloric information and traditions around trees from around the world, and share a plant spirit journey & sharing circle to discover and get to know a tree ally for each participant to work with. Come prepared to participate and share your love of the trees!
In this interactive workshop we will learn about the medicines from the trees- herbal healing medicines for our bodies, and spirit medicines for our soul. We will practice simple ways to connect with and work with the energy of the trees around you, receive their teachings, and make medicines from their branches, barks, leaves and fruits. We'll discuss folkloric information and traditions around trees from around the world, and share a plant spirit journey & sharing circle to discover and get to know a tree ally for each participant to work with. Come prepared to participate and share your love of the trees!
JOURNEY TO FIRE
with Walker Korby
Fire has always been an essential ingredient in our relationship with the rest of the natural world. Unfortunately today, we often take it for granted or misunderstand it, as it
is hidden away deep in the engines of our cars, or villified in the case
of out of control wildfires. No matter what our relationship to it, we
cannot deny the essential power that fire has for us in our daily lives.
Through this intensive experiential workshop you will reawaken your natural connection and transform your relationship to fire through learning how to create it from friction.
Participants will learn the principles of building a fire that can be lit and sustain itself, as well as how to create and use a bow-drill friction fire kit to light the fire. These are essential skills for anyone on a nature connection journey! Bring a knife for carving if you have one, and be prepared to be outside.
Through this intensive experiential workshop you will reawaken your natural connection and transform your relationship to fire through learning how to create it from friction.
Participants will learn the principles of building a fire that can be lit and sustain itself, as well as how to create and use a bow-drill friction fire kit to light the fire. These are essential skills for anyone on a nature connection journey! Bring a knife for carving if you have one, and be prepared to be outside.
EXPLORING RIGHT RELATIONSHIP THROUGH MOVEMENT AND PLAY
with Abbi Jaffe
What does it mean to live in right relationship with ourselves, our neighbors, and with
nature? Inside the studio and outside in nature we will use authentic movement, partner yoga, improvisation and PLAY to embody this question and discover new ways to connect.
The activities aim to cultivate community and inner and outer support. We will have time to follow our curiosity and to witness nature and have nature witness us back. Lastly we will use photography to frame our inquiry as we either blend in with nature, reflect nature, move like an animal in the landscape or just be distinctly human.
nature? Inside the studio and outside in nature we will use authentic movement, partner yoga, improvisation and PLAY to embody this question and discover new ways to connect.
The activities aim to cultivate community and inner and outer support. We will have time to follow our curiosity and to witness nature and have nature witness us back. Lastly we will use photography to frame our inquiry as we either blend in with nature, reflect nature, move like an animal in the landscape or just be distinctly human.
SPIRITUAL BATHING CEREMONY (Special Lunchtime Session - 1:30-2:30pm Sat)
with Venus Zephyr Free
In preparation of moving into the dark time of the year Spiritual Bathing is imparted as a tool to cleanse the energy body of unwanted psychic debris and energetic imprints that if left unattended can create Dis-Ease and Illness within the physical body.
Spiritual Bathing is a gentle, subtle and very profound way of bringing healing to the surface. Through Prayer and Intention we call upon the healing gifts of the natural world, plant beings, water, sunlight and all the elements to assist us in bringing self healing forth.
Please bring along with you from home any plant allies that we will add to the bathing ceremony. Please also bring a sarong, or bathing suit for the ceremony, wear something that is comfortable to you but also that allows the healing waters to touch your skin.
This ritual is suitable for all levels of participation, an understanding of plant medicine is not required only an open heart and a willingness to welcome with innocent perception the healing pathways of plant consciousness. Please arrive at 1:30 to welcome the elements into our sacred space together.
Spiritual Bathing is a gentle, subtle and very profound way of bringing healing to the surface. Through Prayer and Intention we call upon the healing gifts of the natural world, plant beings, water, sunlight and all the elements to assist us in bringing self healing forth.
Please bring along with you from home any plant allies that we will add to the bathing ceremony. Please also bring a sarong, or bathing suit for the ceremony, wear something that is comfortable to you but also that allows the healing waters to touch your skin.
This ritual is suitable for all levels of participation, an understanding of plant medicine is not required only an open heart and a willingness to welcome with innocent perception the healing pathways of plant consciousness. Please arrive at 1:30 to welcome the elements into our sacred space together.
