When:
Sat April 15th - 10am to 9pm
Sun April 16th - 10 to 1:30pm
Where:
Outdoor location on Salt Spring Island
Reciprocity:
Before April 4th: $65-95, After April 4th: $95-125
*Refundable until April 13th minus 5$ transaction fee
Camping can be arranged if you are coming from off-island
You will be responsible for your own food. Sat night we will cook a shared meal
Do you long to bring your gifts to the world, to have them seen, appreciated and received? Do you long to be alive for more than just yourself? What does life want from you? What are the people, the land, the ancestors, the future generations aching for you to bring forth?
Just as the trees give oxygen and homes to the animals, while the birds plant the tree's seeds and fungi redistribute nutrients, we all have different abilities that together can form a thriving ecology.
It is often the hard things that strengthen our capacities. Initiation is happening all the time, at all stages of life. Sometimes we go seeking it, taking off wandering and coming back changed, or participating in plant medicine ceremonies and vision quests. And, sometimes, initiation finds us; a sudden illness, losing a loved one, or facing the realities of the collapsing natural home around us.
Amidst the bustle of capitalism, the assortment of distractions available at our fingertips, the lack of village present asking for our gifts, we can lose ourselves. Forget that we are here to offer something unique. How often are our expanded capacities acknowledged and integrated by our community?
This is an invitation to take a little step forward amidst the poverty of these times. A chance not to fix yourself into normalcy, but to have your struggles be alchemized into gifts. Wholeness isn’t individual, it is relational. We are whole together, when the weird strengths we gain through our wounds come into service.
How?
We will be turning towards nature, the mystery and each other for help, through tracking, ritual and sharing story.
Tracking
Tracking is the original science, the way our ancestors survived and found food. From little signs and tracks left by animals they gained so much knowledge about what was happening around them. Tracking uses both the analytical mind, to query, and the imaginal mind, to slowly build an image of the creature you are trailing. You might imagine the shape of its feet, the senses it using the most. What might be pulling it over the earth? In what direction? Towards which ecological relation?
Our purpose can be like an elusive animal. We might just find a little nibble here, a hair dropped there. But, using our analytical and imaginal tracking mind we can gain insight. What is your unique set of sensitivities that you look out at the world with. How does this change how the land moves you? What kind of creature are you?
The Facilitators
Sofia Jain-Schlaepfer
I have followed a winding path through academic science (MSc Biology), my own artistic practice, a two year nature connection immersion, and many forms of soul-work.
This workshop draws on my experience
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Working with dozens of people to clarify their gifts by painting their Medicine Portraits.
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Leading community rituals and workshops
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A deeply embodied, and contagious connection with nature and the unseen, that stems out of my own wounds around belonging.
Tina Schomberg
Tina bears the great ability of lifting people into their gifts, in recognizing and seeing the ways in which peoples actions matter and contribute to the whole. Diagnosed with cancer at 21, she knows well the process of drawing nutrients from unexpected initiations. She is also an expert of diving into the mythic realms, connecting dots, articulating complexities and truly tracking. You will be in good hands with her tending to the space and helping you integrate what you find along the way.
For more about her see
Sequoia following his cry for village has become one of the greatest models of being in service to the collective health. His gifts work like the fungi, sometimes unseen, but connecting people to vital nutrients that keeps them thriving. Humble as fungi, he is happy to help others shine. It will be an honour to have his deep love and harvestable dedication to true eldership present here.
Sequoia Lesosky
Outline
Day 1 (April 15th)
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Remember our inter-relation, with each other, nature, and the unseen, through animal tracking, ecology, playfulness, gratitude, and awareness.
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Spend some time reflecting on your life and asking the right questions to track evidence for your gifts
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Open yourself to the mystery through a ritual walk through nature. Find how your sensitivities pull you along your path. Allow the world to speak back to you
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Anchor and integrate what you find through sharing your story, and working with the mythic elements present in it
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Let the community intelligence work by allowing what others see in you to be reflected back to you
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Leave with words and images at the core of what you offer to the world
Optional Day 2 (April 16th)
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Have a chance to be part of a community ecology, by bringing your new found awareness of your gifts to group challenges and creations.
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Continue the togetherness and connection with each other, nature and the unseen
For who?
This is for people:
1. Who are feeling lost in what their purpose is
2. Or those who already feel clarity and the bringing forth of their purpose, but have new challenges and initiations that they would like to alchemize into gifts.
This is for all ages. Teens to elders are welcome. Children can be present though require a check in with facilitators.